that identical patent
rouge which she has enamelled her face with for these last twenty years;
her gait and presence, too, are still the same--_Vera incessa patuit
Dea_; she yet boasts the enchanting waddle of a Dutch Venus, and the
modest brow of a Tower-hill Diana. Ah, Jack, would you but take a few
lessons from my old friend ~310~~at the science of shuffle and cut, you
would not rise so frequently from the board of green cloth, as you
now do, with pockets in which the devil might dance a saraband without
injuring his shins against their contents. Why, man, she is a second
Breslaw with a pack; I have known her deal four honours, nine trumps to
herself three times in the course of one rubber, and not cut a higher
card to her adversary than a three during the whole evening. Sensible
of her talents, and of the impropriety of hiding them in a napkin, she
chose Bath, independence, and her own skill in preference to a country
parsonage, conjugal control, and limited pin-money. Her _caro sposo_
meanwhile retired to his living; and now blesses himself on his escape
from false deals, odd tricks, and every honour but the true one."
One more sketch, and I have done; but I cannot pass by the admirable
portrait of a Bath canonical, "Jolly old Dr. Mixall, rosy as a ripe
tomata, and round as his own right orthodox wig,

'With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies!'

Awful and huge, he treads the ground like one of Bruce's moving pillars
of sand! What a dark and deep abyss he carries before him--the grave
insatiate of turtle and turbot, red mullet and John Dories, haunches and
pasties, claret, port, and home-brewed ale! But his good-humour alone
would keep him at twenty stone were he to cease larding himself for
a month to come; and when he falls, may the turf lie lightly on his
stomach! Then shall he melt gently into rich manure;

'And fat be the gander that feeds on his grave.'"

"But now for the moderns," said Horace; "for the
enchanting fair,

'Whose snow-white bosoms fascinate the eye,
Swelling in all the pride of _nudity_;

~311~~

The firm round arm, soft cheek, and pouting lip,
And backs exposed below the jutting hip;
To these succeed dim eyes, and wither'd face",
And pucker'd necks as rough as shagreen cases,
But whose kind owners, hon'ring Bladud's ball,
Be