The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1871-08-23


hands anu crying, 40 room" 1 went t
six of the largest hotels before l could fin
admittance, and at last found lodging i
the elegant "Palace Hotel" just opposit
Buckingham Palace. London has never'beel
so crowded since the Great Exhibition il
1851, as at the present time. There is
large number of Americans in the city, an,
the general tide of travel and sight-seein,
has been turned from Paris to this place.
One of the first things which strikes al
American in England is the length of th
days and the consequent shortness of th'
nights. The sun does not set here till aftel
s, and the twilight remains until 8. can
not speak so definitely about the time of hi
rising, from personal experience, never hav
ing approved the old saw SO assiduouSly en-
joined upon children" Early to bed, early
to rise, makes man healthy, wealthy ant
wise" But the Sunday morning on which
we first sighted the Irish coast from the
steamship, rose aboat 2, and it was ther
the twilight before the dawn. Hence you
can the better understand some of the Eng
lsh customs, as for instance, the Houses Of
Parliament commencing their daily sessions
sometimes at P. NJ, and continuing until
2 A. NJ; and the social habit of dining at s,
and beginning the evenings dissipation at
$780, which seems to be the mode now.
Of course the general time of rising is from
8 to 10 in the morning. One of the leading
London journals has been defending these
habits in its columns, proving them to be
the most healthful and profitable for bust
ness to Englishmen. On9 advantage accrues
to visitors from these loag days and social
habits, can see so much in one day
For ten hours you can wander uninterrupt-
edly bp and down tbss streetsS and roam
through the great Repositories of antiquities
and of art-walking, and standing, and look
ing until the eye is file with seeing, and
the weary, foot sore body gladly welcomes
the evening repose.
The first day after my arrival in the city
was spent in the British Museum. For
many hours I wandered through its long
halls and courts, filled with the rarest treas
ures of nature and human skill, garnered
from every cline, and surprising in many
respects every other collection in the world.
The building alone cost more than $5,OOO,-
900, and its contents are truly overwhelming
ia their vastness. From the first ante room
at the head of the stairs, in which you meet
with the Gorilla of Du Chaillu, and his wife
and family, (for whom, in spite of my prox-
unity to Mr. Darwin, | experienced no feel
ing of friendship whatSoever,) you pass
through the spacious galleries of Natural
History, in which are ranged choicest speci-
mems of the beasts of the field and fowls Of
the air, and fish of the sea, everything that
creepeth upon the ground, or pasSeth through
the waters and the air, cattle of every kind,
and birds of every feather, and fish immune
rable, small and great; yea, whatsoever has
ever lived upon the earth, and laid its bones
in the chalk or coal treasures, or old Red
Sandstone, pre-Adamite or post-Adamite
has been exhumed and made to display iti
gigantic skeleton to the curious pigmies
of the 18th century. Then through the
vast ibraries-the largest has more than
100000 volumes, and adds $4,000 volumes
every year-and amid the old autographs
of kings, and men more kingly in the realms
Of literature and Of the truth, and the msn
u8criptS aud Illuminated miS8alS, among
which my eye rested long upon the COdea
Alerandrinus of the 4th or 5th century, thu
Greek manuscripts of the Gospels, given by
the Patriarch of Alexandria to Charles L.
and of which l had read at home; and theI
through the galleries of archaeology, through
long lines of Egyptian mummies which
boys were handling irreverently, and arti
cles of handicraft; through Roman and Gre
clan terra cottas, bronzes and Etruscal
vases, jewels, lamps, instruments of writing
and articles of the toilet, children's play
things, the bones of man who lived on
hundred years before Abraham, and mum
berless other antiquities, the names alone o
which make up large sized book. But tn
galleries of greatest interest to me wer
those in which were arranged the most ez
quisite Grecian sculptures, especially of tn
Townley and EIgin marbles from the Par
thenon at Athens, the long Egyptian hall
filled with lava, specimens of columns
statues, sarcophagi, urns, many of whic
were made while the Israelites were in Egyp
the famous Rosetta Stone, and last, bu
most striking of all, the huge winged hi
man-headed bulls and lions and the sculptr
red slabs from Nineveh the Great Their
are the bas.reliefs on which are portraye
the seige and destruction of Lachish
Sennacherib, which l CHANGED to read in tt
Bible this morning; all these as if antic