A Trip Abroad | Page 9

information and told me that I was standing on the prime
meridian. On the outside of the enclosure are scales of linear measure
up to one yard, and a large clock.
After the trip to Greenwich, I went over the London Bridge, passed the
fire monument, and came back across the Thames by the Tower Bridge,
a peculiar structure, having two levels in one span, so passengers can
go up the stairs in one of the towers, cross the upper level, and go down
the other stairs when the lower level is opened for boats to pass up and
down the river. While in Scotland, I twice crossed the great Forth
Bridge, which is more than a mile and a half long and was erected at a
cost of above fifteen millions of dollars. There are ten spans in the
south approach, eight in the north approach, and two central spans each
seventeen hundred feet long. The loftiest part of the structure is three
hundred and sixty-one feet above high-water mark.
The Albert Memorial is perhaps the finest monument seen on the whole
trip. The Victoria and Albert Museum contains the original Singer
sewing-machine, and a printing-press supposed to have been used by
Benjamin Franklin, and many other interesting things. The Natural
History Museum also contains much to attract the visitor's attention.
Here I saw the skeleton of a mastodon about ten feet tall and twenty
feet long; also the tusks of an extinct species of Indian elephant, which
were nine feet and nine inches long. There is also an elephant tusk on
exhibition ten feet long and weighing two hundred and eighty pounds.
Madam Tussaud's exhibition of wax figures and relics is both
interesting and instructive, and well repays one for the time and
expense of a visit. Several American Presidents are represented in
life-size figures, along with Kings and others who have been prominent

in the affairs of men. In the Napoleon room are three of the great
warrior's carriages, the one used at Waterloo being in the number.
London Tower is a series of strong buildings, which have in turn served
as a fortress, a palace, and a prison. I saw the site of Anne Boleyn's
execution, but that which had the most interest for me was the room
containing the crown jewels. They are kept in a glass case ten or twelve
feet in diameter, in a small, circular room. Outside of the case there is
an iron cage surrounded by a network of wire. The King's crown is at
the top of the collection, which contains other crowns, scepters, swords,
and different costly articles. This crown, which was first made in 1838
for Queen Victoria, was enlarged for Edward, the present King. It
contains two thousand eight hundred and eighteen diamonds, two
hundred and ninety-seven pearls, and many other jewels. One of the
scepters is supposed to contain a part of the cross of Christ, but the
supposition had no weight with me. One of the attendants told me the
value of the whole collection was estimated at four million pounds, and
that it would probably bring five times that much if sold at auction. As
the English pound is worth about four dollars and eighty-seven cents,
this little room contains a vast treasure--worth upwards of a hundred
million dollars.
I will only mention Nelson's monument in Trafalgar Square, the
Parliament Buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral, Kew Gardens, Hampton
Court Palace, and the Zoological Gardens. I also visited the Bank of
England, which "stands on ground valued at two hundred and fifty
dollars per square foot. If the bank should ever find itself pressed for
money, it could sell its site for thirty-two million seven hundred and
seventy thousand dollars." It is a low building that is not noted for its
beauty. If it were located in New York, probably one of the tall
buildings characteristic of that city would be erected on the site.
The British Museum occupied my time for hours, and I shall not
undertake to give a catalogue of the things I saw there, but will mention
a few of them. There are manuscripts of early writers in the English
tongue, including a copy of Beowulf, the oldest poem in the language;
autograph works of Daniel De Foe, Ben Jonson, and others; the original
articles of agreement between John Milton and Samuel Symmons

relating to the sale of the copyright of "a poem entitled 'Paradise Lost.'"
There was a small stone inscribed in Phoenician, with the name of
Nehemiah, the son of Macaiah, and pieces of rock that were brought
from the great temple of Diana at Ephesus; a fragment of the Koran;
objects illustrating Buddhism in India; books printed by William
Caxton, who printed the first book in English; and Greek vases dating