t. Schaffhausen is the capital of the canton of the same name,
and retains many of the ancient features of a Swabian town of the period
of the Empire. The cathedral, an early Romanesque structure, bears the
date of 1052. It contains a remarkable bell, which shows by its date
that it was placed here about four hundred years ago.

CHAPTER XXII.

We shall speak only incidentally of London; to describe such a mammoth
city even superficially would require an entire volume. It is situated
on the river Thames, fifty miles from its mouth, containing a population
of about five millions. It is consequently the largest metropolis in the
world. Many of the older streets are confused, narrow, and intricate,
but the modern portion of the city consists of broad, straight
thoroughfares and fine substantial buildings. No capital is better
supplied with public parks, the most notable being Hyde Park, covering
about four hundred acres in the heart of London, and forming the most
popular promenade and drive during the favorite hours of the day, when
there is always a brilliant display of wealth and fashion.

[Illustration: TOWER OF THE HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT.]

It was in existence at the time of Caesar's invasion and has flourished
ever since. Of the many churches, new and old, that known as Westminster
Abbey is the most interesting, being the shrine of England's illustrious
dead. It has been a sacred temple and a royal sepulchre for many
centuries; but the towers were completed by the famous English
architect, Sir Christopher Wren, who also designed St. Paul's Cathedral,
the grandest structure of its kind in the country. Old St. Paul's was
destroyed by fire in 1665-6. A Christian church has occupied the same
site from a very early period. The present edifice is five hundred feet
long and more than one-fourth as wide. The height of the dome to the top
of the cross is over three hundred and sixty feet, while the grand and
harmonious proportions of the whole are beyond description. The Houses
of Parliament form a very imposing architectural pile. The Victoria
Tower is seventy-five feet square and nearly three hundred and fifty
feet high. The clock-tower is forty feet square and three hundred and
eighteen feet high. The face of the clock, placed at this great
elevation, must be very large to be discernible upon the street, and is
twenty-three feet in diameter.

The British Museum is a noble institution, both in its object and its
ge