with canes for lances, tilt at bull. The
"chulos" train their jackets, the
"bandarilleros" fling wreathed hoopsticks for darts,
in admirable caricature of the real blood-
thirsty game you see in the bull-ring.
Prince Pippin of course is the "matador,"
the slayer. He stands alone, superb and
magnanimous, intrepidity in his mien, fire
in his eye, and a real little Toledo rapier in
his hand. Will the bull dare to run at the
heir-apparent of the throne of Spain and the
Indies? Quien sabe! Train up a child in
the way he should go; and a youth of bull-
fighting is a fit preparative for a manhood
of cruelty and an old age of bigoted
superstition.

It is somewhat difficult to give an idea
of the precise size of Pippin's Palace. Mr.
Ford, who speaks of the entire structure
with ineffable contempt, says that it is "just
too small to live in, and too large to wear
on a watch chain;" but I maintain that the
Casita del Principe is quite big enough to
be the country residence of Thumb, or Nutt,
or Miss Warren, or Gibson, or Hudson, or
Ann Shepherd, or Madame Teresia, or
Wybrand Lolkes, the Dutch dwarf; a
wonderful little fellow with a head like a
dolphin's, no perceptible trunk, and two
little spindle-shanks like the legs of a
skeleton clock. There should properly be a
statue cast from the Manikin at Brussels
in the vestibule of the Casita; but, if I
recollect aright, the only object of sculpture
in the hall is a life-size cast of the
Apollo Belvedere, whose head of course
touches the palatial ceiling. Could that
inanimate effigy stand on tiptoe he would
assuredly send the first floor flying, and
could he perform but one vertical leap, he
would have the roof off the palace in the
twinkling of a bed-post. There is a tiny
grand staircase which (from dolorous
experience) I know to be somewhat of a tight
fit for a stout tourist; and to increase the
exquisite grotesqueness of the whole affair,
the walls are panelled in green and yellow
jasper and porphyry, and there are verde
antique columns and scagliola pilasters,
and bas-reliefs in gilt bronze on every side,
just as there are in the horrible tomb-house
hard by. There are dozens of rooms in
King Pippin's Palace: dining-rooms,
audience chambers, council chambers,
bedrooms, libraries, ante-chambers, boudoirs,
guard-rooms, and ball rooms, the dimensions
of which vary between those of so
many store- cupboards, and so many
midshipmen's sea-chests. But the pearl, the
cream, the consummation of the
crack-brained joke is that the furniture does
not in any way harmonise with the
proportions of the building. The house is a
baby one, but the furniture is grown up.
The chairs and tables are suited for the
accommodation of adults of full growth.
The walls are hung with life-size portraits
of the Spanish Bourbons. The busts,
statuettes, French clocks, chandeliers, China
gimcracks, and ivory baubles are precisely
such as you might see in a palace inhabited
by grown-up kings and princes. The whole
place is a pippin into which a crazy king
has endeavoured to cram the contents of a
pumpkin; and, but for the high sense I
entertain of the obligations of decorum, and
the indelicacy of wounding the susceptibilities
of foreigners, I might, had the proper
appliances been at hand, have wound up my
inspection of the Palace of King Pippin, by
ringing a shrill peal on a hand-bell, or firing
a pistol out of the first-floor window.

          On Saturday 7th August, 1869,
"Will be commenced in "ALL THE YEAR ROUND:"
                         VERONICA.
By the Author of "AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE."
               A NEW SERIAL STORY,
To be continued from week to week until completed.

       Now Ready, price 5s. 6d., bound in green cloth,
                       THE FIRST VOLUME
                     OF THE NEW SERIES OF
                      ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
                   To be had of all Booksellers.

       MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S FINAL READINGS.

MESSRS. CHAPPELL AND CO. have great pleasure
in announcing that MR. CHARLES DICKENS, having some
time since become perfectly restored to health, will
resume and conclude his interrupted series of
FAREWELL READINGS at St. James's Hall, London,
early in the New Year.

The Readings will be TWELVE in NUMBER, and none
will take place out of London.

In redemption of MR. DICKENS'S pledge to those
ladies and gentlemen of the theatrical profession who
addressed him on the subject, there will be TWO MORNING
READINGS, one on Friday, January 14, and one on
Friday, January 21, 1870. The EVENING READINGS
will take place on Tuesdays, January 11, 18, 25;
February 1, 8, 15, 22; March 1, 8, and 15. The Prices and
all other arrangements will be as before. The announced
number of Readings will on no account be exceeded.

All communications to be addressed to Messrs.
CHAPPELL and Co., 50, New Bond-street, W.