GREENWICH PARK. (Page 176.)

THIS is a spot of great natural beauty; and in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays presents a very gay, busy, and festive scene.  The broad avenue on the hill, seen in the Plate, is the principal attraction to the merry-making folks.  It is extremely steep, and usually thronged; and, every now and then, a group of young men and women, locked hand in hand, rush down this path at full speed; the grand jest and enjoyment of the scene consisting in the falls that happen to the females as well as males in this slippery enterprise.  Greenwich is crowded at these holidays.  In the public-houses is dancing from morning to evening.  Almost every private house of the lower and middle sort make tea and coffee; yet it is often difficult to find room even for a small company; and it is very usual for parties to take a cold repast and wine with them, and dine beneath the trees in the Park, in spots a little retired from the throng.  At such times, it is supposed that from ten to thirty thousand of these holiday keepers have been collected in this Park in a single point of view.  The hills of this Park afford various beautiful views of London, and the Thames with its moving forest of masts.  The building on the brow of the hill is the Royal Observatory. The astronomical apparatus is very excellent; and the whole is worthy of being visited by the curious.

(p. 477)