OLD NAMES WITH NEW FACES. 



333 



adequate praise. Their graceful 

 attitudes and picturesque group- 

 ings, and the mournfulness and 

 pathos which appear to be the pre- 

 vailing expression, are as far be- 

 yond the reach of modern art, as is 

 the manual skill, which gave the 

 whole its form and symmetry. The 

 emblems are funereal and comme- 

 morative, but their precise signifi- 

 cance has not been satisfactorily 

 interpreted. Although consider- 

 ably marred by its misfortune, the 

 vase will ever be prized as a speci- 

 men of art'unique in its structure, 

 and unrivalled in the classic ele- 

 gance of its design ; and thousands, 

 attracted by the praises of its 

 beauty, the singularity of its his- 

 tory, and its unfortunate fate, hang 

 with admiration not unmixed 

 with sorrow 



" O'er the fine forms of Portland's mys- 

 tic Urn." 



SEDAN-CHAIRS. 



This curious mode of conveyance, 

 which was once in such general use 

 among the rich and fashionable, is 

 now very rarely seen in the streets 

 of London. In the time of Hogarth 

 it was considered as a courtly 

 vehicle, and in one of his plates of 

 the Modern Rake's Progress, we see 

 his man of fashion using it to go 

 to St. James's. It continued to be 

 used at a much later period, and 

 does not appear to have been gene- 

 rally laid aside until the begin- 

 ning of the present century. About 

 five-and-twenty years ago, a sedan 

 was very commonly seen in the hall 

 or lobby of gentlemen's houses, no 

 longer used, but laid up like a ship 

 in ordinary. 



It is still used rather extensively 

 in Edinburgh, where the chairmen 

 are all Highlanders born, and a 

 very curious and humorous body. 

 It is pretty commonly seen in the 

 streets of Bath, and not unfrequeutly 

 in those of Cheltenham, Brighton, 

 and our other watering-places. In 



I Brighton, However, it is being su- 

 ' perseded by a vehicle called a ' Fly- 

 by-night," which is made in the 

 body like a sedan-chair, but goes 

 upon wheels, and is dragged by one 

 or two men. 



It is far from being uninteresting 

 to mark the introduction of these 

 things ; as they become curious in 

 after-ages, and give a clue to past 

 habits and manners. 



The sedan-chair was first brought 

 into England, from Spain, by Prince 

 Charles, afterwards Charles the 

 First, who, as everybody will re- 

 member, went to Madrid for a Span- 

 ish wife, whom eventually he did 

 not obtain. On his departure, Oli- 

 varez, the prime minister and fa- 

 vourite of Philip the Fourth, gave 

 the Prince a few Italian pictures, 

 some valuable pieces of furniture, 

 and three sedan-chairs of curious 

 workmanship. (See Mendoza's 

 "Relation of what passed in the 

 Royal Court of the Catholic King, 

 our Lord, on the departure of the 

 Prince of Wales.") 



We learn from another contem- 

 porary, that, on his return to Eng- 

 land, Charles gave two of these se- 

 dan-chairs to his favourite the Duke 

 of Buckingham, who raised a great 

 clamour against himself by using 

 them in London. The popular cry 

 was, that the Duke was thus re- 

 ducing free-born Englishmen and 

 Christians to the offices and con- 

 dition of beasts of burden. (See 

 Memoirs of Court of England, by 

 Bassompierre, tho French Ambas- 

 sador.) 



OLD NAMES WITH NEW FACES. 



Those who have duly meditated 

 on the Horatian axiom, Malta re- 

 nascentur, &c., will not be surprised 

 to find the blind Lear an optician 

 in Fetter Lane, while Edgar sells 

 ale in Fenchurch Street ; Macbeth 

 and his wife are set up in a fruit- 

 stall in Vinegar Yard, Drury Lane; 

 the melancholy Jacques is estab- 



