HOLYDAY SIGHTS.
THE apparition of post-chaises laden with luggage and crammed full of glad-faced children, some shouting with delight, others splitting their cheeks and the ears of the passengers with abortive blasts of tin horns, and all as restless and eager to escape as gentles from an angler's box, has reminded us of the approach of the Christmas holydays, and of the return of our accustomed task of presenting a programme of the Holyday Sights. Task, said we ?
" Oh word of fear, unpleasing to a school-boy's ear !" " Oh word of fear, unpleasing to a school-boy's ear !"
We wrong ourselves ; task it is none. It is our pleasure—our delight. No sooner had we caught sight of the first chaise full of emancipated schoolboys, than our burden of news dropped from our shoulders like Christian's in the Pilgrim's Progress. The long roll of the Civil List, tbat endless tailor's bill of all the poor relations of the Aristocracy—the musty parchments and foul deeds of Corporations—the awful correspondence of O'CONNELL—we flung them all from our brain, as.a porter pitches his load on a bulk.
The sights that are in store for the little holyday folks rose be- fore our mind's eye like a vision. We were in the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, our back to the stage, looking at the living circle of round merry faces that studded the boxes, their eyes sparkling with expectation to behold the wonders of the enchanter FARLEY, and his tricksy spirits Clown, Harlequin, and Pantaloon, in the nursery history of old Dame Hubbard, and her wonderful Dog. Suddenly the scene changed to Drury • and that most renowned of all the Seven Champions of Christendom, St. George, was there, and his Dragon did unfold its wondrous tail. DUCROW and all his chivalry swelled the pageant; for " Astley's stud is come to Drury Lane." The next moment we were seated in VESTRIS'S gay pavilion, and " The Deep, Deep Sea " was before us, with the real " Perseus and Andromeda;" the face of the virgin chained to the rock looking very like VESTRIS herself. "A change came o'er the spirit of our dream." We were lifted up by invisible agency to the top of St. Paul's ; whence we be- held the reeking cauldron of smoky London, with its myriads of chimnies; the streets thronged with passengers. The eye, track- ing the devious course of the river, ranges along the distant hori- zon from Greenwich to Harrow, and from Norwood to Hampstead. There was the identical ball and cross, and the dome seemed to swell out beneath our feet ; and there were the two clock-towers standing out in strong relief against the light ; and we saw the iron clamps that formed the ribs of the Apostles on the pediment. After peeping through the prospect-glasses that are fixed round the r. great gallery, and picking out the distant churches and villas— counting the number of persons on the. Monument—we look to see if the ball that is raised upon a pole at Flarnstead House will drop at the hour of noon ; butno ball is to be seen, and we are re- minded that we have been looking at the Panorama of London at the Colosseum all this while. Entering a snug little closet, a bell is rung, and we see through the open door the whole building ascending upwards ; and we fancy how Gulliver must have felt when the roc flew away with him in his cabin. We are again on terra firma, and surrounded by a little grove of exotic plants. The graceful palms spread out their broad fan-like leaves; the bread-fruit plant, and the traveller's tree, which yields a supply of water to the drouthy wayfarer, are known by their gigantic leaves. The sound of water attracts our attention to a grotto-built foun- tain, which terminates the vista. Its numberless jets seem trying in vain to reach the lofty dome above; from which depend creeping plants, that seem to stretch out their tendrils to catch the light spray. In a recess, tastefully decorated with feathers and birds' eggs arranged in curious devices, are some birds of rich plumage. A little further on, is a cave roofed with pendant stalactites: we enter through a narrow passage formed out of the rock; and, as we advance, the distant murmur of the waves washing the beach is heard. Presently we have a distant view of Freshwater Bay, at the Isle of Wight ; and, turning in a new direction, we perceive through another opening of this marine cavern, a ship in distress, the sea beating over her, and the sea-birds hovering around, while a life-boat is seen approaching to rescue the crew. Anon, we are seated in a picturesque Swiss cottage, looking out on an Alpine scene, with a mountain torrent dashing down the precipi- tous surface of the rock; where a few straggling pines have taken root : an eagle perched on a crag expands its wings, as if for flight. The whole scene is reflected as a picture in a glass at the side of the window.
