Octavia Walton Le Vert

Souvenirs of Travel

S.H. Goetzel & Co., 1857. 2 vols.

June 29th 1853...The Horticultural Exposition, in Regent's Park, next engaged our attention. The drive to it was delightful. Although in the midst of a great city, we were entirely removed from its tumult. As far as the eye wandered it only rested upon trees and flowers. As we approached the gardens it was a scene of rare beauty. There were thousands and tens of thousands of people, with gala dresses and gala faces, walking through the park. Bands of musicians were playing most exquisite gems of opera music. Flags were gaily floating on the "summer wind." Gallant officers, and manly-looking soldiers, in their conspicuous uniforms, were sprinkled amid the black coats and white neck-ties of the civilians, while multitudes of healthful women, blooming girls, and beautiful children, were seen on every side

Another foreign visitor who, like the Vicomte d'Arlincourt ten years earlier, felt that Regent's Park was heaven on earth. The author was 'a distinguished American lady' whose 'social position at home...gave her familiar access to scenes and personages and conditions of life not ordinarily within the reach of the foreign traveller' (Publisher's Preface). The hotel at Liverpool had been a horrid experience: 'Never did we see more miserable, dingy, dark rooms.' Fortunately London came up to the mark ('words cannot even give a shadow of the emotions which thrilled me'), and the horticultural exposition provided a glimpse of Eden:

Then we entered the tent containing the fruits. There we saw grapes of wonderful size, mammoth pine-apples, giant peaches, and pigmy figs and melons. The roses numbered many hundred varieties. The greenhouse of the garden was almost the size of the New York Crystal Palace. In it were palm and cocoanut trees, and many bright-hued tropical plants and flowers