proceeded slowly and
majestically towards the river, through a fog, which prevented our being
advantageously seen, and which got down the throat of the sword bearer,
who coughed incessantly during our progress, much to my annoyance, not
to speak of the ungraceful movements which his convulsive barkings gave
to the red velvet scabbard of the official glave as it stuck out of the
window of the coach.

We embarked in _my_ barge; a new scene of splendour awaited me, guns,
shouts, music, flags, banners, in short, every thing that fancy could
paint or a water bailiff provide; there, in the gilded bark, was
prepared a cold collation--I ate, but tasted nothing--fowls, _pates_,
tongue, game, beef, ham, all had the same flavour; champagne, hock, and
Madeira were all alike to _me_--Lord Mayor was all I saw, all I heard,
all I swallowed; every thing was pervaded by the one captivating word,
and the repeated appeal to "my lordship" was sweeter than nectar.

At Westminster, having been presented and received, I desired--I--John
Ebenezer Scropps, of Coventry--I desired the Recorder to invite the
judges to dine with me--I--who remember when two of the oldest and most
innocent of the twelve, came the circuit, trembling at the sight of
them, and believing them some extraordinary creatures upon whom all the
hair and fur I saw, grew naturally--I, not only to ask these formidable
beings to dine with me, but, as if I thought it beneath my dignity to do
so in my proper person, deputing a judge of my own to do it for me; I
never shall forget their bows in return--Chinese mandarins on a
chimney-piece are fools to them.

Then came the return--we landed once more in the scene of my dignity--at
the corner of Fleet Street we found the Lady Mayoress waiting for the
procession--there she was--Sally Scropps (her maiden name was
Snob)--there was my own Sally, with a plume of feathers that half filled
the coach, and Jenny and Maria and young Sally, all with their backs to
_my_ horses, which were pawing the mud and snorting and smoking like
steam engines, with nostrils like safety valves, and four of _my_
footmen hanging behind the coach, like bees in a swarm. There had not
been so much riband in my family since my poor father's failure at
Coventry--and yet how often, over and over again, although he had been
dead more than twenty years, did I, during that morning, in the midst of
my splendour, think of _him_, and wish that he could see me in my
great