SIR WALTER SCOTT 191 A FASHIONABLE BEAUTY OF 1837. _By A. E. Chalon, R.A._ 193 LORD TENNYSON AS A YOUNG MAN. _From the Picture by Sir T. Lawrence, R.A._ 196 MATTHEW ARNOLD 200 CHARLES DARWIN 201 HOLLAND HOUSE 203 LETTING CHILDREN DOWN A COAL-MINE. _From a Plate in ‘The Westminster Review’_ 225 CHILDREN WORKING IN A COAL-MINE. _From a Plate in ‘The Westminster Review’_ 229 LONDON STREET CHARACTERS, 1837. _From a Drawing by John Leech_ 231 MARSHALSEA--THE COURTYARD. _From a Drawing by C. A. Vanderhoof_ 239 [Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1839. (From a Drawing by R. J. LANE, A.R.A.)] FIFTY YEARS AGO. CHAPTER I. GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, AND THE COLONIES. I propose to set before my readers a picture of the country as it was when Queen Victoria (God save the Queen!) ascended the throne, now fifty years ago and more. It will be a picture of a time so utterly passed away and vanished that a young man can hardly understand it. I, who am no longer, unhappily, quite so young as some, and whose babyhood heard the cannon of the Coronation, can partly understand this time, because in many respects, and especially in the manners of the middle class, customs and habits which went out of fashion in London lingered in the country towns, and formed part of my own early experiences. [Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE CORONATION NUMBER OF ‘THE SUN’--ONE PAPER, AND ONE MAN WHO CAN READ IT IN THE TOWN]