1831.] THE SHOPS SHUT. 2OQ 



to the shops with me and bullies about prices (not that I yet 

 buy) : hang me if I give ,60 for pistols. 



Yesterday all the shops were shut, so that I could do 

 nothing; and I was child enough to give i is. for an excel- 

 lent seat to see the Procession.* And it certainly was very 

 well worth seeing. I was surprised that any quantity of gold 

 could make a long row of people quite glitter. It was like 

 only what one sees in picture-books of Eastern processions. 

 The King looked very well, and seemed popular, but there 

 was very little enthusiasm ; so little that I can hardly think 

 there will be a coronation this time fifty years. 



The Life Guards pleased me as much as anything they 

 are quite magnificent ; and it is beautiful to see them clear 

 a crowd. You think that they must kill a score at least, 

 and apparently they really hurt nobody, but most deucedly 

 frighten them. Whenever a crowd was so dense that the 

 people were forced off the causeway, one of these six-feet 

 gentlemen, on a black horse, rode straight at the place, 

 making his horse rear very high, and fall on the thickest 

 spot. You would suppose men were made of sponge to see 

 them shrink away. 



In the evening there was an illumination, and much 

 grander than the one on the Reform Bill. All the principal 

 streets were crowded just like a race-ground. Carriages 

 generally being six abreast, and I will venture to say not 

 going one mile an hour. The Duke of Northumberland learnt 

 a lesson last time, for his house was very grand ; much more 

 so than the other great nobility, and in much better taste ; 

 every window in his house was full of straight lines of brilliant 

 lights, and from their extreme regularity and number had a 

 beautiful effect. The paucity of invention was very striking, 



his death, " in his 73rd year." He a valued office-bearer of several of 



was a man of a thoroughly amiable the learned Societies. 



and honourable character, and was * The Coronation of William IV. 



