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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 CEYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM; 
 
 WHAT MODERN AUTHORS SAY OF 
 THE PALACE. 
 
 EDITED BY '^CYGNUS.'' 
 
 HOPE & CO., 10, GREAT MARLBOEOUGH STREET. 
 
 1855.
 
 HOPE it CO., PBINTEKS, 10, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Lady of Ilam. By A. T. . 
 
 A Lay. By T. B. M 
 
 How, When, and Where. By M. T. . 
 
 The Soldier's Tear. By Colonel S. . 
 
 The Strayed Sightseer. By M. A. . 
 
 The Gigantic " No." By T. C. . 
 
 A CniMyERA's Head ; or, a Head's Chimera 
 BySirF.B.H 
 
 " Eastward Ho !" By C. K., Junior . 
 
 Sydenham. By Rev. E. M. 
 
 Sydenham's Trust. By Lord J. M. 
 
 A Fragment. By W. M. T. 
 
 The Wanderers. By H. W. L. 
 
 Page 
 1 
 
 K 
 14 
 
 22 
 25 
 32 
 
 37 
 42 
 4(5 
 .52 
 St) 
 60 
 
 810779
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 The manuscripts from whicli tlie following col- 
 lection was printed were discovered, with other 
 documents relating to the Crystal Palace, among 
 the papers of the late Mr. Phillips, a gentleman 
 well known for his high attainments and connec- 
 tion with the Palace Company, by whom he was 
 entrusted with the preparation of the general 
 Catalogue. How these manuscripts came into Mr. 
 Phillips's possession is readily explained by the 
 following facts, which, though not generally known, 
 may be relied on as being strictly accurate. It 
 was the original intention of the Committee of 
 Management of the Crystal Palace to have an 
 Inaugm'ative Address recited at the opening last
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 year^ and with this view they privately solicited 
 specimens from the principal authors and literary 
 characters of the day ; and as soon as these were 
 prepared and sent in (with the initials and mottoes 
 only of the writers attached), they were all referred 
 to the critical review of Mr. Phillips ; who, how- 
 ever, not considering that any of them displayed 
 that talent or eloquence which the solemnity of 
 the occasion demanded, advised the Committee to 
 abandon the idea of an opening address altogether, 
 and accordingly, as the public is aware, no such 
 recital took place. 
 
 Now, when we find that the constant theme of 
 the subjoined addresses is the Crystal Palace at 
 Sydenham — that many of them contain frequent 
 and direct allusions to the opening ceremony last 
 year — that no authors' names are subscribed, but 
 only initials and mottoes affixed to each — and 
 when, lastly, we remember that they were found 
 shortly after Mr. Phillips's death in the very 
 " Davenport" of that gentleman himself, — surely 
 it is not too much to conclude that these are the 
 identical efi'usions written last year for the open- 
 ing of the Palace, but never made public, for the 
 reasons already assigned. Although the compo- 
 sitions now ofifered to the public failed to reach
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 the lofty standard of excellence set up by Mr. 
 Phillips, still the Editor trusts that his present 
 readers will be more lenient in their judgment, 
 and will satisfy him that he has not mistaken the 
 taste of the literary world in presenting this little 
 work to its notice. He fancies that he can trace 
 in the style and sentiments of each paper a like- 
 ness to the writings of that particular author to 
 whom the initials and motto would seem most 
 significantly to point; and if his sui'mises are 
 correct, the present volume embraces contributions 
 from some of the most celebrated writers and 
 characters of the day, and may not unreasonably 
 be expected to unfold some of the brightest gems 
 of modern literature. The Editor cannot (for 
 family reasons) explain the precise manner in 
 which the original manuscripts came into his 
 possession, but he can solemnly assure the most 
 scrupulous of his readers that he is committing 
 not the slightest breach of confidence in giving 
 to the world at the present time what, he has 
 reason to believe, would very shortly have been 
 published had the life of the former possessor 
 been a little further prolonged.
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 N.B. — The Editor is personally responsible for 
 the list of titles appearing in the page of contents. 
 These were not found with the original manuscripts^ 
 butj being first suggested by their perusal, were 
 afterwards affixed to each for the sake of more 
 easy reference.
 
 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 THE LADY OF ILAM. 
 
 By a. T. 
 
 -*' Dum vitat humum nubes et inania captat." 
 
 Hor. Ars Poet. 
 
 On either side the railway lie 
 Fields, where siihurban children fly. 
 To lose the smoke and find the sky. 
 And in the midst the train runs by 
 
 To Crystal-Palaccd Sydenham. 
 
 And up and down the people go, 
 Gazing where the daisies grow. 
 In a garden there hclow — 
 
 The A'illaofllam. 
 
 B
 
 3 CRl'STxVLS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Collars TvliiteUj ringlets quiver, 
 Little cliildreu dusk and shiver, 
 In the train that runs for ever, 
 From the station by the river, 
 
 Down to Crystal Sydenham. 
 
 Four windows, hung with modest folds, 
 Overlook a bed of marigolds. 
 And the silent cottage holds 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 By the garden, iron-paled. 
 Pass the heavy waggons trailed 
 By slow horses, and unbailed 
 The cabman drinketh beer retailed 
 
 On the road to Sydenham. 
 
 But who hath seen her lift her feet. 
 Or at the door the milkman meet. 
 Or is she known in all the beat. 
 The Lady of Ham? 
 
 Only sweepers, sweeping early 
 In among the chimneys curly, 
 Hear a snore that echoes queerly 
 From the lattice Avinding drearly 
 
 Down to Crystal Sydenham. 
 
 And the sweeper downward creepin 
 From the next door chimney leaping 
 Hoarsely whispers, " Tis the sleepin 
 Lady of Ham." 
 
 ts)
 
 THE LADY OF ILAM. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Theee she sits at -work alway. 
 Knitting, netting, crochet gay. 
 She has heard a ^artj say. 
 Ill-luck would sure attend the day 
 
 She went down to Sydenham. 
 
 She knows not what her fate may be ; 
 But little other care hath she 
 Except the '' Record " and her tea, - 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 » 
 
 And sitting by the window small, 
 Which just o'erlooks the garden wall, 
 Her eyes on every traveller fall. 
 She marks the pattern of each shawl, 
 
 That goes past to Sydenliam. 
 
 There the dusty eddies fly 
 (For no water-cart goes by), 
 And fluttering clothes hang out to dry 
 Beside the Villa of Ham. 
 
 Sometimes the postman with a bag, 
 A butclier on an aml)ling nag. 
 Some fast yoiing dandy in a drag, 
 And then an old and wizened hag. 
 
 Goes by to Crystal Sydcjiham.
 
 Cin'STALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Or with policeman '' 38'* 
 Some housemaid hohls her tete-a-tete 
 No lover watches at her gate. 
 The Lady of 11am. 
 
 But at licr window still she sta}- s. 
 And knits and looks about always. 
 For often on the shilling days 
 An omnibus with pair of bays 
 
 And bugle went to Sydenham ; 
 
 Or came, wliile she was yet in bed, 
 A youth with baskets on his head : 
 "I am half sick of strawberries,'^ said 
 The Ladv of Ham. 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 A BOW shot from her chimney top ; 
 The trains were often w^ont to stop 
 To take a party uj), or drop 
 Another who had gone to shop 
 
 From near suburban Ham. 
 
 And as the summer lingers by 
 Each train she watches with a sigh ; 
 For must she never v/ith them fly 
 
 Down to Crystal Sydenham ?
 
 THE LADY OF iLAM, 
 
 At length she brooks no more delay, 
 But on the next five-shilling day, 
 As brightly shone the morning ray, 
 She vowed she would no longer stay 
 Beside remote Ham. 
 
 She left her work, she left the room 
 (Outside she fell across the bi*oom) ; 
 Still, careless of her coming doom, 
 
 She set off to Sydenham. 
 
 Ail in the blue unclouded Aveather 
 She took her cotton umbrella ; 
 She said^ " There is no knovving ^vhethe^ 
 It may not rain and spoil my feather 
 Ere I get back to Ham/' 
 
 And now she nears the Palace gate, 
 And on the terrace stands elate ; 
 " What care I for the hand of fate 
 
 Within the walls of Sydenham? 
 
 Her eyes each brilliant wonder sought, 
 Except the Mcdijcval Court ; 
 She would not enter places fraught 
 With "^ Puscv" notions of that sort, 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 »
 
 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 At length, by craving nature led. 
 She seeks an ample table spread 
 With lobster salads, beef, and bread — 
 
 The staffs of life at Sydenham. 
 
 '' Who is this, and. what is here ? 
 I did not call for "■ bitter beer ;' 
 I wonder, sir, you do not fear 
 To furnish with such vulgar cheer 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 " Here again in fault is seen 
 The ministry of Aberdeen ; 
 But for ' Lord John' there'd ne'er have been 
 Eeer sold at Sydenham !" 
 
 She started up, she gave a frown, 
 She shook the crumbs from off her gown ; 
 But as she once had sat her down 
 She had to fork out half-a-crown. 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 !jC JjC Si! I! "!• 
 
 Music hath charms to soothe the breast 
 With heat and catalogues oppress' d ; 
 So where the band resounded best. 
 Behold her stretch her limbs to rest 
 
 Upon a bench at Sydenham.
 
 THE LADY OF ILAM. 
 
 Spell-bound she sat, till just outside 
 A panting engine slie espied — • 
 "The train has gone without me!" cried 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Thkough the darkening shadows streaming. 
 Fitfully the moon was beaming ; 
 The porters listlessly were dreaming — 
 A lantern on the platform gleaming 
 
 Under Crystal Sydenham. 
 
 Down she came and found a seat. 
 Then round her neck upon a sheet 
 Of paper wrote in letters neat, 
 
 " The Lady of Ham." 
 
