reputable mob of voters (made corrupt by
nobody) who sell their votes as they sell
their chandlery arid slops? What is to
become of all these people thrown quite out
of employment?

Furl the election flags, and furl the
national standard! It is all one, believe me.
England was great under Bridlegoose, England
was great under Daggs, England was
great under Beazly, England was great under
the rest of the noble army whose occupation
is to be destroyed. She really WILL BE ruined
now, though you may doubt it.

LOUNGING THROUGH KENSINGTON.

THE beauty and salubrity of Kensington,
its combination — so to speak — of the elegancies
of town and country, and the multitude
of its associations with English courts, wits,
and literature, have long rendered it such a
favourite with the lovers of books, that the
want of some account of it, not altogether
alien to its character, has constantly surprised
them. The place is not only free from
everything repulsive to the consideration (unless it
be one hidden spot, which the new improvements
will do away), but attention is fairly
invited throughout. The way to it is the
pleasantest out of town: you may walk in
high-road, or on grass, as you please; the
fresh air salutes you from a healthy soil; and
there is not a step of the way, from its commencement
at Kensington Gore to its termination
beyond Holland House, in which you
are not greeted with the face of some pleasant
memory.

Here, to mind's eyes conversant with local
biography, stands a beauty, looking out of a
window; there a wit, talking with other wits
at a garden gate; there, a poet on the greensward,
glad to get out of the London smoke,
and find himself among trees. Here come
De Veres of the times of old; Hollands and
Davenants of the Stuart and Cromwell times;
Evelyn peering about him soberly, and Samuel
Pepys in a bustle. Here advance Prior,
Swift, Arbuthnot, Gay, Sir Isaac Newton;
Steele from visiting Addison, Walpole from
visiting the Foxes, Johnson from a dinner
with Elphinstone, Junius from a communication
with. Wilkes. Here, in his carriage, is
King William the Third, going from the
palace to open Parliament; Queen Anne, for
the same purpose; George the First, George
the Second (we shall have the pleasure of
looking at all these personages a little more
closely); and there, from out of Kensington
Gardens, comes bursting, as if the whole recorded
polite world were in flower all at once,
all the fashion of the gayest times of those
sovereigns, blooming with chintzes, full-blown
with hoop-petticoats, towering with top-knots
and toupees. Here comes Lady Mary, quizzing
every body, and Lady Suffolk, looking
discreet; there the lovely Bellendens and
Lepells; there, Miss Howe, laughing with
Nanty Lowther (who made her very grave
afterwards); there, Chesterfield, Hanbury
Williams, Lord Hervey, Miss Chudleigh, not
overclothed; the Miss Gunnings, drawing
crowds of admirers; and here is George Selwyn
interchanging wit with my Lady Townshend,
the Lady Bellaston (so at least it has
been said) of Tom Jones.

Who is to know of all this company, and
not be willing to meet it? To meet it therefore
we propose, both out of doors and indoors,
not omitting other persons who are
worth half the rest, Mrs. Inchbald for one.
Mrs. Inchbald shall close the last generation
for us; and Coleridge shall bring us down to
our own time.

Not that we propose to treat the subject
chronologically, except in exhausting one
point at a time. The general chronological
point of view, though good to begin with in
order to show the rise and growth of a place,
would not suit inspection into particulars.
It would only end in confusing both place and
time, by jumping backwards and forwards
from the same houses for the purpose of
meeting contemporary demands. The best
way of proceeding, after taking the general
survey, is to set out from some particular
spot, on the ordinary principle of perambulation;
and so attend to each house or set
of premises by itself, as far as we are acquainted
with it.

Our perambulation, however, must not be
parochial. Parish geography is a singular
confounder of all received ideas of limitation.
Ely Place, Holborn, is in the county
of Cambridge: there are portions of other
shires, which are in other shires; and, parochially
considered, Kensington is not only
more than Kensington in some places, but it
is not Kensington itself in others. In
Kensington parish, for instance, are included Earl's
Court, Little Chelsea, Old and New Brompton,
Kensal Green, and even some of the
houses in Sloane Street; while, on the other
hand, Kensington Palace and Kensington
Gardens are not in Kensington, but in the
parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster.

Taking leave, therefore, of the wandering
imaginations of parish-officers, and confining
ourselves to the received idea of Kensington,
which is the same as that of the Post Office
or Red Book, we shall consider the locality
as circumscribed by  Knightsbridge, Earl's
Court, Hammersmith, Notting Hill, and
Bayswater; and since Kensington is more
visited from the London side than any other,
with the London side we shall begin.

But first, for the brief survey before
mentioned, and a word or two respecting the
name of the place.

The meaning of the word Kensington is
disputed. It is commonly derived from the
Saxon Kyning's-tun—King's-town; though,
as it is written Chenesitun in Doomsday Book,
and in other old records, it has been thought
traceable to some landed proprietor of the