Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in LondonSala, George Augustus
General
Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London
Sala, George Augustus
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
horses? Does not a scion of royalty, no other than his Royal Highness the
Duke of Cambridge, frequently condescend to walk from his lodgings in the
Stable-yard, Saint James’s, across the park to those Horse Guards, whose
affairs he administers with so much ability and success? And, finally,
at the western extremity of the Mall, and on the side where once was the
Mulberry Garden, stands there not now a palace, huge in size, clumsy in
its proportions, grotesque in decoration, mean in gross, frivolous in
detail, infinitely hideous in its general appearance, but above whose
ugly roof floats that grandest and noblest of all banners, the Royal
Standard of England, and whose walls, half hospital, half barrack, as
they remind us of, are hallowed as being part of Buckingham Palace, the
abode of our good, and true, and dear Queen? She lives at the top of the
Mall. She comes out by times on the Mall, in her golden coach, with the
eight cream-coloured horses; her darling little daughter passed along
the Mall to be married; let us hope, and heartily, to see more sons and
daughters yet riding to their weddings through that field of famous
footsteps. Let us hope that we may live to throw up our caps, and cry God
bless them!
Great lords and ladies sweep the Mall no more with hoops and flowing
trains of brocaded paduasoy, nor jingle on the gravel with silver spurs,
nor crunch the minute pebbles with red heels. Broughams and chariots now
convey the salt ones of the earth to their grand assemblies and solemn
merry-makings; and the few aristocrats who may yet pedestrianise within
the precincts, are so plainly attired that you would find it difficult
to distinguish them from plain Brown or Jones walking from Pimlico to
Charing Cross. His Royal Highness strides over from the Stable-yard to
the Horse Guards in a shooting-jacket and tweed trousers, and in wet
weather carries an umbrella. Nay, I have seen another Royal Highness—a
bigger Royal Highness, so to speak, for he is consort to the Queen—riding
under the trees of the Mall on a quiet bay, and dressed in anything but
the first style of fashion. Were it not _scandalum magnatum_ even to
think such a thing, I should say that his Royal Highness’s coat was seedy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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