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Lansdowne, ‘Van Artevelde’ Taylor, Babbage, Senior, Mrs. Villiers, and Mrs. Lister, who talked of Mrs. Newton1 with the most affectionate regard; nor of the grand fete at Lansdowne House, where I saw all the aristocracy of England; nor of the Coronation; nor of Lord Fitzwilliam's ball; nor of the twenty or thirty interesting persons I meet every day. This very week I have declined more invitations than I have accepted; and among those that I declined were invitations to dinner from Lord Denman, Lord Bexley, Mr. Senior, Mr. Mackenzie, &c.
As ever, affectionately yours,
C. S
To Judge Story.
London, July 12, 1838.
my dear Judge,—I have now been in London more than a month; but have not seen the Tower or the Tunnel, the British Museum or the theatres, the General Post-Office or Westminster Abbey (except as dressed for the Coronation): I have seen none of the sights or shows at which strangers stare.
How, then, have I passed this time, till late midnight?
In seeing society, men, courts, and parliaments.
These will soon vanish with the season; while ‘London's column’ will still point to the skies, and the venerable Abbey still hold its great interests, when men and society have dispersed.
In a few days, this immense city will be deserted; the equipages which throng it will disappear; and fashion, and wealth, and rank, and title will all hie away to the seclusion of the country.
Have I not done well, then, to ‘catch the Cynthia of the minute’? One day, I have sat in the Common Pleas at Westminster; then the Queen's Bench and Exchequer; then I have visited the same courts at their sittings at Guildhall; I have intruded into the quiet debate at Lincoln's Inn before the Chancellor; have passed to the Privy Council (the old Cockpit); have sat with my friend, Mr. Senior,2 as a Master in Chancery; with Mr. Justice Vaughan at Chambers in Serjeants' Inn; and lastly, yesterday, I sat at the Old Bailey.
This last sitting, of course, is freshest in my mind; and I must tell you something of it. Besides the aldermen, there were Justices Littledale, Park (James Allan), and Vaughan.
I was assigned a seat on the bench, and heard a trial for arson, in which Payne (Carrington & Payne) was the counsel in defence.
I was waited upon by the sheriff, and invited to dine with the judges and magistrates, at the Old Bailey.
I was quite dull, 