COUNTRY CHARACTER.

(_For the Mirror_.)


Country society has but little relief; and in proportion to intellectual
refinement, this monotony appears to increase. We have always been
favourable to Book Clubs in country towns, and about ten years since,
established one in the anti-social town of ----. The plan worked well; its
economy was admired, and extensively adopted all over England, but we
heard little of its contributing to the social enjoyments of the people.
Twenty families reading the same books, and these passed from house to
house, among the respectability of the town, might have brought about
a kind of consanguinity of opinion, and led to frequent interchange of
civilities, meetings of the members at each others' houses, or at least
a sort of how-d'ye-do acquaintance. The case was otherwise. The attorney
and the doctor joined our society that their families of ten or twelve
sons and daughters might keep under the sixpences and shillings of the
circulating library; but they soon became jealous of _new books_, although
they often returned them uncut and unread; and so far from knitting the
bonds of acquaintance, we at last thought our plan served to estrange the
members, by affording the little aristocracy frequent opportunities for
venting their splenetic pride; the books were like _disjunctive
conjunctions_, and when we left the place, the "society" did not promise
to live another year.

We could entertain ourselves, at least, with sketches of a few of the
members of this disjointed body; but we must be content with one, and that