House; but Mr. Gardiner was unable to take even half our number. We at last established ourselves at St. James's Hotel, in Jermynstreet, and found good accommodations. Two or three noblemen reside in this hotel; and one, Lord Blayney, has made it his city residence for many years. Our friends, who were in London for the first time, were greatly delighted with the extraordinary display of equipage occasioned by the Drawing-room. Every street was thronged with carriages waiting for their turn to take up the company at the Palace. The coachmen and footmen all had immense bouquets in their bosoms, and the splendid liveries and powdered heads and white wigs of the drivers were novelties to most of the North Star party. I was anxious to know what would be the first object of curiosity to the ladies, and not a little surprised to find that the Thames Tunnel was voted for as our primary visit. The morning was devoted to it, and a visit to the Tower, the Monument, and St. Paul's Cathedral. This last edifice was so lumbered up with scaffolding erected for the great gathering of the school-boys, held on the 1st of June, that we had but a very poor view of the noble sanctuary. By the way, after visiting almost every celebrated religious temple of Europe, I am satisfied that St. Paul's Cathedral is kept in the worst condition of any that I have seen. Its statuary has on it the thick dust of long, long years; and the general internal appearance of the church is discreditable to the nation. My impressions in reference to this cathedral are gathered from frequent previous visits, and have nothing to do with its condition at this time. After dinner we rode to Hyde Park, and there we were amused with a spectacle that can be witnessed nowhere else. Hundreds, and I may say thousands, were taking their accustomed rides, and we had a good opportunity to see the ladies, gentlemen, horses and carriages, of London and England. The horses we thought, on the whole, not what we had expected, but there were some very noble animals; the ladies appeared to great advantage, but 38 KENSINGTON GARDENS. we thought that the gentlemen certainly might improve in horsemanship. London is indeed to be envied for the possession of her parks; they are her gems, her crowning glory, in my esteem. Three hundred and forty-nine acres, and close to the brick and mortar, and noise and turmoil, of this great Babel! This park has a great entrance from Piccadilly, by fine arched gateways, with a lodge, and several other approaches from Oxford-street, Bayswater, Kensington and Knightsbridge. The park is laid out with noble walks, and spacious drives, in which only private carriages are admissible. From April to July, between five and seven P. M., the scene presented is very gay and attractive. A road called Rotten Row is kept exclusively for the use of equestrians; it is nearly two miles long, and is covered with fine loose gravel. In the park is the beautiful sheet of water known as the Serpentine, and at its junction with Kensington Gardens is an elegant stone bridge. The Serpentine extends over, I think, not less than fifty acres, and early in the morning it affords fine bathing to hundreds of the citizens of London. The noble old trees of this park are worthy objects of admiration. I like to stand on the high ground near the Edgeware road, and catch glimpses of the river through the forest trees, while off to the south are seen the Surrey Hills, and church-spires and antique towers on all sides, and fine mansions peeping from the trees. Here, too, are often witnessed the reviews of the troops stationed in the metropolis. I spoke of Kensington Gardens: these are a continuation of Hyde Park, and embrace three hundred acres. In 1550, all these six hundred and forty-nine acres were a royal enclosure, and stocked with game, and Majesty hunted for pastime. It was appropriated in 1851 to a nobler end; and here was the most important popular gathering that England ever witnessed, at the Great Exhibition. Our rides through the Regent's Park, which contains four hundred and fifty acres, afforded us much enjoyment. The villas and terraces which have been built during the last fifteen years are exquisite specimens of architecture. Here are the Zoological Gardens and the Coliseum. No foreigner should fail to visit this noble park; and here I think he will gain his best estimate of the beauty and elegance of English city life, as it is enjoyed by the opulent. The long walk, with its four lines of elm-trees, is a remarkable avenue. We made very interesting visits to Westminster Abbey, the new Houses of Parliament, Bank of England, Royal Exchange, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, and other great objects. of curiosity in London; and excursions were made to Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, Richmond, &c. Several members of the party left London for other places. Some went to Liverpool, and others to Bristol, Clifton, Bath, Gloucester and Cheltenham. I cannot omit mention of a rapid visit which I made to my native city, and where I had the good fortune to arrive just in time to join a large family party at dinner, enabling me to meet those with whom I must otherwise have left England without enjoying an interview. Bristol is a glorious old city; it is full of history; not a street, a church, a hill (and, like Rome, it has seven hills), but is identified with other days, and days of note. It boasts of Roman settlement; figured largely in the wars of the barons; was the birthplace of Sebastian Cabot; was a great bone of contention between Royalists and Parliamentarians; was the scene of poor Naylor's judicial tortures, and Judge Jeffries' cruelties; the home of Chatterton, Southey, Coleridge, Cottle, Hannah More, Robert Hall, Richard Reynolds, William Thorp, Dr. Ryland, Bird, the artist, Bayley, the sculptor; was represented in Parliament by Edmund Burke; was burned and sacked by the rioters in 1831; and is the abode of more Christian charities than any other city I know, excepting Boston and New York. Here is the great boast of the west of England,—the unrivalled parish church of St. Mary Redcliffe. This venerable pile is undergoing a thorough renovation. It contains the monument 40 CLIFTON AND ITS SCENERY. and grave of Admiral Penn, father of the founder of Pennsylvania. In the evening-our only one-we took a carriage to visit Clifton, on the banks of the Avon, with its unequalled scenery of St. Vincent's Rocks, the Down, Hotwells, Henbury and Blaise Hamlet. I have no knowledge of any spot on earth that can furnish a ride of such beauty in five hours. From the hill at Kingsweston we looked down upon the winding Avon, saw its junction with the "Severn swift," gazed upon the Welsh Hills, Bristol Channel, and took a look over at the mouth of the Wye and Wynd Cliffe, close by which is Tintern Abbey, the shrine of beauty at which my boyish devoirs were often paid. Tintern is the grandest ecclesiastical ruin in Europe, and Mr. Webster regarded it as alone sufficient to recompense a traveller for crossing the ocean to pay it a visit. I never heard the great man more eloquent than one day, after his return from Europe, when he conversed upon the abbey and its vicinage. The Wye had filled the sportsman's eye, and the beauties of the works of religion and art had animated his mind. I remember he ex HENBURY COTTAGES. pressed the wish that he could have had 41 gathered round him, when he stood at Tintern, all he loved. "And not unrecompensed the man shall roam, I Why, there are hundreds of nooks and dells, ingles and hillsides, |