e cursed
because he enjoyed too much happiness in this world." He gave lessons to
Miss Brassey, and "enjoyed the repose of country life in the midst of
a family circle all cordially devoted to him." In November he was the
guest at two Guildhall banquets--that of the outgoing Lord Mayor on the
5th and that of his successor on the 9th. Of these entertainments he
has left a curious account, and as the memorandum is in English it
may, perhaps, be reproduced here. It runs as follows in Lady Wallace's
translation of the letters:

I was invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 5. At the
first table, No. 1, the new Lord Mayor and his wife dined, the Lord
Chancellor, the two sheriffs, the Duke of Lids [Leeds], the minister
Pitt, and others of the highest rank in the Cabinet. I was seated at
No. 2 with Mr Sylvester, the most celebrated advocate and first King's
counsel in London. In this hall, called the Geld Hall [Guildhall], were
six tables, besides others in the adjoining room. About twelve hundred
persons altogether dined, and everything was in the greatest splendour.
The dishes were very nice and well dressed. Wines of every kind in
abundance. We sat down to dinner at six o'clock and rose from table
at eight. The guests accompanied the Lord Mayor both before and after
dinner in their order of precedence. There were various ceremonies,
sword bearing, and a kind of golden crown, all attended by a band of
wind instruments. After dinner, the whole of the aristocratic guests of
No. 1 withdrew into a private room prepared for them, to have tea and
coffee, while the rest of the company were conducted into another room.
At nine o'clock No. 1 repaired to a small saloon, when the ball began.
There was a raised platform in this room, reserved for the highest
nobility, where the Lord Mayor and his wife were seated on a throne.
Dancing then commenced in due order of precedence, but only one couple
at a time, just as on January 6, the King's birthday. There were raised
benches on both sides of this room with four steps, where the fair sex
chiefly prevailed. Nothing but minuets were danced in this saloon, but
I could only remain for a quarter of an hour, first, because the heat of
so many people assembled in such a narrow space was so oppressive, and,
secondly, on account of the bad music for dancing, the whole orchestra
consisting of two violins and a violoncello; the minuets were more in
the Polish style than in our own, or that o