The ground had been carefully prepared and adapted
for the great show with the usual liberal outlay; the work for next
year's show always commencing as soon as the show of the current year
is over; but the site was situated on the stiff London clay, and,
after weeks of summer rains and the traffic caused by collecting the
heavy engines and machinery and the materials used in the construction
of the sheds and buildings, the ground was churned into a quagmire of
clay and water, so that in places it was impassable, and some of the
exhibits were isolated. Thousands of wattled hurdles were purchased in
Hampshire, and laid flat on the mud along the main routes to the tents
and sheds, but they were quickly trodden in out of sight. Many
ponderous engines were bogged on their way to their appointed places;
nothing could move them, and they remained looking like derelict
wrecks, plastered with mud, sunk unevenly above the axles of their
wheels.
I attended the show and shall never forget the scene of disaster. One
afternoon the Prince of Wales--the late King Edward--and a Royal party
made a gallant attempt, in carriages, to see the principal exhibits,
and succeeded, by following a carefully selected and guarded route.
The crowd was dense by the side of the track, and people were making a
harvest by letting out chairs to stand on, so as to get a view of the
procession, with cries of, "'Ere you are, sir; 'ere you are, warranted
not to sink in more than a mile!" Outside the show-yard, too, the
streets were lined with long rows of nondescripts, scraping the
adhesive clay off the shoes of the people leaving the show.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205