Why I have known ladies so infatuated and affected by an inordinate love of charioteering, that it has completely altered them, not only as to dress, but manners and feeling, till at length they have become more at home in the stable than the drawing-room; and some, that are so different when dressed for dinner, that the driving habiliments appear like complete masquerade disguises.
Indeed, any thing that is natural is considered quite out of nature; and this affectation is not wholly confined to the higher circles, for in the City even the men and the women seem to have changed places.
"Man-milliners and mantua-makers swarm With clumsy hands to deck the female form-- With brawny limbs to fit fine ladies' shapes, Or measure out their ribbons, lace and tapes; Or their rude eye the bosom's swell surveys, To cut out corsets or to stitch their stays; Or making essences and soft perfume, Or paint, to give the pallid cheek fresh bloom; Or with hot irons, combs, and frizzling skill, On ladies' heads their daily task fulfil; Or, deeply versed in culinary arts, Are kneading pasty, making pies and tarts; Or, clad in motley coat, the footman neat Is dangling after Miss with shuffling feet, Bearing in state to church her book of pray'r, Or the light pocket she disdains to wear;{1} Or in a parlour snug, 'the powdered lout The tea and bread and butter hands about.
Where are the women, whose less nervous hands Might fit these lighter tasks, which pride demands?
Some feel the scorn that poverty attends, Or pine in meek dependance on their friends; Some patient ply the needle day by day, Poor half-paid seamsters, wasting life away; Some drudge in menial, dirty, ceaseless toil, Bear market loads, or grovelling weed the soil; Some walk abroad, a nuisance where they go, And snatch from infamy the bread of woe." "It is a strange sort of infatuation, this fashion," said Bob, "and it is much to be regretted it should operate so much to the injury of the fair--" "Do you see that young man on the opposite side of the way,"inquired Dashall,( stopping him short) "in nankin breeches and jockey-boots ?" "I do," replied Tallyho; "and pray who is he ?" "The son of a wealthy Baronet who, with an eye to the main chance in early life, engaged in some mercantile speculations, which proving productive concerns, have elevated him to his present dignity, beyond which it is said he cannot go on account of his having once kept a shop.
This son is one of what may be termed the _Ciphers of society_, a sort of useful article, like an 0 in arithmetic, to denominate numbers; one of those characters, if character it may be termed, of which this Metropolis and its vicinity would furnish us with regiments.

Indeed, the 1 It is related that a young lady of _haut ton_ in Paris was observed to have a tall fellow always following her wherever she went.

Her grandmother one day asked her what occasion there was for that man to be always following her; to which she replied--"I must blow my nose, must not I, when I want ?" This great genius was actually employed to carry her pocket-handkerchief.

~225~~general run of Fashionables are little better than Ciphers,--very necessary at times in the House of Commons, to suit the purposes and forward the intentions of the Ministers, by which they obtain _titles_ to which they are not _entitled,_ and transmit to posterity a race of ennobled boobies.

What company, what society does not abound with Ciphers, and oftentimes in such plenty that they are even serviceable to make the society considerable?
What could we do to express on paper five hundred without the two ciphers, or being compelled to write eleven letters to explain what is equally well done in three figures?
These Ciphers are useful at general meetings upon public questions, though, if they were all collected together in point of intellectual value, they would amount to nought.