“In the Park itself, however, the damage, though not so great, is even more apparent. Many of the young trees have been broken off close to the ground, while branches have been wrenched off in all directions. Some little distance from the Marble Arch stands, or rather stood till yesterday morning, one of those venerable trunks, covered with foliage, which always invest the spots where they are to be found with an air of picturesqueness and wild beauty. But this tree has now shared in the general fate. After the mob had run riot over the plantations, the dryness and age of the trunk presented a temptation which it was evidently impossible for them to resist. They gathered together as much dry wood as they could find, and placed it at the foot of the tree, setting light to the pile. Dry as tinder, it was soon on fire, and throughout the day and night the smouldering tree afforded continual amusement. The police would not--at all events, did not--interfere, but two or three of the park-keepers were attracted to the spot by the crowd and the smoke. The roughs, however, were masters of the situation, and the keepers were consequently informed that if they remained long in the neighbourhood they would stand a good chance of being roasted. The fellows looked as if they would not require much provocation to induce them to fulfil their threat; and the keepers, fully believing discretion to be the better part of valour, at once beat a retreat. “Even a burning tree, however rare as the sight is, will fail after a time to satisfy a London mob’s craving for mischief, and the fellows soon began to exert themselves in other ways. They attempted to fire some more trees, but without success, and then returned to the old trunk, where they occasionally diversified the proceedings by an exhilarating _mélée_ with brickbats, stones, and pieces of burning wood. It was soon found that on being struck by a stick, the burning trunk would send forth showers of sparks, and the young trees in the neighbourhood were denuded of their branches, and in some instances broken off bodily for service in this way. But something still more exciting was needed, and it was soon determined in what quarter this might be obtained. The roughs then seized possession of the gates at the Marble Arch, and closed them, after which they commenced stoning the riders and the carriages passing along the drive in the Park, extending their favours in some instances to the more respectably dressed pedestrians and lookers on. These excesses rendered the interference of the police indispensable, and, accordingly, a strong reinforcement soon arrived. A fight, of course, ensued, in which stones formed the favourite weapons of the one side, and truncheons of the other. Several men were captured and confined in the Arch, until about five o’clock, when they were removed in cabs to the police-station.