two hundred guineas. You will doubtless wonder why it is such a dear
board, but your surprise will cease when you observe that the
"checks," as they are called, are of mother-of-pearl and
tortoiseshell, while the rim is of beautifully burnished gold, and the
chessmen are of gold and silver, elaborately wrought, and ornamented
with the portraits of celebrated historical characters; one of them
represents the Emperor, Charles the Fifth. I dare say you would like
to play a game with me on this chess-board. As a companion to this
beautiful chess-board, is a very elegant colour box, fit for the
Queen, or the most noble young lady in the land, to use for painting
with. And here is a model of the town of Liverpool, with several
thousand little people in the streets; and these figures are so
exceedingly small, that a thousand of them would fit into an ordinary
sized pill box.

In contrast to this specimen of a great town in a minute space, we
have in front of the transept a wonderful clock, which is kept in
motion by a set of powerful electro magnets, eight in number, on which
is wound a length of twenty-five thousand feet of copper wire. This
gigantic time-keeper sets in motion the immense hands on the principal
dial, which is twenty-four feet in diameter, besides two smaller ones
which are fixed in front of the galleries, at the east and west ends
of the building. I am afraid that it would tire you, were I to attempt
to tell you exactly what electricity is, and must therefore satisfy
your curiosity, for the present, by letting you know that it is caused
by the coming in contact of different substances possessing peculiar
properties, which cause them to vibrate, when they touch.

There is another very curious clock in the Exhibition, which will go
for a hundred years before requiring to be wound up again; and there
is one wheel in it which is said would take ten thousand years to go
round once.

Next there is a case of stuffed birds, which came from Scotland, and
which we cannot help admiring. There are in this case specimens of all
the various kinds of birds which are peculiar to Scotland, neatly and
carefully stuffed; and really they almost look as if they were alive.
Ah, ah! Mister Eagle, you are not so much to be feared now, I think,
as you were when you lived in your lofty home in the Highland
mountains.

And here is another case in which are all the different sorts of
mother-of-pearl buttons that can be imagined;