That of “Majesty” was first given to Louis XI. of France; before, it was the title only of emperors.  The Kings of Arragon, Castile, and Portugal, had the title only of “Highness;” those of England, “Your Grace;” those of France, “Your Despotism.”

P.T.W.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

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Hood’s Comic Annual for 1833.—­Mr. Hood’s announcement of his forthcoming volume is in the very vein of the work itself.  He writes to his publisher:—­“The report of my death, I can assure you is premature, but I am equally obliged to you for your tribute of putting up shutters and wearing a crape hatband.  I suspect your friend and informant, Mr. Livingstone—­(it should be Gravestone)—­drew his inference from a dark passage in Miss Sheridan’s Preface which states that, ’of the three Comic Annuals which started at the same time, the Comic Offering alone remains.’  The two defuncts therein referred to are the ‘Falstaff’ and ‘The Humorist,’ which I understand have put an end to themselves.

“If you should still entertain any doubts, you will shortly have ten thousand impressions to the contrary; for I intend to contradict my demys by fresh octavos.  The Comic Annual for 1833, with its usual complement of plates—­mind, not coffin-plates—­to appear as heretofore, in November, will give the lie, I trust, not merely to my departure, but even to anything like a serious illness:  and a novel, about the same time, will help to prove that I am not in a state of de-composition.

“I should have relieved your joint anxieties some days earlier, but till I met Mr. Livingstone, at Bury, I was really not alive to my death.”

* * * * *

Cartoons at Hampton Court.[14]—­I mentioned in my last, that I had formed an acquaintance with Holloway, who has been sometime occupied in copying in black chalks the Cartoons of Raphael in this palace.  It will be a magnificent work, and admirably executed, for he finishes them as highly as a miniature; his chalk-pencils are of a superior quality, and he cuts them to the finest point:  but he says they will only serve to work with on vellum, or on fine skin.  He is an eccentric genius, deeply read in Scripture history, which he expounds in the most methodistical tone; but it is very delightful and instructive to listen to his observations on the beauties and merits of these masterpieces of Raphael.  A Madame Bouiller, an interesting French emigrant is also occupied on the same subjects.  She is patronized by West, who has given her permission to study here; and says that he never saw such masterly artist touches of the crayon as hers.  Her style is large heads, after the size and manner of the French; therefore the figures in the Cartoons are particularly adapted for her pencil.