Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-02-13
L0ND0N--A GLANCE AT THE GREAT
METROPOLIS.

LUN DUN---A GLANCE Al THE GREAT
METROPOLIS.
Correspondence Of the Chicago Weekly Pr,ss.l
The Houses OF Parliament are a short distance
from the Queens palace, on the Thames. This
is the largest model of Gothic architecture in
Europe, and one OF the finest buildings in the
world. 1t was commenced almost twenty years
ago, and will be finished IN about ten wears at
a cost Of Sl2,0O0,00o. Two towers are being
built at each end, which will attain the height
of three hundred and thirty aud three hundred
and forty feet. The number of statutes about
the building in honor of distinguished English
men, will be more than four hundred and fifty.
Westminster Abbey was rebuilt nearly as we
now see it, by Henry ILL.,, and his son. Edward
l., about the year 1890, and has been the place
of coronation of the sovereign from the time of
Edward the Confessor 10 Victoria. Several
chapels have been added, from time to tim, :,
by the kings whose remains are there entonbed.
Here rest England's most glorious ones the
founders Of her national fabric and the trainers
OF her language. The visitor may spend day
most agreeably in reading the curious inscrip-
tons IN Poets Corner" and upon the monu-
ments and tablets in other parts OF the Abbey,
and will find it difficult to avoid losing himself
amidst the almost labyrinthne winJings On
the Sabbath that attended services in the Alb
! btN lHeIc were d>-e'nuleu dDOut TWO thousand
/ five hundred persons, more than half of whom
could not hear a word that the minister uttered :
but when the organ sent forth its laundering
notes, accompanied by choir of youthful voic-
es, the loud swelling harmony, rolling on be-
meath the lofty notwithstanding to lose itself
| IN the distance-produced an impression which
the most eloquent sermon would have failed to
! do
| s.. Paul's Cathedral is next 10 Westminster
/ Abbey with regard to antiquity, and far superior
in style OF architecture 1t was built in Queen
Annes reign, by Christopher Wren, Engand's
greatest architect. 1t is situated in the center OF
the business quarter, at the foot of Fleet street.
| ascended 10 the height OF four hundred feet
above the pavement, under the ball and cross
that surmount the dome. The Whispering Gal.
lery, IN the dome, Is constructed, that YOU
may hear the slightest whisper in any part of
the gallery. The workmen below were making
| preparations for the charity schools anniversa-
~, and even while their hammers kept an al.
most deaiening racket, | listened TO the history
ot the Cathedral, delivered by my guide oppo-
site me, IN a whisper. The monuments and
groups of sauary placed here by Government,
IN honor of Englishmen who flourished during
the last century, are new, and many Of them
well executed. Wellington and Nelson arc bur
led in the vault underneath.
The Tower of London is situated on the north
bank of the Thames, in the eastern part of the
city. The Oldest building now standing (he
White Tower) was built about the year 900
by William the Conqueror. In view of its an
tiquty, Of the many tragedies that have been
enacted within its walls, and of the conspicuous
place IT occupied in English history as the stron.
gesl forlfcation in England in former times, the
tower affords the place of greater interest. The
ancient moat, about one hundred feet in breadth,
still surrounds the walls, and is used for a pal-
adc ground by the soldiers stationed in the bir-
racks within. The entrance after passing an
iron gate and crossing the moat, is by an arch
way near the Bloody Tower, where the Duke of
Clarence was drowned in "butl of mamsev,"
and the young princes were smothcred by order
of Richard Ill. Opposite is the TRAITORS
Gate, by which those who were guilty of high
treason were conducted from the river. The
Oldest buildings are apparently in state ofper-
feet preservation as those which have since been
constructed.
Most of the curiosites are kept in the 'White
Tower" ESQ called on account of its light color)
which stands in the center. Some parts of lis
walls are thirteen feet thick Before windows
came into use, two or three small oopholes con-
Quoted to the inmates their portion of light and
air Sir Walter Raleigh was confined in this
prison many years. The dungeon in which he
was chained at night is about SIX feet in length
by four in breadth, and scarcely high enough to
permit full-grown man 10 stand upright. The
armory contains nearly forty equestrian and Pc
deslrian figures showing the different kinds of
armor and arms in Use from the time of Edward
l. to James H.; wax figures of Queen Elizabeth
on horseback block on which Anne Boleyn
and Lady Jane Grey were beheaded instru-
ments OF torture and arms used by the early
Britons and many oher people with whom the
English have been connected. There are, be-
sldes seven other towers, to which was not adj
mitted a small Norman chapel barracks built
by Wellington and the jewel-house, in which
are kept those sewgaws of royalty that have
drawn from English purses 81 100000.
The Thames tunnel may perhaps be consid-
cred as one of the most wonderful objects in Lon
don. 1t is built under the bed of the river, two
miles below London Bridge. Its length, twelve
hundred feet. Operations were commenced in
1926, after plan of Sir lsambard X. Brunei,
and after many difficulties, and delay of seven
years, caused by break in the shield which pro
tected the workmen filled the portion already
completed with water, the work was finally op-
ened to the public in 1545 The architect is
said to have derived the idea of the shield from
the operations of the teredo, testaceous ami
NAL which eats its way through the hardest
boards, projected by a cylindrical shell.
Brunel's she'll consisted of twelve separate
parts or divisions, each containing three cells
In these cells the miners worked, protected by
the shield above and in front, aud backed by
the bricklayers behind, who built up as fast as
the miners advanced. The total cost was near
ly s2,OO0,Ooo. The yearly receipts amount to
$4,000, sum barely sufficient to cover the
necessary expenditures, from the constant influx
of land springs. 1t belongs to public compa-