The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-01-17 00:00:00

o 3r isDrniturrtsp4nt.
W. deem It right to state that we do not at all times
Identity ourselves with our Correspundeut's opinious.l

The necon I term of the legal year, that which 1.3
called and known by the name of Hilary, begins all
the 11th f Janiory, thi, year on the 12th, however, wi
the 11th fell on a Sunday. There is no I, rmal
breakfast given by the Lord Chancellor, as It the
opening of alichaeltra i and Easter Terme, but th 3
judges sit in their reppective courts at the urinal Ear,
and business proceeds just as though there had been an
adjournment only from the previous night, inatead-of,
as is realty the case, a suspension of the sittings an
bonze from the 25.6 November. With the commence-
ment of Hilary Term the year's work may be aid to
be Inaugurated. Chrietinae whit its ettOulatiOlti has
once more fumed over psople's hew* aid the avoca-
floral of an attire earnest life have again to be said-
duotply polluted. The Parliamentary gession looms
in right; the engagementa of the London season
are care!), discernible upon the horizon. And 80,
with the gradually lengthening days, the Courts of
Law in Westminster Hall, and thotie devoted to the
elucidation of the principlet uf equity in Lincoln's Inn,
are animated to a degree which present a remarkable
contrast to their ilt sated appearance during the legal
rove wes. Palace-Yard is a ecene of activity and bustle,
ant the ctlanen wear a more cheerful aspect at the pro
'peat of any number of fare, trout those who are learned
in the law an well an frt at their cLente. Dapper little
derka tlit from court to court bearing huge blue bags
;stuffed with briefs and law books ; and occasionally
a geutleinau, costumed in wig and gown, elbows
his way through the crowd of loiterers. One of
these lingerers, posnesning inure personal knowleime
than his feliows, nuddenly assumes an air of import-
ance and patroniningly infurrun thove around him that
" There gore Mr. So-and-So, Q.C." S 'mistimes, in
this matter of painting out celebrities, a bow is drawn
at a venture and a mistake is made, but as those who.
have no information can detec., no blunder, every one
Is satin tit .1, and no harm is done.

Weetmineter Hall has truly been celled the very
eentre of the national life, It IVOR built by William
Rufus, and its vast roof, nests; e rred bye eingle pillar,
has looked down upon many a mane memorable in
English history. On one side of it, the river front
washed by the silent highway a the Thames, is the
stately pile known as the Palace of the Legialature ; on
the other is a building older by centuries, the rest-
ing place of generations of English kings, the
spot where fig ages have been lati the m-
urals" of our greatest statesmen, philosophers, poets,
authors, and scientific men. Need I say that I 'peek
of Weetmiester Abbey? The place has become so
crowded with the graves of the illustrious dead, that
It cannot well receive many more. True, there have
been a few Interments in St. Pant's—for instance,
Nelson, Wellington, and, more lately, Landseer —but
there Is • vague feeling that theee eminent men have
been exiled from the silent companionship of their
fellows, and that a grave In the very heart and centre
of the roaring city traffic is far removed from that
type of e ternal repose which we associate with the
sleep of the departed. Still, what is to be .1000 if the
Abbey to full? Well, a eeherue has been devised for the
erection of a tuemerial cloieter for purposes of burial,
which willetretch from the Chapter House to anoint op-
posite the Victoria Tower. A large part of the lat-d re-
glared belongs either to the Chapter of Weetnuinettr
or to the Ecclesiastical Uatumiesioners, end Sir Gilbert
Scott has prepared plans for a magnificent struc.ure,
worthy of the national purpose for which it is designed.
Should this memorial cloister be carried out, it will
open the Abbey to many coming generations of those
who deserve to be held in grateful remembrance by
their couutr) men.
Clapham Junction is a etatii in in the south of Lon
don which is well known to ail who have had °merlon
to travel upon either the Brighton ::r the South-Western
Railway. The two companies which jointly own it
have resolved is on its extensive enhargemeet, so as to
accommedate the enormoaa traffic constantly passing
through it. The signalmen on duty there perform their
work in little glee Murata raised high above the lines
of railway, and when It is remembered that they have
to guide the movements of about 750 trains Cally, and
that a siugle mistake in turning the wrong point-handle
I, likely en -ugh to pro inee • disastrous collision, it
will be seen at a glance how important and responsible
their duties are. Beside the two companies to
whom the station beitineß, it is ales steed by the
London. Chatham not Dover, the North Western,
the West Lendon, anti others; indeed, the network of
linen at Claehmu Junction is off self a marvellous sight.
Hitherto there has been one great drawback connected
with the place, and that was the defective means of
aurae, and of communication with the various plat-
forms. If a panmeger, arriving by the South-Western
sideline' to get, say, to the Brightou line, he had to
descend a lung flight of steps, go through a dreary
subterranean passage, cold and draughty in winter,
hot and stalling in summer. On the way he might
meet an army of porters, hurrying from the Brighton
platform to catch a South-Western train, and as these
rushed al-04, hearing portmanteaus, trunks, band-
boxes, and al the other impedimenta of travelling,
and each official intent only upon getting over the
ground as rapidly as he could, the unhappy passenger
had to bring into requisition all his discernment to pre-
vent himitelf from being knoeked down and run over.
Suppoefug him to have a lady and two or three children
with hint, his miseries in the tunnel are proportionately'
increased. It may be that he has been to Clapham
Junction before, that he fancies he knows his way
about, and thus disdaine to ask for information. He
comes to a staircase marked No. 1, end having a vague
imprevision that it Is the way to the Brighton prat.
form, melees up to find it marked " Ldnion and
Nerth-Wratern." In deepair he conrults Cu official,
who tells him to go down the stairway, take the first
turning to the right, to take ni notice cf No. 2, go on
until he gets to No. 3, then turn to the left, past
No. 4, bear away to the right, and on the second
turning be will find the haven he desires to reach!
Away he sestets, and in his terror believes that the
angles which is getting up steam over the way is
attached to the very train he wishes to go by. As he
meshes along the passages he comes into collision with
Revere! pertets, who, as they watch hue retre.ting
tieure, do net fail to send a blessiug after him,
atialtsfervently hope he may save his train! Ten
to one, that he loses his way and his train
se well. Now, having had personal experience
of Clapham June:ion Station, lean wore your readers
that the picture which I have painted is no exaggerated
one. Tee place is, however, to be reconstructed ; the
dark underground lalarrinth of contneini stairs and
passages is to be abolished, and a light end airy
Iron gallery will communicate with the differeet plat-
forms by deecendiug staircases. The area of the new
station will be fifteen acres.

