the former ranks with that of Paris in its worst periods, and the
latter is assuredly gross to a degree that would surprise even an
inhabitant of Madrid. The familiarity with which _every subject_ is
treated at first excites emotions in an Englishman of the most
unpleasant kind, which gradually subside, from the frequency with
which they are discussed by young and old; by high and low, of both
sexes.--_Foreign Quarterly Review_.

* * * * *




Notes of a Reader.

* * * * *

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S NEW WORK.


We detach this little descriptive gem from Sir Walter Scott's "Anne of
Geierstein," just published. An outline of this very delightful novel
will be found in a SUPPLEMENT with the present number of the MIRROR.

"The ancient tower of Geierstein, though neither extensive, nor
distinguished by architectural ornament, possessed an air of terrible
dignity by its position on the very verge of the opposite bank of the
torrent, which, just at the angle of the rock on which the ruins are
situated, falls sheer over a cascade of nearly a hundred feet in
height, and then rushes down the defile, through a trough of living