 "With this direction : ''You must try 
 To keep this maiden lady dry. 
 And send her forward in a fly. 
 Or the next train that passes by, 
 
 Back again from Sydenham." 
 
 And at the closing of the day 
 She shut the door and down she lay ; 
 Long must she in that carriage stay. 
 The Lady of Ham.
 
 8 CRYSTALS I'llOM SYDENHAM. 
 
 There went no other train that nighty 
 And all beneath the cold moonlight 
 She was shunted out of sight 
 On a siding to the right 
 
 Of the line at Sydenham. 
 
 And as the watchman went his round. 
 He heard a sad and solemn sound; 
 Yet through the night he never found 
 The Lady of Ham. 
 
 But at the morrow^s early dawn 
 (Her dress from out the gathers torn), 
 Behold her speechless and forlorn. 
 By trembling carriage searcher borne 
 
 Along the rails at Sydenham. 
 
 Out upon the station ran 
 Guards and porters, every man ; 
 And round her neck her name they scan, 
 " The Lady of Ham." 
 
 "In sooth, it is a dreadful sight, 
 How comes she in this woeful plight ? 
 Perhaps her stays w^ere laced too tight" — 
 And he shook for very fright. 
 
 The station master at Sydenham. 
 
 At last he said, " Let's bear her hence, 
 So call a cab and hang expense, 
 For I will lend her eighteen pence, 
 The Lady of Ham !"
 
 A I.AV. 9 
 
 A LAY. 
 
 By T. B. M. 
 
 " Carmiaa fingo," — Hor. 
 
 Loud Derby loves Protection, 
 
 And Manners loves the Nine, 
 And Albert loves the model stye. 
 
 Warm with the breath of swine ; 
 And Cobden loves the whispers 
 
 From peaceful lips that range 
 Tlirough Manchester's long corridors, 
 
 Beneath the Corn Exchange. 
 
 But thy Joseph loves the honours 
 
 Of horticultural shows ; 
 He loves to breathe the zephyr 
 
 That from the greenhouse blows ; 
 He smiled to see reflected 
 
 His fame in every glass. 
 While rose the Crystal phantom 
 
 Like magic from the grass. 
 
 And such as is the Company 
 That nurtured thy design, 
 
 And such as he who coloured thee, 
 E'en such be thou and thine. 
 
 u2
 
 10 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Leave to the dull Museum 
 Its blank uiipainted walls ; 
 
 Leave to the love- sick maid to dream 
 She " dwelt in marble halls/' 
 
 Be thine at last to fathom 
 
 The sculptor's inmost thought. 
 To show the utmost object 
 
 For which the chisel wrought. 
 Be thine to add perfection 
 
 To each defaulting part. 
 And give to partial beauty 
 
 The latest touch of art. 
 
 Till Owen comes^ the Parthenon 
 Her paiutless frieze bemoans. 
 
 And models from " Praxiteles " 
 Still crave a tint from '' Jones.'* 
 
 Beneath thy roof no winter 
 
 Its blighting breath shall fling. 
 The gems of every climate 
 
 Beneath thy shade shall spring; 
 "Within thy courts the emblems 
 
 Of every rank shall meet — 
 The lady from her carriage. 
 
 The porter from the street. 
 
 The exquisites of fashion 
 Shall here thy glories scan. 
 
 As safely as the victim 
 
 Of a clean " all-rounder " can.
 
 A LAY. 11 
 
 And here shall rustic wonder 
 
 Give forth the genuine praise 
 Which gentle-bred indifference 
 
 Is too correct to raise. 
 
 Hurrah for " Laing, the chairman '' 
 
 Of this our Exhibition ! 
 Hurrah for " Fox '' and "" Henderson" ! 
 
 Long live the whole Commission ! 
 Hurrah for him who loves reform ! 
 
 For him avIio paints the stones ; 
 Hurrah for " Colonel Sibthorp," 
 
 And " Colour-Sergeant Jones^' ! 
 
 Hurrah for the smooth statues 
 
 That stand in graceful line ! 
 Hurrah for the fair emblems 
 
 Of Nature's form divine ! 
 Draw near, ye dainty Pharisees, 
 
 In false decorum dress' d, 
 "Who, raving still of modesty, 
 
 Immodest thoughts suggest. 
 Ho, pure ones ! where's the clothing 
 ■ For lovely '^ Ycnus " spun ? 
 Ho, liberal-minded " Record " ! 
 
 Are "Cupid's" trousers done? 
 
 Hurrah for the long tables 
 
 That shine with many a glass ! 
 Hurrah for the rich stout of " jNIeux," 
 
 And the bright beer of '^ Bass !"
 
 13 CEYSTALS FllOM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Tlie chickens gay with parsley 
 
 Plucked from the coster's cart, 
 The crust set thick with strawberry jam. 
 
 That forms an open tart ; 
 The pies of massive pastry. 
 
 The buns grown rather old. 
 The many-coloured salads bright 
 
 With eggs and lobsters cold ; 
 The soup that boils and bubbles, 
 
 The cheese that seems to creep, — 
 Such dainties they who dwell in town 
 
 Shall here for ever reap. 
 
 Blest and thrice blest the Briton 
 
 Who sees this opening day ! 
 Who sees the long, tumultuous train 
 
 Rush down the new railway. 
 Who, past that bustling platform 
 
 And through that desperate cram, 
 E/Caches at last the glittering gates 
 
 Of Crystal Sydenham. 
 
 Then where, o'er Thames' sweet waters, 
 
 The city churches frown ; 
 Where the gigantic men of stone 
 
 On the " New Road " look down ; 
 W^here powdered footmen loiter 
 
 Outside Regentine shops ; 
 Where dirty housemaids trundle 
 
 Their dew-besprinkling mops ;
 
 A LA.Y. 13 
 
 Where tuneful milkmeu wander, 
 
 Beneath the morning hght ; 
 Where bawUng newsmen's echoes 
 
 Startle the listening Night ; 
 Where " Hansom " whirls his idlers 
 
 To sweet suburban groves ; 
 Where Cupid-struek policemen 
 
 Invoke their area loves ; 
 Where Atlas plies his journeys 
 
 Far o'er the realms of '' Bow" — 
 Shall be great fear on all who hear 
 
 The mighty name of ^' Joe" !
 
 14 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 HOW, WHEN, AND WHEEE. 
 
 By M. T. 
 
 " Parvum in Multo." 
 
 or TRAVELLING. 
 
 Great is the mystery of travelling ! I sit upon 
 downy cushions. 
 
 I am whirled to my destined goal by the pant- 
 ing monster before me. 
 
 The yell of his might sonndeth, the smoke of 
 his wrath appeareth. 
 
 He runneth on wheels of iron — he rivals the 
 birds in their flight. 
 
 He challengeth time in the race, distance but 
 lendeth him speed. 
 
 By his strength I can traverse the world — the 
 train shall take me to Sydenham. 
 
 OF AN OMNIBUS. 
 
 A different agent this from the thundering off- 
 spring of steam. 
 
 But noble still in his sphere, and highly prized 
 among men.
 
 HOW^ WHEN, AND WHEllE. 15 
 
 For though the 'Bus be slow, yet is it sure 
 withal — if sometimes nasty, it is always cheap. 
 
 Watch carefully the 'Bus to suit thee^ nor 
 rashlv hail the first thou meetest. 
 
 Lest haply, when starting for London Bridge, 
 thou be carried unaAvares to Shepherds' Bush. 
 
 Art thou strong ? ride outside the 'Bus. Art 
 thou delicate ? the inside is warmer. 
 
 Seize if possible the nearest seat, neither risk a 
 walk to the top. 
 
 For as the door closes upon thee, the 'Bus shall 
 start off with a jerk. 
 
 And though the conductor dcclareth it to be 
 "right," tliou shalt find thyself in the wrong 
 box; 
 
 Cast headlong on a lady's lap, or trampling the 
 toes of a stranger. 
 
 Art thou mounted on the roof? — does the box 
 seat support thee ? 
 
 Improve with care thy opportunity — thou hast 
 much food for reflection. 
 
 Thou art raised above the tumult of the street — 
 thou lookcst down upon the strivings of men. 
 
 ]\Iark well the language of the driver as he 
 passeth an opposing 'Bus. 
 
 List to the accents of his voice, forget not the 
 discourse of his tongue. 
 
 For though the foolish body calleth it " chaff,"" 
 yet is there much wheat to be gleaned there 
 from.
 
 IG CUYSTALS FROxM SYDENHAM. 
 
 OF A RAILWAY STATION. 
 
 A nervous man is lost at a station — tlie unpro- 
 tected female is bewildered. 
 
 The careless loseth his luggage— the sluggard 
 misseth his train. 
 
 Be not thou like unto these^ but keep thy senses 
 against the day of travel. 
 
 So shalt thou be cool in the midst of tumult — 
 thou shalt pace the platforiii with placitude. 
 
 Seek on thine advent the booking-office — ac- 
 quaint the clerk with thy destiny. 
 
 Fear not though the bell soundeth^ though the 
 porter shouteth Avith his voice. 
 
 To take up thy ticket forget not, neither leave 
 thy change behind thee. 
 
 Next shalt thou choose thy carriage, an umbrella 
 shall mark thy seat. 
 
 Take careful note of thy fellow travellers — 
 partners for better or for worse. 
 
 See that thou have not a maniac for thy com- 
 panion — avoid all appearance of babies. 
 
 OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 
 
 Art thou rich? take a season-ticket. Art poor? 
 go not on a five shilling day. 
 
 Albeit to visit this temple of wonders is a duty 
 thou owest to thyself. 
 
