1 827.] Notes for the Month. 631 



up. Sir Walter Scott, in his "St. Roman's Well,-' attempted the same 

 sort of thing, and failed entirely ! his coxcombs and fine ladies were all 

 hard and wooden. The moment he got to nature the old Scotcli landlady 

 ~-he was at home (and triumphant over the world) again. " Whitehall," 

 and " The Mummy," are meant for " satirical" publications : both arc 

 miserably bad. The attempted ridicule of science in " The Mummy," is 

 extravagant and stupid ; 'and it is difficult to discover, what is meant by 

 the notices of living characters in the other work " Whitehall. The 

 wit about the Duke of Wellington if it be wit is totally incomprehen- 

 sible. And the attack upon Mr. Colburn, the publisher, is utterly point- 

 less and absurd. The writer obviously knows nothing of a great London 

 publisher's mode of doing business ; and appears never to have seen either 

 the place, or the parties, that he affects to describe. " Satirical" novels in 

 general, ought to be attempted with great caution. The annual publica- 

 tions are out, and will be found noticed, under a distinct head, in our present 

 number. Their embellishments, upon the average, surpass what has been 

 produced in former years. The literary matter is not so good as we have 

 known it ; but there are some excellent papers : and this is a description of 

 value that must rise and fall. In the way of a word of gentle advice we 

 wish the editors would not, in prospectuses and prefaces, abuse one another. 

 This sort of squabbling is bad enough in Magazines and Reviews; but it 

 is too bad in pretty little volumes, which are printed only to lie upon the 

 work-tables of young ladies. 



The Anniversaries of " The Popish Plot," and " Lord Mayor's Day," 

 have been celebrated since our last, with the usual festivities. This 

 Popish Plot, by the way, we beg to assure our readers was a " Plot," and 

 " Popish ;" notwithstanding that which some rash papists of the present 

 day pretend to say to the contrary. It was a plot, and popish ; and the 

 people were hanged, and properly : this is our creed, in which we propose 

 " to live and die." On the late anniversary, fewer enormities seemed to 

 be committed than usual : this was probably in consequence of one or two 

 of the firework makers having blown their houses up as our readers may 

 recollect (by mistake) before the proper day some wrong reckoning 

 the " Old Style" perhaps we don't exactly know what. We heard of no 

 material entertainment except that one baker's boy sneaked a squib into 

 the boot of a hackney coach, which, setting the horses off, and the hay on 

 fire, the vehicle ran at full speed along the Strand, astonishing and delight- 

 ing the foot passengers. Some said it was a Guy Fawkes upon a grand 

 scale ; for the flames caught from the hay in the boot to the hamrner- 

 ctoth, and the coachman sat with three hats on enveloped in fire ! Others 

 thought it was the new " Steam Coach," that is to run between London 

 and Bristol, finished, and starting for its first trip. And others were just 

 swearing, that it was the "Portable Gas," laid on for the lamps, and that 

 the reservoir had burst; when the vehicle, passing the New Church, took 

 another coach along with it, and both were overturned just opposite the 

 " Sphynx" office, with a terrible explosion, upon which a wag who was 

 passing, looked back, and said, he had been expecting a " blow up*' 

 there, for some time past. No mischief, however, as luck would have it, 

 was sustained by any body, The coachman's " three hats" fell off in the 

 scuffle ; which was construed by some elderly people into a symbol as 

 happening at such a time that there were no hopes for Popery : but that 

 was all. The " Lord Mayor's Accession," did not go off so fortunately, for 

 the lamps above the banquet table fell -down, arid discomfited the Lord 



