"One Captain Bailey hath erected some four _Hackney-coaches_, put his men in livery, and appointed them to stand, at the May-pole in the Strand, giving them instructions at what rates to carry men into several parts of the town, where all day they may be had. Other hackney-men seeing this way, they flock to the same place, and perform their journeys at the same rate. So that sometimes there is twenty of them together, which disperse up and down; that they and others are to be had everywhere, as watermen are to be had by the water-side. * * * Everybody is much pleased with it." A UNIQUE LIBRARY. A singular library existed in 1535, at Warsenstein, near Cassel; the books composing it, or rather the substitutes for them, being made of wood, and every one of them is a specimen of some different tree. The back is formed of its bark, and the sides are constructed of polished pieces of the same stock. When put together, the whole forms a box; and inside of it are stored the fruit, seed, and leaves, together with the moss which grows on the trunk, and the insects which feed upon the tree; every volume corresponds in size, and the collection altogether has an excellent effect. DRESS FORTY YEARS AGO. Caricature, even by its very exaggeration, often gives us a better idea of many things than the most exact sketches could do. This is more especially the case with respect to dress, a proof of which is here given by the three caricatures which we now lay before our readers. They are copied from plates published at the period to which they refer, and how completely do they convey to us a notion of the fashions of the day! [Illustration: [++] Caricature of Dress.] With the peace of 1815 commenced a new era in English history; and within the few years immediately preceding and following it, English society went through a remarkably rapid change; a change, as far as we can see, of a decidedly favourable kind. The social condition of public sentiment and public morals, literature, and science, were all improved. As the violent internal agitation of the country during the regency increased the number of political caricatures and satirical writings, so the succession of fashions, varying in extravagance, which characterised the same period, produced a greater number of caricatures on dress and on fashionable manners than had been seen at any previous period. During the first twelve or fifteen years of the present century, the general character of the costume appears not to have undergone any great change. The two figures here given represent the mode in 1810.