 Behold tlie achievements of science ! look on 
 the triumphs of art I
 
 HOW, WHEN, AND WHEEE. 17 
 
 The glittering roof that covers thee, — the daz- 
 zling hues that charm thee, — 
 
 The cooling fountains that splasli thee — the dis- 
 tant notes that soothe thee, — 
 
 Tell forth the powers of genius, — the omnipo- 
 tence of skilful industry. 
 
 Here the past shall instruct the present, the 
 living shall learn from the dead. 
 
 The offspring of latest thought — the first-fruits 
 of earliest art. 
 
 Tunics of pristine Rome. Eureka shirts of 
 « Ford,"— 
 
 Pots of modern pomatum, urns of ancient 
 " Greece ;"— 
 
 Combine to feast thy fancy with concentrated 
 essence of ages. 
 
 OF KEAUING. 
 
 A shilling a-picce for the Catalogues ; a thousand 
 pounds for a man to lift them. 
 
 So numerous are they withal, and so impossible 
 to carry. 
 
 Yet are they wholesome for instruction, to light 
 the dark places of thy mind. 
 
 To teach thee the names of things, to feed thy 
 famished soul. 
 
 To save thee from exposing thy ignorance by 
 misplaced guesses at truth. 
 
 So that thou call not "Paxton" ''Apollo," nor 
 ascribe the "Parthenon" to St. George's Hall.
 
 18 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Lest LayarcVs Bull be unto thee as a Durliam 
 Ox, or Shakspere's birthplace as the House of 
 Glaucus. 
 
 OF "WTIITING. 
 
 The Gold Pen of a ready writer, whereunto 
 shall it be likened ? 
 
 It surpasseth the quill of the swan ; it surviveth 
 the steel of " Gillot." 
 
 Herewith shalt thou keep thy journal; thou 
 shalt Avritc thy thoughts on the Palace. 
 
 Whatsoever is sweet to the eye, and all that is 
 good for food ; 
 
 The gems most fair in thy sight ; the dainties 
 most suited to thy taste ; 
 
 These shall thy pen record ; and lay up in the 
 Garner of History. 
 
 OF ARITHMETIC. 
 
 How shall they count the Folks at Sydenham, 
 or number the Wonders of the Palace ? 
 
 Can Multiplication do it ? Is Proportion equal 
 to the work ? 
 
 If the Transept hold a thousand to-day, what 
 shall the Nave contain to-morrow ? 
 
 Surely fractions must lend their aid; Algebra 
 shall be summoned to the task. 
 
 Fix then the decimal point. Let x be the un- 
 known quantity.
 
 HOW^ WHEN, AND WHERE. 19 
 
 OF MUSIC. 
 
 Search the time when the band playeth ; when 
 the Trombone venteth his roar. 
 
 Press forward to the crimson seats ; be not thou 
 done out of a place. 
 
 As close as thou canst penetrate, mount up to 
 the orchestra's verge. 
 
 So shalt thou be deafened with the noise, nor 
 easily distinguish the tune. 
 
 Beat loud the Time with thy feet ; to swing thy 
 head forget not. 
 
 So shalt thou seem learned in the art, and thy 
 neighbours shall have a greater respect unto thee- 
 
 OF LOVE. 
 
 Mark well the dress of her thou lovest, that it 
 be neat, but not gaudy. 
 
 For she who blindly pursueth fashion shall fall 
 into the abyss of ridicule. 
 
 The tidy maiden mendeth her gloves; the care- 
 less Icttcth them continue in holes. 
 
 The prudent wearcth her bonnet on her head ; 
 the foolish lettcth it hang down upon her back. 
 
 Is she handsome ? it is well ; but see that she 
 droppeth not the " II." 
 
 Hath she wisdom? it is a prize, but beware of 
 a strong-minded woman. 
 
 Hath she riches? they are good, provided she 
 settle them on thyself.
 
 30 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Art tliou in love? Take thy sweetheart with 
 thee to the Palace. 
 
 There shalt thou find solitude in company, re- 
 tirement in the midst of thousands. 
 
 Neither let expense deter thee.'-' 
 
 One plate shall feed ye, the same glass refresh 
 ye. 
 
 So sliall the feast to both be sweetened, the cost 
 for each shall be diminished. 
 
 OF REFRESHMENTS. 
 
 To fast long is injurious, tempt not too far thy 
 stomach. 
 
 When nature cravcth listen to her, slight not 
 the voice of instinct. 
 
 Nor fear to satisfy her fully ; a little luncheon 
 is a dangerous thing. 
 
 Natheless be careful in thv choice : select the 
 food most wholesome. 
 
 A sausage is not always of the pig, for a kitten 
 maketh a rea,dy mince. 
 
 Neither shall a pork pie always deserve thy 
 confidence ; for a tender infant may be concealed 
 beneath a savoury crust. 
 
 OF BEER. 
 
 There is a cooling beverage that maketh glad 
 the soul of the thirsty. 
 
 * Tliird-class Returns are but eigliteonpence.
 
 HOW, WHEN, AND W'HERE. 21 
 
 Its charm lietli deep ; it is delicate, jet lasting 
 as port in the bottle. 
 
 Loneliness and thonght arc cherished by the 
 balmy drops of its fountain. 
 
 Exercise and toil require it; luxury and rest 
 enjoy it. 
 
 Its hue is the brightness of amber, and it 
 smacketh of the bitterness of hop. 
 
 I saw it foamins; in beautv : I felt the ma2:ic 
 of its taste. 
 
 The child gi'cw strong beneath it, the old stooped 
 down and quaffed it. 
 
 And I thought some angel had dropped there a 
 double barrel of nectar. 
 
 And yet v.diat shall I say ? Is a woman capable 
 of beer ? 
 
 Hath Dr. Gully known it? Can a teetotaller 
 perceive it ? 
 
 Beer ! Avhat a volume in a word ! an ocean in a 
 glass ! 
 
 A banquet in a taste, an Elysiurn in a draught. 
 
 A seventh heaven in a glance, a millennivim in 
 a moment. 
 
 What concentrated joy or woe in bright or 
 blighted beer !
 
 32 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 THE SOLDIEE'S TEAE. 
 
 By Colonel S. 
 
 "DifEcilis querulus laudator temporis acti 
 Me puero censor castigatorque minorum." 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Now don't suppose I'm going to spin a long, 
 mealy-mouthed, flattering yarn about the beauties 
 of your ' crystal edifice/ the march of intellect, or 
 industrial art, or any other flummery of that sort, 
 because I'm not going to do any such thing, I 
 only want to speak out my honest opinion (as I 
 always have done and hope I always shall do, 
 whether in the House of Commons or out of doors, 
 without fear or favour), and to tell you a bit of my 
 mind about this Crystal Palace as you call it. 
 Well, sir, my opinion is that it is a regular hum- 
 bug, a right down swindle. The Palace is a hum- 
 bug, and you're a humbug, and the whole Company 
 are a lot of humbugs. Crystal Palace, indeed ! 
 Ain't there hothouses, and greenhouses, and glass- 
 houses enough in every little pottering garden 
 one sees, without getting up a great staring thing
 
 THE soldier's TEAR. 23 
 
 like that at Sydeiiliam ? Just like all the ncAV- 
 faiigled invcDtions of the present day, a glass trap 
 to catch fools in ; all radical outside show, no real 
 old Conservative •worth in it. And then you talk 
 about the good of the country, and enlightening 
 the people ! 
 
 What good, I should like to know, will they get 
 by going down to Sydenham wasting their time 
 and spending their money to stare at a lot of 
 sham plaster gimcracks daubed over with red 
 paint ? 
 
 The only result that I can see, will be to collect 
 a lot of silly, idle, good-for-nothing people, young 
 puppies and old fools, to talk scandal, and show off 
 their fine clothes under a glass case. And then 
 to encourage a lot of foreigners to come over here, 
 and have a set of nasty, dirty, smoking fellows, 
 who haven't got a shirt among them, always stroll- 
 ing about the streets ! For the continental 
 nations generally I entertain a high respect, but 
 I must say there are people among them whom I 
 can only look upon as belonging to the tag-rag and 
 bob-tail of society. And then, some people rave 
 about the music, and say the Crystal Palace Band 
 plays so well. Talk of music ! Give me a good 
 street organ, provided the villain who grinds it 
 isn't a foreigner. And as to the band, they tell 
 me you've had the unwarrantable presvimption to 
 dress them up in uniform, forsooth ! so that actually 
 a friend of mine took them the other day for men
 
 24 CRYSTALS FROM SYDE>'HAM. 
 
 of the 2nd Lincolnshire Militia^ that Royal Regi- 
 ment wliicli I have the honour to command — a 
 regimentj sir^ on which I have spared neither time 
 nor money, and which I do not hesitate to declare, 
 in spite of what the Times or any other licentious 
 paper may say, is in the most efficient state of 
 organization and discipline, and equal to any 
 regiment in Her IMajesty's service, not even 
 excepting the Coldstream Guards, or the Horse 
 marines. 
 
 The Exhibition in Hyde Park was had enough, 
 and I did all I could to oppose it ; I said I never 
 would go inside it, and I never did. And now, sir, 
 I tell you, and you may tell every member of your 
 company, that, as long as I've my own way, I 
 shall never come near that swindling aftair of yours 
 at Sydenham. No, sir, never, and what I say I 
 mean. And if I ever have to pass within sight of 
 the place, I shall turn my head the other way, and 
 not even let my eyelids blink on the nasty, flimsy, 
 gimcrack glasshouse. I don't care what people 
 may say, or what that most scui^rilous journal 
 the Times may write, though I know the 
 managers seize every possible opportunity of vili- 
 fying me. Eut, as I've often said before, I shall 
 always resist the proceedings of a licentious press. 
 I am not going to be " chaffed" out of what I 
 consider to be my duty, and nothing on earth 
 shall ever induce me to set foot in that finicking 
 toy-shop you call your Crystal Palace.
 
