itary bands of music attend to fill an atmosphere that is charged with fragrance, also with the concord of sweet sounds. The Duke of Devonshire, a part of whose estate these gardens occupy, and whose mansion is not far distant, being President of the Society, opens all his gates on the Exhibition Days, and allows the visitors freely to pass over his magnificently beautiful domains.

As my American readers are not probably aware of the size of the farms of some of the nobility of England, I would conclude this Letter by giving some statements, as I have learned them, from men or books. One farm, near Edinburgh, is so large and productive, that it is let annually to a farmer, who pays an annual rent of $10,000 for the use of it, and has become very wealthy at that. Earl Fitzwilliam has a farm of sixteen hundred acres, besides owning the land all around it, as far as the eye can reach to see fields and parks. His house is on the largest scale of any private establishment in the kingdom; it requires thirty or forty servants constantly employed in it. Earl Spencer, sixty miles from London, at Althrope, has ten thousand acres as his home-place. No fences are to be seen. The lands are divided by invisible iron ones. Goodwood, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, contains forty thousand acres, and in Scotland he has about three hundred thousand acres more when he goes hunting in This estate is called Gordon Castle; and the privilege of taking salmon upon it, he rents for $35,000 per year. The late Lord Yarborough had more than sixty thousand acres on one plantation; on which he made more than seven thousand miles of drains, and set out thirteen millions of trees. He had six hundred tenants on his farms, who paid him each a rentage, varying from $5000

summer.

to $70,000. The owning of so much land by a few wealthy men deprives the common people of all chance to acquire an interest in the soil, or to support themselves by their own farming operations. Thus the rich are continually being made richer, and the poor poorer, in Great Britain so different is Old England from New England. There lands are cut up into small plantations, and each farmer is the owner of his estate against the world. It is thought that the repeal of the corn laws, which have given the rich producers a monopoly in the sale of breadstuffs, will so reduce the price of grain, &c., that the Lords can no longer make it profitable to farm it without working themselves; and the effect ultimately may be to cause the lands to pass into the hands of operators, and then the people will have a chance to live independently of their lordly owners and masters.

LETTER XXIV.

A STROLL ABOUT LONDON.

Blackwall Railway-Call on P. Vaughan, Esq.-Boarding in London-The American Minister-A Saunter through Queen's Way-Refreshment Garden-Hyde Park and first view of Crystal Palace--The SerpentineSmithfield Faggots-St. Bartholomew's Church-Reflections on the burning of Rev. John Rogers-New Lodgings-Music of Jew's Harp.

LONDON, AUGUST 13, 1851.

I MAKE it a point to write something - a Letter if possible every night before I retire to rest. This, however, keeps me up as late as other Londoners; seldom does the couch receive my exhausted frame and wearied head before low twelve. But till midnight London is all noon-day; the streets are illuminated by, I guess I may say, safely, millions of miniature suns in the shape of brilliant gas lights, and are as full of people, omnibuses and other vehicles as they are at high twelve. It would be of little use for me to retire before the night in London really begins. I am up, also, betimes, finishing those writings which had not been completed the previous evening; and if the family does not bring up my breakfast in season, I take my cane and go out to some eatinghouse and obtain the necessary repast, and thence start off on my day's work about London or in the Crystal Palace. I lost time in getting out to England, and must make it

up by observing the more accurately and working the faster and harder whilst here.

As I cannot conveniently this evening indite a regular Letter, I transcribe a few leaves from my diary, written a few days after my arrival.

August 2d. Went from ship in W. I. Dock, Blackwall, to town, alone, on the Railway that passes over the tops of the buildings - hence about four miles to the Station just within the old London walls, on Crutchet Friars, Jewry street, near the Minories. The cars pass each way once in every fifteen minutes. The train, this morning, consisted of twenty-three cars, all full of passengers, at 6d. each. There were so many,

them not

- and I knew

- that I was, as I have said, "alone." No one can be more alone in the lonely forests of Aroostook, than he is if a stranger in London. Such a "world is but a wilderness."

"Amidst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the worldly tired denizen.
With none to bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendor, shrinking from distress!
None that with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all that flatter'd, follow'd, sought, and sued;
This is to be ALONE; this, this is solitude."

Walked from the Station there is no such word as Depot, here; this is a French word, and the English hate the French and French words. I say I walked from the Station to Fenchurch Street, where I called on P. Vaughan, Esq., and delivered my letter of introduction from Gov. Hubbard. He was ill, confined to his bed, and I could not see him. A gentleman, however, in his office offered me every assistance, and gave me a line to Mr. Lawrence, the American Minister.

Passed along Fenchurch Street into Grace street; thence up Bishop's Gate Street, Without, to Gilpin's Book-store (I believe it was near this that the John Gilpin race took place!) and there found brother Preston, who said he had engaged rooms for us at Mr. Melladews, No. 23 Swinton street, where we must arrange our city "home" to-morrow. We do not board here as in the United States, at a stipulated sum per week, all found; but hire our rooms, into which no one, not even the family or servants, can enter but by our call or consent; the rooms are furnished; we ring the bell and order what we will eat, what we will drink and wherewithal we will be served, and it is brought on piecemeal and charged accordingly; so that we never know, till the close of a week, what is the amount of our board bill. Great advantage is taken of a stranger's unacquaintance with prices of particular articles of food, condiments, &c., and as for servants, they must receive pay for every courtesy. It is costly living in London especially this summer, during the rush of company from all parts of the world to attend the Great Exhibition.

Took an omnibus at the Royal Exchange, corner of Cornhill and Lombard Streets, opposite the Bank of England, and rode through Cheapside, by St. Paul's Cathedral, over Ludgate Hill, through Fleet Street and the Strand, by Charing Cross and Trafalgar square, where stands a huge statue of Nelson, high in air, into Pall Mall, up St. James Street, to Piccadilly, a distance of about three miles, for 6d, and called on Hon. Abbot Lawrence. I gave him my letters of commendation, and showed him my Commission. He received me very kindly, and begged me to feel at home in his house as long as I should