I could not help thinking, as I looked around on so many men whom I had heard of historically all my life, how very much less they bear the marks of age than men who have been connected a similar length of time with the movements of our country.  This appearance of youthfulness and alertness has a constantly deceptive influence upon one in England.  I cannot realize that people are as old as history states them to be.  In the present company there were men of sixty or seventy, whom I should have pronounced at the first glance to be fifty.

Generally speaking our working minds seem to wear out their bodies faster; perhaps because our climate is more stimulating; more, perhaps, from the intenser stimulus of our political regime, which never leaves any thing long at rest.

The tone of manners in this distinguished circle did not obtrude itself upon my mind as different from that of highly-educated people in our own country.  It appeared simple, friendly, natural, and sincere.  They talked like people who thought of what they were saying, rather than how to say it.  The practice of thorough culture and good breeding is substantially the same through the world, though smaller conventionalities may differ.

After lunch the whole party ascended to the picture gallery, passing on our way the grand staircase and hall, said to be the most magnificent in Europe.  All that wealth could command of artistic knowledge and skill has been expended here to produce a superb result.  It fills the entire centre of the building, extending up to the roof and surmounted by a splendid dome.  On three sides a gallery runs round it supported by pillars.  To this gallery you ascend on the fourth side by a staircase, which midway has a broad, flat landing, from which stairs ascend, on the right and left, into the gallery.  The whole hall and staircase, carpeted with a scarlet footcloth, give a broad, rich mass of coloring, throwing out finely the statuary and gilded balustrades.  On the landing is a marble statue of a Sibyl, by Rinaldi.  The walls are adorned by gorgeous frescos from Paul Veronese.  What is peculiar in the arrangements of this hall is, that although so extensive, it still wears an air of warm homelikeness and comfort, as if it might be a delightful place to lounge and enjoy life, amid the ottomans, sofas, pictures, and statuary, which are disposed here and there throughout.

All this, however, I passed rapidly by as I ascended the staircase, and passed onward to the picture gallery.  This was a room about a hundred feet long by forty wide, surmounted by a dome gorgeously finished with golden palm, trees and carving.  This hall is lighted in the evening by a row of gaslights placed outside the ground glass of the dome; this light is concentrated and thrown down by strong reflectors, communicating thus the most brilliant radiance without the usual heat of gas.  This gallery is peculiarly rich in paintings of the Spanish school.  Among them are two superb Murillos, taken from convents by Marshal Soult, during the time of his career in Spain.