 THK STRAYED SIGHTSEER. 25 
 
 THE STEAYED SIGHTSEEE. 
 
 By :M. a.* 
 
 The Terrace of the Crystal Palace— Evening, 
 A Youth. Policeman. 
 
 The Youth. 
 Faster ! faster^ 
 
 Oh^ blue Policeman ! 
 
 Let the long excursion train, 
 
 Tlic ga}' procession 
 
 Of holiday forms 
 
 Sweep through my soul ! 
 
 Thou standest frowning 
 
 Down on me ; thy right arm, 
 
 liaised against thv dewv brow. 
 
 ]\rops thy moist cheek ; 
 
 Thy left shows, hanging "at ease," 
 
 The broad cuff, duty-cinctured. 
 
 Dark blue and white. 
 
 Is it then evening 
 
 So soon ? I sec the white mist, 
 
 » [This paper appears to have uccn sent in without a blotto.] 
 
 Y.D.
 
 26 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Drifting like beer-foam, dims 
 Tlie plated buttons 
 On thv stalwart breast : 
 The cool night-wind, too. 
 Blows through the terrace^ 
 Stirs thy hair, " Peeler ! " 
 "Waves thy white trousers. 
 
 Policeman. 
 "Whence art thou, sleeper ? 
 
 Youth. 
 
 When the grey dawn first 
 
 Through the dim window-panes 
 
 Of my lodgings, on the third flight 
 
 Up at the King's Head, 
 
 'Came breaking, Peeler, 
 
 I sprang up — I threw round me 
 
 My dappled shirt. 
 
 Passing out from the wet step, 
 
 Where a pail stood by the front door, 
 
 I snatched up my beaver, my new cane 
 
 All tipped with gold, 
 
 Came swift down to join 
 
 The crowds earlv Q'athered 
 
 In the station round the Booking-office, 
 
 South-Eastern Terminus, 
 
 On London Bridge. 
 
 'o^ 
 
 Quick we passed, following 
 The loud engine's steam-track.
 
 THE STSAYED SIGHTSEER. 37 
 
 Down the branch railway. I saw 
 
 On my right, through tlic window, 
 
 This palace, Peeler — 
 
 Noiseless, empty. 
 
 Wondering, I entered, beheld 
 
 The courts all silent, 
 
 The bulls sleeping. 
 
 On a stall this bottle — I drank, Peeler, 
 
 And sank down here, sleeping 
 
 On the steps of the terrace. 
 
 Policeman [springs his rattle). 
 
 Hi, Sir ! within there, 
 Sir Richard Mayne I 
 Come forth, so please yon. 
 See what the night brings. 
 
 Sir Richard Mayne. 
 
 Always new prisoners ! 
 
 Hast tlien appreliended 
 
 Some young, flashy-dressed member 
 
 Of the swell mob. 
 
 That he sits stroking fondly 
 
 llis stiff, immaculate collar, 
 
 The night breeze ruffling 
 
 The long oil-shining locks 
 
 That crown his brow, 
 
 His waistcoat, half unbuttoned, 
 
 Smeared with brown beer stains. 
 
 That he sits lounging 
 
 So late on the terrace ?
 
 28 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Policeman. 
 
 Hist ! he wakes. 
 
 I took him not into custody^ Sir Eichard — 
 
 Nay^ ask him. 
 
 Youth. 
 
 "Who speaks? "who comes forth 
 
 To thy side^ Peeler^ from within ? 
 
 What shall I call him, 
 
 Tliis stern, plain-featured, 
 
 Quick-eyed stranger ? 
 
 Art thou he whom rogues 
 
 This long time dream of — 
 
 The knightedCaptainof the Blues in Scotland-yard; 
 
 Art thou he, stranger, 
 
 Sir Richard Maync, 
 
 His mother's son ? 
 
 Sir Richard Mayne. 
 
 ■ I am the Baronet, 
 And thou too, sleeper. 
 Thy face is brazen. 
 It may be thou hast followed 
 Through the streets some fast man — 
 By life taught many things — 
 " Bell's Life'' and the Prophets, 
 And heard him delighting 
 His friends and followers 
 In the " Coal Hole," and heard his stories
 
 THE STRAYED SlUllTSEER. 29 
 
 Of " bricks'^ and heroes ; 
 Of love aucl cigars, 
 And billiard tables 
 In town, or kept 
 In rustic suburbs. 
 
 Youth. 
 The police are happy. 
 They turn on all sides 
 Their shining bull's-eyes. 
 And see around them 
 By night and day 
 The town and men. 
 
 They see the Baronet 
 
 Strolling, staff in hand, 
 
 On the hard, gravelly 
 
 Serpentine bank ; 
 
 His hat thrown back on 
 
 The bald, venerable "Head," 
 
 Revolving inly 
 
 The doom of London. 
 
 They see the Colonels 
 In the upper rooms 
 Of Clarendon, in the streets 
 Where time-killing gossips lounge 
 At the plate-glass open windows. 
 With arms relaxed and lips 
 Curled, gently smoking 
 Tlie fragrant weed.
 
 30 CRYSTALS FKOM SYDENHAM. 
 
 They see the " Coster '^ 
 
 Driving, whip in hand, 
 
 His frail cart moored to 
 
 A spare-ribbed donkey, 
 
 Toihng beneath his load upheaped 
 
 With large-leaved, white-headed cauliflowers 
 
 And the dark cucumber 
 
 He piles and packs them. 
 
 Driving, driving ! round him, 
 
 Round his greengrocer cart, 
 
 Flock the small housewives. 
 
 Their children ring them. 
 
 They see the cabman 
 
 On the long stand unbuckling 
 
 His horse's bit at noon ; 
 
 He waters his beast there, then makes his meal. 
 
 Cold pie and pint 
 
 Of half-and-half, fetched from the tap 
 
 Of ^^ Truman Haubury," or the " Noted House 
 
 Por Barclay, Perkins, 
 
 And Co.'s Entire.'' 
 
 They see the heroes 
 
 Of midnight brawls. 
 
 Singing through the dark streets 
 
 In their reckless sky-larking. 
 
 Violent spree. 
 
 At sunrise nearing 
 
 The hapless lock-ups.
 
 THE STKAYED SIGHTSEEK. 
 
 The old Inspector 
 
 Came strolling in the sunshine 
 
 From the crowded palace courts 
 
 This way at noon. 
 
 Sitting by me, while he brushed 
 
 His dusty garments, 
 
 He told me these things. 
 
 But I, Sir Richard, 
 Sitting on the warm steps. 
 Looking over the gardens 
 All day long, have seen, 
 Without spectacles, without difficulty. 
 Sometimes a wild-haired navvy ; 
 Sometimes a cook with ices ; 
 And sometimes for a moment. 
 Passing through the young shrubs. 
 Hands in pockets, the beloved. 
 The renowned, the divine 
 Sir Joseph Paxtou ! 
 
 Faster ! faster ! 
 
 Oh, blue policeman ! 
 
 Let the long excursion train, 
 
 The g.ay procession 
 
 Of holiday forms 
 
 Sweep through my soul !
 
 32 Cia'STALS I'lJOM S^JDhl'illAM. 
 
 THE GIGANTIO -'NO." 
 
 By T. C. 
 
 " Projicit ampu'Ias et sesfiuipedalia verba." 
 
 Horace. 
 
 We have set up an Idol of Glass in this Assclom 
 of ours, and are about to bow doAvn to it ; read us 
 an Address thereon, O Author ! So speaks the 
 British Public. Most assuredly we will, O Public. 
 Tlu'ow open the doors now, Glass, Porcelain, and 
 we know not what other, that we may see this 
 great idol of thine, thou British bull, lion, ass, or 
 otherwise. Here is a Palace, forsooth, as thy ma- 
 naging men — shovcl-hattcd quack-heads we call 
 them — love to name it, A Palace ! A peepshow 
 rather, we should say, where foolish children pay 
 their money to stare at winged bulls, stuffed In- 
 dians, dumb savages, with other dead deformities, 
 and living humbugs, too, for that matter ; or listen 
 to toothache-giving pipes, drums, sackbuts, dul- 
 cimers, and all kinds of music. Come near, then, 
 poor infants, old and young Midas- eared brayers, 
 British, foreign, or otherwise : come and strain
 
