] ] `There is a very clever essay in one of the books upstairs upon much such a subject, about young girls that have been spoilt for home by great acquaintance--The Mirror, I think'.... Anyone here know anything about the essay, or The Mirror?

] I have four copies of The Mirror , which was a bound literary anthology containing short novels, biographies, memoirs, essays and suchlike. I don't have the issue containing that particular essay, alas. (Mind you, I do have the volume containing Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron - A Gothic Story. In her introduction, Reeve describes this new form of literature in some detail. I think it's the first use of the word Gothic in a literary sense. I'll copy out the intro tomorrow, if it isn't already available online.)

] Anyway, the OUP edition of NA has the following footnote about The Mirror essay which Mrs Morland tries to find:

] 'The Mirror' - doubtless No. XII, Saturday, March 6 1779: Consequence to little folks of intimacy with great ones, in a letter form John Homespun. The habits of dissipation and almost of profligacy (cards on Sunday and a doubt of the immortality of the soul) contracted by Mr. Homespun's daughters during a visit to Lady_________ are sufficiently unlike poor Catherine's listlessness or her fancy for French-bread. We may suspect that Miss Austen is amusing herself at Mrs. Morland's expense, if not at ours.