CHAPTER III.

INTRODUCTION TO SIR CHARLES FORBES. THE DIORAMA AND THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.

WE were honored by being called upon by our kind and worthy friend Sir Charles Forbes, Bart. his son George Forbes, Esq. and Captain Cogan. Sir Charles Forbes very kindly took us to the Regent's Park, where John Romer Esq. late Councellor and acting Governor at Bombay, resided, and to whom we had letters of introduction; we were handsomely received by him.

Sir Charles then took us to see an exhibition called the Diorama, situated in the Park. It is a most extraordinary optical illusion. Upon our entering we beheld as we believed the interior of a spacious building, intended to represent the interior of a church at Florence; most beautiful were its fittings, and its style of architecture was magnificent; whilst we were looking on in wonder and surprise, it became enveloped in flames, and we much regretted to see so beautiful a place thus destroyed. The fire continued to rage until all the decorations and fittings disappeared, one after the other, and in a short time we saw only

a mass of ruins, where we had just previously been gazing upon that beautiful building. We have since learned that the mode adopted to produce this imposing spectacle is a modification of an exhibition called the Phantasmagoria, which some forty years ago used to fill crowded audiences with much terror. Spectral figures appearing to approach, and retire; appearing sometimes as small as a rupee and gradually assuming a colossal stature, and then again gradually becoming less and less until finally disappearing. It is managed with a magic lanthorn prepared especially with lenses of great power, and the shadow is caught and embodied upon very fine muslin, which is drawn across between the lanthorn and the beholders, and the light is judiciously admitted from above and at the sides, and the fire of course is merely chemical or false fire,-at all events it was to us a very great treat. The terms of admission is two shillings.

Sir Charles Forbes in the afternoon of the same day, took us in his carriage to a most lovely spot in the Park, called the Zoological Gardens; on our way thither we saw a great number of very elegant carriages, drawn by beautiful spirited horses, with harness of superior description, and the coachmen and servants behind the carriages dressed in liveries of every known colour; within the carriages as they swiftly rolled by, we saw many women, fair and with light hair, many

of them appeared to us most beautiful. All of them appeared to have mild blue eyes, and very sweet expression of countenance, and we saw more of female beauty in a few hours, than we had ever beheld in all our lives.

The buildings within the Park are magnificent. This establishment is kept up by annual subscription and every subscriber has an unlimited number of tickets, which admit themselves and the resident members of their families gratuitously, and any other person who may present them upon payment of one shilling each.

Within this garden, in appropriate buildings, are congregated almost every description of foreign and domestic animals and birds. From the lordly half reasoning Elephant down to Mice, and from the Ostrich and Cassowary down to the Humming Bird. There are Lions, Tigers, Panthers, Bears, Wolves, Hyenas, Jackalls, Wild Boars, Zebras, and indeed all and every known animal. Of the monkey tribe there were hundreds, from the Ourang-Otang to the little Marmoset no longer than a Rat. And to see their antics and freaks perpetually in motion, squeaking, grinning, making all sorts of grimaces is very amusing.

The birds were of all sorts; of the Parrot and Macaw sort, there were several score. And oh! how beautiful were they, scarlet, green, gray, white, all the colours of the rainbow. Eagles of every known sort. Owls a great number. Hawks

་

an immense variety, and the Water Fowl from the graceful Swan to the minute little Teal and Dabchick. We were very much delighted.

The Elephant was so extremely docile and obedient to his keeper that he took a small piece of money and handed to a person who sold cakes to receive some of them in exchange for his money. The Bears too amused us very much, they were in a deep pit in the centre of which there was fixed a straight pole of wood, up which they kept crawling to receive from the spectators a cake upon a stick, when clasping the pole with their claws, down they slid just like a sailor with a rope. Some of the monkeys appeared to be quite delighted to be taken notice of. Every thing connected with the animals is kept perfectly clean by the keepers, a large number of whom are constantly employed. The expences of this establishment must be enormous, if we take into consideration the first cost of the animals; the Rhinoceros only we were told cost one thousand guineas, which in round numbers is equal to eleven thousand rupees, the daily consumption of food, the wages paid to the servants, and the keeping in constant order the buildings necessary for the safety and preservation of so large a collection. This place is always resorted to by those who can afford to pay for admission in the evening, especially in summer, and here while they amuse themselves they gain information.

During the whole time we were in the Garden, we attracted a very great number around us from the peculiarity of our dress, and we were objects of very great curiosity to the visitors,-as much so perhaps as the winged and four footed inmates of the place.

It was amusing to hear one call us Chinese, they are Turks says another; no they are Spanish, vociferates a third; thus they were labouring under mistakes, and taking inhabitants of British India for natives of Europe.

We have also seen the Surrey Zoological Gardens, which lie about a mile and a half above the Blackfriars Bridge on the Surrey side of the Thames, but with the exception of a conservatory of beautiful plants upwards of three hundred feet in circumference, it has so near a resemblance in its inmates to that in the Regent's Park, that no particular description is necessary.

The plants are principally rare climbers, and and will well repay the florist for his trouble in visiting this place.

Here is a better collection of wild beasts; and an order of a subscriber and the payment of one shilling admits you.