Day after Day 11 ( including bits from Charles Walker's Diary of 1851)

After receiving John Day's invitation to attend a new musical play in London May and Muriel once again went to visit their friend Charlotte Walker at Lowesmore. They hoped to be able to talk to
her father and gain from him advice on what to do and see in the capitol.

Charles Walker was more than willing to help them. He loved to talk about his visits to London, particularly that of 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. He took out his diary and
read some of the entries to the girls.

26 SATURDAY
Hard at work all day preparing the work to leave. At a quarter to 8 left Worcester by Govt. train,
Mrs. Jones accompanying me to Birmingham on a visit to her friends there & Uncle Wilson who goes in to London. (She was the daughter of the family I boarded with.)

27 SUNDAY
Uncle went to one place & Mrs. Jones having to go to her friends Wilkins, who keep a Temperance
Hotel I & her took cab there; after some tea, she, I & Wilkins went through the market & at 8 this morning Uncle & I started to London reaching there at half past 2; Father & cousin Ned Walker meeting us in the Station, & afterwards Mr. Robt Eagle, (who later became my brother-in-law you know) Alfred Harris & a Mr. Tait; to the Gen. Wolfe in Little Grays Inn Lane; dinner there; didn’t like the place; took 1d packet to Westminster Bridge & secured lodgings with Mrs. Schofield, 21 Mount Gardens, Westminster Rd. for Father & Ned and I, back to Grays Inn Lane for luggage, calling in at Westminster Abbey.

Evening prayers, dim, solemn, & rich effect; Up & out by 9 o’clock & away across the Green Park
& Buckingham Palace to the Exhibition with many thousands of others; a 1/ paid we enter this palace of wonders; from 10 til 6 examining one portion of the building - the Brown & Sheffield
ware; noting especially Gillotts stand on Pens & Holders, the Fine Arts Court, the Medieval Court, until tired with wandering we came out, had tea in the Knightsbridge Road at a French cafe &
went to Drury Lane Theatre, which opened this night with a company of American & French equestrians; Caroline there, being the main attraction, a very dull American clown had to be hissed deservedly off.

28 MONDAY
This morning we crossed by the Horse Guards & went to the Vernon Gallery at Marlboro House;
Hogarth's paintings wonderfully minute & careful, full of deep meaning; modern paintings by Etty, Turner, Ward, Landseer, Roberts, Maclise, Stanfield & Others; then to the dreary collection at the
National Gallery, then to the Coliseum, the music and quiet beauty of which was quite enchanting; a real waterfall too in the Swiss scene; in Regent St. we put Ned in a bus with a wrong address, & had to make to our lodgings after him; crossing the Horse Guards saw the Hero of a Hundred Fights - the great Duke of Wellington, a tottering feeble old man now, mount his horse; found Ned at home, then Father & I went to the Lyceum Theatre, highly delighted; the scenery is King Charming, very wonderful, Chas Mathews in Only a Clod, excellent, the general acting, costume reflect of Court Beauties, marvellous.

29 TUESDAY
This morning we went to the Regent Park Tropical Gardens, & saw the Hippodrome, the Elephant
Calf, the Utan Utan & the rest; then across Regents and Hyde Parks to the Exhibition & there until 5 o’clock, in another department; find Jerrold’s Guide an invaluable companion; we all three went to the Princesses Theatre after, & saw Love in a Maze, in which the Keeleys are very humorous and the Alhambra in which they are as good, the scenery & dress tho good are under the Lyceum, but the piece is better written & the hits more pointed.

30 WEDNESDAY
Today Father went to seek Mr. Tringham (another relative) out, & Ned & I to the Exhibition; had a good day in it; dear refreshments; noticed & used the Shoe Brigade; detachment of Ragged School boys equipped with brushes & blacking & set adrift. Put Ned in omnibus home; down Holywell Street, the vile print & publication street; at lodging met Father & then Mrs. Tringham & Emma Brooks, her daughter, all went to Astleys nothing notable save Widdicombe the immortal.

31 THURSDAY
This morning to Lincoln’s Inn & to Greys Inn Lane for intelligence of friends; Uncle Wilson went home this morning; through the City, saw the Punch office; to St. Paul’s & looked round the Monuments; the 2d entrance fee removed to the Tower, after waiting some time & not getting in we
three (Father, Ned & I) took rowing boat to the Tunnel and went through it; wonderful work, though not attractive; took Steamer to Woolwich; round the Dock yard etc. & back home; wrote to Mrs.
Griffin (my landlady) for Cash; to Uncle Wilson; to bed early.

Mr. Walker stopped his narrative temporarily to explain that between his first and second visits to London, he had gone to his home in York to visit with his parents. Then on his second trip, he was accompanied by a different set of friends and relatives, including Mary Ann Miles the girl he had hoped to marry.

