Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

GENERAL VON SCHOLTEN.

97

LETTER XII.

REGENT'S PARK AND THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.

Gen. Von Scholten, Governor-General of the Danish West Indies -Gov. Rosenhall, and Dr. Stevens-Regent's Street-Its architecture and general aspect-Equipages and Servants-St. James's The Green and Hyde Parks-Regent's Park-Entrance to it from Portland Place-Count Danniskiold-Arrangement of the Animals and Birds at the Gardens-Earl of Dundonald and Countess of Jersey-Drive in Hyde Park-Dinner of Gen. Von Scholten-Cordiality and kindness of the General and Capt. Oxholme-Rev. Mr. Ellis and Mrs. Ellis.

DEAR VIRGINIA,

Piazza Coffee-House, London,
June 12th, 1832.

A LONG interval in my dates-four days-compared with the frequency with which they appear in the preceding pages, has occurred, as you will perceive, by looking at that which I have now made.

The truth is, that our travel from Liverpool was so rapid, and during it we saw so much to excite and keep the mind and feelings on the qui vive, that we found ourselves in a fever when we arrived, which required two or three days at least of quiet to subdue. We should not have made ourselves known to any one in that time, had we not very accidentally, but greatly to our pleasure, fallen in with a party with whom we had become acquainted, some time since, in the United States. General Von Scholten, of Copenhagen, at present the governor-general of the Danish

[blocks in formation]

Islands in the West Indies, with his suite, was passing through London, to Falmouth, to join a ship of war, from which he had disembarked in the Downs, on his way to the West Indies. Himself and the gentlemen accompanying him had apartments at the Bedford Hotel, adjoining that at which we are; and we very unexpectedly met, neither knowing that the other was in the kingdom.

The general received so much kind attention from the citizens and government of the United States, when there the last year, as Minister Extraordinary from the Court of Denmark, on his way to the West Indies, that we were hailed and welcomed by him with the cordiality of a friend and brother. And the next, being his last day in London, were made his guests for it, with a warmth of heart, that did not allow a refusal.

After spending the morning in an interchange of calls, we at three o'clock joined himself, Gov. Rosenhall of the Island of St. Thomas, and Dr. Stevens, a Scotch physician of celebrity at ached to the suite of the governor-general, but at present on leave of absence, in a drive around Regent's Park, and a visit to the Zoological Gardens-one of the most interesting and most fashionable of the modern attractions of the kind in the metropolis.

The general, with a military cloak thrown round him, mounted the coachman's box, while the rest of us occupied the inside of an open landau. And in a few minutes after leaving our hotel, we were in the midst of the fashion and splendour of Regent Street. This is a grand avenue, opened within the last ten

[blocks in formation]

years, between St. James' Park, near the Thames, and Regent's Park, some two miles or more distant from it, at the north western section of the whole metropolis. It is not entirely straight, but is divided into three sections of about an equal length, by a curvature just after crossing Piccadilly, on the St. James' side, called the quadrangle or colonnade, and by a second at Langham Place, at a similar distance from Regent's Park.

The architecture of brick, stuccoed and painted in imitation of a yellowish Portland stone, though very various in its details, presents, as a whole, a range of stately buildings on either hand the entire distance, relieved and adorned at different points by columns and pilasters, and highly ornamented balustrades and parapets. In its length, width, and architecture of uniform stateliness, it, probably, is the most princely street in the world. And, at this season of the year, when all the rank and fashion of the kingdom are in town, on a fine morning, such as that on which we first drove through it, affords, in the multitude of splendid equipages and liveried servants, and in the dress and air of the throngs met in carriages and on foot, an imposing exhibition of the extent and varied forms of the out-door, and every-day magnificence of the "Court end."

The equipages and servants present, to my eye, the most striking difference, I have yet observed, in the externals of life here and at home. The heavy, dark-coloured chariots, with rich trimmings and emblazonry, and wide flowing hammer-cloths; the gay liveries of crimson, yellow, blue, blended with

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

party-coloured lace, silver, and gold; the small clothes, stockings, and pumps, so trimly adjusted to the limb and so neatly kept; the powdered hair, graceful shoulder-knots, and snow-white gloves of every coachman and every footman met, contrast, as strongly as can well be, with the light and gay vehicles of our cities; the indistinguishable and too often negligent dress of our servants; and the entire simplicity of our whole style in this respect.

The Parks of London constitute one of its most beautiful and attrac ive features; and are equally the sources of health and of pleasure to its citizens and the "beau monde." That of St. James, taking its name from the palace immediately adjoining; the Green Park, which a stranger would suppose only a section of the former, the only separation between them being a light iron railing; and Hyde Park, formed, till within a very few years, the western boundary of the metropolis. St. James' Park, about two miles in circumference, and the Green Park, much smaller, are not open to carriages and horsemen, except under some privilege connected with the royal family or household, but at all times to pedestrians of every character. They are filled, particularly the former, with fine groves of stately trees; with lawns and beautiful shrubbery; and are adorned with sheets of water, artificially disposed-so as to give the appearance of a beautiful lake, with varied points and islets and many other characteristic features of such scenery and form a delightful promenade.

Hyde Park, which is separated from the Green Park only by the width of the road in which Picca

[blocks in formation]

dilly terminates, at Hyde Park corner, is several miles in circumference, containing near four hundred acres, exclusive of Kensington Gardens, which are a continuation of it on the west; and which originally formed a part of the Park. This is less artificially laid out and adorned, and contains fewer trees than the former, but is an airy and fine extent of ground; and being open to horsemen and to carriages, except hackney coaches and other public vehicles, is daily, in the fashionable season, a scene of much animation and splendour in the morning drives of the "haut ton."

The Regent's Park, however, is the modern boast of London in this respect. It is but a few years since it received its present form and name; and its plantations are not yet grown, nor its embellishments completed. The area of the enclosure is nearly equal to that of Hyde Park, from which it is distant a mile and more on the north; and is about three miles in circumference. It is nearly circular; and has an outer and an inuer drive. The first intended to be faced with a succession of magnificent rows of houses, called terraces, of different names, many of which are already completed; and the last to be studded with separate villas of princely elegance. The taste and beauty of the design upon which it is formed are as yet but imperfectly exhibited; but the disposition of the whole in water, lawn, and plantation, is said by connoisseurs to be in a perfection of the art of landscape gardening-an art in which the English greatly excel.

« AnteriorContinuar »