 THE GIGAN lie '' NO.''' 33 
 
 thy sham-loving organs througli tliis bit of glass — 
 crystal Avouldst thou have it — and tell us what 
 thou seest^ poor dupe ! Thou art silent. Listen, 
 then, and our friend '' "Wine -sour " shall expound 
 to thee what idols they have set up in this huge, 
 inarticulate baby-house of thine. " In palaces wo. 
 once, in our blindness, imagined kings were wont 
 to live. Yerily here we have looked about ^itli 
 somewhat of minuteness, prying iiither and thither, 
 putting on glasses, even glasses of various descrip- 
 tions, convex, concave, yet no king liave we been 
 able to discover here, or indeed, for the matter of 
 that, elsewhere. But O yc Powers ! is there not 
 here to be seen, and not to be seen only, but (v»'ith 
 due caution and in absence of thee, O man dressed 
 in blue ! for which reason, and no other that -we 
 can discover, to be reverenced) to be touched, even 
 the statue of a Queen? Truly v.e have seen it, 
 O British bull, lion, ass, and wc know not what 
 other, we have seen it with these most obtuscst 
 organs of ours, and recognise in that even the xcry 
 Iluler fittest for thee, O most truly Assdom of all 
 donkcvdoms and other "doms'' whatsoever, to be 
 met with in this world of ours, or not at all here, 
 but quite in some other place altogether removed 
 from this ! This at least it hath learnt this statue; 
 of thine, and might teach thee if thou couhkt 
 learn it— to sav notliing : most valuable of ail 
 learning, but altogether above thee, wc fear, witli 
 'A\ thy preachings, speakings, Iccturings, ncwspapc r 
 
 c 2
 
 34 CRYSTALS PROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 writings^ poetislngs_, and other donkey-brayings and 
 "ings" of what description soever. Look well round 
 thee, in front, behind, and on eacli side, O most 
 wisest of publics, and see all this painting, gilding, 
 plumbing, glazing, and shamming with which thy 
 Palace bedizens itself withal ! Look, too, on the 
 blind crowds of thy stiff-necked fellow-mortals, poor 
 dustmen and women, and yet, forsooth, hiding 
 their nakedness with such stupendous, grand, floor- 
 sweeping, rustle-making satins, silks, muslins, ba- 
 reges, not to say petticoats, horsehair or otherwise. 
 Look, I say, at all these most vainest of gew-gaws, 
 golden, silver, brass, copper, and other Midas- 
 eared Mammonisms, in this Palace, shop, peep- 
 show, or whatever thou stylest this den of thine. 
 Gaze on now, and consider what a mighty great 
 people, forsooth, thou must be ! How truly 
 prosperous, upright, and altogether most not-to- 
 be-railed at of nations. Surely thou hast no 
 horrors to haunt thee in thy still moments ! 
 No hell, vices, or miseries to shame thee. No 
 pest killings, hunger dyings, or other devillings, in 
 thy cities. Go on, then, poor dupes, " macte 
 virtute." O public ! feast thine eyes on all 
 this finery, yet go not too near, lest perchance 
 thou discover the sham. Handle not too roughly 
 these gay deceits — yellow, red, blue, and othei'- 
 •wise — heaped on and plastered in these latter days 
 by all thy cunning men, thy Paxtons, Joneses, 
 Wyatts, Digbys, Owens, and others. Touch them
 
 THE GIGANTIC " SO." G5 
 
 not^ I say, lest peraclventure when tearing off their 
 coats thou shouklst take away their cloaks also, 
 and so lay bai'C all their shams and nakedness. 
 No, surely ! AVash the outside of thy cnp and 
 platter — paint the walls of thy gaudy sepulchre; 
 but never look inside, O most moral public, lest 
 the sight of all thy rottenness, vice, poverty, and 
 other thy moribund deformities shock too much 
 thy poor tender-hearted Idiosyncrasy. " O for- 
 tunatos nimium sua si mala norint ! " So speaks 
 the sarcastic man. And now forthwith come 
 shouting and hissing heaven high from thousands 
 of open-mouthed chanticleers some such indignant 
 murinurings, or rather long-eared ravings, of this 
 sort : " Go to, thou false prophet, thou who ragest 
 in such huge, incomprehensible jargon of plagues, 
 pestilence, famines, vice, misery, and other devil's 
 messenijers, and vet never so much as hintest at a 
 means of escaping these penalties ! Thou who 
 preachest all day of our sins, and crimes, and 
 wrongs, but never deignest to tell us what is right ! 
 Such shall not be our doctor, who only teaches 
 our disease, but can devise no remedy to cure 
 it withal." And yet, brothers, we fear there is no 
 " Morison's Pill,'' no " Ilolloway's Ointment," to 
 offer thee as a nostrum for all thy loathsome 
 depravities. No, verily ; thou art so utterly 
 plunged, sunk, and swallowed up in thy vicious 
 excesses, so deeply have the cancers of misgo- 
 vcnimcnt, oppression, moncy-gettings, and mr.m-
 
 3G CllYSTALS FKOM SYDENHAM. 
 
 mon-lovings eaten into thy poor rotten carcase of 
 society — yea, even to its very heart of hearts — 
 that now at hist thou must reap wliat thyself hast 
 sown. Akeady art thou mortifying^ and no Hollo- 
 way ''s ointment that we know of can save thee. 
 Go, hide thyself, is our advice ; put away what 
 tliou canst of thy filthiness and misery, and for 
 the rest buy sackcloth to gird thee withal, and cry 
 " Unclean ! unclean !" 
 
 Open thy Palace, forsooth ! Shut it, we say ; 
 shut it, and that speedily. Pull it dow^n even, 
 preserving only the statues, clothed or otherwise, 
 these having all learnt to say nothing. Oh, that 
 thou too couldst learn it ! The rest destroy, and 
 we will advise thee what thou shalt do with 
 the materials. Thou shalt build for thyself an 
 ashhole w ithal, into which thou may est throw a few 
 at least of thy cinders which lie now in heaps 
 scattered hither and thither, up and down this 
 great donkeydom of thine, and were better sho- 
 velled a^vay somewhither quite out of sight, 
 according to our mind. 
 
 " O, thou Baalam \" we now hear issuing from 
 the British press — '' O thou Baalam, did we not 
 call upon thee to bless? and, Iq ! thou hast cursed 
 us altogether !"
 
 A CUllIJi;RA'.S HEAU; OK, A 11LA1>'S CHIM^EKA. 37 
 
 A CHIMiEEA'S HEAD ; OR, A HEAD'S 
 CHIMJ5RA. 
 
 By Sir. F. B. 11. 
 
 Aeywi' t'oiK-a ttoXKu i:at jxarijv intiv. 
 
 Msch. I'rom. 
 
 To that half of our community 
 Whom it is our happiness to amuse, 
 Our privilege to escort, 
 And many of whom have as yet only heard of Sydenham, 
 
 This Paper, 
 
 Sho"n ing the present '• Defenceless state" of their Palace, 
 
 Is affectionately dedicated and inscribed 
 
 By the Weiter. 
 
 Although tlierc is notliing more fascinating in 
 nature than the innocent gaiety and thoughtless 
 confidence of a young English, lady setting off on. 
 a cloudless summer morning, bent on some party 
 of pleasure, a rural pic-niC; or an urban exhibition, 
 still it is often the painful, tlie thankless, though 
 the no less imperative duty of the careful father, 
 the faithful liusljand, or tlic anxious lover, to brerk
 
 38 CRYSTALS FilOM SYDOHAM. 
 
 in upon that sweet but fatal security, and to remind 
 the fair object of their solicitude that rains may 
 descend, umbrellas be wanted, feet be wetted, and 
 pockets picked, during her exposure to the fickle- 
 ness of our climate and the dishonesty of our race. 
 So now, when I think of the myriads of our fair 
 sisters, the rank and beauty of their sex, crowding, 
 iu all the eagerness of joyous excitement and un- 
 suspecting confidence, to celebrate the opening of 
 the Crystal Palace, far different feelings are at 
 work in my breast, and instead of delighted groups, 
 happy faces, and brilliant displays of all that 
 nature aided by art can accomplish, I see visions 
 of a foreign foe, plundered courts, dismembered 
 statues, broken plates, yea, and worst of all, sisters, 
 wives, and daughters made prisoners within the 
 sacred precincts of that very temple which but 
 now they had dedicated, in all the pride of self- 
 confidence and security, to the perpetual cultivation 
 of the arts of peace. Though I would gladly refrain 
 from the unpleasant task of expounding to the 
 ladies of Britain the dreary history of those exter- 
 nal dangers and that internal mismanagement 
 which threaten so soon to bring ruin on their 
 Palace and their country, — though such a theme 
 will be distasteful alike to the managing few and 
 the victimised many, still I cannot, I dare not 
 incur the dreadful charge, the grave responsibility, 
 of seeing the Crystal Palace and its innocent but
 
 A chim/i;ra^s head; or^ a head's chim^ea. 39 
 
 short-siglited votaries drifting rapidly to almost 
 certain destruction, without once more dipping my 
 pen into the ink of warning expostulation, and 
 endeavouring, ere it be for ever too late, to awaken 
 them to a sense of their danger, to shovv^ them the 
 precipice on the brink of which they are tottering, 
 and to convince them at last of the naked in- 
 security, the unwarrantable exposure, and the 
 utterly ^'defenceless state"' of their Palace. 
 
 It is not the first time that I have raised my 
 voice against the wilful blindness and stupid self- 
 confidence of the country. Some time ago I pub- 
 lished an elaborate and instructive Treatise on 
 the Defenceless State of Great Britain, a work 
 which, I regret to say, was ridiculed by some, 
 disbelieved by many, and disregarded by all, and 
 which nowhere in this country met with that grate- 
 ful respect and attention which tlie vital importance 
 of the subject, not to mention the literary value 
 of the production, so peremptorily demanded. 
 
