Lyttleton," as he was called, to distinguish him from his father and others, the good Lords. The authorship is questionable; but the details seem founded on good authority; and any amount of dullness might be looked for, among the Maids of Honour of Queen Charlotte. The reader will observe, in the course of the account, that the poor Maids, ghosts of their former selves, occasionally paid visits to the spot which had been animated by their prede

cessors.

"To make up at least two Court suits in a year (says the writer); to dance as many Court minuets in the same space; to sidle, on days of duty, through the presencechamber, at the tail of a royal procession; to take her place in an established corner of the drawing-room; to say 'Yes, Sir,' or

'No, Sir,' and courtesy, when she is noticed by the King; to say, 'Yes, Madam,' and 'No, Madam,' and courtesy, when the Queen does her the same honour; to make an occasional one of six large hoops, in a royal coach, and to aid the languor of an easy party, in a side-box at a royal play; compose the principal labours of a Maid of Honour's life.

an

"But they are not without their rewards. A moderate salary, and a thousand pounds, when Miss gets an husband; apartment in a palace, and, I believe, a dinner from a royal kitchen; in a rotation of six weeks, a seven days' possession of a royal coach, a royal coachman, and a shabby pair of royal horses, for the purpose of shopping in the city, and paying distant visits; airings in the King's Road, and the

being set down at the very gate of Kensing

ton

Gardens, while women of the first fashion are obliged to trip it o'er an hundred yards of green-sward, between their coaches and the place of admittance; to take place of Baronets' daughters; to go to plays, operas, and oratorios, gratis; to have physicians without fees, and medicines without the apothecary's bill; to chat with Lords and Grooms of the Bed-chamber, around the fire of an ante-chamber; to stroke the beardless face of a new-made page; and, perhaps, to receive an Heir-Apparent's first effort at flirtation; constitute the various privileges of a Maid of Honour.

"This brief history, my dear friend, you well know to be founded on fact, and will, therefore, be ready to applaud the tender pity I feel for these virgin automatons.

have never seen them bringing up the rear of a royal train, but each of them has appeared to bear, in legible characters, on her forehead, 'Who will marry me?' Nevertheless, upon the most favourable average, not one in three years, during the present reign, has been rewarded by Hymen; which, in their particular situation, it is as pitiable circumstance as can be found in the long catalogue of female mortifications.

a

"A Lady of the Bed-chamber is obliged only to do partial duty; and, during the short period of her attendance, is, in some degree, the companion of her royal mistress; while the Virgins of Honour are not admitted, as I have been informed, to stick a pin in a royal handkerchief. Even the

Women of the same department figure only in her Majesty's cast off gowns, on royal

persecuted

birth-days; but these poor damsels are the common hackneys of drawing-room parade: whether ill or well, in humour, or out of humour, by day-light, or by candle-light, they are obliged, through three parts of the year, to be on the continual stretch of state official exhibition.

"I remember, when I was little more than a boy, to have seen a young lady in training for this important office; and the whole of that serious business consisted in nothing more than a practical lecture upon entrances and exits, the language of courtesies, and the art of conducting a large hoop in all modes and forms of possible pliancy. **

"After this manner did I treat the Honourable Subject of her Majesty's Honourable Virgins; and little did I think it would. beget a long admonitory epistle from you,