diff options
Diffstat (limited to '12000.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 12000.txt | 9806 |
1 files changed, 9806 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/12000.txt b/12000.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09b5a7d --- /dev/null +++ b/12000.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9806 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Walk from London to John O'Groat's, by +Elihu Burritt + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Walk from London to John O'Groat's + +Author: Elihu Burritt + +Release Date: April 11, 2004 [eBook #12000] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK FROM LONDON TO JOHN O'GROAT'S*** + + +This eBook was produced by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset. + + + + +A WALK FROM LONDON TO JOHN O'GROATS + +with notes by the way. + +BY ELIHU BURRITT. + + + +CONTENTS. + +PREFACE + +CHAPTER I. Motives to the Walk--The Iron Horse and his Rider-- +The Losses and Gains by Speed--The Railway Track and Turnpike Road: +Their Sceneries Compared. + +CHAPTER II. First Day's Observations and Enjoyment--Rural Foot- +paths; Visit to Tiptree Farm--Alderman Mechi's Operations-- +Improvements Introduced, Decried and Adopted--Steam Power, Under- +draining, Deep Tillage, Irrigation--Practical Results. + +CHAPTER III. English and American Birds--The Lark and its Song. + +CHAPTER IV. Talk with an Old Man on the Way--Old Houses in +England--Their American Relationships--English Hedges and Hedge-row +Trees--Their Probable Fate--Change of Rural Scenery without them. + +CHAPTER V. A Footpath Walk and its Incidents--Harvest Aspects-- +English and American Skies--Humbler Objects of Contemplation--The +Donkey: Its Uses and Abuses. + +CHAPTER VI. Hospitalities of "Friends"--Harvest Aspects: +English Country Inns; their Appearance, Names and Distinctive +Characteristics--The Landlady, Waiter, Chambermaid and Boots--Extra +Fees and Extra Comforts. + +CHAPTER VII. Light of Human Lives--Photographs and Biographs--The +late Jonas Webb, his Life, Labors and Memory. + +CHAPTER VIII. Threshing Machine--Flower Show--The Hollyhock and +its Suggestions--The Law of Co-operative Activities in Vegetable, +Animal, Mental and Moral Life. + +CHAPTER IX. Visit to a Three-Thousand-Acre Farm--Samuel Jonas; +His Agricultural Operations, their Extent, Success and General +Economy. + +CHAPTER X. Royston and its Specialities--Entertainment in a +Small Village--St. Ives--Visits to Adjoining Villages--A Fen-Farm-- +Capital Invested in English and American Agriculture Compared-- +Allotments and Garden Tenantry--Barley Grown on Oats. + +CHAPTER XI. The Miller of Houghton--An Hour in Huntingdon--Old +Houses--Whitewashed Tapestry and Works of Art--"The Old Mermaid" and +"The Green Man"--Talk with Agricultural Laborers--Thoughts on their +Condition, Prospects and Possibilities. + +CHAPTER XII. Farm Game--Hallett Wheat--Oundle--Country Bridges-- +Fotheringay Castle--Queen Mary's Imprisonment and Execution-- +Burghley House: The Park, Avenues, Elms and Oaks--Thoughts on +Trees, English and American. + +CHAPTER XIII. Walk to Oakham--The English and American Spring--The +English Gentry--A Specimen of the Class--Melton Mowbray and its +Specialities--Belvoir Vale and its Beauty--Thoughts on the Blind +Painter. + +CHAPTER XIV. Nottingham and its Characteristics--Newstead Abbey-- +Mansfield--Talk in a Blacksmith's Shop--Chesterfield, Chatsworth and +Haddon Hall--Aristocratic Civilisation, Present and Past. + +CHAPTER XV. Sheffield and its Individuality--The Country, Above +Ground and Under Ground--Wakefield and Leeds--Wharf Vale--Farnley +Hall--Harrogate; Ripley Castle; Ripon; Conservatism of Country +Towns--Fountain Abbey; Studley Park--Rievaulx Abbey--Lord +Faversham's Shorthorn Stock. + +CHAPTER XVI. Hexham--The North Tyne--Border-Land and its +Suggestions--Hawick--Teviotdale--Birth-place of Leyden--Melrose and +Dryburgh Abbeys--Abbotsford: Sir Walter Scott; Homage to his +Genius--The Ferry and the Oar-Girl--New Farm Steddings--Scenery of +the Tweed Valley--Edinburgh and its Characteristics. + +CHAPTER XVII. Loch Leven--Its Island Castle--Straths--Perth-- +Salmon-breeding--Thoughts on Fish-farming--Dunkeld--Blair Atholl-- +Ducal Tree-planter--Strathspey and its Scenery--The Roads--Scotch +Cattle and Sheep--Night in a Wayside Cottage--Arrival at Inverness. + +CHAPTER XVIII. Inverness--Ross-shire--Tain--Dornoch--Golspie-- +Progress of Railroads--The Sutherland Eviction--Sea-coast Scenery-- +Caithness--Wick--Herring Fisheries--John O'Groat's: Walk's End. + +CHAPTER XIX. Anthony Cruickshank--The Greatest Herd of Shorthorns +in the World--Return to London and Termination of my Tour. + + + +PREFACE. + + + +In presenting this volume to the public, I feel that a few words of +explanation are due to the readers that it may obtain, in addition +to those offered to them in the first chapter. When I first visited +England, in 1846, it was my intention to make a pedestrian tour from +one end of the island to the other, in order to become more +acquainted with the country and people than I could by any other +mode of travelling. A few weeks after my arrival, I set out on such +a walk, and had made about one hundred miles on foot, when I was +constrained to suspend the tour, in order to take part in movements +which soon absorbed all my time and strength. For the ensuing ten +years I was nearly the whole time in Great Britain, travelling from +one end of the kingdom to the other, to promote the movements +referred to; still desiring to accomplish the walk originally +proposed. On returning to England at the beginning of 1863, after a +continuous residence of seven years in America, I found myself, for +the first time, in the condition to carry out my intention of 1846. +Several new motives had been added in the interval to those that had +at first operated upon my mind. I had dabbled a little in farming +in my native village, New Britain, Connecticut, and had labored to +excite additional interest in agriculture among my neighbors. We +had formed an Agricultural Club, and met weekly for several winters +to compare notes, exchange opinions' and discuss matters connected +with the occupation. They had honored me with the post of +Corresponding Secretary from the beginning. We held a meeting the +evening before I left for England, when they not only refused to +accept my resignation as Secretary, but made me promise to write +them letters about farming in the Mother Country, and on other +matters of interest that I might meet with on my travels there. My +first idea was to do this literally;--to make a walk through the +best agricultural sections of England, and write home a series of +communications to be inserted in our little village paper. But, on +second thought, on considering the size of the sheet, I found it +would require four or five years to print in it all I was likely to +write, at the rate of two columns a week. So I concluded that the +easiest and quickest way would be to make a book of my Notes by the +Way, and to send back to my old friends and neighbors in that form +all the observations and incidents I might make and meet on my walk. +The next thought that suggested itself was this,--that a good many +persons in Great Britain might feel some interest in seeing what an +American, who had resided so long in this country, might have to say +of its sceneries, industries, social life, etc. Still, in writing +out these Notes, although two distinct circles of readers--the +English and American--have been present to my mind, I felt +constrained to face and address the latter, just as if speaking to +them alone. I have, moreover, adopted the free and easy style of +epistolary composition, endeavoring to make each chapter as much +like one of the letters I promised my friends and neighbors at home +as practicable. In doing this, the "_I_" has, perhaps, talked far +too much to beseem those proprieties which the author of a book +should observe. Besides, expressions, figures and orthography more +American than English may be noticed, which will indicate the circle +of readers which the writer had primarily in view. Still, he would +fain believe that these features of the volume will not seriously +affect the interest it might otherwise possess in the minds of those +disposed to give it a reading in this country. Whatever exceptions +they may take to the style and diction, I hope they will find none +to the spirit of the work. + ELIHU BURRITT. + +London, April 5th, 1864. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +MOTIVES TO THE WALK--THE IRON HORSE AND HIS RIDER--THE LOSSES AND +GAINS BY SPEED--THE RAILWAY TRACK AND TURNPIKE ROAD: THEIR +SCENERIES COMPARED. + +One of my motives for making this tour was to look at the country +towns and villages on the way in the face and eyes; to enter them by +the front door, and to see them as they were made to be seen first, +as far as man's mind and hand intended and wrought. Railway +travelling, as yet, takes everything at a disadvantage; it does not +front on nature, or art, or the common conditions and industries of +men in town or country. If it does not actually of itself turn, it +presents everything the wrong side outward. In cities, it reveals +the ragged and smutty companionship of tumble-down out-houses, and +mysteries of cellar and back-kitchen life which were never intended +for other eyes than those that grope in them by day or night. How +unnatural, and, more, almost profane and inhuman, is the fiery +locomotion of the Iron Horse through these densely-peopled towns! +now the screech, the roar, and the darkness of cavernous passages +under paved streets, church vaults, and an acre or two of three- +story brick houses, with the feeling of a world of breathing, +bustling humanity incumbent upon you;--now the dash and flash out +into the light, and the higgledy-piggledy glimpses of the next five +minutes. In a moment you are above thickly-thronged streets, and +the houses on either side, looking down into the black throats of +smoky chimneys; into the garret lairs of poverty, sickness, and sin; +down lower upon squads of children trying to play in back-yards +eight feet square. It is all wrong, except in the single quality of +speed. You enter the town as you would a farmer's house, if you +first passed through the pig-stye into the kitchen. Every +respectable house in the city turns its back upon you; and often a +very brick and dirty back too, though it may show an elegant front +of Bath or Portland stone to the street it faces. All the +respectable streets run over or under you with an audible shudder of +disgust or dread. None but a shabby lane of low shops for the sale +of junk, beer, onions, shrimps, and cabbages, will run a third of a +mile by your side for the sake of your company. The wickedest boys +in the town hoot at you, with most ignominious and satiric antics, +as you pass; and if they do not shie stones in upon you, or dead +cats, it is more from fear of the beadle or the constable than out +of respect for your business or pleasure. + +Indeed, every town and village, great or small, which you pass +through or near on the railway, looks as if you came fifty years +before you were expected. It says, in all the legible expressions +of its countenance, "Lack-a-day!--if here isn't that creature come +already, and looking in at my back door before I had time to turn +around, or put anything in shape!" The Iron Horse himself gets no +sympathy nor humane admiration. He stands grim and wrathy, when +reined up for two minutes and forty-five seconds at a station. No +venturesome boys pat him on the flanks, or look kindly into his +eyes, or say a pleasant word to him, or even wonder if he is tired, +or thirsty, or hungry. None of the ostlers of the greasy stables, +in which the locomotives are housed, ever call him Dobbin, or Old +Jack, or Jenny, or say, "Well done, old fellow!" when they unhitch +him from the train at midnight, after a journey of a hundred +leagues. His driver is a real man of flesh and blood; with wife and +children whom he loves. He goes on Sunday to church, and, maybe, +sings the psalms of David, and listens devoutly to the sermon, and +says prayers at home, and the few who know him speak well of him, as +a good and proper man in his way. But, spurred and mounted upon the +saddle of the great iron hexiped, nearly all the passengers regard +him as a part of the beast. No one speaks to him, or thinks of him +on the journey. He may pull up at fifty stations, and not a soul +among the Firsts, Seconds, or even Thirds, will offer him a glass of +beer, or pipe-full of tobacco, or give him a sixpence at the end of +the ride for extra speed or care. His face is grimy, and greasy, +and black. All his motions are ambiguous and awkward to the casual +observer. He has none of the sedate and conscious dignity of his +predecessor on the old stage-coach box. He handles no whip, like +him, with easy grace. Indeed, in putting up his great beast to its +best speed, he "hides his whip in the manger," according to a +proverb older than steam power. He wears no gloves in the coldest +weather; not always a coat, and never a decent one, at his work. He +blows no cheery music out of a brass bugle as he approaches a town, +but pricks the loins of the fiery beast, and makes him scream with a +sound between a human whistle and an alligator's croak. He never +pulls up abreast of the station-house door, in the fashion of the +old coach driver, to show off himself and his leaders, but runs on +several rods ahead of his passengers and spectators, as if to be +clear of them and their comments, good or bad. At the end of the +journey, be it at midnight or day-break, not a man nor a woman he +has driven safely at the rate of forty miles an hour thinks or cares +what becomes of him, or separates him in thought from the great iron +monster he mounts. Not the smock-frocked man, getting out of the +forwardmost Third, with his stick and bundle, thinks of him, or +stops a moment to see him back out and turn into the stable. + +With all the practical advantages of this machine propulsion at bird +speed over space, it confounds and swallows up the poetical aspects +and picturesque sceneries that were the charm of old-fashioned +travelling in the country. The most beautiful landscapes rotate +around a locomotive axis confusedly. Green pastures and yellow +wheat fields are in a whirl. Tall and venerable trees get into the +wake of the same motion, and the large, pied cows ruminating in +their shade, seem to lie on the revolving arc of an indefinite +circle. The views dissolve before their best aspect is caught by +the eye. The flowers, like Eastern beauties, can only be seen "half +hidden and half revealed," in the general unsteadiness. As for +bees, you cannot hear or see them at all; and the songs of the +happiest birds are drowned altogether by the clatter of a hundred +wheels on the metal track. If there are any poor, flat, or fen +lands, your way is sure to lie through them. In a picturesque and +undulating country, studded with parks and mansions of wealth and +taste, you are plunging through a long, dark tunnel, or walled into +a deep cut, before your eye can catch the view that dashes by your +carriage window. If you have a utilitarian proclivity and purpose, +and would like to see the great agricultural industries of the +country, they present themselves to you in as confused aspects as +the sceneries of the passing landscape. The face of every farm is +turned from you. The farmer's house fronts on the turnpike road, +and the best views of his homestead, of his industry, prosperity, +and happiness, look that way. You only get a furtive glance, a kind +of clandestine and diagonal peep at him and his doings; and having +thus travelled a hundred miles through a fertile country you can +form no approximate or satisfactory idea of its character and +productions. + +But no facts nor arguments are needed to convince an intelligent +traveller that the railway affords no point of view for seeing town +or country to any satisfactory perception of its character. Indeed, +neither coach of the olden, nor cab of the modern vogue, nor saddle, +will enable one to "do" either town or country with thorough insight +and enjoyment. It takes him too long to pull up to catch the +features of a sudden view. He can do nothing with those generous +and delightful institutions of Old England,--the footpaths, that +thread pasture, park, and field, seemingly permeating her whole +green world with dusky veins for the circulation of human life. To +lose all the picturesque lanes and landscapes which these field- +paths cross and command, is to lose the great distinctive charm of +the country. Then, neither from the coach-box nor the saddle can he +make much conversation on the way. He loses the chance of a +thousand little talks and pleasant incidents. He cannot say "Good +morning" to the farmer at the stile, nor a word of greeting to the +reapers over the hedge, nor see where they live, and the kind of +children that play by their cottage doors; nor the little, antique +churches, bearded to their eye-brows with ivy, covering the wrinkles +of half a dozen centuries, nor the low and quiet villages clustering +around, each like a family of bushy-headed children surrounding +their venerable mother. + +In addition to these considerations, there was another that moved me +to this walk. Although I had been up and down the country as often +and as extensively as any American, perhaps, and admired its general +scenery, I had never looked at it with an agricultural eye or +interest. But, having dabbled a little in farming in the interval +between my last two visits to England, and being touched with some +of the enthusiasm that modern novices carry into the occupation, I +was determined to look at the agriculture of Great Britain more +leisurely and attentively, and from a better stand-point than I had +ever done before. The thought had also occurred to me, that a walk +through the best agricultural counties of England and Scotland would +afford opportunity for observation which might be made of some +interest to my friends and neighbor farmers in America as well as to +myself. Therefore I beg the English reader to remember that I am +addressing to them the notes that I may make by the way, hoping that +its incidents and the thoughts it suggests will not be devoid of +interest because they are principally intended for the American ear. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +FIRST DAY'S OBSERVATIONS AND ENJOYMENT--RURAL FOOT-PATHS; VISIT TO +TIPTREE FARM--ALDERMAN MECHI'S OPERATIONS--IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED, +DECRIED, AND ADOPTED--STEAM POWER, UNDER-DRAINING, DEEP TILLAGE, +IRRIGATION--PRACTICAL RESULTS. + +On Wednesday, July 15th, 1863, I left London with the hope that I +might be able to accomplish the northern half of my proposed "Walk +from Land's End to John O'Groat's." I had been practically +prostrated by a serious indisposition for nearly two months, and was +just able to walk one or two miles at a time about the city. +Believing that country air and exercise would soon enable me to be +longer on my feet, I concluded to set out as I was, without waiting +for additional strength, so slow and difficult to attain in the +smoky atmosphere and hot streets of London. + +Few reading farmers in America there are who are not familiar with +the name and fame of Alderman Mechi, as an agriculturist of that new +and scientific school that is making such a revolution in the great +primeval industry of mankind. His experiments on his Tiptree Farm +have attained a world-wide publicity, and have given that homestead +an interest that, perhaps, never attached to the same number of +acres in any country or age. Thinking that this famous +establishment would be a good starting point for my pedestrian tour, +I concluded to proceed thither first by railway, and thence to walk +northward, by easy stages, through the fertile and rural county of +Essex. Taking an afternoon train, I reached Kelvedon about 5 p.m.,- +-the station for Tiptree, and a good specimen of an English village, +at two hours' ride from London. Calling at the residence of a +Friend, or Quaker, to inquire the way to the Alderman's farm, he +invited me to take tea with him, and be his guest for the night,--a +hospitality which I very gladly accepted, as it was a longer walk +than I had anticipated. After tea, my host, who was a farmer as +well as miller, took me over his fields, and showed me his live +stock, his crops of wheat, barley, oats, beans, and roots, which +were all large and luxuriant, and looked a tableau vivant of plenty +within the green hedges that enclosed and adorned them. + +The next morning, after breakfast, my kind host set me on the way to +Tiptree by a footpath through alternating fields of wheat, barley, +oats, beans, and turnips, into which an English farm is generally +divided. These footpaths are among the vested interests of the +walking public throughout the United Kingdom. Most of them are +centuries old. The footsteps of a dozen generations have given them +the force and sanctity of a popular right. A farmer might as well +undertake to barricade the turnpike road as to close one of these +old paths across his best fields. So far from obstructing them, he +finds it good policy to straighten and round them up, and supply +them with convenient gates or stiles, so that no one shall have an +excuse for trampling on his crops, or for diverging into the open +field for a shorter cut to the main road. Blessings on the man who +invented them! It was done when land was cheap, and public roads +were few; before four wheels were first geared together for business +or pleasure. They were the doing of another age; this would not +have produced them. They run through all the prose, poetry, and +romance of the rural life of England, permeating the history of +green hedges, thatched cottages, morning songs of the lark, +moonlight walks, meetings at the stile, harvest homes of long ago, +and many a romantic narrative of human experience widely read in +both hemispheres. They will run on for ever, carrying with them the +same associations. They are the inheritance of landless millions, +who have trodden them in ages past at dawn, noon, and night, to and +from their labor; and in ages to come the mowers and reapers shall +tread them to the morning music of the lark, and through Spring, +Summer, Autumn, and Winter, they shall show the fresh checker-work +of the ploughman's hob-nailed shoe. The surreptitious innovations +of utilitarian science shall not poach upon these sacred preserves +of the people, whatever revolutions they may produce in the +machinery and speed of turnpike locomotion. These pleasant and +peaceful paths through park, and pasture, meandering through the +beautiful and sweet-breathing artistry of English agriculture, are +guaranteed to future generations by an authority which no +legislation can annul. + +A walk of a few miles brought me in sight of Tiptree Hall; and its +first aspect relieved my mind of an impression which, in common with +thousands better informed, I had entertained in reference to the +establishment. An idea has generally prevailed among English +farmers, and agriculturists of other countries who have heard of +Alderman Mechi's experiments, that they were impracticable and +almost valueless, because they would not _pay_; that the balance- +sheet of his operations did and must ever show such ruinous +discrepancy between income and expenditure as must deter any man, of +less capital and reckless enthusiasm, from following his lead into +such unconsidered ventures. In short, he has been widely regarded +at home and abroad as a bold and dashing novice in agricultural +experience, ready to lavish upon his own hasty inventions a fortune +acquired in his London warehouse; and all this to make himself +famous as a great light in the agricultural world, which light, +after all, was a mere will-o'-the-wisp sort of affair, leading its +dupes into the veriest bog of bankruptcy. In common with all those +bold, self-reliant spirits that have ventured to break away from the +antecedents of public opinion and custom, he has been the subject of +many ungenerous innuendoes and criticisms. All kinds of ambitions +and motives have been ascribed to him. Many a burly, red-faced +farmer, who boasts of an unbroken agricultural lineage reaching back +into the reign of Good Queen Bess, will tell you over his beer that +the Alderman's doings are all _gammon_; that they are all to +advertise his cutlery business in Leadenhall Street, Barnum fashion; +to inveigle down to Tiptree Hall noblemen, foreign ambassadors, and +great people of different countries, and bribe "an honourable +mention" out of them with champagne treats and oyster suppers. +Indeed, my Quaker host largely participated in this opinion, and +took no pains to conceal it when speaking of his enterprising +neighbor. + +From what I had read and heard of the Tiptree Hall estate, I +expected to see a grand, old, baronial mansion, surrounded with +elegant and costly buildings for housing horses, cattle, sheep, and +other live stock, all erected on a scale which no bona fide farmer +could adopt or approximately imitate. In a word, I fancied his +barns and stables would even surpass in this respect the +establishments of some of those most wealthy New York or Boston +merchants, who think they are stimulating country farmers to healthy +emulation by lavishing from thirty to forty thousand dollars on a +barn and its appurtenant out-houses. With these preconceived ideas, +it was an unexpected satisfaction to see quite a simple-looking, +unassuming establishment, which any well-to-do farmer might make and +own. The house is rather a large and solid-looking building, +erected by Mr. Mechi himself, but not at all ostentatious of wealth +or architectural taste. The barns and "steddings," or what we call +cowhouses in America, are of a very ordinary cast, or such as any +country-bred farmer would call economical and simple. The homestead +occupies no picturesque site, and commands no interesting scenery. +The farm consists of about 170 acres, which, in England, is regarded +as a rather small holding. The land is naturally sterile and hard +of cultivation, most of it apparently being heavily mixed with +ferruginous matter. When ploughed deeply, the clods turned up look +frequently like compact masses of iron ore. Every experienced +farmer knows the natural poverty of such a soil, and the hard labor +to man and beast it costs to till it. + +To my great regret, Mr. Mechi was not at home, though he passes most +of his time in Summer at Tiptree. But his foreman, who enters into +all the experiments and operations which have made the establishment +so famous, with almost equal interest and enthusiasm, took me +through the farm buildings, and all the fields, and showed me the +whole process and machinery employed. Any English or American +agriculturist who has read of Alderman Mechi's operations, would be +inclined to ask, on looking, for the first time, at his buildings +and the fields surrounding them, what is the great distinguishing +speciality of his enterprise. His land is poor; his housings are +simple; there is no outside show of uncommon taste or genius. Every +acre is tile-drained, to be sure. But that is nothing new nor +uncommon. Drainage is the order of the day. Any tenant farmer in +England can have his land drained by the Government by paying six +per cent. annually on the cost of the job. His expenditure for +artificial manure does not exceed that of hundreds of good farmers. +He carries out the deep tillage system most liberally. So do other +scientific agriculturalists in Europe and America. Of course, a few +hours' observation would not suffice for a full and correct +conclusion on this point, but it gave me the impression that the +great operation which has won for the Tiptree Farm its special +distinction is its irrigation with liquid manure. In this respect +it stands unrivalled, and, perhaps, unimitated. And this, probably, +is the head and front of his offending to those who criticise his +economy and decry his experiments. + +This irrigation is performed through the medium of a small steam +engine and sixteen hydrants, so posted and supplied with hose as to +reach every square foot of the 170 acres. The water used for this +purpose is mostly, if not entirely, supplied from the draining +pipes, even in the dryest season. The manure thus liquified is made +by a comparatively small number of animals. Calves to the value of +50 pounds are bought, and fat stock to that of 500 pounds are sold +annually. They are all stabled throughout the year, except in +harvest time, when they are turned out for a few weeks to rowen +feed. The calves are housed until a year old in a large stedding by +themselves. They are then transferred to another building, and put +upon "the boards;" that is in a long stable or cowhouse, with a +flooring of slats, through which the manure drops into a cellar +below, made water-tight. Here the busiest little engine in the +world is brought to bear upon it, with all its faculties of suction +and propulsion. Through one pipe it forces fresh water in upon this +mass of manure, which, when liquified, runs down into a subterranean +cistern or reservoir capable of holding over 100,000 gallons. From +this it is propelled into any field to be irrigated. To prevent any +sediment in the great reservoir, or to make an even mixture of the +liquified manure, a hose is attached to the engine, and the other +end dropped into the mass. Through this a constant volume of air is +propelled with such force as to set the whole boiling and foaming +like a little cataract. One man at the engine and two at the hose +in the distant field perform the whole operation. The chapped and +"baky" surface of the farm is thus softened and enriched at will, +and rendered productive. + +Now, this operation seems to constitute the present distinctive +speciality of Alderman Mechi's Tiptree Farm. Will it pay? ask a +thousand voices. In how many years will he get his money back? +Give us the balance sheet of the experiment. A New Englander, +favorably impressed with the process, would be likely to answer +these questions by another, and ask, will _drainage_ pay? Not in +one year, assuredly, nor in five; not in ten, perhaps. The British +Government assumes that all the expenditure upon under-drainage will +be paid back in fifteen or twenty years at the farthest. It lends +money to the land-owner on this basis; and the land-owner stipulates +with his tenant that he shall reimburse him by annual instalments of +six or seven per cent. until the whole cost of the operation is +liquidated. Thus the tenant-farmer is willing to pay six, sometimes +seven per cent. annually, for twenty years, for the increased +capacity of production which drainage gives to the farm he +cultivates. At the end of that period the Government is paid by the +landlord, and the landlord by the tenant, and the tenant by his +augmented crops for the whole original outlay upon the land. For +aught either of the three parties to the operation knows to the +contrary, it must all be done over again at the end of twenty years. +The system is too young yet, even in England, for any one to say how +long a course of tubing will last, or how often it must be relaid. + +One point, therefore, has been gained. No intelligent English +farmer, who has tried the system, now asks if under-drainage will +pay; nor does he expect that it will pay back the whole expenditure +in less than twelve or fifteen years. Here is a generous faith in +the operation on the side of all the parties concerned. Then why +should not Alderman Mechi's irrigation system be put on the same +footing, in the matter of public confidence? It is nothing very +uncommon even for a two-hundred-acre farmer in England to have a +small stationary or locomotive steam-engine, and to find plenty of +work for it, too, in threshing his grain, grinding his fodder, +pulping his roots, cutting his hay and straw, and for other +purposes. Mr. Mechi would doubtless have one for these objects +alone. So its cost must not be charged to the account of +irrigation. A single course of iron tubing, a third of a mile long, +reaching to the centre of his farthest field, cannot cost more, with +all the hose employed, than the drainage of that field, while it +would be fair to assume that the iron pipes will last twice as long +as those of burnt clay. They might fairly be expected to hold good +for forty years. If, then, for this period, or less, the process +yields ten per cent. of increased production annually, over and +above the effect of all other means employed, it is quite evident +that it will pay as well as drainage. + +But does it augment the yearly production of the farm by this +amount? To say that it is the only process by which the baky and +chappy soil of Tiptree can be thoroughly fertilised, would not +suffice to prove its necessity or value to other soils of different +composition. One fact, however, may be sufficient to determine its +virtue. The fields of clover, and Italian rye-grass, etc., are mown +three and even four times in one season, and afterwards fed with +sheep. Certainly, no other system could produce all this cropping. +The distinctive difference it makes in other crops cannot, perhaps, +be made so palpable. The wheat looked strong and heavy, with a fair +promise of forty-five bushels to an acre. The oats, beans, and +roots showed equally well. + +The irrigation and deep tillage systems were going on simultaneously +in the same field, affording me a good opportunity of seeing the +operation of both. Two men were plying the hose upon a portion of +the field which had already been mowed three times. Two teams were +at work turning up the other, which had already been cropped once or +twice. One of two horses went first, and, with a common English +plough, turned an ordinary furrow. Then the other followed, of +twice the force of the first, in the same furrow, with a subsoil +plough held to the work beam-deep. The iron-stones and ferruginous +clods turned up by this "deep tillage" would make a prairie farmer +of Illinois wonder, if not shudder, at the plucky and ingenious +industry which competes with his easy toil and cheap land in +providing bread for the landless millions of Great Britain. + +The only exceptional feature or arrangement, besides the irrigating +machinery and process, that I noticed, was an iron hurdling for +folding sheep. This, at first sight, might look to a practical +farmer a little extravagant, indicating a city origin, or the notion +of an amateur agriculturist, more ambitious of the new than of the +necessary. Each length of this iron fencing is apparently about a +rod, and cost 1 pound, or nearly five dollars. It is fitted to low +wheels, or rollers, on an axle two or three feet in length, so that +it can be moved easily and quickly in any direction. It would cost +over fifty pounds, or two hundred and fifty dollars, to enclose an +acre entirely with this kind of hurdling. Still, Mr. Mechi would +doubtless be able to show that this large expenditure is a good +investment, and pays well in the long run. The folding of sheep for +twenty-four or forty-eight hours on small patches of clover, +trefoil, or turnips, is a very important department of English +farming, both for fattening them for the market and for putting the +land in better heart than any other fertilising process could +effect. Now, a man with this iron fencing on wheels must be able to +make in two hours an enclosure that would cost him a day or more of +busy labor with the old wooden hurdles. + +On the whole, a practical farmer, who has no other source of income +than the single occupation of agriculture, would be likely to ask, +what is the realised value of Alderman Mechi's operations to the +common grain and stock-growers of the world? They have excited more +attention or curiosity than any other experiments of the present +day; but what is the real resume of their results? What new +principles has he laid down; what new economy has he reduced to a +science that may be profitably utilised by the million who get their +living by farming? What has he actually done that anybody else has +adopted or imitated to any tangible advantage? These are important +questions; and this is the way he undertakes to answer them, +beginning with the last. + +About twenty years ago, he inaugurated the system of under-draining +the heavy tile-clay lands in Essex. Up to his experiment, the +process was deemed impracticable and worthless by the most +intelligent farmers of the county. It was more confidently decried +than his present irrigation system. The water would never find its +way down into the drain-pipes through such clay. It stood to reason +that it would do no such thing. Did not the water stand in the +track of the horse's hoof in such rich clay until evaporated by the +sun? It might as well leak through an earthenware basin. It was +all nonsense to bury a man's money in that style. He never would +see a shilling of it back again. In the face of these opinions, Mr. +Mechi went on, training his pipes through field after field, deep +below the surface. And the water percolated through the clay into +them, until all these long veins formed a continuous and rushing +stream into the main artery that now furnishes an ample supply for +his stabled cattle, for his steam engine, and for all the barn-yard +wants. His tile-draining of clay-lands was a capital success; and +those who derided and opposed it have now adopted it to their great +advantage, and to the vast augmentation of the value and production +of the county. Here, then, is one thing in which he has led, and +others have followed to a great practical result. + +His next leading was in the way of agricultural machinery. He first +introduced a steam engine for farming purposes in a district +containing a million of acres. That, too, at the outset, was a +fantastic vagary in the opinion of thousands of solid and +respectable farmers. They insisted the Iron Horse would be as +dangerous in the barn-yard or rick-yard as the very dragon in +Scripture; that he would set everything on fire; kill the men who +had care of him; burst and blow up himself and all the buildings +into the air; that all the horses, cows, and sheep would be +frightened to death at the very sight of the monster, and never +could be brought to lie down in peace and safety by his side, even +when his blood was cold, and when he was fast asleep. To think of +it! to have a tall chimney towering up over a barn-gable or barn- +yard, and puffing out black coal smoke, cotton-factory-wise! Pretty +talk! pretty terms to train an honest and virtuous farmer to mouth! +Wouldn't it be edifying to hear him string the yarn of these new +words! to hear him tell of his _engineer_ and ploughman; of his +_pokers_ and pitchforks; of _six-horse power, valves, revolutions, +stopcocks, twenty pounds of steam_, etc.; mixing up all this +ridiculous stuff with yearling-calves, turnips, horse-carts, oil- +cake, wool, bullocks, beans, and sheep, and other vital things and +interests, which forty centuries have looked upon with reverence! +To plough, thresh, cut turnips, grind corn, and pump water for +cattle by steam! What next? + +Why, next, the farmers of the region round about + + "First pitied, then embraced" + +this new and powerful auxiliary to agricultural industry, after +having watched its working and its worth. And now, thanks to such +bold and spirited novices as Mr. Mechi--men who had the pluck to +work steadily on under the pattering rain of derisive epithets-- +there are already nearly as many steam engines working at farm labor +between Land's End and John O'Groat's as there are employed in the +manufacture of cotton in Great Britain. + +His irrigation system will doubtless be followed in the same order +and interval by those who have pooh-poohed it with the same derision +and incredulity as the other innovations they have already adopted. +The utilising of the sewage of large towns, especially of London, +has now become a prominent idea and movement. Mr. Mechi's machinery +and process are admirably adapted to the work of distributing a +river of this fertilising material over any farm to which it may be +conducted. Thus, there is good reason to believe that the very +process he originated for softening and enriching the hard and +sterile acres of his small farm in Essex will be adopted for +saturating millions of acres in Great Britain with the millions of +tons of manurial matter that have hitherto blackened and poisoned +the rivers of the country on their wasteful way to the sea. This +will be only an additional work for the farm engines now in +operation, accomplished with but little increased expense. A single +fact may illustrate the irrigating capacity of Mr. Mechi's +machinery. It throws upon a field a quantity of the fertilising +fluid equal to one inch of rainfall at a time, or 100 tons per +imperial acre. And, as a proof of how deep it penetrates, the +drains run freely with it, thus showing conclusively that the +subsoil has been well saturated, a point of vital importance to the +crop. + +Deep tillage is another speciality that distinguished the Tiptree +Farm regime at the beginning, in which Mr. Mechi led, and in which +he has been followed by the farmers of the country, although few +have come up abreast of him as yet in the system. + +Here, then, are four specific departments of improvement in +agricultural industry which the Alderman has introduced. Every one +of them has been ridiculed as an impracticable and useless +innovation in its turn. Three of them have already been adopted, +and virtually incorporated with agricultural science and economy; +and the fourth, or irrigation by steam power, bids fair to find as +much favor, and as many adherents in the end as the others have +done. + +He has not only originated these improvements, or been the first to +give them practical experiment, but he has laid down certain +principles which will doubtless exercise much influence in shaping +the industrial economy of agriculture hereafter in different +countries. One of the best of these principles he puts in the form +of a mathematical proposition. Thus:--As the meat is to the manure, +so is the crop to the land. Tell me, he says, how much meat you +make, and I will tell you how much corn you make, to the acre. +Meat, then, is the starting point with him; the basis of his annual +production, to which he looks for a satisfactory decision of his +balance-sheet. To show the value he attaches to this element, the +fact will suffice that he usually keeps 65 bullocks, cows, and +calves, 100 sheep, and a number of pigs, besides his horses, making +one head to every acre of his farm. With this amount of live stock +he makes from 4 to 5 pounds worth of meat per acre annually. +Perhaps it would be safe to say that no other 170 acres of land in +the world make more meat, manure, and grain in the year than the +Tiptree Farm. In these results Mr. Mechi thinks his experiments and +improvements have proved + + Quod es demonstrandum. + +Having gone over the farm pretty thoroughly, and noticed all the +leading features of the establishment, I was requested by the +foreman to enter my name in the visitor's book kept in his neat +cottage parlor. It is a large volume, with the ruling running +across both the wide pages; the left apportioned to name, town, +country, and profession; the right to remarks of the visitor. It is +truly a remarkable book of interesting autographs and observations, +which the philologist as well as agriculturist might pore over with +lively satisfaction. It not only contains the names and comments of +many of the most distinguished personages in Great Britain, but +those of all other countries of Europe, even of Asia and Africa, as +well as America. Foreign ambassadors, Continental savans, men of +fame in the literary, scientific, and political world have here +recorded their names and impressions in the most unique succession +and blending. Here, under one date, is a party of Italian +gentlemen, leaving their autographs and their observations in the +softest syllables of their language. Then several German +connoisseurs follow in their peculiar script, with comments worded +heavily with hard-mouthed consonants. Then comes, perhaps, a single +Russian nobleman, who expresses his profound satisfaction in the +politest French. Next succeed three or four Spanish Dons, with a +long fence of names attached to each, who give their views of the +establishment in the grave, sonorous words of their language. Here, +now, an American puts in his autograph, with his sharp, curt notion +of the matter, as "first-rate." Very likely a turbaned Mufti or +Singh of the Oriental world follows the New England farmer. Danish +and Swedish knights prolong the procession, mingling with Australian +wool-growers, Members of the French Royal Academy, Canadian timber- +merchants, Dutch Mynheers, Brazilian coffee-planters, Belgian lace- +makers, and the representatives of all other countries and +professions in Christendom. An autograph-monger, with the mania +strong upon him, of unscrupulous curiosity, armed furtively with a +keen pair of scissors would be a dangerous person to admit to the +presence of that big book without a policeman at his elbow. + +Tiptree Hall has its own literature also, in two or three volumes, +written by Mr. Mechi himself, and describing fully his agricultural +experience and experiments, and giving facts and arguments which +every English and American farmer might study with profit. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. + + "What thou art we know not; + What is most like thee? + From rainbow clouds there flow not + Drops so bright to see, + As from thy presence showers a rain of melody." + SHELLEY'S "SKYLARK." + + "Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these? + Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught + The dialect they speak, whose melodies + Alone are the interpreters of thought? + Whose household words are songs in many keys, + Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught! + Whose habitations in the tree-tops, even, + Are half-way houses on the road to heaven." + LONGFELLOW. + +Having spent a couple of hours very pleasantly at Tiptree Hall, I +turned my face in a northerly direction for a walk through the best +agricultural section of Essex. While passing through a grass field +recently mown, a lark flew up from almost under my feet. And there, +partially overarched by a tuft of clover, was her little all of +earth--a snug, warm nest with two small eggs in it, about the size +and color of those of the ground-chirping-bird of New England, which +is nearer the English lark than any other American bird. I bent +down to look at them with an interest an American could only feel. +To him the lark is to the bird-world's companionship and music what +the angels are to the spirit land. He has read and dreamed of both +from his childhood up. He has believed in both poetically and +pleasantly, sometimes almost positively, as real and beautiful +individualities. He almost credits the poet of his own country, who +speaks of hearing "the downward beat of angel wings." In his facile +faith in the substance of picturesque and happy shadows, he +sometimes tries to believe that the phoenix may have been, in some +age and country, a real, living bird, of flesh and blood and genuine +feathers, with long, strong wings, capable of performing the strange +psychological feats ascribed to it in that most edifying picture +emblazoned on the arms of Banking Companies, Insurance Offices, and +Quack Doctors. He is not sure that dying swans have not sung a +mournful hymn over their last moments, under an affecting and human +sense of their mortality. He has believed in the English lark to +the same point of pleasing credulity. Why should he not give its +existence the same faith? The history of its life is as old as the +English alphabet, and older still. It sang over the dark and +hideous lairs of the bloody Druids centuries before Julius Caesar +was born, and they doubtless had a pleasant name for it, unless true +music was hateful to their ears. It sang, without loss or change of +a single note of this morning's song, to the Roman legions as they +marched, or made roads in Britain. It rang the same voluntaries to +the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, through the long ages, and, perhaps, +tended to soften their antagonisms, and hasten their blending into +one great and mighty people. How the name and song of this happiest +of earthly birds run through all the rhyme and romance of English +poetry, of English rural life, ever since there was an England! +Take away its history and its song from her daisy-eyed meadows, and +shaded lanes, and hedges breathing and blooming with sweetbrier +leaves and hawthorn flowers--from her thatched cottages, veiled with +ivy--from the morning tread of the reapers, and the mower's lunch of +bread and cheese under the meadow elm, and you take away a living +and beautiful spirit more charming than music. You take away from +English poetry one of its pleiades, and bereave it of a +companionship more intimate than that of the nearest neighborhood of +the stars above. How the lark's life and song blend, in the rhyme +of the poet, with "the sheen of silver fountains leaping to the +sea," with morning sunbeams and noontide thoughts, with the sweetest +breathing flowers, and softest breezes, and busiest bees, and +greenest leaves, and happiest human industries, loves, hopes, and +aspirations! + +The American has read and heard of all this from his youth up to the +day of setting his foot, for the first time, on English ground. He +has tried to believe it, as in things seen, temporal and tangible. +But in doing this he has to contend with a sense or suspicion of +unreality--a feeling that there has been great poetical exaggeration +in the matter. A patent fact lies at the bottom of this +incredulity. The forefathers of New England carried no wild bird +with them to sing about their cabin homes in the New World. But +they found beautiful and happy birds on that wild continent, as +well-dressed, as graceful in form and motion, and of as fine taste +for music and other accomplishments, as if they and their ancestors +had sung before the courts of Europe for twenty generations. These +sang their sweet songs of welcome to the Pilgrims as they landed +from the "Mayflower." These sang to them cheerily, through the +first years and the later years of their stern trials and +tribulations. These built their nests where the blue eyes of the +first white children born in the land could peer in upon the +speckled eggs with wonder and delight. What wonder that those +strong-hearted puritan fathers and mothers, who + + "Made the aisles of the dim wood ring + With the anthems of the free," + +should love the fellowship of these native singers of the field and +forest, and give them names their hearts loved in the old home land +beyond the sea! They did not consult Linnaeus, nor any musty Latin +genealogy of Old World birds, at the christening of these songsters. +There was a good family resemblance in many cases. The blustering +partridge, brooding over her young in the thicket, was very nearly +like the same bird in England. For the mellow-throated thrush of +the old land they found a mate in the new, of the same size, color, +and general habits, though less musical. The blackbird was nearly +the same in many respects, though the smaller American wore a pair +of red epaulettes. The swallows had their coat tails cut after the +same old English pattern, and built their nests after the same +model, and twittered under the eaves with the same ecstacy, and +played the same antics in the air. But the two dearest home-birds +of the fatherland had no family relations nor counterparts in +America; and the pilgrim fathers and their children could not make +their humble homes happy without the lark and the robin, at least in +name and association; so they looked about them for substitutes. +There was a plump, full-chested bird, in a chocolate-colored vest, +with a bluish dress coat, that would mount the highest tree-top in +early spring, and play his flute by the hour for very joy to see the +snow melt and the buds swell again. There was such a rollicking +happiness in his loud, clear notes, and he apparently sang them in +such sympathy with human fellowships, and hopes, and homes, and he +was such a cheery and confiding denizen of the orchard and garden +withal, that he became at once the pet bird of old and young, and +was called the _robin_; and well would it be if its English namesake +possessed its sterling virtues; for, with all its pleasant traits +and world-wide reputation, the English robin is a pretentious, +arrogant busybody, characteristically pugilistic and troublesome in +the winged society of England. In form, dress, deportment, +disposition, and in voice and taste for vocal music, the American +robin surpasses the English most decidedly. In this our grave +forefathers did more than justice to the home-bird they missed on +Plymouth Rock. In this generous treatment of their affection for +it, they perhaps condoned for mating the English lark so +incongruously; but it was true their choice was very limited. To +match the prima donna carissima of English field and sky, it was +necessary to select a meadow bird, with some other features of +resemblance. It would never do to give the cherished name and +association to one that lived in the forest, or built its nest in +the tree-tops or house-tops, or to one that was black, yellow, or +red. Having to conciliate all these conditions, and do the best +with the material at hand, they pitched upon a rather large, +brownish bird, in a drab waistcoat, slightly mottled, and with a +loud, cracked voice, which nobody ever liked. So it never became a +favorite, even to those who first gave it the name of lark. It was +not its only defect that it lacked an ear and voice for music. +There is always a scolding accent that marks its conversation with +other birds in the brightest mornings of June. He is very noisy, +but never merry nor musical. Indeed, compared with the notes of the +English lark, his are like the vehement ejaculations of a maternal +duck in distress. + +Take it in all, no bird in either hemisphere equals the English lark +in heart or voice, for both unite to make it the sweetest, happiest, +the welcomest singer that was ever winged, like the high angels of +God's love. It is the living ecstacy of joy when it mounts up into +its "glorious privacy of light." On the earth it is timid, silent, +and bashful, as if not at home, and not sure of its right to be +there at all. It is rather homely withal, having nothing in +feather, feature, or form, to attract notice. It is seemingly made +to be heard, not seen, reversing the old axiom addressed to children +when getting voicy. Its mission is music, and it floods a thousand +acres of the blue sky with it several times a day. Out of that +palpitating speck of living joy there wells forth a sea of +twittering ecstacy upon the morning and evening air. It does not +ascend by gyrations, like the eagle or birds of prey. It mounts up +like a human aspiration. It seems to spread out its wings and to be +lifted straight upwards out of sight by the afflatus of its own +happy heart. To pour out this in undulating rivulets of rhapsody is +apparently the only motive of its ascension. This it is that has +made it so loved of all generations. It is the singing angel of +man's nearest heaven, whose vital breath is music. Its sweet +warbling is only the metrical palpitation of its life of joy. It +goes up over the roof-trees of the rural hamlet on the wings of its +song, as if to train the rural soul to trial flights heavenward. +Never did the Creator put a voice of such volume into so small a +living thing. It is a marvel--almost a miracle. In a still hour +you can hear it at nearly a mile's distance. When its form is lost +in the hazy lace-work of the sun's rays above, it pours down upon +you all the thrilling semitones of its song as distinctly as if it +were warbling to you in your window. + +The only American bird that could star it with the English lark, and +win any admiration at a popular concert by its side, is our +favourite comic singer, the Bobolink. I have thought often, when +listening to British birds at their morning rehearsals, what a +sensation would ensue if Master Bob, in his odd-fashioned bib and +tucker, should swagger into their midst, singing one of those Low- +Dutch voluntaries which he loves to pour down into the ears of our +mowers in haying time. Not only would such an apparition and +overture throw the best-trained orchestra of Old World birds into +amazement or confusion, but astonish all the human listeners at an +English concert. With what a wonderment would one of these +blooming, country milkmaids look at the droll harlequin, and listen +to those familiar words of his, set to his own music:- + + Go to milk! go to milk! + Oh, Miss Phillisey, + Dear Miss Phillisey, + What will Willie say + If you don't go to milk! + No cheese, no cheese, + No butter nor cheese + If you don't go to milk. + +It is a wonder that in these days of refined civilization, when +Jenny Lind, Grisi, Patti, and other celebrated European singers, +some of them from very warm climates, are transported to America to +delight our Upper-Tendom, that there should be no persistent and +successful effort to introduce the English lark into our out-door +orchestra of singing-birds. No European voice would be more welcome +to the American million. It would be a great gain to the nation, +and be helpful to our religious devotions, as well as to our secular +satisfactions. In several of our Sabbath hymns there is poetical +reference to the lark and its song. For instance, that favorite +psalm of gratitude for returning Spring opens with these lines:-- + + "The winter is over and gone, + The thrush whistles sweet on the spray, + The turtle breathes forth her soft moan, + The _lark_ mounts on high and warbles away." + +Now, not one American man, woman, or child in a thousand ever heard +or saw an English lark, and how is he, she, or it to sing the last +line of the foregoing verse with the spirit and understanding due to +an exercise of devotion? The American lark never mounts higher than +the top of a meadow elm, on which it see-saws, and screams, or +quacks, till it is tired; then draws a bee-line for another tree, or +a fence-post, never even undulating on the voyage. It may be said, +truly enough, that the hymn was written in England. Still, if sung +in America from generation to generation, we ought to have the +English lark with us, for our children to see and hear, lest they +may be tempted to believe that other and more serious similes in our +Sabbath hymns are founded on fancy instead of fact. + +Nor would it be straining the point, nor be dealing in poetical +fancies, if we should predicate upon the introduction of the English +lark into American society a supplementary influence much needed to +unify and nationalise the heterogeneous elements of our population. +Men, women, and children, speaking all the languages and +representing all the countries and races of Europe, are streaming in +upon us weekly in widening currents. The rapidity with which they +become assimilated to the native population is remarkable. But +there is one element from abroad that does not Americanise itself so +easily--and that, curiously, is one the most American that comes +from Europe--in other words, the _English_. They find with us +everything as English as it can possibly be out of England--their +language, their laws, their literature, their very bibles, psalm- +books, psalm-tunes, the same faith and forms of worship, the same +common histories, memories, affinities, affections, and general +structure of social life and public institutions; yet they are +generally the very last to be and feel at home in America. A +Norwegian mountaineer, in his deerskin doublet, and with a dozen +English words picked up on the voyage, will Americanise himself more +in one year on an Illinois prairie than an intelligent, middle-class +Englishman will do in ten, in the best society of Massachusetts. +Now, I am not dallying with a facetious fantasy when I express the +opinion, that the life and song of the English lark in America, +superadded to the other institutions and influences indicated, would +go a great way in fusing this hitherto insoluble element, and +blending it harmoniously with the best vitalities of the nation. +And this consummation would well repay a special and extraordinary +effect. Perhaps this expedient would be the most successful of all +that remain untried. A single incident will prove that it is more +than a mere theory. Here it is, in substance:-- + +Some years ago, when the Australian gold fever was hot in the veins +of thousands, and fleets of ships were conveying them to that far- +off, uncultivated world, a poor old woman landed with the great +multitude of rough and reckless men, who were fired to almost frenzy +by dreams of ponderous nuggets and golden fortunes. For these they +left behind them all the enjoyments, endearments, all the softening +sanctities and surroundings of home and social life in England. For +these they left mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. There they +were, thinly tented in the rain, and the dew, and the mist, a busy, +boisterous, womanless camp of diggers and grubbers, roughing-and- +tumbling it in the scramble for gold mites, with no quiet Sabbath +breaks, nor Sabbath songs, nor Sabbath bells to measure off and +sweeten a season of rest. Well, the poor widow, who had her cabin +within a few miles of "the diggings," brought with her but few +comforts from the old homeland--a few simple articles of furniture, +the bible and psalm-book of her youth, and an English lark to sing +to her solitude the songs that had cheered her on the other side of +the globe. And the little thing did it with all the fervor of its +first notes in the English sky. In her cottage window it sang to +her hour by hour at her labor, with a voice never heard before on +that wild continent. The strange birds of the land came circling +around in their gorgeous plumage to hear it. Even four-footed +animals, of grim countenance, paused to hear it. Then, one by one, +came other listeners. They came reverently, and their voices +softened into silence as they listened. Hard-visaged men, bare- +breasted and unshaven, came and stood gentle as girls; and tears +came out upon many a tanned and sun-blistered cheek as the little +bird warbled forth the silvery treble of its song about the green +hedges, the meadow streams, the cottage homes, and all the sunny +memories of the fatherland. And they came near unto the lone widow +with pebbles of gold in their hard and horny hands, and asked her to +sell them the bird, that it might sing to them while they were +bending to the pick and the spade. She was poor, and the gold was +heavy; yet she could not sell the warbling joy of her life. But she +told them that they might come whenever they would to hear it sing. +So, on Sabbath days, having no other preacher nor teacher, nor +sanctuary privilege, they came down in large companies from their +gold-pits, and listened to the devotional hymns of the lark, and +became better and happier men for its music. + +Seriously, it may be urged that the refined tastes, arts, and genius +of the present day do not develop themselves symmetrically or +simultaneously in this matter. Here are connoisseurs and +enthusiasts in vegetable nature hunting up and down all the earth's +continents for rare trees, plants, shrubs, and flowers. They are +bringing them to England and America in shiploads, to such extent +and variety, that nearly all the dead languages and many of the +living are ransacked to furnish names for them. Llamas, +dromedaries, Cashmere goats, and other strange animals, are brought, +thousands of miles by sea and land, to be acclimatised and +domesticated to these northern countries. Artificial lakes are made +for the cultivation of fish caught in Antipodean streams. That is +all pleasant and hopeful and proper. The more of that sort of thing +the better. But why not do the other thing, too? Vattemare made it +the mission of his life to induce people of different countries to +exchange books, or unneeded duplicates of literature. We need an +Audubon or Wilson, not to make new collections of feathered +skeletons, and new volumes on ornithology, but to effect an exchange +of living birds between Europe and America; not for caging, not for +Zoological gardens and museums, but for singing their free songs in +our fields and forests. There is no doubt that the English lark +would thrive and sing as well in America as in this country. And +our bobolink would be as easily acclimatised in Europe. Who could +estimate the pleasure which such an exchange in the bird-world would +give to millions on both sides of the Atlantic? + +There are some English birds which we could not introduce into the +feathered society of America, any more than we could import a score +of British Dukes and Duchesses, with all their hereditary dignities +and grand surroundings, into the very heart and centre of our +democracy. For instance, the grave and aristocratic rooks, if +transported to our country, would turn up their noses and caw with +contempt at our institutions--even at our oldest buildings and most +solemn and dignified oaks. It is very doubtful if they would be +conciliated into any respect for the Capitol or The White House at +Washington. They have an intuitive and most discriminating +perception of antiquity, and their adhesion to it is invincible. +Whether they came in with the Normans, or before, history does not +say. One thing would seem evident. They are older than the Order +of the Garter, and belonged to feudalism. They are the living +spirits of feudalism, which have survived its human retainers by +several hundred years, and now represent the defunct institution as +pretentiously as in King Stephen's day. They are as fond of old +Norman castles, cathedrals, and churches, as the very ivy itself, +and cling to them with as much pertinacity. For several hundred +generations of bird-life, they and their ancestors have colonised +their sable communities in the baronial park-trees of England, and +their descendants promise to abide for as many generations to come. +In size, form, and color they differ but little from the American +crow, but are swifter on the wing, with greater "gift of the gab," +and less dignified in general deportment, though more given to +aristocratic airs. Although they emigrated from France long before +"La Democratic Sociale" was ever heard of in that country, they may +be considered the founders of the _Socialistic_ theory and practice; +and to this day they live and move in phalansteries, which succeed +far better than those attempted by the American "Fourierites" some +years ago. As in human communities, the collision of mind with mind +contributes fortuitous scintillations of intelligence to their +general enlightenment; so gregarious animals, birds and bees seem to +acquire especial quick-wittedness from similar intercourse. The +English rook, therefore, is more astute, subtle, and cunning than +our American crow, and some of his feats of legerdemain are quite +vulpine. + +The jackdaw is to the rook what the Esquimaux is to the Algonquin +Indian; of the same form, color, and general habits, but smaller in +size. They are as fond of ancient abbeys and churches as ever were +the monks of old. Indeed, they have many monkish habits and +predilections, and chatter over their Latin rituals in the storied +towers of old Norman cathedrals, and in the belfries of ivy-webbed +churches in as vivicacious confusion. + +There is no country in the world of the same size that has so many +birds in it as England; and there are none so musical and merry. +They all sing here congregationalwise, just as the people do in the +churches and chapels of all religious denominations. As these +buildings were fashioned in early times after the Gothic order of +elm and oak-tree architecture, so the human worshippers therein +imitated the birds, as well as the branches, of those trees, and +learned to sing their Sabbath hymns together, young and old, rich +and poor, in the same general uprising and blending of multitudinous +voices. I believe everything sings that has wings in England. And +well it might, for here it is safe from shot, stones, snares, and +other destructives. "Young England" is not allowed to sport with +firearms, after the fashion of our American boys. You hear no +juvenile popping at the small birds of the meadow, thicket, or +hedge-row, in Spring, Summer, or Autumn. After travelling and +sojourning nearly ten years in the country, I have never seen a boy +throw a stone at a sparrow, or climb a tree for a bird's-nest. The +only birds that are not expected to die a natural death are the +pheasant, partridge, grouse, and woodcock; and these are to be +killed according to the strictest laws and customs, at a certain +season of the year, and then only by titled or wealthy men who hold +their vested interest in the sport among the most rigid and sacred +rights of property. Thus law, custom, public sentiment, climate, +soil, and production, all combine to give bird-life a development in +England that it attains in no other country. In no other land is it +so multitudinous and musical; in none is there such ample and varied +provision for housing and homing it. Every field is a great bird's- +nest. The thick, green hedge that surrounds it, and the hedge-trees +arising at one or two rods' interval, afford nesting and refuge for +myriads of these meadow singers. The groves and thickets are full +of them and their music; so full, indeed, that sometimes every leaf +seems to pulsate with a little piping voice in the general concert. +Nor are they confined to the fields, groves, and hedges of the quiet +country. If the census of the sparrows alone in London could be +taken, they would count up to a larger figure than all the birds of +a New England county would reach. Then there is another interesting +feature of this companionship. A great deal of it lasts through the +entire year. There are ten times as many birds in England as in +America in the winter. Here the fields are green through the +coldest months. No deep and drifting snows cover a frozen earth for +ten or twelve weeks, as with us. There is plenty of shelter and +seeds for birds that can stand an occasional frost or wintry storm, +and a great number of them remain the whole year around the English +homesteads. + +If such a difference were a full compensation, our North American +birds make up in dress what they fall short of English birds in +voice and musical talent. The robin redbreast and the goldfinch +come out in brighter colors than any other beaux and belles of the +season here; but the latter is only a slender-waisted brunette, and +the former a plump, strutting, little coxcomb, in a mahogany-colored +waistcoat. There is nothing here approaching in vivid colors the +New England yellow-bird, hang-bird, red-bird, indigo-bird, or even +the bluebird. In this, as well as other differences, Nature adjusts +the system of compensation which is designed to equalise the +conditions of different countries. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +TALK WITH AN OLD MAN ON THE WAY--OLD HOUSES IN ENGLAND--THEIR +AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS--ENGLISH HEDGES AND HEDGE-ROW TREES--THEIR +PROBABLE FATE--CHANGE OF RURAL SCENERY WITHOUT THEM. + +From Tiptree I had a pleasant walk to Coggeshall, a unique and +antique town, marked by the quaint and picturesque architecture of +the Elizabethan regime. On the way I met an old man, eighty-three +years of age, busily at work with his wheel-barrow, shovel, and +bush-broom, gathering up the droppings of manure on the road. I +stopped and had a long talk with him, and learned much of those +ingenious and minute industries by which thousands of poor men +house, feed, and clothe themselves and their families in a country +super-abounding with labor. He had nearly filled his barrow, after +trundling it for four miles. He could sell his little load for 4d. +to a neighboring farmer; but he intended to keep it for a small +garden patch allotted to him by his son, with whom he lived. These +few square yards of land constituted the microscopic point of his +attachment to that great globe still holding in reserve unmeasured +territories of productive soil, on which nor plough, nor spade, nor +human foot, nor life has ever left a lasting mark. These made his +little farm, as large to him and to his octogenarian sinews and +ambitions as was the Tiptree Estate to Alderman Mechi. It filled +his mind with as busy occupation and as healthy a stimulus. That +rude barrow, with its clumsy wheel, thinly rimmed with an iron hoop, +was to him what the steam engine, and two miles of iron tubing, and +all its hose-power were to that eminent agriculturist, of whom he +spoke in terms of high esteem as a neighbor, and even as a +competitor. Proportionately they were on the same footing; the one +with his 170 square acres, the other with his 170 square feet. It +was pleasant and instructive to hear him speak with such sunny and +cheery hope of his earthly lot and doings. His son was kind and +good to him. He could read, and get many good books. He ate and +slept well. He was poor but comfortable. He went to church on +Sunday, and thought much of heaven on week days. His cabbages were +a wonder; some with heads as large as a half-bushel measure. He did +something very respectable in the potato and turnip line. He had +grown beans and beets which would show well in any market. He +always left a strip or corner for flowers. He loved to grow them; +they did him good, and stirred up young-man feelings in him. He +went on in this way with increased animation, following the lead of +a few questions I put in occasionally to give direction to the +narrative of his experience. How much I wished I could have +photographed him as he stood leaning on his shovel, his wrinkled +face and gray, thin hair, moistened with perspiration, while his +coat lay inside out on one of the handles of his barrow! The July +sun, that warmed him at his work, would have made an interesting +picture of him, if some one could have held a camera to its eye at +the moment. I added a few pennies to his stock-in-trade, and +continued my walk, thinking much of that wonderful arrangement of +Providence by which the infinite alternations and gradations of +human life and condition are adjusted; fitting a separate being, +experience, and attachment to every individual heart; training its +tendrils to cling all its life long to one slightly individualised +locality, which another could never call home; giving itself and all +its earthly hopes to an occupation which another would esteem a +prison discipline; sucking the honey of contentment out of a +condition which would be wormwood to another person on the same +social level. + +On reaching Coggeshall, I became again the guest of a Friend, who +gave me the same old welcome and hospitality which I have so often +received from the members of that society. After tea, he took me +about the town, and showed me those buildings so interesting to an +American--low, one-story houses, with thatched roofs, clay-colored, +wavy walls, rudely-carved lintels, and iron-sash windows opening +outward on hinges like doors, with squares of glass 3 inches by 4;-- +houses which were built before the keel of the Mayflower was laid, +which conveyed the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Here, now! see that +one on the other side of the street, looking out upon a modern and +strange generation through two ivy-browed eyes just lighted up to +visible speculation by a single candle on the mantel-piece! A very +animated and respectable baby was carried out of that door in its +mother's arms, and baptised in the parish church, before William +Shakespeare was weaned. There is a younger house near by, which was +a century old when Washington was born. These unique, old dwellings +of town, village, and hamlet in England, must ever possess an +interest to the American traveller which the grand and majestic +cathedrals, that fill him with so much admiration, cannot inspire. +We link the life of our nation more directly to these humbler +buildings. Our forefathers went out of these houses to the New +World. The log huts they first erected served them and their +families as homes for a few years; then were given to their horses +and cattle for stabling; then were swept away, as too poor for +either man or beast. The second generation of houses made greater +pretensions to comfort, and had their day, then passed away. They +were nearly all one-story, wooden buildings, with a small apartment +on each side of a great chimney, and a little bed-roomage in the +garret for children. Then followed the large, red, New England +mansion, broadside to the road, two stories high in front, with +nearly a rood of back roof declining to within five or six feet of +the ground, and covering a great, dark kitchen, flanked on one side +by a bed-room, and on the other by the buttery. A ponderous chimney +arose out of the middle of the building, giving a fire-place of +eight feet back to the kitchen, and one of half the dimensions to +each of the other two large rooms--the _north_ and _south_. For, +like the republic they founded, its forefathers and ours divided +their dwellings by a kind of Mason and Dixon's Line, into two parts, +giving them these sectional appellations which have represented such +antagonisms and made us such trouble. Every one of these old- +fashioned houses had its "North" and "South" rooms on the ground- +floor, and duplicates, of the same size and name, above, divided by +the massive, hollow tower, called a chimney. A double front door, +with panels, scrolled with rude carving, opened right and left into +the portly building, which, in the tout ensemble, looked like a New +England gentleman of the olden time, in his cocked hat, and hair +done up in a queue. These were the houses built "when George the +Third was King." In these were born the men of the American +Revolution. They are the oldest left in the land; and, like the +Revolutionary pensioners, they are fast disappearing. In a few +years, it will be said the last of them has been levelled to the +ground, just as the paragraph will circulate through the newspapers +that the last soldier of the War of Independence is dead. + +Thus, the young generation in America, now reciting in our schools +the rudimental facts of the common history of the English-speaking +race, will come to the meridian of manhood at a time when the three +first generations of American houses shall have been swept away. +But, travelling over a space of three centuries' breadth, they will +see, in these old English dwellings, where the New World broke off +from the Old--the houses in which the first settlers of New England +were born; the churches and chapels in which they were baptised, and +the school-houses in which they learned the alphabet of the great +language that is to fill the earth with the speech of man's rights +and God's glory. One hundred millions, speaking the tongue of +Shakespeare and Milton on the American continent, and as many +millions more on continents more recently settled by the same race, +across the ocean, and across century-seas of time, shall moor their +memories to these humble dwellings of England's hamlets, and feel +how many taut and twisted liens attach them to the motherland of +mighty nations. + +On reckoning up the log of my first day's walk, I found I had made +full twelve miles by road and field; and was more than satisfied +with such a trial of country air and exercise, and with the +enjoyment of its scenery and occupations. The next day I made a +longer distance still, from Coggeshall to Great Bardfield, or about +eighteen miles; and felt at the end that I had established a +reasonable claim to convalescence. The country on the way was +marked by the quiet and happy features of diversified plenty. The +green and gold of pastures, meadows, and wheat-fields; the +picturesque interspersion of cottages, gardens, stately mansions, +parks and lawns, all enlivened by a well-proportioned number of +mottled cows feeding or lying along the brook-banks, and sheep +grazing on the uplands,--all these elements of rural life and +scenery were blended with that fortuitous felicity which makes the +charm of Nature's country pictures. + +At Bardfield I was again homed for the night by a Friend; and after +tea made an evening walk with him about the farm of a member of the +same society, living in the outskirts of the town, who cultivates +about 400 acres of excellent land, and is considered one of the most +practical and successful agriculturists of Essex. His fields were +larger and fewer than I had noticed on my walk in a farm of equal +size. This feature indicates the modern improvements in English +farming more prominently to the cursory observer than any other that +attracts his eye. It is a rigidly utilitarian innovation on the old +system, that does not at all promise to improve the picturesque +aspect of the country. To "reconstruct the map" of a county, by +wire-fencing it into squares of 100 acres each, after grubbing up +all the hedges and hedge-trees, would doubtless add seven and a +quarter per cent. to the agricultural production of the shire, and +gratify many a Gradgrind of materialistic economy; but who would +know England after such a transformation? One would be prone to +reiterate Patrick's exclamation of surprise, when he first +shouldered a gun and tested the freedom of the forest in America. +Seeing a small bird in the top of a tree, he pointed the fowling- +piece in that direction, turned away his face, and fired. A tree- +toad fell to the ground from an agitated branch. The exulting +Irishman ran and picked it up in triumph, and held it out at arm's +length by one of its hind legs, exclaiming, "And how it alters a +bird to shoot its feathers off, to be sure!" It would alter England +nearly as much in aspect, if the unsparing despotism of pounds s. d. +should root out the hedge-row trees, and substitute invisible lines +of wire for the flowering hawthorn as a fencing for those fields +which now look so much like framed portraits of Nature's best +painting. + +The tendency of these utilitarian times may well occasion an +unpleasant concern in the lovers of English rural scenery. What +changes may come in the wake of the farmer's steam-engine, steam- +plough, or under the smoke-shadows from his factory-like chimney, +these recent "improvements" may suggest and induce. One can see in +any direction he may travel these changes going on silently. Those +little, unique fields, defined by lines and shapes unknown to +geometry, are going out of the rural landscape. And when they are +gone, they will be missed more than the amateurs of agricultural +artistry imagine at the present moment. What some one has said of +the peasantry, may be said, with almost equal deprecation, of these +picturesque tit-bits of land, which,-- + + "Once destroyed, never can be supplied." + +And destroyed they will be, as sure as science. As large farms are +swallowing up the little ones between them, so large fields are +swallowing these interesting patches, the broad-bottomed hedging of +which sometimes measures as many square yards as the space it +encloses. + +There is much reason to fear that the hedge-trees will, in the end, +meet with a worse fate still. Practical farmers are beginning to +look upon them with an evil eye--an eye sharp and severe with +pecuniary speculation; that looks at an oak or elm with no artist's +reverence; that darts a hard, dry, timber-estimating glance at the +trunk and branches; that looks at the circumference of its cold +shadow on the earth beneath, not at the grand contour and glorious +leafage of its boughs above. The farmer who was taking us over his +large and highly-cultivated fields, was a man of wide intelligence, +of excellent tastes, and the means wherewithal to give them free +scope and play. His library would have satisfied the ambition of a +student of history or belles-lettres. His gardens, lawn, shrubbery, +and flowers would grace the mansion of an independent gentleman. He +had an eye to the picturesque as well as practical. But I could not +but notice, as significant of the tendency to which I have referred, +that, on passing a large, outbranching oak standing in the boundary +of two fields, he remarked that the detriment of its shadow could +not have been less than ten shillings a year for half a century. As +we proceeded from field to field, he recurred to the same subject by +calling our attention to the circumference of the shadow cast on the +best land of the farm by a thrifty, luxuriant ash, not more than a +foot in diameter at the butt. Up to the broad rim of its shade, the +wheat on each side of the hedge was thick, heavyheaded and tall, but +within the cool and sunless circle the grain and grass were so pale +and sickly that the bare earth would have been relief to a farmer's +eye. + +The three great, distinctive graces of an English landscape are the +hawthorn hedges, the hedge-row trees, and the everlasting and +unapproachable greenness of the grass-fields they surround and +embellish. In these beautiful features, England surpasses all other +countries in the world. These make the peculiar charm of her rural +scenery to a traveller from abroad. These are the salient +lineaments of Motherland's face which the memories of myriads she +has sent to people countries beyond the sea cling to with such +fondness; memories that are transmitted from generation to +generation; which no political revolutions nor severances affect; +which are handed down in the unwritten legends of family life in the +New World, as well as in the warp and woof of American literature +and history. Will the utilitarian and unsparing science of these +latter days, or of the days to come, shear away these beautiful +tresses, and leave the brow and temples of the Old Country they have +graced bare and brown under the bald and burning sun of material +economy? It is not an idle question, nor too early to ask it. It +is a question which will interest more millions of the English race +on the American continent than these home-islands will ever contain. +There are influences at work which tend to this unhappy issue. Some +of these have been already indicated, and others more powerful still +may be mentioned. + +Agriculture in England has to run the gauntlet of many pressing +competitions, and carry a heavy burden of taxation as it runs. +These will be noticed, hereafter, in their proper connection. +Farming, therefore, is being reduced to a rigid science. Every acre +of land must be put up to its last ounce of production. Every +square foot of it must be utilised to the growth of something for +man and beast. Manures for different soils are tested with as much +chemical precision as ever was quinine for human constitutions. +Dynameters are applied to prove the power of working machinery. +Labor is scrutinised and economised, and measured closely up to the +value of a farthing's-worth of capacity. A shilling's difference +per acre in the cost of ploughing by horse-flesh or steam brings the +latter into the field. The sound of the flail is dying out of the +land, and soon will be heard no more. Even threshing machines +worked by horses are being discarded, as too slow and old-fashioned. +Locomotive steam-engines, on broad-rimmed wheels, may be met on the +turnpike road, travelling on their own legs from farm to farm to +thresh out wheat, barley, oats, and beans, for a few pence per +bushel. They make nothing of ascending a hill without help, or of +walking across a ploughed field to a rick-yard. Iron post and rail +fencing, in lengths of twenty feet on wheels, drawn about by a +donkey, bids fair to supersede the old wooden hurdles for sheep fed +on turnips or clover. It is an iron age, and wire fencing is +creeping into use, especially in the most scientifically cultivated +districts of Scotland, where the elements and issues of the farmer's +balance-sheet are looked to with the most eager concern. Iron wire +grows faster than hawthorn or buckthorn. It doubtless costs less. +It needs no yearly trimming, like shrubs with sap and leaves. It +does not occupy a furrow's width as a boundary between two fields. +It may be easily transposed to vary enclosures. It is not a nesting +place for destructive birds or vermin. These and other arguments, +of the same utilitarian genus, are making perceptible headway. Will +they ever carry the day against the green hedges? I think they +would, very soon, if the English farmer owned the land he +cultivates. But such is rarely the case. Still, this fact may not +prevent the final consummation of this policy of material interest. +In a great many instances, the tenant might compromise with the +landlord in such a way as to bring about this "modern improvement." +And a comparatively few instances, showing a certain per centage of +increased production per acre to the former, and a little additional +rentage to the latter, would suffice to give the innovation an +impulse that would sweep away half the hedges of the country, and +deface that picture which so many generations have loved to such +enthusiasm of admiration. + +Will the trees of the hedge-row be exposed to the same end? I think +they will. Though trees are the most sacred things the earth begets +in England, as has already been said, the farmer here looks at them +with an evil eye, as horse-leeches that bleed to death long +stretches of the land he pays 2 pounds per acre for annually to his +landlord. The hedge, however wide-bottomed, is his fence; and +fencing he must have. But these trees, arising at narrow intervals +from the hedge, and spreading out their deadening shades upon his +wheatfields on either side, are not useful nor ornamental to him. +They may look prettily, and make a nice picture in the eyes of the +sentimental tourist or traveller, but he grudges the ground they +cover. He could well afford to pay the landlord an additional +rentage per annum more than equal to the money value of the yearly +growth of these trees. Besides, the landlord has, in all +probability, a large park of trees around his mansion, and perhaps +compact plantations on land unsuited to agriculture. Thus the high +value of these hedge-row trees around the fields of his tenant, +which he will realise on the spot, together with some additional +pounds in rent annually to himself and heirs, would probably +facilitate this levelling arrangement in face of all the +restrictions that the law of entail might seem to throw in the way. + +If, therefore, the hedges of England disappear before the noiseless +and furtive progress of utilitarian science, the trees that rise +above them in such picturesque ranks will be almost certain to go +with them. Then, indeed, a change will come over the face of the +country, which will make it difficult for one to recognise it who +daguerreotyped its most beautiful features upon his memory before +they were obliterated by these latter-day "improvements." + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +A FOOTPATH WALK AND ITS INCIDENTS--HARVEST ASPECTS--ENGLISH AND +AMERICAN SKIES--HUMBLER OBJECTS OF CONTEMPLATION--THE DONKEY: ITS +USES AND ABUSES. + +Immediately after breakfast the following morning, my kind host +accompanied me for a mile on my walk, and put me on a footpath +across the fields, by which I might save a considerable distance on +the way to Saffron Walden, where I proposed to spend the Sabbath. +After giving me minute directions as to the course I was to follow, +he bade me good-bye, and I proceeded on at a brisk pace through +fields of wheat and clover, greatly enjoying the scenery, the air, +and exercise. Soon I came to a large field quite recently ploughed +up _clean_, footpath and all. Seeing a gate at each of the opposite +corners, I made my way across the furrows to the one at the left, as +it seemed to be more in the direction indicated by my host. There +the path was again broad and well-trodden, and I followed it through +many fields of grain yellowing to the harvest, until it opened into +the main road. This bore a little more to the left than I expected, +but, as I had never travelled it before, I believed it was all +right. Thaxted was half way to Saffron Walden, and there I had +intended to stop an hour or two for dinner and rest, then push on to +the end of the day's walk as speedily as possible. At about noon, I +came suddenly down upon the town, which seemed remarkably similar to +the one I had left, in size, situation, and general features. The +parish church, also, bore a strong resemblance to the one I had +noticed the previous evening. These old Essex towns are "as much +alike as two peas," and you must make a note of it, as Captain +Cuttle says, was the thought first suggested by the coincidence. I +went into a cosy, clean-faced inn on the main street, and addressed +myself with much satisfaction to a short season of rest and +refreshment, exchanging hot and dusty boots for slippers, and going +through other preliminaries to a comfortable time of it. Rang the +bell for dinner, but before ordering it, asked the waiting-maid, +with a complacent idea that I had improved my walking pace, and made +more than half the way-- + +"How far is it to Saffron Walden?" + +"Twelve miles, sir." + +"Twelve miles, indeed! Why, it is only twelve miles from Great +Bardfield!" + +"Well, this is Great Bardfield, sir." + +"Great Bardfield! What! How is this? What do you mean?" + +She meant what she said, and it was as true as two and two make +four; and she was not to be beaten out of it by a stare of +astonishment, however a discomfited man might expand his eyes with +wonder, or cloud his face with chagrin. It was a patent fact. +There, on the opposite side of the street, was the house in which I +slept the night before; and here, just coming up to the door of the +inn, was the good lady of my host. Her form and voice, and other +identifications dispelled the mist of the mistake; and it came out +as clear as day that I had followed the direction of my host, to +bear to the left, far too liberally, and that I had been walking at +my best speed in a "vicious circle" for full two hours and a half, +and had landed just where I commenced, at least within the breadth +of a narrow street of the same point. + +My good friends urged me to stop and dine with them, and then make a +fair start for the end of my week's journey. But it was still +twelve miles to Saffron Walden, and I was determined to put half of +them behind me before dinner. So, taking a second leave of them in +the course of three hours, I set out again on my walk, a wiser man +in the practical understanding of the proverb, "The longest way +around is the shortest way there." At 2 p.m. I reached Thaxted, +and rectified my first notion of the town, formed when I mistook it +for Bardfield. Having made six miles extra between the two points, +I resumed my walk after a short delay at the latter. + +The weather was glorious. A cloudless sun shone upon a little sky- +crystalled world of beauty, smaller in every dimension than you ever +see in America. And this is a feature of English scenery that will +strike the American traveller most impressively at the first glance, +whether he looks at it by night or day. It is not that Nature, in +adjusting the symmetries of her scenic structures, nicely apportions +the skyscape to the landscape of a country merely for artistic +effect. It is not because the island of Great Britain is so small +in circumference that the sky is proportioned to it, as the crystal +is to the dial of a watch; that it is so apparently low; that the +stars it holds to its moist, blue bosom are so near at midnight, and +the sun so large at noon. It comes, doubtless, from that constant +humidity of the atmosphere which distinguishes the climate of +England, and gives to both land and sky an aspect which is quite +unknown to our great western continent. An American, after having +habituated himself to this aspect, on returning to his own country, +will be almost surprised at a feature of its scenery which he never +noticed before. He will be struck at the loftiness of the sky; at +the vividness of its blue and gold, the sharp, unsoftened light of +the stars, and, as it were, the contracted pupil of the sun's eye at +mid-day. The sunset glories of our western heavens play upon a +ground of rigid blue. "The Northern Lights," which, at their winter +evening illuminations, seem to have shredded into wavy filaments all +the rainbows that have spanned the chambers of the East since the +Flood, and to upspring, in mirthful fantasy, to hang their +infinitely-tinted tresses to the zenith's golden diadem of stars-- +even they sport upon the same lofty concave of dewless blue, which +looks through and through the lacework and everchanging drapery of +their mingled hues in the most witching mazes of their nightly +waltz, giving to each a definiteness that our homely Saxon tongue +might fit with a name. + +But here, on the lower grounds of instructive meditation, is a +humbler individuality of the country to notice. Here is the most +sadly abused and melancholy living creature in all England's animal +realm that meets me in the midst of these reflections on things +supernal and glorious. I will let the Northern Lights go, with +their gorgeous pantomimes and midnight revelries, and have a +moment's communing with this unfortunate quadruped. It is called in +derision here a "_donkey_," but an ass, in a more generous time, +when one of his race and size bore upon his back into the Holy City +the world's Saviour and Re-Creator. Poor, libelled, hopeless beast! +I pity you from my heart's heart. How I wish for Sterne's pen to do +you some measure of justice or condolence under this heavy load of +opprobrium that bends your back and makes your life so sunless and +bitter! Come here, sir!