A BALL. 11& 



with myself, no further ceremony being re- 

 quired. Whilst the young people are dan- 

 cing you walk round, and ingratiate your- 

 self with their mammas ; and the moment 

 the country-dance (still called Spanish) is 

 over, you must remove to make way for 

 the young ladies, who seat themselves as 

 near as possible to their mothers, so that in 

 taking a detour of the room, you can gene- 

 rally tell, either by dress or features, where 

 one family begins, and another ends. The 

 old ladies at these parties most frequently 

 appear in morning home-dresses, which an 

 English housemaid would be ashamed to 

 pick up. The young ladies, on the other 

 hand, are too gaudily apparelled, being co- 

 vered with jewels and tinsel. Few, or none, 

 of them have ever had any pains taken 

 to teach them to dance well, and conse- 

 quently there is more to laugh at than ad- 

 mire in their country-dances ; and it is re- 

 markable to observe that scarcely a woman 



