Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-06-01
From Our Regular Correspondent. ]
Our European Letter.
LONDON, Eng, May ~, 1881

LONDON, Eng, May II. 1881.
There are some eight or ten public parks
in London. The chief is Hyde. so called
after its donor, who presented it to the
crown. call it the chief park. in point
Of being the most central and fashionable
rendezvous, not because of any enlarged
beauty or its amount of acreage. There
are other parks here much more pictur-
esque and of more extensive domain.
Hyde Park proper embraces four hundred
acres, and its adjunct, Kensington Gar
dens. comprises three hundred. If either
can be called park. the latter deserves
better to be so designated than the former.
that are quite forest-like, with grand and
closely-planted trees. Originally the en-
tire domain was the Hyde estate" but
Queen Caroline. who was always clipping
and carping at something or somebody.
cut off the part now called Gardens"
and had them more inclosed than they are
at present.
To the stranger coming to London at this,
the season, would say. see Hyde Park
but don't die. There is not bit of sense
in doing the latter anywhere. if you can
help it, and it is very expensive luxury
in London. One of the striking features
of Hyde Park on red-etter day, a field
day, is the evident personal republicanism
Of mixture. The Baron Sans.Sou, my
Lord Lazarus, the decayed Mr.. Butternea
and Mrs. Ludz can be seen airing them
selves in mortgaged chariot, on "shank's
mare" or posing on the park benches
under cheap gingham umbrellas, while the
/" British blood Of all the Howards," pours
out its varied colors and odors in luxurious
landans, and "places its bar sinister armo-
riol bearings front and rear!' If personal
appearance be any qualification the Butter
mean certainly carries the palm from the
" First Earl Marshal of England and
Lazarus is much more healthy looking
than MY Lord Lonedale." The Butter
mean may have LESS in feet of blood and
more of muscle" but behold him in manly,
beefy importance and fine figure beside
the Lord of Arundel
The fact is, there is dry rot in British
aristocracy, and their best personal APP
pearance is kept up by what is called 1.-THE
landed gentry" in fashions. What Froude
calls the great territorial houses of the
country" have to-day very shakv found
alton and broken, leaky roof, if "deca-
dence of family. and doubtful offspring
be any of the building material. How
many of the material mansions themselves
are tottering or occupied NY atiuent tailors
of the Kino school! The cement law of
entail keeps many an ancestral acre to-
gether, it is true. But the heir is often
missing and the proud patrmony scatter
ed. There are more instances of "lost
families - in England to day than in any
country in Europe. Profgacy of the
eldest son is often followed by shopman
tastes and instincts in the youngest, and
second son in like a fifth wheel to a coach,
and that slow ramshackle and shaky and
shakedown one. Sudden shocks and slow,
disintegrating causes produce this dry rot
in families. If ancient and noble descent
be looked for in England, not in the titled
avenues must you seek it only. In the
quiet residence of the country squire, more
often than in the lofty mansion of the gilt
tering magnate you will find the best blood
of England. And as these squres depend
much more upon their personal character
than their family purse you will also find
among them the best men of England.
As the titled personages, ancient and
modern, seek new physical Or financial
lease of life by periodical doses of blue
pill, golden drops or" corpse revivers"
from county families brewers or bankers,
so also these latter occasionally recuperate
through the agency of black draughts,
tincture of iron, and padding of "shoddy"
from the Sheffield Manchester, Birming-
ham and Leeds vulgar masses" Look
into any county biographical history of
the lords of the manor, the squres and
the manufacturers, and for the last fifty
years you will see these intermixings and
intermarryings to prop up the decay of
names and the dry rot of titled families,
financial physic, social eleotroplating and
rust of the real metal
AUGUST.