CALCUTTA MAGAZINE. No. X.-OCTOBER, 1830. Contents. I. ORIGINAL PAPERS. Page. III. GLEANINGS,-LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS. Sporting in Switzerland-Genius-Parody on Shakspeare-Bonaparte at St. Subscribers are requested to observe, that the Calcutta Magazine is divided into four distinct departments, and that the numbering and form of the pages are so ar- ranged as to admit of the matter being bound into four separate volumes at the end of the year. Two volumes will consist of ORIGINAL PAPERS-a third of the SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH PERIODICALS and the GLEANINGS-and a fourth will form a com- plete BENGAL GENERAL REGIster. At the end of the year separate Title Pages and Indexes to each volume will be SKETCHES OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETY, NO. 1.-THE PRIVATE BALL. BY MISS EMMA ROBERTS. Few country towns are so entirely deserted, even in the present rage for watering-place residences, as not to possess some aspiring inhabitants, who either through patriotic feeling or for the indulgence of their own vanity will endure all the pains and penalties which the envy of mankind can bring upon them, for the sake of benefiting the community at large, or of upholding their own consequence. The borough of which we write, boasted many candidates for fashionable distinction; but none who could entertain any reasonable hope of succeeding against Mrs. Grayson Blondeville. She was indeed a superb person; it is true that the Norman addition to her husband's name on which many of her pretensions were built, had never been satisfactorily accounted for; and doubts were frequently expressed respecting the fact of its having been granted by letters patent from the King, yet in despite of these injurious surmises, which the lady would not condescend to refute, it made a splendid appearance upon her visiting tickets. Nor was the display confined to a card-case or a card-rack, it shone conspicuously at the head of play bills, concert bills, and programmes for subscription balls, eclipsing all patronymicks beneath the dignity of the style and title of the neighbouring Baroness of Alvandownhow poorly looked and sounded "Lady Digges," savouring so strongly of Knighthood and sugar casks beside it; and how mean in the comparison seemed Mrs. Watkyns. Mrs. Grayson's house was neither the largest nor the best furnished in the town, but it was most desirably situated in the new and principal street; a miniature conservatory and a corinthian portico gave it an air of superiority, while its interior decorations, designed and executed with considerable taste, attracted more admiration than the expensive and costly appointments of richer competitors-she did not keep horses, but her carriage was from the best London builder-she did not wear jewels or Brussel's lace, but she always procured the earliest of fashions, and possessed one grand requisite for displaying them to advantage-namely style-she was allowed to be a very stylish woman, and it was a common remark that Mrs. Grayson Blondeville could wear any thing, and looked very well in every thing. Dinner parties being unsuited to her husband's income, she depended upon evening entertainments for the distinction she desired to obtain. She knew the art of entertaining company, and her soirees as she affected to call them, were seldom flat, although now and then, in consequence of attempting too much, there were some lamentable failures which afforded subject for ridicule to all the gossip mongers of the place. Any innovation upon established customs was sure of meeting determined opposition in a provincial town, where as in most confined societies, petty and prejudiced minds preponderated, where jealousy of the slightest attempt for the advancement of claims to superior elegance and refinement created hostile feelings, and where the million entertained a vulgar dislike to novelties, which seemed to convict them of ignorance of metropolitan fashion. Mrs. Grayson Blondeville, who occasionally visited Bath and Cheltenham, had once attended a drawing room at Buckingham House, and was well acquainted with all the arcana of fashionable etiquette, instead of prolix notes or cards of invitation chose to issue out her own visiting tickets, containing simply the day of the month on which she had fixed her party, the hour of assembly with "cards." "music," "quadrilles" or 66 conversation" to denote the nature of the entertainment inscribed in the corner. This extraordinary proceeding created a great sensation, some august persons were offended by so brief and summary a mode of invitation; others affected a degree of stupidity even below their own. of natural obtuseness, and pretended to misunderstand the purport of the missive and all were loud in reprehension of the airs, the insolence, the absurdity of introducing such new fangled whims in a place, where the rules of good breeding had been studied and followed long before Mrs. Grayson Blondeville thought proper to illuminate the community by her nonsensical ideas of elegance. No one in the town had ever before presumed to style themselves," At Home" upon the night of seeing company; and this novel method of summoning an assembly appeared to be even more cavalier and puissant: wherefore those who took the matter in the highest dudgeon staid away, disdaining to offer either cause or apology; many sent excuses, and the acceptors protested against the mode of invitation which they professed to pardon on the score of friendship alone. Perseverance aided by good luck carried the lady through the difficulties which threatened to destroy her supremacy in the borough, a hunting box belonging to a bachelor peer in the midst of the season took fire, Mrs. Grayson Blondeville received the burned out lord and all his guests into her own house, gave a ball in honour of this distinguished addition to her family party, and the eagerness to be seen amid so illustrious a groupe occasioned a general dismissal of all scruples, and every nook and corner of the reception rooms were crammed to suffocation. The victory was not how |