18-26.] [ .ii? J 



OLD NEIGHBOURS. 

 No. I. 



An Admiral on Shore. 



I DO not know any moment in which the two undelightful truisms 

 which we are all so ready to admit and to run away from, tlie quick pro- 

 gress of time and the instability of human events, are brought before us 

 with a more uncomfortable consciousness than that of visiting, after a long 

 absence, a house with whose former inhabitants we had been on terms 

 of intimacy. The feeling is still more unpleasant when it comes to us 

 unexpectedly and finds us unprepared, as has happened to me to-day. 



A friend requested me this morning to accompany her to call on her 

 little girl, whom she had recently placed at the Belvidere, a new and 

 celebrated boarding-school — I beg pardon I — establishment for young 

 ladies, about ten miles off. We set out accordingly, and, mj' friend 

 being a sort of person in whose company one is apt to think little of any 

 thing but herself, had proceeded to the very gate of the Belvidere 

 before I had at all recollected the road we were travelling, when in one 

 momentary stop at the entrance of the lawn, I at once recognized the 

 large substantial mansion, surrounded by magnificent oaks and elms, 

 whose shadow lay broad and heavy on the grass in the bright sun of 

 August ; the copse-like shrubbery, which sunk with a pretty natural 

 wildness to a dark clear pool, the ha ha which parted the pleasure-ground 

 from the open common, and the beautiful country which lay like a 

 panorama beyond — in a word, I knew at a glance, in spite of the dis- 

 guise of its new appellation, the White House at Hannonby, where ten 

 years ago I had so often visited my good old friend Admiral Floyd. 



The place had undergone other transmogrifications besides its change 

 of name ; in particular, it had gained a few prettinesses and had lost 

 much tidiness. A new rustic bench, a green-house, and a verandah, 

 may be laid to the former score ; a torn book left littering on the seat, a 

 broken swing dangling from the trees, a skipping-rope on the grass, and 

 a straw bonnet on a rose bush, to the latter ; besides which, the lawn 

 which, under the naval reign, had been kept almost as smooth as water, 

 was now in complete neglect, the turf in some places growing into grass, 

 in others trodden quite bare by the continual movement of little rapid 

 feet ; leaves lay under the trees ; weeds were on the gravel ; and dust 

 upon the steps. And in two or three chosen spots small fairy gardens 

 had been cribbed from the shrubberies, where seedy mignionette and 

 languishing sweet peas and myrtles over-watered, and geraniums, trained 

 as never geraniums were trained before, gave manifest tokens of youthful 

 gardening. None of the inhabitants were visible, but it was evidently a 

 place gay and busy with children, devoted to their sports and their 

 exercise. As we neared the mansion, the sounds and sights of school- 

 keeping became more obvious. Two or three pianos were jingling in 

 different rooms, a guitar tinkling, and a harp twanging ; a din of childish 

 voices, partly French partly English, issued from one end of the house, 

 and a foreign looking figure from the other, whom, from his silk stockings, 

 his upright carriage, and the bo)^ who fdllmved him carrying his kit, 

 I set down for the dancing-master ;, whilst in An upstair apartment were 

 two or three, rosy laughing faces, enjoying the pleasure of disobedience 

 in peeping out of window, one of which faces disappeared the moment 

 M.M. NexA, Series.— YoL. I, No. 4. 3 C 



