a nicer eye to distinguish between the boot bellicose minor, i. e., a jack-boot of smaller dimensions, and the boot clerical prelatic, i. e., a full-grown bishop's riding boot. I was, I own, obliged to apply to a certain eminent artist for the proper marks of distinction: but I know them now; nothing can be more certain than the difference to a man who has a proper power of discrimination. The distinctions between various species of Wellington boots are very discernible :there is the lounger, the amatory, the spreeish, (with iron heels, hollowed out so as to make a noise and intimidate the Charlies,) and the serviceable; the last being that which I myself wear, and from which, I say it with modesty, the beholder must infer me to be-what, I shall not say-but not a lounger, not a lover, not Tom or Jerry. As to the boot amatory, I must presume to dissent from certain eminent professors of the art crispinal. I hold the strongest, fiercest boots to be the best for going a wooing in; and I attribute the success which the dragoons have with the ladies, not less to their boots than their scarlet coats. Nevertheless, the boot amatory, most in vogue, is slight. I may be wrong. In this city, where all men meet, you may always know a lawyer by his shoes and black gaiters, which, I have the authority of some persons high in the profession for saying, is the appropriate legal costume; for the reader must not imagine that in providing for the due ornament of the head, so sagacious a body of men have neglected the other extremity. I need not remind the reader that square toes is a familiar appellation for an hunks, but I can assure him some members of the Stock Exchange are very precise in requiring their shoes to be of a quadrated shape, emulous of the characteristic, though their toes may chance not to be square, and they themselves necessarily neither close nor careful.

I lament that the science of podology is of too recent invention to be so distributed, and the various doctrines

so detailed and substantiated as I am sure they deserve to be. But the present limits may serve to excite attention, and stimulate investigation. I have purposely omitted reference to the sandals and various kinds of things, as Mr. Hoby would, no doubt, contemptuously term them, worn by the Greeks and Romans; although one Roman emperor took his cognomen from his boots (Caligula), which, I do not doubt, if now in use, would be found, agreeably to my theory and his nature, to be particularly congenial to the taste of the knights of the road. I must, however, be allowed to notice the degeneracy of our age in putting a tassel, a silken gewgaw in the front of the Hessian boot, where the ancients used to append a lion's or a wolf's muzzle. To any lover who presumes to doubt my theory, or to say a word in disparagement of the eloquence of the feet, even compared with the eyes of his mistress, I leave the consideration of the following lines, and defy him to be of the other side:-.

Her feet beneath her petticoat,

Like little mice, stole in and out

As if they feared the light:

But oh, she dances such a way,

No sun upon an Easter day

Is half so fine a sight.

SIR JOHN SUCKLING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ALBUM.

MR. EDITOR,

IN the fifth number of the Album, I read with much pleasure a paper on ancient and modern Tragedy. In that article, the great alterations in scenery and costume, which have been introduced during the last twenty or thirty years,

are acknowledged, with due gratitude to their talented and lamented reformer, and the room still existing for further improvement is briefly, but decidedly, alluded to.—“ Upon this hint I speak," and declare, that, much as we have seen done, much more remains to do: that nearly half the acting plays of Shakspeare are incorrectly dressed at both the patent theatres, and that more care is taken in the production of a pantomime for Christmas, or a melo-drama for Easter; more expense® lavished to render nonsense palatable, and bombast endurable, than would worthily decorate the immortal monuments of the genius of our first dramatist.

66

A critical moment has, in my opinion, arrived in the affairs of the drama. Though John Kemble be no morethough we all have cause to mourn the dimming of our shining star," another Kemble has, at this instant, opportunity to perfect what his predecessor so gloriously began. Granting that the taste of the town be still wedded to stage pomp and spectacle, that taste may be as fully, while it is more rationally, gratified; and the severer few who exclaim against the glitter that garnishes a tale of enchantment, will applaud the pageantry that illustrates the higher branches of our drama. It is not to Shakspeare alone that such attention is justly due, but to the much-neglected writers of the same era, whose plays, if judiciously revived, are capable of nearly equal effect; and to every drama, whether ancient or modern, worthy to be represented on the boards of a Metropolitan theatre.

Thus much for the justice of the proceeding; but the policy is, if possible, still more apparent, and as that is likely to carry most weight with the capitalists and speculators who compose the committees of both theatres, on that I shall say those few words, which, to the wise, are proverbially allowed to be sufficient.

In the first place, then, I repeat, that by bestowing the

same care and expense on the production of a good play, (either old or new,) which are now lavished on mummery and melo-drame, they would secure the approbation and patronage of every class of visitors, and rescue the patent theatres from the stigma, which, even amongst foreigners, they so woefully labour under.

2ndly. The splendour being invariably attached to the first piece, would indubitably occasion a greater first account, and, while it brought moremoney to the treasury, would add to the satisfaction of the audience, and the exertions of the performers, by filling those benches at the rising of the curtain, which are now generally untenanted till half-price.

3dly. By abandoning to the minor theatres the anomalies which now disgrace Drury Lane and Covent Garden, farce would again resume its rightful station; and the unnatural competition which has so long existed between the larger and smaller houses, to the infinite injury of all, would, in a great measure, be done away with.

4thly. I have little doubt but that a wardrobe formed upon the principle I shall presently recommend, would, however expensive in the first instance, ultimately save money to the establishment, since the appropriate costume of any country would scarcely be in requisition twice a week, except during the run of a new piece; whereas, now, the same tunics, hats, and cloaks, are in constant, nightly wear, offending the eye of taste, and destroying that effect which a more judicious, and consequently, less frequent display, would be certain to produce. We are daily acquiring fresh knowledge on these subjects, which renders adherence to our old errors the less excusable. Brutus, in my opinion, was quite as much privileged to wear a bag-wig, as Kent, Cornwall, and Albany, are to strut in trunks and silkstockings, or King Richard the Third, to bid those rays sparkle round his star of the garter, which were first added

by Charles the Second. The court-dress in which Garrick often performed Macbeth, though not quite so picturesque in its appearance, was scarcely less correct than the uniform of the "gallant 42nd," now sported by Messrs. Kean and Macready; and the gentlemanly "suit of sables” worn by the Hamlets in our father's times, not a whit more exceptionable than the black velvet and glass buttons of our (in every sense of the word) modern princes of Denmark! I will ask a plain question.-Will any manager of any theatre in London, major or minor, suffer a musical drama, or spectacle, founded upon one of the novels of the Great Unknown, to be produced with that utter inattention to costume, which attends the representation of nearly half the plays of Shakspeare ?-No.-The dress of each individual is carefully noted down from the description in the work, affixed to their first entrances by the dramatist, and sent into the wardrobe by the manager. Colnaghi's portfolios are rummaged to supply the slightest deficiency; the picture is finished with Flemish fidelity, and Richard the Lion-hearted, Queen Elizabeth, or King James I., walk on the stage with a truth as startling, as though their spirits had been raised in their habits as they lived, by the spell of the mighty northern enchanter.

The proud Templar dons his mail, the wealthy Isaac his yellow cap, and Dugald Dalgetty, his buff coat and steel head-piece. "Aye, but," says the manager, "every body reads the Scotch novels, and knows how the characters should be dressed. The Shopman at Flint's, who obtains the loan of the last new one at three-pence per volume from the neighbouring 'circulating library,' (whose windows exhibit the double attractions of lollipops and literature, bulls' eyes and belles lettres,) is as well informed on the subject, as the periodical critic, who devours the proof-sheets purloined from the printer, or the lord who lounges over his