us became more ingratiating than usual, and he seemed desirous, by his assiduities and attentions, to show us, that we stood in need of no other favourite or companion.  But at the same time he showed no animosity whatever towards his supposed rival.  Here was reason and refinement too.  Besides the friends whom he meets in my house, Rover also forms attachments of his own, in which he shows a great discrimination.  It is not every one who offers him a bone that he will trust as a friend.  He has one or two intimate acquaintances in the village whom he regularly visits, and where in case of any remissness on the part of the cook, he is sure to find a plate of meat.  Rover is a most feeling, sweet dispositioned dog—­one instance of his affection and kindheartedness I cannot omit.  He had formed an attachment to a labourer, who worked about my garden, and would frequently follow him to his home, where he was caressed by the wife and children.  It happened that the poor wife was taken ill and died.  The husband was seriously afflicted, and showed a feeling above the common.  At this time I observed that Rover had quite lost his spirits, and appeared to pine.  Seeing him in this state one day, when in company with the widowed labourer, and thinking in some measure to divert the poor fellow’s thoughts from his own sorrows, I remarked to him the state that Rover was in, and asked him if he could guess the cause.  “He is fretting after poor Peggy,” was his reply, giving vent at the same time to a flood of tears.

JAMES HOGG.

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER.

OLD DANCING.

An “Old Subscriber,” who loves a friend and a jest’s prosperity, has sent us a few leaves of “The Dancing Master,” printed in 1728, which form a curious contrast with Mr. Lindsay’s elegant treatise, printed at Mr. Clowes’s musical office.  What will some of the quadrillers say to the following exquisite morsel of dancing, entitled, “The Old Maid in Tears?”—­“Longways for as many as will".—­(then the notes, and the following instructions:)—­“Note:  Each strain is to be play’d twice ov’er.—­The first wo. holds her handkerchief on her face, and goes on the outside, below the 3d wo. and comes up the middle to her place; first man follows her (at the same time pointing and smiling at her) up to his place.  First man do the same, only he beckons his wo. to him.  First woman makes a motion of drying first one eye, then the other, and claps her hands one after another on her sides, (the first man looks surprizingly at her at the same time,) and turn her partner.  First cu. move with two slow steps down the middle and back again.  The first cu. sett and cast off.”

As we love to keep up the dance, if we are not leading the reader a dance, we give A Dance in Hoops, as described in a fashionable novel, just published:—­

When the whole party was put in motion, but little trace of a regular dance remained; all was a perfect maze, and the cutting in and out (as the fraternity of the whip would phrase it) of these cumbrous machines presented to the mind only the figure of a most formidable affray.