it Caurt.
QUEEN VICTORIA, on leaving the kindly shores of our Belgian neighbours, first passed to Dover, and anchored there for an hour or two. The plans Of Dover harbour were submitted to her inspection by the local author- ities, and dinner was served up. In the evening, the Royal squadron weighed anchor, and the voyage to Osborne was prosecuted through the night. Osborne pier was made at half-past five in the morning ; the Queen and her family landed to breakfast at half-past eight.
Sir Francis Baring took his departure for Southampton, in the Elfin, before her Majesty landed.
Prince Albert's thirty-first birthday, on Monday the 26th, was marked quietly by serenadings ; " The Prince's Hymn " and selections from Le Prop/tete being the chosen music.
The Queen and Prince Albert, with their family, left Osborne on Tues- day morning, en route to Castle Howard, Holyrood House, and Balmo- ral. On the way they turned aside to the house of mourning at Clare- mont, to condole with the bereaved family of Louis Philippe. They ar- rived in London about noon, and proceeding direct from Nine Elms to Euston Square, set forward, in a splendid carriage by a special train, at a very rapid pace to the North. The programme of her Majesty's journey included a brief private visit to Castle Howard, in personal compliment to the Earl of Carlisle ; the Royal presence at the opening of the High Level station of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway, in Newcastle, and also at the opening of the Royal Border Bridge, at Berwick, which completes the railway connexion with the Northern kingdom ; and a stay of a few days at Holy- rood Palace in Edinburgh. The visit to the Earl of Carlisle was strictly private ; but there, as at other portions of her route, the Queen's progress assumed a quasi-public character, and the daily journals display the usual array of copious re- ports.
Numerous assemblages of loyal subjects had gathered at the principal stations ; and these were passed by her Majesty's orders at a slow pace, amidst the hearty manifestations of the spectators; but the intermediate portions of the journey were traversed at a speed very unusual on the nar- row gauge lines—the rate of sixty miles an hour being frequently attain- ed. With sedulous care against accidents, the permanent-way contrac- tors of the Midland Railway had stationed a plate-layer at every half- mile on the whole of that line, with a small telegraphing flag in his hand ; thus any obstruction could be intimated to the driver of the train a long distance before it should be nearly approached. Although the departure from London was at nearly an hour after the expected moment, from the improvised visit to Claremont, the station at Castle Howard was reached exactly at the hour of six, as was intended. The Earl of Carlisle was in waiting ; and with a body-guard of the Second Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) escorted her Majesty to the baronial seat of Castle How- ard; many of the neighbouring gentry, and especially some lady eques- trians, giving a picturesque variety to the escort. The Queen entered Castle Howard much fatigued, and immediately retired to the state apart- ments. The select dinner-party included about thirty guests, who had been invited by the Earl of Carlisle to share the honour of the occasion.
The Queen was out early on Wednesday morning, surveying the ar- chitecture of the Castle and the exceeding beauties of the landscape.
At noon, the Queen witnessed a game of cricket by the Castle Howard Club, and is said to have criticized the play with zest. After luncheon, Prince Albert, with characteristic inclination, inspected a herd of short- horns for which the park is celebrated. A catalogue of the herd ex- hibits the pedigree of each with a care and particularity worthy of the College of Heralds, and with a regard for "blood" which one might ex- pect among "all the Howards." In the afternoon a more extended ex- ploration of the landscape scenery was prosecuted. Everywhere groups of gentry or yeomen were encountered, who showed a deferential but warm loyalty.
Farewell to the inmates of Castle Howard was bidden on Thursday morning about ten o'clock. The journey Northwards was more pleasant than it was last year, when autumnal mists obscured the landscape. York was rapidly passed, and the green meadows and pastures became changed for a scene of coal-pits, steam-chimnies, rubbish-heaps, and masses of burning cinders, the strong glare of whose flame shone out even in bread day-light. At last the heights of Gateshead were reached ; the train went thundering over the High Level Bridge, and, amid the ringing cheers of thousands, entered the new station at Newcastle.