 Nor is it only in the character of a foreboding 
 pi'ophct that I am known to the world. A short 
 time ago, after spending a fortnight in Ireland, I 
 gave forth to the public (almost within a month of 
 my return) a volume which, whatever its intrinsic 
 quality, was at any rate equal in size and appearance 
 to any thing which the most sanguine reader was jus- 
 tified in expecting. But even that little work, put 
 together with wonderful rapidity, was but coldly
 
 49 CllYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 received by an iiidifTerent public, and can I liopo 
 that an address teeming only vvitli sliaineful truths 
 and stern realities, and speaking only of impend- 
 ing danger, helpless insecurity, and suicidal indif- 
 ference, .will }nect '.vith any more favourable re- 
 ception at the hands of rny country? But still the 
 stake is so enormous, the risk so awful, all that 
 we prize, or love, or reverence, is so inextricably 
 bound up in the fate of the Crystal Palace, that I 
 am induced, in spite of the thankless and invidious 
 nature of the duty, to undertake to show the 
 utterly insufficient means at our disposal for the 
 protection of a place on which so much money has 
 been expended, and in which probably so large a 
 portion of our lives will be spent. As, hov.'cver, 
 the subject is too lengthy and important to be 
 effectually treated in an address of this sort, and 
 on an occasion like the present, I propose shortly to 
 publish a little volume fully discussing the pre- 
 sent state of the Palace and its piteously defence- 
 less state in the event of a Russian invasion of 
 this country ; and I shall therefore at present con- 
 tent myself with thus calling public attention, 
 to the consideration of this subject, and imploring 
 all those who love their country. and have any in- 
 terest with the Directors of the Palace Company, 
 to spare no pains and no arguments to induce 
 them to take such steps for precaution and fortifi- 
 cation as may tend to ward off the calamity which 
 I sc3 so closely impending over Sydenham,
 
 A chim.eka's head; o\\, a head's chim.eua. 41 
 
 The question, -wlicii fully discussed hereafter, 
 Avill be considered under the follov.ing divisions: — 
 
 I. Available Russian army at the present time. 
 
 II. Available English army at the present time. 
 
 1. Regulars. 
 
 2. Militia. 
 
 III. Available Poliee force in London. 
 
 1. Regulars. 
 
 2. Detectives. 
 
 IV. Invasion of Sydenham by a Russian army. 
 
 V. Occupation of the Transept by a Russian 
 regiment. 
 
 VI. Reflections thereon.
 
 42 CRYSTALS FRO^r SYDENHAM. 
 
 ^^ EASTWARD, IIO!" 
 
 Bj C. K., Jviiiior. 
 " A mau's a man for a' that." 
 
 " Eastward, ho ! " Now don't all of you gape at 
 one another, and suppose that when I say " East- 
 ward, hoP' I mean westward, or northward, or south- 
 ward, or anything else that I don't say, as many of 
 you do, and are always for judging other people by 
 your own crooked rule. When I say eastward, I 
 mean eastward, and when I say that I am going 
 to tell you a little of my mind about the Crystal 
 Palace, it is about the veritable Crystal Palace 
 that I am going to speak, and not about anything 
 else that I know of just now. Honest Elias Lee 
 and I went down to Sydenham together the other 
 day. Honest Elias is no flimsy west-end gentle- 
 man, nothing useless of that sort. What he says 
 he'll do — he does — does utterly like a man. He 
 never shaves his beard from off that right-down 
 manly, grimy smith's face of his ; he never covers 
 his broad rough hands with puling yellow kid 
 gloves, and he doesn't conceal his great, sinewy
 
 frame with any loose, fashionable, devil-bctailored, 
 long frock coat. He knows that every man that's 
 a man, and worth anything, must work, and he's 
 not ashamed of working or of wearing his every- 
 day working clothes cither. A man of deeds, not 
 words ; a man of a smock frock, not cloth clothes, 
 is honest Elias. 
 
 " Let's get into the railway carriage," cries he, 
 and in we went, he stooping forward both his 
 broad, sinewy smith's shoulders, and I coming 
 after him, proiid enough to be in the company of 
 a true man, who knew Avhere he was and where 
 he was going to. Elias Lee knew that he was in 
 a railway carriage, and that's more than many of 
 us can say that we do. 
 
 It was a misty morning ; the air full of mois- 
 ture, and the sky nearly covered with clouds, but 
 above them the sun was shining, as he always has 
 been since the day he was made, and trying to 
 shine througlt them, as we knew Avell enough ; we 
 never doubted about the sun being there, although 
 "we couldn't see him ; and great honest-hearted 
 Elias didn't grumble all the way we went because 
 there had been finer mornings since the world was 
 made than this particular one that he had chosen 
 for his pleasuring excursion. He sat quietly back 
 in a second-class railway carriage, and ate the fat 
 and the lean of his sandwiches together as a man 
 should do. 
 
 And at length the first view of the Palace rose
 
 44 CRYSTALS I'EOM SYDliXlIAM. 
 
 before iis^ glass all over, sparkling — for the sun 
 had broken throiigli the clouds at last, and io ! 
 what a broad smile spread over the immense fea- 
 tures of the giant before me ! Truly Elias is an 
 enormous man — utterly strong as an ox, }'et gen- 
 tle, and simple-hearted, and half-witted as a little 
 child, and as pleased as a child he was v»'ith all he 
 saw that dav. 
 
 The workmen were still in the Palace; we 
 walked through the aisles, and looked at them 
 with proud hearts. These are indeed the men for 
 England to be proud of. Strong, rough-handed, 
 broad-shouldered men, who work in the heat of 
 the day, and wipe the sweat off their brows with 
 red cotton pocket-handkerchiefs ; and that was 
 what simple-hearted Elias did as he walked along 
 and shook hands vt'ith every one we came near. 
 Straight down the nave, across the transepts, and 
 up to the top of the highest gallery — we traversed 
 the Palace utterly; and when I say we walked 
 straight, I don't mean that we walked crookedly ; 
 we knew that Sir J. Paxton meant the Palace 
 to be straight, and upright, and clear, and what- 
 ever was not straiglit, and upright, and clear, Ave 
 knew was the devil's work, and had nothing to do 
 with him, and honest Elias would have nothing to 
 do with it. 
 
 '^ Eastward, ho !" I say, and with such a man as 
 Elias Lee. 
 
 An utter beer-drinker, an utter worker, an utter
 
 " EASTWAKD^ HO ! " 45 
 
 smock-coated man, an utter tobacco-chewer, an 
 utter giant, an utter smith, is Elias Lee. And I 
 for one most lieartily wish the world were full of 
 such men as he — utter Elias Lees.
 
 46 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 SYDENHAM. 
 
 By Rev. R. M. 
 
 " Et me Phoebus amat ; Phoebo sua semper apud me 
 ''JMunera sunt, lauri." 
 
 Virij. Bucol. 
 
 TO MY FRIEND, 
 
 There is a hardness in my pen, 
 But whence or why I cannot tell, 
 
 As though a witch's impious ken 
 Had bound it with unholy spell. 
 
 My muse feels not that buoyant life 
 Poetic morns were wont to bring, 
 
 'When, burning with the mental strife. 
 She used her earliest lays to sing. 
 
 There was a time when, musing laid, 
 
 Parnassic visions met my gaze, 
 And dulcet measures ready made 
 
 Gushed forth in paradisal phrase.
 
 SYDENHAM. 47 
 
 But all that summer glow of thought 
 Was published ere to town I came, 
 
 And later poets since have sought 
 To eclipse a predecessor's fame. 
 
 Yet deem not that I nurse a care 
 
 Lest some more favoured author now 
 
 With new-born rhapsodies should tear 
 The verdant laurel from my brow. 
 
 For each advance in talent's road 
 
 Displays a genial track for me ; 
 I would not wreathe a flowery ode 
 
 Without one bud of poesy. 
 
 My page replete with grace and power 
 (Like former verse of mine) shall be^ 
 
 And, read at Sydenham's opening hour, 
 Shall sound a bland epitome. 
 
 How nobly reared this sparkling fane, 
 
 How great the mysteries of art, 
 What throes of pleasure and of pain 
 
 Alternate ring the human heart 
 
 I ever felt; and deeply now. 
 
 As fancy through the Palace flics, 
 
 !My trembling spirit wonders how 
 
 To Ijrcathc tlic 1)ui-ning thoughts that rise.
 
 4.S CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 I think I see thee there, my friend. 
 
 Meandering on ecstatic toes ; 
 What glories in that transept hlend. 
 
 What meekness from that fountain flows I 
 
 And long be thine th' enchanted morn 
 
 Whicli finds thee with a season-ticket 
 (Of grovelling care thy bosom shorn) 
 Expectant at that Crystal wicket. 
 
 And when this opening day is o'cr_, 
 And heard this babbling lay of mine. 
 
 Oh ! may it meet a public roar 
 As loving and as true as thine !
 
 SYDENHAM. 49 
 
 SYDENHAM. 
 
 A\VAKE, ye trumpets ! let your brazen roar 
 
 Exult around me and a music thrill 
 
 My frame^ as through th' Enchanted Hall 
 
 My \dsion soars in -v^-ild triumphant flight. 
 
 Far as the eye can reach, crystallic domes, 
 
 Bright-tipped with rose and oceanic blue, 
 
 Reflect the glow of Art's victorious train, 
 
 AVhile gems of every clime and age combine 
 
 To sAvell the great ovation. 
 
 Lo ! how it beams, and what a glittering splash 
 
 Deal the green watering-cans o'er yon rising dust. 
 
 All echo with the chorus of her clouds ! 
 
 Hark to the miu'murs of that anxious crowd 
 
 In yonder transept — home of season-tickets, 
 
 Where fluttering hearts, uphea\dug with the throes 
 
 Of loyal rapture, Avatch the dread approach 
 
 Of England's Queen, who now, with solemn pomp 
 
 And majesty sublime, shall to her subjects love 
 
 This temple dedicate, and from her throne inhale 
 
 The fragrant incense which addresses breathe 
 
 Through every word of that mellifluous pi'osc — 
 
 A Briton's fondest sacrifice. 
 
 D
 
 50 CRYSTALS ITiOM SYDENHAM. 
 
 iSIeanwliile^ my miise^ assist me while I sing 
 Til' Elysian beauties of that radiant throng, 
 In mantles of rainbowic hues arrayed^ 
 Their kerchiefs from fair fingers graceful held. 
 Or spread in breezy rapture to the sun ; 
 And thou alone, eternally sublime, 
 Thou pendent mystery of leaf and flower — 
 A lady's bonnet, caught in prone suspense 
 'Twixt head and heel, as was of old the tomb 
 Of the false Prophet 'twixt heaven and earth 
 In fabled balance held. 
 
