554 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



itself in the midst of a great city. In these favored sites the owners 

 have the luxury of quiet and rural surroundings, usually confined to 

 the country, with the whole of the great world of May Fair and 

 politics within ten or twenty minutes' walk. 



And now, having been through more than a thousand acres of 

 park scenery, and witnessed the enjoyments of tens of thousands of 

 all classes, to whom these parks are open from sunrise to nine o'clock 

 at night, you will naturally ask me if these luxuries are wholly con- 

 fined to the West End of London. By no means. In almost all 

 parts of London are " squares " open places of eight or ten acres, 

 filled with trees, shrubs, grass, and fountains like what we call 

 " parks " in our cities at home. Besides these, a large new space 

 called the Victoria Park, of two hundred and ninety acres, has been 

 laid out lately in the East part of London, expressly for the recrea- 

 tion and amusement of the poorer classes who are confined to that 

 part of the town. 



You see what noble breathing-places London has, within its own 

 boundaries, for the daily health and recreation of its citizens. But 

 these by no means comprise all the rural pleasures of its inhabitants. 

 There are three other magnificent public places within half an hour 

 of London, which are also enjoyed daily by thousands and tens of 

 thousands. I mean Hampton Court, Richmond Park, and the 

 National Gardens at Kew. 



Hampton Court is the favorite resort of the middle classes on 

 holidays, and a pleasanter sight than that spot on such occasions, 

 when it is thronged by immense numbers of citizens, their wives 

 and children, with all the riches of that grand old palace, its picture- 

 galleries, halls, and splendid apartments, its two parks and its im- 

 mense pleasure-grounds thrown open to them, is not easily found. 

 Indeed, a man may be dull enough to care for neither palaces nor 

 parks, for neither nature nor art, but he can scarcely be human, or 

 have a spark of sympathy in the fortunes of his race, if he can wan- 

 der without interest through these magnificent halls, still in perfect 

 order, built with the most kingly prodigality by the most ambitious 

 and powerful of subjects Wolsey : halls that were afterwards suc- 

 cessively the home of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, James, Charles and 

 Cromwell ; halls where Shakspeare played and Sidney wrote, but 