" The bridge has often been described, but few descriptions can convey the sensations of those who pass over it for the first time ; and not the least feeling is that of surprise, since high as it is, the precipitous banks of the river on both sides, crowded as they are with a dense mass of habitations, entirely hide it from view till the train is actually upon it. Then the sud- den view of ships' masts under the feet, and the pigmy appearance of men and horses as they move slowly along the quaint old bridge a little lower down, give the passenger some idea of the dizzy elevation to which he is raised. Even the lower level which has been added to the railway bridge for the purposes of ordinary traffic is high above the lower streets of the two towns, and saves to a considerable extent the steep hills by which the town is approached. The station whose opening her Majesty graced by her pre- sence, though somewhat curtailed of the august proportions of its original design, in consequence of the evil times on which railway enterprises have of late fallen, is still unequalled in the country, and will be viewed as a triumph of architectural genius. It forms an enormous segment of a circle, sweeping round with an elegant curve that sets off its proportions to the greatest advantage. The roof, which is entirely of iron, is composed of three arches, supported by light elegant figures, and connected one with another by weight side-windows, which throw into the building an abundance of fight; and while the beauty and architectural ensemble are strictly pre-
served, every convenience and comforts for the passengers has been studied to the utmost extent.
"From an early hour the inhabitants of Newcastle were astir in anticipa- tion of herMajesty's arrival. The bells of the churches rang merry. peals as early as six o'cileir in the morning; and bola eleven o'clock till two the band and of reblic offices in the town wars closed, while great numbers of the trades made it a complete holyday. Ite fires in the different factories were, by order of the Mayor, extinguished, that the town might be free from smoke during her Majesty's visit. Whole forests were dismantled to garnish with their boughs the entrance to the station, to hide the naked parts ; and to veil the unsightliness of the yet unfinished work, connecting bare walls and half-finished cornices into one mass of green. vegetation, was not the least imposing of the effects produced on this occasion. At the entrance into the station, the treble-arched roof, on the side facing the bridge, presented three bas-relief paintings, done in imitation of stone, each of the colossal magnitude of twelve feet. The centre compartment was occupied by a gigantic representation of the royal arms. On the right side was a colossal gs are of her Majesty, surrounded by emblematical figures, each bearing some appropriate offering. On either side of the long curved station, galleries were erected capable of holding at least 10,000 people. Outside, the station was besieged by thousands of people ; while all around, flags, banners, and all the usual displays of joy, waved from the heights." The arrival of the train was announced by a salvo of artillery from the old keep ; echoed and reechoed by the shouting thousands. The Queen alighted, and was received by Earl Grey ; who presented the Mayor of Newcastle and the Mayor of Gateshead with addresses of their corpora- tions. A short stay was made in apartments prepared for the Queen's refreshment ; and then the journey was resumed, amidst joyous demon- strations as emphatic as before. At Allmon.* Sir George Grey was the medium for presenting an ad- dress. Passing Alnwick, catching a glimpse through the woods of Chil- lingham of part of the Earl of Tankerville's castle, and sighting Bard- borough Castle and the Holy Island, with its abbey ruins and wave- washed stronghold, the train at length glided round the entrance into Berwick, passed over the new viaduct, and entered that portion of "the debateable land."
The viaduct is one of the largest in thelringdom, and in its gracefully curved form one of the most elegant. At its South abutment it is joined by the embankment from Tweedmouth, forty feet high ; the bridge tra- verses twenty-eight arches, each sixty feet in span—one half of the num- ber being dry arches. Before crossing the Tweed, the Queen alighted to view the magnificent panorama. An address from the inhabitants of Ber- wick was presented. From Berwick the rushing locomotive soon brought the train, along the sea-coast and through the fertile Lotbieos, to the ancient capital of Scot- land. As the evidences of a great town became frequent, the steam was shut off; and, gliding round the base of Arthur's Seat, the train wee- brought to, at a private station close to the Queen's Park, and erected ex- pressly for the Queen's accommodation on her way to Holyrood. " There were no triumphal arches and very few flags, no salutes fired ; and, in fact, if privacy was not secured, the pomp of a public demonstration was not attempted." But the platform, and the vestibule leading from it to the royal carriages waiting on the Abbey Hill Road close to Parson's Green, were fitted up with diversified and tasteful elegance ; exotics lending their brilliancy to the scene, and their perfume to the air ; which trem- bled to the shouts of the countless thousands assembled on the heights, and at every point commanding the view of Holyrood House, as Queen Victoria entered the palace of her ancestors.
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