danced with the Cesarevna, the Prince of Wales with Miss Waterlow, the Cesarewitch with the Princess of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh with another Miss Waterlow; while Prince Arthur, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Christian, and the Duke of Teck led off the Duchess of Manchester, Princess Christian, Princess Mary, and Lady Spencer. After one or two sets of quadrilles had been danced, about eleven o'clock the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs and the Entertainment Committee conducted the Shah and certain of the distinguished guests to the principal supper-table, which was spread in the Council Chamber. At the conclusion of this banquet, shortly before twelve o'clock, the Shah, with the Prince and Princess of Wales and the other members of the royal family, took leave; the Lord Mayor and the rest of the civic dignitaries escorting them to the entrance, preceded by trumpeters as before. His Majesty and the rest of the royal party were cheered by the people outside as they took their departure. Before the company left the library the address of the Corporation to the Shah was telegraphed to Teheran by the Indo-European Telegraph Company, using an instrument in the hall, and a reply was afterwards received from his Majesty's principal Minister there.

The magnificent entertainment at the Guildhall was the first of many on the same scale. The Shah was introduced in rapid succession to a review of artillery at Woolwich and another of the fleet at Spithead, a State performance at the Italian Opera, the International Exhibition and a concert in the Albert Hall, and a review in Windsor Park of seven or eight thousand troops of the Guards and other favourite regiments, with cavalry and artillery, while throughout the whole of these the curiosity and enthusiasm of the British public of all grades continued unabated, the various shows being, on the whole, admirably managed. But the greatest success of all, from the peculiar nature of the sight, was perhaps the Shah's visit to the West India Dock and Greenwich on Wednesday, the 25th. He went about one o'clock, in an open carriage, from Buckingham Palace to the Tower, but did not stop there to see the armoury and regalia. At the Tower Wharf, kept by a guard of honour of the Coldstreams, he embarked in the river steamboat "Princess Alice," which was accompanied by the "Cupid," having on board the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince and Princess of Russia, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Teck and Princess Mary, Prince Christian, and the Duke of Cambridge, all in civilian dress. A salute was fired from the Tower guns, and the two steamers moved down the river, followed by other boats, one bearing the official persons of the Admiralty Board. The river was crowded with ships, barges, boats, and vessels of many different kinds. Their decks and rigging, as well as the wharves and roads on each bank, and windows and crane-stages of the warehouses, being thronged with people, it looked like all London upon the water and banks of the Thames, as it looks above Putney on the day of the University boat-race. Opposite the entrance to the West India Dock lay five

of the floating steam fire-engines of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, under the orders of Captain Shaw. They were closely lashed together in a line, and upon the deck of each stood the firemen, with the hose-pipes ready for a discharge. The word was given, and they all at once saluted the Shah with several hundred jets of water, thrown horizontally against the sides of the "Princess Alice" steamboat, after which they cast up as many perpendicular jets to a great height in the air with a very fine effect. The steamboat conveying his Majesty and the Princes entered the West India Dock by the Millwall gates, where the 26th Middlesex Volunteers formed a guard of honour. The West India Dock was full of shipping, packed close to each side, with an open channel between for the steamboats to pass. All the decks, rigging, and yards of the ships, and the ground and buildings around the dock, swarmed with an immense multitude of sightseers, amongst whom were foreign sailors of every nation. The Shah was more astonished by this scene than by anything else. Having passed out of the dock by the Blackwall gates, his steamboat went across to Greenwich, where the Shah and the Princes landed at the hospital stairs. They were conducted by Mr. Goschen, First Lord of the Admiralty, to luncheon in the Painted Hall. About five o'clock they came out, when the boys of the "Chichester" training-ship, in honour of the Shah, manned the yards of the model-ship rigging, on the masts erected in the grounds of the Greenwich Royal Hospital School. The Shah and their Royal Highnesses again embarked in the steamboats, and were conveyed up the river to Westminster Bridge. In the evening, by command of the Queen, a State ball was given at Buckingham Palace, at which the Persian Sovereign and the British Princes and Princesses were present.

