towers are just visible "like the masts of stranded vessels." Hence one
may study the anatomy of the fifty-four towers which Wren was obliged to
build after the Fire in a space of time which would only have properly
sufficed for the construction of four. The same characteristics, more and
more painfully diluted, but always slightly varied, occur in each. Bow
Church, St. Magnus, St. Bride, and St. Vedast are the best.

The Great Bell of St. Paul's (of 1716), which hangs in the south tower,
bears the inscription, "Richard Phelps made me, 1716." It only tolls on
the deaths and funerals of the royal family, of Bishops of London, Deans
of St. Paul's, and Lord Mayors who die in their mayoralty.



THE BRITISH MUSEUM AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE [Footnote: From "Notes on
England." By arrangement with the publishers, Henry Holt & Co.]

BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE


I have letters of introduction and a ticket of admission to the British
Museum. About the Grecian marbles, the original Italian drawings, about
the National Gallery, the Hampton Court galleries, the pictures at
Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and the private collections, I shall
say nothing. Still, what marvels and what historical tokens are all these
things, five or six specimens of high civilization manifested in a perfect
art, all differing greatly from that which I now examine, and so well
adapted for bringing into relief the good and the evil. To do that would
fill a volume by itself.