tion of the numerous models, which we admired
exceedingly, though the shortness of the time we had to devote to them
prevented our examining them as minutely as they seemed to deserve.
Papa, indeed, was disposed to be off when we had gone through this room,
as we had still much to do, and he professed his belief that we must
have seen the whole. I, having my wits more about me, could not conceive
how this could well be the case, seeing we had only looked at one out of
four sides. There is no one in these places to show them to strangers,
so we asked a respectable-looking person if there were any more rooms,
when he replied, "Oh, yes! you have only been looking at the _rejected_
models." Whereupon we entered on the second side of the square; but, to
confess the truth, the rejected and accepted ones seemed to us much of a
piece, and we were not sorry, on arriving at the third side, to find it
shut up and apparently empty, so we beat a retreat. We were told at
Baltimore that the collection was a very fine one, and doubtless it may
be very interesting to a person competent to judge of the details; but
the models, besides being shut up in glass-cases, and consequently very
inaccessible, were generally on too small a scale to be comprehended by
ordinary observers, and in this respect, the collection was of much less
interest to us than the exhibition we had lately seen in the unfortunate
Crystal Palace at New York, where the models exhibited were of the full
size of the machines meant to be used, and consequently almost
intelligible to an unprofessional person. Besides what may be strictly
considered models, there were in the rooms some objects more suited to
an ordinary museum. Such were various autographs, and many relics of
Washington; and a case containing locks of the hair of all the
presidents, from the time of Washington downwards.

When mentioning our visit to General Cass, I omitted to state the
magnificence of the Treasury, which adjoins his official residence; an
enormous structure, also of white marble. We counted thirty pillars in
front, of the Ionic order, besides three more recently added on a wing,
these three pillars of great height being cut out of single blocks of
marble. We passed this building again in going from the Patent-Office to
Lord Napier's, where we had an appointment with Mr. Erskine.

The noble mansion of England's representative is a cube of brick-work
painted dark-brown, equal in size, and ver