A PIC NIC. 67 



And so the day arrived on which Mrs. Allington was to make 

 her grand display of hospitality, taste, and daughters. The morn- 

 ing was fine, " the day unclouded, the earth all verdure, and the 

 sky all song," as Sir Naniby Pamby improvised, who had occu- 

 pied himself through a whole wet St. Swithin's in composing this 

 delicious sentence. In short, "had Mrs. Allington selected it 

 out of all the days of the year," as old Mrs. Emery laboured to 

 tell her, whose trade it was to brighten all things, " she could not 

 have made a more favourable choice.'^ The same laudatory lady 

 was heard to declare — "That Mrs. Allington was the most 

 fortunate of women ; not only in having the finest days for her 

 parties (although that alone was a great blessing), but in every- 

 thing. She had the best and easiest husband in the world, and 

 nobody's daughters were so popular; she was sure to get rid of 

 them. All she undertook succeeded to her utmost wish. Who 

 but Mrs. Allington, in that scanty neighbourhood, could have 

 assembled so many people ? and such good society too ! All 

 B. barracks ! and, besides Mr. Wortly the great brewer, and Sir 

 Twaddly Maresnest, the colonial judge, she had herself counted 

 at one time, five baronets, and two lords, young Lord D., and 

 old Lord E. ! " 



Mrs. Allington w^as indeed a lady eminently qualified to give 

 effect to the social principle. Happiness, according to Byron, 

 was born a twin. Happiness, according to Mrs. Allington, lives 

 in an Omnibus. 



The festivities began with an excursion to a very romantic spot, 

 only four miles from Allington Park. Here an old ivied castle 

 lingered in the last, the longest, and most picturesque stage of 

 its being, repaying with its beautiful frowns the lady of Allington, 

 who had not failed, by judicious props and repairs, to stay the 

 dilapidations of time and wintry weather among her favorite ruins. 

 A low rough range, of modern growth, nestled under its walls. 

 This was built, in good unobtrusive taste, out of fragments of 

 the fallen parts, and clinging, like a faithful nursling to the 

 ancient pile, served to buttress with its kindred strength the 

 shelter of the parental roof. It formed too rooms. One spacious 

 enough for a large party to dine in. The other a sort of boudoir. 

 I cannot tell what that was fit for; there was scarcely room for 

 more than two persons. A lawn of fine turf was kept short and 

 smooth as velvet for dancing ; and, at a small distance, concealed 

 by an intervening wood, was a farm-house, which afforded can- 

 tonments and picketings for grooms and horses. 



