And Now, As I Was Sullenly
Marching Back, I Heard Something Said About A Bottle Of Wine, Which
Seemed To Be Addressed To Me.
I could not conceive what it could mean, till I got home, when my
obliging landlady told me I should have given the well-dressed man
half-a-crown, or a couple of shillings for a bottle of wine.
Happy
in this information, I went again the next day; when the same man
who before had sent me away, after I had given him only two
shillings, very politely opened the door for me, and himself
recommended me to a good seat in the gallery.
And thus I now, for the first time, saw the whole of the British
nation assembled in its representatives, in rather a mean-looking
building, that not a little resembles a chapel. The Speaker, an
elderly man, with an enormous wig, with two knotted kind of tresses,
or curls, behind, in a black cloak, his hat on his head, sat
opposite to me on a lofty chair; which was not unlike a small
pulpit, save only that in the front of there was no reading-desk.
Before the Speaker's chair stands a table, which looks like an
altar; and at this there sit two men, called clerks, dressed in
black, with black cloaks. On the table, by the side of the great
parchment acts, lies a huge gilt sceptre, which is always taken
away, and placed in a conservatory under the table, as soon as ever
the Speaker quits the chair; which he does as often as the House
resolves itself into a committee.
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