CHAPTER XVII.
"And there are dresses splendid but fantastical,
Masks of all times and nations, Turks and Jews,
And Harlequins and Clowns with feats gymnastical;
Greeks, Romans, Yankee-doodles, and Hindoos."
Presuming that you will expect from me some account of the great World's Fair, I take my pen to give you my own impressions, although I am afraid that any-thing which I may say about this "lion of the day" will fall far short of a description. On Monday last, I quitted my lodgings at an early hour, and started for the Crystal Palace. The day was fine, such as we seldom experience in London, with a clear sky, and invigorating air, whose vitality was as rousing to the spirits as a blast from the "horn of Astolpho." Although it was not yet ten o'clock when I entered Piccadilly, every omnibus was full, inside and out, and the street was lined with one living stream, as far as the eye could reach, all wending their way to the "Glass House." No metropolis in the world presents such facilities as London for the reception of the Great Exhibition now collected within its walls. Throughout its myriads of veins the stream of industry and toil pulses with sleepless energy. Every one seems
