sently be built. At
present, and for those five weeks yet to come, the march of events is
dull and sleepy. It will be sufficiently lively and startling to please
the most sensational, before many days of July have run out.

The Bible is now open in every parish church, chained to a desk, so that
any one who pleases may read. The entire service is conducted in
English. The roods and images have been pulled down; candles, ashes,
and palms are laid aside; "the wolves are kept close" in Tower and Fleet
and Marshalsea; masses, public and private, are contraband articles; the
marriage of priests is freely allowed; the altar has been replaced by
the table. It is still illegal to eat flesh in Lent; but this is rather
with a view to encourage the fish trade than with any religious object.

To turn to minor matters, such as costume and customs, we find
Government does not disdain to occupy itself in the regulation of the
former, by making stringent sumptuary laws, and effectually securing
their observance by heavy fines. The gentlemen dress in the Blue-Coat
style, occasionally varying it by a short tunic-like coat instead of the
long gown, and surmounting it by a low flat cap, which the nobles
ornament by an ostrich feather. The ladies array themselves in long
dresses, full of plaits, and often stiff as crinoline--plain for the
commonalty, but heavily laden with embroidery, and deeply edged with
fur, in the case of the aristocracy. Both sexes, if aspiring to
fashion, puff and slash their attire in all directions. The ruff,
shortly to become so fashionable, is only just creeping into notice, and
as yet contents itself with very modest dimensions.

Needles are precious articles, of which she is a rich woman who
possesses more than two or three. Glass bottles are unknown, and their
place is supplied by those of leather, wood, or stone. Wooden bowls and
trenchers for the poor, gold and silver plate for the rich, make up for
the want of china. The fuel is chiefly wood, coal being considered
unhealthy. Every now and then Government takes alarm at the prodigious
size to which the metropolis is growing, and an Act is passed to
restrain further building within a given distance from the City walls.
Country gentlemen receive peremptory orders to reside on their estates,
and not to visit London except by licence; for the authorities are
afraid lest the influx of visitors should cause famine and pestilence.
There is no drainage