A FASHIONABLE LADY's DAY. 203 



mentof utility and good sense ; brains are now racked, minds are 

 at work, to devise some scheme to kill time ! some trifling work, 

 perad venture is in hand, the making of a frippery cap for some 

 future denizen of the world ; the cutting out scraps from a news- 

 paper to paste in a witless scrap book, a vain copying of some 

 sonnet of Wordsworth, or some song of Moore into an album, this, 

 they imagine will ensure to them an exquisite feeling for the sub- 

 lime and beautiful ; another perhaps prosily wades through the 

 last worst novel, which has already passed through many hands 

 most guiltless of ablution, and is well scribbled over with non- 

 sensical and ungrammatical notes and remarks — another will 

 look into Byron or Scott, for it is deemed mighty fine to have 

 read any thing of theirs, and to have ready cut and dried, a few 

 names to utter on occasion, such as " Lara," " Cheelde Harold," 

 *' Branksome," and the like. 



The rout at home, and the rout out, are really scarcely worth 

 description, suffice it to say, that on these occasions there is a 

 tremendous fuss and anxiety about bustles, gauze, foulards, 

 peignors, &c. : jewels of all kinds are also much in request; all 

 their care, in short, is to " set themselves off to advantage'* — but 

 alas ! it never occurs to them at any time, to reflect on the dif- 

 ferent properties of the marvellous and exquisite gems which 

 they so heedlessly wear, such as their lustre, their tenacity, or 

 their structure; they are indeed bright as to the resplendency of 

 their jewels, but impenetrably and obstinately dark as regards 

 the abused head, which the pearl of Ceylon, and the amphibious 

 tortoise assist in adorning. 



The subject matter of conversation at these soirees is much of the 

 same nature as that of the morning- visit, perhaps races, fancy fairs, 

 balls, &c., are entered into more deeply and scientifically ; alas ! 

 what interesting subjects are too often entirely overlooked and 

 forgotten : — for instance, the immense powers of Steam — " it is 

 " on rivers and the boatman may repose on his oars ; it is in 

 " highways, and begins to exert itself along the courses of land- 

 ** conveyance; it is at the bottom of mines, a thousand feet below 

 ^' the earth's surface, it is in the mill, and in the workshops of 

 "the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, 

 ^^ it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, it prints ;' — is there no 

 moment of reflection — not a single thought for such a subject ? 

 Again — if you endeavour to elicit an observation or criticism on 

 Shakspeare or Milton, you obtain nothing save a whining, listless 

 drawl in praise of Da — a — ante. Again the progressive refine- 