--here is a biscuit for you, of the finest +wheat; few of your race get such morsels; so, eat it and be +thankful. What ears! No wonder our friend Patrick called you "the +father of all rabbits" at first sight. No! don't turn away your +head, as if I were going to strike you. + +Most animals are best described from a certain point of _view_,--in +a fixed and quiescent attitude. But the donkey should be taken in +the very act of this characteristic motion. You put out your hand +in the gentlest manner to pat any one of them you meet, and he will +instinctively turn away his head for fear of a beating. + +There is an interesting speculation now coming up among modern +reveries in regard to the immortality of certain animals of great +intelligence and domestic virtues. A large and tender kindness of +disposition is the father of the thought, it may be; but the thought +seems to gain ground and take shape, that so much of apparently +human mind and heart as the dog possesses cannot be destined to +annihilation at his death, but must live and enlarge in another +sphere of existence. Having thus opened, if it may be said +reverently, a back-door into immortality for sagacious and +affectionate dogs and horses, they leave it ajar for the admission +of animals of less intelligence--even for all the kinds that Noah +took into the ark, perhaps, although the theory is still nebulous +and undefined. Now, I would beg the kind-hearted adherents to this +theory not to think I am seeking to play off a satirical pleasantry +upon it, if I express a hope, which is earnest and true, that, if +there be an immortality for any class of dumb animals, the donkey +shall go into it first, and have a better place in it than their +parlor dogs or nicely-groomed horses. Evidently they are building +up a claim to this illustrious distinction of another existence for +these pets on the sole ground of merit, not of works, even, but of +mere intelligence, fidelity, and affection. Granted; but the donkey +should go in first and take the highest place on that basis. When +you come to the standard of moral measurement, it may be claimed as +among the highest of human as well as animal virtues, "to learn to +suffer and be strong." And this virtue the donkey has learned and +practised incomparably beyond any other creature that ever walked on +four legs since the Flood. Let these good people remember that +their fanciful and romantic favoritisms are not to rule in the +destinies awarded to the infinitesimally human spirits of domestic +animals in another world, if another be in reserve for them. Let +them remember that their softly-cushioned dogs, and horses so +delicately clad, and fed, and fondled, have had a pretty good time +of it in this life, and that in another, the poor, despised, abused +donkey, going about begging, with such a long and melancholy face, +for withered cabbage leaves and woody-grained turnips cast out and +trodden under feet of happier animals,--that this meek little +creature, kicked, cuffed, and club-beaten all the way from hopeless +youth to an ignominious grave, will carry into another world merits +and mementoes of his earthly lot that will obtain, if not entitle +him to, some compensation in the award of a future condition. It is +treading on delicate ground even to set one foot within the pale of +their unscriptural theory; but as many of them hold the Christian +faith in pureness of living and doctrine, let me remind them of that +parable which shows so impressively how the disparities in human +condition here are reversed in the destinies of the great hereafter. + +But, to return to the earthly lot and position of this poor, +libelled animal. Among all the four-footed creatures domesticated +to the service of man, this has always been the veriest scapegoat +and victim of the cruellest and crabbedest of human dispositions. +Truly, it has ever been born unto sorrow, bearing all its life long +a weight of abuse and contumely which would break the heart of a +less sensitive animal in a single week. From the beginning it has +been the poor man's beast of burden; and "pity 'tis 'tis true," poor +men, in all the generations of human poverty, have been far too +prone to harshness of temper and treatment towards the beasts that +serve them and share their lot of humble life. The donkey is made a +kind of Ishmaelite in the great family of domestic animals. He is +made, not born so. He is beaten about the head unmercifully with a +heavy stick, and then jeered at for being stupid and obstinate! just +as if any other creature, of four or two legs, would not be stupid +after such fierce congestion of the brain. His long ears subject +him to a more cruel prejudice than ever color engendered in the +circle of humanity but just above him. True, he is rather +unsymmetrical in form. His head is disproportionately long and +large, quite sufficient in these dimensions to fit a camel. He is +generally a hollow-backed, pot-bellied creature, about the size of a +yearling calf, with ungainly, sloping haunches, and long, coarse +hair. But nearly all these deformities come out of the shameful +treatment he gets. You occasionally meet one that might hold up its +head in any animal society; with straight back, symmetrical body and +limbs, and hair as soft and sleek as the fur of a Maltese cat; with +contented face, and hopeful and happy eyes, showing that he has a +kind master. + +The donkey is really a useful and valuable animal, which might be +introduced into America with great advantage to our farmers. I know +of no animal of its size so tough and strong. It is astonishing, as +well as shocking, to see what loads he is made to draw here. The +vehicle to which he is usually harnessed is a heavy, solid affair, +frequently as large as our common horse-carts. He is put to all +kinds of work, and is almost exclusively the poor man's beast of +burden and travel. In cities and large towns, his cart is loaded +with the infinitely-varied wares of street trade; with cabbages, +fish, fruit, or with some of the thousand-and-one nicknacks that +find a market among the masses of the common people. At watering- +places, or on the "commons" or suburban playgrounds of large towns, +he is brought out in a handsome saddle, or a well got-up little +carriage, and let by the hour or by the ride to invalid adults, or +to children bubbling over with life. Here, although the everlasting +club, to which he is born, is wielded by his driver, he often looks +comfortable and sleek, and sometimes wears a red ribbon at each ear. +It would not pay to bring on to the ground the scrawny, bony +creature that generally tugs in the costermonger's cart. It is in +the coal region or trade that you meet with him and his driver in +their worst apostacy from all that is seemly in man or beast. To +watch the poor creature, begrimed with coal-dust, wriggling up a +long, steep hill, with a load four times his own weight, griping +with his little sheep-footed hoofs into the black, slimy pavement of +the road, while his tall, sooty-faced and harsh-voiced master, +perhaps sitting on the top or on a shaft, is punching and beating +him; to see this is enough to stir up the old adam in the meekest +Christian to emotions of pugilistic indignation. It has often cost +me a doubtful and protracted effort to keep it down. Indeed, I have +often yielded to it so far as to wish that once more the poor +creature might be honored of God with His gift to Balaam's ass, and +be able to speak, bolt outright, an indignant remonstrance, in human +speech, against such treatment. It would serve them right!--these +lineal descendants of Balaam, who have inherited his club and wield +it more cruelly. + +A word or two more about this animal, and I will pass on to others +of more dignity of position. He is the cheapest as well as smallest +beast of burden to be found in Christendom. You may buy one here +for twenty or thirty English shillings. I am confident that they +would be extremely serviceable in America, if once introduced. It +costs but very little to keep them, and they will do all kinds of +work up to the draught of 600 or 800 lbs. You frequently see here a +span of them trotting off in a cart, with brisk and even step. +Sometimes they are put on as leaders to a team of horses. I once +saw on my walk a heavy Lincolnshire horse in the shafts, a pony +next, and a donkey at the head, making a team graduated from 18 +hands to 6 in height; and all pulling evenly, and apparently keeping +step with each other, notwithstanding the disparity in the length of +their legs. + +It would be unjust to that goodwill to man and beast which is being +organised and stimulated in England through an infinite number of +societies, if I should omit to state that, at last, a little rill of +this benevolence has reached the donkey. That most valuable and +widely-circulated penny magazine, "The British Workman," and its +little companion for British workmen's children, "The Band of Hope +Review," have advocated the rights and better treatment of this +humble domestic for several years. His cause has also been pleaded +in a packet of little papers called "Leaflets of the Law of Kindness +for the Children." And now, at last, a wealthy and benevolent +champion, on whom the mantle of Elizabeth Fry, his aunt, has fallen, +has taken the lead in the work of raising the useful creature to the +level of the other animals of the pasture, stable, and barn-yard. +Up to the present time, every creature that walks on four or two +legs, either haired, woolled, or feathered, with the single +exception of the donkey has had the door of the Agricultural +Exhibition thrown wide open to it, to enter the lists for prizes or +"honorable mention," and for general admiration. A pig, whose legs +and eyes have all been absorbed out of sight by an immense rotundity +of fat, is often decked with a ribbon, of the Order of the Garter +genus, as a reward of merit, or of grace of form and proportions! +Turkeys, geese, ducks, and hens of different breeds, strut or waddle +off with similar distinctions. As for blood-horses, bulls, cows, +and sheep, one not versed in such matters might be tempted to think +that men, especially the poorer sort, were made for beasts, and not +beasts for men. And yet, mirabile dictu! at these great social +gatherings of man-and-animal kind, there has not been even "a negro- +pew" for the donkey. A genuine, raw, Guinea negro might have as +well entered the Prince of Wales' Ball in New York bare-footed, and +offered to play a voluntary on his banjo for the dancers, as this +despised quadruped have hoped to obtain the entree to these grand +and fashionable assemblies of the shorter-eared elite of society. + +But this prejudice against color and long ears is now going the way +of other barbarisms. The gentleman to whom I have referred, a +Member of Parliament, whose means are as large as his benevolence, +has taken the first and decisive step towards raising the donkey to +his true place in society. He has offered a liberal prize for the +best conditioned one exhibited at the next Agricultural Fair. Since +this offer was made, a very decided improvement has been noticed +among the donkeys of the London costermongers, as if the competition +for the first prize was to be a very large one. + +It will be a kind of St. Crispin's Day to the whole of the long- +eared race--a day of emancipation from forty centuries of obloquy +and oppression. Doubtless they will be admitted hereafter to the +Royal Agricultural Society's exhibitions, to compete for honors with +animals that have hitherto spurned such association with contempt. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +HOSPITALITIES OF "FRIENDS"--HARVEST ASPECTS--ENGLISH COUNTRY INNS; +THEIR APPEARANCE, NAMES, AND DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS--THE +LANDLADY, WAITER, CHAMBERMAID, AND BOOTS--EXTRA FEES AND EXTRA +COMFORTS. + +I reached Saffron Walden at 4 p.m., notwithstanding my involuntary +walk of six extra miles in the morning. Here I remained over the +Sabbath, again enjoying the hospitality of a Friend. And perhaps I +may say it here and now with as much propriety as at any other time +and place, that few persons, outside the pale of that society, have +more frequently or fully enjoyed that hospitality than myself. This +pleasant experience has covered the space of more than sixteen +years. During this period, with the exception of short intervals, I +have been occupied with movements which the Friends in England have +always regarded with especial sympathy. This connection has brought +me into acquaintance with members of the society in almost every +town in Great Britain in which they reside; and in more than a +hundred of their homes I have been received as a guest with a +kindness which will make to my life's end one of its sunniest +memories. + +On the following Monday, I resumed my walk northward, after a +carriage ride which a Friend kindly gave me for a few miles on the +way. Passed through a pre-eminently grain-producing district. +Apparently full three-fourths of the land were covered with wheat, +barley, oats, and beans. The fields of each were larger than I had +noticed before; some containing 100 acres. The coming harvest is +putting forth the full glory of its golden promise. The weather is +all a farmer could wish, beautiful, warm, and bright. Nature, in +every feature of its various scapes, seems to smile with the joy of +that human happiness which her ministries inspire. Here, in these +still expanses, waving with luxuriant crops, apparently so thinly +peopled, one, forgetting the immense populations crowded into city +spaces, is almost tempted to ask, where are all the mouths to eat +this wide sea of food for man and beast, softening so gently into a +yellow sheen under the very rim of the distant horizon? But, in the +great heart of London, beating with the wants of millions, he will +be likely to reverse the question, and ask, where can one buy bread +wherewith to feed this great multitude? + +At Sawston, a rustic little village on the southern border of +Cambridgeshire, I entered upon the enjoyment of English country-inn +life with that relish which no one born in a foreign land can so +fully feel as an American. As one looks upon the living face of +some distinguished celebrity for the first time, after having had +his portrait hung up in the parlor for twenty years, so an American +looks, for the first time, at that great and picturesque speciality +among human institutions, the village inn of old England. The like +of it he never saw in his own country and never will. In fact, he +would not like to see it there, plucked up out of its ancient +histories and associations. In the ever-green foliage of these it +stands inwoven, as with its own network of ivy. Other countries, +even older than England, have had their taverns from time +immemorial; but they are all kept in the background of human life. +They do not come out in contemporaneous history with any +definiteness; not even accidentally. If a king is murdered in one +of them, or if it is the theatre of the most thrilling romance of +love, you do not know whether it is a building of stone, brick, or +wood; whether it is one, two, or three stories in height. No +outlines nor aspects are given you to help to fill up a rational +picture of it. Neither the landlord nor the landlady is drawn as a +representative man or woman. Either might be mistaken for a guest +in their own house, if seen in hat or bonnet by a stranger. + +But not so of the English country inn. It comes out into the +foreground of a thousand interesting histories and pictures of +common life. In them it has an individuality as marked as the +parish church, couchante in its wide-rimmed nest of grave stones; as +marked in unique architecture, location, and surroundings. In none +of these features will you find two alike, if you travel from one +end of the country to the other; especially among those a century +old. You might as well mistake one of the living animals for the +other, as to mistake "The Blue Boar" for "The Red Lion." They +differ as much from each other in general make and aspect as do +their nominal prototypes. To give every one of their thousands "a +local habitation and a name" of striking distinctness, has required +an ingenuity which has produced many interesting feats of house- +building and nomenclature. Both these departments of genius figure +largely in the poetry and classics of the institution, with which +the reading million of America have been familiar from youth up. +And when any of them come to travel in England, it will greatly +enhance their enjoyment to find that the pictures they have admired +and the descriptions they have read of the famous country inn have +been true to the very life and letter. All its salient features +they recognise at once, and are ready to exclaim, "How natural!" +meaning by that, how true is the original to the picture which they +have seen so frequently. If they go far enough, they will find the +very original of every one of the hundred pictures they have seen, +painted by pen or pencil. They will find that all of them have been +true copies from nature. Here is the portly-looking, well-to-do, +two-story tavern, standing out with its comfortable, cream-colored +face broadside to the street. It is represented in the old +engraving with a coach-and-four drawn up before the door, surrounded +by a crowd of spectators and passengers, some descending and +ascending on ladders over the forward wheels; some looking with +admiration at the scarlet coats of the pursy and consequential +driver and guard; some exchanging greetings, others farewell +salutations; ostlers in long waistcoats, plush or fustian shorts, +and yellow leggings, standing bareheaded with watering-pails at the +"'osses' 'eads;" trunks great and small going up and down; village +boys in high excitement; village grandfathers looking very animated; +the landlord, burly, bland, and happy, with a face as rotund and +genial as the full moon shining upon the scene; and those round, +rosy, sunny, laughing faces peering out of the windows with +delightful wonderment and exhilaration, winked at by the driver, and +saluted with a graceful motion of his whip-handle in recognition of +the barmaid, chambermaid, and all the other maids of the house. The +coach, with all its picturesque appointments, its four-in-hand, the +stirring heraldry of its horn coming down the road, its rattling +wheels, the life and stir aroused and moved in its wake,--all this +has gone from the presence of a higher civilisation. It will never +re-appear in future pictures of actual life in England. It is all +gone where the hedges and hedge-row trees will probably go in their +turn. But the same village inn remains, and can be as easily +recognised as a widow in weeds, who still wears a hopeful face, and +makes the best of her bereavement. + +But that humbler type of hostelry so often represented in sketches +of English rural life and scenery--the little, cozy, one-story, +wayside, or hamlet inn, with its thatched roof, checker-work window, +low door, and with a loaded hay-cart standing in front of it, while +the driver, in his round, wool hat, and in his smock-frock, is +drinking at a pewter mug of beer, with one hand on his horse's neck- +-this the hand of modern improvements has not yet reached. This may +be found still in a thousand villages and hamlets, surrounded with +all its rural associations; the green, the geese, and gray donkeys +feeding side by side; low-jointed cottages, with long, sloping roofs +greened over with moss or grass, and other objects usually shadowed +dimly in the background of the picture. It is these quiet hamlets +and houses in the still depths of the country, away from the noise +and bluster of railway life and motion, that best represent and +perpetuate the primeval characteristics of a nation. These the +American traveller will find invested with all the old charm with +which his fancy clothed them. It will well repay him for a month's +walk to see and enjoy them thoroughly. + +In these days of sun-literature, whose letters are human faces, and +whose new volumes are numbered by the million yearly, without a +duplicate to one of them, I am confident that a volume of these +English village inns of the olden school, in photographs, would +command a large sale and admiration in America, merely as specimens +of unique and interesting architecture. A thousand might be taken, +every one as unlike the other in distinctive form and feature, as +every one of the same number of men would be to the other. + +The diversification of names, being more difficult, is still more +remarkable. Although the spread eagle figures largely as the patron +genius of American hotels, still nine-tenths of them bear the names +of states, counties, towns, or national or local celebrities. But +here natural history comes out strong and wide. The heraldry of +sovereigns, aristocracy, gentry, commercial and industrial +interests, puts up its various _arms_ upon hundreds of inns in town +and country. All occupations and recreations are well represented. +Thus no country in the world approaches England in the wide scope +and play of hotel nomenclature. Some of the combinations are +exceedingly unique and most interesting in their incongruity. +Dickens has not exaggerated this characteristic; not even done it +justice in his hotel scenes. Things are put together on a hundred +tavern signs that were never joined before in the natural or moral +world, and put together frequently in most grotesque association. +For instance, there is a large, first-class inn right in the very +heart of London, which has for a sign, not painted on a board, but +let into the wall of the upper story, in solid statuary, a huge +human mouth opened to its utmost capacity, and a bull, round and +plump, standing stoutly on its four legs between the two distended +jaws. Now, the leading idea of this device is involved in a +tempting obscurity, which leads one, at first sight, into different +lines of conjecture. What did the designer of this group of +statuary really intend to represent? Was it to let the outside +world know that, in that inn, the "Roast Beef of Old England" was +always to be found par excellence? If so, would a man's mouth +swallowing a bull whole, and apparently alive, with hide and horns, +tend to stimulate the appetite of a passing traveller, and to draw +him into the establishment? But leaving these ambiguous symbols to +be interpreted by the passing public according to different +perceptions of their meaning, how many in a thousand would guess +aright the name given to the tavern by these tokens? Would not +ninety-nine in a hundred say, "The Mouth and Bull," to be sure, not +only on the principle that the major includes the minor, but also +because the human element is entitled to precedence in the picture? +But the ninety-nine would be completely mistaken, if they adopted +this natural conclusion. They would find they had counted without +their host, who knows better than they the relative position and +value of things. What has the law of logic to do with fat beef? +The name of his famous hotel is "THE BULL AND MOUTH;" and few in +London have attained to its celebrity as a historical building. One +is apt to wonder if this precedence given to the beast is really +incidental, or adopted to give euphony to the name of an inn, or +whether there is a latent and spontaneous leaning to such a method +of association, from some cause or other connected with perceptions +of personal comfort afforded at such establishments. Accidental or +intentional, this form of association is very common. There is no +tavern in London better known than The Elephant and Castle, a +designation that would sound equally well if the two substantives +were transposed. Even the loftiest symbols of sovereignty often +occupy the secondary place in these compound titles. There are, +doubtless, a hundred inns in Great Britain bearing the name of The +Rose and Crown, but not one, to my knowledge, called "The Crown and +Rose." The same order obtains in sporting sections and terminology. +It is always "The _Hare_ and Hounds;" never "_Hounds_ and Hare." + +This characteristic in itself is very interesting, and no American, +with an eye to the unique, would like to see it changed. But if the +more syntax of hotel names in England is so pleasant for him to +study, how much more admirable is their variety! He has read at +home of many of them in lively romance and grave history but he +finds here that not half has been told him. He is familiar with the +Lions, Red, White, and Black; the Bulls and Boars of the same +colors; the Black and White Swans and Harts; the Crown and Anchor, +the Royal George, Queen's Head, and a few others of similar +designation. These names have figured in volumes of English +literature which he has perused. But let him travel on the turnpike +road through country towns and villages, and he will meet with names +he never thought of before, mounted over the doors of some of the +most comfortable and delightful houses of entertainment for man and +beast that can be found in the world. Here are a few that I have +noticed: "The Three Jolly Butchers," "The Old Mash Tub," "The Old +Mermaid," "The Old Malt Shovel," "The Chequers," "The Dog-in- +Doublet," "Bishop Boniface," "The Spotted Cow," "The Green Dragon," +"The Three Horseshoes," "The Bird-in-Hand," "The Spare Rib," "The +Old Cock," "Pop goes the Weasel." There are wide spaces between +these names which may be filled up from actual life with numbers of +equal uniqueness. But it is not in architecture nor in name that +the country inn presents its most attractive characteristic. These +features merely specialise its outward corporeity. The living, +brightening, all-pervading soul of the establishment is the +LANDLADY. Let her name be written in capitals evermore. There is +nothing so naturally, speakingly, and gloriously English in the wide +world as she. It is doubtful if the nation is aware of this, but it +is the fact. Her English individuality stands out embonpoint, rosy, +genial, self-complacent, calm, serene, happyfying, and happy. She +is the man and master of the house. She permeates it with her +rayful presence, and fills it with a pleasant morning in foggy and +blue-spirited days. She it is who greets the coming and speeds the +parting guest with a grace which suns, with equal light and warmth, +both remembrance and anticipation. It is not put on like a Sunday +dress; it is not a thin gloss of French politeness that a feather, +blown the wrong way, will brush off. It is not a color; it is a +quality. You see it breathe and move in her like a nature, not as +an art. Let no American traveller fancy he has seen England if he +has not seen the Landlady of the village inn. If he has to miss +one, he had better give up his visit to the Crystal Palace, +Stratford-upon-Avon, Abbottsford, or even the House of Lords, or +Windsor itself. Neither is so perfectly and exclusively English as +the mistress of "The Brindled Cow," in one of the rural counties of +the kingdom. + +It would be necessary to coin a new word if one were sought to +contain and convey the distinctive characteristic of inn-life in +England. Perhaps _homefulness_ would do this best, as it would more +fully than any other term describe the coziness, quiet, and comfort +to be enjoyed at these places of entertainment. Not one in a +hundred of them ever heard the sound of the hotel-going bell, as we +hear it in America. You are not thundered up or down by a +vociferous gong. Then there is no marching nor counter-marching of +a long line of waiters in white jackets around the dinner table, +laying down plate, knife, fork, and spoon with uniform step and +motion, as if going through a dress-parade or a military drill. +There is no bustle, no noise, no eager nor anxious look of served or +servants. Every one is calm, collected, and comfortable. "The +cares that infest the day" do not ride into the presence of that +roast beef and plum pudding on the wrinkles of any man's forehead, +however business affairs may go with him outside. No one is in a +hurry to sit down or to arise from the table. The whole economy of +the establishment is to make you as much at home as possible; to +individualise you, as far as it can be done, in every department of +personal comfort. You follow your own time and inclination, and eat +and drink when and how you please, with others or alone. The +congregate system is the exception, not the rule. It seldom ever +obtains at breakfast or tea. In many cases you have a little round +table all to yourself at these meals. But if there is a common +table for half a dozen persons, the tea and toast and other eatables +are never aggregated into a common stock. Each person if he is a +single guest, has his own allotment, even to a separate tea-pot. +The table d'hote, if there be one at all, is made up like a select +dinner party, rather early in the morning. If the guests of the +house are not directly invited, they are asked, in a tone of +hospitality, if they will join in the social meal, the only one got +up by the establishment at which the table is not mapped out in +separate holdings, or little independencies of dishes, each bounded +by the wants and capacities of the individual occupant. + +The presiding and working faculty of a common English inn +distinguishes it by another salient characteristic from the hotels +of other countries. The landlady is, of course, the president of +the establishment, whether or not she calls any man lord in the +retired and family department of the house. But the actual +gerantes, or working corps, with which you have to do immediately, +are three independent and distinct personages, called the waiter, +chambermaid, and _boots_. If it were respectful to gender, these +might be called the great triumvirate of the English inn. No +traveller after a night's lodging and breakfast, will mistake or +confound the prerogatives or perquisites of these officials. If he +is an American, and it be his first experience of the regime, he +will be surprised and puzzled at the imperium in imperio which his +bill, presented to him on a tea-tray, seems to represent. In no +other business transaction of his life did he ever see the like. It +goes far beyond anything in the line of limited partnership he ever +saw. There is only one partial parallel that approaches it; and +this comes to his mind as he reads the several items on his bill. +When made out and interpreted, it comes to this: the proprietor, +the waiter, chambermaid, and boots are independent parties, who get +up a night's lodging and two or three meals for you on the same +footing as four independent underwriters would take proportionate +risks at Lloyd's in some ship at sea. Or, what would put it in +simpler form to an uninitiated guest, he is apparently first charged +for the raw provisions he consumes, and for the rent of his bed- +room. This is the proprietor's share. Then, there is a separate +charge for each of the remaining items of the entertainment,--for +cooking and serving up each meal, for making up your bed, and for +blacking your boots; just as distinctly as if you had gone out into +the town the previous evening and hired three separate individuals +to perform these services for you; and as if you had no right nor +reason to expect from the landlord a dinner all cooked and served, +but that you only bought it in the larder. + +Now, this is a peculiarity of the English hotel system that is apt +to embarrass travellers from other countries, especially from +America, where no such custom could be introduced. I do not know +how old the custom is in Great Britain. Doubtless it originated in +the almost universal disposition and habit of Englishmen of dropping +gratuities or charity-gifts here and there with liberal hand, either +to obtain or reward extra service in matters of personal comfort, or +to alleviate some case of actual or stimulated suffering that meets +them. It was natural and inevitable that gratuities thus given to +hotel servants frequently to stimulate and reward special attention +should soon become a rule, acting upon guests like a law of honor. +When so many gave, and when the servants of every hotel expected a +gift, a man must feel shabby to go away without dropping a few +pennies into the hands of eager expectants who almost claimed the +gratuity as a right. The worst stage of the system was when the +expected gift was measured by your supposed position and ability, or +when the waiter or the chambermaid, flattering you with what +Falstaff would call an instinctive perception of your dignity, would +say with an asking and hopeful smile, "What you please, sir." Now, +that was not the question with you at all. You wanted to know how +much each expected, or how much you must give to acquit yourself of +the charge of being "a screw," when they put their heads and gains +together in conference and comparison after you were gone. So, on +the whole, it was a great relief when all these awkward +uncertainties of expectation were cleared up and rectified in the +system now usually adopted. + +Whether you be rich or poor, or whatever position or pretension be +attributed to you, the fees of the universal triumvirate are put +down specifically in black and white among the other charges on your +bill. As I hope these notes may convey some useful information to +Americans who may be about to visit England for the first time, it +may be of some use to them to state what is the usual rule in this +matter at the middle-class hotels in this country; for with those of +the first rank I never have made nor ever expect to make any +personal acquaintance. A moderate bill for a day's entertainment +will read thus:-- + + s.d. +Tea (bread and butter or toast) 1 0 +Bed 1 6 +Breakfast (rasher of bacon, eggs, or cold meats) 1 6 +Dinner 2 6 +Waiter 0 9 +Chambermaid 0 6 +Boots 0 3 + ---- + Total 8 0 + +These are about the average charges at the middle-class hotels in +Great Britain. Generally the servants' fees amount to 25 per cent. +of the whole bill. These, too, are graduated to parts of days. The +waiter expects 3d. for every meal he serves; the chambermaid 6d. for +every bed she makes, and the boots 3d. for doing every pair of +boots, brogans, or shoes. You will pay these charges with all the +better grace and good-will to these servants when you come to learn +that these fees frequently, if not always, constitute all the salary +they receive for hotel service. Even in a great number of eating- +shops the same rule obtains. The penny you give the waiter, male or +female, is all he or she gets for serving you. Besides this +consideration, you get back much additional personal comfort from +these extras. The waiter serves you with extra satisfaction and +assiduity under their stimulus. He acts the host very blandly. He +answers a hundred questions, extraneous to the meal, with good- +natured readiness. He is a good judge of the weather and its signs. +He is well "posted-up" in the local histories and sceneries of the +place. He can give political information on both sides, incidents +and anecdotes to match, whether you are Tory, Whig, or Radical. If +you have a bias in that direction, he has or has heard some thoughts +on Bishop Colenso and the Tractarians. In short, he caters to the +humour and disposition of every guest with a happy facility of +adaptation; and the shilling you give him at the end of a day's +entertainment has been pretty well earned, if you have availed +yourself of all these extra attentions which he is prepared and +expecting to give for it. + +The same may be said of the chambermaid. She is not the taciturn +invisible that steals in and out of your bed-room, and does it up +when you are at breakfast or at your out-door business--whom you +never see, except by sheer accident, as in the American hotel. She +is an important and prominent personage in the English inn. She is +a kind of mistress of the robes, and exercises her prerogative with +much conscious dignity and self-satisfaction; and, what is better, +with great satisfaction to yourself. No other subordinate official +or servant trenches or poaches upon her preserves. She it is who +precedes you up stairs with a candle, on a broad-bottomed brass +candlestick, polished to its highest lustre. She conducts you to +your room as if you were her personal guest, invited and expected a +month ago. She opens the door with amiable complacency, as if +welcoming you to a hospitality which she had prepared for you with +especial care, before she knew you had arrived in town. She invites +you, by a movement of her eyes, to glance at the room and see how +comfortable it is; how round and soft is the bed, how white and +well-aired are the sheets and pillows, how nice the curtains, how +clean and tidy the carpet, in short, how everything is fitted to +incline you to "rest and be thankful." And then the cheery "_good +night_!" she bids you is said with a tone that is worth the sixpence +she expects in the morning; and you pay it, too, with a much better +grace than could be expected from an American recently arrived in +the country. + +And the "boots" is a character, too, unmixedly and interestingly +English, in name, person, appearance, and position. In the first of +these qualities he is unique, being called after the subject of his +occupation. He is an important personage, and generally has his own +bell in the dining-room, surmounted by his name, to be called for +any service coming within his department. And this is quite a wide +one, including a great variety of errandry and porterage, as well as +polishing boots and shoes. He is very helpful in a great many +different ways, and often very intelligent, and knows all about the +streets, the railway trains, the omnibuses, cabs, etc., and will +assist you in such matters with good grace and activity. He may +have got in the way of putting the H before the eggs instead of the +ham; but he is just as good for all that, and more interesting +besides. So you do not grudge the 3d. you give him daily for his +strictly professional services, or the extra 6d. he expects for +carrying your carpet-bag or portmanteau to the railway-station. + +Thus, although this feeing of servants may seem at first strange to +an American traveller in England, and may occasion him some +perplexity and even annoyance, he will soon become accustomed to it; +and in making up the balance-sheet of the additional cost on one +side and the additional comfort on the other which the system +produces, he will come even to the mathematical conclusion, "if to +equals you add equals, the sums will be equals." + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +LIGHT OF HUMAN LIVES--PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIOGRAPHS--THE LATE JONAS +WEBB, HIS LIFE, LABORS, AND MEMORY. + +The next morning I resumed my walk and visited a locality bearing a +name and association of world-wide celebrity and interest. It is +the name of a small rural hamlet, hardly large enough to be called a +village, and marked by no trait of nature or art to give it +distinction. + +There are conditions and characteristics both in the natural and +moral world which can hardly be described fully in Saxon, Latin, or +Greek terminology, even with the largest license of construction. +There are attributes or qualities attaching to certain locations, of +the simplest natural features, which cannot even be hinted at or +suggested by the terms, _geography, topography, or biography_. Put +the three together and condense or collocate their several meanings +in one compound qualification which you can write and another spell, +and you do not compass the signification you want to convey. The +soul of man has its immortality, and the feeblest-minded peasant +believes he shall wear it through the ages of the great hereafter. +The literature of human thoughts claims a life that shall endure as +long as the future existence of humanity. The memory of many human +actions and lives puts in a plea and promise of a duration that +shall distance the sun's, and overlap upon the bright centuries of +eternity. The human body, even, is promised its resurrection by the +divinest authority and illustration, and waits hopefully, under all +its pains and weaknesses, for the glory to be revealed in it when +the earth on which it dwells shall have become "a forgotten +circumstance." Human loves, remembrances, faiths, and fellowships +lift up all their meek hands to the Father of Spirits, praying to be +lifted up into His great immortality, and to be permitted to take +with them unbroken the associations that sweetened this earthly +life. Many humble souls that have passed through the furnace of +affliction, poverty, and trial seven times heated, and heated daily +here, have believed that He who went up through the same suffering +to His great White Throne, would let them sing beside the crystal +waters the same good old psalm tunes and songs of Sion which they +sang under the willows of this lower world of tears and tribulation. +How all the sparks of the undying life in man fly upward to the +zenith of this immortality! You may call the steep flights of this +faith pleasant and poetical diversions of a fervid imagination, but +they are winged with the pinions that angels lift when they soar; +pinions less ethereal than theirs, but formed and plumed to beat +upward on the Milky Way to their Source, instead of swimming in the +thinly-starred cerulean, in which spirits, never touched with the +down or dust of human attributes, descend and ascend on their +missions to the earth. Who can have the heart to handle harshly +these beautiful faiths? To say, this hope may go up, but this must +go down to the darkness of annihilation! Was it irreverent in the +pious singing-master of a New England village, when he said, that +often, while returning home late on bright winter nights, he had +dropped the reins upon his horse's neck, and sung Old Hundred from +the stars, set as notes to that holy tune, when they first sang +together in the morning of the creation? What spiritual good or +Christian end would be gained, to break up the charm and cheer of +this his belief? Or to dispel that other confidence, which so +helped him to bear earth's trials, that one day he should join all +the spirits of the just made perfect, and all the high angels in +heaven, and, on the plane of that golden gamut, they should sing +together their hymns of joy and praise, in that same, good, old +tune, from those same star-notes, which a thousand centuries should +not deflect nor transpose from their first order within those +everlasting staves and bars! + +If the spirit's faith be allowed such wide confidences as these; if +it may carry up into the invisible and infinite so many precious +relics from the wreck of time, so many human circumstances and +associations, why may it not take with it, to hang up in its heaven, +photographs of those earthly localities rendered immortal here by +the lives of good and great men? Such a life is a sun, and it casts +a disk of light upon the very earth on which it shines; not that +flashy circle which the lens of the microscope casts upon the +opposite wall, to show how scarcely visible mites may be magnified; +but a soft and steady illumination that does not dim under the +beating storms and bleaching dews of centuries, but grows brighter +and brighter, as if the seed-rays that made it first multiplied +themselves from year to year. The earth becomes more and more +thickly dotted with these permanent disks of light, and each is +visited by pilgrims, who go