REVIEWS OF PRINTS AND ILLUSTRATED WORKS. 43 



sparrow ; and winter — ^hoar winter — freezes us in the shape of a withered BilUngs- 

 f^atc crone warininj;^ her hands over a pan of charcoal which the bellows by her side 

 has assisted to kindle. Are not these capital, good Reader ? Well, pass on, take a 

 peep at the interior. Here is Jatiuary, with the pageant of " the poor frozen-out 

 gardeners," and their frost-bitten turnips and carrots : there is a " fine body" of 

 street-sweepers on winter duty, collecting the ice ; and there is a knot of helpless 

 little imps performing sundry involuntary evolutions on the sUdes. Now comes 

 February, aqueous February fill-dyke, the sewers are let loose and the chains of the 

 kennel are dissolved ; half-melted ice, black and forbidding, and rivers of water 

 terrify the pedestrian ; there is an old granny, mounted on pattens, with petticoats 

 duly tucked up, perched on a little islet of ice, and staring most piteously at the 

 flood between her and the wished-for chausste where a malicious charity-boy revels 

 in her despair, and a couple of buxom housemaids, with a disconsolate damsel, busy 

 on the missions of Valentine, are on the qici vive. There is an agonized poodle 

 floundering in the '^ slush" and howling to its master in the extremity of its 

 alarm ; and there is the master, a meagre Frenchman, roquelaured, clogged and 

 umbrella-ed, striding aghast over the deceitful ground : there are the ministers of 

 cleanliness ycleped scavengers, flinging up the molten treasures of the Macadamized 

 streets ; and further on the industrious clearers of the roofs have contrived to deposit 

 an avalanche on an unhappy couple below, the cavalier lies prostrate on one knee 

 beneath his umbrella, and the fair one flies with extended arms from the desolation 

 impending over her " last new bonnet." Bravo ! here is March ! rude, rioting, 

 racketty March, whose " bushel of dust is worth a king's ransom ! " the locale of the 

 scene is that corner of Fleet Street where we are so often tempted to pause and feast 

 ourselves on the graphic delicacies at " 8G ;" but what an animated picture of 

 distress, and doubt, and dustiness ! as gentlemen we must first glance at the ladies : 

 one, a fair, slender- Footed nymph, struggles with her rebellious drapery, while, 

 taking advantage of her embarrassment. Boa and Brussels hie forth on a voyage of 

 discovery ; vis-a-vis to the maiden, and threatening an immediate collision, a middle- 

 aged lady in equal perplexity, grasps with one hand the structure of velvet and lace 

 cognomened a bonnet, and a little gii'l, blown into the shape of a balloon, shares m 

 the rude greeting of March. And now for the gentlemen ; a lusty elderly man, 

 robbed of his hat and wig, in his efforts to protect himself from the blinding whirl- 

 wind of dust that is rushing up the court, has thrust an open umbrella right into the 

 chest of an unlucky spindle-shanked wight, who is blown, violently, round the 

 corner ; another, with dress in dire disorder, is flying in chase of his beaver, and a 

 third, a hearty old fellow, in cloak and spectacles, laughing at his neighbour's 

 pursuit, has wisely presented his back to the hurricane. Nor is the least comic in- 

 cident that of the spaniel nearly blown topsy-turvy, with its tail turned over its ears 

 by the blast. A mixed assemblage of coaches, horses and foot passengers, labouring 

 in the breeze, fills up the back-ground. And here we have capricious Aprils not 

 clothed in sunshine but, literally, dissolved in tears I A pelting shower is descend- 

 ing in the appropriate vicinity of " St. SwithiiCs Lane :" a group of individuals as 

 varied in form and feature as Falstaff''s regiment, have taken shelter from the mer- 

 ciless torrent in the covered-in entrance of Bath Court; there is a skeleton dandy of 

 six feet high, prim and erect as a pike-stafF ; and there is the Daniel Lambert, who 

 requires a whole stage to himself when he travels : on the pavement two of the fair 

 sex are wading through the storm ; the foremost short, fat and " elderly," with the 

 legs of an elephant thrust into a pair of jean boots, cowers beneath a diminutive 

 parasol, and, reckless of splashes, the whole breadth of her sole is planted heroically 

 upon the ground ; her companion, " tall and slender as a poplar tree," with dripping 

 boa round her neck, and her dark hair dishevelled, for rain be it known is ruinous 

 to ringlets, holds up her mushn robe fastidiously and with an aspect of piteous 

 dismay, treads along most daintily on the tip of her foot, pointing her toe as grace- 

 fully as any votary of Almack's. A porter escaped from the infliction of a shower- 

 bath, and wringing himself like a half-drowned dog, two or three gibing urchins, and 

 the umbrella " depot" of" J. Gingham," &c. complete the sketch. 



" April showers bring forth May flowers," 



and here they are decking out old " Jack-in-the-green" most gloriously, and 



