The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-19 00:00:00

-
-
_ _ _

ur Yonbion (forwsponlnnt.
(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Corresgondent's opinions.]

During the session of the High Court of Parliament
the Palace of Westminster, wherein the sittings of the
Legislature are held, is a busy place. People who
gaze at it from the Surrey shore of the '1 hames, or the
passengers who contemplate it from the decks of river
steamboats, can form but a faint impression of the
vast size of this sumptuous pile of buildings. The en-
tire stracture stands upon a bed of concrete twelve
feet thick, to the east it has a frontage of about 1,000
feet, and covers an area of nine statute acres. It con-
tains 1,100 apartments, 100 staircases, and two miles
of galleries, passages, and corridors. The massive
Victoria Tower, at the south-west extremity, is 346
feet in height, the mpre slender clock tower, is nearly
as high, and towers of less magnitude crown other
portions of the building. During the session the clock
Is lighted up only when either of the Houses is sitting
—an arrangement the convenience of which is not ap-
predated by those living in the immediate neighbour-
hood, who after daylight has departed, have to take
the time by sound and not by sight. Of counts this
Inconvenience of having the light put out early gradually
disappears as the legislative year advances, and the
Commons, getting their bills into blue water, sit much
later. Indeed they have occasionally sat until the
clock tower light has been eclipsed by the rays of the
rising sun ; but these late sittings are becoming more
and more the exception. Since the London papers
have found it necessary to go to press so much earlier
than was formerly the case, somehow or other the
House of Commons has kept much better hours, and
It is not often that business of importance is now
allowed to come on after one o'clock in the morning.
If it does, the metropolitan journals are compelled
simply to summarise it, or even to pass it by
altogether with the curt announcement "the other
orders having been disposed of the House adjourned."
It is not uncommon for these orders of the day, thus
so unceremoniously disposed of, to contain a score of
bills of more cr less public importance; but whether
they are discussed or not, the public cannot know, for
no reports appear, the papers having to save the early
trains, and the supplying of the wants of their
customers must take precedence even of the debates
of the Great Council of the Nation.
The pluck and endurance shown by Weston, the
American, who walked 109,1 miles at the Agricultural
Hall at Islington in 24 hours, has attracted considerable
attention, and there is no doubt that it was a .
marvellous exhibition of physical power. In
all ages feats of pedestrianism have been rewarded
with the admiration of the multitude. The
Greek historians tell us that Euchidas, a citizen
'of Plata, went from thence to Delphi, to bring
the sacred fire. This he obtained, and re-
turned with it the same day before sunset, having
travelled 125 English miles. No sooner had he saluted
his fellow-citizens, and delivered the sacred fire than
he fell dead at their feet. Alter the battle of Marathon,
In which a compact body of /0,000 Greeks, led by
naiades, defeated 120,000 Persians, a soldier was
sent from the field to announce the victory at Athens.
Exhausted with fatigue, and bleeding from his wounds,
he had only time to cry out "Rejoice, we are
conquerors !" and immediately expired. In 1788
Foster Powell, an English pedestrian walked from
London to York in 140 hours. Capt. Barclay, for a
wager on which many thousands of pounds depended,
walked a thousand miles in a thousand consecutive
hours, each mile in each hour, in 42 days and nights,
completing his task on the 10th July, 1809. This feat
has alma been accomplished by others.
Parka and open spaces have often enough been
described as the lungs of great communities, and one
of the earliest measures which the government
has introduced into Parliament is one for the more
effectual prevention of the enclosure of commons. The
value of such breathing places was recognised by the
Romans, who won almost as much reputation in the
laying out of parks as in the construction of roads and
aqueducts. A necessary adjunct of a town of any
size now is considered to be a people's park, and gifts
of large plots of land for such purposes are not un-
common. In London the majority of the parks—
Green, Hyde, Regent's, St. James's—are in the western
part of the town; but the northern portion has the
Alexandra; the eastern, Victoria; and the southern,
Battersea. These are kept up at the expense of the
nation, and the amounts for their maintenance and
ornamentation, appear in the annual estimates. But
nominally they are Crown property, and Queen Caro-
line, the consort of George IL, once inquired of the
first Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, how much
it would cost to shut up the parks as the king's private
grounds. Mr. Pitt promptly replied, "Three crowns,
your Majesty," those of the Bing, the Queen, and
the Prince of Wales. The design was never after-
wards entertained; and to this day the London parks,
as national property, are all open to the public. The
Thames Embankment, however, was not paid for by
the nation, but by the ratepapers of the metropolis ex-
clusively.
It is a long time since the contents of a Blue-book
were awaited with so much interest as those of the
Parliamentary return relating to the occupation
and tenure of land in this country. It has been
in preparation for years, and will form a veritable
Domesday Book for centuries to come. It is
nearly 800 years ago that a similar volume was com-
piled. A general survey of England Was commenced
by order of William the Conquers; in 1080, and oc-
cupied six years. It was intended to be a register
whereby to determine the right to the tenure of
estates; and from it the question whether lands be
ancient demesne or not is sometimes still decided. The
book is still preserved in the Chapter House, West-
minder Abbey, fair and legible, consisting of two
volumes, a greater and lesser, wherein all the counties
of England, except Northumberland Durham, West-
moreland, and Cumberland, are surveyed. It was not
only the tax-book of King William, but the taxes were
levied according to its returns for nearly 500 years.
Times have strangely altered since land was generally
let in this country at the rate of a shilling per acre.
/n our own days a man who is fortunate enough to
own a plot of ground in or near a growing community
is looked upon as a person of position; and as cities
increase in size, more railways are made, and more
mines are opened, the less is the quantity of available
land left for general purposes. It is a thoroughly
safe form of investment, for it cannot be destroyed by
fire like a house, or fall a prey to the winds and the
waves, like a ship. And when it is remembered that
no power of man can increase the quantity of land
upon the surface of the earth by a single foot, the con-
stant,augmentation in its value is easily very explained.
There are times and seasons when it would seem as
though London was suffering from a general bombard-
ment. Peal upon peal loud reverberations echo
through the place, and the air is filled with the sounds
of explosions resembling the discharge of artillery.
Those are the occasions when—
The yellow fog spreads thick and dim
O'er London's city far and wide;
It fills the parks, it fills the squares,
Where noble lads and ladies ride
The cross upon St. Paul's is blurred,
The daylight fadeth from the eyes;
The monument is blotted out,
And lost in gloom the river lies."

