The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-26 00:00:00

Our Faiihn aorrespanknt.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
‘-leritify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The departure of the Queen and Princess Beatrice
for Osborne is one out of many indications of the ap-
proaching close of what is called the London season.
Her Majesty has gone to her marine residence, and a
considerable number of her subjects will now be off to
the sea side, for they will naturally argue that there
must soon be an end to the condensing powers of the
air, and that it cannot go on raining until the crack of
doom. For four months now the State apartments at
Windsor Castle will be open to the public, for the
Queen, in the third week of August, will go direct
from Osborne to Balmoral, and remain there until
about the 20th of November. A magnificent place is
Windsor Castle, and no one can be surprised that
her Dlajesty prefers it as a residence to Buckingham
Palace. It has been a• favourite resting-place of the
English sovereigns fcr centuries. Norman, Plan-
taganet, Tudor, Stuart, Brunswick—all our lines of
monarchs have enjoyed life amid the fresh air of Berk-
shire to an existence in the capital. Begun by William
the Conqueror, enlarged by Henry 1., rebuilt by
Edward M., improved by Henry VIII., beautified
by Elizabeth, repaired by Charles 11., again enlarged
by George IV., some of the most illustrious associa-
tions of English history seem to be struck into stone in
the towers and the walls of this palatial pile. The
lovely scenery, the calm atmosphere, and the quiet
surroundings of Windsor are in grateful contrast to the
heavy air, the overhanging pall of smoke, and the roar
of a great traffic which are the concomitants of life in
London.

Buckingham Palace cannot for a moment be com-
pared with Windsor Castle, either in architectural
pretensions, in historical associations, or in the attrac•
tive nature of its surroundings, The Royal Park of
St. James's, in which it stands, is well appreciated
enough by Londoners; but it is a very different place
from the Park and Forest of Windsor. It is just 120
years ago that, on the site of the present palace—a
piece of ground formerly known as " Mulberry.
gardens "—a house was standing which had been built
by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. In the year
after George 111. came to the throne, this place was
bought by him, and settled upon Queen Charlotte,
who made it her town residence; and here all
her children, with one exception, were born.
Several of the Royal children were married here, in-
cluding the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cambridge.
In 1825 the place was pulled down, and the present
building erected on its site. About a million sterling
was expended upon it, and it was first occupied by
Queen Victoria in July, 1837, about a month after her
accession to the throne. But it seems never to have
been in anything like the favour that has attached to
Windsor Castle. The Thames, which is at Windsor
clear and narrcw stream, is at Westminster, not far
from Buckingham Palace, a murky tidal river,no longer
making its way through pleasant country scenery, but
pent in between miles of streets and houses, and
with a vast population continually in motion upon
its banks north and south.

It has been said to be an ill wind that blows good to
nobody. Though the weather has ruined the hay har-
vest, and threatens to spoil the corn; though it sadly
interfered with the success of the Kilburn Show, and
has thrown an effectual damper upon many a proposed
garden party, it has brought in a harvest of shillings
to the Royal Academy. The exhibition of pictures at
Burlington House has yet some time to remain open;
but already the amount received has exceeded that of
any previous year. With out-door enjoyment and
recreation impossible, the rain has driven people to
the Academy as to a fashionable lounge. When riding,
or driving, or walking, is impracticable, the Academy
has been a very agreeable place in which to spend
an hour. Added to the inclement weather is
the fact that the Agricultural Show brought a vast
number of provincial visitors to the metropolis in
order to "do " London, and there is a very good
reason for a condition of affairs which must be highly
gratifying to Sir Frederick Leighton, the new
President. His first year of office has been the best
in the Academy's history. No institution better
deserves prosperity than this; and when it is con-
sidered that for a shilling the public have an oppor-
tunity of seeing hundreds cf the best specimens of
English art that our painters can produce, the num-
ber of visitors to the Academy need excite no surprise
whatever.

