1808.) 
through the street. The pleasantest way 
is to go by water. The quickest way of 
sending a note is by apigeon. | 
Adelung deduces this substantive from 
the interjection weg, which he. considers 
as an onomatopeeia for away! via! off! 
The interjection should rather be de- 
duced from the substantive : and accord- 
ingly it differs in every language. Way is 
written in Gothic wig ;. in Swedish wag; 
in High and Low Dutch weg; in Anglo- 
Saxon weag, of which word another early 
form is wag, a bank, mound, or wall. 
Way therefore means, like the French 
shaussée, a causey, a raised path or road: 
weeran, to heap up, to increase ; weagan to 
to move, or convey; and wegen, waggon, 
are etymologically connected. ‘This filia- 
tion of the word is corroborated by the 
analogy of the Iselandish language, where 
vega means earth, at vega to heap up, 
and vegr a mound, or way. 
Path is a foot-way, where one paddeth. 
A pad, or padder, is one who walks on 
foot, as in the tautologous combination 
foot-pad. A horse which excels in a foot 
pace, as we also say, is called a pad-nag. 
To paddle is to use tie feet frequently. 
As oar means a hand, so paddle, or rather 
puddel, means a foot, and is a sort of oar 
used perpendicularly. The feet of web- 
footed animals are called paddels. In 
short, some such etymon as pad, foot (an- 
swering to the Latin pes, pedis) must have 
been left by the Romans m Britain. The 
word pad is used for a foot-cushion, and 
for other small cushions; but this is per- 
haps a corruption of bed: it is also 
used for a hind-saddle, a sort of pil- 
lion consisting of a mere cushion. 
Track, from the Italian traccia, is a 
hunter’s term, signifying the line of foot- 
steps left on the ground by game: the 
~ temporary path of an animal. We say 
the track of a horse, the track of a wheel, 
whan the vestige has resulted from a sin- 
gleimpression. A path is a beaten track, 
a track is anew path. Where there are 
few tenants, the heath may be pathless; 
for it to be trackless, there must be 
none. 
Road is a horse-way; ground rode, or 
riddea, upon. A turn-pike road. A 
causey should consist of a road, anda 
path. The London road. ' 
This word is not, as Johnson thinks, 
the French rade, which is a Dutch word 
etymologically connected with ready, 
with the German reede, and the Holland- 
ish ree. Nor is it, as Johnson also in- 
consistently suggests, the French route, a 
Montuty Mas. No. 168. 
On the Modern Style of Female Dress. 
547 
wheel-way, whence we have both rut the 
track of a wheel, and route the prescribed 
march of a baggage-waggon. 
Street (via lapadibus srnata) is a paved 
road: many fragments of the Roman 
roads are still called streets in this coun- 
try, where they are not bordered by 
houses; but, as our roads are seldom 
paved unless in towns, the word street 
commonly suggests the idea of a road 
passing between rows of houses, Some 
streets, such as Cranburn-alley, are pur- 
posely rendered impervious to horses: 
in this case we might observe: ‘ there is 
no road through that street.” . 
We say the track of purity, as if its ves- 
tiges were narrow and evanescent; the 
path of virtue, as ifit were frequented 
only by humbler natures; the road to 
power, as if those were lordly mounted 
who attempt it; and the streets of. liber- 
tinism, as if where men are crouded, vice 
-1s welcome. 
ae 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE lately returned to England, af- 
ter an absence of nearly twenty 
years, and of course find many alterations 
in the manners and customs of its inhabi- 
tants. Of these, however, none have sur 
prised me more than the present. late 
hours generally adopted by people of fa- 
shion, and the modern style of the dress 
of the ladies. Both these changes ob- 
truded themselves on my notice the very 
evening after my arrival in London, when 
going witha friend to the opera, I ob- 
served that, although the pit, in which we 
were, was soon quite full, yet the boxes 
remained perfectly empty till long after 
the opera had begun, or at least, were 
only occupied by the persons keeping 
places for the fashionale world, who now, 
it seems, dine so late that they seldom at- 
tend this amusement much before the 
beginning of the first ballet. 
At length they began to fill, when the 
first thing that struck me, was the great 
apparent increase of indecorum; for, 
whereas the women of the town used, in 
my days, to confine themselves to the up- 
per slips, or to the back’ of the front 
boxes of the theatres, they appeared now 
to thrust themselves into the sidc-boxes 
of the opera, which I remembered as the 
peculiar resort of the nobility, and princi- 
palfamiliesin town. When hinted this to 
my friend, “‘ Women of the town ! (he ex- 
claimed) why whom Go you mean?” I 
4C f pointed 
