tree,

Scan thro' its leaves the cloudless sky in rapt tranquillity.

The grass is soft as velvet touch is grateful to the hand,

And, like the kiss of maiden-love, the breeze is sweet and bland;

The daisy and the buttercup are nodding courteously;

It stirs their blood with kindest love to bless and welcome thee;

And mark how, with thine own thin locks— they now are silvery grey

That blissful breeze is wantoning, and whispering-"Be gay!"

There is no cloud that sails along the ocean of yon sky,

But hath its own winged mariners to give it melody;

Thou seest their glittering fans outspread, all gleaming like red gold;

And hark! with shrill pipe musical, their merry course they hold."

God bless them all, those little ones, who, far above this earth,

Can make a scoff of its mean joys, and vent a nobler mirth.

Leaf, blossom, blade, hill, valley, stream, the calin, unclouded sky,

Still mingle music with my dreams, as in the days gone by.

When summer's loveliness and light fall round me dark and cold,

I'll bear, indeed, life's heaviest curse-a heart that hath waxed old!

WILLIAM MOTHERWELL, 1797-1835.

To the Grasshopper and the Cricket. GREEN little vaulter in the sunny grass,

Catching your heart up at the feel of June, Sole voice that's heard amidst the lazy noon, When even the bees lag at the summoning brass. And you, warm little housekeeper, who class

With those who think the candles come too

A Summer Sketch.

'Tis June, 'tis merry, smiling June,
'Tis blushing summer now;
The rose is red-the bloom is dead-
The fruit is on the bough.

Flora, with Ceres, hand in hand,
Bring all their smiling train;
The yellow corn is waving high,
To gild the earth again.

'Tis June, 'tis merry, laughing June, There's not a cloud above;

The air is still, o'er heath and hill,
The bulrush does not move.

ELIZA COOK.

Invocation to Rain in Summer Time.

O GENTLE, gentle summer rain,
Let not the silver lily pine,

The drooping lily pine in vain

To feel that dewy touch of thine-
To drink thy freshness once again,
O gentle, gentle summer rain.

In heat the landscape quivering lies;
The cattle pant beneath the tree;
Through parching air and purple skies,
The earth looks up in vain for thee;
For thee, for thee it looks in vain,
O gentle, gentle summer rain.

Come thou, and brim the meadow streams,
And soften all the hills with mist,

O falling dew! from burning dreams
By thee shall herb and flower be kissed,
And earth shall bless thee yet again,
O gentle, gentle summer rain.

W. C. BENNETT,

The Queens of Society. BY GRACE AND

PHILIP WHARTON." 2 vols.

"THE Queens of Society" is a fairly-written and decidedly interesting book. It was a very happy idea to group together a series of portraits-nay, full-length figures-of the female leaders of society, the uncrowned sovereigns of literary, witty, and fashionable circles. It is true that Lady Louisa Stuart, Mrs. Thomson, Mr. Croker, Laman Blanchard, and Lady Morgan had already painted the " queens; there was no reason, however, why Grace and Philip Wharton should not set up a new canvas and proceed to sketch thereon this assemblage of lovely, charming, brilliant, witty, and generally amiable ladies. If we do not get as much of minute detail as when the Queen stood alone on the picture, we have the compensating merits of comparison and contrastthe brilliant eyes of one, the fair skin, the fine form, the expressive mouth, the gentle demeanour, or the imperial glance, are all sented to us simultaneously; and, almost at first sight, we are enabled to understand and appreciate the qualities for which each was famous, to select our favourite "queen" from the rest, to acknowledge the power of all.

pre

Of the eighteen ladies, representatives of their queenly class, who reigned supreme in courtly circle, gay drawing-room, or polished assemblage, six were distinguished for their literary talents no less than for their social position. Let our first glance be at this group Sydney Lady Morgan, the authoress of the i Princess," "Florence Macarthy," the "Wild Irish Girl," who for sixty years was a delightful and popular "queen," who wrote prose, poetry, music, and sang to her harp. She is no longer in her first youth; we must even confess she is decidedly an old woman when our authors sketch her. "Her eyes were large, and of a bluish grey-in early life, probably blue. One of them had a slight cast, and went off at a tangent to the right; but this did not spoil the expression, which was very sweet and very thoughtful. without, at any time that I knew her, being brilliant and searching. She always looked like a person who saw imperfectly, and she always spoke of herself as half-blind; yet I believe she saw more than any one else did; nothing escaped her; she knew every nuance of feeling that passed in the minds of others; she remarked dress, and she never unintentionally forgot or mistook a person." We have here another touch, which we suppose must have been supplied by Grace Wharton, the lady artist. "She had the manner of a woman who has been attractive. The face was soft, agreeable, kindly, somewhat wrinkled even then, but harmoniously tinted with a soupgon of rouge." Ah! well, Miss Wharton, we must not expect perennial bloom on the face even of a queen of society. Even Lady Morgan, the wild frish girl, the most natural and unaffected of "queens," must be allowed a little

assistance from art; for was not her reign a longer one than that of George III. ?

