Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papers‘George,’ and gave him a dinner. His appetite is fine. Hestates that he is reading ‘Cornelius Nepos,’ with whichhe is much interested. His masters report,” &c. Andthough Dr. Birch wrote by the same mail a longer, fuller,and official statement, I have no doubt the distant parentspreferred the friend’s letter, with its artless, possiblyungrammatical, account of their little darling.I have seen the young heir of Britain. These eyes havebeheld him and his bride, on Saturday in Pall Mall, andon Tuesday in the nave of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor,when the young Princess Alexandra of Denmark passedby with her blooming procession of bridesmaids; andhalf an hour later, when the Princess of Wales cameforth from the chapel, her husband by her side robed inthe purple mantle of the famous Order which his forefatherestablished here five hundred years ago. We wereto see her yet once again, when her open carriage passedout of the Castle gate to the station of the near railwaywhich was to convey her to Southampton.Since womankind existed, has any woman ever had sucha greeting? At ten hours’ distance, there is a city farmore magnificent than ours. With every respect forKensington turnpike, I own that the Arc de l’Etoile atParis is a much finer entrance to an imperial capital. Inour black, orderless, zigzag streets, we can show nothingto compare with the magnificent array of the Rue deRivoli, that enormous regiment of stone stretching forfive miles and presenting arms before the Tuileries. Thinkof the late Fleet Prison and Waithman’s Obelisk, and ofthe Place de la Concorde and the Luxor Stone! “The finestsite in Europe,” as Trafalgar Square has been calledby some obstinate British optimist, is disfigured by trophies,fountains, columns, and statues so puerile, disorderly,and hideous that a lover of the arts must hang thehead of shame as he passes, to see our dear old queencity arraying herself so absurdly; but when all is said anddone, we can show one or two of the greatest sights inthe world. I doubt if any Roman festival was as vast orstriking as the Derby day, or if any Imperial triumphcould show such a prodigious muster of faithful peopleas our young Princess saw on Saturday, when the nationturned out to greet her. The calculators are squabbling290