is to be found: some knock off a
nose or a finger, others deface a frieze or a mullion from sheer
love of havoc, others chip off some unmeaning fragment as a
relique or object of curiosity; but the most general taste seems
to be that of carving names or initials, and some of the ancient
figures are completely tattooed with these barbarous engravings:
this propensity I believe to be peculiar to our nation, and not
to be found in any part of the Continent, where, indeed, it would
probably not be permitted, and where detection and punishment
would speedily overtake the offender. It is quite disgusting to
see the venerable form of a knight templar or a mitred abbot
scarred all over with the base patronymics of Jones and Tomkins,
or with a whole alphabet of their initials.

July 7th, 1839 {p.224}

I came to town yesterday from Basingstoke by railroad; found that
Lady Flora Hastings was dead, and a great majority in the House
of Lords in favour of an Address to the Crown against the
proposed Committee of Council on Education, the Bishop of London
having made an extraordinarily fine speech.

July 14th, 1839 {p.224}

Nothing new; proceedings in Parliament very languid. The Queen
has appointed Lady Sandwich very dexterously, for she gets one of
the favoured Paget race and the wife of a Tory peer, thereby
putting an end to the exclusively Whig composition of the
Household. This is a concession with regard to _the principle_.

July 19th, 1839 {p.225}

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S ANGRY VEIN.]

There have been angry debates in the Lords about the Birmingham
riots, chiefly remarkable for the excitement, so unlike his usual
manner, exhibited by the Duke of Wellington, who assailed the
Government with a fierceness which betrayed him into much
exaggeration and some injustice. Lord Tavistock, who, although a
partisan, is a fair one, and who has a great esteem and respect
for the Duke, told me that he had seen and heard him with great
pain, and that his whole tone was alarmingly indicative of a
decay of mental power. This is not the first time that such a
suspicion has been excited: George Villiers told me, soon after
he came over, how much struck he had been with the change he
observed in him, and from whatever cause, he is become in
speaking much more indistinct and embarrassed, continually
repeating and not always intelligible, but his speeches, when
reported, present much the same appearance, and the sense and
s