Lady Caroline Lamb, our second literary queen," ,"is also a novelist; yet must we confess that, both as a writer and a magnate in the beau monde of London, she owed her position to being the wife of William Lamb, afterwards Lord Melbourne. She was simply a tolerably pretty woman, of an amiable disposition, popular manners, very fond of poetry, and in her young days an enthusiastic admirer of Byron; the authoress of two indifferent novels, and the wife of a leading member of the House of Commons, afterwards Prime Minister of England. He cared little for witty conversation, was usually fast asleep after his dinner, and therefore imparted nothing, acquired nothing-indeed, he cared for nothing that his lady's circle had to communicate.

The Countess of Pembroke and Mrs. Thrale were authoresses also, were queens of society likewise; but in what a different fashion did both wear their diadem! Mary Sidney, the sister of that great-hearted hero, Sir Philip Sidney, the mother of William, Earl of Pembroke, the noble patron of learning in his time, was distinguished among contemporary wives and mothers for her piety, her abilities, her erudition, and for her social qualities. She stood at the head of society in her age; she influenced the tone of that society; she was its example, its ornament; she befriended genius, and gathered round her the gifted and the virtuous. At her table often sat Massinger and Ben Jonson; and when she died the latter wrote an epitaph, which "manifested himself a poet in all things but untruth:"

"Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,

Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair, and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee!"

We cannot do more than allude to poor L. E. L., the charming poetess whose gentle soul ebbed away in death in that solitary African fort. Little could those who had known her as a young enthusiastic girl, living upon Scott's poetry, have foretold her sad fate. How changed was the after-tenour of her life from that happy time when she said to Scott, in her poem on the "Great Unknown:"

"I peopled all the walks and shades
With images of thine;
This lime-tree was a lady's bower,
The yew-tree was a shrine;

Almost I deem'd each sunbeam shone
O'er bonnet, spear, and morion !"

At the age of thirty-six, after she had been little more than a year the wife of Mr. Maclean, Governor of Cape Coast Castle, she was found, one morning, by an attendant, lying on the floor, with "a bottle-an empty bottle-in her hand. She was carried to a bed in her room, and efforts were made to resuscitate life, but wholly in vain." The death-draught had

been composed of prussic acid. Grace and Philip Wharton give us an excellent sketch of the unfortunate poetess, but they are compelled to leave the melancholy story as shrouded in mystery as before.

Let us turn, however, to a less serious subject. Passing over Madame de Staël, the sixth literary queen of society, and of whom the authors give a charming picture, we will select a capital bit from the book itself. This will give us a sufficient idea of what the book is like, for it is a very characteristic portion, and will, no doubt, cause our readers to think, as we do, that the work of Grace and Philip Wharton is a very entertaining, lively, and pleasant affair.

"When Mary Lepell became maid of honour to this Princess [Caroline] there existed the usual animosity between the monarch and the heir-apparent which has marked the House of Hanover with littleness of character. The separation of parties was favourable to those who clustered round the Princess Caroline at Richmond, where she then lived with her consort for she could with safety avoid, and even discountenance, the vulgar as well as immoral ladies of the court of George the First; adopt as her adviser and intimate friend the gay Sir Robert Walpole, whose boisterous and not very decorous mirth she learned to tolerate; and escape the petulance and arrogance of Sunderland, who played the first part at St. James's. She could also indulge in her taste for letters and for literary conversation, for which George the First had about as much fondness and capacity as he had delicacy or morality. She could talk divinity with Hoadley; sentiment with Lord Hervey; and of the world-the great world which he knew so well-with Chesterfield; and she could assemble around her beauties with minds, and delight in seeing them rise above the dull frivolities of an ordinary court. Among the beauties of Richmond l'alace, which the Princess then inhabited, the three Marys carried away the meed of admiration-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Mary Bellenden, and Mary Lepell. All these three ladies of rank were distinguished not only for their beauty, but for their intelligence, their wit, and their savoir faire—a quality without which their wit would have been indiscreet, their beauty perilous, their intelligence pedantic. Lady Mary stands at the head of this famous trio. She was very handsome, very lively, very quick, very well-informed; but she wanted heart; and one great source of attraction to womankind was therefore deficient. Miss Bellenden was beautiful, gay, spirited, and so unspotted by a court as to marry a poor man, though addressed by half the fashionable fops of the day. Though of more decided beauty, the was deficient in the sound sense and cultivation of the third Mary, the lovely Mrs. Lepell, as she was styled. Those who looked only at the exterior admired Mary Bellenden the most of the three; those who sought underneath the exquisite graces of form and face for more valuable qualities, were entranced by the sweetness, the truth, the thoughtful mind, and real superiority of Mary Lepell.

