CHAPTER VII

PLACES OF INTEREST NEAR LONDON

Excursion on the Thames - Characteristics of the Thames - Greenwich - The British Navy Woolwich Richmond - Hampton Court -- Windsor Castle Eton College

· Anthem of Harrow

Schools for Girls.

OUR stay in London has come almost to an end. We no longer feel that we are strangers in the great city. The throngs of people, the dark-hued buildings, the crowded streets with their peculiar names, the long evening twilight, have all become familiar to us. In our evenings we are studying the map of southern England, through which we are next to travel, and planning our route from city to city. Already we have engaged our rooms in some of the hotels, because we are aware that in summer time England is full of tourists.

Before we start on our long journey, however, we devote a few days to some of the interesting places near London. Early one morning we go down to London Bridge and board a steamer bound westward on the Thames, which will take us to Hampton Court, the largest royal palace in the kingdom. There is a crowd. about the booking-office that acts quite like an American crowd, every one eager to be the first to secure his tickets. On the little side-wheel steamer we find that one travels by "classes" just as on the cars.

"I have been in America," says an Englishman who is seated beside one of the boys. "Which do you call your most beautiful river ?”

"The St. Lawrence."

"I have seen that. It is quite attractive. But you will find the Thames much more beautiful. We call it the 'Silver Thames.'

"It looks as if the silver had been oxydized or bronzed," replies the young traveler with a laugh, as he looks at the muddy stream. Indeed, the Thames near London is not very much like "silver." The tide is low now, and our boat moves slowly for fear of running aground. Along the banks we can see many boats fast in the mud, and they must wait for the tide to rise before they can be floated. We pass under the great Westminster Bridge, and the view of the Houses of Parliament from the river is more impressive than any we have had of them. As we go on, we see that both banks of the river are lined with massive buildings. Solid walls keep the waters from wearing the soil away. Immense warehouses are looking down upon us. Even when we are several miles from our starting-point, the sombre walls seem always to be following us.

Our boat stops frequently, and at some of the piers crowds are awaiting our arrival. Many have baskets in their hands. It is plain to us that the ride on the Thames is a favorite one for those who have a holiday. We hear Hampton Court and Windsor frequently mentioned, and we are aware that some of our fellow passengers are also going where we plan to go.

"The Thames may be busy, but I can't see that it is beautiful," laughingly says one of the boys to the Englishman who had spoken before.

"We are too near London, and too near the mouth of the Thames for the river to be beautiful yet," replies the stranger. "If you should take a trip up the river from London, and should go, for instance, by steamer as far as Oxford, you would find the water clear enough, and you would pass magnificent estates, with green meadows sloping to the banks, fine old trees, and pastures dotted with sheep and herds of cattle. If the day

chanced to be like this, it would not be difficult to imagine what the Thames was like when it was the scene of water-pageants and contests of various kinds, in the days when Henry VIII was king. On your way to Oxford you would pass Henley, where we have our annual boatraces in July. What a sight that is! To say nothing of the races themselves, the river with its throng of boats decked with bunting, its house-boats, steamboats, and pleasure yachts, and the banks lined with men and women in their gayest summer clothes - all make the scene a lovely one, I assure you."

"I should enjoy all that!" says a boy enthusiastically. "The Thames is a wonderful river!" continues our informant warmly. "It has a double tide which is felt eighty miles upstream. Its basin is the most fertile in England and the largest also, for the course of the Thames is two hundred and fifteen miles. Of course, it is much smaller than your great rivers in America. At London Bridge, it is only three hundred yards wide, and even at its mouth it is but six miles from one side to the other. But the fields and gardens, the stately homes, and the thriving towns that are found along its course, make it the most important river in the kingdom and the most beautiful. Without the Thames and its basin, London would be quite impossible. Then, too, as it opens directly on the great harbors of western Europe, its commerce is tremendous! Every year fifty thousand vessels come up the river."

At last we arrive at Hampton Court. It is an imposing pile of red brick and stone, standing in the midst of great parks and well-kept grounds. Think of a building containing a thousand rooms! Yet this is true of Hampton Court, which was founded by Cardinal Wolsey and presented by him to his sovereign, Henry VIII. Oliver

Cromwell at one time occupied the building, but no king has lived in it since George II. We learn, however, that

many rooms are now occupied by men of rank who have been pensioned by the King.

We are conducted through some of the rooms, and feast our eyes on wonderful wood-carving, costly tapestries, trophies and weapons of all kinds. Everything has a history! We stop to look at Queen Anne's bed, and at the canopy that once was over the royal throne. We pass through the magnificent state apartments, and admire the portraits of former court beauties and famous. men, as well as the pictures of historic scenes and deeds, hanging on the walls and painted on the ceilings. It is all very fascinating. We feel that we should like very much to walk about the garden, as we look out at the beautiful beds of flowers and the winding paths. The immense park of a thousand acres, with its hundreds of deer, its pools of curious fishes, and its majestic trees planted

by royalty, also tempts us. But our time is limited, and we hurry on to visit the remains of the ancient royal manor house at Richmond near by. It is late in the evening when we return by train to London.

Another day we make an excursion to Greenwich. Here we visit the Royal Naval College, where the future officers of the British Navy are trained. In order to protect her great commerce and her vast empire, Great Britain has a navy which she plans to keep larger than the combined navies of any other two powers. The Home Fleet is in six divisions for the protection of the British Isles. In addition to this great force, there are other fleets, called the Channel, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the North American and West Indian, the Eastern (assigned to the coasts of China, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, and the East Indies), and the West Coast of North America.

Naturally we find in the buildings of the Royal Naval College, and in the quadrangle on which they stand, busts or statues of famous English naval officers, that of Nelson being the largest. Here, too, we see the guns that were used in the fight off Cape Trafalgar, or taken in various other sea-fights. We learn that there is a school here for the sons of British sailors. We visit the school, and are told that a thousand boys are enrolled; but we cannot find that anything is done for the daughters of the seamen.

On the top of a hill in Greenwich Park is the Royal Observatory. This is the meridian from which the English astronomers make their calculations, and from which "longitude east and west from Greenwich" is computed. A short distance from the Observatory is the Magnetic Pavilion. We are here at one o'clock and we see the large colored ball that every day is lowered there to in