Lotus. The blade exhibits, in has relief, his majesty's arms, initials,
and crown; the arms, orders, and batons, of the Duke of Wellington,
Hercules taming the tiger, the thunderbolt, the British colours bound up
with the caduceus and fasces, surrounded by laurel, and over them the
words--"India, Copenhagen, Peninsula, and Waterloo," terminating with a
sheathed sword, surrounded by laurel and palm.


* * * * *


ODDITIES.


Fashion-mongers make odd work with language. Thus, we read of Mrs.
Ravenshaw giving a "petit" _souper_ to about 150 of the _haut ton_.

The _Court Journal_, too, tells us that a few days since Lord Lansdowne
met with "a severe accident," by which "he suffered no material injury."

The Queen's dress at her last ball was "white and silver, striped with
blue." The song says--

To be nice about trifles
Is trifling and folly;--

but the _modistes_ can gather little from such a description as the
above.

In the Zoological Gardens is a pheasant, one of whose feathers measures