SIGHTS FOR THE SUMMER.
Tux season has not been prolific of novelties in the way of sight-seeing. There has been the customary round of exhibitions, pictorial and others, which as, they opened we have successively noticed under the head of Fine Arts. Such are the various Galleries of Paintings, which still con- tinue open to attract visitors : The National Gallery, and the British Institution, in Pall Mall, where pictures by the old masters are exhibit- ing; the British Museum, where are the Elgin Marbles (the grandest works of sculpture in the world), the Townley collection, and the stu- pendous remains of Egyptian art, with a collection of natural curiosities; the Etruscan Antiquities in Regent Street ; the Model of London at the Western Exchange ; the Sculpture of Mr. MAcnowALD in Pall Mall, and of Mr. Hoixtus in Bond Street. There is Miss LINWOOD'S Gallery of Pictures in Needle-Work, at Leicester Square ; and the no less curious and meritorious exhibition of pictures worked in Cloth, by a lady, at Soho Square ; and now we have some fine old Tapestries, in Bond Street, in the same room where THOM'S figures of Tam O'Shanter, .&c. are yet exhibiting, though they are about to be removed shortly. The Tapestries are six in number; and on them are depicted the principal incidents in the history of Antony and Cleopatra. They are of Flemish workmanship; the colours are bright, and the tapestry in good preservation, despite of the antiquity. There are the Panoramas of Hobart Town and Paris, in the Strand ; of Bombay and Quebec, in Leicester Square; and one of Madras, in the New Road, opposite Gower Street. Then there is the Diorama, in the Regent's Park, unrivalled in the beauty of its effects and the success of its illusions ; and the British Diorama, at the Queen's Bavaar in Ox- ford Street, and the Cosmorama in Regent Street ; and, though last, as- suredly not least, the Coliseum, with its vast Panorama of London, sa- loon of sculpture, conservatories, cottage, cave, grotto, and cascade. There is also the National Repository of Inventions and Improve- ments in Arts and Manufactures, at the King's Mews, Charing Cross. This new institution is deserving a visit from every stranger in Lon- don; for although vet in its infancy, it includes anumerous variety of specimens of novelty and ingenuity in the useful arts, which are both curious and beautiful. Here may be heard the musical glasses and the self-acting pianoforte ; and here may be seen models of all kinds' —en. gines, machines, apparatus, buildings ; contrivances for sashes, doors, blinds, and shutters ; fire-escapes, and fire-engines ; ribbon, silk, and stocking-looms at work ; specimens of painting on porcelain, of printing on cotton, and weaving pictures in silk ; dresses which enable the wearer to breathe under water, and to walk unhurt through fire. And here, too, the fair may see the operation of heading pins, performed by e female with only the same ease and rapidity as sovereigns are coined aft the Mint.
Leaving the works of Man, the visitor may see, in the same building,. the works of Nature; for underneath are the lodgings of Wild Beasts, who formerly rented a genteel first floor at Old Exeter 'Change. This collection contains several animals which are not to be found at the Zoological Gardens; and one in particular, a Mandril Ape, better knows as " happy Jerry," who sits in his chair smoking with all the gravity of a cobler at his club. Another animal of this species, together with a living Ourang-Outang, is to be seen at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. Opposite the King's Mews is the "Pavilion of the' Gigantic Whale ; whose skeleton ought to be seen by every one, for,withont inspecting it, no adequate idea can be formed of the enormous size and strength of the animaL Its total length is ninety-five French feet, and within its ribs twenty-four persons can sit on benches as in a room. Its bones are of prodigious bulk and weight ; and before it was cut up, it weighed 480,000 lbs. ClIVIER calculates it to have been nearly ten centuries old. It was found floating in the North Sea, between Belgium and England, in November 1827 ; and was towed on to the beach at Ostend, where it was dissected ; it yielded 40,000 lbs. weight of oil. As we have described the solidity of the bones, our fair readers may be interested to know that the " whalebones" they use are only the fittings up of the upper jaw, round which they form a sort of fringe, supplying the place of teeth ; they are eight hundred in number. Some specimens of his skin, sinews, nerves, &c., are shown ; which, as may be supposed, are exceedingly tough. The ligaments which unite the spinal vertebra are almost of the consistency of wood. The tail is preserved entire. The bones of the dorsal fin are like those of the leg and feet of an elephant. The bulk of this whale is as superior to that of an ele- phant as the latter is to the largest bird. We forgot to mention that Leviathan keeps an album to receive the names of his visitors, and their tributes of homage to his greatness. After seeing the skeleton of the largest of created animals, a visit to C.-inespirca's microscopic exhibition of animalculn and insects will be more striking by the force of comparison. We entered into a detailed account of the curious objects that are viewed through the medium of the solar microscope, in our account of " Sights" last year ; and " the wonders of the microscope" are too familiar to most of our readers to render any fresh description necessary. After witnessing the beautiful mechanism of nature, and the splendours of the insect tribe, a sight of what the ingenuity of man can effect by mechanical means, will be gra- tifying by contrast. At Wczins's Museum in Tichborne Street, oppo- site the Haymarket, there is a curious collection of musical clocks and other jewelled toys of elaborate workmanship and the most costly deco- ration, which were constructed by a self-taught mechanic, for the Chinese and Indian markets. They consist of complicated arrange. ments of figures in motion, landscapes, with water-falls, &c., adorning the cases of clocks, surmounted by flowers composed of gems, which unfold and close their leaves. There are two beautiful imitations of birds, one of them a-canary of the size of life, the other a humming. bird in miniature, which not only sing, but in so doing move their beaks, wings, and tail, very naturally; and there is a golden elephant, who moves his trunk precisely in the manner of life,—a most ingenious airp plication of mechanism, and " pretty to behold." The Zoological Gardens afford one of the most delightful as well as instructive "sights for the summer." The picturesque little structures, filled with every variety of curious birds and beasts, which meet the eye at every turn of the walks, and the neat and commodious arrangements for the animals and their visitors, render this the most amusing and agreeable promenade imaginable. The attention is perpetually excited, and the curiosity gratified, without any fatigue or inconvenience; and whether as a lounge or a study, a visit to these beautiful Gardens is quite unique. These are the " Sights" by day ; Vauxhall supplies the only out-door entertainments for summer nights ; and the rational plan, adopted by the proprietors this season, of confining the attractions to the walks in
the open air, is felt to be a great ,improvement. The visitors may walk about under cover, but they are no longer crowded into a hot theatre to
see a wretched vaudeville ; and instead of rushing in a crowd to one
spot at the ringing of a bell, they enjoy the amusements of the place while promenading the gardens. There are the concert as usual, with
comic songs ; Joan the Altonian glieur, a human mocking-bird, or rather a quire of birds ; MICHAEL BOAI, with his melodious rattle on his chin ; cosmoramas and other sights ; and above all, the fire and water. works, which surpass in splendour any other exhibition of the kind. If it were only for these and the illuminations, Vauxhall is worth visiting. We wonder the proprietors do not adopt gas-lights ; but perhaps their brilliancy would emulate too nearly the blaze of noon-day.
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