“The ambassador [of Russia] and the grandees who accompanied him were so gorgeous that all London crowded to stare at them, and so filthy that nobody dared to touch them. They came to the court balls dropping pearls and vermin.”

—  Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

Vol. V, ch. 23
History of England (1849–1861)

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Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay 101
British historian and Whig politician 1800–1859

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