One of the most interesting houses to me is that of a noble Scot, the Earl of W----, a lineal descendant of Macduff. In his armoury is a branch of a tree said to be of Birnam Wood; probably a relic of the same quality as most others. Blessed is he who can believe in them! The family is most accomplished, and the Scotch mind is more nearly akin to the German than the English is. The amiable daughters taught me a new manner of preserving faithful and lasting portraits of feathered favourites:--the feathers are pulled off, and pasted on card-board or varnished wood, together with the legs and beak; this produces a bas-relief of great truth, and not exposed to destruction. Charles the Tenth spent some time in Scotland, at Lord W----'s and left him an old maitre d'hotel, who, drolly enough, is called Bonneau, like him of the Pucelle; and is one of that nearly extinct domestic race of 'hommes de confiance' who are now never seen but on the stage, and hardly there. As such, and having been twenty-five years 'en fonction,' he is allowed occasionally to put in a word,--quite contrary to English manners, which do not permit servants to make the slightest approach to their masters, except in the way of their service. I have really found few things more amusing than this old Frenchman's stories about Court and society; his world, in fact, terminated with those times of which we can now scarcely form an idea. That the singular old man is only a 'a maitre d'hotel' detracts nothing from the interest; for he has seen more of the great world, and observed it better, than many of higher rank. When I paid my visit to Lady W---- this morning, she had just received a great cargo of curiosities from one of her sons, who is travelling in South America. Among them was a lion-monkey, with a tail and mane like those of the king of beasts, on a body not larger than that of a rat. Instead of the disagreeable smell of most of his tribe, this little fellow exhales musk and cinnamon; and, like the knight I lately mentioned, perfumed the room like a pastile. A very complete collection of serpents, and another of butterflies, exhibited colours such as are only painted by the rising and setting sun. I dined at Lady F----'s, where a curious incident occurred. Her husband was formerly Governor of the Isle of France, where a black-woman sold her a fortune-telling book, which, as she asserted, had belonged to the Empress Josephine before her departure for France, and in which she had read her future greatness and subsequent fall. Lady F---- produced it at tea, and invited the company to interrogate Destiny according to the prescribed method.--Now listen to the answers it gave, which are really remarkable. Madame de Rothschild was the first: she asked, whether her wishes would be fulfilled? She received for answer, "Weary not Fate with wishes; one who has received so much ought to be satisfied."