either at parliament or council, either in words or gesture. When he attended the House of Lords, he would descend from the throne and stand by the fire, drawing a crowd about him that broke up all the regularity and order of the place. In a very little time he would have gone round the House, and have spoken to every man that he thought worth speaking to.[1] He carried his dogs to the council table—
His very dog at council board
Sits grave and wise as any lord,[2]
and allowed them to lie in his bed-chamber, where he would often suffer them to pup and give suck, much to the disgust of Evelyn, and of many who resided at court.[3] His very speeches to his parliament contain traits of his personal character. "The mention of my wife's arrival," he says, "puts me in mind to desire you to put that compliment upon her, that her entrance into the town may be with more decency than the ways will now suffer it to be, and for that purpose I pray you would quickly pass such laws as are before you, in order to the
- ↑ Burnet, i. 472, 3, ed. 1823. In his speech in the House of Commons, March 1, 1661, he says—"In a word, I know most of your faces and names, and can never hope to find better men in your places."
- ↑ Lord Rochester's Poem, 1697, p. 150.
- ↑ Evelyn, vol. ii., p. 207, ed. 1850. Charles was fond of animals and natural history. In the Works Accounts at Whitehall, for 1667–8, I observe a payment for "the posts whereon the king's bees stand."
