LONDON STREETS. 463 



eye with a smile of triumph, as the headman's axe falls upon the 

 neck of the royal sufferer." 



" Your picture is gloomy enough ; but let us walk on, or we may 

 lose our morning in pursuing its history farther down. The bones 

 and the lances of the De Burghs are become dust. Wolsey, Henry, 

 and Elizabeth, have left little material trace of their footsteps : and 

 James and his unhappy son, with the profligate ' Merry Monarch ; ' 

 and Buckingham; and Rochester, with his license and his jest, his 

 ' quip and his crank ; ' and the bigoted and narrow-minded second 

 James, are notorious only for their follies. Let us on ;" and taking 

 his arm, we sauntered till he paused before Northumberland House. 



" Here was given the death-blow to the race," said he, " who 

 purged us of prerogative ; for it was here that Monck, on whose 

 decision hung the destiny of the empire, and whose cautious move- 

 ments have never yet been impartially and critically examined, 

 allied himself with the royalists, and placed the second Charles on 

 the throne." 



" Nothing surprises me so much about London Street architecture 

 as that our builders having before their eyes the model we are now 

 looking at, and the one we have just left, should have tortured their 

 brains to construct the 'hodge-podge' order of architecture which 

 disgraces our newest streets : would that Wren had been alive, or 

 that he had left his mantle behind him ! what a magnificent West 

 End we should have had ! and what is more, he would now have had 

 an opportunity of working out his designs for the city." 



" A truce to the city, my friend ; we have a day in store for that. 

 Who can look on Northumberland Plouse, without glancing back 

 oh the history of the ' Princely Percies,' whose deeds are so mingled 

 up with some of the most remarkable of our social epochs? Had 

 history said little, Shakspeare would have carried down their name 

 to posterity by his masterly portraiture of him, 



' Who was, indeed, the glass 

 Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.' 



With the exception of Mercutio, Hotspur J consider as the most 

 brilliant male character of the Bard of Human Nature." 



"He is so; but Shakspeare has given him higher qualities than 

 mere brilliancy. He 



' Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on 

 To bloody battles, and to bruising arms,' 



and was no less eminent in counsel than valiant in action." 



" Speaking of Hotspur, brings to my mind the address of Henry 

 to Prince Hal. You know my aristocratic prejudices, and how 

 much I hate the mingling of the antipodes of society. I always 

 considered it as one of the finest kingly pieces of advice. I will 

 repeat it to you as we walk past the spectre, the ' lean anatomy ' at 

 the head of Trafalgar Square. I wish the wings of the angels, if 

 they are meant for angels, had been a few inches larger, and then, 

 like Imlac's flying philosopher, they might have managed to have 



