Here is also St. Dunstan's Villa, in the garden of which stands the curious old clock which once adorned St. Dunstan's, in Fleet Street. There are figures of giants, who do duty in striking the hours and quarter-hours. Not many

The Botanical Gardens are very beautiful. years ago, they were a piece of level nursery garden ground. Now there are hollows and hills, lakes, bridges, caverns, and streams. There are said to be 10,000 specimens of hardy plants, from all parts of England, arranged in proper order; also medicinal plants, regularly placed, and beautiful flowers in parterres. Here, too, there is a most delightful winter house. Entering it from the frosty air, one seems transported into a sort of fairy land; one walks amongst the gayest flowers, and the sweetest perfumes. The flowers are not growing as in a hot-house, but are placed as in a garden; plants that we are accustomed to look upon as shrubs, grow as trees, and the space is so large that 2,000 people may stand inside..

Then there are the gardens, which of all others, children like the best-the Zoological. I think my little friend, who wrote about Gloucester Cathedral, shall also describe these to you. The only interesting animals he has omitted are the pelicans, with pouches under their bills in which to keep the fish that they have caught for food. He writes:-"I saw the salamander; it lived in water instead of fire. I saw some green frogs; they were so pretty, that auntie said she could have made pets of them; and we saw an enormous ugly frog, called a bull-frog. I saw a seal, it is between a fish and an otter; it sometimes was out and sometimes in the water. The otters are like the seals something; they did eat fish. I saw the rhinocerus; its skin was so very thick, it would laugh at the shake of a spear. There were such beautiful deer, with horns like the branches of a tree. I saw boa constrictors; they were very enormous, and they could crush leopards, or

almost an elephant, to death. I saw the rattlesnake; but did not hear him rattle with his tail. I saw the puff-adder; it puffed out its checks in such a dreadful way. There were a great many vipers, and different kinds of snakes. I saw magnificent Poll parrots, and all kinds of pretty little birds, and beautiful pigeons, and cranes, and storks; and I saw some vultures and eagles, and the bush turkey, which makes a hill for its nest. The civet cat was something like my kitten, only a great deal larger, and had a very nasty smell, which, after you passed, smelt like musk. I saw the lion, and it did kick up a noise at one time, after the man had given it a little morsel of meat. The man put his hand into the tiger's mouth. Though it is the fiercest animal, it was quite gentle with him, and was such a beautiful creature. We saw the nasty wolves, which had a worse smell than the civet cats. The polar bears were messing about in water; they were quite white, that they might hide themselves in the snow. I did not like the monkeys; I could not bear them, for they did nothing but fight. A little one almost cried with the way in which they hunted him about. One monkey was beautiful; it was white, with a striped tail. We saw a great many guinea-pigs, all eating, on a heap of grass. We went into the fish-house, and saw crocodiles and tortoises. I thought the crocodiles very small. The king-fisher sat on a bough, and watched for a long time the fish; but I did not see it eat any. We saw fish alive in their shells, paddling about the water, and sea anemones, and white newts. The clouded tiger was fast asleep on the bough of a tree. It was very beautiful indeed. I saw the hippopotamus in the water; it drinks quantities. We saw the elephant; it took up biscuits in its trunk, and then popped them into its mouth. Its feet were immense, and its toes enormous. The giraffe was eating leaves off a tree, with a neck higher than our drawing

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room. It was a very happy day, and I should like to go there very, very often."

The panoramas and dioramas are also very favourite places with the young, giving views of places and events large as life, and very like what is real. One of the best was the earthquake of Lisbon, with the houses falling, the water rising, and the ground opening. Another was Albert Smith's famous ascent of Mont Blanc; the voyage down the Mississippi; battles in India; scenes in China; and all the most interesting subjects of the passing day, are shewn on these moving pictures. Madame Tussaud's wax figures are also among the sights of London, where famous characters are so modelled and dressed, that they are often mistaken for living people. One of the best and most imposing sights in London is the Polytechnic, where all kinds of model machinery are in motion; little steam-engines running, and boats sailing; where you may get into a diving-bell, and go down below the water; where you may see glass spun, and dissolving views exhibited, and hear very entertaining lectures.

Regent Street and Oxford Street are the two chief streets in London, for shops and bazaars. The bazaars are collections of stalls in spacious buildings, where nearly every kind of pretty thing is to be bought. The oldest of these is the Soho, in an old-fashioned square, where the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth once lived. In Leicester Square, there is an extraordinary exhibition of the Great Globe, so large that there is a staircase inside, which you ascend; the bottom being the south pole, and the top, the north; and as you mount, the various countries of the world become visible. To-morrow we must go back to the west; and, starting from Belgravia, talk of the Queen in Buckingham Palace, and of many interesting places.