given to refuse her admittance; the
pageantry was renewed, and the banquet followed. The noise, heat, and
vivid light of the illumination of the hall gave me a racking headache;
at last I went out of the gallery and sat on a stair, where there was a
little fresh air, and was very glad when all was over. Years afterwards
I was present in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of our Queen, then
a pretty young girl of eighteen. Placed in the most trying position at
that early age, by her virtues, both public and private, she has
endeared herself to the nation beyond what any sovereign ever did
before.

* * * * *

I, who had so many occupations and duties at home, soon tired of the
idleness and formality of visiting in the country. I made an exception,
however, in favour of an occasional visit to Mr. Sotheby, the poet, and
his family in Epping Forest, of which, if I mistake not, he was
deputy-ranger; at all events, he had a pretty cottage there where he and
his family received their friends with kind hospitality. He spent part
of the day in his study, and afterwards I have seen him playing cricket
with his son and grandson, with as much vivacity as any of them. The
freshness of the air was quite reviving to Somerville and me; and our
two little girls played in the forest all the day.

We also gladly went for several successive years to visit Sir John
Saunders Sebright at Beechwood Park, Hertfordshire. Dr. Wollaston
generally travelled with us on these occasions, when we had much
conversation on a variety of subjects, scientific or general. He was
remarkably acute in his observations on objects as we passed them. "Look
at that ash tree; did you ever notice that the branches of the ash tree
are curves of double curvature?" There was a comet visible at the time
of one of these little journeys. Dr. Wollaston had made a drawing of the
orbit and its elements; but, having left it in town, he described the
lines so accurately without naming them, that I remarked at once, "That
is the curtate or perihelion distance," which pleased him greatly, as it
showed how accurate his description was. He was a chess-player, and,
when travelling alone, he used to carry a book with diagrams of
partially-played games, in which it is required to give checkmate in a
fixed number of moves. He would study one of them, and then, shutting
the book, play out the game mentally.

Although Sir John was a keen sportsman and ox-hunte