A dense fog such as that of last week completely
prostrates the great city. People go about the streets
coughing and sneezing, and coming into collision with
each other; omnibuses and cabs cease running; and
the river steamers are taken off the silent highway.
The only traffic which can safely be conducted is that
upon the railways, now found ruining through the
metropolis in all directions. It is done through the
agency of fog signals, and these being 'filled with
detonating powder, cause the explosions to which
I have referred above. As the ordinary signals, such
as the semaphores and the spectacled lamps, are
totally invisible in such weather, it is difficult to see
how the enormous traffic upon the metropolitan and
suburban lines could be carried on at all except for such
appliances are compelled to bring into requisition. The
fogs which so often envelope London, are supposed by*
many to be generated upon the dreary marshes of Essex,
but it is improbable that the superficial area of these
marshes is sufficiently large to produce fog enough to
cover the whole of the vast area of London for 24 hours
at a stretch. It is more reasonable to assume that they
are borne up the river from the Channel, increasing in
density in proportion as they become laden with
smoke. Fogs are by no means uncommon in the
Channel, and in the Atlantic they sometimes continue
for several.days.
How often does it happen that people who make
use of words of common employment in every day life,
have but little knowledFe. of their derivation or of the
circumstances which originally gave rise to their being
called into existence? Look for inetance at the
Grenadier Guards, with their high bear-skin hats,
which, by the way, the Russians always aimed at in
the Crimea, on the supposition that the heads of the
soldiers reached up to the very tops of them. Hew
many of the multitudes who, in different parts of the
kingdom, have from time to time admired the playing
of the band of the Grenadier Guards, could tell the
origin of the word Grenadier? Well, these soldiers
were originally armed with a pouch of hand grenades.
They were started in France in 1667, and in England
In 1685. The Fusiliers were formerly armed with
flume in slings. The 7th Regiment, or Royal English
Fusiliers, were raised on the 11th June, 1685; the
21st, or Royal North British, 23rd September, 1679;
the 23rd, or Royal Welsh, on the 17th March, 1688.
Then there are our old friends the Coldstreams.
General Monk, before marching from Scotland into
England, for the purpose of restoring Charles IL,