On Thursday, the 26th, the Shah started on a visit to the north, and his receptions in Liverpool, Manchester, and other places, were repetitions of the scenes in London. He was introduced to countryhouse life by the Duke of Sutherland, with whom he stayed at Trentham, and returning to London on Saturday, the 28th, he went in the afternoon to a garden party given by the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Duke of Richmond's villa at Chiswick. The company at this entertainment was so numerous that a mere list of their names fills nearly three columns of the Times. Her Majesty the Queen was there. On Monday morning, the 30th, there was an inspection for his Majesty of the engines and men of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, under Captain Shaw, in the gardens behind. Buckingham Palace. In the afternoon his Majesty went to the Crystal Palace, with nearly all our Princes and Princesses, to see a special entertainment, consisting of gymnastic performances, the playing of the great fountains, and a display of fireworks.

JULY.

5. THE VISIT OF THE SHAH OF PERSIA was brought to a close to day. The entertainments in his honour continued to the last.

His occupations on Tuesday (the 1st) were an unceremonious visit to the Bank of England, the Tower of London, and St. Paul's Cathedral; an afternoon fashionable party at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone; a look in at the House of Lords and the House of Commons, while they were sitting; and a walk through Westminster Abbey with Dean Stanley. The next day the Shah again went to Windsor, for the third time, and paid a farewell visit to the Queen at the castle. He also called on Prince and Princess Christian at Frogmore. Having returned to town about seven o'clock, he went to see Madame Tussaud's Gallery of Waxwork Figures in Baker-street, where M. Victor Tussaud showed him every part of the exhibition. He was most struck with the effigy of the late Emperor Napoleon III.'s dead body as it appeared when lying in state at Chiselhurst; but he also took much notice of the relies of Napoleon I., and the figures of Queen Victoria with her family around her.

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The Shah was so much pleased with the Crystal Palace that he chose to go there on the 3rd, instead of taking his departure from England, as he had intended, on that day. It was an ordinary shilling admission day, with no particular novelty or specialty in the list of entertainments. The Persian Monarch went on this occasion without his diamonds among the common crowd of English people. He wore a simple tunic, which covered even his swordbelt; not a jewel was to be seen about him and his companions, except one or two Persian officers in uniform, were as plainly dressed. The Chairman and Secretary of the Crystal Palace Company, with other directors, and Mr. Billings, the manager, received him as he arrived. He told them, in passable French, that he came again because he had enjoyed himself there so much on the Tuesday evening-" C'était la plus heureuse soirée que j'ai goutée en Europe," said the Shah. Strolling among the stalls, he examined toys and photographs; tried a pair of opera glasses, which he turned on the people in the gallery, and heartily joined in their laughter, bowing to them as they bowed to him, when they found themselves exposed to his distant gaze. He saw the art-students modelling from statues in the Greek Court; admired the Alhambra Court, and made the acquaintance of Mr. Owen Jones; and then descended to the marine aquarium. As the Shah came to the glass front of each tank, the food on which the creatures in it are fed was dropped down from above. Nothing could exceed the interest manifested by the Shah in all that he saw. On leaving the aquarium the Shah walked through the Byzantine, Rénaissance, and Gothic courts on the eastern side of the building. He was photographed

by Messrs. Negretti and Zambra, and purchased photographic views of the several courts and of the whole Crystal Palace. Turning into the nave again, his Majesty walked to the state box and thence into the balcony over the terrace. He saw the great fountains playing, and the people walking about the terraces and gardens. His Majesty instantly expressed a wish to walk unattended amongst them. Refusing the escort of any of his own servants, or of the police, or of the Crystal Palace officials, he walked out into the balloon ground and saw the ascent of two balloons. He went down to the water temples, and accepted a nosegay from the hands of a child, while constantly saluting the people with a smiling face. They heartily cheered him in return. Having re-entered the palace, he went into the refreshment-room to smoke, rested there half an hour, and then returned to town. In the evening he went to the International Exhibition, and bought some forty pictures, most of them landscapes by Belgian artists.

