From this place we wandered into what I believe to be Hyde Park,
attracted by a gigantic figure on horseback, which loomed up in the
distance. The effect of this enormous steed and his rider is very grand,
seen in the misty atmosphere. I do not understand why we did not see St.
James's Palace, which is situated, I believe, at the extremity of the
same range of mansions of which Stafford House is the opposite end. From
the entrance of Hyde Park, we seem to have gone along Piccadilly, and,
making two or three turns, and getting bewildered, I put S----- and the
children into a cab, and sent them home. Continuing my wanderings, I
went astray among squares of large aristocratic-looking edifices, all
apparently new, with no shops among them, some yet unfinished, and the
whole seeming like a city built for a colony of gentlefolks, who might be
expected to emigrate thither in a body. It was a dreary business to
wander there, turning corner after corner, and finding no way of getting
into a less stately and more genial region. At last, however, I passed
in front of the Queen's Mews, where sentinels were on guard, and where a
jolly-looking man, in a splendidly laced scarlet coat and white-topped
boots, was lounging at the entrance. He looked like the prince of grooms
or coachmen. . . . .
The corner of Hyde Park was within a short distance, and I took a Hansom
at the cab-stand there, and drove to the American Despatch Agency, 26
Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, having some documents of state to be
sent by to-day's steamer.
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