We Entered The Magnificent Old Park, And Wandered About
For A Long Time, To Our Hearts' Content, Among The Venerable Old
Trees, Admiring The Graceful Deer That Were Enjoying Themselves All
Around Us.
At last we came to the top of a charming hill, where we
sat down to rest and look at the river.
Several of the sailors had
arranged spy glasses of various sizes for the accommodation of
visitors, and for the good to themselves of a few pence. We
patronized one of these, and then descended to the Hospital, which
is the main object of interest. It was just time for the old
sailors' dinner, and we went into one of their dining rooms, where
there were about three hundred seated at an excellent meal, plain,
but wholesome and plentiful. A very pleasant sight it was; they were
chatting, telling good old stories, and laughing merrily, and
evidently enjoying themselves highly. There were, at that time, more
than seven hundred of these veterans in the building. Those who
chose carried their dinners to their rooms.
The place for the sailors' sleeping rooms was a long hall, with
small rooms on one side and large windows on the other. The rooms
were just large enough for a bed, a bureau, a little table, and, I
think, two chairs. There were shelves around the room, except on the
side that looked into the Hall, where was the door and a window. On
these shelves were ranged little keepsakes, books and various
articles of taste, often beautiful shells; there were hanging up
around the rooms profiles of friends, perhaps the dearest that this
life can give us. I could not help thinking that many a touching
story might be told by those silent but eloquent memorials. We were
much amused with looking at a card put in one of the windows of
these little comfortable state rooms, on which was written these
words: "Anti-poke-your-nose-into-other-folks'-business Society. 5000
Pounds reward annually to any one who will really mind his own
business; with the prospect of an increase of 100 Pounds, if he
shall abstain from poking his nose into other folks' business." We
returned to London in a steamer.
Now you must suppose you are walking with me in Paris, on a bright
Sunday morning in spring. We will go first to the Place Vendome. It
is an oblong square with the corners cut off. The buildings are all
of the same beautiful cream-colored stone, and of the same style of
architecture, - a basement story, very pretty and simple, and upper
stories ornamented with Corinthian pilasters and gilded balconies.
There are high, pointed roofs with pretty luthern windows. The Place
is four hundred and twenty feet by four hundred and fifty. Two large
handsome streets, opposite to each other, the Rue de la Paix, and
the Rue Castiglione, open out of the Place; these alone break the
range of handsome buildings that surround this beautiful spot.
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