THE FALCON FAMILY; OR, YOUNG IRELAND. CHAPTER I. "Most of the hawks and owls are averse to the trouble of constructing nests for themselves. Thus the brown falcons take posression of the old nests of magpies or squirrels, to which, so far as we can learn, they never add any fresh materials, nor take any pains to repair damages or render them tidy." Rennie on Bird-Architecture. THE FALCONS ON THE WING-CONSTERNATION OF MARYLEBONEA THREATENING LETTER-THE RED ROVER AND THE GIPSYVISTATION OF THE REV. DR. HOBART-THE FREEMANS SURRENDER AT DISCRETION-SPUNGES AND THEIR CORRELATIVES—USE OF THE METALS IN THE ECONOMY OF HUMAN LIFE. TOWARDS the middle of the month of May, not three yors since, a lively sensation was produced in a circle of respectable families mostly resident in Marylebone, by the sudden arrival in town of a family of the highying name of Falcon. The sensation, upon the whole, was decidedly alarming. The Puddicomes, of Wimpole-street, quaked; the Jenkinsons, of Portland-place, were fluttered; a family of Duckworths retreated to Norwood; and the Bompases, of Bryanston-square, were divided between burning their house and starting upon a continental tour. Yet it was neither upon the Puddicomes, the Bompases, the Duckworths, or the Jenkinsons, that the Falcons first stooped. The house of a Mr. Freeman, in Harley-street, was the primary object of attack, and the Freemans had no ground for complaining of want of notice, as the following letter, received a few days before by Mrs. Freeman, from Mrs. Falcon, will satisfactorily show. "Broomfield, Stony-Stratford, May 25. "MY DEAR MRS. FREEMAN, "We are all charmed to hear you are going to Plymouth next week; the country will do you and dear Mr. Freeman so much good. I hope and trust he will benefit by the change of air and the salt water. Lady Charlotte Nostrum makes it a rule to go to Plymouth for three months after every course of the London doctors, and it infallibly sets her up, and enables her to go through it all over again the next season. Just think of our misery, obliged to go to town just when other people are thinking of leaving it, and when town is beginning to be downright odious. The Sympletones will never forgive us for running away from them so soon, but Mr. Falcon has business in London which requires his immediate presence, so we must submit to our hard fate. The Shycocks are looking out for a small house for us somewhere near |