Tara's halls," left her hearers no further leisure to be critical. Miss Southwell's voice, united to Montfort's, which was a rich tenor, sounded to uncommon advantage. The echoes of the river reverberated the strain; and it was in the midst of all this confusion that our author, taking up his pencil, began making memorandums of what he had seen and heard.

"What charming remark are you writing now, Mr. Pendennis ?" said Mrs. Adair, a pretty young widow, who had angled successfully for some portion of the tourist's envied attention.

"I want to look in Warner and O'Halloran when I get home," Mr. Pendennis replied, "to see if they make any mention of 'the liberal Glesnagh;' and in order to remember the names of those authors, I have composed, according to mnemonical rule, the following little easy, natural, well-imagined sentence:-O Hal was low in cash; he therefore ran a race for a wager, and neglected to Warn others not

to

to err as he had done.' The underlined monosyllabic words, you perceive, are chosen for their analogy in sound to the names I wish to commemorate; as, when united, you will find they make O'Halloran and Warner (we don't mind a trifling difference in spelling). Any gro

tesque assimilation would be found wonderfully efficacious in fixing the syllables in the memory. We might suppose, for instance, that the Hal here mentioned, was Shakespeare's Wild Prince,' who, being robbed in a frolic, by Falstaff, or some of his companions, might well be said to be low in cash. When you wish to think of a name, you must keep the mnemonical symbol steadily in mind; then, for the date of a transaction, the technical word

"Oh, botheration!" interrupted Miss O'Reilly, burlesquing, as she often did, for the entertainment of the company, her own inaptitude for these refinements, "I

had

had rather by half take the trouble of remembering the original subject."

"Miss O'Reilly," said Pendennis, with solemnity, "I must make you a convert to the utility of my system. Once habituated to localize your ideas, nothing is more simple and easy. Imagine this

barge, par exemple, a room; then, having transformed it into a room, divide the floor, walls, and ceiling, into fifty-four compartments; cover these compartments well with symbols or mental pictures.What need I say more? The advantages of this plan were acknowledged so long ago as by the renowned sir Philip Sidney, in his Defence of Poesie;' but it was reserved for Peter Pendennis to reduce to a perfect system the invaluable Art of Memory !"

6

"Your talents had been far better employed in teaching us the art of forgetting," muttered the disagreeable gentleman; but the gay party heard not the sound, and the exclamation that had burst,

unawares,

unawares, from the soul of Montfort, was borne away on the rolling waves.

66

"Mr. Pendennis," said Miss O'Reilly, you are now passing by one of the greatest curiosities in the province. That large white house, there, to your right, with showy verandas in front, and awkward wings, like a flying eagle; it is called Opium's Folly; built by the great tobacconist, sir Felix Opium: all the rest of his appointments are on a par with this. When first he sported his new chariot, he had painted, instead of arms, his own initials, F. O.' Felix Opium, in very conspicuous characters. It was afterwards changed, in consequence of an observation of his particular friend, counsellor Mac Calembourg-That it was a pity the worthy knight should absolutely announce himself on his equipage as half a fool."

"Ha! ha! F. O. half a fool! very good-very true!" exclaimed Pendennis, analysing the four letters that composed

the

the word, and entering the anecdote in his book.

Look, Mr. Montfort," said Miss Southwell: " that mansion situated on an eminence, embowered in trees, and gently sloping to the river's side, offers a subject worthy of your pencil: it is Mount Amaranth, the seat of Mr. Stratford Gore."

"The site is indeed romantic," replied Montfort. "In such a scene, one can hardly help fancying the inhabitants too must be interesting."

66

There, I am sorry to say, you are mistaken. Mrs. Gore is a horrid creature."

"Oh, a horrid creature decidedly!" echoed Miss O'Brien, an intimate friend of Miss Southwell's-" goes to the Castle in dyed crapes and paste earrings."

"All her real diamonds," added Mrs. Adair," she has divided between Mrs. Arthur Gore and her own tall daughter, Arethusa, to set off the native beauty of her piony cheeks, and full trimmings of scarlet geraniums."