The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-22 00:00:00

son the morning smiled warmly through hazy clouds,
so light that they looked like mufflers just worn for
the moment, and to be cast off as soon as the sun had
got any footing in the heavens. The effect of this
deceitful proceeding was to bring out a very fine
blow of richly-coloured bonnets and ribands, with
divers coats of many colours, and to leave in
seclusion many serviceable umbrellas. The glass,
to be sure, looked ominous, but glaesea
of another description were so frequently
consulted as not to render the indications of the first
of much importance. About one o'clock the boats
were tolerably full 'ea they left London•bridge, and
the trains were still fuller. The railway company,
after many a vain effort to resist the democratic ten-
dencies of the age in Easter week, placidly announced
that they would lerany one get down to Greenwich
in any class he liked for 6d., and the result was that
the third• class carriages became decidedly fashionable
and select.
At two the usual incidents of Greenwich com-
menced. Down carne the rain, and all the sports of
the day were brought to a close. The park became a
plashy mashy mass of trampled mud ; the streets
something like the strand off the Strand when the tide
is out, and the public-houses full to fortune-making.
The hold English archers unbent their bows and fled
from Blackheath ; the donkey cavalry charged in
pulks to the nearest shelter; and " the fun of the fair"
was only heard creaking feebly from under leafless
trees in the most frequented walks ; the aged vete-
rans with the telescopes " d--d their eyes" and the
weather, and put up their glasses till they got into
the town. The slopes and glades were deserted by
everything but some isolated drunken men and a few
hardened deer ; and all was sloppy, damp, and nasty.
As for the town, it was the same as it always is.
Clouds of tobacco smoke, and the ends of long pipes
protruded from the windows into the fat
moisture. The tea-touters, under a cloud of umbrellas,
suggested the propriety of keeping up one's spirits
with the cup which cheers, but not inebriates in
vain. "The nut rifle corps" was as numerous and
hardy as ever, and baffled the skill of the excited
little boys, who seemed always to fire furthest from
the mark the more pains they took with their aim.
Warriors of a hundred fights sat quietly on a pile of
straw in the gutter, as idle as " the painted ship upon
the painted ocean" beside them. Men who had suf-
fered all the ills that flesh is heir to, as if by wholesale
entail, with contingent remainders of legs, noses, and
arms, recounted the story of their disasters to the
scanty passengers. Humpy-backed soldiers, who had
been discharged, after 40 years' " servis, for beatin
mi sargint"—puny navigators, who had been muti-
lated while " Westin at the Shakspeer klift, near
Dover, as most does remember"—and several pro-
prietors of glass ships, which had been more or less
victims to the violence of cabmen—as well as persons
with legs frightfully swelled by an accumulation of
stockings, and white-headed boys with flaxen hair
and flax wigs, took up their usual perches by the
most crowded, or rather by the least desolate tho-
roughfares; and it was curious to observe that a great
number of " objects" who announced to the public
in bold chalk characters on their hats—the flags were
too wet—that they were starving of hunger, and ge-
nerally had garments which showed an enormous
amount of dramatic taste and skill in their tailors,
had been brought all at once into the main street of
Greenwich. As to the fair par excellence, it seems
gone for ever. The blight which we noticed some
time ago on the native British race of mermaids,
learned pigs, unrivalled giants, tremendous dwarfs,
five-legged sheep, and spotted ladies, still continues
with painful severity. Foreign imports of these arti-
cles must take place, or the trade is ruined. What
signifies the wretched substitutes of " living por-
traits" for id., or " cosmorama-panoptic delusions"
for 2d., after such as we have seen but a few short years
when free trade was unknown? Even the contami-
nation of "poses plastikes" has been introduced, and
the time may soon come when the gingerbread art
may perish for ever, and the secret of moulding
kings, emperors, and giants, lions and all the finest
of animals, ferce naturce, in that pleasant medium,
may be lost to us, even as that of malleable glass.
Richardson was there with perennial lustre—his tur-
bans not faded in brightness—his band unin-
jured in lung—his Columbine as though she had just
drunk a bumper of the aurum potabile, and the Har-
lequin rather fatly lively, as though he had drained
the dregs; but his audiences were not equal to his
merits. He had three appearances of a ghost, and a
great deal of battle and murder, with a comic song,
and as sensible a ballet pantomime as we have seen
for a long time, spun out to a great and alarming
length ; but all to no use. The ginger-
bread stalls were as numerous and as gaudy as usual,
resplendent with gilded kings, queens, beasts, birds,
and nondescripts. The place of the learned pig was
supplied by an exhibit ion of performing rats and
mice : the Swiss Giantess was supplanted by a
" female Goliath," and the patrons of the " fancy"
might gratify their taste at a sparring booth, the door
of which was guarded by as ugly-locking a pair of
men as one would wish to avoid meeting on a lonely
country road at midnight, and whose personal appear-
ance was enough to deter all peaceably-disposed
Teges from entering the place. Despite the con-

inuous rain, the trains and boats continued to pour

thsir contingents into the fair. The numerous
danciog•booths offered an inviting refuge from the
inclemency of the weather to those who preferred a
canvas covering and a boarded floor to wandering
about unsheltered upon ground ancle-deep in mud,
and they were extensively patronised. In Algar's
monster booth an indefatigable band was kept con-
stantly at work upon polkas, waltzes, and quadrilles ;
and if the dancers continued to exhibit the same un-

tiring energy in their devotion to Terpsichore
throughout the evenieg, the musicians, we are sure,
deserve sincere commiseration. Upon the whole, the
holiday-makers displayed most commendable resigna-
tion under the difficulties they encountered in the
pursuit of pleasure ; and, it all did not go "merry as
a marriage bell," as much cheerfulness and good
humour was evinced as could be expected under the
circumstances.