and stand with reverence and admiration +within the cheering circle. Shakespeare's thought-life threw out a +brilliant illumination, of wide circumference, at Stratford-upon- +Avon, and no locality in England bears a biograph more venerated +than the birth-place of the great poet. His thought-life was a sun +that will never set as long as this above us shines. It is rising +every year to new generations that never saw its rays before. When +he laid down his pen, at the end of his last drama, the whole +English-speaking race in both hemispheres did not number twice the +present population of London. Now, seventy-five millions, peopling +mighty continents, speak the tongue he raised to the grandest of all +earth's speeches; and those who people the antipodes claim to offer +the best homage to his genius. Thus it will go on to the end of +time. As the language he clothed with such power and might shall +spread itself over the earth, and be spoken, too, by races born to +another tongue, his life-rays will permeate the minds of countless +myriads, and the more widely they diverge and the farther they +reach, the brighter and warmer will be the glow and the flow of that +disk of light that embosoms and illumines his birth-place in +England. + +What is true of Stratford-upon-Avon is equally true of Abbotsford, +of the birth-place of Milton, Burns, Bunyan, Baxter, and other great +minds, which have shone each like a sun or star in its sphere. Now, +what one word, recognised as legitimate in scientific terminology, +would describe fully one of these disks of light cast by a human +life upon a certain space of earth, not as a fugitive flash, but as +a permanent illumination? _Photograph_ would not do it, because its +meaning is fixed and rigidly technical, as simple light-writing, or +sun-writing. The term is completely pre-occupied by this +signification, and you cannot inject the human life element into it. +_Biography_ is universally limited to an operation in which the life +is the subject, not the agent. It is simply the writing out of a +life's history by some one with a common goose-quill or steel pen. +Still, the word _biograph_ would be the best, of the same length, +that we could form to describe one of these disks of light, if it +were made the same verb active as _photograph_; or to mean that the +life is the agent, as well as the subject,--that it writes itself in +light upon a certain locality, just as the sun graves a human face +upon glass. Let us then call the bright and quenchless +planispheres, which such lives describe and fill around them, +_biographs_, assuming that the script is in rays of light. As +differ the stars above in glory, so these differ in the qualities of +their illumination. The brightest of them, to mere human seeming, +are those which shine with the sheer brilliancy of intellect and +genius. These chiefly halo the homes of "the grand old masters" of +poetry, painting, eloquence, and martial glory. These attract to +their disks pilgrims the most numerous and enthusiastic. But, as +the nearest stars are brightest, not largest, so these biographs are +brightest on their earth-side. There are thousands of less sharp +and spangling lustre to the eyes of the multitude, which shine with +tenfold more brilliancy from their eternity-face. These are they +that halo the homes of good men, whose great hearts drank in the +life of God's love in perpetual streams, and distilled it like a +luminous dew around them; men whose thoughts were not mere +scintillations of genius, but living labors of beneficence, bearing +the proof as well as promise of that immortality guaranteed to the +deeds of earth's saints. If the soul, after such long isolation, is +to take again to its embrace so much of the old human corporeity it +wore here below, does it transcend the prerogative of hope in the +great resurrection to believe that these biographs of God's loving +children on earth shall be taken up whole into the same immortality +as the bodies in which they worked His will among men? Is the faith +too fanciful or irreverent that believes, that the corridors and +inner temples of Heaven's Glory will be hung with these biographs of +His servants surrounding, like stars, the light-flood of His love +that radiated from His cross on earth? Is it too presumptuous to +think and say, that such pictures will be as precious in His sight +as any graven by the lives of angels on their outward or homeward +flights of duty and delight? These are they, therefore, that shall +give to the earth all the immortality to which it shall attain. +These are they that shall take up into the brilliant existence of +the hereafter, ten thousand sections of its corporeity; portions of +its surface, perhaps, as substantial as the human form that the +souls of men shall wear in another world. These are they that shall +shine as the stars, when those beaming so brilliantly in our eyes +around the shrines of mere intellect and genius, shall have "paled +their ineffectual fires" before the efflux of diviner light. Let +him, then, of thoughtful and attentive faculties think on these +great and holy possibilities, when he treads within the pale of a +good man's life, whose labors for human happiness "follow him" +according to divine promise; not out of the world, not down into the +grave with his resting body, but out among living generations, +breathing upon them and through them a blessed and everlasting +influence. Let him tread that disk of light reverentially, for it +is the holiest place on the earth's surface outside the immediate +circumference of Cavalry. + +This is Babraham; and here lived Jonas Webb; a good man and true, +whose influence and usefulness had a broader circumference than the +widest empire in the world. A Frenchman has written the fullest +history of both, and an American here offers reverentially a tribute +to his worth. The light of his life was a soft and gentle +illumination on its earth-side; the lustre of the other was revealed +only by partial glimpses to those who leaned closest to him in the +testing-moments of his higher nature. He was one of the great +benefactors, whose lives and labors become the common inheritance of +mankind, and whose names go down through long generations with a +pleasant memory. To a certain extent, he was to the great primeval +industry of the world, what Arkwright, Watts, Stephenson, Fulton and +Morse were each to the mechanical and scientific activities of the +age. He did as much, perhaps, as any man that ever preceded him, to +honor that industry, and lift it up to the level of the first +occupations of modern times, which had claimed higher qualities of +intelligence, genius and enterprize. He was a farmer, and his +ancestors had been farmers from time immemorial. He did not bound +into the occupation as an enthusiastic amateur, who had acquired a +large fortune by manufacturing or commercial enterprize, which he +was eager to lavish upon bold and uncertain experiments. He +attained his highest eminence by the careful gradations of a +continuous experience, reaching back far into the labors of his +ancestors. The science, skill and judgment he brought to bear upon +his operations, came from his reading, thinking, observations and +experiments as a practical and hereditary farmer. The capital he +employed in expanding these operations to their culminating +magnitude, he acquired by farming. The mental culture, the generous +dispositions, the refined manners, the graceful and manly bearing +which made him one of the first gentlemen of the age, he acquired as +a farmer. The mansion which welcomed to its easy and large-hearted +hospitalities guests of such distinction from his own and other +countries, was a farmer's home, and few ever opened their doors to +more urbanity and cordial cheer. This is an aspect of his character +which all those who follow the profession he honored should admire +with a laudable esprit de corps. + +As a back-ground is an important element in the portraiture of human +forms or natural scenery, so the ground on which the life and labors +of Jonas Webb should be sketched, merits a few preliminary lines. +Of all the occupations that employ and sustain the toiling myriads +of our race, agriculture leans closest to the bosom of Divine +Providence. It is an industry bound to the great and beautiful +economics of the creation by more visible and sensible ties than any +other worked by human hands. We will not here diverge to dwell upon +these high and interesting affiliations. In their place we will +give them a little extended thought. There is one feature of +agricultural enterprize, however, that should not be overlooked in +this connection. All its operations are above-board and open to the +wide world, just like the fields to which they are applied. Nothing +here is under lock and key. Nothing bears the grim warning over the +bolted door, "No admittance here except on business!"--meaning by +business, exclusively and sharply, the buying of certain wares of +the establishment at a good round profit to the manufacturer, +without carrying away a single scintillation or suggestion of his +skill. If he has invented or adopted machinery or a process of +labor which enables him to turn out cheap muslin at three farthings' +less cost per yard than his neighbors can make it, he seals up the +secret from them with the keenest vigilance. Not so in the great +and heaven-honored industry of agriculture. Its experiments and +improvements upon the earth's face are all put into the common stock +of human knowledge and happiness. They can no more be placed under +lock and key, as selfish secrets, than the stars themselves that +look down upon them with all their golden eyes. No new implement of +husbandry, no new mechanical force or chemical principle, no new +process of labor or line of economy is withheld from the great +commonwealth of mankind. As the broad skies above, as the sun and +moon, and stars, as the winds, the rains, the dews, the birds and +bees of heaven over-ride and ignore, in their missions, the +boundaries of jealous nations, so all the great activities of +agriculture prove their lineage by following the same generous rule. +They are bounded by no nationalities. They are shut up in no narrow +enclosure of self, but are put out as new vesicles of light to +brighten the general illumination of the world. + +The department in which Jonas Webb attained to his position and +capacity of usefulness was peculiarly marked by this characteristic. +In a certain sense, it occupied a higher range of interest than that +section of agriculture which is connected solely with the growing of +grain, grass, and other crops. His great and distinguishing +husbandry was the cultivation of animal life. To make two spires of +grass grow where only one grew before has been pronounced as a great +benefaction; and greater still are the merit and the gain of making +one grow where nothing grew before. To go into the midst of +Dartmoor, and turn an acre of its cold, stony, water-soaked waste +into a fruitful field of golden grain, is going into co-partnership +with Providence in the work of creation to a very large and honored +degree. But to put the skilful hand of science upon creatures of +flesh and blood, to re-form their physical structures and shapes, to +add new inches to their stature, straighten their backs, expand +their reins, amplify their chests, reduce all the lines and curves +of their forms to an unborn symmetry, and then to give silky +softness and texture to their aboriginal clothing--this seems to be +mounting one step higher in the attainment and dignity of creative +faculties. And this pre-eminently was the department in which Jonas +Webb acquired a distinction perhaps unparalleled to the present +time. This has made his name familiar all over Christendom, and +honored among the world's benefactors. Never, before him, did a +farm-stead become such a centre and have such a wide-sweeping radius +as his. None ever possessed such centripetal attractions, or +exerted such centrifugal influences for the material well-being of +different and distant countries. Indeed, those most remote are most +specially indebted to his large and generous operations. America +and Australia will ever owe his memory an everlasting homage. + +His operations filled and crowned two great departments of +improvement seldom, if ever, carried on simultaneously and evenly to +a great success by one man. His first distinguishing speciality was +sheep-culture. When he had brought this to the highest standard of +perfection ever attained, he devoted the surplus capital of skill, +experience and pecuniary means he had acquired from the process to +the breeding of cattle; and he became nearly as eminent in this +field of improvement as in the other. A few facts may serve as an +outline of his progress in both to the American reader who is +familiar with the general result of his efforts. + +Jonas Webb was born at Great Thurlow, Suffolk, on the 10th of +November, 1796. His father, who died at the age of ninety-three, +was a veteran in agriculture, and had attained to honorable +distinction by his efforts to improve the old Norfolk breed of +sheep, and by his experiments with other races. The results +obtained from these operations convinced his son that more mutton +and better wool could be made per acre from the Southdown than from +any other breed, upon nine-tenths of the arable land of England, +where the sheep are regularly folded, especially where the land is +poor. In 1822, he commenced that agricultural career which won for +him such a world-wide celebrity, by taking the Babraham Farm, +occupying about 1,000 acres, some twelve miles south of Cambridge. +In a very interesting letter, addressed to the Farmers' Magazine, +about twenty years since, he gives a valuable resume of his +experience up to that time. In this he states several facts that +may be especially useful to American agriculturists. Having decided +in his own mind that the Southdowns were preferable to every other +breed, for the two properties mentioned, he went into Sussex, their +native county, and purchased the best rams and ewes that could be +obtained of the principal breeders, regardless of expense, and never +made a cross from any other breed afterwards. Nor was this all; he +never introduced new blood into his stock from flocks of the same +breed, but, by a virtually in-and-in process, he was able to produce +qualities till then unknown to the race, and to make them permanent +and distinctive properties. Now this achievement in itself has an +interest beyond its utilitarian value to the agricultural world. To + + "Rejoice in the joy of well-created things" + +is one of the best privileges and pleasures of a well-constituted +mind. But what higher honor can attach to human science or industry +than that of taking such a visible and effective part in that +creation?--in sending out into the world successive generations of +animal life, bearing each, through future ages and distant +countries, the shaping impress of human fingers, long since gone +back to their dust; features, forms, lines, curves, qualities and +characteristics which those fingers, working, as it were, on the +right wrist of Divine Providence, gave to the sheep and cattle upon +a thousand hills in both hemispheres? There are flocks and herds +now grazing upon the boundless prairies of America, the vast plains +of Australia, the steppes of Russia, as well as on the smaller and +greener pastures of England, France, and Germany, that bear these +finger-marks of Jonas Webb, as mindless but everlasting memories to +his worth. If the owners of these "well-created things" value the +joy and profit which they thus derive from his long and laborious +years of devotion to their interests, let them see that these +finger-prints of his be not obliterated by their neglect, but be +perpetuated for ever, both for their own good and for an ever-living +memorial to his name. + +It is a fact of instructive suggestion, that although Mr. Webb +commenced his operations in 1822, he won his first prize for stock +ewes at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Cambridge +in 1840. Here he realised one of the serious disadvantages to which +stock-breeders in England are exposed, in "showing" sheep, cattle or +swine at these annual exhibitions. The great outside world, with +tastes that lean more to fat sirloins or shoulders than to the +better symmetries of animated nature, almost demands that every one +of these unfortunate beasts should be offered up as a bloated, +blowing sacrifice to those great twin idols of fleshy lust, Tallow +and Lard. If, therefore, a stock-raiser has not decided to drive +his Shorthorn cow or Southdown ewe immediately from the Fair-grounds +to the butcher's shambles, he runs an imminent risk of losing +entirely the use and value of the animal. So great is this risk, +that much of the stock that would be most useful for exhibition is +withheld, and can only be seen by visiting private establishments +scattered over the kingdom. They are too valuable to run the +terrible gauntlet of oil-cake, bean and barley-meal, through which +they must flounder on in cruel obesity to the prize. Especially is +this the case with breeding animals. Mr. Webb's experience at his +first trial of the process, will illustrate its tendencies and +results. Of the nine shearling ewes he "fed" for the Cambridge +Show, he lost _four_, and only raised two or three lambs from the +rest. At the Exhibition of 1841, at Liverpool, he won three out of +four of the prizes offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for +Southdowns, or any other short-woolled sheep; two out of four +offered at Bristol, in 1842, and three out of four offered at Derby, +in 1843. But here again he over-fed two of his best sheep, under +the inexorable rule of fat, which exercises such despotic sway over +these annual competitions, and was obliged to kill them before the +show. It will suffice to show the loss he incurred by this costly +homage to Tallow, to give his own words on the subject:--"I had +refused 180 guineas for the hire of the two sheep for the season. I +also quite destroyed the usefulness of two other aged sheep by over- +feeding them last year. Neither of them propogated [sic] through +the season, and I have had each of them killed in consequence, which +has so completely tired me of overfeeding that I never intend +exhibiting another aged ram, unless I greatly alter my mind, or can +find out some method of feeding them which will not destroy the +animals, and which I have hitherto failed to accomplish." The +conclusion which he adopted, in view of these liabilities, may be +useful to agriculturists in America as well as in England. He says, +"What I intend exhibiting in future will be shearlings only, as I +believe they are not so easily injured by extra feeding as aged +sheep, partly by being more active, and partly by having more time +to put on their extra condition, by which their constitutions are +not likely to be so much impaired." + +At nearly every subsequent national exhibition, Mr. Webb carried off +the best prizes for Southdowns. At Dundee, in 1843, the Highland +Society paid him the compliment of having the likenesses of his +sheep taken for its museum in Edinburgh. He only received two +checks in these competitions after 1840, and these he rectified and +overcame in an interesting way. The first took place at the great +meeting at Exeter, in 1850, and the second at Chelmsford, in 1856. +On both of these occasions he was convinced that the judges had not +done justice to the qualities of his animals, and he resolved to +submit their judgment to a court of errors, or to the decision of a +subsequent meeting of the society. So, in 1851, he presented the +unsuccessful candidate at Exeter to the meeting at Windsor, and took +the first prize for it. This fully reversed the Exeter verdict. He +resorted to the same tribunal to set him right in regard to his +apparent defeat at Chelmsford, in 1856. Next year he presented the +ram beaten there to the Salisbury meeting, and another jury gave the +animal the highest meed of merit. + +It was at the zenith of his fame as a sheep-breeder that Mr. Webb +"assisted," as the French say, at the Universal Exposition at Paris, +in 1855. Here his beautiful animals excited the liveliest +admiration. The Emperor came himself to examine them, and expressed +himself highly pleased at their splendid qualities. It was on this +occasion that Mr. Webb presented to the Emperor his prize ram, for +which, probably, he had refused the largest sum ever offered for a +single animal of the same race, or 500 guineas ($2,500). The +Emperor accepted the noble present, fully appreciating the spirit in +which it was offered, and some time afterwards sent the generous +breeder a magnificent candelabra, of solid silver, representing a +grand, old English oak, with a group of horses shading themselves +under its branches. This splendid token of the Emperor's regard is +only one of the numerous trophies and souvenirs that embellish the +farmer's home at Babraham, and which his children and remoter +posterity will treasure as precious heirlooms. + +If Mr. Webb did not originate, he developed a system of usefulness +into a permanent and most valuable institution, which, perhaps, will +be the most novel to American stock-raisers. Having, by a long +course of scientific observations and experiments, _fixed_ the +qualities he desired to give his Southdowns; having brought them to +the highest perfection, he now adopted a system which would most +widely and cheaply diffuse the race thus cultivated all over the +civilized world. He instituted an annual ram-letting, which took +place in the month of July. This occasion constituted an important +event to the great agricultural world. A few Americans have been +present and witnessed the proceedings of these memorable days, and +they know the interest attaching to them better than can be inferred +from any description. M. De La Trehonnais, in the "Revue Agricole +de l'Angleterre," thus sketches some of the incidents and aspects of +the occasion:-- + +"It is a proceeding regarded in England as a public event, and all +the journals give an account of it with exact care, assembling from +every county and even from foreign countries. The sale begins about +two o'clock. A circle in formed with ropes in a small field near +the mansion, where the rams are introduced, and an auctioneer +announces the biddings, which are frequently very spirited. The +rams to be let are exposed around the field from the first of the +morning, and a ticket at the head of each pen indicates the weight +of the fleece of the animal it contains. Every one takes his notes, +chooses the animal he approves of, and can demand the last bidding +when he pleases. The evening after the letting, the numerous +company assembles under a rustic shed, ornamented with leaves and +agricultural devices. There tables are laid, around which are +placed two or three hundred guests, and then commences one of those +antique repasts described by Homer or Rabelais. The tables groan +under the enormous pieces of beef, gigantic hams, etc., which have +almost disappeared before the commencement of the sale. From eight +in the morning until two in the afternoon, tables laid out in the +dining-room and hall are furnished, only to be refurnished +immediately, the end being equal to the beginning." + +This description refers to the thirty-second letting. Mr. Webb's +flock then consisted of seven hundred breeding ewes, a proportionate +number of lambs, and about four hundred rams of different ages. It +was from these rams that the animals were selected which were sent +into every country in the civilized world. The average price of +their lettings was nearly 24 pounds each, although some of the rams +brought the sum of 180 pounds, or nearly _nine hundred dollars_! +What would some of the old-fashioned farmers of New England, of +forty years ago, think of paying nearly a thousand dollars for the +rent of a ram for a single year, or even one-tenth of that sum? But +this rentage was not a fancy price. The farmer who paid it got back +his money many times over in the course of a few years. From this +infusion of the Babraham blood into his flock, he realised an +augmented production of mutton and wool annually per acre which he +could count definitely by pounds. The verdict of his balance-sheet +proved the profit of the investment. It would be impossible to +measure the benefit which the whole world reaped from Mr. Webb's +labors in this department of usefulness. An eminent authority has +stated that "it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a +Southdown flock of any reputation, in any country in the world, not +closely allied with the Babraham flock." It is a fact that +illustrates the skill and care, as well as demonstrates the value of +his system of improvement, that, after thirty-seven years as a +breeder, the tribes he founded maintained to the last those +distinguishing qualities which gave them such pre-eminence over all +other sheep bearing the general name of the Sussex race. So +valuable and distinctive were these qualities regarded by the best +judges in the country, that the twelfth ram-letting, which took +place at the time of the Cambridge Show, brought together 2,000 +visitors, constituting, perhaps, the most distinguished assembly of +agriculturists ever convened. On this occasion the Duke of +Richmond, an hereditary and eminent breeder of Southdowns in their +native county, bid a hundred guineas for a ram lamb, which Mr. Webb +himself bought in. + +Having attained to such eminence as a sheep-breeder, Mr. Webb +entered upon another sphere of improvement, in which he won almost +equal distinction. In 1837, he laid the foundation of the Babraham +Herd of Shorthorn cattle, made up of six different tribes, purchased +from the most valuable and celebrated branches of the race bearing +that name. An incident attaching to one of these purchases may +illustrate the nice care and cultivated skill which Mr. Webb +exercised in the treatment of choice animals. He bought out of Lord +Spencer's herd the celebrated cow, "Dodona." That eminent breeder, +it appears, had given her up as irretrievably sterile, and he parted +with her solely on that account. Mr. Webb, however, took her to +Babraham, and, as a result of the more intelligent treatment he +bestowed upon her, she produced successively four calves, which thus +formed one of the most valuable families of the Babraham herd. When +I visited the scene of his life and labors, all his sheep and cattle +had been sold. But two or three animals bought by an Australian +gentleman were still in the keeping of Mr. Webb's son, awaiting +arrangements for their transportation. One of these, a beautiful +heifer of fourteen months, was purchased at the winding-up sale, for +225 guineas. It was called the "Drawing-room Rose," from this +circumstance, as I afterwards learned. When it was first dropped by +the dam, Mr. Webb was confined to the house by indisposition. But +he had such a desire to see this new accession to his bovine family, +that he directed it to be brought into the drawing-room for that +purpose. Hence it received a more elegant and domestic appellation +than the variegated nomenclature of high-blooded animals often +allows. + +When the last volume of the "English Herd-Book" was about to be +published, Mr. Webb sent for insertion a list of sixty-one cows, +with their products. He generally kept from twenty to thirty bulls +in his stalls. + +Nor were his labors confined even to the two great spheres of +enterprise with which his name has been intimately and honorably +associated. If it was the great aim of his intelligent activities +to produce stock which should yield the most meat to the acre, he +also gave great attention to the augmented production of the land +itself. He was the principal originator and promoter of the great +Agricultural Hall, in London, for the exhibition of the fat stock +for the Smithfield Show. This may be called the Crystal Palace of +the animal world. It is the grandest structure ever erected for the +exhibition of cattle, sheep, swine, poultry, etc. I will essay no +description of it here, but it will carry through long generations +the name and memory of Jonas Webb of Babraham. He was chairman of +the company that built the superb edifice; also president of the +Nitro-phosphate or Blood-manure Company, a fertilizer in which he +had the greatest confidence, and which he used in great quantities +upon the large farm he cultivated, containing over 2,000 acres. + +At the age of nearly sixty-six, Mr. Webb found that his health would +no longer stand the strain of the toil, care, and anxiety requisite +to keep up the Babraham flock to the high standard of perfection +which it had attained. So, after nearly forty years of devotion to +this great occupation of his life, he concluded to retire from it +altogether, dispersing his sheep and cattle as widely as purchasers +might be found. This breaking-up took place at Babraham on the 10th +of July, 1862. Then and there the long series of annual re-unions +terminated for ever. The occasion had a mournful interest to many +who had attended those meetings from year to year. It seemed like +the voluntary and unexpected abdication of an Alexander, still able +to add to his conquests and trophies. All present felt this; and +several tried to express it at the old table now spread for the last +time for such guests. But his inherent and invincible modesty +waived aside or intercepted the compliments that came from so many +lips. With a kind of ingenious delicacy, which one of the finest of +human sentiments could only inspire, he contrived to divert +attention or reference to himself and his life's labors. But he +could not make the company forget them, even if he gently checked +allusion to them. + +The company on this interesting occasion was very large, about 1,000 +persons having sat down to the collation. Not only were the +principal nobility and gentry of Great Britain interested in +agricultural pursuits present in large number, but the +representatives of nearly every other country in Christendom. +Several gentlemen from the United States were among the purchasers. +The total number of sheep sold was 969, which fetched under the +hammer the great aggregate of 10,926 pounds, or more than $54,000. +The most splendid ram in the flock went to the United States, being +knocked down to Mr. J. C. Taylor, of Holmdale, New Jersey; who is +doing so much to Americanise the Southdowns. Others went to the +Canadas, Australia, South America, and to nearly every country in +continental Europe. + +Thus was formed, and thus was dispersed the famous Babraham flock. +And such were the labors of Jonas Webb for the material well-being +of mankind. These alone, detached from those qualities and +characteristics which make up and reflect a higher nature, entitle +his name to a wide and lasting memory among men. And these labors +and successes are they that those who have read of them in different +countries know him by. These comprise and present the character +they honor with respect. What he was in the temper and disposition +of his inner life, in daily walk and conversation, in the even and +gentle amenities of Christian humility, in sudden trials of his +faith and patience; what he was as a husband, father, friend and +neighbor, to the poor, to the afflicted in mind, body or estate,-- +all this will remain unwritten, but not unremembered by those who +breathed and moved within that disk of light which his life shed +around him. + +Few men have lived in whom so many personal and moral qualities +combined to command respect, esteem, and even admiration. In +stature, countenance, expression, and deportment, he was a noble +specimen of fully developed English manhood. To this first, +external aspect, his kindly and generous dispositions, his genial +manners, his delicate but dignified modesty, his large intelligence +and large-heartedness, gave the additional and crowning +characteristic of a Christian gentleman. Many Americans have +visited Babraham, and enjoyed the hospitalities which such a host +could only give and grace. They will remember the paintings hung +around the walls of that drawing-room, in which his commanding form, +in the strength and beauty of meridian life, towers up in the rural +landscape, surrounded by cattle and sheep bearing the impress of his +skill and care. A little incident occurred a few years ago, which +may illustrate this personal aspect better than any simile of +description. On the occasion of one of the great Agricultural +Expositions in Paris, a deputation or a company of gentlemen went +over to represent the Agricultural Society of England. Mr. Webb was +one of the number; and some French nobleman who had known him +personally, as well as by reputation, was very desirous of making +him a guest while in Paris. To be sure of this pleasure, he sent a +special courier all the way to Folkestone, charged with a letter +which he was himself to put into the hands of Mr. Webb, before the +steamer left the dock. "But how am I to know the gentleman?" asked +the courier; "I never saw him in my life." "N'importe," was the +reply. "Put the letter in the hand of the noblest-looking man on +board, and you will be sure to be right." The courier followed the +direction; and, stationing himself near the gangway, he took his +master's measure of every passenger as he entered. He could not be +mistaken. As soon as the plank was withdrawn, he approached Mr. +Webb, hat in hand, and, with a deferential word of recognition, done +in the best grace of French politeness, handed him the letter. One +of the deputation, noticing the incident, and wondering how the man +knew whom he was addressing without previous inquiry, questioned him +afterwards on the subject, and learned from him the ground on which +he proceeded. The photographic likeness presented in connection +with this notice was taken shortly before his decease, at the age of +nearly sixty-six, and when his health was greatly impaired. + +Few men ever carried out so fully the injunction, not to let the +left hand know what the right hand did, in the quiet and steady +outflow of good will and good works, as Mr. Webb. Even those +nearest and dearest to him never knew what that right hand did as a +help in time of need, what that large heart felt in time of others' +affliction, what those lips said to the sorrowing, in tearful +moments of grief, until they had been stilled for ever on earth. +Then it came out, act by act, word by word, thought by thought, from +those who held the remembrances in their souls as precious souvenirs +of a good man's life. So earnest was his desire to do these things +in secret, that his own family heard of them only by accident, and +from those whom he so greatly helped with his kindness and +generosity. And when known by his wife and children, in this way, +they were put under the bann of secrecy. This it is that makes it +so difficult to delineate the home and heaven side of his character. +Those nearest to him, who breathed in the blessing of its daily +odor, so revere his repeated and earnest wish not to have his good +works talked of in public, that, even now he is dead and gone, they +hold it as a sacred obligation to his memory not to give up these +treasured secrets of his life. Thus, in giving a partial coup +d'oeil of that aspect of his character which fronted homeward and +heavenward, one can only glean, here and there, glimpses of +different traits, in acts, incidents, and anecdotes remembered by +neighbors and friends near and remote. Were it not that his +children are withheld, by this delicate veneration, from giving to +the public facts known to them alone, the moral beauty and +brightness of his life would shine out upon the outside world with +warmer rays and larger rayons. I hope that a single passage from a +letter written by one of them to a friend, even under the injunction +of confidence, may be given here, without rending the veil which +they hold so sacred. In referring to this disposition and habit of +her venerated father, she says-- + +"Often have I been so blessed as to be caused to shed tears of joy +and pride at hearing proofs of his tenderness, kindness, and +generosity related by the recipients of some token of his nobleness, +but of which we never should have heard from himself." + +A little incident may illustrate this trait of his disposition. In +1862, a "Loan Court" was held in London, at which there was a most +magnificent display of jewels and plate of all kinds, contributed by +their owners to be exhibited for the gratification of the public. A +friend, who held him in the highest veneration, returning from this +brilliant show, expressed regret that Mr. Webb had not furnished one +of the stands, by sending the splendid silver candelabra presented +to him by the French Emperor, with the many silver cups and medals +he had won. Mr. Webb replied, that the mercies God had blessed him +with, and the successes He had awarded to him, might have been sent +to teach him humility, and not given to parade before the world. + +It is one of the most striking proofs of his great and pure- +heartedness, that, notwithstanding nearly forty consecutive years of +vigorous and successful competition with the leading agriculturists +of Great Britain and other countries, none of the victories he won +over them, or the eminence he attained, ever made him an enemy. +When we consider the eager ambitions and excited sensibilities that +enter into these competitions, this fact in itself shows what manner +of man he was in his disposition and deportment. Referring to this +aspect of his character, the French writer already cited, M. De La +Trehonnais, says of him, while still living-- + +"There exists no person who has gained the esteem and goodwill of +his contemporaries to a higher degree than Mr. Webb. His probity, +his scrupulous good faith, his generosity, and the affable equality +of his character, have gained for him the respect and affection of +every one. Since I have had the honor of knowing him, which is +already many years, I have never known of his having a single enemy; +and in my constant intercourse with the agricultural classes of +England, I have never heard of a single malevolent insinuation +respecting him. When we consider how much those who raise +themselves in the world above others, are made the butt for the +attacks of envy in proportion with their elevation, we may conclude +that there are in the character of this wealthy man very solid +virtues, well fixed principles, transcendant [sic] merit, to have +passed through his long career of success and triumphs without +having drawn upon himself the ill-will of a single enemy, or the +calumnious shaft of envy." + +Nor were these negative virtues, ending where they begun, or +enabling him to go through a long life of energetic activities +without an enemy. He not only lived at peace with all men, but did +his utmost to make them live at peace with each other. Says one who +knew him intimately--"I never heard him express a sentiment savoring +of enmity to any person, nor could he bear to see it entertained by +any one towards another. Even if he heard of an ill-feeling +existing between persons, he would, if possible, effect a +reconciliation; and his own bright example, and hearty, kind, genial +manners always warmed all hearts towards himself. Notwithstanding +the numerous calls upon his time, made by public and private +business, he did not lose his sweet cheerfulness of temper, and was +ever ready in his most busy moments to aid others, if he saw a +possibility of so doing." Energy, gentleness, conscientiousness and +courtesy were seldom, if ever, blended in such suave accord as in +him. These virtues came out, each in its distinctive lustre, under +the trials and vexations which try human nature most severely. All +who knew him marvelled that he was able to maintain such sweetness +and evenness of temper under provocations and difficulties which +would have greatly annoyed most men. What he was in these outer +circles of his influence, he was, to all the centralization of his +virtues, in the heart of his family. Here, indeed, the best graces +of his character had their full play and beauty. He was the centre +and soul of one of the happiest of earthly homes, attracting to him +the affections of every member of the hearth circle that moved in +the sleepless light of his life. Here he did not rule, but led by +love. It alone dictated, and it alone obeyed. It inspired its like +in domestic discipline. Spontaneous reverence for such a father's +wish and will superseded the unpleasant necessity of more active +parental constraint. To bring a shade of sadness to that venerated +face, or a speechless reproach to that benignant eye, was a greater +punishment to a temporarily wayward child than any corporal +correction could have inflicted. + +No one of the hundreds that were present at the sale and dispersion +of the Babraham flock could have thought that the remaining days of +the great and good man were to be so few on earth. He was then +about sixty-five years of age, of stately, unbending form and face +radiant and genial with the florid flush of that Indian Summer which +so many Englishmen wear late in those autumnal years that bend and +pale American forms and faces to "the sere and yellow leaf" of life. +But the sequel proved that he did not abdicate his position too +early. In a little more than a year from this event, his spirit was +raised to higher fellowships and folded with those of the pure and +blest of bygone ages. The incidents and coincidents of the last, +great moments of his being here, were remarkable and affecting. +Neither he nor his wife died at the home they had made so happy with +the beauty and savor of their virtues. Under another and distant +roof they both laid themselves down to die. The husband's hand was +linked in his wife's, up to within a few short steps of the river's +brink, when, touched with the cold spray of the dark waters, it fell +from its hold and was superseded by the strong arm of the angel of +the covenant, sent to bear her fast across the flood. In life they +were united to a oneness seldom witnessed on earth; in death they +were not separated except by the thinnest partition. Though her +spirit was taken up first to the great and holy communion above, the +"ministering angel of God's love let her body remain with him as a +pledge until his own spirit was called to join hers in the joint +mansion of their eternal rest. On the very day that her body was +carried to its long home, his own unloosed, to its upward flight, +the soul that had made it shine for half a century like a temple +erected to the Divine Glory. The years allotted to him on earth +were even to a day. Just sixty-six were measured off to him, and +then "the wheel ceased to turn at the cistern," and he died on his +birthday. An affecting coincidence also marked the departure of his +beloved wife. She left on the birthday of her eldest son, who had +intended to make the anniversary the dating-day of domestic +happiness, by choosing it for his marriage. + +A few facts will suffice for the history of the closing scene. +About the middle of October, 1862, Mrs. Webb, whose health seemed +failing, went to visit her brother, Henry Marshall, Esq., residing +in Cambridge. Here she suddenly became much worse, and the prospect +of her recovery more and more doubtful. Mr. Webb was with her +immediately on the first unfavorable turn of her illness, together +with other members of the family. When he realised her danger, and +the hope of her surviving broke down within him, his physical +constitution succumbed under the impending blow, and two days before +her death, he was prostrated by a nervous fever, from which he never +rallied, but died on the 10th of November. Although the great +visitation was too heavy for his flesh and blood to bear, his spirit +was strengthened to drink this last cup of earthly trial with +beautiful serenity and submission. It was strong enough to make his +quivering lips to say, in distinct and audible utterance, and his +closing eyes to pledge the truth and depth of the sentiment, "Thy +will be done!" One who stood over him in these last moments says, +that, when assured of his own danger, his countenance only seemed to +take on a light of greater happiness. He was conscious up to within +a few minutes of his death, and, though unable to speak +articulately, responded by expressions of his countenance to the +words and looks of affection addressed to him by the dear ones +surrounding his bed. One of them read to him a favorite hymn, +beginning with "Cling to the Comforter!" When she ceased, he signed +to her to repeat it; and, while the words were still on her lips, +the Comforter came at his call, and bore his waiting spirit away to +the heavenly companionship for which it longed. As it left the +stilled temple of its earthly habitation, it shed upon the +delicately-carved lines of its marble door and closed windows a +sweet gleam of the morning twilight of its own happy immortality. + +A long funeral cortege attended the remains of the deceased from +Cambridge to their last resting place in the little village +churchyard of Babraham. Beside friends from neighboring villages, +the First Cambridgeshire Mounted Rifle Corps joined the procession, +together with a large number of the county police force. His body +was laid down to its last, long rest beside that of his wife, who +preceded him to the tomb only by a few days. Though Stratford-upon- +Avon, and Dryburgh Abbey may attract more American travellers to +their shrines, I am sure many of them, with due perception of moral +worth, will visit Babraham, and hold it in reverent estimation as +the home of one of the world's best worthies, who left on it a +biograph which shall have a place among the human-life-scapes which +the Saviour of mankind shall hang up in the inner temple of His +Father's glory, as the most precious tokens and trophies of the +earth, on which He shared the tearful experiences of humanity, and +bore back to His throne all the touching memories of its weaknesses, +griefs, and sorrows. + +A movement is now on foot to erect a suitable monument to his +memory. It may indicate the public estimation in which his life and +labors are held that, already, about 10,000 pounds have been +subscribed towards this testimonial to his worth. The monument, +doubtless, will be placed in the great Agricultural Hall, which he +did so much to found. His name will wear down to coming generations +the crystal roofage of that magnificent edifice as a fitting crown +of honor. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +THRESHING MACHINE--FLOWER SHOW--THE HOLLYHOCK AND ITS SUGGESTIONS-- +THE LAW OF CO-OPERATIVE ACTIVITIES IN VEGETABLE, ANIMAL, MENTAL, AND +MORAL LIFE. + + "In all places, then, and in all seasons, + Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings, + Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, + How akin they are to human things."