FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  
o return thither for his meals. The most economical way is to have a room either at a hotel or at a private house, and to take the meals at the numerous restaurants, one of which can be reached anywhere in five minutes. I had great difficulty in procuring a room, but persisted in my inquiries until I succeeded. The traveler will learn quicker than any other person that _perseverence is the only road to success_. He must often see everything go contrary for a whole hour, and even sometimes for half a day in succession. Such reverses frequently occasion a "blue-Monday" in the middle of the week. My first walk, after I had found a home in London, was to the Post-Office, to look for letters from my friends in America, This was about three miles off. I returned a different way, and took a look at the exterior of St. Paul's. As the Covent Garden Theater (the finest in London) was already full before I reached it, I went on to the Oxford Street Music Theater and spent my first evening there. The next day (Wednesday, July 14th,) I entered St. Paul's Cathedral, the noblest building in England in the Classic style. Its length from east to west is 550 feet and its height to the top of the cross 370 feet. Under the dome is an area affording seats for 5,000 persons. Here 5,000 charity children are collected on the first Thursday in June every year, to unite their voices in songs of praise. Besides the dome, St. Paul's has two other towers, each 222 feet high. In one of these is the clock and the great bell upon which it strikes. The length of the minute-hand of the clock is eight feet, and its weight seventy-five pounds; the length of the hour-hand is five feet five inches, and its weight forty-four pounds. The bell is ten feet in diameter and weighs 11,474 pounds. "It is inscribed, 'Richard Phelps made, me, 1716,' and is never used except for striking the hour, and for tolling at the deaths and funerals of any of the Royal Family, the Bishops of London, the Deans of St. Paul's, and the Lord Mayor, should he die in his mayoralty." It requires a man three quarters of an hour every day to wind the clock, the striking weight alone weighing 1,200 pounds. The dome constitutes a very remarkable whisper gallery, the slightest whisper being transmitted from one side to the other with the greatest distinctness. This Cathedral contains many fine monuments interesting from the persons they commemorate. Among them are tho
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61  
62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

pounds

 

weight

 

length

 
London
 

Cathedral

 
striking
 

persons

 

reached

 
Theater
 
whisper

strikes

 

minute

 
interesting
 
towers
 
commemorate
 

charity

 

children

 

affording

 

collected

 
Thursday

praise

 
Besides
 

voices

 

seventy

 

greatest

 

mayoralty

 
requires
 
quarters
 

Bishops

 

remarkable


gallery

 

slightest

 

constitutes

 

weighing

 

Family

 

weighs

 

inscribed

 
diameter
 

inches

 

transmitted


Richard
 

Phelps

 
distinctness
 
tolling
 
deaths
 

funerals

 

monuments

 
evening
 
success
 

perseverence