570 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



still, but taking a hint from the springing mansion, reversed their 

 functions, and harbingered the invisible carriages, 



"jAnon the distant murmur swelled into more distinct and audible rum- 

 bling sounds, and these again were succeeded by the impatient pawing of 

 the consciously proud and animated courser, who, like the war-horse of 

 Job, seemed ' to rejoice in his strength as he goeth on to meet the armed 

 nien w ho mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted who saith, among the 

 trumpets, Ha, ha ! and smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the cap- 

 tains, and the shouting ; whose neck is clothed with thunder, and the glory 

 of his nostrils is terrible/ " 



The correspondent here reaches the sublime " audible rumbling 

 sounds, succeeded by the impatient pawing of a courser, like the war- 

 hoise of Job." Being impatient, he was not like Job, although, pro- 

 bably, a job-horse. This is, indeed, admirable but not less so what 

 follows : 



" It was thus, when each striving for the mastery, some more bold or 

 more fortunate than the rest, plunged through the contending waves, which 

 ebbed and flowed, advanced and receded, with more and more sudden and 

 violent oscillations as the goal was approached, and there stood panting ; 

 while the carriage door was thrown open, and rich liveries, and gay gar- 

 ments, and blazing gems, and nodding plumes, so mingled their hues to- 

 gether, as the various groups descended from their chariots, that one could 

 almost commend the pride and exultation of the noble animals, who seemed 

 to erect their necks and shake their manes with almost patrician dignity, 

 at having borne so rich a freight of rank, and wealth, and beauty to the 

 scene." 



We have no doubt that these noble animals really did feel the ex- 

 ultation ascribed to them by the correspondent; indeed we have 

 authority for stating that, having deposited their fair charges, they 

 collectively and individually burst into a horse-laugh, and walked off 

 to their respective stables with oetf-a-eafian transformations of mouth. 



" On ascending the spacious staircase," says the correspondent, " there 

 were seen the grave and elderly dowager, who advanced with solemn and 

 stately step, as to a sacrifice ; while young and blooming sylphs, impatient 

 for the dance, seemed to bound from step to step, with the lightness and 

 elasticity of the antelope, and wing their airy way past all competitors." 



Imagine the sacrificial dowagers hobbling along, while young and 

 blooming sylphs, like antelopes, wing their airy way past all compe- 

 titors I This were a fit subject for Edwin Landseer. But who were 

 the competitors of the blooming sylphs the grave and elderly dow- 

 agers ? for we are not informed of any other candidates for the race ; 

 we do not wonder that the sylphs distanced the dowagers, parti- 

 cularly as the latter proposed to go at a sacrifice. 



We conclude with a description of the noble host : 



" At the entrance to the great saloon stood the noble Earl Fitzwilliam, 

 just within the portal, turning to the right, where he received every guest 

 who was announced, and with an almost timid and retiring, but at the 

 same time with an evidently unaffected simplicity of manner, grave with- 

 out severity, and kind without pretension, had some word of affability, and 

 some look of welcome for every one who came." 



The discriminating spirit in which this last paragraph is written 



