Before and after Waterloo: Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802; 1814; 1816) — John Shaqi
Before and after Waterloo: Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802; 1814; 1816)Stanley, Edward
History
Before and after Waterloo: Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802; 1814; 1816)
Stanley, Edward
Europe -- Description and travel; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
In the middle of Edward's sermon at St. George's to-day somebody in our
pew whispered it round that there was the King of Prussia[35] in the
Gallery. I looked as directed, and fixed my eyes on a melancholy,
pensive, interesting face, exactly answering the descriptions of the
King, and immediately fell into a train of very satisfactory reflection
and conjecture on the expression of his physiognomy, for which twenty
minutes afforded me ample time. The King was the only one I had not
seen, therefore this opportunity of studying his face so completely was
particularly valuable. When the prayer after the sermon was concluded,
my informer said the King was gone, when, to my utter disappointment, I
beheld my Hero still standing in the Gallery, and discovered I had
pitched upon a wrong person, and wasted all my observations on a face
that it did not really signify whether it looked merry or sad, and
entirely missed the sight of the real King, who was in the next pew.
Nothing but his sending to offer Edward a Chaplaincy in Berlin for his
excellent sermon can possibly console me, except, indeed, the _honour by
itself_ of having preached before a King of Prussia, which can never
happen again in his life.
...The Duchess of Oldenburg took all the merchants by surprise the other
day. They had no idea she was coming to their dinner; she was the only
lady, and she was rather a nuisance to them, as they had provided a
hundred musicians, who could not perform, as she cannot bear music.[36]
She was highly amused at the scene and with their "Hip! Hip!"
MONDAY, _June 23, 1814_.
At our dinner Mr. Tennant came in late, with many apologies, but really
he had been hunting the Emperor--waiting for him two hours at one place
and two hours at another, and came away at last without seeing him at
all.
He said, in his dry way, that "Have you seen the Emperor?" has entirely
superseded the use of "How do you do?"
In the morning he had gone into a shop to buy some gloves, and whilst he
was trying them on the shopman suddenly exclaimed, "Blücher! Blücher!"
cleared the counter at a leap, followed by all the apprentices, and Mr.
Tennant remained soberly amongst the gloves to make his own selection,
for he saw nothing more of his dealers.
Rooms are letting to-day in the City at 60 guineas a room, or a guinea a
seat for the procession. Tickets for places to see it from White's to be
had at Hookham's for 80 guineas; 50 have been refused.
Your letter revived me after five hours' walking and standing, and
running after reviews, &c.
I did see the King of Prussia, to be sure, and the Prince, and the
people climbing up the trees like the grubs on the gooseberry bushes,
and heard the _feu de joie_, whose crescendo and diminuendo was very
fine indeed, but altogether it was not worth the trouble of being tired
and squeezed for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account