Passing a very small Bristol, the train brought us in sight of Philadelphia, where we were safely handed over to a number of gentlemen who were awaiting our arrival with most hospitable intent, and thence we were driven to the Continental Hotel. In the drive through the streets between the railway terminus and the hotel, our friends were very much struck by the fine appearance of the town, which was far superior to New York in the cleanliness of the streets, and quite rivalled the Empire City in the display in the shop-windows and the gay appearance of the large establishments in the main thoroughfares. At the Continental Hotel there was the usual crowd in the hall, before whom we had to defile on our way to our rooms, after the necessary process of inscription in the hotel registry. Then after a short interval for repose we made an excursion through the city, and drove out to the beautiful grounds of Fairmount Park, "the largest in any city in the world," in which stands all that remains of the buildings of the Great Exhibition. If I were writing a guide-book I might give some details, out of many with which our friends favoured us, respecting the World's Fair and the Quaker City, but I am rather inclined to make this a narrative of what we did. Marvellous as are most of the great cities in the States, in relation to their recent origin and extension, Philadelphia, which has a respectable antiquity, is entitled to a high place amongst the wondrous works of American man. In an old book which I came across, describing the colonies and settlements as they were 200 years ago, an anonymous writer, under the date of 1682, says:--"Philadelphia, our intended metropolis, is to be two miles long, and a mile broad. At each end it lies upon a navigable river. Besides the High Street that runs in the middle from river to river, and which is 100 feet broad, it has eight streets laid out to run the same course which are 50 feet broad. Besides Broad Street, which crosses the town in the middle, which is 100 feet broad, there are twenty streets that run the same course, also 50 feet broad. The names of these are to be taken from the things that spontaneously grow in this country, such as the Vine, the Mulberry, the Chestnut, Walnut, Filbert, and the like." And there, sure enough, they were inscribed on the corners of the houses as they are to be seen at this day. At the Continental Hotel, which must be classed among the number, not very large, of first-class hotels in the Old and New World, we found the dining saloons, halls, passages, and the street in front illuminated by the electric light, which will probably come into use in similar establishments in London in a generation or two; and in the room in which we dined two electric burners were doing the work which ten gas chandeliers each with ten burners were wont to do, as was apparent from their neglected splendour.