in which it was possible for Sir Pitt Crawley occasionally to reside. Much that must seem strange to the reader in a book dealing with a past period, especially when that period is not so remote as to strike the imagination by an exceptionally marked antithesis (such as we find in the novels of Scott and James and Ainsworth, and even in those of Jane Austen), will become clear when the differences in manners and customs, the relative exiguity of environment, the greater demarcation between classes, are remembered. It is one of the excellencies of "Vanity Fair," that it presents a picture of the period as true and accurate, and, because the work of genius, even more speaking, so to say, than is to be found in the pages of those who have set themselves the task of specifically recording past times.

The coach which carried Amelia and Becky away from Chiswick Mall, conveyed them, by way of Kensington Turnpike, then existing by the old Cavalry Barracks, at Palace Gates, to the abode of Mr. Sedley "of the Stock Exchange," in Russell Square.* This "quadrate" had not been formed very long, for it was only in 1801 that it was laid out under the provisions of an Act of Parliament: 89 and 40 George III., Cap. 50; and was not completed till 1804. With the exception of Lincoln's Inn Fields, it is the largest square in London, and its commodious and well built houses were such as commended themselves to prosperous merchants and members of the Stock Exchange. During Mr. Sedley's residence here Sir Thomas Lawrence was living at No. 65, and Amelia *The appearance of Knightsbridge at this period can be seen from Salway's Plan-republished by the London Topographical Society-which clearly indicates every inch of the way.

⚫ looking from her window may often have seen carriages driving up and depositing their fair burdens at the door of the then fashionable painter, who was to transfer their charms to canvas by means of his flashy and often meretricious art. A number of other notable people lived in the square about this time, including a good sprinkling of successful lawyers, and, as we shall see, Mr. Osborne, Amelia's future fatherin-law.

The school-girls, at their first dinner in Russell Square, met the egregious Jos Sedley, of the East India Company's service, as collector of Boggley Wollah, home on leave, who was spending his time as a man about Town where he "drove his horses in the Park, or dined at the fashionable taverns (for the Oriental Club was not yet invented*) frequented the theatres, as the mode was in those days, or made his appearance at the Opera, laboriously attired in tights and a cocked hat." Hence, too, he accompanied his sister and her friend, with young Osborne and Dobbin in attendance, to Vauxhall, then the Mecca of those who sought an al fresco evening's entertainment, not in some ways dissimilar from the Earls Court Exhibition of our own time. The promise by Jos to take his sister to the famous Gardens was an old one, and when the evening at last arrived for fulfilling this engagement, Miss Becky had made such progress towards the capture of the Collector's heart, that Jos communing with his soul, said to himself, "Gad, I'll pop the question at Vauxhall." Chapter VI. of "Vanity Fair" is entitled " Vauxhall," and contains

It was founded in 1824-see "The Oriental Club and Hanover Square," by Alexander F. Baillie.

the famous account of the visit and its disastrous consequences. The annals of Vauxhall can be read in many books, but Thackeray's description of its attractive features must be transcribed: "The hundred thousand extra lamps, which were always lighted; the fiddlers in cocked-hats, who played ravishing melodies under the gilded cockle-shell in the midst of the Gardens; the singers, both of comic and sentimental ballads, who charmed the ears there; the country dances, formed by bouncing Cockneys and Cockney lasses, and executed amidst jumping, thumping, and laughter; the signal which announced that Madame Saqui was about to mount skyward on a slack-rope ascending to the stars; the hermit that always sat in the illuminated hermitage; the dark walks, so favourable to the interviews of young lovers; the pots of stout handed about by the people in the shabby old liveries; and the twinkling boxes, in which the happy feasters made believe to eat slices of almost invisible ham. and the gentle Simpson, that kind, smiling idiot, who, presided even then over the place." The romancer is permitted a licence, but accuracy compels me to state that Madame Saqui, of Paris, did not appear at Vauxhall till 1816, after which she was the principal attraction at the Gardens for several seasons; an extant print, published in 1820, shews the elaborately be-decked and be-feathered lady disporting on her rope at Vauxhall. The singers, whom our party may have listened to, were Charles Dignum, Mrs. Bland, and perhaps Miss Tunstall whose heyday was, however, rather later, about 1820. In 1818 (on June 20) an imposing festival took place here to commemorate the Battle