Browne, at which the audience grew so tumultuous in their applause
that they drowned my figure of speech before it was half out of my mouth.
After rising from table, Lord ------ and I talked about our respective
oratorical performances; and he appeared to have a perception that he is
not naturally gifted in this respect. I like Lord ------, and wish that
it were possible that we might know one another better. If a nobleman
has any true friend out of his own class, it ought to be a republican.
Nothing further of interest happened at the banquet, and the next morning
came out the newspapers with the reports of my speech, attributing to me
a variety of forms of ragged nonsense, which, poor speaker as I am, I was
quite incapable of uttering.
May 10th.--The winter is over, but as yet we scarcely have what ought to
be called spring; nothing but cold east-winds, accompanied with sunshine,
however, as east-winds generally are in this country. All milder winds
seem to bring rain. The grass has been green for a month,--indeed, it
has never been entirely brown,--and now the trees and hedges are
beginning to be in foliage. Weeks ago the daisies bloomed, even in the
sandy grass-plot bordering on the promenade beneath our front windows;
and in the progress of the daisy, and towards its consummation, I saw the
propriety of Burns's epithet, "wee, modest, crimson-nipped flower,"--its
little white petals in the bud being fringed all round with crimson,
which fades into pure white when the flower blooms.
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