Although it is nearly forty feet below the surface, daylight is let in from above at this station, as in many of the others on the line.
Before and behind us we could see the great black-mouthed tunnels, through which the trains were constantly passing.
When our train arrived we quickly found seats in a car, or carriage, as they call them here, and were soon rushing along underground.
Now and again we came out into the open air for a while; soon we were at Bayswater, then at King’s Cross, at which station we got out of the car and climbed up the iron stairs to the earth’s surface again.
From King’s Cross to Alexandra Palace was a ride of about twenty minutes more, this time on a railroad which ran, for some distance, above the surface of the earth. We sped above the tops of smoky houses, by sooty walls, through egg-shaped tunnels, beyond all these to the open country, where were smooth green grass, groups of picturesque trees, and tangled hedges.
The train stopped at the station called Muswell Hill, on which is built the new Alexandra Palace—a large red-brick building at the top of the hill. It is not so extensive as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, but, like it, is covered over with glass, and contains tropical plants, many palm-trees, several theaters and lecture-rooms, and a large bazaar with gay booths, at which you can buy almost anything you wish for.
As we approached the central part of the hall, a deafening chorus of dogs, yelping, barking, growling and howling, assailed our ears. The stalls in which the dogs were chained were arranged to form several aisles. They faced each other, with a wide passage-way between, for the crowd of spectators. The stalls were open, and each one had from one to five animals chained in it.
The persons who exhibited dogs numbered one thousand and thirty-nine, and, as each exhibitor sent several of his animals, you can roughly estimate the immense number of dogs brought together.
It made my heart ache at first to see the poor creatures jumping and pulling at their chains. Some looked worried and excited, and some of them seemed bored to death, surly and contemptuous, as if saying, “Go away, or I will bite you if you stare at me a moment longer;” and some were sulky and turned their backs, hiding their noses in the straw.
The little puppies slept unconsciously through it all, while the mother dogs struggled with their chains and barked furiously.