The English Bodley family . ow fog would hardly let them see across the river them was the ball, holding five or six people only, but thesatisfaction to be had from going there appeared to be simply insaying they had been, and, as Charles sagely remarked, if theywanted to say anything tbey could say they had nt been. Theguide said that a further tax of eighteen pence a head was laid onthose who went up into the ball, not for the sake of the money, butto prevent people from going, since the climb was a little dangerous^especially for ladies. They climbed by turns into a circular sp
The English Bodley family . ow fog would hardly let them see across the river them was the ball, holding five or six people only, but thesatisfaction to be had from going there appeared to be simply insaying they had been, and, as Charles sagely remarked, if theywanted to say anything tbey could say they had nt been. Theguide said that a further tax of eighteen pence a head was laid onthose who went up into the ball, not for the sake of the money, butto prevent people from going, since the climb was a little dangerous^especially for ladies. They climbed by turns into a circular spacerailed about in the Golden Gallery and getting down on their handsand knees looked through a grated opening, a foot in diameter,down, down, three hundred feet to the pavement below. For theywere exactly at the centre of the great dome. A rush of dustj^ air LONDON TOWN. 161 came up through the grating and made everything below seem tobe half-floating in mist. They took their way down the long staircase again, and, to com-. Houses of Parliament from the Thames. plete their exploration of the cathedral, descended to the crypt,where they saw the porphyry sarcophagus in which the Duke ofWellington lay buried; and farther on, directly under the dome, the 11 162 THE ENGLISH BODLEY FAMILY. sarcophagus of Nelson. Then, leaving the cathedral behind them,they went down Pauls Chain, a narrow lane leading to the Thames,and took one of the little steamers which puff up and down theriver. On the deck of the steamer they sat or stood, and looked atthe great city through which they were passing, at the backs ofhouses, at the broad embankment, and at the bridges, crowded withpeople, under which their little craft shot. By and by they came in sight of the Houses of Parliament, andindeed the return by the river was planned by Cousin Ned, becausehe knew that thus they would get the fullest and fairest great Victoria Tower and the Clock Tower rose finely beforethem, and gave to the build
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