^T.40.] TO . 385 



Will you not take a cab with me ? I have been trying 

 for an omnibus in vain this half hour, and I have 

 made an appointment with some friends there at half 

 past ten." We agreed at once to this reasonable and 

 very convenient proposition, and we shared the ex- 

 pense accordingly, with many expressions of thanks 

 on the lady's part. Before we had reached within 

 half a mile of the Crystal Palace we were obliged to 

 fall into dense line, with a close double file of cabs, 

 carriages, dog-carts, and other " vehicular convey- 

 ances," all wending their way thither, a similar file 

 of empty carriages returning on the other side of the 

 street ; the sidewalks as well as the roads inside the 

 park all crowded with pedestrians. Early as we were, 

 a vast number of people were already there, but scat- 

 tered through the vast interior, they scarcely made a 

 crowd, until midday, when the more attractive parts 

 of the structure, the principal streets and squares, so 

 to say, were thronged. 



As to what we saw, is it not written at length in 

 the great Official Catalogue (as far as that ponder- 

 ous document is yet published), besides the Abridged 

 Catalogue, in itself quite a sizable book, which we 

 mean to bring home, with the Synopsis, and other 

 things, quite a library, and I dare say you have heard 

 and read quite enough about it. I doubt whether you 

 have seen the excellent and spirited articles in the 

 " Times," beginning long before the building was 

 finished, which give a most admirable and lively 

 account of everything. 



The general impression of the interior was not quite 

 so imposing, did not give such an idea of the vastness, 

 as when we saw it in April, less full, and the long 

 spaces unbroken. 



