KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



239 



one family at the house of another (of 

 course, I speak of a middle class of society), 

 when a game at forfeits, a carpet dance, and 

 a light and cheerful supper, without fuss or 

 parade, sent every one home' happy, and in 

 good humour with themselves and their ac- 

 quaintance. Now, the mistress of a family 

 closes her doors upon her neighbours (and 

 her heart at the same time,) except at cer- 

 tain periods of the year, because, forsooth, 

 she ' cannot do as other people do,' the 

 other people in the case applying to a rich 

 old admiral, or Eastern nabob, while the 

 lady, perchance, is the wife of some poor 

 lieutenant, or a government clerk with a 

 limited income. Then the strivings and 

 starvings, till her drawing-room is furnished 

 as fine, if not as richly, as Mrs. Jonquill's ; 

 and the staying within doors, till her dress 

 will bear inspection by the side of her rival ; 

 for this is the true name, in these days, of 

 those who, from their position, were formerly 

 looked upon as the next best friends to your 

 own family. Alas ! hospitality has merged 

 in hollow ostentation ; friendship refuses to 

 see her own set, except in full dress, and by 

 the blaze of ill-afforded wax-lights — and we 

 have lost, with the solid furniture and oak- 

 wainscoted halls of our fathers, the warm 

 welcome that met you smiling at the 

 threshold, and (passported by friendship) 

 led you with both hands, to the softest seat 

 or coziest fireside corner, the cordiality of 

 your host making you feel as if lapped in 

 eider down, and shod with velvet. Nor is 

 this love of keeping up appearances always 

 confined to the style of one's furniture, en- 

 tertainments, or dress. I remember hearing 

 of a young lady who, on the occasion of her 

 sister's marriage, talked very largely of her 

 house in the Regent's Park, but as there are 

 always enterprising friends, to find out the 

 truth of good, as well as evil reports, it soon 

 became known that the Park Mansion meant 

 a Cottage at North-bank. ' Have you far to 

 go ?' said another friend to a young lady, 

 who was about to walk home with her 

 servant from an evening party. ' Only as 

 far as Cavendish-square,' was the rejoinder. 

 Here the Square stood in the place of an ad- 

 jacent Street, to which I hear it bears but a 

 very slight analogy. As to male pretenders 

 of this sort, there is no end of them — and I 

 am told it is no unusual thing for many of 

 them to * keep up appearances' by forming a 

 sub-rosa acquaintance with tradesmen in a 

 fashionable ' quartier,' to whose houses their 

 letters, &c, are addressed -while they locate 

 themselves up three pair of stairs, in some 

 cheap ' terra incognita.' I was amused the 

 other day, by the pertinent remarks of an 

 octogenarian lady, relative to these finical 

 pretensions of the present day. ' There are 

 no women now-a-days,' she observed, ' they 

 are all ladies ; and the men have undergone 



a similar refinement. All the pies are pates, 

 and, if in the early season summer cabbage 

 appears on table, it is helped under the name 

 of greens, while with the very bluest of 

 London milk before them, people ask if you 

 take cream to your tea.' But one is content 

 to laugh at these nominal affectations of 

 keeping up appearances — it is an imposition 

 in sound only, and cheats no one. Not so 

 that which fetters a man's income, beggars 

 his children, and defrauds his creditors. 

 Why then be shackled by so false a vanity? 

 Independence and self-respect are so much 

 better worth endeavoring after, and so 

 essentially preclude the necessity for ' keep- 

 ing up appearances,' that the experiment, 

 like other patent nostrums of our day, needs 

 but a trial to insure its success. I find, how- 

 ever, that the mania is so deep rooted and 

 wide spread through the various ramifica- 

 tions of society, that the only way to escape 

 its falsehoods, or the being hoaxed by its 

 pretensions, till all shall be convinced of its 

 folly, is to wear, by way of fetish, the oppo- 

 site — and let me add, apposite — axiom, 

 ' Appearances often deceive. '— C. W. 



OUR NOTE BOOK. 



Rustic Baskets for Flower-beds. — 

 Amongst the many modes and appliances called 

 into use for the embellishment and diversifica- 

 tion of the flower-garden, perhaps there are none 

 that deserve a greater amount of patronage than 

 the rustic basket. Its construction is simple and 

 cheap, and it furnishes us with the means of 

 bringing into happy combination plants of various 

 habits. Of course the size and shape of the 

 basket, which in different situations may be 

 various, must be kept in view. One I have 

 lately used is of the simplest form, being a mere 

 circle constructed with staves of birch or elm, 

 with the bark on; it stands about 18 inches 

 above, and is sunk as much below the surface of 

 the lawn ; its diameter is 1 feet, over which are 

 two arches, formed with six iron rods, crossing 

 at 5 feet above the top of the basket. The centre 

 was planted with Ageratum odoratum; then two 

 rows of scarlet geranium ; the edge with the old 

 trailing variety of ivy-leaved geranium, and Tro- 

 pceolum canariensis was trained over the handles 

 — altogether it had a pleasing effect. The ivy- 

 leafed geranium harmonises well Avith the rough 

 bark that forms the sides of the basket, to which 

 it should be fastened with a few shreds, to pre- 

 vent its being broken by the wind. — P. Scolding, 

 in the Gardeners' Journal. 



Habit. — We are so wonderfully formed, that 

 while we are creatures vehemently desirous of 

 novelty, we are as strongly attached to habit and 

 custom. But it is the nature of things which 

 hold us by custom, to affect us very little while 

 we are in possession of them, but strongly when 

 they are absent. I remember to have frequented 

 a certain place every day for a long time 

 together; ami I may truly say, that so far from 

 finding pleasure in it, I was affected with a sort 



