Lord E------ and the
Marchioness of R.------ subscribe for a box between them, enjoying the
proprietorship in alternate weeks. During the Marchesa's periods of
occupation you will perceive Lady H., and the whole of the blue stocking
illuminati, irradiating from this point, like the tributary stars round
some major planet, forming ~200~~ a grand constellation of attraction.
Here new novels, juvenile poets, and romantic tourists receive their
fiat, and here too the characters of one half the fashionable world
undergo the fiery ordeal of scrutinization, and are censured or
applauded more in accordance with the prevailing on dits of the day, or
the fabrications of the club, than with any regard to feeling, truth, or
decorum. The following week-, how changed the scene!--the venerable
head of the highly-respected Lord E------ graces the corner, like a
Corinthian capital finely chiseled by the divine hand of Praxiteles;
the busy tongue of scandal is dormant for a term, and in her place
the Solons of the land, in solemn thoughtfulness, attend the sage
injunctions of their learned chief. Too enfeebled by age and previous
exertion to undergo the fatigues of parliamentary duty, the baron here
receives the visits of his former colleagues, and snatching half an hour
from his favourite recreation, gives a decided turn to the politics of
a party by the cogency of his reasoning and the brilliancy of his
arguments.
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