The business of forwarding despatches to
America, and distributing them to the various legations and consulates in
Europe, must be a pretty extensive one; for Mr. Miller has a large
office, and two clerks in attendance.
From this point I went through Covent Garden Market, and got astray in
the city, so that I can give no clear account of my afternoon's
wanderings. I passed through Holborn, however, and I think it was from
that street that I passed through an archway (which I almost invariably
do, when I see one), and found myself in a very spacious, gravelled
square, surrounded on the four sides by a continuous edifice of dark
brick, very plain, and of cold and stern aspect. This was Gray's Inn,
all tenanted by a multitude of lawyers. Passing thence, I saw
"Furnival's Inn" over another archway, but, being on the opposite side of
the street, I did not go thither. In Holborn, still, I went through
another arched entrance, over which was "Staples Inn," and here likewise
seemed to be offices; but, in a court opening inwards from this, there
was a surrounding seclusion of quiet dwelling-houses, with beautiful
green shrubbery and grass-plots in the court, and a great many sunflowers
in full bloom. The windows were open; it was a lovely summer afternoon,
and I have a sense that bees were humming in the court, though this may
have been suggested by my fancy, because the sound would have been so
well suited to the scene. A boy was reading at one of the windows.
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