'Her manners had,' says Lord Wharncliffe, 'a foreign tinge, which some call affected, but they were easy, gentle, and altogether exquisitely pleasing. Her good sense was so prominent a feature of her character, that it became, as life went on, almost proverbial.

Many a laugh, probably, had the three gay Marys at the little poet's expense. They treated him, and suffered the poet to treat them, in return, with a familiarity which we should greatly censure in the present day, and which ended, in the case of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in a fierce, unreconciled quarrel. The seeds of jealousy of Hervey in Popethat smallest of men, and greatest of modern libellers were, doubtless, laid in that pleasant time when

'Tuneful Alexis on the Thames' fair side,

The ladies' plaything and the Muses' pride,' was wafted along the then pure stream, amid delicious meadows and glades, to Twickenham, to call for Lady Mary, who was living there; or to the old house at Ham, there to alight and walk, little Pope and tall Hervey escorting up and down the grand avenues the three charming Marys."

We have left ourselves little room for even mentioning the names of the remaining "queens." Of six eminent literary "queens" we have already spoken. There are six more, all letter-writing ladies-Lady Hervey, Mrs. Montagu, Madame de Maintenon, Madame de Sévigné, who is the letter-writer of France, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. We have not exhausted our catalogue yet. There is Madame Récamier, whose biography begins in this way :-"There is no flirt so bad as a French flirt; and no fool so ridiculous as a French fool. The life of Madame Récamier is the life of a flirt surrounded by fools!" Of high-souled Madame Roland, of her trial, and her courageous conduct while awaiting the guillotine, we have a truly excellent sketch. Sarah of Marlborough, "Queen Sarah," as she was called long before our authors included her in their royal list; the handsome Duchess of Devonshire, who kissed the butcher in order to secure his vote for Mr. Fox; Madame du Deffand-we really cannot quote any more names, but advise our readers to go to the book for the remainder. In conclusion, we must say that these "queens" are charming, witty females, of great conversational powers, and at the same time the heads of the very best society; for around the throne of Madame Roland, we have the bold, earnest leaders of the Gironde; Voltaire and Walpole appear with Madame du Deffand, while Byron, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and a host of other great men come forward when their respective queens" are on the scene. This book, to which we shall probably return, is a boon to those readers who wish to read quickly, to be amused, and at the same time to have something tolerably new laid before them; and if the authors appear again in their promised work on the "Wits and Beaux of Society," as lively and entertaining as in the present instance, they will be a valuable addition to writers of this class of literature.

THE fine weather, which has been so long anticipated, having at last arrived, renders a change of costume necessary; we will therefore give our readers a description of a few toilets which will be found useful for summer wear.

MUSLIN DRESSES, in the manufacture of which so many improvements have been made within the last few years, are this season, in colour, quality, and design, far more beautiful than any before produced, and, consequently, are more in favour than they have ever been.

For a fete, or any such occasion, a dress of organdie muslin, or of mousseline-de-soie, is the most suitable, made with a double skirt, the under skirt trimmed with five flounces, three and a half inches wide, which are hemmed and put on rather full. The upper skirt is sixteen inches shorter, and just meets the top flounce on the under skirt. The body plain, or with a little fulness. Wide sleeves gathered in at the arm-hole, and finished, half way between the wrist and elbow, with a quilling of ribbon, from which frills of lace or of fine muslin embroidery are the only under sleeves required.

A pretty collar to wear with this is made of insertion about an inch wide, and seven inches longer than the size of the neck, trimmed all round with a Valencienne edging. It is crossed and fastened with a brooch, leaving the two short ends.

A SHAWL of black Brussels or Spanish lace, and bonnet of white chip, trimmed with lilies of the valley and foliage, and white blonde, would be worn with it.

