r
will probably be the great painting of the Bolton Abbey Scene, the
engravings of which are so numerous and admired on both sides of the
Atlantic. But there is the original of a greater work, which has
made the wonder of the age. It is the original of the Great Crystal
Palace of 1851, and the mother of all the palaces of the same
structure which have been or will be erected in time past or to
come. Here it diadems at Chatsworth the choice plants and flowers
of all the tropics; presenting a model which needed only expansion,
and some modifications, to furnish the reproduction that delighted
the world in Hyde Park in 1851.

I was pleasantly impressed with one feature of the economy that
ruled at Chatsworth. Although there were between one and two
thousand deer flecking the park, it was utilised to the pasture of
humbler and more useful animals. Over one hundred poor people's
cows were feeding demurely over its vast extent, even to the gilded
gates of the palace. They are charged only 2 pounds for the season;
which is very moderate, even cheaper than the stony pasturage around
the villages of New England. I noticed a flock of Spanish sheep,
black-and-white, looking like a drove of Berkshire hogs, and
seemingly clothed with bristles instead of wool. They are kept
rather as curiosities than for use.

Chatsworth, with all its treasures and embodiments of wealth, art
and genius, with an estate continuous in one direction for about
thirty miles, is but one of the establishments of the Duke of
Devonshire. He owns a palace on the Thames that might crown the
ambition of a German prince. He also counts in his possessions old
abbeys, baronial halls, parks and towns that once were walled, and
still have streets called after their gates. If any country is to
have a personage occupying such a position, it is well to have a
considerable number of the same class, to yeomanise such an
aristocracy--to make each feel that he has his peers in fifty
others. Otherwise an isolated duke would have to live and move
outside the pale of human society; a proud, haughty entity dashing
about, with not even a comet's orbit nor any fixed place in the
constellation of a nation's communities. It is of great necessity
to him, independent of political considerations, that there is a
House of Peers instituted, in which he may find his social level;
where he may meet his equals in considerable numbers, and feel
himself but a man.

CHAP