The needling of the Prince Consort's equestrian
statue In Holborn-circus was the occasion of a ceremony
whiala was witnessed by 1+01131) thousands who had
gathered in the city. The Lord Mayor awl Lady
Mayoress drove down from the Maneion House in
State to welcome the Prince of Wales, who WAY ac-
companied by the Duke ial Cambridge. The die-
tingui- hail pereone who had assembled were afterwards
entertained by the Lola] May or at a magnificent
luncheon at Guildhall. Now, as a rule, thede ewer-
tainmeuts take place at the Mansion House, the otticial
residence of the Chief Magistrate, exiiept the great ban-
quet on the 9th of Novel, her, which invariably had at
Guildhall, on account ef the lar4e, number of guests.
Ent as the Heir to the Throne woo now present, the
Lord Mayor invited several hundred to the lunehe
and ae there WWI nu room at the Mansion Howie
sufficiently large to no similes:late them, Guildhall wee
had lei-muse to id IPT,llsity. Unlike the Manisian
)(owe, the Ifsek id England, or the Ediyal Exchange.
Guildilail makes no imposing appeararee from the
fie's. of 'ea ',dog simeed away in a bank street. W'utn
the visitor hoe encirceiled in finding it, however, ha to
auraly repaid fir any voyages if discovery which he
might have made in order to reach it. Its thorough
renovation was commenced ten years ago, according to
the plans of Mr. Horace Jones, the City architect, aud
the new riyil alone cost £23.010, It is of oak, elabo-
rately carved, rand framed as nearly as possible to cc-
senile thc red ti• itc y, ia the union Flre 268 years
Tlie &outliers windows have been filed with
stained glass, and arnmaest the ant Pete which they
ponrfrayam el'e Grant of the City Ch deer, tbe Opera-
Gore, at the Mint, the Death of Wet Tyler, a Roy al
Tournament, &
•The hall is lighted by sixteen
gaseliers, at el nnderneath the main building is the
crypt, a structure of great antiquity, mid well worth
seeing. And let none of your readera who are ihawu
over Guildhall come away without having a thorn ugh
lock at (log and Magog. flow mmy excellent dinners
have these enormous giants looked down upon with
Awl imperturbable good humour and seltdenial I How
many ministerial speeches hies echoed through Guild-
hall since the vast funnee of these bulky fellows were
first placed in their present positions I How many
Prime Minieters have passed away, and how many
more will yet come and go before Gog and Magog are
dismounted from the commanding places in the hall
which they have occupied ac long

Whether the 1 yal Alhert Hell he a paying specula-
tion or not, there tau be little doubt that the aicter
concerto tiers are the honree of much pleaeure to large
numbers of the mimic-loving p.pulation. Th.. spectacle
of the hall itself, filed with an inuneune autheoce, is
one which, once s.eu, is not easily forgotten. A few
nWht'e ego Heydn'e " Creation " war peel ruse
hare; and the tntrineic grandeur of the work need,
and the manner of its rendering by the aocompbehed