266 HOME LIFE IN LONDON CHAP. 



" goes pleased away from visiting my uncle doctor, who 

 studies to gratify their different tastes, and has it in his 

 power to do so. How happy must it make a mind as 

 benevolent as his, at once to oblige people and to do them 

 .a real service ! " The household attended " meetings " 

 with diligence : going twice, often three times, on the 

 first day of the week, to Westminster or the Savoy 

 meeting-houses ; as well as on two week-days, when they 

 most commonly joined the throng at Gracious (Grace- 

 church) Street, or attended Devonshire House or Peel. 

 There was no lack of occasions for meditation and calm 

 reflection. Quotations from the " Night Thoughts," 

 and allusions to Thomson and Mrs. Macaulay, " Rasselas " 

 and " The Rambler," suggest the literary atmosphere of 

 the family. 



The recreations were, as may be supposed, of a quiet 

 order ; no theatres or concerts, but an occasional outing, 

 to see the queen's elephants and zebra, the wax-works in 

 Fleet Street (no doubt Solomon's, precursor to Madame 

 Tussaud), or an exhibition of foreign paintings in St. 

 Martin's Lane, or again " the [British] Museum, that 

 famous collection of curiosities," then in Montague 

 House, Great Russell Street : strange to add, they also 

 went in the doctor's coach to the Guildhall, to see the 

 Lottery drawn. Another day they viewed a " curious 

 model of Paris " at Exeter Change, or a " collection of 

 dried birds " in Co vent Garden. 



They were witness too of some stirring scenes, for the 

 metropolis was then a centre of strong political feeling, 

 hostile to the Court. The Londoners were " jealous of the 

 least infringement of their liberty ; they will stick at 

 nothing to defend it." One day they seemed to be 

 " preparing for a universal revel," because " their favourite 

 patriot Wilkes was to be set at liberty from the King's 

 Bench Prison." Again, the sisters saw the king (George 

 the Third) pass to the House of Lords, with Lord Denbigh 

 and the Duke of Ancaster. " He was dressed in pale 

 blue, with his fine (natural or artificial) flaxen hair hanging 

 in graceful ringlets down his back. He was leaning 



