Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/153

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MR. PIPS HIS DIARY.

Westminster Hall, Showynge ve Ceremosve of Openynge Terme.

[Friday, November 2, 1849.]

UP, and by Appointment to Mr. Wagstaffe's, and ſo with him to Weſtminfter Hall, to fee my Lord Chancellor and the Judges, after Breakfaſt with my Lord, this being the firſt Day of Michaelmas Term, open the Law Courts in State, in their Robes and Wigs. We there at 12, the Hour ſet for the Ceremony, but, we found, only for the Beginning of it by Breakfaſt, which had we thought of, we had taken our Time, as knowing that my Lords would be ſure to take theirs. Nobody in the Hall when we got there but a few Country Folk ſtaring about them; and clear that we mull have Patience, Mr. Wagstaffe did ſay, like many beſide us in Weſtminfter Hall, and think ourſelves lucky to be in no worſe Caſe. So we went out to look at the New Houſes of Parliament, and to ſee how the Maſons ſpeed with the Building, which will be mighty fine when it is done, and Mr. Transom do commend the Style, and I admire it too, both for the Proportions and alſo for the Heraldry and Lions. Then back again to the Hall, where now a few more People; and preſently comes marching in a Party of Policemen, large enough to have taken up all preſent, and yet hardly have had one Priſoner a-piece; but the Numbers did by Degrees increaſe, and were, I did note, moſtly of the better Sort; which the Police do explain. Among them divers Barriſters-at-Law, ſome with