Finally, and to wind up

Who dance on ropes, who rouged and roaring stand,
Who cheat the eyes by wondrous sleight of hand,
From whose wide mouth the ready riband falls,
Who swallow swords, or urge the flying balls,
Here with French poodles vie, and harness'd fleas,
Nor strive in vain our easy tastes to please.
Whilst rival pupils of the great Daguerre,
In rival shops, display their rivals fair!

OUR FIRST TABLE D'HÔTE DINNER AT VICHY.

We arrived at Vichy from Roanne just in time to dress for dinner. As every body dines en table d'hôte, we were not wrong in supposing that this would be a good opportunity for studying the habits, "usages de société" and what not, of a tolerably large party (fifty was to be the number) of the better class of French propriètaires. Onentering the room, we found the guests already assembled; and every body in full talk already, before the bell had done ringing, or the tureens been uncovered. The habit of general sufferance and free communion of tongue amongst guests at dinner, forms an agreeable episode in the life of him whom education and English reserve have inured, without ever reconciling, to a different state of things at home. The difference of the English and French character peeps out amusingly at this critical time of the day; when, oh! commend us to a Frenchman's vanity, however grotesque it may

sometimes be, rather than to our own reserve, shyness, formality, or under whatever other name we please to designate, and seek to hide its unamiable synonym, pride. Vanity, always a free, is not seldom an agreeable talker; but pride is ever laconic; while the few words he utters are generally so constrained and dull, that you would gladly absolve him altogether from so painful an effort as that of opening his mouth, or forcing it to articulate. Self-love may be a large ingredient in both pride and vanity; but the difference of comfort, according as you have to sit down with one or the other at table, is indeed great. For whilst pride sits stiff, guarded, and ungenial, radiating coldness around him, which requires at least a bottle of champagne and an arch coquette to disperse; vanity, on the other hand, being a female, (a sort of Mrs Pride,) has her conquests to make, and loves making them; and

So en

of their prog, which tasting and not approving, they spat out-then, as if suspecting the rabbits to have been playing them a trick, one of them comes up stealthily, and brings his own nose in close proximity to that of one of the rabbits, who, quite unmoved at this act of familiarity, continues to munch on. The wolf contemplates him for a short time in astonishment, and seeing that the carrots actually disappear down his "oesophagus," returns to the other wolf to tell him so. His next step is to paw his friend a little, by way of encouraging him to advance. couraged he goes up, and straight lays hold of the rabbit's ear, and a pretty plaything it would have made had the rabbit been in the humour! In place of which he thumps the ground with his hind legs, rises almost perpendicularly, and the next moment is down like lightning upon the head of the audacious wolf, who on thus unexpectedly receiving a double "colaphus" retreats, yelping! The other wolf is more successful; having crept up stealthily to the remaining rabbit, he seizes him by his furry rump-off bounds he in a fright, while the other plants himself down like a sphinx, erects his ears, and seems highly pleased at what he has been doing! We used sometimes to visit the wolves while they slept; on these occasions a slight whistle was at first sufficient to make them start upon their legs; at last, like most sounds with which the ear becomes familiar, they heard it passively. All our attempts to frighten the rabbits by noises while they were engaged in munching, proved unsuccessful.

accordingly must study the ways and means of pleasing; which makes her an agreeable voisine at table. As she never doubts either her own powers to persuade, or yours to appreciate them, her language is at once selfcomplacent, and full of good-will to her neighbour; whilst the vanity of a Frenchman thus leads him to seek popularity, it seems enough to an Englishman that he is one entitled to justify himself, in his own eyes, for being as disagreeable as he pleases.

the count, when a young notabilité, a poet of the romantic school of France, whose face was very pale, who wore a Circassian profusion of black hair over his shoulders, a satin waistcoat over his breast, and Byrontie (naud Byron) round his neckpermitted his muse to say something flattering to us across the table about Shakspeare. Again we had not what to say, nor knew how to return thanks for our "immortal bard;" and this, our shyness, we had the mortification to see was put down to English coldness; for how could we else have seemed so insensible to a compliment so personal? nor were we relieved from our embarrassment till a darkwhiskered man, in sporting costume, (who had brought every thing appertaining thereto to table except his gun, which was in a corner,) gave out, in a somewhat oracular manner, his opinion, that there were no sporting dogs out of England; whistling, as he spoke to Foxe, and to Miss Dashe, to rise and show their noses above the table! The countess next spoke tenderly of English soap, and almost sighed over the soft whiteness of her hands, which she indulgently attributed to the constant use of soap prepared by "Mr Brown de Vindsor." This provoked a man of cultivated beard to declare, that he found it impossible to shave with any razors but English 66 ones;" concluding with this general remark on French and English manufactures, that the French invented things, but that the English improved them. (Les Français inventent, mais les Anglais perfectionnent.) Even English medicine found its advocates-here were we sitting in the midst of Dr Morison's patients! A lady, who had herself derived great advantage from their use, was desirous of knowing whether our Queen took them, or Prince Albert! It was also asked of us, whether Dr Morison (whom they supposed to be the court physician) was Sir Dr Morison, (Bart.,) or tout simplement doctor! and they other

