England is the true land of contrasts--'du haut et du bas' at every step. Thus, even in elegant houses in the country, coachmen and grooms wait at dinner, and are not always free from the odour of the stable. At the second breakfast, the 'luncheon,' which is served a few hours after the first, and is generally eaten only by the women (who like to make 'la petite bouche' at dinner,) there are no napkins, and altogether less neatness and elegance than at the other meals. This as parenthesis:--I now return to the 'order of the day.' When the men have drunk as much as they wish, they go in search of tea, coffee, and the ladies, and remain for some hours with them, though without mixing much. To-day, for instance, I observed the company was distributed in the following manner. Our suffering host lay on the sofa, dosing a little; five ladies and gentlemen were very attentively reading in various sorts of books (of this number I was one, having some views of parks before me;) another had been playing for a quarter of an hour with a long-suffering dog; two old Members of Parliament were disputing vehemently about the 'Corn Bill;' and the rest of the company were in a dimly-lighted room adjoining, where a pretty girl was playing on the piano-forte, and another, with a most perforating voice, singing ballads. I cannot help remarking here, that Lord and Lady D---- are among the most enlightened, unpretending, and therefore most agreeable, of the people of rank here. He is of the moderate Opposition, and desires the real good of his country, and nothing else; a patriot wholly devoid of egotism,--the noblest title that a cultivated man can bear. She is goodness, cordiality, and unpretendingness itself. A light supper of cold meats and fruits is brought, at which every one helps himself, and shortly after midnight all retire. A number of small candlesticks stand ready on a side-table; every man takes his own, and lights himself up to bed; for the greater part of the servants, who have to rise early, are, as is fair and reasonable, gone to bed. The eternal sitting of servants in an ante-room is not the custom here; and except at appointed times, when their services are expected, they are little seen, and one waits on oneself. At night I found a most excellent chintz bed with a canopy. It was so enormously large that I lay like an icicle in it,--for the distant fire was too remote to give any sensible warmth. _February 5th._