A very pretty style for a muslin dress is a full skirt trimmed with four flounces, the first one about eighteen inches in depth (but this must be regulated by the height of the wearer), the three others, which form a trimming at the top of it, on the dress, are only two inches wide, and are gauffered. The Zouave jacket is worn with this dress, trimmed with a frill (as described) with a cord run through the centre.

A silk dress, for walking or demi-toilette, may be trimmed with five or six puffings of glacé, covering a quarter of a yard of the bottom of the skirt. If the dress is made of a plain glacé, the trimmings would be of the same; but if figured, they would be made of a plain glacé, to match the dress in colour. Sleeves almost tightly fitting, with one puffing of glacé down the back of the arm; the body finished only with a band and handsome clasp of steel, mosaic, or aluminium.

For ordinary morning wear no material can be more useful than mohair. A dress of this kind is usually made with a plain skirt, and, if of any neutral shade, trimmed with glacé of some bright hue, arranged in any simple way to suit the taste of the wearer-such, for instance, as a binding of green or violet glacé, three or four inches wide, round the skirt, as far as the front breadth, the trimming then being carried up the sides to the waist, and graduated to an inch and a half in width. A row of large buttons, covered with the same glacé, or any material to match in colour, is

placed up the centre of the front breadth, and smaller ones, to match, up the body. Puffed sleeves, with an epaulette, and cuff turned back, trimmed to correspond with the skirt. Plain linen collar and cuffs.

A young girl may wear a silk or muslin dress, made with a number of little flounces on the skirt. The body cut square, and having a pleated ruche of ribbon or pinked-out glacé, and a tucker made with a row of lace on a piece of muslin insertion. The sleeves are short, and finished with a ruche like that round the top of the body, and are made large enough to adinit of short under sleeves of muslin, with lace and insertion to match the tucker. A full chemisette of fine white muslin, or Brussels net, drawn up round the throat with a double row of narrow lace, and sleeves of the same to the wrist, in place of the short under ones, make this a high dress, when required. The sash, which is very fashionable and pretty, especially for young ladies' dresses, consists of two large bows of glacé, seven or eight inches wide, and two ends, one of them considerably longer than the other. The edges of the glacé are pinked out, or bound with a black and gold braid. It may also be made in muslin, for a dress of that material, with a narrow embroidered edging to trim it. This sash is worn either to the side or at the back; the latter being, perhaps, the more novel arrangement.

It will interest some of our readers to know that the reign of crinoline is not yet over, although it is doubtful whether the fashion will last more than a few months longer; certain it is that, to show to advantage, the present style of dress, which is very full and long, and trimmed so much at the bottom, great amplitude of under skirt is required.

For out-door wear there is great variety both in SHAWLS and MANTLES. The former are very fashionable; amongst the newest being those made of Grenadine, or glacé, trimmed with a deep Spanish or Maltese lace, and a row of black velvet ribbon, two and a half inches in width, finished with a narrow trimming, made of straw and silk on the under-half of the square; the smaller corner, which is turned over, having only a trimming of velvet, headed with the straw, not a fall of lace. Grenadine is used very much for mantles also, trimmed with two rows of fringe or lace, three or four inches in depth, each row finished with the straw trimming before mentioned.

This beautiful manufacture, which is really a novelty, and may be had in every variety of size and pattern, is as extensively used to trim dresses as mantles. For a large black glacé mantle we should recommend the front quite plain, the back full, put, in large pleats, into a plain piece, fitting the neck; sleeves very open, with a pleating of white satin ribbon inside. Young ladies may still wear the almost tightlyfitting long jackets, down each seam of which should be placed a narrow gimp trimming. Another novelty is a large circular mantle of Spanish lace, with a cape of the same, large

enough to fall just over the shoulders. We do not, however, expect that ladies will overlook the lace shawls, which are so elegant, whether square or the half-square, and whether of Brussels, Spanish, or Maltese lace.

DRESS BONNETS are made either of chip or of white blonde, and embroidered tulle, with garniture of feathers, flowers, and beautiful foliage, intermixed with gold leaves and flowers. Gold ornaments, when judiciously employed, are very elegant, both for bonnets and headdresses (more suitable, perhaps, for the latter); but when too many are used, it is certainly an offence against good taste.

Blonde bonnets, Sèvre chip, or paille de riz, are now generally trimmed with a coloured curtain, strings, and flowers. Magenta, Solferino, and all other new shades of pink, are more worn at the present time than any other colour.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOURED
PLATE.

