Manners & Cvstoms of ye Englyshe: Drawn from ye QvickDoyle, Richard
General
Manners & Cvstoms of ye Englyshe: Drawn from ye Qvick
Doyle, Richard
Caricatures and cartoons -- Great Britain; England -- Social life and customs -- Pictorial works
sour and glum, and plainly ill at ease in their Pride and Vanity. But it
divert me much to compare the delicate Children with some Charity-School
Urchins on the other Side of the Wall that did anger the Park Keeper by
mocking him. I doubt me that the young Leatherbreeches be not the
happier as long as they can get a Bellyful of Victuals. The Company
doubtless enjoying themselves after their Fashion, but in general
looking marvellous grave; and strange to shut my Eyes between the Tunes
and to hear Nothing but the Rustling of Dresses and a Murmur of Voices
as they did walk up and down. It is wonderful how we English do go
through our Amusements after the Manner of a solemn Ceremony. Yet do the
people of Fashion in Kensington Gardens make an exceeding rare Show; and
I do only wish that there were no Reverse of the Picture to be seen
among us. But their Finery do afford Employment to Work-People, and I do
thank them for parading themselves for my Amusement, and the Officers of
the Guards for treating the Town to Musique, and so giving Occasion to
such a fine Spectacle.
[Illustration: _HYGHEST COURT OF LAW IN YE KYNGDOM. YE LORDS HEARYNG
APPEALS._
THURSDAY, _June 7, 1849_.]
Up, and to the House of Lords, where a Committee of Privileges touching
a disputed Peerage, but I did only go for a Sight of the Inside of the
House, well worth seeing; and the Carving, and Gilding, and Blazoning, a
rich Feast to the Eye. There present none but my LORD BROUGHAM and my
LORD CAMPBELL, and three or four other Lords, but a smaller Muster do
often serve for a Court of Appeal; for their Lordships do trust all
their Law Business to the Law-Lords' Hands. Counsel speaking at the Bar
of the House, and the Clerks of the House before them at the Table, all
in their Wigs very stately, but my Lords lolling on the Benches, free
and easy, they only having the Right to make themselves at Home, yet
droll to see the Officers of the House forced to stand, but some of them
leaning against the Stems of the gilt Candlesticks, fast asleep on their
Legs. Did think I should go to sleep too, if I stayed much longer, and
about to depart; but glad I did not; for presently the Counsel made an
End, and then my LORD BROUGHAM examining a Witness was almost the best
Sport that I ever had in my Life. The Witness, one of the Attornies for
the Claimant of the Title, and LORD BROUGHAM suspecting some Trickery in
the Case, and good Lack! how he did bait and ferret him to draw it out,
asking the most peremptory Questions, and sometimes a second before the
first could be answered, firking with Impatience like one smarting with
Stinging Nettles: which was great Mirth. It did well-nigh cause me to
laugh outright, and commit a Breach of Privilege, to hear him in a Fume,
echo the Witness's Answers, and cry Eh? What! How! Why? and Wherefore?
and demand how he could do this, or came not to do the other, and how
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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