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COURT DINNERS.

and more boisterous feeling, (though not without beauty) which is not quite akin to the true rational spirit of enjoyment which breathes in our Anacreontic poets, and animates some few of our choicest dinner tables. Shall I also confess it? I am John Bull enough to approve our English gothic fashion of the ladies retiring after dinner. The first half hour after the servants have withdrawn, I think, is that in which their society is most unrestrained and delightful. -After that, let them not despise high example:

With goddess-like demeanour forth she went
Not unattended, for on her as Queen,
A pomp of winning graces waited still.

There is something that admirably suits the retiring delicacy of female character in leaving the table before mirth and high spirits can have deviated into even a momentary forgetfulness of the respect due to it. The temporary absence heightens the charm of their society—and after an hour's politics, or grave discussion, the return to the softening influence and animating spirit of the drawing room is doubly sweet

GRAND DUKE OF HESSE.

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-observe, an hour is all that I admit.

After that,

We may no longer stay-go, seek for Eve.

The Grand Duke of Hesse, now an old man, is prevented by infirm health from taking a part in the amusements of his Court. I had, however, the honour of being presented to him, and found his conversation, which he turned on the distresses of his subjects and those of neighbouring countries, owing to the failure of the crops of 1816, humane and sensible. He is pretty generally beloved by his subjects; though here, as in greater States, a dissatisfied opposition look for the remedying of every defect that exists to the golden accession of the Hereditary Prince. On some occasions, the Grand Duke has displayed much firmness of character. Unlike other Princes, he has always refused promises of constitutions to his subjects, referring them to the decisions and arrangements of the Diet. In times of scarcity he has been firm in preventing monopolies and exportations of grain; he long resisted the

alliance with the Imperial Protector of the Rhenish Confederation; and entered into it zealously when it was no longer avoidable.

His Government has the character of being mild and paternal; and many other German States would be happy in possessing Sovereigns equally moderate.

An attraction for which Darmstadt is deservedly renowned, is its Opera.-The Grand Duke himself is a profound musician, and to his enthusiastic taste and his superintending skill, the Opera owes its excellence and celebrity. Rehearsals constantly take place in his Royal Highness's Cabinet, at which he presides with the enthusiasm and the energy of a scientific musician. His Royal Highness never misses a night at the Opera, which is almost the only place at which he now appears in public-and his close and critical attention and well-timed expressions of approbation are the best encouragement to the excellent performers of his orchestra. The Theatre is small, and by no means handsome; a Decree for building a new and more splendid one has just passed the sign manual, to the great joy of the whole Capital. The

doors of the Grande Salle-where files of Grenadiers and Courtiers wait to honour their Sovereign and his family with a salute as they pass-open into a beautiful garden, laid out in the English taste, which, in the long summer evenings affords a cool and delightful promenade, where the company assemble and walk in the intervals between the acts. The musical performances are exquisitely tasteful and well managed. The premiere chanteuse is a pretty, interesting, woman, with a clear voice, of animating shrillness, and considerable compass, which she manages with a voluble ease, and accompanies by an air of hilarity and sentiment, which would gain her admirers in a more extended sphere: it would be difficult to find a more scientific one. The Grand Duke, the Court, and the town, are just now rejoicing in the acquisition of Wild from Berlin, one of the first singers in Germany. The accessories of the little Theatre display taste and elegance; the scenery is sometimes little inferior, on a small scale, in good keeping, and splendid execution, to that of Covent Garden. Much of it is the work of Schön

berger, one of the first landscape painters in Germany, the husband of Madame Marconi the singer. His scenes are far better than his pictures; though the last are not without genius, principally shown in exhibiting the varied effects of sunlight upon scenery. The Germans call him their Claude, with not half the reason that Turner has been sometimes flattered by the title of the English Claude. The merchants of Frankfort, and the courtiers of Darmstadt, who agree about as cordially as commercial solidity and aristocratic elegance generally do, mutually boast the pre-eminence of their respective orchestras. Impartial critics appear to decide that the performers at Darmstadt are more equal, more judiciously assorted, like the hounds of Theseus,

"Match'd in mouth like bells each under each:"

but that the Orchestra of Frankfort contains individual musicians of greater genius.

The Grand Duchess of Hesse, who has survived the bloom of female charms, has been one of the most celebrated of Ger