The next day was spent much in quiet; but the Shah visited St. Thomas's Hospital at three o'clock, and in the evening went to the opera. He also called on the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Czarewitch and Czarevna, and went to Kensington, looking at the Hyde Park Albert Memorial on his way to a garden party which was given by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. Reuter had a private interview with the Shah at Buckingham Palace.

Baron

The Shah's departure to-day, by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, to Portsmouth, and his embarkation for Cherbourg on board the French Government yacht "Rapide," was the last act of these remarkable proceedings. His Majesty was accompanied to the Victoria Station by their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Christian, all in uniform. The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Arthur, who had met him on his arrival at Dover, went with him to Portsmouth. There was a luncheon on board the "Rapide," while the Shah's luggage was being shipped; his attendants went on board the "Hirondelle," a companion steamer. The "Rapide" was formerly called the " "Aigle," and was kept for the personal service of the late Emperor Napoleon III.; the "Hirondelle" was used by the Empress Eugénie at Biarritz and elsewhere. The two English Princes having taken leave of his Persian Majesty, and all being ready for departure, the French yachts started at two o'clock. They were joined at Spithead by four of the great ironclads of our Channel Squadron, which formed a powerful escort, the "Northumberland" and "Agincourt" on the port side, the "Sultan" and " Hercules on the starboard. As the shores of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight receded from view in the distance, the Shah was observed standing alone upon the afterdeck, and looking back with an air of fixed meditation. The sea was calm and the air was clear; the yachts, with their guard of mighty British war-ships, went on towards France. About

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half-past five that afternoon, they were met in mid-sea by the squadron of five French men-of-war, under Admiral Reynaud, sent to escort the Shah to Cherbourg. This squadron consisted of the "Ocean," flagship, the "Suffren," the "Reine Blanche," the "Armide" and the "Thetis," ironclads, with the despatch-boat "Rénard" in attendance. Both squadrons fired a salute and manned yards, the sailors cheering aloft and on deck, while the bands played "God save the Queen" and "La Marseillaise" in mutual compliment of the two nations. The British ships then returned to Portsmouth, while the Shah went forward to Cherbourg, where he remained on Saturday night, sleeping on board the yacht. He landed on Sunday, visited the Arsenal, and travelled by railway to Paris, arriving there about six o'clock.

The Shah having been made a Knight of the Garter during his visit to England, her Majesty presented him with the badge and collar set in diamonds. He gave the Queen his photograph set in diamonds, and the same to the Prince of Wales. To the Duke of Cambridge, at the Windsor review, he gave a diamond-hilted sword; to Earl Granville he offered his jewelled portrait, but our Foreign Secretary, gracefully and skilfully as he does everything of the sort, plucked out the photograph from its costly setting, and would accept only his Majesty's likeness, without the precious stones around it.

7. SHAM FIGHT AT ALDERSHOT.-To-day, the troops composing the Aldershot division were reviewed by the Duke of Cambridge and put through the manœuvres of a sham fight, in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Czarewitch and Czarevna. The number of troops under arms was 9049, divided into two forces

The defending force, under the command of Major-General Parke, consisted of his own brigade (1st), with the 6th Dragoon Guards and two batteries of artillery. This force took up an advantageous defensive position at the base of Cæsar's Hill, facing north. The remainder of the troops, under General Grant, formed the attacking force at the north of the Long Valley. The attacking general sent his cavalry and a battery of artillery to the right, across the steeplechase ground, to threaten the left rear of the defenders; this resulted only in a magnificent charge by the opposing cavalry. At the same time the attacking commander led his infantry southward, covered by skirmishers. As soon as the latter came within range they opened a sharp fire, which was responded to by the 95th Derbyshire and the 1st battalion Rifle Brigade, supported by the 90th and 88th Regiments. The 7th Royal Fusiliers, of the defending force, had a well-contested battle with the 22nd Cheshire Regiment and the 103rd Royal Bombay Fusiliers. At this juncture the firing was deafening, and having continued for about twenty minutes, the attacking general reinforced his front line, and by a skilful manœuvre tried to overlap the flanks of his experienced opponent, who withdrew to a natural fortification furnished by the north-western face of Cæsar's Hill. Behind a zig-zag breastwork he formed his