--LONGFELLOW. + +My stay at Babraham was short. It was like a visit to the grave of +one of those English worthies whose lives and labors are so well +known and appreciated in America. All the external features of the +establishment were there unchanged. The large and substantial +mansion, with its hall and parlor walls hung with the mementoes of +the genius and success that had made it so celebrated; the barns and +housings for the great herds and flocks which had been dispersed +over the world; the very pens still standing in which they had been +folded in for the auctioneer's hammer; all these arrangements and +aspects remained as they were when Jonas Webb left his home to +return no more. But all those beautiful and happy families of +animal life, which he reared to such perfection, were scattered on +the wings of wind and steam to the uttermost and most opposite parts +of the earth. + +The eldest son, Mr. Samuel Webb, who supervises part of the farm +occupied by his father, and also carries on one of his own in a +neighboring parish, was very cordial and courteous, and drove me to +his establishment near Chesterford. Here a steam threshing machine +was at work, doing prodigious execution on different kinds of grain. +The engine had climbed, a proprii motu, a long ascent; had made its +way partly through ploughed land to the rear of the barn, and was +rattlingly busy in a fog of dust, doing the labor of a hundred +flails. Ricks of wheat and beans, each as large as a comfortable +cottage, disappeared in quick succession through the fingers of the +chattering, iron-ribbed giant, and came out in thick and rapid +streams of yellow grain. Swine seemed to be the speciality to which +this son of Mr. Webb is giving some of that attention which his +father gave to sheep. There were between 200 and 300 in the barn- +yards and pens, of different ages and breeds, all looking in +excellent condition. + +From Chesterford I went on to Cambridge, where I remained for the +most part of two days, on account of a heavy fall of rain, which +kept me within doors nearly all the time. I went out, however, for +an hour or so to see a Flower Show in the Town Hall. The varieties +and specimens made a beautiful, but not very extensive array. There +was one flower that not only attracted especial admiration, but +invited a pleasant train of thoughts to my own mind. It was one of +those old favorites to which the common people of all countries, who +speak our mother tongue, love to give an inalienable English name-- +The Hollyhock. It is one of the flowers of the people, which the +pedantic Latinists have left untouched in homely Saxon, because the +people would have none of their long-winded and heartless +appellations. Having dwelt briefly upon the honor that Divine +Providence confers upon human genius and labor, in letting them +impress their finger-marks so distinctly upon the features and +functions of the earth, and upon the forms of animal life, it may be +a profitable recurrence to the same line of thought to notice what +that same genius and labor have wrought upon the structure and face +of this familiar flower. What was it at first? What is it now in +the rural gardens of New England? A shallow, bell-mouthed cup, in +most cases purely white, and hung to a tall, coarse stalk, like the +yellow jets of a mullein. That is its natural and distinctive +characteristic in all countries; at least where it is best known and +most common. What is it here, bearing the fingerprints of man's +mind and taste upon it? Its white and thin-sided cup is brim full +and running over with flowery exuberance of leaf and tint infinitely +variegated. Here it is as solid, as globe-faced, and nearly as +large as the dahlia. Place it side by side with the old, single- +leafed hollyhock, in a New England farmer's garden, and his wife +would not be able to trace any family relationship between them, +even through the spectacles with which she reads the Bible. But the +dahlia itself--what was that in its first estate, in the country in +which it was first found in its aboriginal structure and complexion? +As plain and unpretending as the hollyhock; as thinly dressed as the +short-kirtled daisy in a Connecticut meadow. It is wonderful, and +passing wonder, how teachable and quick of perception and prehension +is Nature in the studio of Art. She, the oldest of painters, that +hung the earth, sea, and sky of the antediluvian world with +landscapes, waterscapes, and cloudscapes manifold and beautiful, +when as yet the human hand had never lifted a pencil to imitate her +skill; she, with the colors wherewith she dyed the fleecy clouds +that spread their purple drapery over the first sunset, and in which +she dipped the first rainbow hung in heaven, and the first rose that +breathed and blushed on earth; she that has embellished every day, +since the Sun first opened its eye upon the world, with a new +gallery of paintings for every square mile of land and sea, and new +dissolving views for every hour--she, with all these artistic +antecedents, tastes, and faculties, comes modestly into the +conservatory of the floriculturist, and takes lessons of him in +shaping and tinting plants and flowers which the Great Master said +were "all very good" on the sixth-day morning of the creation! This +is marvellous, showing a prerogative in human genius almost divine, +and worthy of reverent and grateful admiration. How wide-reaching +and multigerent is this prerogative! In how many spheres of action +it works simultaneously in these latter days! See how it +manipulates the brute forces of Nature! See how it saddles the +winds, and bridles and spurs the lightning! See how it harnesses +steam to the plough, the flood to the spindle, the quick cross +currents of electricity to the newsman's phaeton! Then ascend to +higher reaches of its faculty. In the hands of a Bakewell or Webb, +it gives a new and creative shaping to multitudinous generations of +animal life. Nature yields to its suggestion and leading, and co- +works, with all her best and busiest activities, to realise the +human ideal; to put muscle there, to straighten that vertebra, to +parallel more perfectly those dorsal and ventral lines, to lengthen +or shorten those bones; to flesh the leg only to such a joint, and +wool or unwool it below; to horn or unhorn the head, to blacken or +blanch the face, to put on the whole body a new dress and make it +and its remote posterity wear this new form and costume for +evermore. All this shows how kindly and how proudly Nature takes +Art into partnership with her, in these new structures of beauty and +perfection; both teaching and taught, and wooing man to work with +her, and walk with her, and talk with her within the domain of +creative energies; to make the cattle and sheep of ten thousand +hills and valleys thank the Lord, out of the grateful speech of +their large, lustrous eyes, for better forms and features, and +faculties of comfort than their early predecessors were born to. + +Equally wonderful, perhaps more beautiful, is the joint work of +Nature and Art on the sweet life and glory of flowers. However many +they were, and what they were, that breathed upon the first Spring +or Summer day of time, each was a half-sealed gift of God to man, to +be opened by his hand when his mind should open to a new sense of +beauty and perfection. Flowers, each with a genealogy reaching +unbroken through the Flood back to the overhanging blossoms of Eden, +have come down to us, as it were, only in their travelling costume, +with their best dresses packed away in stamen, or petal, or private +seedcase, to be brought out at the end of fifty centuries at the +touch of human genius. Those of which Solomon sang in his time, and +which exceeded his glory in their every-day array, even "the hyssop +by the wall," never showed, on the gala-days of his Egyptian bride, +the hidden charms which he, in his wisdom, knew not how to unlock. +Flowers innumerable are now, like illuminated capitals of Nature's +alphabet, flecking, with their sheen-dots, prairie, steppe, mountain +and meadow, the earth around, which, perhaps, will only give their +best beauties to the world in a distant age. As the light of the +latest-created and remotest stars has not yet completed its downward +journey to the eye of man, so to his sight have not these sweet- +breathing constellations of the field yet made the full revelation +of their treasured hues and forms. Not one in a hundred of them all +has done this up to the present moment. When one in ten of those +that bless us with their life and being shall put on all its +reserved beauty, then, indeed, the stars above and the stars below +will stud the firmaments in which they shine with equal glory, and +blend both in one great heaven-scape for the eye and heart of man. +One by one, in its turn, the key of human genius shall unlock the +hidden wardrobe of the commonest flowers, and deck them out in the +court dress reserved, for five thousand years, to be worn in the +brighter, afternoon centuries of the world. The Mistress of the +Robes is a high dignitary in the Household of Royalty, and has her +place near to the person of the Queen. But the Floriculturist, of +educated perception and taste, is the master of a higher state robe, +and holds the key of embroidered vestments, cosmetics, tintings, +artistries, hair-jewels, head-dresses, brooches, and bracelets, +which no empress ever wore since human crowns were made; which +Nature herself could not show on all the bygone birthdays of her +being. + +This is marvellous. It is an honor to man, put upon him from above, +as one of the gratuitous dignities of his being. "An undevout +astronomer is mad," said one who had opened his mind to a broad +grasp of the wonders which this upper heaven holds in its bosom. +The floriculturist is an astronomer, with Newton's telescope +reversed; and if its revelations do not stir up holy thoughts in his +soul, he is blind as well as mad. No glass, no geometry that Newton +ever lifted at the still star-worlds above, could do more than +_reveal_. At the farthest stretch of their faculty, they could only +bring to light the life and immortality of those orbs which the +human eye had never seen before. They could not tint nor add a ray +to one of them all. They never could bring down to the reach of +man's unaided vision a single star that Noah could not see through +the deck-lights of the ark. It was a gift and a glory that well +rewarded the science and genius of Newton and Herschel, of Adams and +Le Verrier, that they could ladder these mighty perpendicular +distances and climb the rounds to such heights and sweeps of +observation, and count, measure, and name orbs and orbits before +unknown, and chart the paths of their rotations and weigh them, as +in scales, while in motion. But this ge-astronomer, whose +observatory is his conservatory, whose telescope and fluxions are +his trowel and watering-pot, not only brings to light the hidden +life of a thousand earth-stars, but changes their forms, colors +their rays, half creates and transforms, until each differs as much +from its original structure and tinting as the planet Jupiter would +differ from its familiar countenance if Adams or Le Verrier could +make it wear the florid face of Mars. This man,--and it is to be +hoped he carries some devout and grateful thoughts to his work--sets +Nature new lessons daily in artistry, and she works out the new +ideals of his taste to their joint and equal admiration. He has got +up a new pattern for the fern. She lets him guide her hand in the +delicate operation, and she crimps, fringes, shades or shapes its +leaflets to his will, even to a thousand varieties. He moistens her +fingers with the fluids she uses on her easel, and puts them to the +rootlets of the rose, and they transpose its hues, or fringe it or +tinge it with a new glory. He goes into the fen or forest, or +climbs the jutting crags of lava-mailed mountains, and brings back +to his fold one of Nature's foundlings,--a little, pale-faced +orphan, crouching, pinched and starved, in a ragged hood of dirty +muslin; and he puts it under the fostering of those maternal +fingers, guided by his own. Soon it feels the inspiration of a new +life warming and swelling its shrivelled veins. Its paralysed +petals unfold, one by one. The rim of its cup fills, leaf by leaf, +to the brim. It becomes a thing most lovely and fair, and he +introduces it, with pride, to the court beauties of his crystal +palace. + +The agriculturist is taken into this co-partnership of Nature in a +higher domain of her activities, measured by the great utilities of +human life. We have glanced at the joint-work in her animal +kingdom. In the vegetable, it is equally wonderful. Nature +contributes the raw material of these great and vital industries, +then incites and works out human suggestions. Thus she trains and +obeys the mind and hand of man, in this grand sphere of development. +Their co-working and its result are just as perceptible in a common +Irish potato as in the most gorgeous dahlia ever exhibited. Not one +farmer in a thousand has ever read the history of that root of +roots, in value to mankind; has ever conceived what a tasteless, +contracted, water-soaked thing it was in its wild and original +condition. Let them read a few chapters of the early history of New +England, and they will see what it was two hundred and fifty years +ago, when the strong-hearted men and women, whom Hooker led to the +banks of the Connecticut, sought for it in the white woods of +winter, scraping away the snow with their frosted fingers. The +largest they found just equalled the Malaga grape in size and +resembled it in complexion. They called it the _ground-nut_, for it +seemed akin to the nuts dropped by the oaks of different names. No +flower that breathes on earth has been made to produce so many +varieties of form, complexion, and name as this homely root. It +would be an interesting and instructive enterprise, to array all the +varieties of this queen of esculent vegetables which Europe and +America could exhibit, face to face with all the varieties which the +dahlia, geranium, pansy, or even the fern has produced, and then see +which has been numerically the most prolific in diversification of +forms and features. It should gratify a better motive than +curiosity to trace back the history of other roots to their +aboriginal condition. Types of the original stock may now be found, +in waste places, in the wild turnip, wild carrot, parsnip, etc. +"Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a +little," it may be truly and gratefully said, these roots, +internetted with the very life-fibres of human sustenance, have been +brought to their present perfection and value. The great +governments and peoples of the world should give admiring and +grateful thought to this fact. Here nature co-works with the most +common and inartistic of human industries, as they are generally +held, with faculties as subtle and beautiful as those which she +brings to bear upon the choicest flowers. The same is true of +grains and grasses for man and beast. They come down to us from a +kind of heathen parentage, receiving new forms and qualities from +age to age. The wheats, which make the bread of all the continents, +now exhibit varieties which no one has undertaken to enumerate. +Fruits follow the same rule, and show the same joint-working of +Nature and Art as in the realm of flowers. + +The wheel within wheel, the circle within circle expand and ascend +until the last circumferential line sweeps around all the world of +created being, even taking in, upon the common radius, the highest +and oldest of the angels. From the primrose peering from the hedge +to the premier seraph wearing the coronet of his sublime +companionship; from the lowest forms of vegetable existence to the +loftiest reaches of moral nature this side of the Infinite, this +everlasting law of co-working rules the ratio of progress and +development. In all the concentric spheres strung on the radius +measured by these extremes, there is the same co-acting of internal +and external forces. And mind, of man or angel, guides and governs +both. Not a flower that ever breathed on earth, not one that ever +blushed in Eden, could open all its hidden treasures of beauty +without the co-working of man's mind and taste. No animal that ever +bowed its neck to his yoke, or gave him labor, milk or wool, could +come to the full development of its latent vitalities and symmetries +without the help of his thought and skill. The same law obtains in +his own physical nature. Mind has made it what it is to-day, as +compared with the wild features and habits of its aboriginal +condition. Mind has worked for five thousand years upon its fellow- +traveller through time, to fit it more and more fully for the +companionship. It was delivered over to her charge naked, with its +attributes and faculties as latent and dormant as those of the wild +rose or dahlia. Through all the ages long, she has worked upon its +development; educating its tastes; taming its appetites; refining +its sensibilities; multiplying and softening its enjoyments; giving +to every sense a new capacity and relish of delight; cultivating the +ear for music, and ravishing it with the concord of sweet sounds; +cultivating the eye to drink in the glorious beauty of the external +world, then adding to natural sceneries ten thousand pictures of +mountain, valley, river, man, angel, and scenes in human and +heaven's history, painted by the thought-instructed hand; +cultivating the palate to the most exquisite sensibilities, and +exploring all the zones for luxuries to gratify them; cultivating +the fine finger-nerves to such perception that they can feel the +pulse of sleeping notes of music; cultivating the still finer +organism that catches the subtle odors on the wing, and sends their +separate or mingled breathings through every vein and muscle from +head to foot. + +The same law holds good in the development of mind. It has now +reached such an altitude, and it shines with such lustre, that our +imagination can hardly find the way down to the morning horizon of +its life, and measure its scope and power in the dim twilight of its +first hours in time. The simple fact of its first condition would +now seem to most men as exaggerated fancies, if given in the +simplest forms of truthful statement. With all the mighty faculties +to which it has come; with its capacity to count, name, measure and +weigh stars that Adam, nor Moses, nor Solomon ever saw; with all the +forces of nature it has subdued to the service of man, it cannot +tell what simplest facts of the creation had to be ascertained by +its first, feeble and confused reasonings. No one of to-day can say +how low down in the scale of intelligence the human mind began to +exercise its untried faculties; what apposition and deduction of +thoughts it required to individualise the commonest objects that met +the eye; even to determine that the body it animated was not an +immovable part of the earth itself; to obtain fixed notions of +distance, of color, light, and heat; to learn the properties and +uses of plants, herbs, and fruits; even to see the sun sink out of +sight with the sure faith that it would rise again. It was gifted +with no instinct, to decide these questions instantly and +mechanically. They had all to pass through the varied processes of +reason. The first bird that sang in Eden, built its first nest as +perfectly as its last. But, thought by thought, the first human +mind worked out conclusions which the dullest beast or bird reached +instantly without reason. What wonderful co-working of internal and +external influences was provided to keep thought in sleepless +action; to open, one by one, the myriad petals of the mind! Nature, +with all its shifting sceneries, filled every new scope of vision +with objects that hourly set thought at play in a new line of +reflection. Then, out of man's physical being came a thousand still +small voices daily, whispering, Think! think! The first-born +necessities, few and simple, cried, "_Think_! for we want bread, we +want drink, we want shelter and raiment against the cold." The +finer senses cried continually, "Give! give thought to this, to +that." The Eye, the Ear, the Palate and every other organ that +could receive and diffuse delight, worked the mental faculties by +day and night, up to the last sunset of the antediluvian world; and +all the intellectual result of this working Noah took with him into +the ark, and gave to his sons to hand over to succeeding ages. +Flowers that Eve stuck in the hair of the infant Abel are just now +opening the last casket of their beauty to the favored children of +our time. This, in itself, is a marvellous instance of the law we +are noticing. But what is this to the processes of thought and +observation through which the mind of man has reached its present +expansion; through which it has developed all these sciences, arts, +industries and tastes, the literature and the intellectual life of +these bright days of humanity! The figure is weak, and every figure +would be weak when applied to the ratio or the result of this +progression; but, at what future age of time, or of the existence +beyond time, will the mind, that has thus wrought on earth, open its +last petal, put forth no new breathing, unfold no new beauty under +the eye of the Infinite, who breathed it, as an immortal atom of His +own essence, into the being of man? + +Follow the radius up into the next concentric circle, and we see +this law working to finer and sublimer issues in man's moral nature. +We have glanced at what the mind has done for and through his +physical faculties and being; how that being has re-acted upon the +mind, and kept all its capacities at work in procuring new delight +to the eye, ear, palate, and all the senses that yearned for +enjoyment. We have noticed how the inside and outside world acted +upon his reasoning powers in the dawn of creation; how slowly they +mastered the simplest facts and phenomena of life in and around +them, how slowly they expanded, through the intervening centuries, +to their present development. The mind is the central personage in +the trinity of man's being; linking the mortal and immortal to its +life and action; vitalising the body with intelligence, until every +vein, muscle, and nerve, and function thrills and moves to the +impulse of thought; vitalising the soul with the vigorous activities +of reason, giving hands as well as wings to its hopes, faiths, +loves, and aspirations; giving a faculty of speech, action, and +influence to each, and play to all the tempers and tendencies of its +moral nature. Thus all the influences that the mind could inhale +from the material world through man's physical being, and all it +could draw out of the depths of Divine revelation, were the dew and +the light which it was its mission to bring to the fostering, +growth, and glory of the human soul. These were man's means +wherewith to shape it for its great destiny; these he was to bring +to its training and expansion; with these he was to co-work with the +Infinite Father of Spirits to fit it for His presence and +fellowship, just as he co-works with Nature in developing the latent +life and faculties of the rose. What distillations of spiritual +influence have dropped down out of heaven, through the ages, to help +onward this joint work! What histories of human experience have +come in the other direction to the same end!--fraught with the +emotions of the human heart, from the first sin and sorrow of Adam +to our own griefs, hopes, and joys; and all so many lessons for the +discipline of this high-born nature with us! + +And yet how slow and almost imperceptible has been the development +of this nature! How gently and gradually the expanding influences, +human and divine, have been let in upon its latent faculties! See +with what delicate fostering the petals of love, faith, and hope +were taught to open, little by little, their hidden life and +beauty,--taking Moses' history of the process. First, one human +being on the earth, surrounded with beasts and birds that could give +him no intelligent companionship and no fellow-feeling. Then the +beautiful being created to meet these awakening yearnings of his +nature; then the first outflow and interchange of human love. The +narrative brings us to the next stage of the sentiment. Sin and +sorrow afflict, but unite, both hearts in the saddest experience of +humanity. They are driven out of the Eden of their first condition, +but their very sufferings and fears re-Eden their mutual attachments +in the very thorns of their troubles and sorrows. Then another +being, of their own flesh, heir to their changed lot, and to these +attachments, is added to their companionship. The first child's +face that heaven or earth ever saw, opened its baby eyes on them and +smiled in the light of their parental love. The history goes on. +In process of time, there is a family of families, called a +community, embracing hundreds of individuals connected by ties of +blood so attenuated that they possess no binding influence. Common +interests, affinities, and sentiments supply the place of family +relationship, and make laws of amity and equity for them as a +population. Next we have a community of communities, or a +commonwealth of these individual populations, generally called a +nation. Here is a lesson for the moral nature. Here are thousands +and tens of thousands of men who never saw each others' faces. Will +this expanded orb of humanity revolve around the same centre as the +first family circle, or the first independent community? How can +you give it cohesion and harmony? Extend the radii of family +relationship and influence to its circumference in every direction. +Throne the sovereign in a parent's chair, to execute a father's +laws. He shall treat them as children, and they each other as +brethren. Here is a grand programme for human society. Here is a +vigorous discipline for the wayward will and temper of the human +heart. How is a man to feel and act in these new conditions? How +is he to regulate his hates and loves, his passions and appetites, +to comply properly with these extended and complicated +relationships? + +About half way from Adam's day to ours, there came an utterance from +Mount Sinai that anticipated and answered these questions once for +all, and for one and all. In that august revelation of the Divine +Mind, every command of the Decalogue swung open upon the pivot of a +_not_, except one; and that one referred to man's duty to man, and +the promise attached to its fulfilment was only an earthly +enjoyment. All the rest were restrictive; to curb this appetite, to +bar that passion, to hedge this impulse, to check that disposition; +in a word, to hold back the hand from open and positive +transgression. Even the first, relating to His own Godhead and +requirements, was but the first of the series of negatives, a pure +and simple prohibition of idolatry. No reward of keeping this first +great law, reaching beyond the boundary of a temporal condition, was +promised at its giving out. With the headstrong passions, lusts, +appetites, and tempers of flesh and blood bridled and bitted by +these restrictions, and with no motives to obedience beyond the +awards of a short life on earth, the human soul groped its way +through twenty centuries after the Revelation of Sinai, feeling for +the immortality which was not yet revealed to it, even "as through a +glass darkly." Here and there, but thinly scattered through the +ages, divinely illumined men caught, through the parting seams of +the veil, a transient glimpse and ray of the life to come. Here and +there, obscurely and hesitatingly, they refer to this vision of +their faith. Here and there we seem to see a hope climbing up out +of a good man's heart into the pathless mystery of a future +existence, and bringing back the fragment of a leaf which it +believes must have grown on one of the trees of life immortal. +Moses, Job, David, and Isaiah give us utterances that savor of this +belief; but they leave us in the dark in reference to its influence +upon their lives. We cannot glean from these incidental +expressions, whether it brought them any steady comfort, or sensibly +affected their happiness. + +Thus, for four thousand years, the soul of man dashed its wings +against the prison-bars of time, peering into the night through the +cold, relentless gratings for some fugitive ray of the existence of +which it had such strong and sleepless presentiment. It is a +mystery. It may seem irreverent to approach it even with a +conjecture. Human reason should be humble and silent before it, and +close its questioning lips. It may not, however, transcend its +prerogative to say meekly, _perhaps_. Perhaps, then, for two-thirds +of the duration that the sun has measured off to humanity, that life +and immortality which the soul groped after were veiled from its +vision, until all its mental and spiritual faculties had been +trained and strengthened to the ability to grasp and appropriate the +great fact when it should be revealed. Perhaps it required all the +space of forty centuries to put forth feelers and fibres capable of +clinging to the revelation with the steady hold of faith. Perhaps +it was to prove, by long, decisive probation, what the unaided human +mind could do in constructing its idealisms of immortality. Perhaps +it was permitted to erect a scaffolding of conceptions on which to +receive the great revelation at the highest possible level of +thought and instinctive sentiment to which man could attain without +supernatural light and help. If this last _perhaps_ is preferable +to the others, where was this scaffolding the highest? Over +Confucius, or Socrates, or the Scandinavian seer, or Druid or Aztec +priest? Was it highest at Athens, because there the great apostle +to the Gentiles planted his feet upon it, and said, in the ears of +the Grecian sophists, "Him whom ye ignorantly worship declare I unto +you?" At that brilliant centre of pagan civilization it might have +reached its loftiest altitude, measured by a purely intellectual +standard; but morally, this scaffolding was on the same low level of +human life and character all the world around. The immortalities +erected by Egyptian or Grecian philosophy were no purer, in moral +conception and attributes, than the mythological fantasies of the +North American Indians. In them all, human nature was to have the +old play of its passions and appetites; in some of them, a wider +sweep and sway. There was not one in the whole set of Grecian +deities half so moral and pure, in sentiment and conduct, as +Socrates; nor were Jupiter and his subordinate celestials better +than the average kings and courts of Greece. Out of the hay, wood, +and stubble of sheer fancy the human mind was left to raise these +fantastic structures. They exercised and entertained the +imagination, but brought no light nor strength to the soul; no +superior nor additional motives to shape the conduct of life. But +they did this, undoubtedly, with all their delusions; they developed +the _thought_ of immortality among the most benighted races of men. +Their most perplexing unrealities kept the mind restless and almost +eager for some supplementary manifestation; so that, when the Star +of Bethlehem shone out in the sky of Palestine, there were men +looking heavenward with expectant eyes at midnight. From that hour +to this, and among pagan tribes of the lowest moral perception, the +heralds of the Great Revelation have found the _thought_ of another +existence active though confused. They have found everywhere a +platform already erected, like that on which Paul stood in the midst +of Mars Hill, and on which they could stand and say to heathen +communities, "Him whom ye ignorantly worship declare I unto you! +That future life and immortality which your darkened eyes and hungry +souls have been groping and hungering for, bring we to you, bright +as the sun, in this great gospel of Divine Love." Had the Star of +Bethlehem appeared a century earlier, it might not have met an +upturned eye. If the Saviour of Mankind had come into the world in +Solomon's day, not even a manger might have been found to cradle His +first moments of human life; no Simeon waiting in the temple to +greet the great salvation He brought to our race in His baby hands. + +Here, then, commences, as it were, the central era of the soul's +training in time. Here heaven opened upon it the full sunlight and +sunwarmth of its glorious life and immortality. Here fell upon its +opening faculties the dews and rays and spiritual influences which +were to shape its being and destiny. Here commenced such co-working +to this end as can find no measure nor simile in any other sphere of +co-operative activities in the world below or above. Here the +trinity of man and the Trinity of the Godhead came into a co-action +and fellowship overpassing the highest outside wonder of the +universe. And all this co-working, fellowship, and partnership has +been repeated in the experience of every individual soul that has +been fitted for this great immortality. Here, too, this co-working +is a law, not an incident; most marvellously, mightily, and minutely +a law, as legislatively and executively as that which we have seen +acting upon the development of the flower. Had not the great +apostle, who was caught up into the third heavens and heard things +unutterable, spoken of this law in such bold words, it would seem +rash and irreverent in us to approach so near to its sublime +revelation. Not ours but his they are; and it is bold enough in us +to repeat them. He said it: that He, to whose name every knee +should bow, and every tongue confess; to whom belonged and who +should possess and rule all the kingdoms of the earth, "was made +under the law," not of Moses, not of human nature only, but under +this very law of CO-WORKING. Through this the world was to be +regenerated and filled with His life and light. Through this a new +creation was to be enfolded in the bosom of His glory, of grander +dimensions and of diviner attributes than that over which the +morning stars sang at the birth of time. Said this law to the +individual soul, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, +for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His own good +pleasure." To will and to do. It is His own good will and pleasure +that the soul shall be fitted and lifted up to its high destiny +through this co-working. It was His power to raise it to that +condition without man's participation or conscious acquiescence; but +it was His will and pleasure to enact this law of salvation. +Looking across the circumference of the individual soul, what says +this law? "Go ye out into all the world and preach the gospel to +every creature, and, lo, I am with you unto the end,"--not as an +invisible companion, not merely with the still, small voice of the +Comforter to cheer you in trial, weakness and privation; but with +you as a _co-worker_, with the irresistible energies of the Spirit +of Power. He might have done the whole work alone. He might have +sent forth twelve, and twelve times twelve legions of angels, and +given each a voice as loud as his who is to wake the dead, and bid +them preach His gospel in the ears of every human being. He might +have given a tongue to every breathing of the breeze, an articulate +speech to every ray of light, and sent them out with their ceaseless +voices on the great errand of His love. It was his power to do +this. He did not do it, because it was His will and pleasure to put +Himself under this law we have followed so far; to make men His co- +workers in this new creation, and co-heirs with Him in all its joy +and glory. So completely has He made this law His rule of action, +that, for eighteen hundred years, we have not a single instance in +which the life and immortality which He brought to light have been +revealed to a human soul without the direct and active participation +of a human instrumentality. So completely have His meekest servants +on earth put themselves under this law, that not one of them dares +to expect, hope, or pray that He will reveal Himself to a single +benighted heathen mind without this human co-working. + +Thus, begin where you will, in the flower of the field or the hyssop +by the wall, and ascend from sphere to sphere, until there is no +more space in things and beings created to draw another +circumferential line, and you will see the action and the result of +this great law of _Co-operative Activities_. When I first looked +within the lids of that hollyhock, and was incited to read the +rudimental lessons of the new leaves that man's art had added to its +scant, original volume, I had no thought of finding so much matter +printed on its pages. I have transcribed it here in the order of +its paragraphs, hoping that some who read them may see in this life +of flowers an interest they may have partially overlooked. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +VISIT TO A THREE-THOUSAND-ACRE FARM--SAMUEL JONAS--HIS AGRICULTURAL +OPERATIONS, THEIR EXTENT, SUCCESS, AND GENERAL ECONOMY. + +The rain having ceased, I resumed my walk, in a southerly direction, +to Chrishall Grange, the residence of Samuel Jonas, who may be +called the largest farmer in England; not, perhaps, in extent of +territory occupied, but in the productive capacity of the land +cultivated, and in the values realised from it. It is about four +miles east of Royston, bordering on the three counties of +Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex, though lying mainly in the +latter. It contains upwards of 3,000 acres, and nearly every one of +them is arable, and under active cultivation. It consists of five +farms, belonging to four different landlords; still they are so +contiguous and coherent that they form substantially one great +block. No one could be more deeply impressed with the magnitude of +such an establishment, and of the operations it involves, than a New +England farmer. Taking the average of our agriculturists, their +holdings or occupations, to use an English term, will not exceed 100 +acres each; and, including woodland, swamp, and mountain, not over +half of this space can be cultivated. To the owner and tiller of +such a farm, a visit to Mr. Jonas' occupation must be interesting +and instructive. Here is a man who cultivates a space which thirty +Connecticut farmers would feel themselves rich to own and occupy, +with families making a population of full two hundred souls, +supporting and filling a church and school-house. In the great West +of America, where cattle are bred and fed somewhat after the manner +of Russian steppes or Mexican ranches, such an occupation would not +be unusual nor unexpected; but in the very heart of England, +containing a space less than the state of Virginia, a tract of such +extent and value in the hands of a single farmer is a fact which a +New Englander must regard at first with no little surprise. He will +not wonder how one man can _rent_ such a space, but how he can +_till_ it to advantage; how, even with the help of several +intelligent and active sons, he can direct and supervise operations +which fill the hands of thirty solid farmers of Massachusetts. Two +specific circumstances enable him to perform this undertaking. + +In the first place, agriculture in England is reduced to an exact +and rigid science. To use a nautical phrase, it is all plain +sailing. The course is charted even in the written contract with +the landlord. The very term, "_course_," is adopted to designate +the direction which the English farmer is to observe. Skilled hands +are plenty and pressing to man the enterprise. With such a chart, +and such a force, and such an open sea, it is as easy for him to +sail the "Great Eastern" as a Thames schooner. The helm of the +great ship plays as freely and faithfully to the motion of his will +as the rudder of the small craft. Then the English farmer has a +great advantage over the American in this circumstance: he can hire +cheaply a grade of labor which is never brought to our market. Men +of great skill and experience, who in America would conduct farms of +their own, and could not be hired at any price, may be had here in +abundance for foremen, at from twelve to sixteen shillings, or from +three to four dollars a week, they boarding and lodging themselves. +And the number of such men is constantly increasing, from two +distinct causes. In the first place there is a large generation of +agricultural laborers in England, now in the prime of manhood, who +have just graduated, as it were, through all the scientific +processes of agriculture developed in the last fifteen years. The +ploughmen, cowmen, cartmen, and shepherds, even, have become +familiar with the established routine; and every set of these hands +can produce one or two active and intelligent laborers who will +gladly and ably fill the post of under-foreman for a shilling or two +a week of advanced wages. Then, by the constant absorption of small +holdings into large farms, which is going on more rapidly from this +increased facility of managing great occupations, a very +considerable number of small farmers every year are falling into the +labor market, being reduced to the necessity of either emigrating to +cheaper lands beyond the sea, or of hiring themselves out at home as +managers, foremen or common laborers on the estates thus enlarged by +their little holdings. From these two sources of supply, the +English tenant-farmer, beyond all question, is able to cultivate a +larger space, and conduct more extensive operations than any other +agriculturist in the world, at least by free labor. + +The first peculiarity of this large occupation I noticed, was the +extent of the fields into which it was divided. I had never seen +any so large before in England. There were only three of the whole +estate under 60, and some contained more than 400 acres each, giving +the whole an aspect of amplitude like that of a rolling prairie farm +in Illinois. Not one of the little, irregular morsels of land half +swallowed by its broad-bottomed hedging, which one sees so +frequently in an English landscape, could be found on this great +holding. The white thorn fences were new, trim, and straight, +occupying as little space as possible. The five amalgamated farms +are light turnip soil, with the exception of about 200 acres, which +are well drained. The whole surface resembles that of a heavy +ground swell of the sea; nearly all the fields declining gently in +different directions. The view from the rounded crest of the +highest wave was exceedingly picturesque and beautiful, presenting a +vista of plenty which Ceres of classic mythology never saw; for +never, in ancient Greece, Italy, or Egypt, were the crops of +vegetation so diversified and contrasting with each other as are +interspersed over an English farm of the present day. + +It is doubtful if 3,000 acres of land, lying in one solid block, +could be found in England better adapted for testing and rewarding +the most scientific and expensive processes of agriculture, than +this great occupation of Mr. Jonas. Certainly, no equal space could +present a less quantity of waste land, or occupy less in hedges or +fences. And it is equally certain that no estate of equal size is +more highly cultivated, or yields a greater amount of production per +acre. Its occupant, also, is what may be called an hereditary +farmer. His father and his remote ancestors were farmers, and he, +as in the case of the late Mr. Webb, has attained to his present +position as an agriculturist by practical farming. + +Mr. Jonas cultivates his land on the "Four-course system." This +very term indicates the degree to which English agriculture has been +reduced to a precise and rigid science. It means here, that the +whole arable extent of his estate is divided equally between four +great crops; or, wheat, 750 acres; barley and oats, 750; seeds and +pulse, 750; and roots, 750. Now, an American farmer, in order to +form an approximate idea of the amount of labor given to the growth +of these crops, must remember that all these great fields of wheat, +oats, barley, turnips, beans, and peas, containing in all over 2,000 +acres, are hoed by hand once or twice. His cereals are all drilled +in at seven inches apart, turnips at seventeen. The latter are +horse-hoed three or four times; and as they are drilled on the flat, +or without ridging the surface of the ground, they are crossed with +a horse-hoe with eight V shaped blades. This operation leaves the +plants in bunches, which are singled out by a troop of children. +One hand-hoeing and two or three more horse-hoeings finish the labor +given to their cultivation. It is remarkable what mechanical skill +is brought to bear upon these operations. In the first place, the +plough cuts a furrow as straight and even as if it were turned by +machinery. A kind of esprit de corps animates the ploughmen to a +vigorous ambition in the work. They are trained to it with as much +singleness of purpose as the smiths of Sheffield are to the forging +of penknife blades. On a large estate like that occupied by Mr. +Jonas, they constitute an order, not of Odd Fellows, but of Straight +Furrow-men, and are jealous of the distinction. When the ground is +well prepared, and made as soft, smooth, and even as a garden, the +drilling process is performed with a judgement of the eye and skill +of hand more marvellous still. The straightness of the lines of +verdure which, in a few weeks, mark the tracks of the seed-tubes, is +surprising. They are drawn and graded with such precision that, +when the plants are at a certain height, a horse-hoe, with eight +blades, each wide enough to cut the whole intervening space between +two rows, is passed, hoeing four or five drills at once. Of course, +if the lines of the drill and hoe did not exactly correspond with +each other, whole rows of turnips would be cut up and destroyed. I +saw this process going on in a turnip field, and thought it the most +skilful operation connected with agriculture that I had ever +witnessed. + +One of the principal advantages Mr. Jonas realises in cultivating +such an extent of territory, is the ability to economise his working +forces, of man, beast, and agricultural machinery. He saves what +may be called the superfluous fractions, which small farmers +frequently lose. For instance, a man with only fifty acres would +need a pair of stout horses, a plough, cart, and all the other +implements necessary for the growth and gathering of the usual +crops. Now, Mr. Jonas has proved by experience, that, in +cultivating his great occupation, the average force of two and a +quarter horses is sufficient for a hundred acres. Here is a saving +of almost one half the expense of horse-force per acre which the +small farmer incurs, and full one half of the use of carts, ploughs, +and other implements. The whole number of horses employed is about +seventy-six; and the number of men and boys about a hundred. The +whole of this great force is directed by Mr. Jonas and his sons with +as much apparent ease and equanimity as the captain of a Cunarder +would manifest in guiding a steamship across the Atlantic. The helm +and ropes of the establishment obey the motion of one mind with the +same readiness and harmony. + +A fact or two may serve an American farmer as a tangible measure +whereby to estimate the extent of the operations thus conducted by +one man. To come