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26 AN ANCIENT AND A MODERN BALL. It is also necessary that the arms should be properly supported, and not suffered to weigh or drag upon those of the persons with whom it may be proper to join hands in the course of the dance. To say nothing of the positive impropriety of falling into such an error, the mere act, during its continuation, is quite destructive to grace, which cannot exist where ease is not apparent. Elegance, without affectation, may be shown in presenting the hand to a partner : rustic abruptness, and childish timidity, are equally to be avoided; a modest confidence is the golden mean to be observed in this, as in every other department of ball room dancing. To grasp the hand of a person with whom it is necessary to join hands to detain it when it should be relinquished are faults which, we trust, our reader's good sense would prevent her from committing, even when dancing with one of her own sex; but even these offences, in the consideration of propriety and taste, are not more grave than that of display. However excellently a young lady may dance, and whatever powers of brilliant execution she may possess, she should never forget that she is in a ball room, and not on a stage: studied attitude in presenting the hand (Fig. 2) is reprehensible, as being productive of too much effect, and as showing an inclination for display. Correct execution of the figure and steps, and unobtrusive grace of deportment, should be the zenith of a young lady's ambition; as Shakspeare finely expresses the perfection of dancing, she should move like a wave of the sea; it being of course understood, when the elements are in their most gentle motion. When the hand is not to be presented to another, the arm should depend fro the shoulder in an easy oval shape, as previously directed.

A BALL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY,

AND A BALL IN THE NINETEENTH.

A LETTER FROM THE LADY MARY GRANDISON TO THE LADY JANE PLANTAGENET.

St. James's Square, 1728. MY DEAR LADY JANE You will naturally wish to learn the result of the birth night; and you must be persuaded that my poor services are ever at your Ladyship's commands. I am too poor a pen woman to aspire to the honour of pleasing so great a judge, but your Ladyship's merit should form no impediment to my own zeal. Their Majesties were in charming looks; nor methinks did I ever see a more brilliant assemblage than that united to do them honour on the present occasion. The new Venetian Ambassador, Signor Mocenigo, made his first appearance at court, and by the splendour of himself and suite contributed surprisingly to the magnificence of a circle which, he was pleased to observe, exhibited a greater display of beauty than any other in Europe to which he had been previously admitted. His Excellency is a polite man, my dear; yet I am free to believe that in this assertion he doth not exceed the limits of good faith. All the other foreign residents, our own Ministers, and a prodigious show of stars were present, whose compliments were graciously received; although it was observed that some faces wore a gloomy and mortified air, in consequence of certain recent changes. Their Graces of Queensbury were thought to be coldly looked upon; and indeed, for her years, my cousin, the Duchess,” sa Singularitte,” as Lady Bolingbroke is pleased to call her, is often pleased to manifest more warmth than discretion in her discourse; a warmth sure to be evil interpreted and maliciously reported in a court where there are too many needy tittle tattlers on the scout for treason. My Lady Suffolk was scarcely in her usual good looks, having chosen a silver stuff, with a ground of pale straw colour, but doubtfully suited to her own fair and somewhat faded complexion. Standing too beside her Majesty, who was resplendent in jonquil and gold, the eclipse was manifest to all. The great show of the evening, my dear Lady Jane, and it was one which our grandmothers would have little cared to behold, was the first appearance of the Duchess of Bolton, (THE STAGE PLAYER) whom Mr. William Gay's unseemly parody was the means of bringing into a too general notice. My Lord Duke hath boroughs in the North, causing his ill manners and ill morals to be lightly looked upon at court : but there was a smile lurking in her Majesty's eyes at the moment of her Grace's reception, such as must have made the bold creature fully sensible of her own littleness; Queen Caroline and a Polly Fentum need not, methinks, have been brought into such near contact!

For beauties we had many; of which the chief (Miss Lepel) should be already known to your Ladyship. It was thought my Lord Hervey was particular in his attendance. My Lady Mary Wortley said a thing on the occasion which perhaps it were unworthy to repeat; since that lady's wit is not for all lips. From the period of her last return from abroad she hath acquired a strange loose gait, and unquiet look with her eyes, only too taking with the men. Her Ladyship wore a polonaise of blue spangled lustring, with a feather perked on one side the tete, like the hat of a Knight of the Garter. The Duchess of Buckingham was pompous, and bustling, and noisy, and made a vast show of diamonds; but the stomacher and neck piece were intermixed with balass rubie The minuets were in general well danced; Lady Mary Campbell was led out by my young Lord Lennox; and Lady Caroline followed, sin a silver train, with a new Lord Somerset. Your humble servant was honoured by Mr. Thynne, who, with my papa's consent, is