should be avoided.--_American Farmer's Manual._

* * * * *


CONVENT GARDEN MARKET.


[Illustration: Covent Garden Market.--"Here to-day, and gone
to-morrow."--Tristram Shandy.]

I know some of the ugliest men who are the most agreeable fellows in the
world. The ladies may doubt this remark; but if they compel me to produce
an example, I shall waive all modesty, and prove my veracity by quoting
_myself_. I have often thought how it is that ugliness contrives to
invest itself with a "_certain something_," that not only destroys its
disagreeable properties, but actually commands an interest--(by the by,
this is referring _generally_, and nothing personal to myself.) I
philosophically refer it all to the _balance of nature_. Now I know some
very ugly places that have a degree of interest, and here again I fancy a
lady's sceptical ejaculation, "Indeed!" Ay, but it is so; and let us go
no further than Covent Garden. Enter it from Russell-street. What can be
more unsightly,--with its piles of cabbages in the street, and
basket-measures on the roofs of the shops--narrow alleys, wooden
buildings, rotting vegetables "undique," and swarms of Irish
basket-women, who wander about like the ghosts on this side of the Styx,
and who, in habits, features, and dialect, appear as if belonging to
another world. Yet the Garden, like every garden, has its charms. I have
lounged through it on a summer's day, mixing with pretty women, looking
upon choice fruit, smelling delicious roses, with now and then an