sraeli is one of those who have felt most vividly and expressed most
gaily the peculiar physical beauty of London. He saw the Park as the
true Londoner sees it--when "the chestnuts are in silver bloom, and the
pink may has flushed the thorns, and banks of sloping turf are radiant
with plots of gorgeous flowers; when the water glitters in the sun, and
the air is fragrant with that spell which only can be found in
metropolitan mignonette." He describes as no one else has ever done with
equal mastery a stately and successful house-party in a great country
mansion. He had developed, when he composed _Lothair_, a fuller sense of
beauty than he had ever possessed before, but it revelled in forms that
were partly artificial and partly fabulous. An example of these forms
may now be welcome:--

"Mr. Giles took an early easy opportunity of apprising Lady
Farringford that she had nearly met Cardinal Grandison at dinner,
and that his Eminence would certainly pay his respects to Mrs.
Putney Giles in the evening. As Lady Farringford was at present a
high ritualist, and had even been talked of as 'going to Rome,'
this intelligence was stunning, and it was observed that her
Ladyship was unusually subdued during the whole of the second
course.

"On the right of Lothair sate the wife of a Vice-Chancellor, a
quiet and pleasing lady, to whom Lothair, with natural good
breeding, paid snatches of happy attention, when he could for a
moment with propriety withdraw himself from the blaze of
Apollonia's coruscating conversation. Then there was a rather
fierce-looking Red Ribbon, medalled as well as be-starred, and the
Red Ribbon's wife, with a blushing daughter, in spite of her
parentage not yet accustomed to stand fire. A partner and his
unusually numerous family had the pleasure also of seeing Lothair
for the first time, and there were no less than four M.P.'s, one of
whom was even in office.

"Apollonia was stating to Lothair, with brilliant perspicuity, the
reasons which quite induced her to believe that the Gulf Stream had
changed its course, and the political and social consequences that
might accrue.

"'The religious sentiment of the Southern races must be wonderfully
affected by a more rigorous climate,' said Apollonia. 'I cannot
doubt,' she continued, 'that a series of severe winters at Rome
might