heavier assault of a stouter rival. Presently, as
the fun waxed more furious, dresses were
torn, hair disordered, paint on the fair faces
began to rub off, and the whole became a
romp. We are told, by an amusing satire, which
dealt very severely with these high jinks, that a
vice-queen tried to stop them—

      Fair Hardwicke, thou whose social schemes
      Steer justly 'twixt the nice extremes;

but she was quite powerless.

The theatre, after Mr. Garrick's departure, was
in a lawless state; "bloods" ranged the stage and
green rooms as they pleased; the manager was
helpless. The pretty but overbearing Miss
Bellamy—whose pettish quarrels with Garrick
are amusing theatrical reading—was passing
off the stage. One gala-night, when the viceroy
and court were present, and the house crammed,
one of the "bloods," a Captain St. Leger, who
was standing at the wings, had the freedom to
put his lips to her shoulder as she went by.
The offended actress at once turned on him,
and gave him a slap on the face that rang
through the house. The act took place in full
view of the audience, who applauded loudly;
and Lord Chesterfield was seen to rise in his
box, and clap his hands in approbation. He
presently sent Major Macartney, his aide-de-
camp, to require that Captain St. Leger should
make a public apology, which was accordingly
made in due form.

HAUNTED HILDERTON.

"WHY is this called 'haunted' Hilderton?
and how did you ever come to live here, uncle
George?" asked Ellen. "You never said one
word about it in your letters to India."

"Unless an arrangement could have been
come to with her Majesty's mails to carry
ghost stories at half-price, it would have been
too costly, my love," replied Colonel Savage.
"Well, well! You have been here now nearly
a week, and I—I trust you and Soph have
found everything comfortable."

"Everything delightful. But, uncle, why
haunted? I've never seen anything."

"I wouldn't brag, my dear," said the colonel,
mysteriously. "It is one of the polished
peculiarities of the disturbing influence here, that it
refrains from troubling newly-arrived visitors
until they have recovered the fatigue of a
journey, and are beginning to feel themselves
fairly at home."

"I am sure it is very kind," said Ellen,
warmly. "How good you all are in dear old
England—ghosts and all! But, uncle, what
is it?"

"Ah! that's the point," replied the colonel.
"There's an idea—a vague, misty consciousness
of an indistinct impression—that—But, why
talk of it? However, do what I will, I have
never been able wholly to eradicate the terror
from my household. The butler, as bold a man
about a house as ever stepped, would fight
against any odds in defence of his plate-chest—
but, at the first rumour of the supernatural, his
manly cheek turns pale, and a reinforcement of
Molly the housemaid is necessary before he will
even descend the stairs."

"It's a noise, uncle?" said Sophy. "Oh, tell
us all about it."

"To be sure," said her uncle. "Why not?
You're sensible children. This is how it
happened. Your uncle Charles, as you know, is a
great musician. It is, or was, his intention to
become the first fiddler of the age. How far
that purpose may have been modified by
fortuitous circumstances we shall know when he
returns from Southern Tartary, from whence
his last letters were dated; but he certainly
threw himself into the pursuit with all his
natural ardour. He practised incessantly, and
when he wasn't playing the fiddle, he talked it.

"It chanced that he and I were staying
together at the house of Sir Simon Mumford,
with whose fair daughter, Charley, in the intervals
of fiddling, believed himself in love. He
was hard at work on a fantasia, in a little room
opening from the hall, when Mumford, bursting
out of nis study, pen in hand, rushed in, and
caught him by the hand. 'Charles, my dear
fellow,' he said, 'this is superb! A little more
perseverance and, by Jove! you are at the top of
the tree—the top, my boy!'

"Charley, highly gratified, was going in for
another turn at the fantasia, by way of
acknowledgment, when Mumford hastily added, 'I
must warn you, however, that if any of the
professionals get hold of your mode of dealing
with that glorious bit, they'll adopt it, and
claim it as their own. You must be more
private, Charles. Paganini always practised in
the beer-cellar; Fillippowicz rented a hut on
the Skerries, and was provisioned, once a
month, from the mainland. Go you down to
Hilderton. There's nobody there but the
gardener and the ghost. The place is at your
service as long as you please.'

"Charley jumped at the idea, and thanked
our kind host cordially for his considerate
proposal; but Miss Julia, who came in at the
moment, looked, I thought, less gratified.

"'I shall take down my Stradivarius—no,
my Kortz junior,' said Charles, hesitating among
his family of violins, and tenderly caressing the
child he at last selected as he lifted it from its
green cradle. (It boasted fifty-nine patches,
was mellow, tremulous, and worth, Charles
said, three hundred guineas.) 'I shall take
down this—a box of cigars—and Grüntergrönen's
first movement—fifth quartette—you know it,
Miss Mumford?'

"'But too well,' murmured the young lady.

"'It is a teazer,' said Charles, thoughtfully.
'First violin comes in at the ninth bar,
accompanied by the other three instruments, forming
the chord of the second inversion of dominant
seventh, up to the nineteenth bar, when,' added
the enthusiast, preparing to illustrate his meaning,
'the following delicious passage occ——
No? Well, then, I'll hum it. Teeeumptitye—
teeeumptitye—ti-la—ti-lo—— '

"'I like those words so much!' said Miss