Visitors to London who are here for a few days only
by one of the numerous excursions which are run to
the capital, never fail to see the Palace ot West-
minster, the scene of the sittings of the Legislature.
The Clock Tower atone end of this sumptuous building,
and the Victoria Tower at the other, mark it out as
one of our most commanding public edifices, and the
effect produced when viewed from the river is an im-
posing one. The great clock, standing out high above
the loftiest houses, and at a considerable altitude
over the Towers of Westminster Abbey, resembles,
when illuminated, a globe of light suspended in
mid-air, and shining out upon the darkness
In every direction. But high as this wonder-
ful piece of mechanism is, the Victoria Tower
at the other end of the structure, is higher, and
the visitor who is fortunate enough in securing
an order to ascend it looks down upon a wondrous
spectacle never to be forgotten by those who wit-
ness it. The huge clock, regarded with so much
astonishment by those who gaze up at it from the
base, is now far beneath the spectator, who above
the noise and bustle of the streets, hears with
startling clearness the quarters ring out the music of
the hymn to which they are attuned :

"By thy great power
Be Thou my guide,
Lest through this hour
My feet should slide."
The prayer thus flung out upon the swiftly-moving
air-currents at this height has a singular effect upon
the listener, who sees out,tretched at his feet the
homes of an enormous community teeming with all the
accessories of a mighty industry. You may live in
London all your life without getting to the other end
of it; you may travel from Beigrave square to the
docks, and give up all hope of being free from thorough-
fares and dwellings, and fleeting crowds; you may
pitch your tent in Bermondsey or in Whitechapel, in
Camberwell or in Holloway, and still be confronted
with houses, streets, and busy people. You travel to
and fro, north to south, east to west, and the sight is
still the same. Are there no quiet country tracts, no
green fields, no secluded lanes, away from all
this bustle, free from so much moving here and
there? You go to the top of the Victoria Tower, and
while outstretched beneath, for miles on every hand,
there is the great and busy world of London, the
Thames, like a tangled skein, making its way towards
the sea, the boundaries of town and country are very
perceptibly defined. You can plainly see the limits
of that agglomeration of towns of which London is
made up, and can clearly distinguish where the great
city ends and the country begins. It is a long way
from Westminster, but there is a point beyond which
the houses have not yet reached, and still sacred to
the influences which are associated with the calm of
Nature.

Various scientific speculations have been suggested
as explaining the very remarkable weather. Those
with long memories tell us that it was 65 years since
a parallel season passed over the land. Ia 1814 there
was a terribly severe winter followed by a humid and
sunless summer. On each occasion the ice, we are
told, floated down in huge masses from the Pole into
the North Aclantic,`deadening the air and refrigerating
the water, the influences thus felt extending thousands
of miles, "as far as waters roll and winds can waft
them." Paradoxical as it seems, our winters occur when
the earth is three millions of miles nearer to the sun
than it is in summer—at a distance of ninety
two millions of miles from that luminary
instead of ninety-five. Astronomers tell us that occa-
sionally it happens for the winter to take place at the
maximum distance and not at the minimum, which
would fully account for the greater severity of the
cold. The sun's oblique rays, powerless enough in
any winter, then contain lees hcat than ever. It is,
however, satisfactory to know that this takes place
only once in a way; and that if we can fme with
complacency the inclement season which has settled
down upon the habitable globe, things must mend as
the year goes on, and that no repetition of such
weather may be expected in our lifetime.
The news from Zululand, and the expressed belief
of Sir Garnet V7oleeley that the war will be over this
season, has been a great relief to those who have
narrowly watched the course of events in that distant
region during the past six months. Of course it must
have been clear that a struggle between civilisation
and barbarism could have but one result, whatever
might be the temporary advantages secured by a
savage enemy over inferior numbers. But it must be
cotcaded that the Zulus are by no means contempthle
foes, as they showed by the completeness of the military
arrangements which they made for the destruction of
the British force at Isandula, and it is possible that
with peace restored, British influence might be
exerted upon them with an effect in the direction of
civilization and of humanity. Just half a year has
elapsed since the Isandula disaster, which took place
on the 21st of January. The news reached
country two days before esembling of Parliament,
and now we are looking forward to the hope that with
the prorogaticn of the legislature for the recess, or
the
sword, before, Great Britian will have sheathed .11,e
sword, and that we shall once more be at peace with
all the world.

It 9,l3Pears frira a Parliament-Ex), return that the
deposits In Miittary iavings Bulks during 1878 amounted to
£100361 Ts. 7td., Ind the withorawals to £210,637