Out went my aunt's head; out went my uncle's. I was almost frozen between them. Luckily, a minute or two brought us to the town where we were to change horses. There were two capital inns in it. Would the gig, or would it not, choose the same that we did? How my aunt applauded herself, when, on arriving at the Black Lion, we saw it standing at the door! "Get out, Mr. Pelham," cried she quickly: "moment, and look what cypher is upon the pannel. "letters from here." "J. S." get out for a I can see two "Nonsense! it must be a mistake, or they've borrowed one. "Ask the landlord their names, can't you? He must know some"thing about them. You see they're stopping. We've plenty of "time: we've only five short miles to go." My good-natured uncle obeyed; but he returned with very melancholy intelligence:-The gig had brought two gentlemen, the landlord did not know from where, to look at a horse of Sir Richard Bridges', which was for sale at his stables, and he did not think they meant to go any further this night. We were all thunderstruck.— Even I, after the military cloaks had had my romance about the adventure, and my uncle, under all his calm exterior, had fully entered into the spirit of the affair. It was a very dull five miles from the post town, and we none of us arrived in the best of humours at our journey's end. We were immediately shown into our rooms to dress. I was proceeding very leisurely in the business, when the sound of rapid wheels drew me to the window. I could hardly believe my eyes. Standing at the door, surrounded by servants, in the act of unpacking its various conveniencies, was the identical dark green gig. I ran as quickly as possible to my aunt's room, that she might hear, without a moment's loss, this interesting piece of news; but she was dressed, and gone down stairs. There was a great bustle in the hall, and loud and merry voices reached me, as I returned along the gallery to my own apartment. I left it as expeditiously as 1 could, yet I found I was about the last to enter the spacious drawing room. It was full of company, and quite a crowd was round my aunt, who seemed to be in her highest spirits. "Oh, Miss Osborne," said a tall young man, with dark eyes and mustachios, advancing gaily to meet me, "who do you think "were in the gig? Dr. Scott, who is to christen my little niece, and "Colonel Hill." STANZAS. As the floweret blooms to perish, All whose promise gilds the morrow, K. In so curious an age as the present, I wonder to have met with no orderly treatise on signs, which, in my opinion, would yield matter for a science, as particular and important as heraldry. Of the Virtuosos, who, at one time or another, have made collections of every thing, either in coins and medals, or statues and paintings, none, in my knowledge, have ever made a collection of signs; and yet, I cannot see why a man should not take as much pleasure in possessing the sign of the Boar's Head, at Eastcheap, as did Don Quixote in wearing the helmet of Mambrino. The only reason apparent to me, why the curious and painstaking have never essayed this unexplored region of science, is the general acquaintance which such an attempt requires, with the arts and sciences already invented. As, for instance, who could presume to pronounce upon the sign of the Square and the Compasses, and other insignia of Masonry, so frequently met with, but an adept in that occult, art, and one that had devoted many of his nights to the labors of the "Lodge?" or what Signologist could determine with authority, the square, the circular, the globular, and all the other figures to be seen suspended from a sign post, or over a shop door, and prescribe the just dimensions of each; or lay down by demonstration how many semi-diameters of a barber's pòle, should be equal to its height, unless he had first mastered Vitruvius, and was possessed of the five orders of Grecian architecture, together with the gothic, and could tell at first sight what was Hypathral, and what Peripteral? Thus, painting, and poetry, and sculpture, and cabinet-making, are, as it were, the handmaids of Significature; with all of whom one must make interest and be in favor, to get an introduction to their mistress. A sign, therefore, may be considered the proper field of the fine arts, wherein they expatiate freely and at large, running out into pleasing vagaries, and easily sliding into new forms and combinations, as being nearer to, and more assisted by nature, the inexhaustible repository of all things. For instance, in one direction you may see his grace the Duke of Wellington, represented with a very marshal aspect, and in full costume, and over the next door to him, the god Bacchus, a fat little nudity, astride on a wine cask; while, in another, some window presents you with a Chinese woman, whose head wags instead of