th, "Forward, lads," and pursued my route, and saw
it no more, until England and all her flowery meadows met my view;
but many days and service had wasted life, and worn the fine edge of
sensibility away; they were now before me in endless profusion, almost
unheeded, and without excitement; I viewed not the cowslip, when
fifty, as I had done with the eyes of nineteen.

* * * * *

THE CHRISTMAS BOX.

This is the happiest _title_ in the whole list of annuals. There
is nothing sentimental or lachrymose in it; but it is warm and
seasonable, and done up in a holly-green binding, it is all over
old Christmas.

The first story in the volume is Old Christmas; one of the gems or
sweets is Garry Owen, or the Snow-Woman, by Miss Edgeworth, for it
abounds with good sentiment, just such as we should wish in the hearts
and mouths of our own children, as a spice for their prattle.

We pass over _L'Egotiste Corrigee_, par Madame de Labourt--pretty
enough--and the Ambitious Primrose, by Miss Dagley. Then a Song, by
Miss Mitford; and a Story of Old Times, by Mrs. Hofland; and the
Tragical History of Major Brown, a capital piece of fun; and Pretty
Bobby, one of Miss Mitford's delightful sketches. The Visit to
the Zoological Gardens is not just what we expected; still it is
attractive. Major Beamish has accommodated military tactics to the
nursery in a pleasant little sketch; and the proverb of Much Coin Much
Care, by Mrs. R.S. Jameson is a little farce for the same stage.

But the Cuts--the pictures--of which it would have been more
_juvenile_ to have spoken first. These are from the pencil of our
"right trustye" friend and excellent artist, Mr. W.H. Brooke, whose
horses, coaches, and dogs excite so much mirth among the young friends
of the MIRROR--for, in truth, Mr. Brooke is an A.M.--an _associate_
of the MIRROR, and enables us to jump from Whitehall to Constantine's
Arch at Rome, shake _hands_ with the Bears of the Zoological Society,
and Peg in the Ring at Abury.

The _Christmas Box cuts_ are all fun and frolic--the tail-piece of the
preface, a bricklayer on a ladder, "spilling" a hod of bricks--the
Lord of Misrule, with his polichinel army--the Boar's Head--a little
squat Cook and a steaming Plum-Pudding--the Bee and Honeysuckle--Major
Brown with a Munchausen face--the Bear Pit, Monkeys' Houses, and
Horned Owl, in the Zoological Gardens--and the Parliament of Animals,
with the Elephant as