dated the 22d of December, requested to be informed whether Lord Courtland (like our great landholders) killed his own mutton, as Miss P. M’P. insinuates in a letter to her aunt, that the servants there are suspected of being guilty of great abuses on that score; but there you also preserve a most unbecoming, and I own I think somewhat mysterious silence.

“And now, my dear Mary, having said all that I trust is necessary to recall you to a sense of your duty, I shall now communicate to you a piece of intelligence, which, I am certain, will occasion you the most unfeigned pleasure, viz. the prospect there is of your soon beholding some of your friends from this quarter in Bath.  Our valuable friend and neighbour, Sir Sampson, has been rather (we think) worse than better since you left us.  He is now deprived of the entire use of one leg.  He himself calls his complaint a morbid rheumatism; but Lady Maclaughlan assures us it is a rheumatic palsy, and she has now formed the resolution of taking him up to Bath early in the ensuing spring. And not only that, but she has most considerately invited your Aunt Grizzy to accompany them, which, of course, she is to do with the greatest pleasure. We are therefore all extremely occupied in getting your aunt’s things put in order for such an occasion; and you must accept of that as an apology for none of the girls being at leisure to write you at present, and likewise for the shortness of this letter.  But be assured we will all write you fully by Grizzy.  Meantime, all unite in kind remembrance to you. And I am, my dear Mary, your most affectionate aunt,

“JOAN
DOUGLAS.”

“P.S.—­Upon looking over your letter, I am much struck with your X’s.  You surely cannot be so ignorant as not to know that a well made x is neither more nor less than two c’s joined together back to back, instead of these senseless crosses you seem so fond of; and as to your z’s, I defy any one to distinguish them from your y’s. I trust you will attend_ to this, and show that it proceeds rather from want of proper attention than from wilful airs.

J.
D.”

“P.S.-Miss P. M’Pry writes her aunt that there is a strong report of Lord Lindore’s marriage to our niece Adelaide; but we think that is impossible, as you certainly never could have omitted to inform us of a circumstance which so deeply concerns us. If so, I must own I shall think you quite unpardonable. At the same time, it appears extremely improbable that Miss M’P. would have mentioned such a thing to her aunt,without having good grounds to go upon.  J. D.”