The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-15 00:00:00

THE F.

PBK-THIS DAY.

FROM ST. PAUL'S OALLERT.

Whatever other advantages our insular climate
Bey be said to pommel over those of more southern
latitudes, it certainly cannot claim ►ny peculiar th-
us for the observation of a solar eclipse. The
geeat luminary of the day is with as but a capricious
visitor at the best of times, and oar London fogs
occasionally wrap him in such an impervious mantle
as might pais for a very respectable eclipse, if the
astronomers would only consent to usher in one of
our best November fogs, with a few of the usual
scientific vaticinations. In the case of the obscure-
tion of this morning, the metropolitan imagination
had been worked up to a high pitch of curiosity by
the predictions of the astronotnen and the descrip-
tion. widely circulated of the extraordinary pheno-
mena that accompanied the great solar eclipse of
MI. Mr. Hind, for instance bad told us that
when two-thirds, or rather more of the sun's
diameter are covered by the moon, or when the sun
has assumed the figure presented by the moon three
or four days before the change, a decided alteration
in the colour of the landscape will be remarked
a gradually deepening yellow tinge will creep
over it, and about the same time has generally
commenced that period of unusual stillness of nature
which is frequently a marked characteristic of the
absence of sun light. Ten minutes or thereabouts
previous to the greatest eclipse the pale or azure blue
of the sky will ehaage to violet or purple, the
horizon will begin to close in ea every side
of the spectator, and shortly after the heavens
will appear to descend apn him. This apparent
descent of the sky was one of the most astonishing
and imposing effects of the totality in l&51 ; indeed
on that occasion it was truly appalling. For two
or three minutes at the time of greatest °teener
tion the planet Venus and several of the brightest
stars will probably come into view, while every-
thing around the observer will have assumed
that unnatual gloomy appearance which has never
failed to induce feelings of awe. Objects will then
appear tinged with dull olive or purple; the clouds,
if favourably placed for the effect, will mesa to be
almost in contact with him, and the black moon pro-
jected on the face of the sun, and surrounded by a
brilliant halo, will appear to be hardly more than a
hundred yards distant."

And, in addition, an occasional brochure taught
us to expect that people would look cadaverous, that
the landscape would arum° an unnatural gloom,
that the distant sea would become of a lurid red,
and the heavens a sombre purple, while on
the northern meridian bands of a light
crimson colour would be seen to bound the horizon.

All these phenomena may have been in existence,
it is tree, but, like the Spanish fleet in the Critic,
they were entirely beyond the ken of the numbers
who thronged the great stone gallery of St. Paul's
C,i,hedral, to see the eclipse of 18.58. The day had
been ushered in by storms of wind, such u we
usually expect on the approach of the vernal
Equinox, and many a one, while rocked by the
stormy gale on the previous night, bad dreamt of
eclipses, and had painted visionary panoramas in
strict accordance with the anticipatory descriptions
of the astronomers; bat on sallying out betimes in
the morning, it was rather mortifying to perceive that
everything in mighty London preserved its normal
aspect. The tides of people hurrying to and fro,
which never ceases, were running as rapidly
as ever; the omnibuses. still lumbered on
like so many ambulant parks of artillery;
the cabmen and conductors thought only of
fares, and the ladies crowded round the shop
windows in " the yard" as much abstracted from
the great event of the day as Archimedes might
have been when disturbed by the soldier in the
midst of his last end favourite problem. But It Is
said that there were building and planting
going on on the eve of the deluge, and that
houses were let for a term in Jerusalem
while Titus was battering down the walla:
and so it was with our great eclipse this morning.
A great many, no doubt, assembled at ell points
available for a good view, armed with all sorts of
stained glasses and other varieties of optical appli-
ances, and waited patiently while the clouds
.gathered closer and closer, literally packing
themselves right our line of light, and
the smoke from ten thousand ekimnies rose ia
murky spirals, gradually fusing itself with the
vopoury stratum above. Neither did the stone
gallery make the most comfortable observatory in
the world. There is an old legend about
a Holy Saint, of whom the evil spirit
had, during some momentary lapse from virtue ob-
tained possession, but who, it is said, on his road
"home," which fortunately ley through St.
churchyard, obtained permission from his ea-
tanic custodian to step into the church for a mo-
ment to mutter a final prayer. The legend runs
that the cunning saint, having once got within
the boundary which the spirit could not cross,
determined upon remaining in sanctuary, and
hence, we are told, the wind which ever since
whirls round St. Paul's church, to the great detri-
ment of delicate lungs end the disarrangement of
ladies' toilettes. Oa ascending the gallery this morn-
sing we could have fancied, without much stretch
of imagination, that the saint aforesaid being curious
like ourselves to see the eclipse, had ascended the
gallery, and that his sentinel had closely followed
him, and was performing his old whirl with in-
crewed effect in a more elevated position. The
wind was, in short, a whirlwind, cold and cutting ;
the fog was dense, and what was still more vexa-
tious, we could see that the atmosphere below was
comparativelpelear,while there was not the slightest
symptom of any of those remarkable features, for
which every one, book in one hand, and coloured
glass in dee other, was patiently waiting. At
twenty minutes to twelve o'clock we got our first
glimpse of the eclipse, at which time the clouds with
somewhat broken, with semitransparent edges, were
pasting over the sun at a rapid rate, and now and
then presenting an interstice through which
we could see that the moon had just
infringed on his lower limb. A small
section of a circle might be observed to be
quite black on the bright surface, and for that me-
/Het only during the clay were the coloured grasses
rendered necessary. 'Subsequently, the eloeds
closed in again, and the patient "watchers
on the tower" had nothing for it hut
to wrap themselves up from the cold and
wind, to read their little book' where alone the
more remarkable features of the eclippe'were to be
found, and to regret for a moment that we had not
the clear elastic atmosphere of Norway in order
that they might see that " The appearance of the
country, seen through the lurid openiog under
the closts, was most appalling. The distant peaks
of the Tostidals and Porittfeld mountains were seen
still illuminated by the ran, while we were in utter
darkness. Never before have we observed all the
lights of heaven and earth so entirely confined to one
narrow stripe along the horizon—never that peculiar
greenish hue, and
sarkness in the place of observation, and of excessive
distance on the verge of the horizon, caused in this
case by the hills there being more highly illuminated
as they receded by a less and Is. eclipsed sun."
We had, it is true, a gradually increasing gloom,
but still nothing unusual in foggy weather, and
as the moon drew across the sun, and more and more
shut us out from the rays of the latter, there was
a peculiar chill like that of nightfall, which was un-
comfortably perceptible at our elevated position. The
gallery seemed at this moment as if completely
enveloped in fog, the limits of which were, however,
quite definable, as it formed a sort of deep hand,
which left the street below almost clear, while the
atmosphere above—that is, between us and the
clouds—had a comparatively rarified look. The
river mast have been gaits clear of vapour,
for we could see the little steamers shooting
up and down, and the barges gliding lazily along,
and even on Southwark-bridge there was no diA-