1. WALKING TOILET.-The bonnet is of Belgian straw, covered with a black silk net, from which hang elongated olives. The bandeau inside is composed of a large ruche of flame-coloured silk, pinked at the edge, supported by another ruche of black silk; voluminous tufts of large corn-poppies are put at the side, so as to completely fill up the inside of the bonnet. Below these the small tulle cap is seen. The curtain is of black silk, with a pleated head, and a bow of an inch-wide black ribbon, formed of two long loops, and two long ends hanging down. The whole outside of the bonnet has no other ornament than a large bunch of poppies on one side, and the net which covers it and hangs down as a fall in front and on both sides. The strings are of black ribbon, four inches wide, with red edges and a stripe of straw-colour in the middle.

in

The dress is made of black and Havanna silk, trimmed with small black braid. This dress has no join at the waist; the front one piece, and forms a plastron on the body, and is continued as an apron down the skirt. This plastron is fastened to the body, which is continued under it, by the two pleats. The dress opens down the front of the skirt. On the plastron and the front of the skirt the trimming consists of bands of Havanna silk about an inch and a half wide. These bands are fastened by a black silk button, whilst between them the dress is fastened by Havanna silk buttons, which contrast with the black silk ground. All the buttons are of the same size. The bands of silk are wide at the bottom of the skirt, and are graduated to the waist; these are trimmed with a narrow black braid. A ruche in regular pleats, made of Havanna silk, borders the plastron and the apron, and is headed by a narrow black braid. The sleeve is cut to form an elbow, and has a turned-up cuff ending in a point. The end is straight across; an Havanna ruche finishes off the seam of the sleeve, borders the bottom and point of the cuff, and is also headed by a black braid. About eight inches from the waist, there is a flounce containing five widths. When made, it is thirteen inches deep, and has a narrow standing head of

Havanna silk and braid along the gathers. This flounce is not loose at bottom, being held down under the head of the next flounce. The second flounce is fourteen inches deep, and contains seven widths; it is put on just like the other. The third is fifteen inches wide, and has nine widths; this flounce is left loose at bottom. The under-sleeves are of net, with lace ruffles; and a lace collar to match these is

worn.

2. TOILET FOR A YOUNG LADY. - The bonnet is of plain straw, trimmed with a mauve silk fanchon, having stars embroidered in straw-colour, and very narrow ribbon-velvet, edged with black lace one inch wide. A bow of silk to correspond is laid on the edge of the bonnet, and covers it in front. The cap is of white tulle. Three square loops of straw fasten the fanchon-one on each side, the other on the crown. The curtain is of white tulle; it is small, nearly hidden at the sides by the fanchon, and covered with rows of the same very narrow velvet. The fanchon scarcely forms a point, and leaves enough of the curtain visible to show the ribbon bow on it, with two long ends. The strings are of silk ribbon, three and a half inches wide.

Dress of mauve silk, trimmed with silk of a darker shade. The body is high, buttons in front, is round at the waist, and is fastened by a band with steel clasps. The lower part of the body consists of a corselet of the same silk formed by four rows of drawings, by which the silk is fastened in very small pleats. The top is decorated by a band of silk of a darker shade, an inch wide, pinked at the edges on each side, and drawn in the middle so as to form a full ruche. The sleeve, which is wide, is laid in small pleats on the shoulder-piece and drawn in three places. The wristband is large enough to let the hand pass through easily, turns up with a cuff in small pleats, and is trimmed at top by a full ruche of the same darker-coloured silk. The skirt has three rows of narrow pleats at top, and is not made so full in front as it is behind and at the sides. At the bottom of the skirt, over a hem five inches deep, there is a trimming composed of two rows of the same silk, forming rather flat puffings, each being about five inches in depth. These puffings are bordered by small full ruches of darker-coloured silk than the dress, an inch wide, and put on like those of the body.

Narrow lace collar, and sleeves to match.

LITTLE BOY IN A FANCY RUSSIAN CosTUME.-Round velvet cap. Tunic, buttoning on one side. Leather belt. Fine cloth trousers. THE BERLIN WOOL-WORK PATTERN.

THE beautiful Arabseque pattern which we give this month is suitable for a vast variety of purposes. Worked on canvas of a moderate fineuess, with single Berlin wool, it will serve for a sofa-pillow, footstool, bag, &c. Worked on a coarser canvas, in double Berlin wool, which would have a beautiful effect, it would then be admirably adapted for an ottoman, fender-stool, &c. The white and yellow may be worked in filoselle, which would very decidedly increase the richness and brightness of the pattern.