The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-21 00:00:00

Whit Monday.

The facilities afforded by road, rail, and river, were
amply availed of this day by the hundreds of thousands
who desire, at this period of the year, to exchange for a
few hours the crowded thoroughfare and the bustle of the
metropolis for the invigorating- sea-side breeze, or the
tranquil beauties of Sylvan scenery.
The different termini of the London and Brigh-
ton Railway, particulaarly at the London-bridge
station, were crowded at an early hour, and the
number of visitors to the celebrated " watering
place" probably exceeded that of any Whitsuntide anni-
versary of late years. The trains to Greenwich were filled,
and we can easily conceive how the park exhibitetl its
usual features, how many groups were engaged in the
pastime of "Kissing in the Ring," or performing the feat,
by no means one without peril, of running down the " hill,"
which, in some of its disasters, draws a blush to many a
fair cheek. The number of visitors to Windsor was very
large, and Hampton Court must also have received a very
considerable influx of visitors, to which the " treats" af-
forded by charity and ragged schools largely contributed,
a pleasing feature in our civilisation. The limit
of some of the holiday folks' excursions was very
restricted, indeed, not extending beyond the neighbour-
hood of Peckham, Rye, and Nunhead, which latter place,
notwithstanding its sombre attribute of a cemetery, was
dotted with festive and picnician groups. At nearly all
the stations which came under our observation there was
a large increase in what might be called the piscatory
element, and indicated by the gear and tackle of disciples
of Izaak Walton, which boded no good to the " finny tribe."
Hampton Court must have received a large accession to
its admiring number of visitors, judging by the demands
that were made for tickets at the Waterloo and Vauxhall
stations, and from which it was evident that this spot,
associated alike with history and rural loveliness, has lost
nothing of its popularity with Londoners.

THE MECCA PILGRIMS.—From information re-
ceived by the Board of Health of Alexandria it
appears that the sanitary condition of Mecca has not this
year been at all affected by the arrival of pilgrims in that
city, and that a party of devotees were about to return to
Suez on the 7th inst., perfectly free from cholera. The
pilgrims were subjected to examination upon their em-
barkation at Djeddah, and up to the present time their
general state of health has been completely satisfactory.
There are, therefore, grounds for hoping that the Mecca
pilgrimage may be performed in 1866 under more satisfac-
tory conditions than has been the case in former years.
AN EDIFICE UNDER THE SEA.—He N‘ as in a
large cave. Over his head was a roofing not unlike the
inside of a vast skull, which might have been imagined
to have been recently dissected. The dripping ribs of the
striated indentations of the roof seemed to imitate the
branching fibres and fagged satures of the bony cranium.
A stony ceiling and a watery floor. The rippled waters
between the four walls of the cave were like wavy paving
tiles. The grotto was shut in on all sides. Not a window,
not even an air-hole, visible. No breach in the wall, no
crack in the roof. The light came from below, and through
the water—a strange, sombre light. Gilliatt, the pupils of
whose eyes had contracted during his explorations of the
dusky corridor, could distinguish everything about him in
the pale glimmer. He was familiar, from having often
visited them, with the caves of Plemont in Jersey, the
Creux Maill6 at Guernsey, the Boutiques at Sark; but
none of these marvellous caverns could compare with the
subterranean and submarine chamber into which he had
made his way. Under the water at his feet he could see
a sort of drowned arch. This arch, a natural ogive,
fashioned by the waves, was glittering between its two
dark and profound supports. It was by this submerged
porch that the daylight entered into the cavern from the
open sea. A strange light shooting upwards from a gulf.
The glimmer spread out beneath the waters like a large
fan, and was reflected on the rocks. Its direct rays, di-
vided into long, broad shafts appeared in strong relief
against the darkness below, and, becoming brighter or
more dull from one rock to another, looked as if seen here
and there through plates of glass. There was light in that
cave it is true ; but it was the light that was unearthly.
The beholder might have dreamed that he had descended
in some other planet. The glimmer was an enigma, like
the glaucous light from the eye-pupil of a Sphinx. The
whole cave represented the interior of a death's head of
enormous proportions, and of a strange splendour. The
vault was the hollow of the brain, the arch the mouth ;
the sockets of the eyes were wanting. The cavern, alter-
nately swallowing and rendering up the flux and reflux
through its mouth wide open to the full noonday with-
out, seemed to drink in the light and vomit forth bitter-
ness ; a type of some beings intelligent and evil. The
light, in traversing this inlet through the vitreous medium
of the sea-water, became green, like a ray of starlight from
Aldebaran. The water, filled with the moist light, ap-
peared• like a liquid emerald. A tint of aquamarina of
marvellous delicacy spread a soft hue throughout the
cavern. The roof, with its cerebral lobes, and its rampant
ramifications, like the fibres of nerves, gave out a tender
reflection of chrysoprase. The ripples reflected on the
roof were falling in order and dissolving again incessantly,
and enlarging and contracting their glittering scales in a
mysterious and mazy dance. They gave the beholder an
impression of something weird and spectral : he wondered
what prey secured, or what expectation about to be
realised, moving with a joyous thrill this magnificent net-
work of living fire. From the projections of the vault,
and the angles of the rock, hung lengths of delicate fibrous
plants, bathing their roots probably through the granite
in some upper pool of water, and distilling from their silky
ends, one drop after the other, a drop of water like a
pearl. These drops fell into the water now and then with
a gentle splash. The effect of the scene was singular.
Nothing more beautiful could be imagined ; nothing more
mournful could anywhere be found. It was a wondrous
palace, in wbieh death sat smiling and oontont.—Toilers of
the sece, by Victor Hugo.