192 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



with the groatcst liborality. Ou Sunday afternoons the extensive pleasure grounds 

 attached to them are crowded with visitors, huppj'' to escape the odihI of the 

 town. Throe muséums and numerous conservatories are scattered within its 

 l)recincts. A Avinter garden, covering an area of an acre and a half, is 

 intended to afford shelter to plants of the temperate regions. The palm stove 

 rises to a height of 66 feet, and walking amongst the tropical plants which it con- 

 tains, we might fancy ourselves transported into a virgin forest of the New World, 

 if it were not for the roof of glass visible through the fan-shaped foliage above our 

 heads. There are many private gardens in the vicinity of London, and more 

 especially near Chiswick, which almost rival Kew in the extent of their conserva- 

 tories and the luxuriance of their vegetation. 



As to the Crystal Palace, which occupies an eminence to the south of London, 

 in the midst of a vast garden 200 acres in extent, it is essentially a place of 

 recreation. The building contains, no doubt, many beautiful imitations of works 

 of architecture and art, but the character of the entertainments offered to the 

 public shows only too plainly that amusement is (he principal object aimed at. 

 The same may be said of the Alexandra Palace, commanding a magnificent prospect 

 of woods and meadows from its vantage-ground on Muswell Hill. Quite recently, 

 after twenty- five years of litigation, the City of London has obtained possession 

 of Epping Forest, an extensive tract of woodland to the north-east, which forms 

 a most welcome addition to the public parks of the metropolis. 



London, though it contains one-eighth of the total population of the British 

 Isles, is not the seat of a university, like Oxford or Cambridge, or even Durham 

 or St. Andrews. True, Sir Thomas Gresham, a wealthy London merchant, devised 

 extensive estates, about the middle of the sixteenth century, for the purpose of 

 endowing a school of learning; but this legacy, stated to be actually worth 

 £3,000,000,* was wasted by its guardians, and supports now merely a Col- 

 lege where lectures are occasionallv delivered to miscellaneous audiences. 

 The University of London is not a teaching corporation, but an examining 

 body, which dispenses its degrees to any candidate who may present himself, 

 without exacting any other conditions than his competency. But though the 

 superior schools of London may not officially occupy the same rank as the colleges 

 of Oxford and Cambridge, they nevertheless turn out excellent scholars, and 

 devote more especially attention to experimental science and the exigencies of 

 modern society. ^Medicine, almost completely neglected in the old universities, is 

 one of those sciences which may most successfully be studied in London, where 

 there are eleven medical schools connected with the public hospitals, in addition 

 to University College and King's College. University College excludes religious 

 instruction altogether, and Hindus, Parsees, and Jews sit side by side with their 

 Christian fellow-students ; whilst King's College bases its course of instruction 

 upon the principles of the Church of England, interpreted in a spirit of liberality. 

 Women have enjoyed the right of taking part in the course of education of 

 University College since 18G9, and may present themselves for examination 



* Times, October 2nd, 1878. 



