iver fetes were
given, with fireworks and the assistance of steamboats. An hotel was
built on the river front, and a grand panorama of the Siege of
Sebastopol, was shown with the assistance of some of the Foot Guards. An
accident happened by the falling of a platform and several were injured.
The balloon ascents were a great feature by Lieutenant Gale, Adam, and
Coxwell taking up acrobats who performed on the trapeze in mid air. A
Madam Potoven ascended sitting on the back of a white heifer fixed on a
platform suspended from the car, and a Frenchman came down in a
parachute, falling opposite Chelsea Church in Robert (now Sydney) Street,
and was killed.

The gardens went on successfully for many years under the able management
of Bishop, Partridge, and Adams, until the alteration in the licensing
laws, when the time of closing was fixed at twelve, the beginning of the
most profitable time. The concern then fell into the hands of E. T.
Smith, and was carried on by him for a few years without any very marked
results--it appeared to have passed its pristine glory. It then passed
into the hands of the proprietor of the Glove and Scents Emporium in the
Gardens, who was the last proprietor, for it was soon after closed for
good, and the land, together with the Ashburton estate and the Lots or
Lammas Lands were laid out and let for building purposes. The only part
left uncovered by buildings is the Ashburton Nursery on the King's Road
front. Vauxhall Gardens had been closed some years so Cremorne was the
only public gardens near London of any account.

A great impetus to all places of amusement was caused by the '51
Exhibition in the Park. It was a grand year for all people in business
in London for the visitors were immense from all quarters of the world,
and you would meet in the streets the costumes of all the nationalities
of the globe. There was an average of one hundred thousand visitors
passing the turnstiles every day, and on the last Thursday there were one
hundred and thirty seven thousand.

CHAPTER 7.--My First Census.

The first census that I can recollect, if all the enumerators had the
experience I had, must have been a very incomplete and misleading return.
I was asked to take a section of four hundred forms to deliver, get
filled up and return, for which I was to receive one guinea, and for
every fifty beyond that number two shillings and sixpence, and as I was
told it would only take a few