However, they approach, as nearly as possible, to my state of mind at that period; and I have, indeed, often mortified my vanity in later life by thinking how little the march of time has ripened my abilities, and how petty would have been the intellectual acquisitions of manhood, if they had not brought me something like content! My uncle had always, during his retirement, seen as many people as he could assemble out of the "mob of gentlemen who _live at_ ease." But, on our quitting school and becoming men, he resolved to set no bounds to his hospitality.

His doors were literally thrown open; and as he was by far the greatest person in the district--to say nothing of his wines, and his French cook--many of the good people of London did not think it too great an honour to confer upon the wealthy representative of the Devereuxs the distinction of their company and compliments.

Heavens! what notable samples of court breeding and furbelows did the crane-neck coaches, which made our own family vehicle look like a gilt tortoise, pour forth by couples and leashes into the great hall; while my gallant uncle, in new periwig and a pair of silver-clocked stockings (a present from a _ci-devant_ fine lady), stood at the far end of the picture-gallery to receive his visitors with all the graces of the last age.
My mother, who had preserved her beauty wonderfully, sat in a chair of green velvet, and astonished the courtiers by the fashion of a dress only just imported.

The worthy Countess (she had dropped in England the loftier distinction of _Madame la Marechale_) was however quite innocent of any intentional affectation of the _mode_; for the new stomacher, so admired in London, had been the last alteration in female garniture at Paris a month before my father died.

Is not this "Fashion" a noble divinity to possess such zealous adherents ?--a pitiful, lackey-like creature, which struts through one country with the cast-off finery of another! As for Aubrey and Gerald, they produced quite an effect; and I should most certainly have been thrown irrevocably into the background had I not been born to the good fortune of an eldest son.