The Merry Past 



tea or coffee, as the night came on they returned home 

 to sleep off the fatigue of the day. They went to 

 business the next morning, and continued the same 

 kind of life every day but Sunday throughout the 

 year. 



The middle class of citizens thought a good deal 

 of themselves, and merchants and bankers carried 

 their superiority with the very highest hand. They 

 had country residences for their summer abodes, 

 but in the winter they lived in the City ; they as- 

 sociated, however, with their own class only, for they 

 had not then found their way to the West End. 



The magnates of the City had little idea of art, 

 which was more understood and appreciated by the 

 aristocracy, not a few of whom had travelled abroad. 



When the hero of the Nile and of Trafalgar was 

 the universal idol of the country, many public bodies 

 resolved to decorate their halls with his- life-size 

 and full-length portrait, and as there was not at that 

 time much employment for artists, orders for those 

 portraits became serious objects for competition. 

 A certain Worshipful City Company determined to 

 purchase a portrait of Nelson, and on the suggestion 

 of one of its members, the Court of Assistants gave 

 a select dinner, to which an artist, with whom they 

 were advised to treat for the picture, was invited, 

 in order that he might state his price, and describe 

 the proposed painting. The dinner was excellent, 

 though there were certainly some very odd fish among 

 the guests. After the feast was ended, and a good 

 quantity of wine consumed, the business of the even- 



204 



