murder I can pick up at the inn, and < whip 

 them up in my own style/ as Yorick says, 

 and, presto, there is a tale of the ' fashion- 

 ably terrific' at once. The whole subject is 

 as plainly before me as if, like Coleridge, 

 I had been dreaming about it. Describe 

 the murderer as a fine, strapping, hawk- 

 nosed, black-whiskered fellow, the very beau 

 ideal of one of Eastlake's banditti ; make a 

 whey-faced, sentimental girl in love with 

 him, and let her be found one morning dead 

 at the gibbet foot. I shall send it with the 



illustration to the , that Phoenix 



of Annuals, where it may serve as a pendant 

 to one of my Lord Bombast's pieces of senti- 

 mental horror, or as a foil to bring out the 

 refined beauties that are so ingeniously con- 

 cealed in the fascinating productions of 

 Lady Lyrick." 



" My dear Burrell, not a word more of 



this nonsense ; say nothing to the hostler, 



unless you wish to make us a standing jest 



to every angler that visits the place. Get 



c 