The scene changes. We are at BURFORD'S Panorama in Leicester Square; where we mount a winding flight of steps like. Jacob's ladder turned into a well-staircase; and out of breath ar- rive at a station just above the great Falls of Niagara; but we neither hear the thunder of the falling ocean, nor are wet through with the spray. We next enter the Queen's Bazaar, in Oxford Street; and anon we are on the plains of eternal snow, hedged in by walls of ice and a frozen sea, with the stars shining at mid-day. And there are brave Captain Ross and his hardy crew, making acquaintance with the gentle savages, who teach the civilized natives of a Chris- tian country how they may live happily without hating or perse- cuting one another. Here too is a colossal copy of MARTIN'S splendid :scene of Beisbazzar's Feast, with the dreadful sentence written on the wall, resembling an explosion of fire-works. As we pass along a narrow passage, we look through the windows on one side, and sce a succession of views of beautiful scenery, and fine monuments of art. These are the Physiorama ; and there are the Cosmoramic views in Regent Street, much more real-look- ing than these. Suddenly all is dark ; and after a while we discern a white disc, eighteen feet in diameter, upon which a light is thrown from a small aperture on the other side of the room. An enormous ani- mal, in size beyond that of the elephant Chuny, appears ; and a voice proclaims it to be nothing more than " a common flea, mag- nified by the Oxy-Hydrogen Microscope, upwards of two million and a half times.' This is the utmost power ever attained by the microscope; and it is not approached by another instrument of the kind. You perceive that the animal. though but a semi-transpa- rent object, appears perfectly well defined, and in its natural co- lours. This instrument also is the only one that exhibits opaque objects. The great difficulty as regards them is that the light is reflected from their surface, instead of through the object as in the case of transparent substances. A piece of jewellery, fragments of ore, seeds, &c., are shown in remarkably strong relief, and in their natural colours.
Spectator—" This microscope is really achromatic, and so is CARPENTER'S in Regent Street; but the poWers of this instru- ment are greatly superior to his when he employs the Drummond light." Lecturer—" You do not perceive in this microscope of Mr. HOLLAND that prismatic fringe which is observable in the other Gas Microscope in Old Bond Street ; nor have you the disadvan- tage of waiting, as was often the case when Mr. CARPENTER ex- hibited his Solar Microscope, for a sufficient quantity of the solar rays." Spectator—" This is by far the best, certainly. But one must nut forget that CARPENTER was the first who exhibited the Solar Microscope ; and that the Gas Microscope in New Bond Street was the first application of the Drummond light to the purpose of showing transparent objects, as this is the first that has exhibited opaque ones. CARPENTER'S Microcosm, with its Lucernal Mi- croscopes, Kaleidoscopical Camera, Optical Illusions, &c., how- ever, is a curious and beautiful exhibition. You will hardly be able to show, by means of the prodigious magnifying power of this instrument, that splendid object the diamond-beetle, which looks like an incrustation of gems.' Lecturer—" As yet, the power of Mr. HOLLAND'S Microscope in exhibiting opaque objects is scarcely developed. At any rate, this is not only the first, but as yet the only instrument which repre- sents opaque objects highly magnified. That cameo which ap- peared like a colossal bust, nearly eighteen feet high, measured in reality but half an inch." Here some visitor, happily not visible in the darkened room, exclaimed, like Dominic Sampson, " Prodigious (Great laughter.) • - With the returning light, we found ourselves in the National Gallery of Science in Adelaide Street, Strand; where we were startled by the rattle of the shower of bullets from GURNEY'S Steam Gun against the iron target, like a hail-stone chorus on the glass dome of a conservatory. Close beside the steam-gun, a grave-looking gentleman in black was superintending the cooking of a mutton-chop by gas; and near him were some experimentalists trying the power of an electro-magnet; and another exhibiting the beautiful appearance of the electro-magnetic fluid. The mar- tial sounds as of a band of trumpets, proceeding from a mahogany case like a chamber-organ, were succeeded by the dulcet tones of the musical glasses, as we walked up and down the gallery, in- specting the steam-boat models propelling themselves along a tiny canal, and the various ingenious inventions placed round the room. While we were enjoying the luxury of the hydrostatic or float- ing bed, we were not aware the change of scene that took place. We looked round; many of the objects were the same; but the place was different. We had been transported to the Museum of Arts and Manufactures, in Leicester Square ; where thcrre is an interesting collection, which the Spectator gave an account of a short time since.
The transition to WEEIES'S Museum of Curiosities at the top of the Haymarket, where the splendours of the Microcosm are emu- lated in jewellery, was easy enough. But how we got to the Bri- tish Museum, and what we saw there—and how we managed to visit the National Gallery of Pictures in Pall Mall, and also the Exhibition of Pictures in Suffolk Street, by daylight—we are not able to tell. We were suddenly recalled to consciousness, by the hoarse shout of a porter, who was coming out of the Royal'Aca- demy, with a group of plaster figures on his head, shouting, "By your leave ;" and on awaking from our dream, we found, on look- ing up at the clock of the church in the Strand, that we had been in nubibus for half an hour or more ; during which time we had been pacing up and down under the gateway of Somerset House, enjoying, in fancy, all the sights which we have here noted down for the information of mammas and the delight of all good masters and misses making the most of their holydays.
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