nine o’clock
He is a county Member , and has been from time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary . Look at his loose , wide , brown coat , with capacious pockets on each side ; the knee-breeches and boots , the immensely long waistcoat , and silver watch-chain dangling below it , the wide-brimmed brown hat , and the white handkerchief tied in a great bow , with straggling ends sticking out beyond his shirt-frill . It is a costume one seldom sees nowadays , and when the few who wear it have died off , it will be quite extinct . He can tell you long stories of Fox , Pitt , Sheridan , and Canning , and how much better the House was managed in those times , when they used to get up at eight or nine o'clock , except on regular field-days , of which everybody was apprised beforehand . He has a great contempt for all young Members of Parliament , and thinks it quite impossible that a man can say anything worth hearing , unless he has sat in the House for fifteen years at least , without saying anything at all . He is of opinion that ` that young Macaulay ' was a regular impostor ; he allows , that Lord Stanley may do something one of these days , but ` he 's too young , sir -- too young . ' He is an excellent authority on points of precedent , and when he grows talkative , after his wine , will tell you how Sir Somebody Something , when he was whipper-in for the Government , brought four men out of their beds to vote in the majority , three of whom died on their way home again ; how the House once divided on the question , that fresh candles be now brought in ; how the Speaker was once upon a time left in the chair by accident , at the conclusion of business , and was obliged to sit in the House by himself for three hours , till some Member could be knocked up and brought back again , to move the adjournment ; and a great many other anecdotes of a similar description .