THE ROOKERY.
IT has a sweet sylvan sound " the Rookery : the name is redo- lent of pleasing associations, old manor-houses, and time-honoured cathedrals. It is a relic of aboriginal London " the Rookery ": the busy tide of traffic divides at its apex in Tottenham Court Road, and sweeps on either side of it along Great Russell Street and Broad Street St. Giles's, leaving in rude primitive simplicity the delta enclosed by these two streets and the thoroughfare rejoicing in the names of Plumtree Court and Charlotte Street Bloomsbury. The erring passenger, who may stray into the purlieus of the Rookery, feels at once that he has got into a world in which he is a stranger, and gets out of it as quickly as he would out of a real rookery when swarming with branchers, and for pretty nearly the same reason—regard to cleanliness. These are portentous times for the ancient ruralities of Eng- land, both Rookeries and Corn-fields. Five houses in Plum- tree Court are at this moment undergoing the process of demo- lition, by order, it is said, of the Woods and Forests. And though the Woods and Forests are as silent as Sir ROBERT PEEL with regard to what is to come next, yet do they wave " an em- browned horror" over the vacant space. As the country gentle- men, while listening to Mr. GLADSTONE, felt convinced that the opening of the Tariff was but the beginning of a road to be driven through the Corn-laws, so do the natives of the Rookery feel as- sured that it is in contemplation to join the open space in Plum- tree Court with the open space in Tottenham Court Road, by a street which shall let the garish eye of day penetrate into their dim and cool recesses. Awful times 1 when Woods and Forests have so little sympathy for Rookeries.
A public meeting of the Rooks has been held in this terrible emergency ; but the general spirit of despondency precluded the adoption of any measures to stem the torrent of innovation. All present appeared to feel, with Dr. CHALMERS, that their season of effort had passed away. One or two of the leaders took blame to themselves that they had not, while it was yet time, adopted pre- cautions for uniting the inhabitants of the Rookery and the rest of the Landed interest into one great league for common defence ; but all were weighed down by the conviction that it was now too late. " We have, with culpable hauteur," said the Nestor of the tribe, " stood aloof from our natural allies the Country Gentlemen, expecting them to make the first advances. Perhaps they were animated by a similar false pride. Both are about to he punished for this fault."
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