up to the standard of scientific and successful +agriculture in England, it is deemed requisite that a tenant farmer, +on renting an occupation, should have capital sufficient to invest +10 pounds, or $50, per acre in stocking it with cattle, sheep, +horses, farming implements, fertilisers, etc. Mr. Jonas, beyond a +doubt, invests capital after this ratio upon the estate he tills. +If so, then the total amount appropriated to the land which he +_rents_ cannot be less than 30,000 pounds, or nearly $150,000. The +inventory of his live stock, taken at last Michaelmas, resulted in +these figures:--Sheep, 6,581 pounds; horses, 2,487 pounds; bullocks, +2,218 pounds; pigs, 452 pounds; making a grand total of 11,638 +pounds. Every animal bred on the estate is fatted, but by no means +with the grain and roots grown upon it. The outlay for oil-cake and +corn purchased for feeding, amounts to about 4,000 pounds per annum. +Another heavy expenditure is about 1,700 pounds yearly for +artificial fertilisers, consisting of guano and blood-manure. Mr. +Jonas is one of the directors of the company formed for the +manufacture of the latter. + +The whole income of this establishment is realised from two sources- +-meat and grain. And this is the distinguishing characteristic of +English farming generally. Not a pound of hay, straw, or roots is +sold off the estate. Indeed, this is usually prohibited by the +conditions of the contract with the landlord. So completely has Mr. +Jonas adhered to this rule, that he could not give me the market +price of hay, straw, or turnips per ton, as he had never sold any, +and was not in the habit of noticing the market quotations of those +products. I was surprised at one fact which I learned in connection +with his economy. He keeps about 170 bullocks; buying in October +and selling in May. Now, it would occasion an American farmer some +wonderment to be told that this great herd of cattle is fed and +fatted almost entirely for the manure they make. It is doubtful if +the difference between the cost and selling prices averages 2 +pounds, or $10, per head. For instance, the bullocks bought in will +average 13 or 14 pounds. A ton of linseed-cake and some meal are +given to each beast before it is sent to market, costing from 10 to +12 pounds. When sold, the bullocks average 24 or 25 pounds. Thus +the cake and the meal equal the whole difference between the buying +and selling price, so that all the roots, chaff, and attendance go +entirely to the account of manure. These three items, together with +the value of pasturage for the months the cattle may lie in the +fields, from October to May inclusive, could hardly amount to less +than 5 pounds per beast, which, for 170, would be 850 pounds. Then +1,700 pounds are paid annually for guano and artificial manures. +Now add the value of the wheat, oat and barley straw grown on 1,500 +acres, and mostly thrown into the barn-yards, or used as bedding for +the stables, and you have one great division of the fertilising +department of Chrishall Grange. The amount of these three items +cannot be less than 3,000 pounds. Then there is another source of +fertilisation nearly as productive and valuable. Upwards of 3,000 +sheep are kept on the estate, of which 1,200 are breeding ewes. +These are folded, acre by acre, on turnips, cole, or trefoil, and +those fattened for the market are fed with oil-cake in the field. +The locusts of Egypt could not have left the earth barer of verdure +than these sheep do the successive patches of roots in which they +are penned for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, nor could any other +process fertilise the land more thoroughly and cheaply. Then 76 +horses and 200 fattening hogs add their contingent to the manurial +expenditure and production of the establishment. Thus the +fertilising material applied to the estate cannot amount to less +than 5,000 pounds, or $24,000, per annum. + +Sheep are the most facile and fertile source of nett income on the +estate. Indeed, nearly all the profit on the production of meat is +realised from them. Most of those I saw were Southdowns and +Hampshires, pure or crossed, with here and there a Leicester. After +being well fattened, they fetch in the market about double the price +paid for them as stock sheep. About 2,000, thus fattened, including +lambs, are sold yearly. They probably average about 2 pounds, or +$10, per head; thus amounting to the nice little sum of 4,000 pounds +a year, as one of the sources of income. + +Perhaps it would be easier to estimate the total expenditure than +the gross income of such an establishment as that of Mr. Jonas. We +have aggregated the former in a lump; assuming that the whole +capital invested in rent, live stock, agricultural machinery, +manures, labor of man and horse, fattening material, etc., amounts +to 30,000 pounds. We may extract from this aggregate several +estimated items which will indicate the extent of his operations, +putting the largest expenditure at the head of the list. + +Corn and oil-cake purchased for feeding 4,000l. +Guano and manufactured manures 1,700 +Labor of 100 men and boys at the average of 20l. per annum 2,000 +Labor of 76 horses, including their keep, 20l. per annum 1,500 +Use and wear of steam-engine and agricultural machinery 500 +Commutation money to men for beer 400 + ----- + 10,100l. + +These are some of the positive annual outlays, without including +rent, interest on capital invested, and other items that belong to +the debit side of the ledger. The smallest on the list given I +would commend to the consideration of every New England farmer who +may read these pages. It is stated under the real fact. The +capacity of English laborers for drinking strong beer is a wonder to +the civilised world. They seem to cling to this habit as to a vital +condition of their very life and being. One would be tempted to +think that malt liquor was a primary and bread a secondary necessity +to them; it must cost them most of the two, at any rate. And +generally they are as particular about the quality as the quantity, +and complain if it is not of "good body," as well as full tale. In +many cases the farmer furnishes it to them; sometimes brewing it +himself, but more frequently buying it already made. Occasionally a +farmer "commutes" with his men; allowing a certain sum of money +weekly in lieu of beer, leaving them to buy and use it as they +please. I understood that Mr. Jonas adopts the latter course, not +only to save himself the trouble of furnishing and rationing such a +large quantity of beer, but also to induce the habit among his men +of appropriating the money he gives them instead of drink to better +purposes. The sum paid to them last year was actually 452 pounds, +or about $2,200! Now, it would be quite safe to say, that there is +not a farm in the State of Connecticut that produces pasturage, hay, +grain, and roots enough to pay this beer-bill of a single English +occupation! This fact may not only serve to show the scale of +magnitude which agricultural enterprise has assumed in the hands of +such men as Mr. Jonas, but also to indicate to our American farmers +some of the charges upon English agriculture from which they are +exempt; thanks to the Maine Law, or, to a better one still, that of +voluntary disuse of strong drink on our farms. I do not believe +that 100 laboring men and boys could be found on one establishment +in Great Britain more temperate, intelligent, industrious, and moral +than the set employed by Mr. Jonas. Still, notice the tax levied +upon his land by this beer-impost. It amounted last year to three +English shillings, or seventy-two cents, on every acre of the five +consolidated farms, including all the space occupied by hedges, +copses, buildings, etc. Suppose a Maine farmer were obliged, by an +inexorable law of custom, to pay a beer-tax of seventy-two cents per +acre on his estate of 150 acres, or $108, annually, would he not be +glad to "commute" with his hired men, by leaving them in possession +of his holding and migrating to some distant section of the country +where such a custom did not exist? + +The gross income of this great holding it would be more difficult to +estimate. But no one can doubt the yearly issues of Mr. Jonas' +balance-sheet, when he has been able to expand his operations +gradually to their present magnitude from the capital and experience +acquired by successful farming. Perhaps the principal sources of +revenue would approximate to the following figures:-- + + 2,000 fat sheep and lambs at 2l. 4,000l. + 150 fat bullocks at 25l. 3,750 + 200 fat pigs = 40,000 lbs., at 4d 666 +22,500 bushels of wheat, at 6s 6,750 + 9,375 bushels of oats, at 2s 937 + 7,500 bushels of barley, at 3s 1,125 + ----- +Total of these estimated items 17,228l. + +This, of course, is a mere estimate of the principal sources of +income upon which Mr. Jonas depends for a satisfactory result of his +balance-sheet. Each item is probably within the mark. I have put +down the crop of wheat of 750 acres at the average of thirty bushels +per acre, and at 6s. per bushel, which are quite moderate figures. +I have assumed 375 acres each for barley and oats, estimating the +former at forty bushels per acre, and the latter at fifty; then +reserving half of the two crops for feeding and fatting the live +stock; also all the beans, peas, and roots for the same purpose. If +the estimate is too high on some items, the products sold, and not +enumerated in the foregoing list, such as cole and other seeds, will +rectify, perhaps, the differences, and make the general result +presented closely approximate to the real fact. + +As there is probably no other farm in Great Britain of the same size +so well calculated to test the best agricultural science and economy +of the day as the great occupation of Mr. Jonas, and as I am anxious +to convey to American farmers a well-developed idea of what that +science and economy are achieving in this country, I will dwell upon +a few other facts connected with this establishment. The whole +space of 3,000 acres is literally under cultivation, or in a sense +which we in New England do not generally give to that term--that is, +there is not, I believe, a single acre of permanent meadow in the +whole territory. All the vast amount of hay consumed, and all the +pasture grasses have virtually to be grown like grain. There is so +much ploughing and sowing involved in the production of these grass +crops, that they are called "seeds." Thus, by this four-course +system, every field passes almost annually under a different +cropping, and is mowed two or three times in ten years. This fact, +in itself, will not only suggest the immense amount of labor +applied, but also the quality and condition of 3,000 acres of land +that can be surfaced to the scythe in this manner. + +The _seeds_ or grasses sown by Mr. Jonas for pasturage and hay are +chiefly white and red clover and trefoil. His rule of seeding is +the following:-- + +Wheat, from 8 to 10 pecks per acre +Barley, from 12 to 14 " " " +Oats, from 18 to 22 " " " +Winter Beans, 8 " " " +Red Clover, 20 lbs " " +White Clover, 16 lbs " " +Trefoil, 30 to 35 lbs. " " + +This, in New England, would be called very heavy seeding, especially +in regard to oats and the grasses. I believe that twelve pecks of +oats to the acre, rather exceed our average rule. Good clover seed +should weigh two pounds to the quart, and eight quarts, or sixteen +pounds, are the usual seeding with us. + +As labor of horse and man must be economised to the best advantage +on such an estate, it may be interesting to know the expense of the +principal operations. The cost of ploughing averages 7s. 6d., or $1 +80c. per acre. For roots, the land is ploughed three or four times, +besides harrowing, drilling, and rolling. The hoeing of wheat and +roots varies from 2s. to 5s., or from 48c. to $1 20c. per acre. + +The sheep are all folded on turnips or grass fields, except the +breeding ewes in the lambing season. The enclosures are made of +_hurdles_, of which all reading Americans have read, but not one in +a thousand ever has seen. They are a kind of diminutive, portable, +post-and-rail fence, of the New England pattern, made up in +permanent _lengths_, so light that a stout man might carry two or +three of them on his shoulders at once. The two posts are sawed or +split pieces of wood, about two inches thick, three wide, and from +five to six feet in length. They are generally square-morticed for +the rails, which are frequently what we should call split hoop- +holes, but in the best kind are slats of hard wood, about two and a +half inches wide and one in thickness. Midway between the two +posts, the rails are nailed to an upright slat or brace, to keep +them from swaying. Sometimes a farmer makes his own hurdles, thus +furnishing indoor work for his men in winter, when they cannot labor +in the fields; but most generally they are bought of those who +manufacture them on a large scale. Some idea of the extent of +sheep-folding on Chrishall Grange may be inferred from the fact, +that the hurdling on it, if placed in one straight, continuous line, +would reach full ten miles! + +A portable steam engine, of twelve-horse power, looking like a +common railway locomotive strayed from its track and taken up and +housed in a farmer's waggon-shed, performs prodigies of activity and +labor. Indeed, search the three realms through and through, and you +would hardly find one on its own legs doing such remarkable +varieties of work. Briareus, with all his fabled faculties, never +had such numerous and supple fingers as this creature of human +invention. When set a-going, they are clattering and whisking and +frisking everywhere, on the barn-floor, on the hay-loft, in the +granary, under the eaves, down cellar, and all this at the same +time. It is doubtful if any stationary engine in a machine shop +ever performed more diversified operations at once; thus proving +most conclusively how a farmer may work motive power which it was +once thought preposterous in him to think of using. It threshes +wheat and other kinds of grain at the rate of from 400 to 500 +bushels a day; it conveys the straw up to a platform across what we +call the "_great beams_," where it is cut into chaff and dropped +into a great bay, at the trifling expense of sixpence, or twelve +cents, per quantity grown on an acre! While it is doing this in one +direction, it is turning machinery in another that cleans and weighs +the grain off into sacks ready for the market. Open the doors right +and left and you find it at work like reason, breaking oil-cake, +grinding corn for the fat stock, turning the grindstone, pitching, +pounding, paring, rubbing, grabbing, and twisting, threshing, +wrestling, chopping, flopping, and hopping, after the manner of "The +Waters of Lodore." + +The housings for live stock are most admirably constructed as well +as extensive, and all the great yards are well fitted for making and +delivering manure. I noticed here the best arrangement for feeding +swine that I had ever seen before, and of a very simple character. +Instead of revolving troughs, or those that are to be pulled out +like drawers to be cleaned, a long, stationary one, generally of +iron, extends across the whole breadth of the compartment next to +the feeding passage. The board or picket-fence forming this end of +the enclosure, from eight to twelve feet in length, is hung on a +pivot at each side, playing in an iron ring or socket let into each +of the upright posts that support it. Midway in the lower rail of +this fence is a drop bolt which falls into the floor just behind the +trough. At the feeding time, the man has only to raise this bolt +and let it fall on the inner side, and he has the whole length and +width of the trough free to clear with a broom and to fill with the +feed. Then, raising the bolt, and bringing it back to its first +place, the operation is performed in a minute with the greatest +economy and convenience. + +There was one feature of this great farm home which I regarded with +much satisfaction. It was the housing of the laborers employed on +the estate. This is done in blocks of well-built, well-ventilated, +and very comfortable cottages, all within a stone's throw of the +noble old mansion occupied by Mr. Jonas. Thus, no long and weary +miles after the fatigue of the day, or before its labor begins, have +to be walked over by his men in the cold and dark, as in many cases +in which the agricultural laborer is obliged to trudge on foot from +a distant village to his work, making a hard and sunless journey at +both ends of the day. + +Although my visit at this, perhaps the largest, farming +establishment in England, occupied only a few hours, I felt on +leaving that I had never spent an equal space of time more +profitably and pleasantly in the pursuit or appreciation of +agricultural knowledge. The open and large-hearted hospitality and +genial manners of the proprietor and his family seemed to correspond +with the dimensions and qualities of his holding, and to complete, +vitalise, and beautify the symmetries of a true ENGLISH FARMER'S +HOME. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +ROYSTON AND ITS SPECIALITIES--ENTERTAINMENT IN A SMALL VILLAGE--ST. +IVES--VISITS TO ADJOINING VILLAGES--A FEN-FARM--CAPITAL INVESTED IN +ENGLISH AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURE COMPARED--ALLOTMENTS AND GARDEN +TENANTRY--BARLEY GROWN ON OATS. + +From Chrishall Grange I went on to Royston, where I found very quiet +and comfortable quarters in a small inn called "The Catherine +Wheel," for what reason it is not yet clear to my mind, and the +landlady could not enlighten me on the subject. I have noticed two +inns in London of the same name, and have seen it mounted on several +other public houses in England. Why that ancient saint and the +machinery of her torture should be alone selected from the history +and host of Christian martyrs, and thus associated with houses of +entertainment for man and beast, is a mystery which I will not +undertake to explore. To be sure, the head of a puncheon of rum is +round like a wheel, and if the liquor were not too much diluted with +water, it might make a revolving illumination quite interesting, if +set on fire and rolled into the gutter. It may possibly suggest +that lambent ignition of the brain which the fiery drinks of the +establishment produce, and which so many infatuated victims think +delightful. Both these inferences, and all others I could fancy, +are so dubious that I will not venture further into the meaning of +this singular appellation given to a tavern. + +Royston is a goodly and comfortable town, just inside the eastern +boundary of Hertfordshire. It has its full share of half-legible +and interesting antiquities, including the ruins of a royal palace, +a cave, and several other broken monuments of the olden time, all +festooned with the web-work of hereditary fancies, legends, and +shreds of unravelled history dyed to the vivid colors of variegated +imagination. It also boasts and enjoys a great, breezy common, +large enough to hold such another town, and which few in the kingdom +can show. Then, if it cannot cope with Glastonbury in showing, to +the envious and credulous world, a thorn-tree planted by Joseph of +Arimathaea, and blossoming always at Christmas, it can fly a bird of +greater antiquity, which never flapped its wings elsewhere, so far +as I can learn. It may be the lineal descendant of Noah's raven +that has come down to this particular community without a cross with +any other branch of the family. It is called "The Royston Crow," +and is a variety of the genus which you will find in no other +country. It is a great, heavy bird, larger than his colored +American cousin, and is distinguished by a white back. Indeed, seen +walking at a distance, he looks like our Bobolink expanded to the +size of a large hen-hawk. To have such a wild bird all to +themselves, and of its own free will, notwithstanding the length and +power of its wings, and the force of centrifugal attractions, is a +distinction which the good people of this favored town have good +reason to appreciate at its proper value. Nor are they insensible +to the honor. The town printer put into my hands a monthly +publication called "THE ROYSTON CROW," containing much interesting +and valuable information. It might properly have embraced a chapter +on entomology; but, perhaps, it would have been impolitic for the +personal interests of the bird to have given wide publicity to facts +in this department of knowledge. For, after all, there may exist in +the neighborhood certain special kinds of bugs and other insects +which lie at the foundation of his preference for the locality. + +The next day I again faced northward, and walked as far as Caxton, a +small, rambling village, which looked as if it had not shaved and +washed its face, and put on a clean shirt for a shocking length of +time. It was dark when I reached it; having walked twelve miles +after three p.m. There was only one inn, properly speaking, in the +town, and since the old coaching time, it had contracted itself into +the fag-end of a large, dark, seedy-looking building, where it lived +by selling beer and other sharp and cheap drinks to the villagers; +nineteen-twentieths of whom appeared to be agricultural laborers. +The entertainment proffered on the sign-board over the door was +evidently limited to the tap-room. Indeed, this and the great, low- +jointed and brick-floored kitchen opening into to it, seemed to +constitute all the living or inhabited space in the building. I +saw, at a glance, that the chance for a bed was faint and small; and +I asked Landlord Rufus for one doubtingly, as one would ask for a +ready-made pulpit or piano at a common cabinet-maker's shop. He +answered me clearly enough before he spoke, and he spoke as if +answering a strange and half-impertinent question, looking at me +searchingly, as if he suspected I was quizzing him. His "No!" was +short and decided; but, seeing I was honest and earnest in the +inquiry, he softened his negative with the explanation that their +beds were all full. It seemed strange to me that this should be so +in a building large enough for twenty, and I hesitated hopefully, +thinking he might remember some small room in which he might put me +for the night. To awaken a generous thought in him in this +direction, I intimated how contented I would be with the most +moderate accommodation. But it was in vain. The house was full, +and I must seek for lodging elsewhere. There were two or three +other public houses in the village that might take me in. I went to +them one by one. They all kept plenty of beer, but no bed. They, +too, looked at me with surprise for asking for such a thing. +Apparently, there had been no demand for such entertainment by any +traveller since the stage-coach ceased to run through the village. +I went up and down, trying to negotiate with the occupants of some +of the best-looking cottages for a cot or bunk; but they had none to +spare, as the number of wondering children that stared at me kindly, +at once suggested before I put the question. + +It was now quite dark, and I was hungry and tired; and the prospect +of an additional six miles walk was not very animating. What next? +I will go back to Landlord Rufus and try a new influence on his +sensibilities. Who knows but it will succeed? I will touch him on +his true character as a Briton. So I went back, with my last chance +hanging on the experiment. I told him I was an American traveller, +weary, hungry, and infirm of health, and would pay an extra price +for an extra effort to give me a bed for the night. I did not say +all this in a Romanus-civus-sum sort of tone. No! dear, honest Old +Abe, you would have done the same in my place. I made the great +American Eagle coo like a dove in the request; and it touched the +best instincts of the British Lion within the man. It was evident +in a moment that I had put my case in a new aspect to him. He would +talk with the "_missus_;" he withdrew into the back kitchen, a short +conference ensued, and both came out together and informed me that +they had found a bed, unexpectedly vacant, for my accommodation. +And they would get up some tea and bread and butter for me, too. +Capital! A sentiment of national pride stole in between every two +feelings of common satisfaction at this result. The thought would +come in and whisper, not for your importunity as a common fellow +mortal were this bed and this loaf unlocked to you, but because you +were an American citizen. + +So I followed "the missus" into that great kitchen, and sat down in +one corner of the huge fire-place while she made the tea. It was a +capacious museum of culinary curiosities of the olden time, all +arranged in picturesque groups, yet without any aim at effect. +Pots, kettles, pans, spits, covers, hooks and trammels of the +Elizabethan period, apparently the heirlooms of several intersecting +generations, showed in the fire-light like a work of artistry; the +sharp, silvery brightness of the tin and the florid flush of +burnished copper making distinct disks in the darkness. It was with +a rare sentiment of comfort that I sat by that fire of crackling +faggots, looked up at the stars that dropped in their light as they +passed over the top of the great chimney, and glanced around at the +sides of that old English kitchen, panelled with plates and platters +and dishes of all sizes and uses. And this fire was kindled and +this tea-kettle was singing for me really because I was an American! +I could not forget that--so I deemed it my duty to keep up the +character. Therefore, I told the _missus_ and her bright-eyed niece +a great many stories about America; some of which excited their +admiration and wonder. Thus I sat at the little, round, three- +legged table, inside the out-spreading chimney, for an hour or more, +and made as cozy and pleasant a meal of it as ever I ate. Besides +all this, I had the best bed in the house, and several "Good +nights!" on retiring to it, uttered with hearty good-will by voices +softened to an accent of kindness. Next morning I was introduced +into the best parlor, and had a capital breakfast, and then resumed +my walk with a pleasant memory of my entertainment in that village +inn. + +I passed through a fertile and interesting section to St. Ives, in +Huntingdonshire. Here I remained with some friends for a week, +visiting neighboring villages by day and returning at night. St. +Ives is a pleasant, well-favored town, just large enough to +constitute a coherent, neighborly, and well-regulated community. It +is the centre-piece of a rich, rural picture, which, without any +strikingly salient features, pleases the eye with lineaments of +quiet beauty symmetrically developed by the artistry of Nature. The +river Ouse meanders through a wide, fertile flat, or what the Scotch +would call a strath, which gently rises on each side into pleasantly +undulating uplands. Parks, groves, copses, and hedge-row trees are +interspersed very happily, and meadow, pasture, and grain-fields +seen through them, with villages, hamlets, farm-houses, and isolated +cottages, make up a landscape that grows more and more interesting +as you contemplate it. And this placid locality, with its peaceful +river seemingly sleeping in the bosom of its long and level meadows, +was the scene of Oliver Cromwell's young, fiery manhood. Here, +where Nature invites to tranquil occupations and even exercises of +the mind, he trained the latent energies of his will for action in +the great drama that overturned a throne and transformed a nation. +Here, till very lately, stood his "barn," and here he drilled the +first squadron of his "Ironsides." + +My friend and host drove me one day to see a fen-farm a few miles +beyond Ramsey, at which we remained over night and enjoyed the old- +fashioned English hospitality of the establishment with lively +relish. It was called "The Four-Hundred-Acre-Farm," to distinguish +it from a hundred others, laid out on the same dead level, with +lines and angles as straight and sharp as those of a brick. You +will meet scores of persons in England who speak admiringly of the +great prairies of our Western States--but I never saw one in +Illinois as extensive as the vast level expanse you may see in +Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. In fact, the space of a large +county has been fished up out of a shallow sea of salt water by +human labor and capital. I will not dwell here upon the expense, +process, and result of this gigantic operation. It would require a +whole chapter to convey an approximate idea of the character and +dimensions of the enterprise. The feat of Cyrus in turning the +current of the Euphrates was the mere making of a short mill-race +compared with the labor of lifting up these millions of acres bodily +out of the flood that had covered and held them in quiescent +solution since the world began. + +This Great Prairie of England, generally called here the Fens, or +Fenland, would be an interesting and instructive section for the +agriculturists of our Western States to visit. They would see how +such a region can be made quite picturesque, as well as luxuriantly +productive. Let them look off upon the green sea from one of the +upland waves, and it will be instructive to them to see and know, +that all the hedge-trees, groves, and copses that intersect and +internect the vast expanse of green and gold were planted by man's +hands. Such a landscape would convince them that the prairies of +Illinois and Iowa may be recovered from their almost depressing +monotony by the same means. The soil of this district is apparently +the same as that around Chicago--black and deep, on a layer of clay. +It pulverises as easily in dry weather, and makes the same inky and +sticky composition in wet. To give it more body, or to cross it +with a necessary and supplementary element, a whole field is often +trenched by the spade as clean as one could be furrowed by the +plough. By this process the substratum of clay is thrown up, to a +considerable thickness, upon the light, black, almost volatile soil, +and mixed with it when dry; thus giving it a new character and +capacity of production. + +Everything seems to grow on a Californian scale in this fen +district. Although the soil thus rescued from the waters that had +flooded and half dissolved it, was at first as deep, black, and +naturally fertile as that of our prairies, those who commenced its +cultivation did not make the same mistake as did our Western +farmers. They did not throw their manure into the broad draining +canals to get rid of it, trusting to the inexhaustible fertility of +the alluvial earth, as did the wheat growers of Indiana and Illinois +to their cost; but they husbanded and well applied all the resources +of their barn-yards. In consequence of this economy, there is no +deterioration of annual averages of their crops to be recorded, as +in some of our prairie States, which have been boasting of the +natural and inexhaustible fertility of their soil even with the +record of retrograde statistics before their eyes. The grain and +root crops are very heavy; and a large business is done in growing +turnip seed for the world in some sections of this fen country. A +large proportion of the quantity we import comes from these low +lands. + +Our host of the Four-Hundred-Acre Farm took us over his productive +occupation, which was in a very high state of cultivation. The +wheat was yellowing to harvest, and promised a yield of forty-two +bushels to the acre. The oats were very heavy, and the root crops +looked well, especially a field of mangel-wurzel. He apportions his +land to different crops after this ratio:-- Wheat, 120 acres; oats, +80; rye-grass and clover, 50; roots, 60. His live stock consisted +of 300 sheep, 50 to 60 head of cattle, and 70 to 80 hogs. His +working force was from 10 to 12 men, 14 farm horses, and 4 nags. It +may interest some of my American readers to know the number, +character, and cost of the implements employed by this substantial +English farmer in cultivating an estate of 400 acres. I noted down +the following list, when he was showing us his tool-house:-- + + l. $ l. $ +6 Ploughs at 4 each = 20 24 = 120 +6 Horse-carts, at 14 each = 70 84 = 420 +1 Large Iron Roller and Gearing, 13 = 65 +1 Cambridge Roller 14 = 70 +1 Twelve-Coulter Drill 46 = 230 +3 Harrows at 3 each = 15 9 = 45 +2 Great Harrows at 3 each = 15 6 = 30 + --- --- +Total cost of these Implements 196l.$980 + +These figures will represent the working forces and implemental +machinery of a well-tilled farm of 400 acres in England. They will +also indicate the amount of capital required to cultivate an estate +of this extent here. Let us compare it with the amount generally +invested in New England for a farm of equal size. Thousands that +have been under cultivation for a hundred years, may be bought for 5 +pounds, or $25, per acre, including house, barn, and other buildings +and appurtenances. It is a very rare thing for a man with us to buy +400 acres at once; but if he did, it would probably be on these +conditions:-- He would pay 400 pounds, or $2,000, down at the time +of purchase, giving his notes for the remaining 1,600 pounds, or +$8,000, at 6 per cent. interest payable annually, together with the +yearly instalment of principal specified in each note. He would +perhaps have 200 pounds, or $1,000, left of his capital for working +power and agricultural implements. He would probably divide it +after the following manner:-- + + l. l. $ +2 Yokes of Oxen, at 25 = 50 = 250 +1 Horse 20 = 100 +2 Ox-carts, at 15 = 30 = 150 +1 Waggon 20 = 100 +2 Ox-sleds, at 1 = 2 = 10 +2 Ox-ploughs, at 2 = 4 = 20 +1 Single Horse-plough 1 = 5 +2 Harrows 2 = 4 = 20 +Cradles, scythes, hoes, rakes, flails, etc. 4 = 20 +Fanning-mill, hay-cutter, and corn-sheller. 4 = 20 +15 Cows, steers, and heifers 45 = 225 +6 Shoats, or pigs, six months old 10 = 50 + +These figures would indicate a large operation for a practical New +England farmer, who should undertake to purchase and cultivate an +estate of 400 acres. Indeed, not one in a hundred buying such a +large tract of land would think of purchasing all the implements on +this list at once, or entirely new. One of his carts, sleds, and +harrows would very probably be "second-handed," and bought at half +the price of a new one. Thus, a substantial farmer with us would +think he was beginning on a very satisfactory and liberal footing, +if he had 200 pounds, or $1,000, in ready money for stocking a +holding of 400 acres with working cattle and implemental machinery, +cows, pigs, etc. Now, compare this outlay with that of our host of +the Four-Hundred-Acre Farm in Lincolnshire. We will begin with his- +- + + l. l. $ + 14 Farm horses, at the low figure of 20 each = 280 = 1,400 + 4 Nags, or saddle and carriage horses 2O each = 8O = 400 +300 Stock sheep 1 each = 300 = 1,500 + 7O Pigs, of different ages 2 each = 140 = 900 + 5O Head of cattle (cows, bullocks, etc.) 12 each = 600 = 3,000 +Carts, drills, rollers, ploughs and other implements 1,000 = 5,000 + ----- ----- + 2,400 $12,200 + +The average rent of such land in England must be at least 1 pound +10s. per acre, and the tenant farmer must pay half of this out of +the capital he begins with; which, on 400 acres, would amount to 300 +pounds. Then, if he buys a quantity of artificial manures equal to +the value of 10s. per acre, he will need to expend in this +department 200 pounds. Next, if he purchases corn and oil-cake at +the same ratio for his cattle and sheep as that adopted by Mr. +Jonas, of Chrishall Grange, he will want 1,000 pounds for his 60 +head of cattle and 300 sheep. In addition to these items of +expenditure, he must pay his men weekly; and the wages of ten, at +10s. per week, for six months, amount to 130 pounds. Add an +economical allowance for family expenses for the same length of +time, and for incidental outgoes, and you make up the aggregate of +4,000 pounds, which is 10 pounds to the acre, which an English +farmer needs to have and invest on entering upon the cultivation of +a farm, great or small. This amount, as has been stated elsewhere, +is the rule for successful agriculture in this country. + +These facts will measure the difference between the amounts of +capital invested in equal spaces of land in England and America. It +is as ten to one, assuming a moderate average. Here, a man would +need 1,500 pounds, or more than $7,000, to begin with on renting a +farm of 150 acres, in order to cultivate it successfully. In New +England, a man would think he began under favorable auspices if he +were able to enter upon the occupancy of equal extent with 100 +pounds, or about $500. + +On returning from the Fens, I passed the night and most of the +following day at Woodhurst, a village a few miles north of St. Ives, +on the upland rising gently from the valley of the Ouse. My host +here was a farmer, owning the land he tilled, cultivating it and the +moral character and happiness of the little community, in which he +moved as a father, with an equally generous heart and hand, and +reaping a liberal reward from both departments of his labor. He +took me over his fields, and showed me his crops and live stock, +which were in excellent condition. Harvesting had already +commenced, and the reapers were at work, men and women, cutting +wheat and barley. Few of them used sickles, but a curved knife, +wider than the sickle, of nearly the same shape, minus the teeth. A +man generally uses two of them. With the one in his left hand he +gathers in a good sweep of grain, bends it downward, and with the +other strikes it close to the ground, as we cut Indian corn. With +the left-hand hook and arm, he carries on the grain from the inside +to the outside of the swath or "work," making three or four strokes +with the cutting knife; then, at the end, gathers it all up and lays +it down in a heap for binding. This operation is called "bagging." +It does not do the work so neatly as the sickle, and is apt to pull +up many stalks by the roots with the earth attaching to them, +especially at the last, outside stroke. + +I was struck with the economy adopted by my host in loading, carting +and stacking or ricking his grain. The operation was really +performed like clock-work. Two or three men were stationed at the +rick to unload the carts, two in the fields to load them, and +several boys to lead them back and forth to the two parties. They +were all one-horse carts, and so timed that a loaded one was always +at the rick and an empty one always in the field; thus keeping the +men at both ends fully employed from morning until night, pitching +on and pitching off; while boys, at 6d. or 8d. a day, led the +horses. + +On passing through the stables and housings for stock, I noticed a +simple, yet ingenious contrivance for watering cattle, which I am +not sure I can describe accurately enough, without a drawing, to +convey a tangible idea of it to my agricultural neighbors in +America. It may be called the buoy-cock. In the first place, the +water is brought into a cistern placed at one end of the stable or +shed at a sufficient elevation to give it the necessary fall in all +the directions in which it is to be conducted. The pipe used for +each cow-box or manger connects each with the cistern, and the +distributing end of it rests upon, or is suspended over, the trough +assigned to each animal. About one-third of this trough, which was +here a cast-iron box, about twelve inches deep and wide, protrudes +through the boarding of the stable. In this outside compartment is +placed a hollow copper ball attached to a lever, which turns the +axle or pivot of the cock. Now, this little buoy, of course, rises +and falls with the water in the trough. When the trough is full, +the buoy rises and raises the lever so as to shut off the water +entirely. At every sip the animal takes, the buoy descends and lets +on again, to a drop, a quantity equal to that abstracted from the +inside compartment. Thus the trough is always kept full of pure +water, without losing a drop of it through a waste-pipe or overflow. +Where a great herd of cattle and a drove of horses have to be +supplied from a deep well, as in the case of Mr. Jonas, at Chrishall +Grange, this buoy-cock must save a great amount of labor. + +I saw also here in perfection that garden allotment system which is +now coming widely into vogue in England, not only adjoining large +towns like Birmingham, but around small villages in the rural +districts. It is well worthy of being introduced in New England and +other states, where it would work equally well in various lines of +influence. A landowner divides up a field into allotments, each +generally containing a rood, and lets them to the mechanics, +tradespeople and agricultural laborers of the town or village, who +have no gardens of their own for the growth of vegetables. Each of +these is better than a savings-bank to the occupant. He not only +deposits his odd pennies but his odd hours in it; keeping both away +from the public-house or from places and habits of idleness and +dissipation. The days of Spring and Summer here are very long, and +a man can see to work in the field as early as three o'clock in the +morning, and as late as nine at night. So every journeyman +blacksmith, baker or shoemaker may easily find four or five hours in +the twenty-four for work on his allotment, after having completed +the task or time due to his employer. He generally keeps a pig, and +is on the qui vive to make and collect all the manure he can for his +little farm. A field of several acres, thus divided and cultivated +in allotments, presents as striking a combination of colors as an +Axminster carpet. As every rood is subdivided into a great variety +of vegetables, and as forty or fifty of such patches, lying side by +side, present, in one coup d'oeil, all the alternations of which +these crops and colors are susceptible, the effect is very +picturesque. + +My Woodhurst friend makes his allotment system a source of much +social enjoyment to himself and the poor villagers. He lets forty- +seven patches, each containing twenty poles. Every tenant pays +10s., or $2 40c., annual rent for his little holding, Mr. E. drawing +the manure for each, which is always one good load a year. Here, +too, these little spade-farmers are put under the same regime as the +great tenant agriculturists of the country. Each must farm his +allotment according to the terms of the yearly lease. He must dig +up his land with spade or pick, not plough it; and he is not allowed +to work on it upon the Sabbath. But encouragements greatly +predominate over restrictions, and stimulate and reward a high +cultivation. _Eight_ prizes are offered to this end, of the +following amounts:--10s., 7s. 6d., 5s., 4s., 3s., 2s. 6d., 2s. and +1s. Every one who competes must not have more than half his +allotment in potatoes. The greater the variety of vegetables the +other half contains, the better is his chance for the first prize. +The appraiser is some disinterested person of good judgment, perhaps +from an adjoining town, who knows none of the competitors. To +prevent any possible favoritism, the allotments are all numbered, +and he awards prizes to numbers only, not knowing to whom they +belong. Another feature, illustrating the generous disposition of +the proprietor, characterises this good work. On the evening +appointed for paying the rents, he gets up a regular, old-fashioned +English supper of roast beef and plum-pudding for them, giving each +fourpence instead of beer, so that they may all go home sober as +well as cheerful. To see him preside at that table, with his large, +round, rosy face beaming upon them with the quiet benevolence of a +good heart, and to hear the fatherly and neighborly talks he makes +to them, would be a picture and preaching which might be commended +to the farmers of all countries. + +I saw also a curious phenomenon in the natural world on this farm, +which perhaps will be regarded as a fiction of fancy by many a +reader. It was a large field of barley grown from _oats_! We have +recently dwelt upon some of the co-workings of Nature and Art in the +development of flowers and of several useful plants. But here is +something stranger still, that seems to diverge from the line of any +law hitherto known in the vegetable world. Still, for aught one can +know at this stage of its action, it may be the same general law of +development which we have noticed, only carried forward to a more +advanced point of progress. I would commend it to the deep and +serious study of naturalists, botanists, or to those philosophers +who should preside over the department of investigation to which the +subject legitimately belongs. I will only say what I saw with my +own eyes and heard with my own ears. Here, I repeat, was a large +field of heavy grain, ready for harvest. The head and berry were +_barley_, and the stalk and leaves were _oat_! Here, certainly, is +a mystery. The barley sown on this field was the first-born +offspring of oats. And the whole process by which this wonderful +transformation is wrought, is simply this, and nothing more:--The +oats are sown about the last week in June; and, before coming into +ear, they are cut down within one inch and a half of the ground. +This operation is repeated a second time. They are then allowed to +stand through the winter, and the following season the produce is +_barley_. This is the plain statement of the case in the very words +of the originator of this process, and of this strange +transmutation. The only practical result of it which he claims is +this: that the straw of the barley thus produced is stouter, and +stands more erect, and, therefore, less liable to be beaten down by +heavy wind or rain. Then, perhaps, it may be added, this oat straw +headed with barley is more valuable as fodder for live stock than +the natural barley straw. But the value of this result is nothing +compared with the issue of the experiment as proving the existence +of a principle or law hitherto undiscovered, which may be applied to +all kinds of plants for the use of man and beast. If any English +reader of these notes is disposed to inquire more fully into this +subject, I am sure he may apply without hesitation to Mr. John +Ekins, of Bruntisham, near St. Ives, who will supply any additional +information needed. He presented me with a little sample bag of +this oat-born barley, which I hope to show my agricultural neighbors +on returning to America. