Honore ;  and  having  thus  performed  my  duties  to
the  world  of  fashion,  I  return  to  the  exercise  of  my
rights  as  a  member  of  the  Carnival.  At  two  o'clock
all  the  world  meets  at  the  Theatre  Ventadour :
lions  and  tigers — the  whole  of  our  menagerie,  will
be  present.  Enoc  !  off  we  go !  roaring  and  bound-
ing Bacchanal  and  Saturnal ;  'tis  agreed  that  we
shall  be  everything  that  is  low.  To  conclude,  we
sup  with  Castijars,  the  most  *  furiously  dishe-
velled '  orgy  that  ever  was  known."

*  *  *  *  *

The  rest  of  the  letter  is  on  matters  of  finance,


ON  SOME  FRENCH  FASHIONABLE  NOVELS.     179

equally  curious  and  instructive.  But  pause  we  for
the  present,  to  consider  the  fashionable  part :  and,
caricature  as  it  is,  we  have  an  accurate  picture  of
the  actual  French  dandy.  Bets,  breakfasts,  riding,
dinners  at  the  Cafe  de  Paris,  and  delirious  Carni-
val balls ;  the  animal  goes  through  all  such  frantic
pleasures  at  the  season  that  precedes  Lent.  He
has  a  wondrous  respect  for  English  "  gentlemen-
sportsmen  ;"  he  imitates  their  clubs — their  love  of
horse-flesh,  he  calls  his  palefrenier  a  groom,  wears
blue  bird's-eye  neckcloths,  sports  his  pink  out
hunting,  rides  steeple-chases,  and  has  his  Jockey-
club.  The  "  tigers  and  lions"  alluded  to  in  the  re-
port, have  been  borrowed  from  our  own  country,
and  a  great  compliment  is  it  to  Monsieur  de  Ber-
nard, the  writer  of  the  above  amusing  sketch,  that
he  has  such  a  knowledge  of  English  names  and
things,  as  to  give  a  Tory  Lord  the  decent  title  of
Lord  Cobham,  and  to  call  his  dog  O'Connell.  Paul
de  Kock  calls  an  English  nobleman,  in  one  of  his
last  novels,  Lord  Boulingrog,  and  appears  vastly
delighted  at  the  verisimilitude  of  the  title.
