94 KALM S ENGLAND. 



The 13th May, 1748. 

 To-day the Session of Parliament was closed for this 

 season, when King George II., at 2 o'clock in the after- 

 noon [T. I. p. 400], went up to Parliament to deliver 

 part of the Articles of Peace [Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle] 

 and to take leave of the House, because His Majesty was 

 intending to cross to Holland the same or the following 

 day, and then to go on to his hereditary land in Hanover. 

 I had one of the best opportunities there could be to see 

 him both long and well because I stood in the front row 

 both when he went in and came out of Parliament, just 

 where he alighted from his carriage. When he had got 

 out of Parliament and had sat down in his carriage he 

 remained a short time before he drove away from the 

 Houses of Parliament, talking to the Duke of Richmond, 

 who afterwards accompanied him in the carriage. 

 Besides, when he went in to the Parliament House and 

 also when he came out and entered his carriage the 

 crowd raised a cry or shout of joy. Some among them 

 cried out "God bless the King"— that is, Gild valsigne 



Konungen. 



Ranelagh House. — In the evening I visited Ranelagh 

 House, which is a little out of Chelsea on the London 

 side, where the youth of both sexes, and the elder people 

 go to divert themselves. Ranelagh House is reckoned 

 one of the largest halls in Europe. It is built nearly round, 

 and has only a pillar in the middle. Here, in the summer 

 there is Instrumental and Vocal Music almost every evening, 

 and now and then in the mornings. Those who wish to 

 go in there must pay a shilling. Round about the house 

 is a large garden with many alUes planted with high 

 hedges on both sides. On all sides within the house 

 there are built by the wall, as it were, small [T. I. p. 401] 

 Contoirs, which were quite open to the hall itself. 



In the middle of this division, afstangningen, 



