ect and
exquisite neatness which gives an especial charm to English
horticulture. The verdure of the lawns, the richness and variety of
the flowers, and the general taste displayed, in even the most minute
and least ornamental features, render the English garden wholly
superior, in fitness and in beauty, to the gardens of the continental
sovereigns and nobility.

In the evening, the Queen and her guests went to the Italian opera.
The house was greatly, and even hazardously crowded. It is said that,
in some instances, forty guineas was paid for a box. But whether this
may be an exaggeration or not, the sum would have been well worth
paying, to escape the tremendous pressure in the pit. After all, the
majority of the spectators were disappointed in their principal
object, the view of the royal party. They all sat far back in the
box, and thus, to three-fourths of the house, were completely
invisible. In this privacy, for which it is not easy to account, and
which it would have been so much wiser to have avoided, the audience
were long kept in doubt whether the national anthem was to be sung.
At last, a stentorian voice from the gallery called for it. A general
response was made by the multitude; the curtain rose, and God save
the Queen was sung with acclamation. The ice thus broken, it was
followed by the Russian national anthem, a firm, rich, and bold
composition. The Emperor was said to have shed tears at the
unexpected sound of that noble chorus, which brought back the
recollection of his country at so vast a distance from home. But if
these anthems had not been thus accidentally performed, the royal
party would have lost a much finer display than any thing which they
could have seen on the stage--the rising of the whole audience in the
boxes--all the fashionable world in _gala_, in its youth, beauty, and
ornament, seen at full sight, while the chorus was on the stage.

SUNDAY.

On this day at two o'clock, the Emperor, after taking leave of the
Queen and the principal members of the Royal family, embarked at
Woolwich in the government steamer, the Black Eagle, commanded for
the time by the Earl of Hardwicke. The vessel dropped down the river
under the usual salutes from the batteries at Woolwich; the day was
serene, and the Black Eagle cut the water with a keel as smooth as it
was rapid. The Emperor entered into the habits of the sailor with as
much ease as he had done into those of the soldier. He conversed
goo