On the present occasion, not to have joined in a conversation which was general, at whatever disadvantage we might have to enter into it, would, we felt, have been to subject ourselves to remark after dinner; so putting off restraint, and putting on the best face we could, we began at once to address some remarks to our neighbours. We were not aware at the moment how far the Anglomania, which began to prevail some seven years ago in Paris, had spread since we left the French capital. There it began, we remember, with certain members of the medical profession, who had learned to give calomel in English doses. The public next lauded Warren's blacking-Cirage national de Warren-and then proceeded to eat raw crumpets as an English article of luncheon. But things had gone farther since that time than we were prepared to expect. At the table d'hôte of today, we found every body had something civil to say about English products; frequently for no other reason than that they were English, it being obvious that they themselves had never seen the articles, whose excellence they all durst swear for, though not a man of them knew wherefore. We had not sat five minutes at table (the stringy bouilli was still going round) when a count, a gentleman used to good breeding and feeding, opened upon us with a compliment which we knew neither how to disclaim nor to appropriate, in declaring in presence of the table that he was a decided partisan for English "Ros--spoke favourably of some biff;" confirming his perfect sincerity to us, by a "c'est vrai," on perceiving some slight demur to the announcement at mine host's end of the table. We had scarce time to recover from this unexpected sally of

English inventions - as of Rogers' teeth, Rowland's macassar, &c.; and were continuing to do so, when a fierce-looking demagogue, seeing how things were going, and what concessions were being made, roused

1846.]

Vichyana.

As it

himself angrily; and, to show us that he at least was no Anglo-maniac, shot at us a look fierce as any bonassus; while he asked, abruptly, what we thought in England of one whom he styled the "Demosthenes of Ireland" -looked at us for an answer. would have been unsafe to have answered him in the downright, offhand manner, in which we like both to deal and to be dealt by, we professed that we knew but one Demosthenes, and he not an Irishman, but a Greek; which, by securing us his contempt, kept us safe from the danger of something worse; but, our Demosthenic friend excepted, it was a pleasant, unceremonious dinner; and we acquitted ourselves just sufficiently well not to make any one feel we were in the way. A lady now asked, in a whisper, whom we look upon as the first poet, Shakspeare, Dumas, or Lord Byron; and whether the two English poets were both dead. A reply from a more knowing friend saved our good breeding at this pinch. As a proof of our having made our own way amongst the guests at table, we may mention that one sallow gentleman, who had been surveying us once or twice already, at length invited us to tell him, across the table, what case is ours, and who our physician? To be thus obliged to confess our weak organ in public is not pleasant; but every body here does it, and what every body does must be right. A gentleman who speaks broken English favours the table with a conundrum. Another (the young poet) presents us with a brace of dramas, bearing the auspicious titles of “ La "Catilina Mort de Socrate," and Romantique"-of which anon. before we rise from our dessert, here is the conundrum as it was proposed to us:- "What gentleman always follow what lady?" Do you give it up? Sur-Prise always follow MisseTake!!

But,

So much for our amusements at
Vichy;
but our Vichyana would, be
incomplete, unless we added a few
words touching those far-famed
sources for which, and not for its
amusements, so many thousands
flock hither every year.
lowing, then, may be considered as a
brief and desultory selection of such

The fol

remarks only as are likely to interest
the general reader, from a body of
notes of a more professional character,
of which the destination is different:-
Few springs have been so celebrated
as those at Vichy, and no mineral
waters, perhaps, have performed so
many real "Hohenlohes," or better
deserved the reputation they have
earned and maintained, now for so
many centuries! Gentle, indeed, is
their surgery; they will penetrate
to parts that no steel may reach, and
do good, irrespective of persons, alike
to Jew or Gentile; but then they
should be "drunk on the premises"--
exported to a distance (and they are
exported every where) they are
found to have lost-their chemical
constitution remaining unchanged-a
good deal of their efficacy. Little,
however, can Hygeia have to do with
chemistry; for the chemical analysis
of all these springs is the same,
while the modus operandi of each, in
particular, is so distinct, that if gout
ails you, you must go to the "Grande
grille;" if dyspepsia, to the "Hôpi-
"if
tal;" or, if yours be a kidney case,
to the "Celestius," to be cured-
facts which should long ago have
convinced the man of retorts and
crucibles at home (who affirms that
'tis but taking soda after all), that he
speaks beyond his warrant. Did ever
lady patroness, desirous of filling her
rooms on a route night, invite to that
end so many as Hygeia invites to
come and benefit by these springs?
And what though she reserve the
right of patent in their preparation to
herself, does she not generously yield
the products of her discovery in the
restoration of health and comfort to
thousands, whom neither nostrum nor
prescription, the recipe nor the fiat,
could restore? In cases, too, beyond
her control, does she not mitigate
many sufferings that may not be re-
moved? To all that are galled with
gall-stones, to those whom the Chame-
leon litmus paper of "coming events
casts their shadows before;" to In-
dian livers condemned, else hope-
lessly, to the fate of Prometheus,
preyed upon by that vulture Hepatitis,
in its gnawing and chronic forms;
and to the melancholy hypochon-
driac, steeped at once both in sadness
and in pains-she calls, and calls

So notorious and violent has this hydromachia become, that it has at length called forth a poem, styled the Vichyade, of which the two resident physicians are the Achilles and Hector. The poem, which is as coarse and personal as the Bath Guide, is not so clever, but is much read here, non obstant.

An ingenious physician assures us, that he has for years past been in the habit of consulting his patients in place of his barometer, and has thus been enabled to foretell vicissitudes of weather before they had manifested themselves, by attending to the accounts they gave of their sensations in the bath. There are seven springs, whose united volumes of water, in twenty-four hours, fill a chamber of twenty feet dimensions, in every direction.

IT'S ALL FOR THE BEST.

PART THE LAST.
CHAPTER VI.