her tongue, replying, as it were, to the grin of a naked black boy on the opposite side of the way, who exhibits himself to the public at the shop door, and preserves his decency with an apron of tobacco leaves. These latter belong to the statuary department of Signology, and have their full meaning, though the generality are in painting, presenting you with a variety of landscapes, animals, and objects, which have all their particular applications in their various images or devices. Some signs are accompanied by inscriptions, which either are kindly intended as expositions of their mystery, in the manner of the artist who wrote under his sign, "this is a lion," or as morals suggested by their metaphors, or rather as running commentaries on painted ideas. In this department of literature, therefore, an author is sure of being concise without being obscure ; and, if a poet, his golden verses will be read by the passing generation, without the possibility in an after day of decorating wrapping paper, or the lining of trunks. The sign, in my opinion, is a " quoddam vinculum" of the Fine Arts, where they are all tied together, and hung up for the world to look at; and sometimes it is even an instrument of music, when it hangs before an inn door, on the brow of a high hill, and is swinging and creaking in a November wind, when the clouds muster and presage a storm; at such time its two hinges discourse sweet music to the traveller's ear. It is plain, therefore, that one cannot be a master and professor of this science, or, in other words, a Signologist, that is not generally skilled in the several arts which it assembles together; and this may be the reason, as before surmised, why no one has essayed to handle and explain it; for myself, I propose no such thing, since, if I took upon me to pretend to the requisite qualifications which my modesty forbids, yet, my reveries and castle-building, and other observations, do not leave me sufficient leisure, to afford what I consider the profundity of the subject, a fair investigation. But, in my daily ranging about, among things knowable and unknowable, and seeking out this object and that for my present amusement, till it is discharged of its office, and I light upon another, I sometimes turn my thoughts to a consideration of this subject, and, I confess, on many occasions, it has rendered me information, not less curious and amusing than one sometimes meets with in ancient history or travels. Moreover, my reader must be aware that it is the diurnal practice of the 46 Little Unknown," (and which I consider to be a part of his business,) to take a stroll through the principal thoroughfares of our magnificent Metropolis for the purpose of public observation. Say, at the present time, between the hours of four and six, when be mingles as one in the countless throngs which pour along the pavement, but with a slower and steadier step, a sedate countenance, though a lively eye, and with a slight person in a black frock-coat, his right hand (from an ugly habit of childhood) suspended by his thumb from the second button. Now in his perambulations and vicambulations, among other things, he must principally take notice of signs, which, with the goods displayed about the windows and doors, may be considered as the physiognomy of a shop. Many of these, from a degree of west latitude at Tyburn Turnpike, or the White Horse, Piccadilly, to that of the Saracen's Head, Snow-Hill, and Carrington Bowles', St. Paul's Church-Yard, eastwardly, (the limits of his vicambulation); many of these he is in the habit of seeing and considering so. often, that he can distinguish them as accurately as Smilie, says a Scotch shepherd, could each of his three hundred sheep by the expression of countenance, and it is probable would know one again were he to meet with it in Japan or California. But these observations are in other instances grievously interrupted by the fluctuations of trade and speculation, thereby occasioning as many changes in the face of business, as might be noticed in the face of an army engaged in active service, where one man is advanced, another cashiered, this receives his quietus, and that deserts to make room for recruits; while some, on the other hand, remain steady in their ranks, and acquire a veteran respectability. Thus I have often observed, that at certain periods of the year, and more especially in the spring, many of the shops present a new aspect, a fresh name, set forth in a very gilty manner, shines over the door, and the sides of which, with the windows, are all at once dressed out in silks and stuffs, as gorgeously as if some Oriental potentate had arrived and taken up his residence there; but before the next winter has come round perhaps, the name has disappeared, and the rich sails and streamers which seemed to swell