41.
A Policeman.
From the King let us turn to his people. Here is a crowd of the people of London, gathered in the Park when Queen Victoria was taken to be buried. It was a mighty, silent crowd, never to be forgotten by those who saw it. Of course there are some people in the great crowds of London, as of all other places, who are bad and disorderly, but in general the people of London obey the Law. Here, for instance, we have a busy point where four streets meet. Two policemen control the traffic, now letting this stream of carriages pass, and now that. Often a driver is in haste, but when the policeman raises his hand, the driver silently waits until he has leave to proceed. Only in this way could seven millions of people live together and do their business. The policemen of London are a fine body of strong men, who very rarely lose their tempers or presence of mind, whatever the sudden difficulty with which they may be faced. Here is one of them politely telling the way to an enquiring stranger. You see that he carries no firearms, yet there are only about 20,000 police to manage all these people.
42.
Hyde Park—Rotten Row.
43.
St. James’s Park—Children at Play.
44.
The same—Children Fishing.
Perhaps the most beautiful possessions of London are the parks, in which, in the midst of their province of houses, the people take exercise and find health and amusement. None of the other cities of the world—not Paris, or Berlin, or New York, or Peking, or Calcutta—have anything quite similar to the parks of London, for they are not formal gardens or bare parade grounds, but pieces of rural country; and they are not just outside the town, but contained in its midst. This is a celebrated road in Hyde Park, where only horses and no carriages go. It is called Rotten Row. Here we see it on a summer day, when the sun is shining, with men and women upon horseback taking the air. But the parks are not merely for the amusement of the rich people who can afford to keep horses; they are also for the poor.
45.
The Zoological Gardens.
46.
Flowers in the Park.
47.
The Crystal Palace.
48.
St. Thomas’s Hospital.