small incomes, and all the other devilries that flesh is heir to. And if such be the case, hie thee to some such place as Callander, and cultivate rural enjoyment. The beauties of the surrounding scenery will remind you of the summers of longlost years; will enable you to add one more to the list of your unpublished sonnets; will keep you in tolerable temper with your wife; will make you less an object of detestation to your children; will detach you for a time from the muddy river of ordinary existence; and, in one of your brightest moods, may enable you to give birth to some such lucubration as that which you have doubtless now perused with the most intense delight.

other villages in Shropshire, or any where else, it consists principally of one long street, with a good number of detached houses scattered here and there in its vicinity. The street is on a slight declivity on the sunny side of what in England they call a hill. It contains the shops of three butchers, five grocers, two bakers and one apothecary. On the right hand, as you go south, is that very excellent Inn, the Blue Boar; and on the left, nearly opposite, is the public hall, in which all sorts of meetings are held, and which is alternately converted into a dancing-school, a theatre, a methodist chapel, a ball-room, an auction-room,

an exhibition-room, or any other sort of room that may be wanted. The church is a little farther off, and the parsonage is, as usual, a white house surrounded with trees, at one end of the village. Hodnet is, moreover, the market town of the shire, and stands in rather a populous district; so that, though of small dimensions itself, it is the rallying place, on any extraordinary occasion, of a pretty numerous population.

One evening in February the mail from London stopped at the Blue Boar, and a gentleman, wrapped in a travelling cloak, came out. The guard handed him a small portmanteau, and the mail drove on. The stranger entered the inn, was shown into a parlour, and desired that the landlord and a bottle of wine should be sent to him. The order was speedily obeyed; the wine was set upon the table, and Gilbert Cherryripe himself was the person who set it there. Gilbert next proceeded to rouse the slumbering fire, remarking, with a sort of comfortable look and tone, that it was a cold raw night. His guest assented with a nod.

"You call this village Hodnet, do you not?" said he enquiringly.

"Yes, sir, this is the town of Hodnet (Mr. Cherryripe did not like the term village); and a prettier little place is not to be found in England." "So I have heard; and as you are not upon

any of the great roads, I believe you have the reputation of being a primitive and unsophisticated race."

“Privitive and sofisticated, did you say, sir? Why as to that, I cannot exactly speak; but if there is no harm in it, I dare say we are. But you see, sir, I am a vintner, and don't trouble much about these matters."

my head

"So much the better," said the stranger, smiling. "You and I shall become better friends; I may stay with you for some weeks, perhaps months. In the mean time get me something comfortable for supper, and desire your wife to • look after my bed-room."

Mr. Cherryripe made one of his profoundest bows, and descended to the kitchen, inspired with the deepest respect for his unexpected guest.

Next day was Sunday. The bells of the village church had just finished ringing, when the stranger walked up the aisle, and entered, as if at random, a pew which happened to be vacant. Instantly every eye was turned towards him; for a new face was too important an object in Hodnet to be left unnoticed.-"Who is he?" "When did he come ?" "With whom does he stay?" "How long will he be here?" "How old may he be?" "Do you think he is handsome ?"— These and a thousand other questions flew about in whispers from tongue to tongue, whilst the un

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conscious object of all this interest, cast his eyes calmly and yet penetratingly over the congregation. Nor was it altogether to be wondered, that his appearance had caused a sensation among the good people of Hodnet, for he was not the kind of person whom one meets with every day. There was something in his face and figure that distinguished him from the crowd. You could not look upon him once, and then turn away with indifference. His features arrested your attention, and commanded your admiration. His high Roman nose, his noble brow, his almost feminine lips, and beautifully regular teeth, his pale but not delicate cheek, his profusion of dark and curling hair, his black, bright eyes, whose glance, without being keen, was intense, — all, taken together, produced an effect which might have excited attention on a wider stage than that of Hodnet. In stature he was considerably above the middle height; and there was a something in his air which they who were not accustomed to it did not understand, some calling it grace, others dignity, and others hauteur. When the service was over, our hero walked out alone, and shut himself up for the rest of the day in his parlour at the Blue Boar. But speculation was busily at work; and at more than one tea-table that evening in Hodnet, conjectures were poured out with the tea, and swallowed with the toast.