The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-26 00:00:00

REGENT CIRCUS, PICCADILLY-RAIL
AND WATER.

The history of the Regent-circus-is closely mixed
up with the changes-of modern times. When the
brick and mortar fit of his Majesty King George
IV. led to the levelling of whole streets, to make
one grand thoroughfare from Carlton-park to
Regent's park, vested interests caused the new line
to make a detour from Vigo-street. Here the
Quadrant commenced, and sheltered the pedestrian
from the pelting rain or the noon-day heat by its
long colonnade, supported by Corinthian pillars.
The covered way was found too chilly and dolorous
for this damp and dark climate, so Regent-street,
the pride of the first gentleman in Europe, was, a
a few years back, despoiled of the long row of
columns which adorned that end of the street called
the Quadrant. At the latter point this great aris-
tocratic road of the west takes a sudden bend. It,
therefore, became necessary to create a wide open-
ing where Regent-street crosses Piccadilly. A cir-
cus was formed, and the houses were no sooner run
up than the large coach proprietors fixed upon
the site as a spot well adapted for starting their
well equipped four-horse vehicles. Benjamin
Worthy Home seized one side, Sharman the other,
and Chaplin opened an establishment opposite to
the latter, . The old "Bull and Mouth," the" Swan
with Two Necks," the " Spread Eagle," and the
" Golden Cross," all first class coaching inns, had
their offices in the Circus. The sound of the horn
may be said never to have ceased in the Circus, and
the starting of those well-horsed mails to Oxford,
Cambridge, York, Dover, and Brighton, was a sight
worth travelling some distance to witness. All
the "crack whips" drove from the Circus, and it
was nothing unusual to witness as many as twenty
coaches, drawn by some of the finest bred horses in
the kingdom, starting at one time. Every evening
at 8 o'clock there was a stirring scene halm Circus.
Mobs assembled at that hour to see the mails start,
and the arrival of the one horse carts from the
enief office added to the noise and bustle of this
free out-door public exhibition, which could always
be seen gratis. Those days are gone by (and we
do not cry alas !) The steam horse has supplanted
the four horse team, yet the business of the Circus
has increased ten thousandfold. The stage coach
proprietors adapted their calling to circumstances,
gavt up their mails, and joined in the railway
enternnise. Mr. Chaplin with his " Spread Eagle,"
and 2k-. Home with his " Golden Cross," are still
located the Circus, but they are now the monster
carriers p! the day. They ai e the railway feeders.
They colic t and deliver. Their waggons and carts
take up a. d discharge many hundred of loads in
the 24 hou s. This gives the Circus the character
of a railway depot. In fact, nearly the whole of
the houses Itre occupied by steam companies' or
railway carro.-s' offices. At No. 43, the Crystal
Palace, Bright co Railway, and Telegraph Company
are represented. The South Eastern Railway
office is at No. 40, Messrs. Chaplin at 34, the Great
Northern and Exetern Counties Railways at 32,
Messrs. Horne at ;Ki,- and the General Steam Navi-
gation Company at 3;7. Chaplin and Horne jointly
represent the London at: d North-Western, the South
Western, and other lines. There is no circle of similar
extent in the world where so much railway and
shipping business is trans acted. All the routes 'to
_Parrs and every part of the continent have here their
representative. In fact the globe may be said to radi-
ate figuratively from Regent-circus. In these days
of advancing intelligence and public competition,
the intending traveller, whether by land or water,
looks to have his convenience and comforts con-
sulted, and the leading railway companies have re-
sponded to this demand by opening offices in the
Circus to accommodate their west-end customers.
Every steam company in the United Kingdom,
except those having a monopoly, is directly repre-
sented there, and they find it to their advantage to
have depots west of Temple-bar. Even the mono-
polists ere long may discover that their true inte-
rests and best policy lie in conciliating the good
will of their patrons by studying their require-
ments.—.Daily News. •

THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE LABOUR-
ING CLASSES.

