of fupporting that character of firmness ascribed to my fisterhood, and which, though it simply consists in choosing to have our own way, the wits are apt to call pertinacity. I will also candidly own, that, fince the superior station in this walk is already occupied by real genius, I have too much prudence to enter into a competition, where I shall be sure to meet with a defeat; and too much pride to enlist among a herd of servile imitators, who mistake confusion for description, and fancy that what is horribly impossible, must be interesting and grand. But, as my days of dotage are not far distant, if lady Monteith should be unfortunate in her appeal for attention, I and Betty may appear upon the scene; even my cat too may be introduced in an epifode. I have feen a fubject equally unpromifing worked up to an astonishing effect, and really admired by readers who 1 who had been some years out of the nursery:-But, instead of terrifying the world with a denunciation of what I may do, let me hasten to fulfil my present promise. IT is now more than ten years since Powerscourt House exhibited a scene of festivity and hofpitality unrivalled in modern times, and which might serve to recall to the mind of the spectator the splendid fêtes of Kenilworth, where the lady of the lake welcomed the approach of majesty, and the cruel dissolute earl of Leicester fought to divert general attention from his vices, by a captivating display of elegance and amusement. The motives of the venerable baronet who inhabited Powerscourt were widely different from those of the haughty favourite of Elizabeth. His life was too inoffenfive to fear cenfure; his heart never panted for court-favour; and the praise of of magnificence or refined taste presented no attractions to his unobtrusive and benevolent mind. He called all the country together, and strove to make them very happy, because he was very happy himself; and the occafion of this exuberant joy was the union of his only daughter and heiress, Geraldine Powerscourt, with James earl of Monteith, a young nobleman who had just attained complete majority, and acceded to all the splendid titles and fortune of the house of Macdonald. Beside all the beauty and fashion of North Wales, these diftinguished nuptials were honoured by the prefence of two deities, generally supposed to be absolutely inimical to each other. Cupid and Plutus, forgetting ancient enmity, agreed jointly to light the Hymeneal torch. It was impossible to suppose a union-contracted under a more perfect coincicoincidence of harmonious equality. The families on both fides might be faid to lose themselves in the clouds; for their claims to pre-eminence, advancing far beyond the limit of authentic history, foared into regions which no prudent antiquary would dare to explore. The lineal honours of these illustrious families rested upon a furer basis than mere oral tradition. Sir William Powerscourt could point out the spot of ground where his Ordovician ancestor harangued his vassals before he mounted his scythearmed car, and led them to join the British forces assembled at Caradoc: and an aunt of lord Monteith's preserved the beak of the galley, which conveyed Donald king of the Iles from Illa, when he paid a visit of ceremony to his contemporary Fergus, some hundred years prior to the invasion of the Romans. It is true, that some incredulous critics, whom nothing nothing can convince, doubted whether the feudal customs, with which Sir William embellished his narrative, existed at that remote period; and I have heard a whisper, that the venerable relic which lady Madelina so carefully preserved, was nothing more than the remains of a great gilded dragon, originally fufpended over a Chinese temple belonging to her ladyship's maternal great-grandfather, though so happily executed, that, like Hamlet's cloud, you might say it was equally like a "camel, or an ousel, or a whale." But though these vestiges of remote superiority might rather excite the doubts than fix the conviction of the observer of costume, the Macdonalds and Powerfcourts preferred unquestionable claims to the honours of antiquity, -extensive influence and ample poffeffions. It fometimes happens, that close attention to adventitious |