My first walk, after I had found a home in London, was to the Post-Office,
to look for letters from my friends in America, This was about three miles
off. I returned a different way, and took a look at the exterior of St.
Paul's. As the Covent Garden Theater (the finest in London) was already
full before I reached it, I went on to the Oxford Street Music Theater and
spent my first evening there. The next day (Wednesday, July 14th,) I
entered



St. Paul's Cathedral,


the noblest building in England in the Classic style. Its length from east
to west is 550 feet and its height to the top of the cross 370 feet. Under
the dome is an area affording seats for 5,000 persons. Here 5,000 charity
children are collected on the first Thursday in June every year, to unite
their voices in songs of praise. Besides the dome, St. Paul's has two
other towers, each 222 feet high. In one of these is the clock and the
great bell upon which it strikes.

The length of the minute-hand of the clock is eight feet, and its weight
seventy-five pounds; the length of the hour-hand is five feet five inches,
and its weight forty-four pounds. The bell is ten feet in diameter and
weighs 11,474 pounds. "It is inscribed, 'Richard Phelps made, me, 1716,'
and is never used except for striking the hour, and for tolling at the
deaths and funerals of any of the Royal Family, the Bishops of London, the
Deans of St. Paul's, and the Lord Mayor, should he die in his mayoralty."