324 



AUSTRALIA AND HOMEWARD. 



hard pavements, the street cries of vegetable and 

 fruit vendors, the shouting of the news-boys " 'Av' a 

 Toimes, zur ; ounly a pennee-ee " the cry of the boot- 

 black, the singing of the street-beggars, the scream of 

 the steam-whistle, the ringing of bells, and the heavy 

 roll of railway trains over the bridges, or, perhaps, in 

 the dark passages under your feet. Tis the voice, the 

 clatter, the restless, unceasing energy of a great mul- 

 titude; even thousands of thousands, like ' the voice 

 of many waters," as John has told us he heard. 



St. James' Park contains 80 acres. It was a deer 

 park, bowling-green and tennis court in the times of 

 Henry VIII., but considerably changed, and made into 

 a more general pleasure ground by Charles II. 



Hyde Park has 390 acres. It has nine principal 

 gateways, of which Marble Arch is the best known. 

 This noble structure was erected in memory of Lord 

 Nelson at a cost of 80,000, or 8400,000, but stood 

 originally near Buckingham Palace. Hyde Park, with 

 its lovely green grass, its bright flowers, its shrubbery, 

 its noble old trees, its beautiful, ornamental lake (the 

 Serpentine), its Rotten Row (Route en Roi, the road 

 for the king), its costly equipages, its well-dressed 

 pedestrians, is unsurpassed for brilliancy by any other 

 spot in the three kingdoms. 



Regent's Park, in the north-west, contains 470 acres. 



