Perhaps he met the house-
painter Oxford there, and they used to talk over their exploits and
explorations together, after the manner of heroes and adventurers, from
the time of Ulysses and AEneas. We can imagine the _man_ Jones being
a particularly entertaining boon companion, with his reminiscences of
high life, not only below, but above stairs, in Buckingham Palace. That
he ever made an entrance into those august precincts, and was so long
undiscovered, certainly speaks not well for the police and domestic
arrangements of the household; and it is little wonder that Baron
Stockmar was finally sent for to suggest some plan for the better
regulation of matters in both the great royal residences. And he did work
wonders,--though mostly by inspiring others, the proper officers, to
work. This extraordinary man seemed to have a genius for order,
discipline, economy, and dispatch. He found the palaces grand
"circumlocution offices,"--with, in all the departments, an entangling
network of red-tape, which needed to be swept away like cobwebs. He
himself entered the Royal Nursery finally with the besom of reform. It is
said in his "Memoirs"--"The organization and superintendence of the
children's department occupied a considerable portion of Stockmar's
time"; and he wrote, "The Nursery gives me more trouble than the
government of a King would do.
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