and float in the gale of prosperity are gone, and in the musings of memory, when the close, blank, and cheerless shutter is surveyed in its stead, seem as if they had not been real. On enquiry, however, into some of the causes of this circumstance beyond my own apprehensions on the point, I was informed that there is a race, or tribe, of people, well known in the metropolis, that go under the several names of marshalls, sheriffs, bailiffs, &c. &c., who appear to me to bear a strong resemblance to the Bedouin Arabs, as they are in the habit so frequently of making incursions on the peaceable settlements of trade, and seizing and bearing away such goods and chattels, vi et armis, as come within their reach, and sometimes even making prisoners of the inhabitants themselves, and carrying them off into captivity. I was also informed of a mode of defence occasionally adopted by a tradesman, when he apprehends any attack from these Bedouins. It is to inscribe the word Agent on his sign, in small characters, and often very curiously in German text, done about with flourishes, so that it requires in a casual spectator as much skill sometimes to make out the word, as to decypher an old manuscript. The first time I ever observed this, I conceived that it might be the name of the artist, just as you see---Such-a-one, Sculpt. or Pinxt. in the corner of an engraving or picture; but this is not the case, for it seems to be a kind of charm or Talisman employed to keep off the Bedouins, in the same manner that the Mahometans wear a verse of the Koran or the like about the neck, as a defence against witchcraft and dis eases; and this resource, I am likewise informed, has in many occasions had the desired effect, by rendering the Bedouins fearful of attacking a place so protected. The innumerable devices and images employed in the science of Signology, constitutes its great beauty and interest. These sometimes allude to the name, character, or history of the signified, and sometimes to his goods or occupation, but very frequently it is not easy to say to what they do allude. A few years ago I remember observing a sign in the neighbourhood of Fleet Market, bearing a Phoenix, and the motto beneath of "Nil desperandum," by which I conceive the signified had formerly suffered in some incursions of the Bedouins, but meant to keep up a good heart. The Phoenix, however, did not live a hundred years, as that sort of bird used to do, or perhaps it was a bird of passage, as it disappeared long since. Before, however, proceeding to any illustrations of this science in the signs which have particularly come before my notice, I wish to say a few words upon what appear to me to be two branches of this science, which, though of an inferior interest or utility, are nevertheless worthy of notice in the light of relationship;-an advertisement and a sample. And firstly, I could never yet make any satisfactory distinction between a sign and an advertisement; the purpose, plan, varieties, and ornaments of each being so much the same. advertisement is, like a deed, commonly on paper, parchment, or vellum; but though Lord Coke says a deed cannot be upon wood, yet I remember to have seen, on some occasions, a wooden advertisement, and, on the other hand, one not unfrequently meets with paper signs in sheltered situations. Indeed, I perceive no absolute difference; for though the one appears to be the miniature of the other in size, the other again is of that in matter. They may accordingly throw some light on each other by being considered together, and suggest to a spectator, by inference, what else might escape him. An If we begin with the poorest thing in all arts, namely, a quack medicine, and proceed upwards towards things of value and respectability, we generally find the artist, vendor, or exhibitor, puffing and fuming about them in exact proportion to their inferior quality. How innumerable have been my disappointments, when some years younger, in placing an implicit belief in the advertisements which I have read in newspapers, and in taking a direction from these printed signs to visit the house or shop that they issued from! One instance I will mention. - Being very unwell, and at a great expence for medical attendance, I read of a famous elixir, which was composed and derived from various medicinal and delightful plants of the eastern world, unknown and unattainable in this country, which had the happy effect of elongating human existence, and defending it, or rather ridding it, of all constitutional troubles whatever. Overjoyed at the idea of possessing such an inestimable friend, I made purchase of a bottle directly, and carrying it home, shewed it to a person competent to give an opinion upon it, who examined it, and remarked that it was compounded of "asses milk, hog's-lard, stick brimstone, |