THE BRITISU MUSEUM.—The Museum was more
thronged than ever remembered by the officials on
any previous Easter. The works not being completed
in the gallery of sculptural antiquities, that portion of
the Museum was seen to much disadvantage. A new
entrance has been made to the Nineveh Gallery:,
The total number of visitors during the
Adaty.
a
76,850, averaging about 182 per minute. At
andh
alf-
past four o'clock the rooms were so crammed,number of
the
o. l
hour was 7,530. In
crush was so great, that the author,ihiaies deemed it
expedient to stop the admissin
persons who passed out after that
the Museum will
order not to disappoint
opening of the Great
%sing from the 29th inst. to
the)rbuibtiloica,at the time of the
Eleato the public on the sth, tthh this
3 d year
of
acyl
reopeningclosed fo r c
in-
stead of on the 9th of May.
T,
GALLERY.— ne visitors were here
TUE NATIONAL
very numerous. According to the officials 36,500
entered during the day.
VERNorr COLLECTION.—Prom the time the
doors
the
gallery
Yugh House were opened a continu-
ous at
of human beings poured into the rooms to
%
magnificent collections of paintings therein.
The stttrote stream
alnumber of visitors was 47,390.
TILE UNITED SERVICE MUSEUM.—The subscribers
opened their museum in Scotland-yard for the free
admission of the public, and 7,000 persons availed
themselves of the privilege to view the splendid col-
lection of models and implements of war deposited
therein. The museum will remain open this day and
to-morrow.

THE TowEß.—Upwards of 800 persons paid yester-
day to see the regalia, armoury, and other objects of
curiosity deposited in the Tower.
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. •—• Notwithstanding
the unfavourable weather, many hundreds of persons
visited this favourite resort. The chief attraction ap-
peared to be the female elephant and her calf,
and the
hippopotamus.

--- -- -- -----
He who pampers the selfishness of another does
that other a moral injury, which cannot be compensated by
any amount of gratification imparted to biol.—Eliza Cook's
Journal. .
A " STUMP SPEECH. —Americans, our republic
is yet destined to re-annex South America, to occupy the
Russian possessions, as well as those British colonies which
t r will be found
the old thirteen colonies on from the French ou the plains
oj,asAbraham—all
triheghertoeffspuulnl
; ours
all occupy,tuhal Paneuil Hall
timber enough for itswater from out
the Atlantic Ocean,
and its bed would not afford sufficient
for its corpse. And yet America 111
ebsu tt
Scoopo
is still in the gristle of
boyhood. Europe—What is Europe? She is nowhar—
nothing—a circumstance—a cypher—a land absolutely ideal.
We have faster steam-boats, swifter locomotives, larger
bigger plantations, better mill privileges, broader
mountains, deeper cataracts, louder thunder,
clarkeeeks s,l)igi
tier
forkeder lightning, braver men, hansemmer wemen, more
money than England dar have.—Mrs. Houlston's Travels.
ExTRAORDINARY FEAT. Mr. James Duncan
Wright, otherwise called " Steeple Jack," has been engaged
at the Bristol Alkali Works for a few days, making arrange-
ments for repairing the tall chimney outside, without stop-
ping the works a moment. At twenty minutes past two.
on Thursday week, seeing that the wind would suit him, be
Dew his kite, and by twenty-five minutes past three he bad a
chain over the top, with proper tackle attached for ascending.
In another half-hour he took his seat on a bit of board, 18
inches by 9, and 1 inch thick, and went to the top (200
feet) in half a minute ! In three minutes he had placed
the chain in a secure position, exactly across the top (which
it was not before), and in another half-minute was shaking
hands with his friends below. This is only one of ;Abe
many feats for which " Steeple Jack" is celebrated.—Bristol
Journal.
Fame eta admiration weigh not a feather in the
the heart languishes all
scale against friendship and love, for
the same.—Eliza Cook's Journal.
Leter-street,
115 EA
DEATH FROM BRUTAL
The adjourned inquest at the .
who lost her
PrinceArxoLsorifcE
Wales,AT
a fortnight ago from
life in that neighbourhood about
postponed yesterday until thii
Chelsea, upon the body of Caroline Jewell,
brutal violence, was further
Tong to the abtenc© of ens of tilt
day (Tuesday) weeli-, 0
jury men. i