The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

192 THE BRITISH ISLES.
with the greatest liberality. On Sunday afternoons the extensive pleasure grounds
attached to them are crowded with visitors, happy to escape the emiui of the
town. Three museums and numerous conservatories are scattered within its
precincts. A winter garden, covering an area of an acre and a half, is
intended to afford shelter to plants of the temperate regions. The palm stove
rises to a height of 66 feet, and walking amongst the tropical plants which it con-
tains, we might fancy ourselves transported into a virgin forest of the New "World,
if it were not for the roof of glass visible through the fan-shaped foliage above our
heads. There are many private gardens in the vicinity of London, and more
especially near Chiswick, which almost rival Kew in the extent of their conserva-
tories and the luxuriance of their vegetation.
As to the Crystal Palace, which occupies an eminence to the south of London,
in the midst of a vast garden 200 acres in extent, it is essentially a place of
recreation. The building contains, no doubt, many beautiful imitations of works
of architecture and art, but the character of the entertainments offered to the
public shows only too plainly that amusement is the principal object aimed at.
The same may be said of the Alexandra Palace, commanding a magnificent prospect
of woods and meadows from its vantage-ground on Muswell Hill. Quite recently,
after twenty-five years of litigation, the City of London has obtained possession
of Epping Forest, an extensive tract of woodland to the north-east, which forms
a most welcome addition to the public parks of the metropolis.
London, though it contains one-eighth of the total population of the British
Isles, is not the seat of a university, like Oxford or Cambridge, or even Durham
or St. Andrews. True, Sir Thomas Gresham, a wealthy London merchant, devised
extensive estates, about the middle of the sixteenth century, for the purpose of
endowing a school of learning; but this legacy, stated to be actually worth
£3,000,000,* was wasted by its guardians, and supports now merely a Col-
lege where lectures are occasionally delivered to miscellaneous audiences.
The University of London is not a teaching corporation, but an examining
body, which dispenses its degrees to any candidate who may present himself,
without exacting any other conditions than his competency. But though the
superior schools of London may not officially occupy the same rank as the colleges
of Oxford and Cambridge, they nevertheless turn out excellent scholars, and
devote more especially attention to experimental science and the exigencies of
modern society. Medicine, almost completely neglected in the old universities, is
one of those sciences which may most successfully be studied in London, where
there are eleven medical schools connected with the public hospitals, in addition
to University College and King's College. University College excludes religious
instruction altogether, and Hindus, Parsees, and Jews sit side by side with their
Christian fellow-students ; whilst King's College bases its course of instruction
upon the principles of the Church of England, interpreted in a spirit of liberality.
Women have enjoyed the right of taking part in the course of education of
University College since 1869, and may present themselves for examination
• Times, October 2nd, 187S.