AN OCTOBER ABROAD 167 



While in London I had much pleasure in strolling 

 through the great parks, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, 

 St. James Park, Victoria Park, etc., and in making 

 Sunday excursions to Richmond Park or Hampden 

 Court Parks, or the great parks at Windsor Castle. 

 The magnitude of all these parks was something I 

 was entirely unprepared for, and their freedom also; 

 one could roam where he pleased. Not once did I 

 see a signboard, "Keep off the grass," or go here or 

 go there. There was grass enough, and one could 

 launch out in every direction without fear of tres 

 passing on forbidden ground. One gets used, at 

 least I do, to such petty parks at home, and walks 

 amid them so cautiously and circumspectly, every 

 shrub and tree and grass plat saying "Hands off," 

 that it is a new sensation to enter a city pleasure 

 ground like Hyde Park, a vast natural landscape, 

 nearly two miles long and a mile wide, with broad, 

 rolling plains, with herds of sheep grazing, and for 

 ests and lakes, and all as free as the air. We have 

 some quite sizable parks and reservations in Wash 

 ington, and the citizen has the right of way over 

 their tortuous gravel walks, but he puts his foot 

 upon the grass at the risk of being insolently hailed 

 by the local police. I have even been called to 

 order for reclining upon a seat under a tree in the 

 Smithsonian grounds. I must sit upright as in 

 church. But in Hyde Park or Regent's Park I 

 could not only walk upon the grass, but lie upon 



