cleansed." From these statements it is evident that notwithstanding all the present inconveniences that the inhabitants of London live in more healthy situations now that they are surrounded by houses, than when they were exposed to extensive open fields. A.B.C. [1] It was reckoned an extraordinary luxury for Thomas à Becket to have his parlour strewed every day with clean rushes. * * * * * A PORTRAIT. _Sketched in the year of the world,_ 5831; _and, of my bachelorship_, 24. (_For the Mirror._) Chaste, as the icicle, That's curded by the frost from purer snow, And hangs on Dian's temple; Dear--_old maid_. SHAKSPEARE'S _Coriolanus_. Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat, Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras, Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundum, Ante, pudor, quam te violem, aut tua jure resolvam. VIRGIL. I have years on my back _forty-eight_, SHAKSPEARE'S _King Lear_. Four-and-twenty lap-dogs, all of a row, Four-and-twenty monkeys, kits, and cats, dit-to; Four-and-twenty colours in her tawdry dress, (A rainbow she in all--but its loveliness!) Four-and-twenty tempers, in the four-and-twenty hours; Four-and-twenty dreams of _suppos'd_ vanquished pow'rs, To wit of four-and-twenty swains--more or less; Who have four-and-twenty times, curs'd her ugliness! Four-and-twenty trials, ere as many hours are o'er, Of four-and-twenty genera of rival Kalydor; Four-and-twenty scentings with her dear bergamot, Four-and-twenty daubs of her dear paint-pot; Four-and-twenty visitings to four-and-twenty friends, And four-and-twenty tales of 'em, before the day ends; Of these said four-and-twenty tales just four-and-twenty versions, And all of them of all the facts most farcica perversions. Four-and-twenty false curls, * * * * * * * Four-and-twenty false teeth, and quite as false a tongue, Which tells how virtuous was the world when--_she and it were young_. Or rather for these thirty years has moralizing told, How this good deed and that she'll do, _before_ she grows old: Four-and-twenty sighs a-day, that our rude English sky Is not _precise_ as _she_--and may wash off the dye Meretricious of her cheeks, which are then like gold, (Though _less tempting_;) _sweet_ and yellow as a marigold![2] Four-and-twenty wailings o'er the wedded state, Yet twice as many every day 'tis not _her_ fate; Pretending to the world 'tis mere _choice_ that has led To singleness--yet choosing all the while to be wed, If any doting fool could be doting fool enough To bid for such a breaking down piece of stuff; For any such a winter, that has shed the flowers of spring, Whose autumn too is flown; nor left its fruit or any thing! * * * * *