in
presence of a select party of scientific men and artists. He also
succeeded in producing a picture of the place of meeting; No. 7,
Piccadilly.

* * * * *

People were beginning to wake up as to social improvements, and the
better paving of, at least, the most public thoroughfares, was loudly
called for. Hitherto people had been content with the old cobble stones,
and wide kennels, or gutters--but henceforth there was to be inaugurated
a newer and better _regime_, as we learn from the _Observer_ of 6 Jan.:

"EXPERIMENTAL PAVEMENT OF OXFORD STREET.--This, doubtless, the most
extraordinary and novel undertaking which has ever been attempted in
the annals of road making, is, to the gratification, not only to the
respectable inhabitants of Oxford Street, but to a curious public, at
last, completed. On Friday (4 Jan.) at 2 o'clock, the line of this
great thoroughfare, occupied by the various specimens of paving,
extending from Charles Street to Tottenham Court Road, presented a
most animated spectacle, being thronged by thousands of spectators
anxious to witness its opening to the public. Shortly after 2
o'clock, the Paving Committee appointed by the Marylebone Vestry to
superintend the arrangement of this work of art, headed by the parish
beadles, in full uniform, with their maces; and accompanied by the
respective projectors and the parochial authorities, arrived on the
spot in procession, and passed over the ground, followed by 21
omnibuses, after which, the road was thrown open to the public. From
time to time, during the progress of the work, many erroneous
statements have gone the rounds of our daily contemporaries, with
respect to the extent of ground allotted to the experiments, and on
other matters connected with the arrangements. The following,
however, being obtained from an official source, may be fully relied
upon as correct: The whole space between Charles Street and Tottenham
Court Road is occupied by 12 different specimens, which are completed
in the following order, commencing at Charles Street: viz.--40 feet
of Robinson's Parisian bitumen--24 feet laid in straight courses, and
16 feet diagonally; 74 feet of parish stone paving, 54 feet of which
is laid in straight courses, the stones 9 inches deep, and the
interstices filled up with Claridge's asphalte; the re