A meeting of the members of " the Chorleywood
Association for Promoting Industrious and Provi-
dent 'Habits among the Labouring Classes" was
held •at the hamlet of Chorleywood on last Friday
evening, when about 80 labouring men and their
wives, with a party of the surrounding clergy,
gentry, and farmers, sat down to au excellent sup-
per. There was also a large attendance of the
ladies of the neighbourhood. Mr. Wm. Longman,
in the unavoidable absence of the President of the
Association, Lord Ebury, took the chair, and was
supported by the Rev. A. Scrivenor, the incum-
bent of the district, the Rev. It. Gee, vicar of
Abbott's Langley, Mr. Marmon, of Rickmansworth-
park, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Harvey Fellow es, and
others.
As the Chairman took the opportunity of giving
a full .account of the objects of the association in
returning thanks for his health being drunk as
treasurer, it is unnecessary to do more than give an
abstract of his remarks. After a few introductory
observations,
The CHAIRMAN said—lt will be well that I
should take this opportunity of tracing the history
and objects of the asssociation in order that our
visitors may become acquainted with the system on
which we have proceeded, and that you may all be
reminded of the objects we have in view. About
four years ago it was suggested that it was desir-
able to establish allotment gardens in the district,
and, after some difficulty in obtaining land we suc-
ceeded in taking the first step towards our present
prosperous state. It occurred to me, however, that
it was very desirable to endeavour to embrace
other objects that the mere distribution of allotment
gardens among you, and that we might attempt
to unite all the inhabitants of the district into
an association, having for its object the promo-
tion of everything tending to the welfare and
happiness of the labouring classes and the en-
couragement of mutual good feeling between
the various classes of society. You all know
the story of, the bundle of sticks ; a single
stick is easily broken, but if you bind up a number
of sticks together you give a strength to the bundle
which no single stick possesses by itself. So it is
with an assocation of men. Union gives strength,
whether for good or whether for evil, and we may
feel satisfied from the experience w.t have had that
our association is strong for good, that its strength
has been exerted for good alone, and that it has
been exerted with the most triumphant success.
Our first object, as I have stated, was the distribution
of allotment gardens among you, and the giving of
prizes to those who produced the best vegetables and
displayed the greatest care in the cultivation of
their gardens. It was then thought that one
of the main objects of our association would be
best promoted by the members being invited to
meet the surrounding gentry at a supper, and we
felt that it would not be in accordance with the
fundamental principle of our association—viz., the
promotion, of happiness in your own homes and
good feeling among all, if, while the men were
enjoying good beef and good beer, their wives were
left at home to think how their husbands were en-
joying themselves. We therefore determined that
the wives' should be invited to come with their
husbands, and I feel sure that this union of the men
and women, and this social meeting between the
rich and poor has been one of the chief causes of
the success of our association. Our next step was
the establishment of lectures during the winter
evenings, to which the members of the association
are admitted gratuitously, and those who are not
meMbers for a small payment. By the large
numbers who attend these lectures it is clearly
shown that we were not mistaken in our belief
that they would give you pleasure. We then pro-
ceeded one step further, and tried an experiment
which, to the best of my belief, has never been
ed in any other part of the country. We
felt that if we could induce you to try
to give a written account of what you heard
it would have the best result. We felt that
if you came to these lectures with this inten-
tion, you would listen to them with greater atten-
tion, and that you would read with greater interest
any book on the same subject as the lecture. We,
therefore, promised .prizes to those who sent in
gond reports of the lectures, and I am glad to find
that our experiment has succeeded. I must how-
ever, express my hope that during the coming, win-
ter more Men will try their hands at giving us these
reports. Some men have done so and have succeeded
very well, but the greater number of the reports
have been written by the women, and
by
young
P •
I
persons, and especially by young girls Now
feel sure that if more men and boys try they will
find that a little practice will make it easier than
it seems at. first, and that it will be a source of very
great pleasure and amusement to them. This is
the extent to which we have now proceeded, but it
is our wish to extend ourobjects, and there are one
or two purposes which we think of trying to carry
into effect. It has occurred to us that a savings'-
bank, confined of course to the members of the asso-
ciation, might be useful; and Mr. Scrivenor recently
suggested to me that you might from time to time
make payments, so as to be able to meet pay-day
when it came. You have, of course, from time to
time put into an old stocking small sums to meet
vont- rent, but we are all' liable to temptation, or
illness may some, or some accident may happen to
the old stoCking, and' when rent-day comes some-
how or other the old stocking has got a hole
in it, which- -has - let all the money out, or the old
stockino• has vanished alfc;crether. The establish-
b
ment 4?a tent fund would preserve you from some