212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



seventy-five acres, where tlie herds of England come up to show 

 their points under the direction of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society. These are only a few of the noble parks. There are 

 many more, either within or in the immediate vicinity of this 

 Great city, as Victoria Park, of two hundred and forty-eight 

 acres, Richmond Park, &c. I suppose that more than two 

 thousand acres are taken up with parks and open squares fenced 

 in, and adorned with shrubbery and flowers, in the very heart 

 of London. 



We may mount to the dome of St. Paul's, which is in the 

 older part of the town, or in the city of London propqr, and see 

 at our feet a greater aggregate of wealth accumulated in a 

 smaller space than from any other point on the face of the 

 globe. And we need not look far either. A single mile around 

 St. Paul's includes the Bank of England and the offices of the 

 wealtliiest bankers, merchants and business men, the repre- 

 sentatives of untold millions. Farther than this we could 

 hardly expect to look. A thick smoke or fog almost invariably 

 hangs over the great metropolis. The sun is seldom seen, or if 

 at all only dimly, as through a smoky glass. How could it be 

 otherwise where more than three millions of tons of bituminous 

 coal are consumed in a year, or on an average more than eight 

 thousand tons a day throughout the year ? But the inhabitants 

 are so accustomed to it that they think little of it. It is fortu- 

 nate for them, perhaps, that they know so little of any other. 

 Not far off is Smithfield market — Smithfield so famous in the 

 annals of the Reformation. Step into it on a market day and 

 we shall find where the meat comes from that feeds so many 

 mouths. 



Tlicse are evidently brought from the continent. They are 

 Dutch and were fattened at the distilleries in Holland. In the 

 first six months of 1862 London received six thousand one 

 hundred and ninety-five head of cattle from the continent. 

 But that is below the average. During the first six months of 

 18G1 she received twelve thousand four hundred and twenty- 

 two. The drain from there in 1860 and 1861 was so great that 

 live stock and dead meat are now very dear in Holland, and as 

 prices liave lately ruled rather low in London on account of the 

 large numbers sent from Scotland and Ireland, which, in pros- 



