( J7 ) 



THE MANSE AND ITS INMATES. 



(Continued from page 524 of vol. xx.) 



THEN Miss Watson and Hatty and Shatty must go to a Roman Ca- 

 tholic chapel and a Quaker's meeting, to the Magdalen and the 

 Asylum, and to Rowland Hill's, to the Chapel Royal and the Jews' 

 Synagogue, but the last was after sunset on a Friday evening; and, 

 if there was little or no devotion in a crowd of women peeping through 

 the grating of a gallery, Ruth's other faculties were soon absorbed 

 in that of listening; she thought of the "sweet singers of Israel,'' 

 and wished that, as well as the delightful voices of the boys who sang, 

 she could also have heard some of the " daughters of Zion." 



Sunday was Mr. Hurst's holiday, the day on which he thought 

 himself entitled to a " mouthful of fresh air;" so he regularly, when 

 there was no rain, mounted beside the coachman, and between the 

 hours of service drove a little way out of town, any little cravings of 

 the appetite being provided for by biscuits and sandwiches in the 

 pockets of the carriage. 



This family prided itself upon being a very united one; and cer- 

 tainly the worldly prosperity of each individual (and each had an 

 ample share) gave great satisfaction to all the resf. Had any been 

 unfortunate, the sympathy might have been affected, for they had very 

 near relations whose early lives had been even more distinguished by 

 the smiles of fortune than their own, upon whom, without any mis- 

 conduct or imprudence on their part, the bitter blasts of poverty had 

 descended, and they were left to the frequent fate of " poor rela- 

 tions," partially noticed indeed, because that could not be entirely 

 avoided, but never as equals, never invited to share in those gaieties 

 and indulgences so highly prized by themselves, and which their less 

 wealthy cousins could no longer procure. 



Equally engaged in the pursuit of pleasure and the attainment of 

 wealth, had the laws of the country not forbidden these objects to be 

 publicly engaged in on the day set apart by God himself, the exer- 

 tions of Mr. Hurst and his sons-in-law would certainly have known no 

 periodical intermission. As it was, it was not the Lord's day, it was 

 their day, and, unless one of the married daughters happened to be 

 confined, the whole family dined together at the different houses of 

 each other in rotation. 



To Ruth this was almost insupportable, and she never could com- 

 prehend the reasonableness of being compelled to make the thirteenth! 

 to listen to the account given by the family in Lincoln's Inn Fields of 

 their amusements and arrangements during the past week, and the 

 equally uninteresting communications of Dolly and Dosy, and Penny 

 and Priscy, in return. 



All these ladies had children, but they were young, and went to 

 bed at eight o'clock, and Ruth was soon tired of them and their 

 nursery-maids. Then, Mrs. Dowling lived on Great Tower Hill, 

 and she tired also of Trinity Square and the Tower Wharf, and Mrs. 

 Dixon at Islington, and Mrs. Parkins at Lambeth, and Mrs. Prescott 

 M.M. No. l. C 