 The sun is up, and from meridian height 
 Looks down to gratulate the natal day 
 Of fairest Sydenham. The cserulean vault. 
 With many a smiling cloud-isle sprinkled o'er, 
 Beams through the sparkling roof. Yes^ earth and 
 
 heaven 
 Own Thee, the Crystal Palace of the world ! 
 Each court is gleaming — smooth the statues glow — 
 The fount runs coolness, patties veal appear. 
 And clean plates clatter on refreshment stalls. 
 Ethereal beauty sheds its soul abroad. 
 Then let me, in this gallery leaning o'er. 
 Survey the scene and mark its princely charms. 
 Why, what a stately palace this ! How vast 
 Her space ! AVhat Paradisal hues ! The crown 
 And grace of fair Britannia's island home! 
 And thou, Avhose lofty fancy first conceived 
 This form divine — Sir Joseph Paxton, hail !
 
 SYDENHAM. 51 
 
 And here, in this triumphal hour, receive 
 The soul- born tribute of a poet's love. 
 
 Deserted cities,, oceanic isles, 
 And regions new, with undiscovered stores 
 Of wealth full teeming, represented are 
 By artist moulds, and as it were appear 
 By their attorneys. In fac-simile behold 
 TeiTific bulls by eastern Layard dug 
 From Nineveh's dark ruins. Huge and grim 
 Sennacherib's dread relics chill the sense. 
 Here middle ages, there reviving art, 
 Enthral the fancy; brighter gleam the tints 
 Of gay Alhambra, '' Owen's" favourite child. 
 For whom, like Patriarch of old, he paints 
 A coat of many colours. Here tempestuous swells, 
 Loud dress'd in fashions surge — there laughing- 
 girls, 
 Aud matrons old artistically fair. 
 And shadowed interchange of spinsters lone 
 Dark slumbering on the seats of crimson baize. 
 Before me like a panorama spread. 
 Far as the strawberry-ice-clad north hath spread 
 
 her board. 
 To where the terraced south extends from cast 
 To west — the theatre of glass I view.
 
 53 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 SYDENHAM'S TEIJST. 
 
 By Lord J. M. 
 
 " Beatus ille qui procul negotiis 
 Ut prisca gens mortalium 
 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis 
 
 Solutus omni foenore." Hor. 
 
 EVE OF ST. JOSEPH (pAXTON). 
 
 The sun is slowly sinking in the sky, 
 (May Heaven preserve our old nobility !) 
 Borne by the zephyr through yon fluttering birch, 
 Tinkles the curfew of dear Mother Church. 
 Each vesper object gently woos repose 
 (Except the gnat that settles on my nose) ; 
 While mental feeling, to perfection wrought, 
 Roams o'er the fields of meditcval thought. 
 This is the eve of the long-looked-for day. 
 When opened Sydenham shall her charms display. 
 But can we hope, in this degenerate age. 
 For ancient virtue on a modern stage ? 
 Or yet see rescued from relentless fate 
 The true prerogatives of Church and State ? 
 Oh for the spirit which, in earlier days. 
 Guided men's footsteps in the good old ways;
 
 Sydenham's TRrsT, 53 
 
 Blest times when each old lovely holy thing 
 
 Clung to the fancy as a leech would cling ; 
 
 "When England's princes ruled by right divine^ 
 
 And royal forests reared ferocious swine ; 
 
 When grew the arts of chivalry -and love, 
 
 And patriot robbers lurked in every grove ; 
 
 When holy man, in priestly garments dress'd, 
 
 With classic voice his fellow-creatures bless'd ; 
 
 When feudal lord, within his ancient walls, 
 
 Dispensed the bounties of baronial halls : 
 
 No baneful coffee, no defiled " Bohea," 
 
 But beer for breakfast, ay, and beer for tea; 
 
 No vapid soiree or nocturnal fete. 
 
 They rose at five and went to bed at eight; [maids, 
 
 When mail-clad youths were loved by tap'strie 
 
 And, 'stead of picnics, they got up crusades; 
 
 Or made a pilgrimage to holy well, 
 
 And wished the fortune that they dare not tell. 
 
 Then simple peasants urged the miconscious plough 
 
 O'er peaceful plains -where railways rattle now ; 
 
 In sweet dependence on their lord they himg. 
 
 Nor cared to read or write their mother tongue. 
 
 Showing what wisdom in the maxim lies, 
 
 " Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." 
 
 Then errant knight, by true-born valour stirred, 
 
 The weak's avenger, through the country spurred. 
 
 Careless the object of his generous rage, 
 
 Should man or windmill his good sword engage. 
 
 Ilis too the gallantry which loved to shower 
 
 Poetic raptures in a lady's bower, 
 
 Or chaunt all night beneath her turret tower.
 
 54 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 Coutent one smile from lier sweet lips to gain. 
 Celestial recompence for years of pain ; 
 Proud to entwine her garter in his plume^ 
 And seek in Palestine an early doom. 
 
 Where uow^ if journeying by land or sea^ 
 (May Heaven preserve our old nobility !) 
 Shall one sweet relic of that golden age 
 The wandering patriot's anxious eye engage ? 
 For quibbling law and vulgar commerce chase 
 The honours destined for a nobler race ; 
 While gentle birth and loyalty divine 
 Decrease in fortune or neglected pine. 
 Pure chivalry no longer in our land prevails — 
 We lost refinement when we dropped pigtails ; 
 But still my faith in Mother Church I fix, 
 And scorn "John Russell's'' modern politics. 
 And yet, my Queen, why not, in spite of fate. 
 Exalt the feeble Manners of our State. 
 Let Parliament at once sit down to work. 
 And wash the column of the Duke of York. 
 Let future children share the fervent joys 
 Still felt in summer by the blue-coat boys. 
 Let ministers once more in wigs be seen, 
 And start a tournament on Turnham Green. 
 In Sydenham's grounds, where every rank resorts, 
 Once more shall thrive our good old English sports. 
 Through horse's collar let the peasant grin, 
 And vent the laughter that he feels within.
 
 Sydenham's trust. 55 
 
 ^Yhat wild excitement his Avho dares to back 
 The speed of one who races in a sack ! 
 Entranced spectators are in wonder lost 
 Till, gazing, " Westminster'^ forgets the cost. 
 What manly hopes inflate the aspiring sonl, 
 When all hut conquering the unctuous pole ! 
 What rapture his when at the setting sun 
 He fries the bacon which his prowess won ! 
 
 Faint grows my muse ! Yet not in vain her fliglit, 
 
 If by her aid before my country's sight 
 
 Shine forth one glimmer of those glorious rays. 
 
 Her noon-tide sun, the light of other days. 
 
 Not vain her verse, if it outSAvell the cry 
 
 That madly clamours for equality ; 
 
 For shall we crouch before the miscreant crew, 
 
 Who'd raise the many to i)ut down the few ? 
 
 No — by the names that are our country's pride — 
 
 (Names that you'll find in any good court-guide). 
 
 Names, like my own, that are no sooner said 
 
 Than strike the hearer as quite thorough-bred ; 
 
 Let grovelling merchants by the hundred fail, 
 
 Sell up the lawyers by a bill of sale : 
 
 Let all who boast themselves in learning's march 
 
 Be hung at Tyburn (now the Marble Arch) : 
 
 Scatter througli Cliristendom the trading band : 
 
 Pull down the shops from Chelsea to the Strand. 
 
 Let butchers, bakers, postmen, cabmen die — 
 
 But leave us still our old nobility ! !
 
 56 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 A FEAGMENT. 
 
 By W. M. T. 
 
 " Semper gaudens illudere rebus 
 Humanis." Hot. 
 
 And so the Palace at Sydenham is to be opened, 
 and the Queen is to be there, and a grand pro- 
 cession of duchesses, and countesses, and ladies, in 
 all the paraphernalia of court pomp and fashionable 
 attire. Shut the door against all but season ticket- 
 holders, and usher them in with deference, bows, 
 smiles, and applause ; for do not they all come in 
 carriages ? have not they powdered footmen at their 
 beck and call? do not the ladies flutter about in 
 the most delicate dresses and the most fragile of 
 bonnets ? are they not dressed in the truest, purest, 
 and most perfect fashion? are they not spotless 
 and rentless to their very gloves ? 
 
 Oh 1 you dear, elegant, innocent fools, driving 
 about all day, and resting at .night upon frilled 
 cushions, and steeping your pocket-handkerchiefs 
 in endless fountains of Eau de Cologne ! Do you 
 never any of you remember to have seen a hole 
 in any of your delicate lemon-coloured kid gloves ?
 
 A FRAGMENT. 57 
 
 did YOU never find your sweetest bonnet worn and 
 faded, even tattered to shreds ? If I mistake not, it 
 lies now on the top shelf of one of your most secret 
 cupboards, out of sight and forgotten — the ghost 
 of its past beauty. What tears were once shed 
 over it, any one may know who has ever looked 
 upon his own worn-out hat, become shabby in a 
 single month, though it cost him once twenty-five 
 shillings at Lincoln and Bennet's. 
 
 Have we not all shabby hats and shabby bon- 
 nets put away in some dark drawer, and have we 
 not all shed tears over them, tears for which some 
 of us were better, some worse? 
 
 Some of us go and weep still over these dear 
 memorials of last season, some of us look at them 
 and smile, and say, " Are these the garments we 
 thought so beautiful? Is this the bonnet that 
 seemed so small and so becoming last spring? 
 We are too small for it now, or it is too large for 
 us.'' No matter how we feel, or how we weep, or 
 how many worn-out clothes any of us have. Shut 
 them up in a secret drawer, and spread a checked 
 handkerchief over them. They are dead to us 
 — we wore them out at dejeiiners and flower-shows 
 last year. It was our fate to do so — the fate of 
 all of us ; and we go to the tailor and the milliner 
 and order new bonnets and new coats more 
 fashionable still. Is not Hyde Park waiting to 
 receive us? and the Palace at Sydenham cannot 
 be opened without you, dear little smiling, fashion- 
 
 D 2
 
 58 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 able lady. No matter how mucli my lord your 
 husband hates all this charming dissipation. My 
 lady must go, and cannot possibly be there with- 
 out him, on whose arm she leans so confidingly, 
 and whose sulky face looks round on everything 
 but on hers. Neither need you, devoted church- 
 woman, look so disapprovingly on my lady. Did 
 you never order only fish for dinner on a Fi'iday 
 
 when you knew that Mr. could not eat fish? 
 
