The owner of Britton Hall was not at home, but had left full orders for the reception of his American guest. Like, then, to Christopher Sly, I was for a couple of days the lord of a grand house and park, of a stable full of horses, a garden full of good things, and a hall full of servants. Gods! how I rung the bells, and made the fellows run and scamper: one fat old butler, especially, will have good reason to remember the name of Wiggins, on account of the work I gave him.

The first salute I received on entering was from half a score of housedogs. There was a black Newfoundland dog, that kept up a huge yelling from his kennel under a sycamore; a St. Bernard dog, that gave me a very uproarious salute on entering the court; and other hounds of smaller degree. But I was soon removed from the company of these surly four-footed beasts, and carried off to a snug apartment, where every thing looked warmth and welcome.

The very first words that the housekeeper uttered impressed me with an idea, which I afterwards found correct, that she had seen better days, and that her manner and conversation were far above the present social position.

"You will dine, sir?" says Mrs. Thompson, making a most graceful interrogative courtesy.

Mark, she did not say, "Have you dined?" She might have said so, because it was eight o'clock, and because very likely I had dined: but though the beef-steaks at Stuffington are excellent, and there is salmon hard by, the question whether I had dined before it is not necessary here to discuss. She might have put the question, as any ordinary person would; but with a far better breeding and a more true sense of hospitality, she said, "You will dine," and was answered in the same spirit. I said I would, and I did dine. Fancy an old, lofty, black oak parlour; with tall windows looking into a park, and slim, dappled, rickety-looking deer, passing close by them. The darkeyed rogues! I hope to see some of their haunches dished on silver yet! Fancy a great, stiff, shining, damask

table-cloth, opposite which is placed a tall, red chair. On the left-hand side imagine to yourself a fire, such as they usually light here in the summer months, and containing at least three degenerated scuttles-full of London coal. Opposite is an array of old plate, polished up to a pitch of supernatural brightness, flanked on each side by a decanter in a filigree stand. In the midst of this array is a jug of the commonest earthenware-a threepenny yellow jug, with the following inscription:

BRITTON FOR EVER!

That jug, made to celebrate a former election, contained some of the best ale that a human tap ever produced; and in the discussion of that, the liquors in the flanking decanters, and of numberless other good things, this eventful evening passed away. It was like an evening out of a novel. Every thing was so trim, so good, so abundant, so ready, that my young heart expanded with satisfaction; and for a little while, at least, I felt reconciled to the aristocracy. At a proper hour (after I had made believe to peruse some very stupid county papers) the old butler was good enough to give me his arm up a great staircase, to a tall tester bed, covered (for summer) with four blankets and a counterpane, and there left me to repose.

There must be sad waste in these great houses. At luncheon next day they put fresh bottles of port and sherry on the table, just as if I had drank every drop over night. Can this be possible? Away with the thought!

And now, having come to the next morning, and having often heard you wish to know how an English gentleman of X thousand a-year spends his time, listen, dear aunt, to this description. Little did you think that your Napoleon would ever have such a property; but I had it, though it was evanescent as the splendour of my splendid godfather.

Yes, I had ten thousand a-yearmayhap more; for the fact is, like many another great lord of England, I do not know my own income, and cannot say to a few thousands what

it is. Rate it, however, at that figure, and you shall hear what took place from the beginning to the ending of the day on which I enjoyed it.

At eight o'clock, a gentleman in black brought me hot water to shave, in a jug;-it was a large, blue jug, as I recollect, with a curious picture on the great capacious stomach of it, representing a fantastic Chinese bridge, on which were two mandarins; one fishing in a stream below, and the other plucking immense oranges from a very round tree about a mile off. On the right of the picture was a pagoda or Chinese pleasure-house, surmounted by a flight of animals, whose ornithography I cannot acquaint you with. Such jugs are not unfrequent in the old country.

My clothes, taken off (as I need scarcely state) on the preceding night, were by the same gentleman removed from my apartment and returned to it, neatly folded and elegantly brushed. The latter remark will apply likewise to the boots. Warned by the previous day's experience, as soon as I awoke I asked this unliveried officer the real state of the weather; and being satisfied on this score, was in return asked by him at what hour I wished to breakfast.

