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"Let him spend his time no more at home, "Which would be great impeachment to his age, "In having known no travel in his youth."

Shakespeare.

GENTLE reader, I belong to a family the members of which, from my great-grandfather downwards, have always attached a vast importance to birthdays; and even in these enlightened times, and notwithstanding the march of intellect, my relationsbearing in mind the spirit of their ancestors-are still wont to consider these annual anniversaries as very memorable epochs in their several histories, which they consider themselves bound to celebrate with

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unusual gaiety and festivity. Be not surprised, then, when I tell you, that on Michaelmas day, 1825, when I entered my eighteenth year, our goodly mansion was somewhat disturbed, with the hubbub occasioned by the preparations which its inhabitants were making for the gaieties of the ensuing evening, when the members of our numerous and highly respectable family were to convene, according to custom, to join in the dance, to sing the merry song; to contribute, each according to his power, to the evening's amusement; in a word, to spend the hours in the mutual enjoyment of kindly intercourse, and above all, to wish to your humble servant health, happiness, and prosperity, with “ many happy returns of the day."

At length the evening arrived, and our conviviality was about to begin; indeed I was leading my maiden aunt, Josephine, to the top of the first country dance, a dance which she preferred above all others :-tasteless soul! could she have heard the dulcet tones, and seen the fairy figures in which our young, and I may almost say, our old nobility, are wont " to trip the light fantastic toe," on " Almack's high patrician

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floor," she might, like them, have neglected the old-fashioned country dance for the lighter and more airy figures of the all-modern quadrille: though even then, so incorrigible was my aunt's attachment to old customs, and so small her ability for exertion, that I almost doubt whether she would have been guilty of such heresy.

Be this as it may, I had led her to the top of the

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