The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

orta, LONDON CORRE iPONDE NT.

it may afford some gratification to my loyal
teddere to leant chi tindottlated tatticiony that her
Majesty on her arrival here looked decidedly Well- -
better, perhaps, than she has looked for years; In
common with, I suppose, most persons here, I cannot
hut regret that the Queen should merely make
London a station ett route to Windsor. It would be
too much to expect, perhaps, however, that her
Majesty should remain in London at this nntaahlont
able time of the year, when there is but one noble.
man in London, as far as I can learn, and that one
Lord Palmerston; but it is not a question of times
or seasons. The Sovereign has evidently abandoned
the metropolis; I hear a rumour, indeed, that
Buckingham l'alade Is to be Oiled down, the park
of St. JllllOll enlarged, and, in return for Milli gift to
the public, a palace is to be built for her Majesty in
that favoured neighbourhood, South Kensington,
which, perhaps, is only to be regretted, inasmuch as
it is add it would trench upon that delightful spot,
Kensington Gardens. Whether this rumour be true
cannot assert. I reoeive it on good foundation, and
the continued absence of the Queen from Buckingham
Palace, and her known partiality for a locality
identified en decidedly with the memory of her
husband, gives Some siippoft to the rtimottr.
The Cattle Plague, the Murrain, the Rinderpest
—the papers are full of it, and no wonder, for it is
becoming moat !serious. The price of meat is already
frightful, and the butchers console us by telling us
that it will be far dearer yet. Conversing just now
on this topic—nobody but those immediately in-
terested know much about the cattle plague, but
everybody knows A good deal about the dearness of
meat—a friend asked, " What are the vegetarians
doing now! Why don't they tell tts host to live
cheaply without meat ?" "Ah !" cried another, as
if a gleam of light had broken loon him,"let us turn
vegetarians. What do you say ?" he added, turning
to your humble servant; to which I responded that
I had tried it; that some years ago I was converted
by a vegetarian lecturer, and that I forthwith at-
tedtpted to redtide the vegetarian theory to practise.
I etlehewed rump-steak and chewed no more chops;
I cut cutlets; raised grave objections to gravy
became petteetly spOony in my praise of epoon•Meat ;
with the propoaal If the forraerly toted silver-side of
the round I sided no longer j Considered that every
liver ought to save his bacon; required even to be
egged on to take an egg for breakfast, and in fact
considered that it was not meet to eat animal food.
But, however I might lean to this opinion, I could
not get fat. I could not support myself on vegetable
diet, so I supported myself with sentiment, and
heisted, like Goldsmith's hermit,

•
"ofiqdke that Millie the *alleys live
To elcughter I condemn ji'

and had even serious (sod stupid) thought/ of the
refreshing and harmless " ores:, 6'' with "water from
the spring" that the aforesaid hermit also talks of.
But, in sober truth, it was a sorry failure. Subse.
quently relating my experienoes to some enthusiastic
vegetarians, f was of courie told that I had not pro-
perly tried the system, that I had not eaten the
right things, dee. And doubtless I had not. lam
glad to see that the vegetarians are now trying to
prove themselvee equal to the emergency. A well-
known publisher advertises a work gitins above 400
receipts for dishes to be prepared without the use of
animal food. Now, indeed, is the time for the
vegetarians to come forward and boldly maintain
their theories; They will do immense good to
society if they can propnse efficient substitutes for
meat, for partial use at all events, and this quite
irrespective of the theories of vegetarianism.
Have you efer noticed a curious affectation among
the learned—the prestiniption that some recondite
(sot which, they know, is generally tilown I It can
be nothing but affectation, without a particle of
reality in it, and I can only amount for the frequent
manifestation of this affectation by the insufferable
pride of pedantry; It has a tendency to make the
reader think what a very learned tom Mr. Dryasclust
must be when he seta no store by such g feet as so
and so—when he merely reckons its thing commonly
known. Let me quote an instance from the learned
and ehatty "Note. and Queries." A writer in this
repository of doubts and difficulties, commenting on
Stonehenge, says that it dotild not have been erected
by the Danes, because it is mentioned in some
manuscripts of Nennius, *ho, as everybody knows,
wrote almost S/I0 years before the Panes were 1
masters of any dolieldersble part of this island."
"What nonsense !" " An everybody knows I" Whether
there is one in a hundred thousand that ever before
heard of Neinnue, I much doubt; and whether
there is one in a million who knows what Nennin,
has said abodt this or any other subject, I equally
doubt. If you think otherwise, good reader, try the
experiment; Pep the question in any misoellaneons
I company, and the amoont of knowledge about
1 Neinnus will probably he lotted Jost equal to the
'anxiety to know anything about him.
I have something to say on something about which
I know nothing—Pito to wit. In those flashy ad.
vertisetneide tot Which the managers of Cremorne
are noted I read, "The latest addition is the great
Fyelsow giant Pito, the mighty. lie stands nearly
ten feet high, has the ercogth of Berenice, and
weighs fuer tntui," As / say, I know nothing of
this. Pito may be there, he may stand nearly ten
feet high, and may weigh four tons, for all I know;
but when I read also, "As to Chang he is in
Mihib'.l4li nowhere, a myth, a mystery," I can but
reply that Chang is not in nubibus, although his
head is fat nearer the clouds than yours or mine,
that I have seen him on tertt firma, and that he is
a very respectable giant, standing, it is said (why is
he not measured and his height properly Certified')
seven feet nine inches. As you will have probably
read some accounts; of Mr. and Mrs. Chang,
and the extraordinary little Puck by whom he
is accompanied, I will say no more than
that he will shortly "ohln.chin the rulers of the
world," or in plain English make his bow to
British sight-seers. He and his party, I believe,
will form the maul taking exhibition we have had in
this country for some years. By the way, I have
heard nothing more of the Siamese Twins. I read
some time ago that they had suffered serious Mama
by the Americsn war, and intended to re-appear in
public with their wives and children. Barnum, it is
said, has taken them under his paternal care.
SPECTATOR.