The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-12-25
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE.
London, its Historic Buildings,
Parks. Points of InteTcst nnd sur
rOundingA

London, IIs Historic Buildings,
Parks. Points of Intercst aud sur
roundings
Especial Correspondence Of The Bdnner'l
NUMBER XIII.
] st. Paul's Cathedral is another of the
great London centres, and the crowd OF
5eonle and mass of vehicles that ebb
and flow past the little triangular space
| in which it stands is wnderful. A little
spot of grass lies along one side, but the
city has crowded;as closely as possible on
to the venerable building, which would
look far handsomer if it were still the
centre of the great space which wen
the architect meant should always sur
round it, but the greed of men does not
stop unless it is obliged to, and the
obligation was that they could get no
closer, so extremely narrow streets sep
arate it to-day from the encroachlng
buildings. The front is noble, and the
great dome is one of the city Landmarks,
but the exterior is grey, like every other
public building in London, and the IN
terror quite plain although massive; the
crypts are miracle of solid masonry,
and here we found the tombs of Nelson
and the Duke of Wellington. The gath
contrast to that at st. Peters, in Rome,
there must have been at least 1000 people
seated at that service, and there is no
regular congregation. just four Sun
days later, at the same service, a man
shot and killed himself with revolver in
the midst of the worshippers.
Just at the base of the dome inside is
circular gallery, and very small do
those look who are walking alb out below:
the acoustic properties are wonderful,
low whisper is distinctly heard across 1T
at this gallery. Outside, near the top OF
the dome is stone gallery from which
is obtained fine view of London, and
we wished to see the clock and great
bell, which weighs about 10 tons, but
since the dynamite scare of years ago
in the House of Commons, no one is
allowed to see them, a perfectly 1dlc-
ulous notion, for any one could easily
blow up st. Pauls if they chose, in spite
of all the watching, but the British
mind is clean daft on the subject of
dynamite.
The Parliament House is very long
and handsome building close by the
Thames. which is here beautiiied by the
great stone embankment, although most
of the shores on both sides are anything
but ornamental. Directly opposite the
Parliament building, at low tide is a
great stretch of black mud; the Seine is
infinitely handsomer than the Thames, OF
course there is no tide in the Seine at
Paris while there is high tide in the
Thames at London. AT each end of the
building are high towers, in one OF
which hangs the great thirteen and one
half ton bell, "Big Ben" whose booming
notes can be heard for II surprising dis
tance over the city as it sounds the
hours.
The two Houses of Lords and Commons.
meet in rooms of the same size ut oppo-
site ends of the building, and which are
astonishingly small, many an American
city has as a large room for the com
mon council, Troy for instance. There
are no desks, simply few rows OF VIDE
benches leather covered, not furnishing
seats enough for One-quarter of the actual
members. The Lords quarters are fur
nished a little more richly, but arranged
the same way. The English public are
long suffering TO allow a few men to
browbeat them us they do. For instance
| the Parliament House was built by the
people, at their expense, but they are
not allowed into the building at all when
| H1llldllbill Is III NtNSlblis NANNPb oh
members order. and even when it is not
in session, are only allowed to enter on
SATURDAYS from u to o'clock. Imagine
his nation meekly submitting to any
such imposition. either at the National
or State capitols. This is not all: since
the famous dynamite scare, if one carries
a wrap of any kind on his arm he must
put it on when lie enters, no one is
allowed to carp basket or package OF
any kind INTO the building, and al
must enter at the same place, no more
can enter at time than the very
numerous guards choose, only certain
number are allowed in any one room a
a time: we were driven like sheep from
room to room, the guards saying Move
along quickly now," before we had
chance to more than glance at anything
and finally we were almost forcibl!
elected at another entrance, having beei
ordered about uutil for one felt as If
was convictin prison.
We came out through Westminste
Hall, which was originally the Legislative
building and the oldest part of TIL,
structure. 1t is large handsome hall
with a splendid roof Of carved Gle 'tnut
500 wears old and still sound; the floor i
of stone: why they do not use it as tn
chamber of Commons is more than ] cal
tell, but it would make them splendiC
quarters, which could be fixed easil.
and ine1pensively, while now it is uset
only as an entrance hall.
Il Westminster Abbey is close by. ven
cradle pile, very majestic, but tn
: appearance is sadly injured by a churcl
standing close to, and completely hidini
nearly all of one side; a very old AM
handsome church, but it seemed to IN
singular thing that it should b
allowed to stand there and spoil til
appearance of the Abbey. At 3 p. IN
service on Sunday every seat was occu
pied, and hundreds of people stood; tn
whole place was filed with a cOmpac
mass of worshippers. The various nor
uments are a study, we stood reyerentl
by that of Livingston, than whom, n
man is more fifty buried there; whil
the bust of Longfeliow in the Poet
Corner" sent through us thrill of graz
flied pride that our cOuntryman shoul
be SO honored by memorial in tn
most distinguished burial place in til
world. BY obtaining special permission
. we were led by one of the black-robe
vergers, up narrow stone stair near tn
chapel of Henry VII to little rool
some way ABOVE tne ADDey HOOT, WHel
are kept several life-size wax figures 9
various notable people. formerly on tn
tombs below, among them Queen Eli
abeth and Lord Nelson; all very life-lik
md apparently good portraits: l woI
dered that they were not kept whel
all could see them, for they are vel
interesting.
The cloisters about the Abbey al
very ancient and time worn, the blacl
ened stones looked very venerable as "
passed by them on our way to Il
Jerusalem Chamber SO notable as q
place where King James's version of Il
Bb'e was prepared and whtre late
that version has been revised. 1t is
plain room, not very large, but the san
table and chairs are there which ha'
been used by all the learned people wi
have gathered there for hundreds
years.
We wandered about the city, loOkiI
for the various places of interest co
nected with old London, such as Ii
|