6 WEDNESDAY
Wednesday morning at a quarter to 10 to the Station & Great Northern to London; party: Mother,
Uncle Charles & Lilla, Mrs. & Miss Miles! Miss Bacon, Miss Newcombe, Ned Thackray & self; spun merrily to London with much laughter & comfort; great to do at lodgings; Uncle Chas & I got to Mrs. Scofields, Mother & Miss Bacon in a crib next door but one, Ned to Mr. Whitwells at Camberwell & Mrs. & Miss Miles to their relatives in the Edgware Road & Miss Newcombe to hers in Red Lion Square & we did not hear of her after.

7 THURSDAY
All met this morning at Prince Albert’s Model lodging - houses, in excellent, healthy, cleanly &
no doubt, cheap cottages; then to the Exhibition; a pleasant wander down the main avenue & then we lost one half our party in the Machinery Court; Mrs. Miles, Miss Miles & their friends becoming
detached from us; trying to find them, useless labour though by after accounts we must have been within a yard or two of each several times; in the gallery devoted to Musical Instruments, arms &
clocks, bid good by to the Exhibition; pleasure damped by losing Mrs. & Miss Miles; trying with Mother, Miss B & Ned to find their lodging, in vain; Mother & Miss B. went to lodgings & Ned & I to the Olympic Theatre; saw the Farens, & Compton; by the side of the Lyceum, a poor and vapid concern. Thursday morning Miss B, Mother and I to the Horse Guards having written to Mrs. M to meet us. No one came (they had not rec’d letter in time) then to the British Museum; spent two hours where we should have spent two days.

Magnificent collection of autograph letters in the library & portraits in the other rooms; from there to the Duke of York steps to see the Queen pass in magnificent & gorgeous procession to prologue Parliament, after she had passed we walked nearer Buckingham Palace to see her return & were within a yard of the carriage & an unobstructed view of the first lady in Europe, a stout motherly woman now, looking very good tempered & warm; (you might remember that I spoke about this at the Queen’s Memorial Service) we then took a cab to the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens, met Ned, Uncle Chas & Lil there.

I left all to find Miss Miles out to go to the Opera; took Hansom to Edgware Road after much searching found their lodgings then past 5; left word for Miss M to be ready, & took cab to lodgings, calling at Leade & Cocks in New Bond St. to buy 2 pit tickets for her Majesty’s; dressed, & returned to cab to Miss M’s and waited for her dressing and then to Her Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket; the most noble theatre & largest theatre in Europe excepting La Scala at Milan; pit crowded so moved to the Stalls; the Opera was Don Giovanni; Coletti playing the Don, Mad Fiorentini Donna Anna. Lablache- Leporello. F. Lablanche-Masetto. Tierlina- Alboni, whose rich melodious-rounded tones I can never forget; Lablache as Leporello and Mde. Fiorentini as Donna Anna were to be admired, though the whole was very stately, very grand, the long tiers of boxes, curtained & concealed had a chilly look & the place lacked the comfort of the Lyceum; there was a ballet
afterwards. Rosati dancing; cab to Edgware Road & Charring X; I hope she was delighted; it was enough to be in her company; we did not talk much & I had no courage to say what I wanted & I
could not talk mere small talk.

9 SATURDAY
Saturday morning all of us continued, after much waiting to meet together at Hungerford Bridge &
took Steamer from there to Greenwich; where we enjoyed ourselves much in wandering about the Hospital, & the Grounds & talking to the old veterans.

We went on to Woolwich & were very tired; Mrs. & Miss Miles, Miss B & and I left Mother, Uncle Lil & Ned there, & returned to London had tea at Mrs. M’s brother’s and then we all went to the Lyceum & saw King Charming & the Practical Man; but Mrs. & Miss M in a bus without scarcely saying
goodbye & didn’t see them after; when Miss B and I reached lodgings we found Aunt Charles, Mrs. & Tommy Eagle (future mother and brother-in-law you know) had joined out crowded party; found I
must leave by first train in the morning; had to seek lodgings at half past 12; got to a dreadful place a “lively bed” as Tommy who went halves with me in it, termed it.

The girls thanked Mr. Walker for his reading, commenting on how interesting it was that he had spent time with his future in-laws without realising he would one day be related to them.

Mr. Walker said that Muriel could borrow the diary to show to her father, pointing out that he had indexed the important events recorded in it.

“Thank you, sir,'' said Muriel, carefully placing the small leather diary in her bag. "I am sure he will
enjoy reading it very much.”

Charlotte, who along with Dot would be accompanying May and Muriel on the trip to London, suggested that they should stay at the Mina House Hotel which was close to Paddington Station and not far from the places they would want to visit. Muriel agreed to write and reserve rooms.

After her father had left the room Charlotte told the girls that she hoped to spend some time while in London with her sister, Marian. Mr Walker had been very upset when Marian went off to London to work as a nurse. He did not want his family to write to her, or even mention her name. However, Charlotte and her mother did secretly write to Marion. and any letters from Marion to them were
addressed to Dot's house.