embroidered velvet;” “some young men have appeared at balls with blue dress gloves embroidered with white;” “the system of the cravat is to form the organization of linen on the breast,” the very “march” of foppery; “cloaks of the gentlemen lined with plush silk of celestial blue;” “at balls our young exquisites sport pocket-handkerchiefs of fine lawn, with a hem as broad as their thumbs; the corners only are embroidered:”  “shoes tied with a small rosette;” “a young gentleman now suffers his hair to grow, has it curled, and parted on the left side of the forehead,” &c. &c.—­This out-herods Herod.

* * * * *

PICTURE OF LONDON.

A new edition of this very useful and attractive volume has just appeared, re-edited by Mr. Britton, who, by his extensive architectural knowledge, as well as by his popular style of imparting that knowledge, is calculated to produce a better “Picture of London” than any other writer within our acquaintance.  The introduction is, of course, the most novel part of this edition, and as it enables Mr. Britton to embody much authentic information on the public works now in progress, we have abridged a few of these details, which will be found in a Supplement published with the present Number.  The Picture of London was, we believe, first printed in 1806; and the extensive patronage which it has enjoyed during twenty-two years has been well deserved by its progressive completeness.

* * * * *

THE SELECTOR;

AND

LITERARY NOTICES OF

NEW WORKS.

* * * * *

RANK AND TALENT.

By the Author of Penelope, or Love’s Labour Lost.

In our last volume we devoted nearly six of our columns to an outline of the predecessor of the present work, or the novel of Penelope.  We there stated our opinion of the author’s talents in a peculiar style of novel-writing—­a sort of mixture of satire and fashion, without the starchness of the one, or the silly affectation of the other—­abounding in well-drawn pictures of real life, free from caricature, and teeming with home-truths, in themselves of such plainness and ready application, as to make precept and example follow on with near approaches to probability and truth.

The author’s forte unquestionably lies in this species of writing, and his “Rank and Talent” will, we think, bear us out in this opinion.  The story or canvass of the novel is simple, and well prepared for his sketches and finished portraits of character.  They belong to fashionable and middle life, and the conceits and eccentricities, as well as the straightforward integrity of their stations are illustrated with peculiar force.  Sound moral and knowledge of the world are occasionally introduced with great tact, for the author is no stranger to the inmost workings and recesses of the human heart; and he adapts these lessons, and dovetails them with the narrative, in a clever and agreeable style.