170 



AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



PARKS. 



While in London I had much pleasure in strolling 

 through the great parks, Hyde Park, Regent Park, 

 St. James Park, Victoria Park, etc., and in making 

 Sunday excursions to Richmond Park or Hampden 

 Court Parks or the great parks at Windsor Castle. 

 The magnitude of all these parks was something I was 

 entirely unprepared for, and their freedom also ; one 

 could roam where he pleased. Not once did I see a 

 sign-board, " Keep off the grass," or go here or go 

 there. There was grass enough, and one could launch 

 out in every direction without fear of trespassing on 

 forbidden ground. One gets used, at least I do, to 

 such petty parks at home, and walks amid them so 

 cautiously and circumspectly, every shrub and tree 

 arid grass plat saying "hands off," that it is a new sen- 

 sation to enter a city pleasure ground like Hyde Park 

 — a vast natural landscape, nearly two miles long and 

 a mile wide, with broad, rolling plains, with herds of 

 sheep grazing, and forests and lakes, and all as free 

 as the air. We have some quite sizable parks and res- 

 ervations in Washington, and the citizen has the right 

 of way over their tortuous gravel walks, but he puts his 

 foot upon the grass , at the risk of being insolently 

 hailed by the local police. I have even been called to 

 order for reclining upon a seat under a tree in the 

 Smithsonian grounds. I must sit upright as in church. 

 But in Hyde Park or Regent's Park I could not only 



