Augusta, his wife, are exceedingly anxious that their daughter Kate should make such a match as the world must pronounce to be irreproachable, and Lady Augusta has already taken counsel with her friend, old Lady de Paddington, touching the matrimonial desirableness of a grand-nephew of the latter, Lord Goldstable, an unsophisticated booby, who has, however, just succeeded to the possession of an estate of 80,000l. a-year. This "Innocent Lambskin" is to be introduced to the girl designed for him, at an approaching ball, to be given by the Doctor and his lady. Pending the "coming off" of this brilliant affair, "Uncle Walter," an elder brother of the Doctor, returns to England, after an absence of many years' duration from his own country. He takes up his residence with his relatives, and speedily becomes attached to his niece Kate.

On the evening of the ball, Lord Goldstable, prompted by his aunt, and somewhat charmed by the beauty of the girl, abruptly makes her an offer of his hand, which she does not in words absolutely decline, although she has no intention of accepting the booby, having given more than half her heart to Frank Caldwell a young officer of engineers, in the earlier portion of the work, and a barrister during the remainder. Kate, in fact, confused and astonished, flies away from his lordship, who is made to believe by his aunt that such a Parthian proceeding is nothing less than shooting an arrow of acceptance at him.

This intimation, however, is a source of considerable perplexity to the young simpleton, an hour or two afterwards, since, in the meantime, he has been fascinated by the attractions of a young and wily widow, of doubtful reputation, Mrs. Fitzjames by name, who claims him as the unremembering friend of her infancy, invites him to her house, and forthwith proceeds to play, with some chance of success, fox to his goose.

"Uncle Walter" has now some work cut out for him, which he enters upon with his usual vigour. He has to satisfy the young lord's mind that an action for breach of promise will not be brought against him by the parents of Kate, and he has to console the girl under the distress of supposing that her lover, Frank Caldwell, is a confirmed gambler.

Poetical justice is at length dealt out. It is discovered that Frank has a twin-brother addicted to play, whose extraordinary likeness to the other had deceived Uncle Walter; and at a critical moment, a certain Captain Fowler, making himself a "deus" (or rather a diabolus) "ex machinâ," is protruded upon the scene, and claims, or, more correctly to speak, proclaims Mrs. Fitzjames to be his wife. The lady flies, the captain is walked off on a charge of forgery-Lord Goldstable is preserved, and the young people are made happy, receiving for their joint benefit the immense fortune of " Uncle Walter."

Now, there really is not sufficient plot in this novel for three volumes. Read we suppose we ought, and we dare say we shall, whatever Mrs. Trollope chooses to cast into our hands; but it is not to be denied that "Uncle Walter" is by no means such a production as Mrs. Trollope might, with a little more care, have written. Dr. Harrington and his lady are drawn with little force; Uncle Walter has not been seriously studied, for he is too simple at one moment, and too sagacious at another, and Kate and her lover are little better than nobodies. Mrs. Fitzjames is the best-depicted character; but such persons are easily drawn,

and their name in better next time.

fiction is legion. Mrs. Trollope must positively do "To have done, is to hang quite out of fashion," says Shakspeare. Oblivion will in time enshroud even great past doings; but to be reminded of past excellence by present mediocrity is, perhaps, something worse than oblivion.

REMAINS OF PAGAN SAXONDOM.*

Two numbers of this work have appeared, containing coloured engrav ings of objects discovered in England, and belonging to the period previous to the Conversion of the Saxons. The glass vase found at Reculver will excite the astonishment of those who are not aware of the progress, made by our pagan ancestors in the beautiful art of glass-making; while the beautiful large fibula found in a tumulus at Abingdon, and now preserved in the collection of the British Museum, furnishes an example of goldsmith's work of those early days, which may vie with some of the most elegant specimens of art in modern times. The same may be said of the jewelled ornaments found in a barrow on Roundway Down, near Devizes, given in fac-simile in the first plate, together with a gold buckle set with a large slab of precious garnet, found at Ixworth in Suffolk. The vase, also in the collection of the British Museum, one of those objects which gave rise to that extraordinary dissertation by Sir Thomas Brown entitled Hydriotaphia.

* Remains of Pagan Saxondom; principally from Tumuli in England. Drawn from the originals. Described and Illustrated by John Yonge Akerman. 4to.

In the concluding paragraph of an article in our last Number, entitled, "Reminiscences of a Man of the World," we unwittingly related an anecdote in which the names of his Grace the late Duke of Wellington, Lord Combermere, and Lord Fitzroy Somerset are introduced.

We have now the highest and best authority for contradicting the whole story, to which, as it is totally devoid of foundation, we regret having given circulation.