The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1873-08-29
Correspondence.
Letter from London.


EDITOR FGIs AS have no sights to see TO
day, l have turned my attention to writing let.
tiers. l never go into elaborate descriptions of
places see. SO many people come to England
that its castles are rs well known as if they
were in the United States. l have been here one
month, and may say have done London and
England, because have not confined myself to
the city of London, but have made excursions all
around for many miles, and have consequently
seen everything that is to be seen. Amongst
other things went through the Queens stables
at Windsor They usually have about 100
horses, but she has so of them now with herat
Osboune, where she is staying. The lot saw
were mostly old fellows with splints, wind gals
and sprung knees. The stables hold 20 horses
each the stalls are feet wide and the ceilings
30 feet high, with elegant ventilation and very
Clean There seemed to be stable boy to each
horse. The horses are fed four times day, and
are only allowed one peck of oats daily aud So
pounds of hay per week. The oats are very
black in color and weigh 40lbs to the bushei
The harness is all very heavy, and covered with
gilt arrangements; the bits are nearly all curbs
and of steel. She has 20 carriages, all sizes and
shapes, but nothing very grand. saw the lit
tie childrcn's carriages-cheap little basket ar
engagements, that any one might have for their
children. They have an immense room in con-
nection with the stables, that is used as riding
school, where the Queens children learn to ride;
and strange to say, their riding master isa Ger
man.
Within the last few days there have been five
railroad accidents, one terrible one, and all OF
them bad enough to kill good many people.
| don't see how it is possible to get up II rail
road accident in this country; everything on
the roads is SO beautifully managed and the tracks
so solid. The switches are worked by men in
houses, sometimes two miles from the switches,
by means of wires, and there are always three
men in switch house-consequcntly some one
must always be awake. On each cross tie there
is heavy cast iron plate, that holds the rail
fn eft nd ha ips orai m m " In The
ductor don't go with the train,las with us, but
punches your ticket when you get inthe car, and
generally it is taken up as you leave the station
at the end of your journey, or when coming in
to London, at the first station before arriving
The cars are miserably ventilated. You can
just stand erect and there is no ventilation
through the top at all. A car Is about Is feet
long, and divided into three compartments, each
built up separate from the other, and the first
class cars lined with blue cloth, that is awfully
hot There are only two small windows in each
compartment, and when some stutfy old English
man gets in and shuts up one window to keep out
the dirt, you can't imagine how close it is
Each compartment holds six people, three on
each end. Three people have to ride back
wards-whch is very unpleasant for some per-
sons but nothing is done in this country for com
fort except for the very rich people.
The London people can't complain ofthc want
of places for recreation. l never saw place SO
well provided with places to go to for pleasure.
mond, about half an hour from London by rail
or buse-some 500 acres of the most beautiful
walks, trees, lawns and flowers The Government
Botanical Gardens are there. Plants from all
parts of the world are to be seen. There are
large numbers of immense green houses, one of
them Is 100 feet high, and contains immense
palm trees, as large round as your body.
There are large banyan trees, full of fruit;
some cocoanut trees; an olive tree full ofolivcs
in fact everything Imaginable Anot err
house is filled with FERNS some of them 20 feet
high; another house has the Victoria Regina,
an immense lily, in tank of water 20 feet in
diameter. This has eight leaves floating on the
water each leaf six feet in diameter, about u
of an inch thick, and strong enough to float Il
child two years old. saw child put on one
of the leaves. 1t is In bloom now, and the flow
ers a rich cream color, and as large as ones hat
Another house is given up to "Colias" and other
plants with funny colored leaves. Another
house is full of geraniums, and so it goes. Ev
crything is represented in the greatest profuson.
There are some fuchsias in one house, that are
IL feet high, and have II stem rs thick as ones
thumb; one of the houses is given up to tropical
air plants. Trees of all kinds grow out of doors
| saw locust tree, larger than anything ever
saw at home, and immense American walnut
trees.
After doing these gardens, we dmcd at IL hotel
near by, just on the banks of the Thames. The
lawn of the hotel sloped down to the river,
which is about 300 feet wide at this point, and
it was alive with boats passing up and down,
rowed by men, girls and boys, and rs far as the
eye could reach, up and down, beautiful lawns
ran down close to the waters edge, with i'm
mense beds of red, purple, yellow and white
flowers. They plant all the flowers here in beds;
that is to say, all the colors TO themselves in
different BEDS formed into shapes entirely by the
blending of their different colors A. n.