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + +THE MILLER OF HOUGHTON--AN HOUR IN HUNTINGDON--OLD HOUSES-- +WHITEWASHED TAPESTRY AND WORKS OF ART--"THE OLD MERMAID" AND "THE +GREEN MAN"--TALK WITH AGRICULTURAL LABORERS--THOUGHTS ON THEIR +CONDITION, PROSPECTS, AND POSSIBILITIES. + +After a little more than a week's visit in St. Ives and neighboring +villages, I again resumed my staff and set out in a westerly +direction, in order to avoid the flat country which lay immediately +northward for a hundred miles and more. Followed the north bank of +the Ouse to Huntingdon. On the way, I stopped and dined with a +gentleman in Houghton whose hospitality and good works are well +known to many Americans. The locality mentioned is so identified +with his name, that they will understand whom I mean. There was a +good and tender-hearted man who lived in our Boston, called Deacon +Grant; and I hope he is living still. He was so kind to everybody +in trouble, and everybody in trouble went to him so spontaneously +for sympathy and relief, that no one ever thought of him as +belonging to a single religious congregation, but regarded him as +Deacon of the whole of Boston--a kind of universal father, whose +only children were the orphans and the poor men's sons and daughters +of the city. The Miller of Houghton, as some of my readers will +know, is just such another man, with one slight difference, which is +to his advantage, as a gift of grace. He has all of Deacon Grant's +self-diffusing life of love for his kind, generous and tender +dispositions towards the poor and needy, and more than the Deacon's +means of doing good; and, with all this, the indomitable energy and +will and even the look of Cromwell. During my stay in the +neighborhood, I was present at two large gatherings at his House of +Canvas, with which he supplements his family mansion when the latter +lacks the capacity of his heart in the way of accommodation. This +tent, which he erects on his lawn, will hold a large congregation; +and, on both the occasions to which I refer, was well filled with +men, women, and children from afar and near. The first was a re- +union of the Sunday-school teachers and pupils of the county, to +whom he gave a sumptuous dinner; after which followed addresses and +some business transactions of the association. The second was the +examination of the British School of the village, founded and +supported, I believe, by himself. At the conclusion of the +exercises, which were exceedingly interesting, the whole company, +young and old, adjourned to the lawn, where the visitors and elder +people of the place were served with tea and coffee under the tent. + +Then came "The Children's Hour." They were called in from their +games and romping on the lawn, and formed into a circle fifty feet +in diameter. And here and now commenced an entertainment which +would make a more interesting picture than the old Apsley House +Dinner. The good deacon of the county, with several assistants, +entered this charmed circle of boys and girls, all with eyes dilated +and eager with expectation, and overlooked by a circular wall of +elder people radiant with the spirit of the moment. The host, in +his white hat and grey beard, led the way with a basket on his arm, +filled with little cakes, called with us gingernuts. He was +followed by a file of other men with baskets of nuts, apples, etc. +It was a most hilarious scene, exhilarating to all the senses to +look upon, either for young or old. He walked around the ring with +a grand, Cromwellian step, sowing a pattering rain of the little +cakes on the clean-shaven lawn, as a farmer would sow wheat in his +field, broadcast, in liberal handfuls. Then followed in their order +the nut-sowers, apple-sowers, and the sowers of other goodies. When +the baskets were emptied, the circular space enclosed was covered +with as tempting a spread of dainties as ever fascinated the eyes of +a crowd of little people. For a whole minute, longer than a full +hour of ordinary schoolboy enjoyments, they had to stand facing that +sight, involuntarily attitudinising for the plunge. At the end of +that long minute, the signal sounded, and, in an instant, there was +a scene in the ring that would have made the soberest octogenarian +shake his sides with the laughter of his youth. The encircling +multitude of youngsters darted upon the thickly-scattered delicacies +like a flock of birds upon a field of grain, with patter, twitter +and flutter, and a tremor and treble of little short laughs; small, +eager hands trying in vain to shut fast upon a large apple and +several ginger-nuts at one grasp; slippings and trippings, tousling +of tresses and crushing of dresses; boys and girls higgledy- +piggledy; caps and bonnets piggledy-higgledy; little, red-faced +Alexanders looking half sad, because they had filled their small +pocket-worlds and both hands with apples and nuts, and had no room +nor holding for more; little girls, with broken bonnet-strings, and +long, sunny hair dancing over their eyes, stretching their short +fingers to grasp another goodie,--all this, with the merry +excitement of fathers and mothers, elder brothers and sisters, and +other spectators, made it a scene of youthful life and delight which +would test the genius of the best painters of the age to delineate. +And Sir Roger Coverley Cromwell, the author of all this +entertainment, would make a capital figure in the group, taken just +as he looked at that moment, with his face illuminated with the +upshooting joy of his heart, like the clear, frosty sky of winter +with the glow and the flush of the Northern Lights. + +The good Miller of Houghton, having added stone to stone until his +mills can grind all the wheat the largest county can grow, has +recently handed over to his sons the great business he had built up +to such magnitude, and retired, if possible, to a more active life +of benevolence. One of his late benefactions was a gift of 3,000 +pounds, or nearly $15,000, toward the erection of an Independent +Chapel in St. Ives. + +At Huntingdon, I took tea and spent a pleasant hour with the +principal of a select school, kept in a large, dignified and +comfortable mansion, once occupied by the poet Cowper. In the yard +behind the house there is a wide-spreading and prolific pear-tree +planted by his hands. This, too, was one of the thousands of old, +stately dwellings you meet with here and there, which have no +beginning nor end that you can get at. Cowper lived and wrote in +this, for instance; but who lived in it a century before he was +born? Who built it? Which of the Two Roses did he mount on his +arms? Or did he live and build later, and dine his townsman, the +great Oliver, or was he loyal to the last to Charles the First? +These are questions that come up, on going over such a building, but +no one can answer them, and you are left to the wisdom of limping +legends on the subject. The present occupant has an antiquarian +penchant; so, a short time after he took possession of the house, he +began to make explorations in the walls and wainscotings, as men of +the same mind have done at Nineveh and Pompeii. Having penetrated a +thick surface of white lava, or a layer of lime, put on with a brush +"in an earlier age than ours," he came upon a gorgeous wall of +tapestry, with inwoven figures and histories of great men and women, +quite as large as life, and all of very florid complexion and +luxurious costumes. He has already exhumed a great many square +yards of this picturesque fabric, wrought in by-gone ages, and is +continuing the work with all the zest and success of a fortunate +archaeologist. Now it is altogether probable, that Cowper, as he +sat in one of those rooms writing at his beautiful rhymes, had not +the slightest idea that he was surrounded by such a crowd of kings, +queens, and other great personages, barely concealed behind a thin +cloud of white-wash. + +It may possibly be true, that a few beautiful, fair-haired heretics +in love or religion have been stone-masoned up alive in the walls of +abbeys or convents. Sir Walter Scott leaned to that belief, and +perhaps had credible history for it. But if the trowel has slain +its thousands, the whitewash swab has slain its ten thousands of +innocents. Think of the furlongs of richly-wrought tapestry, full +of sacred and profane history, and the furlongs of curiously-carved +panels, wainscoting, and cornice that floppy, sloppy, vandal brush +of pigs' bristles and pail of diluted lime have eclipsed and +obliterated for ever, and not a retributive drop of the villainous +mixture has fallen into the perpetrator's eye to "make his foul +intent seem horrible!" Think of Christian kings of glorious memory, +even Defenders of the Faith, with their fair queens, princes of the +blood, and knights, noble and brave, all, in one still St. +Bartholomew night of that soft, thin, white flood, buried from the +sight of the living as completely as the Roman sentinel at his post +by the red gulf-stream of Vesuvius! Still, we must not be too hard +on these seemingly barbarous transactions. "Not in anger, not in +wrath," nor in foolish fancy, was that dripping brush always lifted +upon these works of art. Many a person of cultivated taste saw a +time when he could say, almost with Sancho Panza, "blessings on the +man who invented whitewash! It covers a tapestry, a carving, or a +sculpture all over like a blanket;" like that one spoken of in +Macbeth. England is just beginning to learn what treasures of art +in old mansions, churches and cathedrals were saved to the present +age by a timely application of that cheap and healthy fluid. For +there was a time when stern men of iron will arose, who had no fear +of Gothic architecture, French tapestry, or Italian sculpture before +their eyes; who treated things that had awed or dazzled the world as +"baubles" of vanity, to be put away, as King Josiah put away from +his realm the graven images of his predecessors. And these men +thought they were doing good service to religion by pushing their +bayonets at the most delicate works of the needle, pencil and +chisel; ripping and slitting the most elaborately wrought tapestry,- +-stabbing off the fine leaf, and vine-work from carved cornices and +wainscoting, and mutilating the marble lace-work of the sculptor in +the old cathedrals. The only way to save these choice things was to +make them suddenly take the white veil from the whitewasher's brush. +Thousands of them were thus preserved, and they are now being +brought forth to the light again, after having been shut away from +the eye of man for several centuries. + +The school-house is still standing in Huntingdon, in good condition +and busy occupation, in which Oliver Cromwell stormed the English +alphabet and carried the first parallel of monosyllables at the +point of the pen. The very form or bench of oak from which he +mounted the breach is still occupied by boys of the same size and +age, with the same number of inches between their feet and the floor +which separated it from his. Had the photographic art been +discovered in his day, we might have had his face and form as he +looked when seated as a rosy-faced, light-haired boy in the rank and +file of the youngsters gathered within those walls. What an +overwhelming revelation it would have been to his young, honest and +merry mind, if some seer, like him who told Hazael his future, could +have given him a sudden glimpse of what he was to be and do in his +middle manhood! + +After tea, I continued my walk westward to a small, quiet, +comfortable village, about five miles from Huntingdon, where I +became the guest of "The Old Mermaid," who extended her amphibious +hospitalities to all strangers wishing bed and board for the night. +Both I received readily and greatly enjoyed under her roof, +especially the former. Never did I occupy a bed so fringed with the +fanciful artistries of dreamland. It was close up under the +thatched roof, and it was the most easy and natural thing in the +world for the fancies of the midnight hour to turn that thatching +into hair, and to cheat my willing mind with the delusion that I was +sleeping with the long, soft tresses of Her Submarine Ladyship wound +around my head. It was a delightful vagary of the imagination, +which the morning light, looking in through the little checker-work +window, gently dispelled. + +The next day I bent my course in a north-westerly direction, and +passed through a very fertile and beautiful section. The scenery +was truly delightful;--not grand nor splendid, but replete with +quiet pictures that please the eye and touch the heart with a sense +of gladness. The soft mosaic work of the gently rounded hills, or +figures wrought in wheat, barley, oats, beans, turnips, and meadow +and pasture land, and grouped into landscapes in endless alternation +of lights and shades, and all this happy little world now veiled by +the low, summer clouds, now flooded by a sunburst between them--all +these lovely and changing sceneries made my walk like one through a +continuous gallery of paintings. + +Harvesting had commenced in real earnest, and the wheat-fields were +full of reapers, some wielding the sickle, others the scythe. When +I saw men and women bending almost double to cut their sheaves close +to the ground, I longed to walk through a barley-field with one of +our American cradles, and show them how we do that sort of thing. +As yet I have seen no reaping machines in operation, and I doubt if +they will ever come into such extensive use here as with us, owing +to the abundance of cheap labor in this country. I saw on this +day's walk the heaviest crop of wheat that I have noticed since I +left London. It must have averaged sixty bushels to the acre for +the whole field. + +Late in the afternoon it began to rain; and I was glad to find +shelter and entertainment at a comfortable village inn, under the +patronage of "The Green Man," perhaps a brother or near relative of +Mermadam my hostess that entertained me the preceding night. It was +a unique old building, or rather a concrete of a great variety of +buildings devoted to a remarkable diversity of purposes, including +brewing, farming, and other occupations. The large, low, dark +kitchen was flanked by one of the old-fashioned fire-places, with +space for a large family between the jambs, and the hollow of the +chimney ample enough to show one of the smaller constellations at +the top of it in a clear night. A seat on the brick or stone floor +before one of these kitchen fire-places is to me the focus of the +home comforts of the house, and I always make for it mechanically. +As the darkness drew on, several agricultural laborers drifted in, +one after the other, until the broad, deep pavement of the hearth +was lined by a row of them, quite fresh from their work. They were +quiet, sober-looking men, and they spoke with subdued voices, +without animation or excitement, as if the fatigue of the day and +the general battle of life had softened them to a serious, pensive +mood and movement. As they sat drying their jackets around the +fire, passing successive mugs of the landlord's ale from one to the +other, they grew more and more conversational; and, as I put in a +question here and there, they gave me an insight into the general +condition, aspects and prospects of their class which I had not +obtained before. They were quite free to answer any questions +relating to their domestic economy, their earnings, spendings, food, +drink, clothing, housing and fuel, also in reference to their +educational and religious privileges and habits. + +It was now the first week of harvest; and harvest in England, in any +one locality, covers the space of a full month, in ordinary weather. +Then, as the season varies remarkably, so that one county is +frequently a week earlier in harvesting than that adjoining it on +the north, the work for the sickle is often prolonged from the +middle of July to the middle of September. This is the period of +great expectation as well as toil for the agricultural laborers. +Every man, woman, and boy of them is all put under the stimulus of +extra earnings through these important weeks. Even the laborers +hired by the year have a full month given them for harvesting forty +or fifty extra shillings under this stimulus. Nearly all the grain +in England is cut for a certain stipulated sum per acre; and +thousands of all ages, with sickle or scythe in hand, see the sun +rise and set while they are at work in the field. In the field they +generally breakfast, lunch, and dine; and when it is considered +there is daylight enough for labor between half-past three in the +morning to half-past eight at night, one may easily see how many of +the twenty-four hours they may bend to their toil. The price for +cutting and binding wheat is from 10s. to 14s., or from $2 40c. to +$3 36c. per acre, and 8s., or $1 92c. per acre for oats and barley. +The men who cut, bind, and shock by the acre generally have to find +their own beer, and will earn from 24s. to 28s., or from $5 76c. to +$6 72c. per week. The regular laborers frequently let themselves to +their employers during the harvest month at from 20s. to 24s. per +week, which is just about double their usual wages. In addition to +this pay, they are often allowed two quarts of ale and two quarts of +small beer per day; not the small beer of New England, made only of +hops, ginger, and molasses; but a far more stimulating drink, quite +equal to our German lager. This gallon of beer will cost the farmer +about 10d., or 20c. Where the piece-work laborer furnishes his own +malt liquor, it must cost him on an average about an English +shilling, or twenty-four cents, a day. + +Two or three of the men who formed the circle around the fire at The +Green Man, had come to purchase, or pay for, a keg of beer for their +harvest allowance. It was to me a matter of half-painful interest +to see what vital importance they attached to a supply of this +stimulant--to see how much more they leaned upon its strength and +comfort than upon food. It was not in my heart to argue the +question with them, or to seek to dispel the hereditary and pleasant +illusion, that beer alone, of all human drinks, could carry them +through the long, hot hours of toil in harvest. Besides, I wished +to get at their own free thoughts on the subject without putting my +own in opposition to them, which might have slightly restricted +their full expression. Every one of them held to the belief, as put +beyond all doubt or question by the experience of the present and +all past generations, that wheat, barley and oats could not be +reaped and ricked without beer, and beer at the rate of a gallon a +day per head. Each had his string of proofs to this conviction +terminating in a pewter mug, just as some poor people praying to the +Virgin have a string of beads ending in a crucifix, which they tell +off with honest hearts and sober faces. Each could make it stand to +reason that a man could not bear the heat and burden of harvest +labor without beer. Each had his illustration in the case of some +poor fellow who had tried the experiment, out of principle or +economy, and had failed under it. It was of no use to talk of +temperance and all that. It was all very nice for well-to-do +people, who never blistered their hands at a sickle or a scythe, to +tell poor, laboring men, sweating at their hot and heavy work from +sun to sun, that they must not drink anything but milk and water or +cold tea and coffee, but put them in the wheat-field a few days, and +let them try their wishy-washy drinks and see what would become of +them. As I have said, I did not undertake to argue the men out of +this belief, partly because I wished to learn from them all they +thought and felt on the subject, and partly, I must confess, because +I was reluctant to lay a hard hand upon a source of comfort which, +to them, holds a large portion of their earthly enjoyments, +especially when I could not replace it with a substitute which they +would accept, and which would yield them an equal amount of +satisfaction. + +A personal habit becomes a "second nature" to the individual, even +if he stands alone in its indulgence. But when it is an almost +universal habit, coming down from generation to generation, throwing +its creepers and clingers around the social customs and industrial +economies of a great nation, it is almost like re-creating a world +to change that second nature thus strengthened. This change is +slowly working its way in Great Britain--slowly, but perceptibly +here and there--thanks to the faithful and persevering efforts put +forth by good and true men, to enlighten the subjects of this +impoverishing and demoralising custom, which has ruled with such +despotism over the laborers of the land. Little by little the +proper balance between the Four Great Powers of human necessity,-- +Food, Drink, Raiment and Housing, so long disturbed by this habit, +is being restored. Still, the preponderance of Drink, especially +among the agricultural laborers in England, is very striking and +sad. As a whole, Beer must still stand before Bread--even before +Meat, and before both in many cases, in their expenditures. The man +who sat next me, in muddy leggings, and smoking coat, was mildly +spoken, quiet, and seemingly thoughtful. He had come for his +harvest allowance of 20s. worth of beer. If he abstained from its +use on Sundays, he would have a ration of about tenpence's worth +daily. That would buy him a large loaf of bread, two good cuts of +mutton or beef, and all the potatoes and other vegetables he could +eat in a day. But he puts it all into the Jug instead of the +Basket. Jug is the juggernaut that crushes his hard earnings in the +dust, or, without the figure, distils them into drink. Jug swallows +up the first fruits of his industry, and leaves Basket to glean +among the sharpest thorns of his poverty. Jug is capricious as well +as capacious. It clamors for quality as well as quantity; it is +greedy of foaming and beaded liquors. Basket does well if it can +bring to the reaper the food of well-kept dogs. In visiting +different farms, I have noticed men and women at their luncheons and +dinners in the field. A hot mutton chop, or a cut of roast-beef, +and a hot potato, seem to be a luxury they never think of in the +hardest toil of harvest. Both the meals I have mentioned consist, +so far as I have seen, of only two articles of food,--bread and +bacon, or bread and cheese. And this bacon is never warm, but laid +upon a slice of bread in a thin, cold layer, instead of butter, both +being cut down through with a jack-knife into morsels when eaten. + +Such is a habit that devours a lion's share of the English laborer's +earnings, and leaves Food, Raiment, and Housing to shift for +themselves. If he works by the piece and finds his own beer, it +costs him more than he pays for house rent, or for bread, or meat, +or for clothes for himself and family. If his employer furnishes it +or pays him commutation money, it amounts for all his men to a tax +of half-a-crown to the acre for his whole farm. There is no earthly +reason why agricultural laborers in this country should spend more +in drink than those of New England. I am confident that if a census +were taken of all the "hired men" of our six states, and a fair +average struck, the daily expenditure for drinks would not exceed +twopence, or four cents per head, while their average wages would +amount to 4s., or 96 cents, per day through the year. Yet our +Summers are far hotter and dryer than in England, our labor equally +hard, and there is really more natural occasion for drinks in our +harvest fields than here. It would require a severe apprenticeship +for our men to acquire a taste for sharp ale or strong beer as a +beverage under our July sun. A pail or jug of sweetened water, +perhaps with a few drops of cider to the pint, to sour it slightly, +and a spoonful of ginger stirred in, is our substitute for malt +liquor. Sometimes beer made of nothing but hops, water, and a +little molasses, is brought into the field, and makes even an +exhilarating drink, without any alcoholic effect. Cold coffee, +diluted with water, and re-sweetened, is a healthful and grateful +luxury to our farm laborers. + +It would be a blessed thing for all the outdoor and indoor laborers +in this country, if the broad chasm between the strong beer of Old +England and the small beer of New England could be bridged, and they +be carried across to the shore of a better habit. The farm hands +here need a good deal of gentle leading and suggestion in this +matter. If some humane and ingenious man would get up a new, cheap, +cold drink, which should be nutritious, palatable and exhilarating, +without any inebriating property, it would be a boon of immeasurable +value. Malt liquors are made in such rivers here, or rather in such +lakes with river outlets; there is such a system for their +distribution and circulation through every town, village, and +hamlet; and they are so temptingly and conveniently kegged, bottled, +and jugged, and so handy to be carried out into the field, that the +habit of drinking them is almost forced upon the poor man's lips. +If a cheaper drink, refreshing and strengthening, could be made +equally convenient and attractive, it would greatly help to break +this hereditary thraldom to the Beer-Barrel. Another powerful +auxiliary to this good work might be contributed in the form of a +simple contrivance, which any man of mechanical genius and a kind +heart might elaborate. In this go-ahead age, scores of things are +made portable that once were fast-anchored solidities. We have +portable houses, portable beds, portable stoves and cooking ranges, +as well as portable steam-engines. Now, if some benevolent and +ingenious man would get up a little portable affair, at the cost of +two or three shillings, especially for agricultural laborers in this +country, which they could carry with one hand into the field, and by +which they could make and keep hot a pot of coffee, cocoa, +chocolate, broth or porridge, and also bake a piece of meat and a +few potatoes, it would be a real benefaction to thousands, and help +them up to the high road of a better condition. + +What is the best condition to which the agricultural laborers in +Great Britain may ever expect to attain, or to which they may be +raised by that benevolent effort now put forth for their elevation? +They may all be taught to read and write and do a little in the +first three rules of arithmetic. That will raise them to a new +status and condition. Education of the masses has become such a +vigorous idea with the Government and people of England; so much is +doing to make the children of the manufacturing districts pass +through the school-room into the factory, carrying with them the +ability and taste for reading; ragged schools, working-men's clubs, +and institutions for all kinds of cheap learning and gratuitous +teaching are multiplying so rapidly; the press is turning out such a +world of literature for the homes of the poor, and the English Post, +like a beneficent Providence, is distilling such a morning dew of +manuscript and printed thoughts over the whole length and breadth of +the country, and all these streams of elevating influence are now so +tending towards the agricultural laborers, that there is good reason +to believe the next generation of them will stand head and shoulders +above any preceding one in the stature of intelligence and self- +respect. This in itself will give them a new status in society, as +beneficial to their employers as to themselves. It will increase +their mutual respect, and create a better footing for their +relationships. + +But the first improvement demanded in their condition, and the most +pressingly urgent, is a more comfortable, decent and healthy +housing. Until this is effected, all other efforts to raise them +mentally and morally must fail of their expected result. The London +Times, and other metropolitan, and many local, journals publish +almost daily distressing accounts of the miserable tenements +occupied by the men and women whose labor makes England the garden +of fertility and beauty that it is. Editors are making the subject +the theme of able and stirring articles, and some of the most +eloquent members of Parliament are speaking of it with great power. +It is not only generous but just to take the language in which the +writers and orators of a country denounce the evils existing in it +cum grano salis, or with considerable allowance for exaggeration. +Their statements and denunciations should not be used against their +country as a reproach by the people of another, because they prove +an earnest desire and effort to reform abuses which grew up in an +unenlightened past. As a specimen of the language which is +sometimes held on this subject, I subjoin the following paragraph +from the Saturday Review, perhaps the most cynical or unsentimental +journal in England:-- + +"There is a wailing for the dirt and vice and misery which must +prevail in houses where seven or eight persons, of both sexes and +all ages, are penned up together for the night in the one rickety, +foul, vermin-hunted bed-room. The picture of agricultural life +unrolls itself before us as it is painted by those who know it best. +We see the dull, clouded mind, the bovine gaze, the brutality and +recklessness, and the simple audacity, and the confessed hatred of +his betters, which mark the English peasant, unless some happy +fortune has saved him from the general lot, and persuaded him that +life has something besides beer that the poor man may have and may +relish." + +Now this is a sad picture truly. The pen is sharp and cuts like a +knife,--but it is the surgeon's knife, not the poisoned barb of a +foreigner's taunt. This is the hopeful and promising aspect of +these delineations and denunciations of the laboring man's +condition. That low, damp, ill-ventilated, contracted room in which +he pens his family at night, was, quite likely, constructed in the +days of Good Queen Bess, or when "George the Third was King," at the +latest. And houses were built for good, substantial farmers in +those days which they would hardly house their horses in now. There +are hundreds of mechanics and day-laborers in Edinburgh who pen +their families nightly in apartments once owned and occupied by +Scotch dukes and earls, but which a journeyman shoemaker of New +England would be loth to live in rent free. Even the favorite room +of Queen Mary, in Holyrood Palace, in which she was wont to tea and +talk with Rizzio, would be too small and dim for the shop-parlor of +a small London tradesman of the present day. Thus, after all, the +low-jointed, low-floored, small-windowed, ill-ventilated cottages +now occupied by the agricultural laborers of England were +proportionately as good as the houses built at the same period for +the farmers of the country, many of which are occupied by farmers +now, and the like of which never could be erected again on this +island. Indeed, one wonders at finding so many of these old farm +houses still inhabited by well-to-do people, who could well afford +to live in better buildings. + +This, then, is a hopeful sign, and both pledge and proof of +progress--that the very cottages of laboring men in England that +once figured so poetically in the histories and pictures of rural +life, are now being turned inside out to the scrutiny of a more +enlightened and benevolent age, revealing conditions that stir up +the whole community to painful sensibility and to vigorous efforts +to improve them. These cottages were just as low, damp, small and +dirty thirty years ago as they are now, and the families "penned" in +them at night were doubtless as large, and perhaps more ignorant +than those which inhabit them at the present time. It is not the +real difference between the actual conditions of the two periods but +the difference in the dispositions and perceptions of the public +mind, that has produced these humane sensibilities and efforts for +the elevation of the ploughers, sowers, reapers and mowers who +enrich and beautify this favored land with their patient and poorly- +paid labor. And there is no doubt that these newly-awakened +sentiments and benevolent activities will carry the day; replacing +the present tenements of the agricultural laborers with comfortable, +well-built cottages, fitted for the homes of intelligent and +virtuous families. This work has commenced in different sections +under favorable auspices. Buildings have been erected on an estate +here and there which will be likely to serve as models for whole +hamlets of new tenements. From what I have heard, I should think +that Lord Overstone, of the great banking house of the Lloyds, has +produced the best models for cottage homes, on his estates in +Northamptonshire. Although built after the most modern and improved +plan, and capacious enough to accommodate a considerable family very +comfortably, almost elegantly, the yearly rent is only 3 pounds, or +less than _fifteen dollars_! + +Now with a three-pound cottage, having a parlor, kitchen, bed-room +and buttery on the lower floor, and an equal number of apartments on +the upper; with a forty-rod garden to grow his vegetables, and with +a free school for his children at easy walking distance, the +agricultural laborer in England will be placed as far forward on the +road of improvement as the Government or people, or both, can set +him. The rest of the way upward and onward he must make by his own +industry, virtue and economy. From this point he must work out his +own progress and elevation. No Government, nor any benevolent +association, nor general nor private benevolence, can regulate the +rate of his wages. The labor market will determine that, just as +the Corn Exchange does the price of wheat. But there is one thing +he can do to raise himself in civil stature, moral growth, and +domestic comfort. He may empty the Jug into the Basket. He and his +family may consume in solids what they now do in frothy fluids. +They may exchange their scanty dinner of cold bacon and bread for +one of roast beef and plum pudding, by substituting cold coffee, +cocoa or pure water for strong beer. Or, if they are content to go +on with their old fare of food, they may save the money they +expended in ale for the rent of one or two acres of land, for a cow, +or for two or three pigs, or deposit it weekly in the Post-Office +Savings' Bank, until it shall amount to a sum sufficient to enable +them to set up a little independent business of their own. + +Here, then, are three great steps indispensable for the elevation of +the agricultural laborers of Great Britain to the highest level in +society which they can reach and maintain. Two of these the +Government, or the land-owners, or both, must take. They are +Improved Dwellings and Free and Accessible Education. These the +laborer cannot provide for himself and family. It is utterly beyond +his ability to do it. The third, last, long step must depend +entirely upon himself; though he may be helped on by sympathy, +suggestion, and encouragement from those who know how hard a thing +it is for the fixed appetites to break through the meshes of habit. +He must make drink the cheapest of human necessities. He must +exchange Beer for Bread, for clothes, for books, or for things that +give permanent comfort and enjoyment. When these three steps are +accomplished, the British laborer will stand before his country in +the best position it can give him. And I believe it will be a +position which will make him contented and happy, and be +satisfactory to all classes of the people. + +After all that can be done for them, the wages of the agricultural +laborers of Great Britain cannot be expected to exceed, on an +average, twelve shillings a week, or about half the price of the +same labor in America. Their rent and clothes cost them, perhaps, +less than half the sum paid by our farm hands for the same items of +expenditure. Their food must also cost only about half of what our +men pay, who would think they were poor indeed if they could not +have hot meat breakfasts, roast or boiled beef dinners and cold meat +suppers, with the usual sprinkling of puddings, pies, and cakes, and +tea sweetened with loaf sugar. Thus, after all, put the English +laborer in the position suggested; give him such a three-pound +cottage and garden as Lord Overstone provides; give his children +free and convenient schooling; then let him exchange his ale for +nutritious and almost costless drinks, and if he is still able to +live for a few years on his old food-fare, he may work his way up to +a very comfortable condition with his twelve shillings a week, +besides his beer-money. On these conditions he would be able almost +to run neck and neck with our hired men in the matter of saving +money "for a rainy day," or for raising himself to a higher +position. + +We will put them side by side, after the suggested improvements have +been realised; assuming each has a wife, with two children too young +to earn anything at field work. + +American Laborer at 24s per week English Laborer, at 12s per +week + +Weekly Expense $ c. s. d Weekly Expense s. d. $ c +for:-- for:-- +------------------------------- ---------------------------- +Food 3 50 = 14 7 Food 7 3 = 1 +75 +Rent and Taxes 0 67 = 2 9 Rent 1 2 = O +28 +Fuel, average of + the year O 48 = 2 O For Fuel 1 O = O +24 +For Clothes 1 0 = 4 2 For Clothes 2 1 = 0 +50 + +Total Weekly Total Weekly + Expenses -------------- Expenses ----------- +-- + 5 65 = 23 6 11 6 = 2 +77 + -------------- ----------- +-- + +I think the American reader, who is personally acquainted with the +habits and domestic economy of our farm laborers, will regard this +estimate of their expenditures as quite moderate. I have assumed, +in both cases, that no time is lost in the week on account of +sickness, or of weather, or lack of employment; and all the +incidental expenses I have included in the four general items given. +It must also be conceded that our farm hands do not average more +than twenty-four English shillings, or $5 75c., per week, through +all the seasons of the year. The amount of expenditure allowed in +the foregoing estimate enables them to support themselves and their +families comfortably, if they are temperate and industrious; to +clothe and educate their children; to make bright and pleasant +homes, with well-spread tables, and to have respectable seats in +church on the Sabbath. On the other hand, we have assigned to the +English agricultural laborer what he would regard a proportionately +comfortable allowance for the wants of a week. We may not have +divided it correctly, but the total of the items is as great as he +would expect to expend on the current necessities of seven days. I +doubt if one in a thousand of the farm laborers of Great Britain +lays out more than the sum we have allotted for one week's food, +rent, and fuel and clothes. We then reach this result of the +balance-sheet of the two men. Their weekly savings hardly differ by +a penny; each amounting to about 5d., or 10 cents. At first sight, +it might seem, from this result, that the English farm laborer earns +half as much, lives half as well, and saves as much as the American. +But he has a resource for increasing his weekly savings which his +American competitor would work his fingers to the bone before he +would employ. His wife is able and willing to go with him into the +field and earn from three to five shillings a week. Then, if he +commutes with his employer, he will receive from him 4d. daily, or +2s. a week, for beer-money. Thus, if he and his wife are willing to +live, as such families do now, on bread, bacon and cheese, and such +vegetables as they can grow in their garden, they may lay up, from +their joint earnings, a dollar, or four shillings a week, provided a +sufficiently stimulating object be set before them. To me it is +surprising that they sustain so much human life on such small means. +They are often reproached for their want of wise economy; but never +was more keen ingenuity, more close balancing of pennies against +provisions than a great many of them practice and teach. Let the +most astute or utilitarian of social economists try the experiment +of housing, feeding and clothing himself, wife and six children too +young to earn anything, on ten or twelve shillings a week; and he +will learn something that his philosophy never dreamed of. + +Even while bending under the weight of the beer-barrel, thousands of +agricultural laborers in England have accomplished wonders by their +indefatigable industry, integrity and economy. Put a future before +them with a sun in it--some object they may reach that is worth a +life's effort, and as large a proportion of them will work for it as +you will find in any other country. A servant girl told me recently +that her father was a Devonshire laborer, who worked the best years +of his life for seven shillings a week, and her mother for three, +when they had half a dozen children to feed and clothe. Yet, by +that unflagging industry and ingenious economy with which thousands +wrestle with the necessities of such a life and throw them, too, +they put saving to saving, until they were able to rent an acre of +orcharding, a large garden for vegetables, then buy a donkey and +cart, then a pony and cart, and load and drive them both to market +with their own and their neighbors' produce, starting from home at +two in the morning. In a few years they were able to open a little +grocery and provision shop, and are now taking their rank among the +tradespeople of the village. But if the farm servants of England +could only be induced to give up beer and lay by the money paid them +as a substitute, it alone would raise them to a new condition of +comfort, even independence. At 4d. a day commutation money, they +would have each 5 pounds at the end of the year. That would pay the +rent of two acres of land here; or it would buy five on the Illinois +Central Railroad. Three years' beer-money would pay for those rich +prairie acres, his fare by sea and land to them, and leave him 3 +pounds in his pocket to begin their cultivation with. Three years +of this saving would make almost a new man of him at home, in the +way of self-respect, comfort and progress. It would be a "nest- +egg," to which hope, habit and a strengthening ambition would add +others of larger size and value from year to year. + +Give, then, the British agricultural laborer good, healthy Housing, +Free Schooling, and let him empty the Jug into the Basket, and he +may work his way up to a very comfortable condition at home. But if +he should prefer to go to Australia or America, where land is cheap +and labor dear, in a few years he may save enough to take him to +either continent, with sufficient left in his pocket to begin life +in a new world. