For her work, whatever it may be, the _Monmouth_ is well equipped. She carries quick-firing guns and Krupp steel armour on her sides, and can steam at high speed--23 knots, or, on occasion, a trifle more. A glance round on board this brand new twentieth-century cruiser of ours may be of interest at the outset. An ugly customer to tackle looks the _Monmouth_ in her 'war-paint' of sombre Navy grey, devoid, as are our modern men-of-war, of all that has to do with prettiness and the merely decorative. Mis arreos son las armas, Mi descanso el pelear, My ornaments are arms, My pastime is in war, is the motto of the Royal Navy of our day. A big ship is the _Monmouth_, a first-class cruiser of not far short of 10,000 tons displacement,--9800 tons, to be exact,--a floating weight heavier than all the mass of iron and steel in the Eiffel Tower. She measures over all, from end to end, from ram to rudder, 463-1/2 feet. To give an idea, in another way, of the ship's size. If she were stood on end inside St. Paul's Cathedral, her bows would project 60 feet above the cross over the dome. Set up on end beside the Clock Tower at Westminster, the ship's length would overtop the tower by half as high again. The Monument piled on the top of the Nelson Column would need an extra 50 feet to equal the _Monmouth_ from stem to stern. Propped up against Beachy Head, the _Monmouth_ would overtop the turf at the edge of the cliff summit fully 90 feet. Laid lengthways inside St. Paul's, the _Monmouth_ would fill the whole length of the nave and chancel from the western door to the reredos. Placed along the front of Buckingham Palace, the _Monmouth's_ hull would overlap the facade for 50 feet on either side. In width the ship is 66 feet broad amidships,--22 yards, just the length of a cricket-pitch, or one foot wider than London Bridge after its recent enlargement. It takes 5 tons weight of paint to coat the hull above water, and 6 tons to coat it below; and costs, the single item of paint by itself, every time it is laid on--L800. Her three funnels each stand up 75 feet into the air--very nearly the height of the Round Tower of Windsor Castle above the mound at its foot. Each funnel weighs 20 tons, and costs L400 to make--a year's pay of a colonel of hussars. In diameter each is the exact size, to an inch, of the 'Two-penny Tube.' If they were laid flat, a life-guardsman in King's Birthday regimentals could trot through them. Each lower mast is a steel tube, 80 feet from end to end and weighing 20 tons. The rudder weighs 18 tons; and the ram, a steel casting, 19 tons. The propellers each weigh 12 tons, and are each 16 feet across from tip to tip. The stern-post weighs 20 tons.