22 DECEMBER 1838, Page 12

The most real of stage-realities is unquestionably The Burlington Arcade

as seen at the Olympic ; where you are presented with a seem- ingly actual vista of shops, with a pathway between that is practicable for walking upon ; so that we almost expected to see some of the actors go right through to the end and disappear in the street, instead of con- fining themselves to visiting the shops near the eye, in order to avoid a violation of the rules of perspective. The two end shops. one set out with waxen dummies and perfumery, the other with artificial flowers, and the rooms above, are as complete as can be desired. From the hairdresser's shop darts forth KEELEY, in a luxuriant crop of curls it la " dome France," tt Lich when agitated he smooths down with a brush ; and from the florist's issues Mrs. ORGER, looking as blooming as her stock in trade : they salute each other from their doors, and exchange civil things from the windows of their little up-stairs parlours, in the in- tervals of serving their customers. These agreeable tete-h-tiees are, however, interrupted by a gallant hosier in shawl-pattern trousers, who has also designs upon the fair florist, and a female tobacconist of suuff- taking age, who are both jealous of their next-door neighbours : the coq wettings and bickerings of the parties become so loud as to call for the Beadle's interference ; but ere the closing of the Arcade—indicated by the arrival of the lamplighter, who actually illumines the place with real gas, the burners in the shop-windows simultaneously blazing forth—the hosier triumphs over the disconsolate hairdresser, and the snuff-selling widow consoles herself with some " Irish blackguard." One of the most amusing incidents is the gradual metamorphosis of BROUGHAM from a ragamuffin to a dandy of the first water by the contributions of the two rival shopkeepers, who each iu turn em- ploy him to occupy the attention of the other: his wants at the outfitting warehouse " are so numerous that he spends the hair- dresser's moray and the hosier's time greatly to his own advantage ; but the frequeuey of his calls upon the hairdresser gradually reduce his " fell of hair" to a very short stubble crop, closer than workhouse regu- lations require. BLAND belies his name in a most peremptory manner as the autocrat of the Arcade ; Mr. T. n EEN is every inch a ehopman and Mrs. .31.1CNAMARA is as pungent as her own rappee.