DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 211 



day at the British Museum, I went there by invitation 

 and went through the rest of the Entomological Collection. 

 Saw Mr Children, who is a gentlemanly man, and apo- 

 logised for being unable to shew me any hospitality. I 

 knew well by sad experience how sick at heart he might 

 then be. On Sunday, to church twice. Monday even- 

 ing, the House of Lords. As we entered, the Duke of 

 Wellington was speaking. He appeared to much greater 

 advantage, and with a more commanding air, in plain 

 clothes, and with his hat off, than on horse-back in the 

 Park. He evidently rules the House of Lords, and knows 

 that he does so. He has a very fine appearance when he 

 stands up speaking. His features being large, his neck 

 rather long, and his chest broad, he has the aspect of a 

 tall man, though he is not so. As soon as he had done 

 speaking he plumped down, and pulled his hat over his 

 eyes, perhaps to shade them from the fast-failing day- 

 light which streamed upon him through the tall Gothic 

 windows. At this time there was nothing visible but a 

 hat and a large chin. As soon as a man came in with a 

 taper at the point of a long pole, to light the wax-candles 

 in three or four large chandeliers above their lordships' 

 heads, he threw himself back, pushed up his hat, and fol- 

 lowed every candle as it was lighted, from the beginning 

 to the end of the illumination, exactly as I myself, an idle, 

 unaccustomed stranger, might have done had I not been 



