fers the gang to lurk unmolested about the skirts
of his estate, on condition that they do not come about the house. The
approaching wedding, however, has made a kind of Saturnalia at the
Hall, and has caused a suspension of all sober rule. It has produced a
great sensation throughout the female part of the household; not a
housemaid but dreams of wedding favours, and has a husband running in
her head. Such a time is a harvest for the gipsies: there is a public
footpath leading across one part of the park, by which they have free
ingress, and they are continually hovering about the grounds, telling
the servant-girls' fortunes, or getting smuggled in to the young
ladies.

I believe the Oxonian amuses himself very much by furnishing them with
hints in private, and bewildering all the weak brains in the house
with their wonderful revelations. The general certainly was very much
astonished by the communications made to him the other evening by the
gipsy girl: he kept a wary silence towards us on the subject, and
affected to treat it lightly; but I have noticed that he has since
redoubled his attentions to Lady Lillycraft and her dogs.

I have seen also Phoebe Wilkins, the housekeeper's pretty and
love-sick niece, holding a long conference with one of these old
sibyls behind a large tree in the avenue, and often looking round to
see that she was not observed. I make no doubt that she was
endeavouring to get some favourable augury about the result of her
love-quarrel with young Ready-Money, as oracles have always been more
consulted on love affairs than upon any thing else. I fear, however,
that in this instance the response was not so favourable as usual; for
I perceived poor Phoebe returning pensively towards the house, her
head hanging down, her hat in her hand, and the riband trailing along
the ground.

At another time, as I turned a corner of a terrace, at the bottom of
the garden, just by a clump of trees, and a large stone urn, I came
upon a bevy of the young girls of the family, attended by this same
Phoebe Wilkins. I was at a loss to comprehend the meaning of their
blushing and giggling, and their apparent agitation, until I saw the
red cloak of a gipsy vanishing among the shrubbery. A few moments
after, I caught sight of Master Simon and the Oxonion stealing along
one of the walks of the garden, chuckling and laughing at their
successful waggery; having evidently put the gipsy up to the thing,
and instructed her