186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



By a vote of the Board at the meeting in December, the 

 Secretary was directed to prepare and submit some account of 



A TRIP TO EUROPE. 



The preceding papers occupy so many pages of tliis Report, 

 that want of space will explain the absence of an introduction. 



We arrived at Liverpool at ten o'clock on a Sunday morning, 

 the 22d of June. Taking up a paper, the first thing that 

 strikes the eye is a notice of the exhibition of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, to open the next day, at Battersea Park, in 

 London, Not a day, therefore, for Liverpool. The old Roman 

 town of Chester, the dairy farms of its neighborhood, and the 

 picturesque hills of North Wales, now in sight, must be left to 

 a future time. Not an hour is to be lost of the great metropolitan 

 Cattle Show. 



And so, without delay, the first train in the morning finds 

 me on tlie way up to the capital. The journey from Liverpool . 

 to London, a dista)nce of two hundred miles, possesses little of 

 interest in a picturesque point of view. The country is fl.at for 

 the most part, and we glide along through parks and fields 

 divided by green hedges, for the want of a better material for 

 fencing, through busy manufacturing towns, sending up their 

 clouds of black smoke which linger in the murky atmosphere, 

 passing the country seats of the rich proprietors of these acres, 

 and now and then, a time-worn ruin of some feudal castle. 

 The journey is soon over. 



Once arrived in London, the first object is to obtain informa- 

 tion. Where are the objects of interest now crowding this 

 great metropolis ? Where is Battersea Park ? Where is the 

 International Exhibition ? Where is the Crystal Palace, where 

 the grand Ilandel Festival is to take place ? A guide-book is 

 necessary for the navigation of this labyrinth. But first for the 

 letters of introduction. Some of my future acquaintances must 

 be more or less connected with the exhibition of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society. That lasts but ten days, and is soon 

 over, while the World's Fair will continue long enough to suit 

 my convenience. 



