KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



Do 



the jjreat chain was passed several times round 

 the hind legs and the tree ; and, in this way the 

 captive was left: helpless and faint with strag- 

 gling-. The other five wore similarly treated. 

 After which our party dispersed, pretty well tired, 

 and quite prepared for hod. 



Early next morning I paid a visit to the 

 Kraal alone; my friends were fairly worn out. 

 The remainder of the elephants had been either 

 shot or had forced their way out in one or two 

 places. The six captured animals were quiet 

 — as well they might be, after their long fast, and 

 incessant struggling. Towards the end of that 

 day, a very small portion of food was supplied 

 to them, just sufficient to keep them alive. In 

 this way they were to remain for a week or two, 

 when, if found sufficiently reduced in strength 

 and temper, they were to be walked about, 

 fastened between two tam*i companions, who 

 assisted very effectually in their daily education 

 — not, perhaps, in the most gentle and polite 

 manner, but still much to the purpose. 



At the end of two or three months, the wild 

 and unruly destroying monster of the jungle 

 might be seen quietly and submissively piling 

 logs of ebony in the Government timber-yards, 

 with a purpose-like intelligence little short of 

 that of man." 



SKOW. 



Of all the children of the elements, Snow is 

 surely the most graceful — the most gentle — 

 the most courtly. Wind beats him in variety 

 — he is up to any music from a lullaby to a 

 grand chorus ! One night, lie will moan 

 like any delicate and tender-hearted lover — 

 on the next, lie will roar as if he had an army 

 at his back, and wanted only the least in 

 the world more of provocation to crush your 

 house down to the ground, with one of his 

 gigantic gusts — and even in his better 

 humors, when he is neither melancholy nor 

 mad, the audacity of his conduct is pro- 

 verbial : think of the ships that he has 

 wrecked — the venerable fruit and forest trees 

 that he has blown down, the corn he has 

 prostrated — the houses he has unroofed — the 

 lips of coy young maidens that he has kissed ! 

 Rain — why, for rain there is not one simple 

 good word to be said, save by some discon- 

 tented farmers : or on some very dusty day 

 — and then, one may compound for a thunder- 

 shower, but nothing more, and that, half for 

 the sake of the spectacle. Hail — cleaner 

 than rain, but shrewd and biting past en- 

 durance. Thunder and lightning, too start- 

 ling for people of sensibility — no one likes 

 to be come over on a sudden with a loud 

 lumbering peal, and a fierce flash of lire, 

 which, for aught you know, may carry away 

 the use of eyes, ears and hands. Frost is so 

 cold and stern ! the miser of the elements, who 

 locks up everything beautiful and given to mo- 

 tion, with his key of adamant ; and would fain 



starve you into the uncomfortable belief that 

 flowers are dead for ever, and that brooks 

 will run no more : albeit, it must be said of 

 frost, that like other misers, he can some- 

 times do magnificent things, and treat you 

 to such a raree-show, as there is nothing else 

 in nature to compare with — changing scrubby 

 sere trees into enchanted pillars of diamonds, 

 and making hedges of dry sticks outvie the 

 far-famed grotto of Antiparos. Thaw, is too 

 dirty for decent company ; but Snow — (by 

 the way, his only failing is a propensity to 

 appear at the same time with that most 

 slovenly personage) — Snow is a gentleman 

 born ; his easy, exquisite descent shames 

 the best executed flights of the peerless 

 Taglioni herself; and then he is quiet as 

 he is elegant ; as pure, until the earth hath 

 soiled him, as if he were a creature formed 

 of the down dropped from angels 1 wings. 

 How beautifully, in the space of one short 

 hour, has he strewn the vista before us — 

 canopying the houses as with a silver mantle, 

 and spreading beneath our feet a carpet so 

 delicate, that it almost goes against our 

 consciences to tread upon it ! 



OEIGINAL ANECDOTE OF THE HOUSE. 



The horse has puzzled us more, individu- 

 ally, than any other animal ; and though we 

 cannot fairly assert that we believe him to 

 be gifted with "reason," we yet readily 

 allow that Providence has placed him in the 

 highest scale of animal excellence. If w r e 

 were to relate one-twentieth part of what 

 we have seen to admire in connection with 

 the instinct of the horse, we should exceed 

 all bounds. Well do we remember, when a 

 mere boy, forming a strong attachment to a 

 handsome grey mare, rejoicing in the name 

 of "Peggy." Her proportions were large, 

 her height considerable, and her presence 

 noble. We were always to be found, when- 

 ever Ave were missed, in the stable with 

 " Peggy; " or seated on her bare back, madly 

 galloping, without saddle or bridle, all over 

 the fields in front of the house. The scene 

 of these adventures was at Stockwell, Surrey. 

 The friendship existing between ourselves 

 and this charming creature, was nicely ba- 

 lanced. We were scarcely ever parted. 

 " Peggy " would come and kneel down on 

 "all fours" for us to mount; and when 

 mounted, down went her ears, up went her 

 tail, and away we flew, helter skelter — sauve 

 qui pent! to the terror of all beholders. 

 Then would our exhausted playfellow bend 

 down, with affectionate tenderness, to deposit 

 her welcome load on terra jirma, just as 

 carefully as she did to take it up. Our age, 

 when these achievements came off, and this 