This repast I had secretly determined should take place at nine o'clock; at which hour accordingly, descending in a neat morning toilet, the meal I found was prepared for

I think the two salt-cellars were one on each side of the eggs, but cannot take my affidavit. On the right hand of the plate are usually laid the letters and newspapers of the gents in the house; and it was there, in that very spot-in that ancient ancestral hall-I had the joy of receiving a mission from dear-dear Passimaquoddy. But a truce to sentiment. On the side-table were laid grilled ham, a silver mustard-pot, knives handled and forks entirely composed of the same precious metal (I have bought one of the latter novelties for the use of some dear lips in Kentuck), a cold chicken, and a sort of pig's head in a jelly-very good indeed. These things were placed on the side-table-remember, not on the board-on which, perhaps, there might be a few silver forks employing a sinecure, but which is not spread until dinner.

I had proposed to walk through my parks before breakfast; but truth to tell it was a soft morning, and I did not care to wet my Hobies in any such dewy excursion. The appetite, however, was none the worse; and the breakfast and the newspapers whiled away the time royally until about one, when a tray of biscuits, &c. was brought, with a few lean slices of meat from (evidently) one of the joints about to be devoured in the servants' hall. After partaking of these I sallied out,first to view every one of the rooms in my house, consisting of twenty-four bed-rooms, two oak drawing-rooms, the yellow drawing-room, the great dining-room, with portraits of one's ancestors hanging on the walls, the billiard-room, the study, the gentlemen's room, &c. All my bed-rooms I observed were lofty, clean, simple, well-carpeted; furnished with sofas, reading chairs, snug tables, and writing-books; and you may be sure I looked under the beds to see if all was right there. There was not one but had a half-dozen of thick blankets ready against the winter.

One of the grooms, when I stolled out, asked if I would like to go and see the colts and mares in the paddocks, but I preferred for this day making friends with the gardener, and wish I had never seen the mares at all; for, egad! one of them in

mere play, and when my back was turned, wanted to have a game at leap-frog with me, and sent me into a large bed of stinging-nettles, that made a countenance not naturally, I believe, ungracious, quite a temporary curiosity in point of redness.

I found Britton Park stretching for miles around me, and saw many long avenues both of limes, firs, and sycamores. I saw the hares frisking about in the Meadow Park, the deer cropping in troops in the thinner grass of their own part of the domain. How they cocked up their white ears and stared as I passed! I wonder what they thought of a young fellow from Kentuck? In the park are many wild spots planted with rushes, and rocky brawling rivulets, where 't would have been pleasant to sit, had one's Stultz pantaloons admitted of such reckless misemploy. As it was I bent my way to the garden; saw the hot-walls and the hot-houses; great, fat, red-cheeked nectarines, basking in the sun; grapes just turning purple; a deal of flowers that I don't care for, except in poems (however a description of them will be worked up, should this journal appear in print.)*

The gardener introduced me to both fruit and flowers; among the latter a lovely young cauliflower, which was cut for my dinner along with the first natural pease of the season, and a plate of mushrooms sweetly arranged with brown sauce. A cucumber, too, was another fruit

It is just as well omitted.-O. Y.

of my visit to the gardener, and a pine-apple, but for them I never cared-it's but a poor delicacy to offer a Kentuckian.

By this time seven o'clock was come and my dinner ready; and after enjoying it and the subsequent recreations, the flask of amber sherry and lusty port, the stroll in the park where the braying of the deer, the plashing of the water, the

(Fill out this description.)†

Now aided marvellously by the smoke of my cigar, I returned to tea, and two hours after midnight was dozing over the consciousness of having, during that day at least, lived at the rate of 10,000l. a-year, when a chaise galloped up to the door, and the real owner of all this grandeur arrived. What boots ? What I have had, I have had; and I am sure that all the dear circle in Passimaquoddy will be glad to read this accurate account of an English gentleman's method of passing his time, and to think that their Napoleon once had 10,000l. a-year.

Mr. B. told me as if it were a matter of course with him, that he had been up at six in the morning, had canvassed a score of villages, driven a hundred miles, had not dined until ten o'clock, and proposed to be off at seven the next morning, having ordered breakfast at six.

For this day, at least, my beloved aunt will allow that I had the best part of the 10,000l. a-year.

+ Sic in MS.-O. Y.