fine.  Two handsome halls are still preserved:  one, the ceiling of which is garnished, at the crossing and combining of the arches, with the recurring heads of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn—­great stinginess in Henry, for these ornaments must have been put up after Wolsey’s fall.  He could surely afford a diversity of this species of ornament if any man could.  Formerly, when the palace was completely a fishing-house, it extended into, or rather over, the river.  We had a good dinner from Walter, and wended merrily home.

April 21.—­Dining is the principal act of the day in London.  We took ours at Kensington with Croker.  There were Theodore Hook and other witty men.  He looks unhealthy and bloated.  There was something, I know not what, awanting to the cheerfulness of the party.  And

    “Silence like a heavy cloud,
    O’er all the warriors hung.”

If the general report of Croker’s retiring be accurate, it may account for this.

April 22.—­Sophia left this to take down poor Johnnie to Brighton.  I fear—­I fear—­but we must hope the best.  Anne went with her sister.

Lockhart and I dined with Sotheby, where we met a large dining party, the orator of which was that extraordinary man Coleridge.  After eating a hearty dinner, during which he spoke not a word, he began a most learned harangue on the Samothracian Mysteries, which he considered as affording the germ of all tales about fairies past, present, and to come.  He then diverged to Homer, whose Iliad he considered as a collection of poems by different authors, at different times during a century.  There was, he said, the individuality of an age, but not of a country.  Morritt, a zealous worshipper of the old bard, was incensed at a system which would turn him into a polytheist, gave battle with keenness, and was joined by Sotheby, our host.  Mr. Coleridge behaved with the utmost complaisance and temper, but relaxed not from his exertions.  “Zounds!  I was never so bethumped with words.”  Morritt’s impatience; must have cost him an extra sixpence worth of snuff.[174]

We went to Lady Davy’s in the evening, where there was a fashionable party.

April 23.—–­ Dined at Lady Davy’s with Lord and Lady Lansdowne, and several other fashionable folks.  My keys were sent to Bramah’s with my desk, so I have not had the means of putting matters down regularly for several days; but who cares for the whipp’d cream of London society?  Our poor little Johnnie is extremely ill.  My fears have been uniform for this engaging child.  We are in God’s hands.  But the comfortable and happy object of my journey is ended,—­Seged, Emperor of Ethiopia,[175] was right after all.

April 24.—­Spent the day in rectifying a road bill which drew a turnpike road through all the Darnickers’ cottages, and a good field of my own.  I got it put to rights.  I was in some apprehension of being obliged to address the Committee.  I did not fear them, for I suppose they are no wiser or better in their capacity of legislators than I find them every day at dinner.  But I feared for my reputation.  They would have expected something better than the occasion demanded, or the individual could produce, and there would have been a failure.