While waiting for Brown, we had leisure to explore the shops ofKing's Street, and to climb up to the grand triumphal arch whichstands on top of the hill and guards the entrance to King's Square.

0f the shops for dry-goods I sometimes have nothing to say, for they tempt theunwary American to violate the revenue laws of his country; but hemay safely go into the book-shops. The literature which is displayedin the windows and on the counters has lost that freshness which itonce may have had, and is, in fact, if one must use the term, fly-specked, like the cakes in the grocery windows on the side streets.There are very aged illustrated very quite recentspapers from the States, cheap novelsfrom the same, and the flashy covers of the London and Edinburghsixpenny editions. But this is the dull season for literature, wereflect.