 And you too, most decorous manager of Dorcas 
 meetings, did you never make up a baby's chemise 
 when you ought to have been stitching your hus- 
 band's collars? 
 
 And you too. Captain Toby, whom we see in 
 yon corner of the transept, your immaculate collar 
 just meeting under your little forest of whiskers, 
 have you no qualms of conscience, as you saunter 
 so carelessly along, when you remember that the 
 sweet little terrier which your wdfe gave you on your 
 wedding day, just twelve months ago, is now bark- 
 ing peevishly in the stable in Burlington Mews ? 
 What, sir ! Have you so soon forgotten all the pro- 
 mises you made of love and protection to the dear 
 little animal on that auspicious occasion when all 
 your friends congratulated you on the happy event, 
 and there was such ringing of bells and waving of 
 handkerchiefs, white favours, and gay postilions 
 (who Avere engaged for a funeral in the afternoon), 
 and when you went to church, and came back and 
 sat down to breakfast, and got up again, as you
 
 A FBAGMENT. 59 
 
 have done every day since ? And don't we all, my 
 gentle readers, sit down to breakfast, and get np 
 again every morning, day after day, and year after 
 year, and yet tlie breakfast hour comes and wears 
 on and passes by, and we think no more about it ? 
 But as we are moralising here comes out of the 
 Mediaeval Court the Rev. Ambrose Longcoat, who 
 has been taking notes for his new book which is 
 just coming out, " The Life and Ledger of An- 
 thony Smith, Greengrocer and Martyr," one of 
 his pet parishioners who was hooted through the 
 A^llage by the boys because he never would sell 
 any vegetables to the Methodist preacher. But 
 hark ! I hear Master Tommy Twaddles crying at 
 the refreshment stall yonder ! What's the matter 
 with Tommy? He was crying just now because he 
 had had no dinner, and now he is crying because 
 he has had too much. But is it not often so with 
 us ? Do we always know whether we have had our 
 dinner or not ? So jNIaster Tommy will be taken 
 home and perhaps be sick, and when he goes up to 
 bed at night he will find a skeleton in his closet 
 too.
 
 60 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 THE WANDEREES. 
 
 By H. W. L. 
 
 " Two such I saw." — Milton. 
 
 This is the Court Mediseval ! Just over the way 
 
 are the monstrous 
 Nineveh Bulls, with wings growing out of their 
 
 ponderous shoulders ; 
 Staring they stand all day, with beards painted 
 
 yellow and crimson. 
 Loud to each other the parties of shrill-voiced, 
 
 chattering sightseers. 
 Speak, and in accents harsh outswell the notes of 
 
 the music. 
 Ye who believe in affection that walks about for a 
 
 whole day. 
 Not ever stopping a moment for rest or even 
 
 refreshment — 
 Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of a 
 
 girFs constitution. 
 List to the wonderful words still whispered in 
 
 drops of the fountains, 
 List to a Tale of Love in Sydenham Palace of 
 
 Crystal.
 
 THE WANDERERS. 61 
 
 T. 
 
 Somewhat apart in a villa, not far from tlie Ser- 
 pentine water. 
 Lived Mr. Samuel Potts, the wealthiest merchant 
 
 in London. 
 Bandoline Harriet Ann Medora Lucretia Potts 
 
 lived 
 With him, and kept his house, herself the belle of 
 
 the season. 
 Lovers by scores had she, who loitered in front of 
 
 her ■^'indow, 
 After her dangled at fetes, sent bouquets, and 
 
 carried her 'kerchief. 
 Followers high and low thus basked in the rays of 
 
 her beauty, 
 Each one thinking himself the only one worthy to 
 
 win her. 
 Whispered at last it was in circles of loftiest 
 
 fashion 
 That Bandoline Harriet Ann Medora Lucretia 
 
 Potts would 
 Marry (perhaps next month, dressmakers and 
 
 Aveathcr permitting) 
 Julius John Fitzbrown of the city and cottage 
 
 " Olympus,'^ 
 High upon Richmond Hill, a man of renown for 
 
 his money; 
 For since the birth of Time throughout all cities 
 
 of England, 
 Has the man who gets rich been held in repute 
 
 by the people.
 
 62 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 II. 
 
 Now had the season come when parties and balls 
 
 were incessant, 
 Ladies began their spring campaign, and like 
 
 rural policemen 
 Went their long rounds in the night, and slept 
 
 through the glorious daytime. 
 Danced in a crowd to be cool in the sultriest heat 
 
 of the dog-days, 
 Or drove in Rotten Row dust to freshen their 
 
 delicate faces. 
 Every sign foretold a season long and delight- 
 ful. 
 Evening had come, and iDrightly the chandeliers 
 
 shone in the ball room. 
 Sweetly the music fell, and lightly the feet of the 
 
 waltzers. 
 Wearied with dancing and hot, fair Bandoline sat 
 
 on the staircase ; 
 Julius John Fitzbrown stood by her, and lovingly 
 
 whispered, 
 " Bandoline ! when once more shall we visit the 
 
 Palace together?" 
 Sweetly she looked in his face, and tenderly miu'- 
 
 mured " To-morrow \" 
 
 III. 
 Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the Palace 
 of Crystal,
 
 THE WANDEREES. 63 
 
 Pleasantly gleamed in the soft sweet aii* the ser- 
 pentine water, 
 Merrily turned the wheels of the phaeton that 
 
 carried the lovers. 
 Lightly they sprang to the ground, and mounted 
 
 the steps of the terrace, 
 Ah ! But, alas ! when yet was the path of true 
 
 lovers easy? 
 Scarce had they entered the Palace, when fate 
 
 interposed to divide them ; 
 Suddenly Julius stopped, his face was pale, and a 
 
 quiver 
 Passed through his beautiful limbs. In haste fair 
 
 Bandoline seized him. 
 Loosened his delicate tie, and cut off a piece of his 
 
 collar ; 
 Then more fi'eely he breathed, but, gasping, in 
 
 accents of horror, 
 " Catalogues left at home V he wildly rushed off 
 
 to the transept. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Chained to the fatal spot, sweet Bandoline stood 
 
 in her anguish, 
 Chained to the spot where last her Julius lingered 
 
 beside her. 
 Weeping she waited long, but at last suppressed 
 
 her emotion, 
 Straightened her l)onnet and shawl, and started in 
 
 search of her lover.
 
 64 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHAM. 
 
 "Julius!" often slie called with tremulous voice^ 
 
 but no answer 
 Came from the transept broacl^ came none from 
 
 Greece or Alhambra. 
 Lonely she was in the wide, wide Palace, and gone 
 
 was her lover ; 
 Empty and sad appeared each court, and haunted 
 
 with phantoms. 
 Empty and sad within was the sorrowing heart of 
 
 the maiden. 
 
 V. 
 Three long hours have passed while Bandoline 
 
 roams through the Palace. 
 Who has not seen since then that beautiful 
 
 wandering figure ? 
 Let me essay, O muse, to follow her devious 
 
 journey. 
 Tell of her weary steps as slowly she clambers the 
 
 staircase. 
 How in the Grecian Court she paused, and a 
 
 tremor passed through her ; 
 How with a faltering voice she spake to the statue 
 
 of Venus : 
 '' Goddess ! I feel in my heart that near me my 
 
 true lover wanders — 
 Is it a foolish dream — an idle or vain supersti- 
 tion? 
 Was it indeed a lock of his hair that I saw in the 
 
 distance
 
 THE WANDERERS. 65 
 
 Flutter amid the tLrong^ or only my credulous 
 
 fancy ?" 
 Silent the statue was^ but an old man answered her 
 
 question : 
 " Daughter, thy words are not vain, nor are they 
 
 to me without meaning ; 
 Douht not, thy lover is near. Just now_, with 
 
 countenance mournful, 
 Hat fallen back on his head, and boots all dusty 
 
 and wayworn. 
 Crossed there a yonth my path : just round the 
 
 corner you'll find him." 
 Forth from the maiden's breast then biu-st the 
 
 sorrowful murmur : 
 " Julius ! art so near ? and yet Bandoline can't 
 
 overtake thee — 
 Near! But, alas! the tones of this well-known voice 
 
 cannot reach thee 1" 
 " Patience !" a gardener said, who watered the 
 
 neighbouring flowers. 
 " Patience I have corn-age ! a seed grows not to its 
 
 fi'uit in a moment." 
 Thus did the long, sad houi's glide on, as both up 
 
 and below stairs 
 Wandered in every nook the love-sick, anxious 
 
 maiden ; 
 Now by refreshment stalls, where clattered the 
 
 plates and the glasses, 
 Through Pompeii and Rome, and back to the 
 
 Court Mcdiiuval.
 
 66 CRYSTALS FROM SYDENHxiM. 
 
 Gracefully dressed she was and neat Avhen began 
 
 the day's pleasure, 
 Heated and all dishevelled when in disappointment 
 
 it ended. 
 Not till the sun was low, when the shadows grew 
 
 long and majestic, 
 Close to the door she espied her true loA^e eating 
 
 a biscuit. 
 " Bandoline ! angel ! " he cried ; but just at that 
 
 moment, a large crumb 
 Crossing his throat, he choked — in his arms fell 
 
 Bandoline, fainting. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : Hope & Co., 16, Great Marlborough Street.
 
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