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +FARM GAME--HALLETT WHEAT--OUNDLE--COUNTRY BRIDGES--FOTHERINGAY +CASTLE--QUEEN MARY'S IMPRISONMENT AND EXECUTION--BURGHLEY HOUSE: +THE PARK, AVENUES, ELMS, AND OAKS--THOUGHTS ON TREES, ENGLISH AND +AMERICAN. + +Having now pursued a westerly direction until I was in the range of +a continuous upland section of country, I took a northward course +and walked on to Oundle, a goodly town in Northamptonshire, as +unique as its name. On the way, in crossing over to another +turnpike road, I passed through a large tract of land in a very +deshabille condition, rough, boggy and bushy. I soon found it was a +game-growing estate, and very productive of all sorts of birds and +small quadrupeds. The fields I crossed showed a promising crop of +hares and rabbits; and doubtless there were more partridges on that +square mile than in the whole State of Connecticut. This is a +characteristic of the country which will strike an American, at his +first visit, with wonder. He will see hares and rabbits bobbing +about on common farms, and partridges in broods, like separate +flocks of hens and chickens, in fields of grain, within a stone's +throw of the farmer's house. I doubt if any county in New England +produces so many in a year as the holding of Mr. Samuel Jonas +already described. Rabbits have been put out of the pale of +protection somewhat recently, I believe, and branded with the bad +name of _vermin_; so that the tenant farmer may kill them on his +occupation without leave or license from the landlord. It may +indicate their number to state the fact, that one hundred and +twenty-five head of them were killed in one day's shooting on Mr. +Jonas's estate by his sons and some of their friends. + +It was market day in Oundle, and I had the pleasure of sitting down +to dinner with a large company of farmers and cattle and corn- +dealers. They were intelligent, substantial-looking men, with no +occupational peculiarity of dress or language to distinguish them +from ordinary middle-class gentlemen engaged in trade or +manufacture. Indeed, the old-fashioned English farmer, of the +great, round, purply-red face, aldermanic stature, and costume of +fifty years ago, speaking the dialect of his county with such +inimitable accent, is fast going out. I have not seen one during my +present sojourn in England. I fear he has disappeared altogether +with the old stage-coach, and that we have not pictures enough of +him left to give the rising generation any correct notion of what he +was, and how he looked. It may be a proper and utilitarian change, +but one can hardly notice without regret what transformations the +railway regime has wrought in customs and habits which once +individualised a country and people. A kind of French +centralisation in the world of fashion has been established, which +has over-ridden and obliterated all the dress boundaries of +civilised nations. All the upper and middle classes of Christendom +centre themselves to one focus of taste and merge into one plastic +commonwealth, to be shaped and moulded virtually by a common tailor. +Their coats, vests, pantaloons, boots and shoes are made +substantially after the same pattern. For a while, hats stood out +with some show of pluck and patriotism, and made a stand for +national individuality, but it was in vain. They, too, succumbed to +the inexorable law of Uniformity. That law was liberal in one +respect. It did not insist that the stove-pipe form should rule +inflexibly. It admitted several variations, including wide-awakes, +pliable felts, and that little, squat, lackadaisical, round-crown, +narrow-brimmed thing worn by the Prince of Wales in the photographs +taken of him and the Princess at Sandringham. But this has come to +be the rule: that hats shall no longer represent distinct +nationalities; that they shall be interchangeable in all civilised +communities; in a word, that neither Englishman, American, French +nor German shall be known by his hat, whatever be the form or +material of its body or brim. If there were a southern county in +England where the mercury stood at 100 degrees in the shade for two +or three summer months, the upper classes in it would don, without +any hesitation, the wide, flappy broadbrims of California, and still +be in the fashion,--that is, variety in uniformity. The peasantry, +or the lowest laboring classes of European countries, are now, and +will remain perhaps for a century to come, the only conservators of +the distinctive national costumes of bygone generations. + +During the conversation at the table, a farmer exhibited a head of +the Hallett wheat, which he had grown on his land. I never saw +anything to equal it, in any country in which I have travelled. It +was nearly six inches in length, and seeded large and plump from top +to bottom. This is a variety produced by Mr. Hallett, of Brighton, +and is creating no little interest among English grain-growers. +Lord Burghley, who had tested its properties, thus describes it, in +a speech before the Northamptonshire Agricultural Society last +summer:-- + +"At the Battersea Show last year, my attention was called to some +enormous ears of wheat, which I thought could not have been grown in +England. For, although the British farmer can grow corn with +anyone, I had never seen such wheat here, and thought it must be +foreign wheat. I went to the person who was threshing some out, and +having been informed that it was sown only with one seed in a hole, +I procured some of Mr. Hallett, of Brighton; and, being anxious to +try the system, I planted it according to Mr. Hallett's directions-- +one grain in a hole, the holes nine and a half inches apart, with +six inches between the rows. To satisfy myself on the subject, I +also planted some according to Stephen's instructions, who said +three grains in a hole would produce the most profitable return. I +also planted some two grains in a hole. I sowed the grain at the +end of last September, on bad land, over an old quarry, and except +some stiff clay at the bottom of it, there was nothing in it good +for wheat. The other day I counted the stalks of all three. On Mr. +Stephen's plan of three grains in a hole, there were eighteen +stalks; with two grains in a hole, there was about the same number; +but with one seed in a hole, the lowest number of stalks was +sixteen, and the highest twenty-two. I planted only about half an +acre as a trial, and when I left home a few days since, it looked as +much like eight quarters (sixty-four bushels) to the acre as any I +have seen. The ears are something enormous. I would certainly +recommend every farmer to make his own experiments, for if it +succeeds, it will prove a great economy of seed; and drills to +distribute it fairly are to be had." + +Truly one of Hallett's wheat ears might displace the old cornucopia +in that picture of happy abundance so familiar to old and young. +Here are twenty ears from one seed, containing probably a thousand +grains. The increase of a thousand-fold, or half that ratio, is +prodigious, having nothing to equal it in the vegetable world that +we know of. If one bushel of seed wheat could be so distributed by +a drill as to produce 500 or 250 bushels at the harvest, certainly +the staff of life would be greatly cheapened to the millions who +lean upon it alone for subsistence. + +From Oundle I walked the next day to Stamford, a good, solid, old +English town, sitting on the corners of three counties, and on three +layers of history, Saxon, Dane and Norman. The first object of +interest was a stone bridge over the Nen at Oundle. It is a grand +structure to span such a little river. It must have cost three +times as much as "The Great Bridge" over the Connecticut at +Hartford; and yet the stream it crosses is a mere rivulet compared +with our New England river. "The bridge with wooden piers" is a +fabric of fancy to most English people. They have read of such a +thing in Longfellow's poems, but hardly realise that it exists still +in civilised countries. Here bridges are works of art as well as of +utility, and rank next to the grand old cathedrals and parish +churches for solidity and symmetry. Their stone arches are +frequently turned with a grace as fine as any in St. Paul's, and +their balustrades and butments often approach the domain of +sculpture. + +Crossing the Nen, I followed it for several miles in a northerly +direction. I soon came to a rather low, level section of the road, +and noticed stones placed at the side of it, at narrow intervals, +for a long distance to the very foot of a village situated on a +rising ground. These stones were evidently taken from some ancient +edifice, for many of them bore the marks of the old cathedral or +castle chisel. They were the foot-tracks of a ruined monument of +dark and painful history. More than this might be said of them. +They were the blood-drops of a monstrosity chased from its den and +hunted down by the people, who shuddered with horror at its +sanguinary record of violence and wrong. As I approached the quiet +village, whose pleasant-faced houses, great and small, looked like a +congregation of old and young sitting reverently around the parish +church and listening to the preaching of the belfry, I saw where +these stones came from. There, on that green, ridgy slope, where +the lambs lay in the sun by the river, these stones, and a million +more scattered hither and thither, once stood in walls high, hideous +and wrathful, for half a dozen centuries and more. If the +breathings of human woe, if the midnight misery of wretched, broken +hearts, could have penetrated these stones, one might almost fancy +that they would have sweat with human histories in the ditch where +they lay, and discolored the puddles they bridged with the bitter +distilment of grief centuries old. On that gentle rising from the +little Nen stood Fotheringay Castle. That central depression among +the soft-carpeted ridges marks the site of the donjon huge and +horrid, where many a knight and lady of noble blood was pinioned or +penned in darkness and hopeless duress centuries before the +unfortunate Mary was born. There nearly half the sad years of her +young life and beauty were prisoned. There she pined in the +sickness of hope deferred, in the corroding anguish of dread +uncertainty, for a space as wide as that between the baptismal font +and presentation at Elizabeth's court. There she laid her white +neck upon the block. There fell the broad axe of Elizabeth's envy, +fear and hate. There fell the fair-haired head that once gilded a +crown and wore all the glory of regal courts--still beautiful in the +setting light of farewell thoughts. + +It may be truly said of Fotheringay Castle, that not one stone is +left upon another to mark its foundations. Not Fleet-street Prison, +nor the Bastille itself, went out under a heavier weight of popular +odium. Although public sentiment, as well as the personal taste and +interest of their proprietors, has favored the preservation of the +ruins of old castles and abbeys in Great Britain, Fotheringay bore, +branded deep in its forehead, the mark of Cain, and every man's +hand, of the last generation, seemed to have been turned against it. +It has not only been demolished, but the debris have been scattered +far and wide, and devoted to uses which they scarcely honor. You +will see the well-faced stones for miles around, in garden walls, +pavements, cottage hearths and chimneys, in stables and cow-houses. +In Oundle, the principal hotel, a large castellated building, shows +its whole front built of them. + +The great lion of Stamford is the Burghley House, the palace of the +Marquis of Exeter. It may be called so without exaggeration of its +magnificence as a building or of the extent and grandeur of its +surroundings. The edifice itself would cut up into nearly half a +dozen "White Houses," such as we install our American Presidents in +at Washington. Certainly, in any point of view, it is large and +splendid enough for the residence of an emperor and his suite. Its +towers, turrets and spires present a picturesque grove of +architecture of different ages, and its windows, it is said, equal +in number all the days of the year. It was not open to the public +the day I was in Stamford, so I could only walk around it and +estimate its interior by its external grandeur. + +But there was an outside world of architecture in the park of +sublimer features to me than even the great palace itself, with all +its ornate and elaborate sculpture. It was the architecture of the +majestic elms and oaks that stood in long ranks and folded their +hands, high up in the blue sky, above the finely-gravelled walks +that radiated outward in different directions. They all wore the +angles and arches of the Gothic order and the imperial belt of +several centuries. I walked down one long avenue and counted them +on either side. There were not sixty on both; yet their green and +graceful roofage reached a full third of a mile. Not sixty to +pillar and turn such an arch as that! I sat down on a seat at the +end to think of it. There was a morning service going on in this +Cathedral of Nature. The dew-moistened, foliated arches so lofty, +so interwebbed with wavy, waky spangles of sky, were all set to the +music of the anthem. "The street musicians of the heavenly city" +were singing one of its happiest hymns out of their mellow throats. +The long and lofty orchestra was full of them. Their twittering +treble shook the leaves with its breath, as it filtered down and +flooded the temple below. Beautiful is this building of God! +Beautiful and blessed are these morning singing-birds of His praise! +Amen! + +But do not go yet. No; I will not. Here is the only book I carry +with me on this walk--a Hebrew Psalter, stowed away in my knapsack. +I will open it here and now, and the first words my eye lights upon +shall be a text for a few thoughts on this scene and scenery. And +here they are,--seemingly not apposite to this line of reflection, +yet running parallel to it very closely: + +[HEBREW PHRASE] + +The best English that can be given of these words we have in our +translation: "Blessed is he who, passing through the valley of +Baca, maketh it a well." Why so? On what ground? If a man had +settled down in that valley for life, there would have been no merit +in his making it a well. It might, in that case, have been an act +of lean-hearted selfishness on his part. Further than this, a man +might have done it who could have had the heart to wall it in from +the reach of thirsty travellers. No such man was meant in the +blessing; nor any man resident in or near the valley. It was he who +was "passing through" it, and who stopped, not to search for a +dribbling vein of water to satisfy his own momentary thirst, but to +make a well, broad and deep, after the oriental circumference, at +which all future travellers that way might drink with gladness. +That was the man on whom the blessing rested as a _condition_, not +as a _wish_. Look at the word, and get the right meaning of it. It +is [HEBREW WORD], not [HEBREW WORD]; it is a blessedness, not a +benediction. It means a permanent reality of happiness, like that +of Obededom, not a cheap "I thank you!" or "the Lord bless you!" +from here and there a man or woman who appreciates the benefaction. + +And he deserves the same who, "passing through" the short years of +man's life here on earth, plants trees like the living, lofty +columns of this long cathedral aisle. How unselfish and generous is +this gift to coming generations! How inestimable in its value and +surpassing the worth of wealth!--surpassing the measurement of gold +and silver! From my seat here, I look up to the magnificent +frontage of that baronial palace. I see its towers, turrets and +minarets; its grand and sculptured gateways and portals through this +long, leaf-arched aisle. Not forty, but nearer four hundred years, +doubtless, was that pile in building. Architecture of the pre- +Norman period, and of all subsequent or cognate orders, diversifies +the tastes and shapings of the structure. Suppose the whole should +take fire to-night and burn to the ground. The wealth of the owner +could command genius, skill and labor enough to rebuild it in three +years, perhaps in one. The Czar of all the Russias did as large a +thing once as this last, in the reconstruction of a palace. Perhaps +the building is insured for its positive value, and the insurance +money would erect a better one. But lift an axe upon that tall +centurion of these templed elms. Cut through the closely-grained +rings that register each succeeding year of two centuries. Hear the +peculiar sounding of the heart-strokes, when the lofty, well-poised +structure is balancing itself, and quivering through every fibre and +leaf and twig on the few unsevered tendons that have not yet felt +the keen edge of the woodman's steel. See the first leaning it +cannot recover. Hear the first cracking of the central vertebra; +then the mournful, moaning whir in the air; then the tremendous +crash upon the green earth; the vibration of the mighty trunk on the +ground, like the writhing and tremor of an ox struck by the +butcher's axe; the rebound into the air of dismembered branches; the +frightened flight of leaves and dust, and all the other distractions +of that hour of death and destruction. Look upon that ruin! The +wealth, genius and labor that could build a hundred Windsor Castles, +and rebuild all the cathedrals of England in a decade, could not +rebuild in two centuries that elm to the life and stature you +levelled to the dust in two hours. + +Put, then, the man who plants trees for posterity with him who, +"passing through the valley of Baca, maketh it a well." Put him +under the same blessing of his kind, for he deserves it. He gives +them the richest earthly gift that a man can give to a coming +generation. In a practical sense, he gives them _time_. He gives +them a whole century, as an extra. If they would pay a gold +sovereign for every solid inch of oak, they could not hire one built +to the stature of one of these trees in less than two centuries' +time, though they dug about it and nursed it as the man did the vine +in Scripture. Blessed be the builders of these living temples of +Nature! Blessed be the man, rich or poor, old or young, especially +the old, who sets his heart and hand to this cheap but sublime and +priceless architecture. + +Let connoisseurs who have seen Memphis, Nineveh, Athens, Rome, or +any or all of the great cities of the East, ancient or modern, come +and sit here, and look at this lofty corridor, and mark the orders +and graces of its architecture. What did the Ptolemies, their +predecessors or successors in Egypt, or sovereigns of Chaldaic +names, in Assyria, or ambitious builders in the ages of Pericles or +Augustus, in Greece or Rome? Their structures were the wonders of +the world. Mighty men they were, whose will was law, whose subjects +worked it out to its wildest impulse without a murmur or a reward. +But who built this sixty-columned temple, and bent these lofty +arches? Two or three centuries ago, two men in coarse garb, and, it +may be, in wooden shoes, came here with a donkey, bearing on its +back a bundle of little elms, each of a finger's girth. They came +with the rude pick and spade of that time; and, in the first six +working hours of the day, they dug thirty holes on this side of the +aisle, and planted in them half the tiny trees of their bundle. +They then sat down at noon to their bread and cheese and, most +likely, a mug of ale, and talked of small, home matters, just as if +they were dibbling in a small patch of wheat or potatoes. They then +went to work again and planted the other row; and, as the sun was +going down, they straightened their backs, and, with hands stayed +upon their hips, looked up and down the two lines and thought they +would pass muster and please the master. Then they shouldered their +brightened tools and went home to their low, dark cottages, +discussing the prices of bread, beer and bacon, and whether the +likes of them could manage to keep a pig and make a little meat in +the year for themselves. + +That is the story of this most magnificent structure to which you +look up with such admiration. Those two men in smock frocks, each +with a pocket full of bread and cheese, were the Michael Angelos of +this lofty St. Peter's. That donkey, with its worn panniers, was +the only witness and helper of their work. And it was the work of a +day! They may have been paid two English shillings for it. The +little trees may have cost two shillings more, if taken from another +estate. The donkey's day was worth sixpence. O, wooden-shoed +Ptolemies! what a day's work was that for the world! They thought +nothing of it--nothing more than they would of transplanting sixty +cabbages. They most likely did the same thing the next day, and for +most of the days of that year, and of the next year, until all these +undulating acres were planted with trees of every kind that could +grow in these latitudes. How cheap, but priceless, is the gift of +such trees to mankind! What a wealth, what a glory of them can even +a poor, laboring man give to a coming generation! They are the most +generous crops ever sown by human hands. All others the sower reaps +and garners into his own personal enjoyment; but this yields its +best harvest to those who come after him. This is a seeding for +posterity. From this well of Baca shall they draw the cooling +luxury of the gift when the hands that made it shall have gone to +dust. + +And this is a good place and time to think of home--of what we begin +to hear called by her younger children, _Old_ New England. Trees +with us have passed through the two periods specified by Solomon--"a +time to plant and a time to pluck up." The last came first and +lasted for a century. Trees were the natural enemies to the first +settlers, and ranked in their estimation with the wild Indians, +wolves and bears. It was their first, great business to cut them +down, both great and small. Forests fell before the woodman's axe. +It made clean work, and seldom spared an oak or an elm. But, at the +end of a century, the people relented and felt their mistake. Then +commenced "the time to plant;" first in and around cities like +Boston, Hartford, and New Haven, then about villages and private +homesteads. Tree-planting for use and ornament marks and measures +the footsteps of our civilization. The present generation is +reaping a full reward of this gift to the next. Every village now +is coming to be embowered in this green legacy to the future; like a +young mother decorating a Christmas-tree for her children. Towns +two hundred years old are taking the names of this diversified +architecture, and they glory in the title. New Haven, with a +college second to none on the American Continent, loves to be called +"The Elm City," before any other name. This generous and elevating +taste is making its way from ocean to ocean, even marking the sites +of towns and villages before they are built. I believe there is an +act of the Connecticut Legislature now in force, which allows every +farmer a certain sum of money for every tree he plants along the +public roadside of his fields. The object of this is to line all +the highways of the State with ornamental trees, so that each shall +be a well-shaded avenue. What a gift to another generation that +simple act is intended to make! What a world of wonder and delight +will our little State be to European travellers and tourists of the +next century, if this measure shall be carried out! If a few miles +of such avenues as Burghley Park and Chatsworth present, command +such admiration, what sentiments would a continuous avenue of trees +of equal size from Hartford to New Haven inspire! + +While on this line of reflection, I will mention a case of +monumental tree-planting in New England, not very widely known +there. A small town, in the heart of Massachusetts, was stirred to +the liveliest emotion, with all the rest in her borders, by the +Declaration of Independence in 1776. Different communities +expressed their sense of the importance of this event in different +ways, most of which were noisy and excited. But the good people of +this rural parish came together, and, at a happy suggestion from +some one of their number, agreed to spend the day in planting trees +to commemorate the momentous transaction. They forthwith set to +work, young and old, and planted first a double row on each side of +the walk from the main road up "The Green" to their church door; +then a row on each side of the public highway passing through the +village, for nearly a mile in each direction. There was a blessed +day's work for them, their children and children's children. Every +hand that wielded a spade, or held up a treelet until its roots were +covered with earth, has long since lost its cunning; but the tall, +green monuments they erected to the memory of the most momentous day +in American history, stand in unbroken ranks, the glory of the +village. + +Although America will never equal England, probably, in compact and +picturesque "plantations," or "woods," covering hundreds of acres, +all planted by hand, our shade-trees will outnumber hers, and +surpass them in picturesque distribution and arrangement, when our +popular programme is fully carried out. In two or three important +particulars, we have a considerable advantage over this country in +respect to this tasteful embellishment. In the first place, all the +farmers in America own the lands they cultivate, and, on an average, +two sides of every farm front upon a public road. Two or three +days' work suffices for planting a row of trees the whole length of +this frontage, or the roadside of the farmer's fence or wall. This +is being done more and more extensively from year to year, generally +under the influence of public taste and custom, and sometimes under +the stimulus of governmental compensation, as in Connecticut. Thus, +in the life of the present generation, all our main roads and cross- +roads may become arched and shaded avenues, giving the whole +landscape of the country an aspect which no other land will present. + +Then we have another great advantage which England can never attain +until she learns how to consume her coal smoke. Our wood and +anthracite fires make no smoke to retard the growth or blacken the +foliage of our trees. Thus we may have them in standing armies, +tall and green, lining the streets, and overtopping the houses of +our largest cities; filtering with their wholesome leafage the air +breathed by the people. New Haven and Cleveland are good specimens +of beautifully-shaded towns. + +There is a third circumstance in our favor as yet, and of no little +value. The grand old English oak and elm are magnificent trees, in +park or hedge-row here. The horse-chestnut, lime, beech and ash +grow to a size that you will not see in America. The Spanish +chestnut, a larger and coarser tree than our American, reaches an +enormous girth and spread. The pines, larches and firs abound. +Then there are tree-hunters exploring all the continents, and +bringing new species from Japan and other antipodean countries. But +as yet, our maples have never been introduced; and without these the +tree-world of any country must ever lack a beautiful feature, both +in spring, summer and autumn, especially in the latter. Our +autumnal scenery without the maple, would be like the play of Hamlet +with Hamlet left out; or like a royal court without a queen. Few +Americans, even loudest in its praise, realise how much of the glory +of our Indian summer landscape is shed upon it by this single tree. +At all the Flower Shows I have seen in England and France, I have +never beheld a bouquet so glorious and beautiful as a little islet +in a small pellucid lake in Maine, filled to the brim, and rounded +up like a full-blown rose, with firs, larches, white birches and +soft maples, with a little sprinkling of the sumach. An early frost +had touched the group with every tint of the rainbow, and there it +stood in the ruddy glow of the Indian summer, looking at its face in +the liquid mirror that smiled, still as glass, under its feet. + +I was much pleased to notice what honor was put upon one of our +humble and despised trees in Burghley House park, as in the grounds +of other noblemen. There was not one that spread such delicate and +graceful tresses on the breeze as our White Birch; not one that +fanned it with such a gentle, musical flutter of silver-lined +leaves; not one that wore a bodice of such virgin white from head to +foot, or that showed such long, tapering fingers against the sky. I +was glad to see such justice done to a tree in the noblest parks in +England, which with us has been treated with such disdain and +contumely. When I saw it here in such glory and honor, and thought +how, notwithstanding its Caucasian complexion, it is regarded as a +nuisance in our woods, meadows and pastures, so that any man who +owns, or can borrow an axe, may cut it down without leave or license +wherever he finds it--when I saw this disparity in its status in the +two Englands, I resolved to plead its cause in my own with new zeal +and fidelity. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +WALK TO OAKHAM--THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SPRING--THE ENGLISH GENTRY- +-A SPECIMEN OF THE CLASS--MELTON MOWBRAY AND ITS SPECIALITIES-- +BELVOIR VALE AND ITS BEAUTY--THOUGHTS ON THE BLIND PAINTER. + +From Stamford to Oakham was an afternoon walk which I greatly +enjoyed. This was the first week of harvest, and the first of +August. How wonderfully the seasons are localised and subdivided. +How diversified is the economy of light and heat! That field of +wheat, thick, tall and ripe for the sickle, was green and apparently +growing through all the months of last winter. What a phenomenon it +would have been, on the first of February last, to a New England +farmer, suddenly transported from his snow-buried hills to the view +of this landscape the same day! Not a spire of grass or grain was +alive when he left his own homestead. All was cold and dead. The +very earth was frozen to the solidity and sound of granite. It was +a relief to his eye to see the snow fall upon the scene and hide it +two feet deep for months. He looks upon this, then upon the one he +left behind. This looks full of luxuriant life, as green as his in +May. It has three months' start of his dead and buried crop. He +walks across it; his shoes sink almost to the instep in the soft +soil. He sees birds hopping about in it without overcoats. Surely, +he says to himself, this is a favored land. Here it lies on the +latitudes of Labrador, and yet its midwinter fields are as green as +ours in the last month of Spring. At this rate the farmers here +must harvest their wheat before the ears of mine are formed. But he +counts without Nature. The American sun overtakes and distances the +English by a full month. Here is the compensation for six +consecutive months in which the New England farmer must house his +plough and not turn a furrow. + +Doubtless, as much light and heat brighten and warm one country as +the other in the aggregate of a year. But there is a great +difference in the economy of distribution. In England, the sun +spreads its warmth more evenly over the four seasons of the year. +What it withholds from Summer it gives to Winter, and makes it wear +the face of Spring through its shortest and coldest days. But then +Spring loses a little from this equalising dispensation. It is not +the resurrection from death and the grave as it is in America. +Children are not waiting here at the sepulchre of the season, as +with us, watching and listening for its little Bluebird angel to +warble from the first budding tree top, "_It is risen_!" They do +not come running home with happy eyes, dancing for joy, and shouting +through the half open door, "O, mother, Spring has come! We've +heard the Bluebird! Hurrah! Spring has come. We saw the Phebee on +the top of the saw-mill!" Here Spring makes no sensation; takes no +sudden leap into the seat of Winter, but comes in gently, like the +law of primogeniture or the British Constitution. It is slow and +decorous in its movements. It is conservative, treats its +predecessor with much deference, and makes no sudden and radical +changes in the face of things. It comes in with no Lord Mayor's +Day, and blows no trumpets, and bends no triumphal arches to grace +its entree. Few new voices in the tree-tops hail its advent. No +choirs of tree-toads fiddle in the fens. No congregation of frogs +at twilight gather to the green edges of the unfettered pond to sing +their Old Hundred, led by venerable Signor Cronker, in his bright, +buskin doublet, mounted on a floating stump, and beating time with a +bulrush. No Shad-spirits with invisible wings, perform their +undulating vespers in the heavens, to let the fishermen know that it +is time to look to their nets. Even the hens of the farm-yard +cackle with no new tone of hope and animation at the birth of the +English Spring. The fact is, it is a baby three months old when it +is baptised. It is really born at Christmas instead of Easter, and +makes no more stir in the family circle of the seasons than any +familiar face would at a farmer's table. + +In a utilitarian point of view, it is certainly an immense advantage +to all classes in this country, that Nature has tempered her +climates to it in this kindly way. I will not run off upon that +line of reflection here, but will make it the subject of a few +thoughts somewhere this side of John O'Groat's. But what England +gains over us in the practical, she loses in the poetical, in this +economy of the seasons. Her Spring does not thrill like a sudden +revelation, as with us. It does not come out like the new moon, +hanging its delicate silver crescent in the western pathway of the +setting sun, which everybody tries to see first over the right +shoulder, for the very luck of the coincidence. Still, both +countries should be contented and happy under this dispensation of +Nature. The balance is very satisfactory, and well suited to the +character and habits of the two peoples. The Americans are more +radical and sensational than the English; more given to sudden +changes and stirring events. Sterne generally gets the credit of +saying that pretty thought first, "Providence tempers the wind to +the shorn lamb." A French writer puts it the other way, and more +practically: "Providence tempers the wool of the lamb to the wind." +This is far better and more natural. But it may be truly said that +Providence tempers the seasons to the temperaments and customs of +the two nations. + +Just before reaching Oakham, I passed a grand mansion, standing far +back from the turnpike road, on a commanding eminence, flanked with +extensive plantations. The wide avenue leading to it looked a full +mile in length. Lawns and lakes, which mirrored the trees with +equal distinctness, suffused the landscape of the park like evening +smiles of Nature. It was indeed a goodly heritage for one man; and +he only mounted a plain _Mr_. to his name, although I learned that +he could count his farms by the dozen. I was told that the annual +dinner given to his tenant farmers came off the previous day at the +inn where I lodged. A sumptuous banquet was provided for them, +presided over by the steward of the estate; as the great _Mr_. did +not honor the plebeian company with his presence. This is a feature +of the structure of English society which the best read American +would not be likely to recognise without travelling somewhat +extensively in the country. The British Nobility, the great, world- +renowned Middle Class, and the poor laboring population, constitute +the three great divisions of the people and include them all in his +mind. He is apt to leave out of count the Gentry, the great +untitled MISTERS, who come in between the nobility and middle-men, +and constitute the connecting link between them. "The fine old +English gentleman, all of the olden time," is supposed to belong to +this class. They make up most of "the old county families," of +which you hear more than you read. They are generally large +landholders, owning from twenty to one hundred farms. They live in +grand old mansions, surrounded with liveried servants, and inspire a +mild awe and respectful admiration, not only in the common country +people, but in the minds of persons in whom an American would not +look for such homage to untitled rank. They hunt with horses and +dogs over the grounds of their tenant farmers, and the latter often +act as game-beaters for them at their "shootings." When one of them +owns a whole village, church and all, he is generally called "the +Squire," but most of them are squired without the definite article. +They still boast of as good specimens of "the fine old English +gentleman" as the country can show; and I am inclined to think it is +not an unfounded pretension, although I have not yet come in contact +with many of the class. + +One of this county squirocracy I know personally and well,--and +other Americans know him as well as myself,--who, though living in a +palace of his own, once occupied by an exiled French sovereign, is +just as simple and honest as a child in every feature of his +disposition and deportment. Every year he has a Festival in his +park, lasting two or three days. It is a kind of out-door +Parliament and a Greenwich Fair combined, as it would seem at first +sight to an incidental spectator. I do not believe anything in the +rest of the wide world could equal this gathering, for many peculiar +features of enjoyment. It is made up of both sexes and all ages and +conditions; especially of the laboring classes. They come out +strong on these occasions. The round and red faced boys and girls +of villages and hamlets for a great distance around look forward to +this annual frolic with exhilarating expectation. Never was romping +and racing and the amorous forfeit plays of the ring got up under +more favorable auspices, or with more pleasant surroundings. It +would do any man's heart good, who was ever a genuine boy, to see +the venerable squire and his lady presiding over a race between +competing couples of ploughmens' boys, from ten to fifteen years of +age, running their rounds in the park, bare-footed, bare-headed, +with faces as round and red as a ripe pumpkin, and hair of the same +color whipping the air as they neck-and-neck it in the middle of the +heat. When the winners of the prizes receive their rewards at his +hands, his kind words and the radiant benevolence of his face they +value more than the conquest and the coins they win. + +Then there are intellectual entertainments and deliberative +proceedings of grave moment arranged for the elder portion of the +great congregation. While groups of blushing lads and lasses are +hunting the handkerchief in the hustle and tussle of the ring under +the great, solemn elms, a scene may be witnessed on the lawn nearer +the mansion that ought to have been painted long ago. Two or three +double-horse wagons are ranged end to end in the shade, and planks +are placed along from one end to the other, making a continuous seat +for a score or two of orators. In front of this dozen-wheeled +tribune rows of seats, capable of holding several hundred persons, +are arranged within hearing distance. When these are filled and +surrounded by a standing wall of men and women, three or four deep, +and when the orators of the day ascend over the wheels to the long +wagon-seat, you have a scene and an assembly the like of which you +find nowhere else in Christendom. No Saxon parliament of the +Heptarchy could "hold a candle to it." Never, in any age or country +of free speech, did individual ideas, idiosyncrasies, and liberty of +conscience have freer scope and play. Never did all the isms of +philanthropy, politics, or of social and moral reform generally have +such a harmonious trysting time of it. Never was there a platform +erected for discussing things local and general so catholic as the +one now resting upon the wheels of those farm wagons. Every year +the bland and venerable host succeeds in widening the area of +debate. I was invited to be present at the Festival this year, but +was too far on the road to John O'Groat's to participate in a +pleasure I have often enjoyed. But I read his resume of the year's +doings, aspects and prospects from Japan to Hudson's Bay with lively +interest and valuable instruction. He seldom presides himself as +chairman, but leaves that post of honor to be filled, if possible, +by the citizen of some foreign country, if he can speak English +tolerably. This gives a more cosmopolitan aspect to the assembly. +But he himself always makes what in Parliament would be called "a +financial statement," without the reference to money matters. He +sums up the significance of all the great events of the year, +bearing upon human progress in general, and upon each specific +enterprise in particular. With palatial mansions, parks, and farms +great and small, scattered through several counties, he is the +greatest radical in England. He distances the Chartists altogether +in his programme, and adds several new points to their political +creed. He not only advocates manhood suffrage, but womanhood +suffrage, and woman-seats in Parliament. Then he is a great friend +of a reform which the Chartists grievously overlook, and which would +make thousands of them voters if they would adopt it. That is, +Total Abstinence from Tobacco, as well as from Ardent Spirits. +Thus, no report of modern times equals the good Squire's summing-up, +which he gives on these occasions, from the great farm-wagon +tribune, to the multitudinous and motley congregation assembled +under his park trees. This year it was unusually rich and piquant, +from the expanded area of events and aspects. In presenting these, +as bearing upon the causes of Temperance, Peace, Anti-War, Anti- +Slavery, Anti-Tobacco, Anti-Capital Punishment, Anti-Church-Rates, +Free Trade, Woman's Rights, Parliamentary Reform, Social Reform, +Scientific Progress, Discovery of the Sources of the Nile, and other +important movements, he was necessarily obliged to be somewhat +discursive. But he generalised with much ease and perspicuity, and +conducted the thread of his discourse, like a rivulet of light, +through the histories of the year; transporting the mind of his +audience from doings in Japan to those in America, from Poland to +Mexico, and through stirring regions of Geography, Politics, +Philanthropy, Social Science and Economy, by gentle and interesting +transitions. This annual statement is very valuable and +instructive, and should have a wider publicity than it usually +obtains. + +When "the fine old English gentleman all of the olden time" has +concluded his resume of the year's progress, and the prospects it +leaves to the one incoming, the orators of the different causes +which he has thus reported, arise one after the other, and the +bright air and the green foliage of the over-spreading trees, as +well as the listening multitude below are stirred with fervid +speeches, sometimes interspersed with "music from the band." The +Festival is wound up by a banquet in the hall, given by the +munificent host to a large number of guests, representing the +various good movements advocated from the platform described. Many +Americans have spoken from that rostrum, and sat at that banquet +table in years gone by, and they will attest to the correctness of +these slight delineations of the character of the host and of the +annual festival that will perpetuate his name in long and pleasant +remembrance. + +Oakham is a goodly and pleasant town, the chief and capital of +Rutlandshire. It has the ruins of an old castle in its midst, and +several interesting antiquities and customs. It, too, has its +unique speciality or prerogative. I was told that every person of +title driving through the town, or coming to reside within the +jurisdiction of its bye-laws, must leave his card to the authorities +in the shape of a veritable horse-shoe. It is said that the walls +of the old town hall are hung with these iron souvenirs of +distinguished visits; thus constituting a museum that would be +instructive to a farrier or blacksmith, as well as to the +antiquarian. + +From Oakham I walked to Melton Mowbray, a cleanly, good-looking town +in Leicestershire, situated on the little river Eye. One cannot say +exactly in regard to Rutlandshire what an Englishman once said to +the authorities of a pigmy Italian duchy, who ordered him to leave +it in twenty-four hours. "I only require fifteen minutes," said +cousin John, with a look and tone which Jonathan could not imitate. +This rural county is to the shire-family of England what Rhode +Island is to the American family of States--the smallest, but not +least, in several happy characteristics. + +I spent a quiet Sabbath in Melton Mowbray; attended divine service +in the old parish church and listened to two extemporaneous sermons +full of simple and earnest teaching, and delivered in a +conversational tone of voice. Here, too, the parish church was +seated in the midst of the great congregation which had long ceased +to listen to the call of its Sabbath bells. It was a beautiful and +touching arrangement of the olden time to erect the House of Prayer +in the centre of "God's Acre," that the shadow of its belfry and the +Sabbath voice of its silvery bells might float for centuries over +the family circles lying side by side in their long homes around the +sanctuary. There was a good and tender thought in making up this +sabbath society of the living and the dead; in planting the narrow +pathway between the two Sions with the white milestones of +generations that had travelled it in ages gone, leaving here and +there words of faith, hope and admonition to those following in +their footsteps. It is one of the contingencies of "higher +civilization" that this social economy of the churchyard, that +linked present and past generations in such touching and instructive +companionship, has been suspended and annulled. + +Melton Mowbray has also a very respectable individuality. It is a +great centre for the scarlet-coated Nimrods who scale hedges and +ditches, in well-mounted squadrons, after a fox _preserved_ at great +expense and care to become the victim of their valor. But this is a +small and frivolous distinction compared with its celebrated +manufacture of _pork-pies_. It bids fair to become as famous for +them as Banbury is for buns. I visited the principal establishment +for providing the travelling and picnicking world with these very +substantial and palatable portables. I went under the impulse of +that uneasy, suspicious curiosity to peer into the forbidden +mysteries of the kitchen which generally brings no satisfaction when +gratified, and which often admonishes a man not only to eat what is +set before him without any questions for conscience sake, but also +for the sake of the more delicate and exacting sensibilities of the +stomach. I must confess my first visit to this, the greatest pork- +pie factory in the world, savored a little of the anxiety to know +the worst, instead of the best, in regard to the solid materials and +lighter ingredients which entered into the composition of these +suspiciously cheap luxuries. There were points also connected with +the process of their elaboration which had given me an undefinable +uneasiness in the refreshment rooms of a hundred railway stations. +I was determined to settle these moot points once for all. So I +entered the establishment with an eye of as keen a speculation as an +exciseman's searching a building for illicit distillery, and I came +out of it a more charitable and contented man. All was above board, +fair and clean. The meat was fresh and good. The flour was fine +and sweet; the butter and lard would grace the neatest housewife's +larder; the forms on which the pies were moulded were as pure as +spotless marble. The men and boys looked healthy and bright; their +hands were smooth and clean, and their aprons white as snow. Not +one of them smoked or took snuff at his work. I saw every process +and implement employed in the construction of these pies for the +market; the great tubs of pepper and spice, the huge ovens, the +cooling racks, the packing room; in a word, every department and +feature of the establishment. And the best thing that I can say of +it is this: that I shall eat with better satisfaction and relish +hereafter the pies bearing the brand of Evans, of Melton Mowbray, +than I ever did before. The famous Stilton cheese is another +speciality of this quiet and interesting town, or of its immediate +neighborhood. So, putting the two articles of luxury and +consumption together, it is rather ahead of Banbury with its cakes. + +On Monday, August 11th, I resumed my walk northward, and passed +through a very highly cultivated and interesting section. About the +middle of the afternoon, I reached Broughton Hill, and looked off +upon the most beautiful and magnificent landscape I have yet seen in +England. It was the Belvoir Vale; and it would be worth a hundred +miles' walk to see it, if that was the only way to reach it. It lay +in a half-moon shape, the base line measuring apparently about +twenty miles in length. As I sat upon the high wall of this valley, +that overlooks it on the south, I felt that I was looking upon the +most highly-finished piece of pre-Raphaelite artistry that could be +found in the world,--the artistry of the plough, glorious and +beautiful with the unconscious and involuntary pictures which +patient human labor paints upon the canvas of Nature. Never did I +see the like before. If Turner had the shaping of the ground +entirely for an artistic purpose, it could not have been more +happily formed for a display of agricultural pictures. What might +be called the _physical_ vista made the most perfect hemiorama I +ever looked upon. The long, high, wooded ridge, including Broughton +Hill, _eclipsed_, as it were, just half the disk of a circle twenty +miles in diameter, leaving the other half in all the glow and glory +that Nature and that great blind painter, Agricultural Industry, +could give to it. The valley with its foot against this mountainous +ridge, put out its right arm and enfolded to its bosom a little, +beautiful world of its own of about fifty miles girth. In this +embrace were included hundreds of softly-rounded hills, with their +intervening valleys, villages, hamlets, church spires and towers, +plantations, groves, copses and hedge-row trees, grouped by sheer +accident as picturesquely as Turner himself could have arranged +them. The elevation of the ridge on which I sat softened down all +these distant hills, so that they looked only like little undulating +risings by which the valley gently ascended to the blue rim of the +horizon on the north. + +It was an excellent standpoint on which to balance Nature and Human +Industry; to estimate their separate and joint work upon that vast +landscape. A few centuries ago, perhaps about the time that the +Mayflower sighted Plymouth Rock, this valley, now so indescribably +beautiful, was almost in the state of nature. Wolves and wild boars +may have been prowling about in the woods and tangled thickets that +covered this ridge back for several leagues. Bushes, bogs and +briers, and coarse prairie grass roughened the bottom of this +valley; matted heather, furze, broom and clumps of shrubby trees, +all those hills and uplands arising in the background to the +northward horizon. This declining sun, and the moon and stars that +will soon follow in the pathway of its chariot, like a liveried +cortege, shone upon that scene with all the light they will give +this day and night. The rain and dew, and all the genial ministries +of the seasons, did their unaided best to make it lovely and +beautiful. The sweetest singing-birds of England came and tried to +cheer its solitude with their happy voices. The summer breezes came +with their softest breath, whispering through brake, bush and brier +the little speeches of Nature's life. The summer bees came and +filled all those heather-purpled acres with their industrial lays, +and sang a merry song in the door of every wild-flower that gave +them the petalled honey of its heart. All the trained and +travelling industrials and all the sweet influences of Nature came +and did all they could without man's help to make this great valley +most delightful to the eye. But the wolves still prowled and +howled; the briers grew rough and rank; the grass, coarse and thin; +the heathered hills were oozy and cold in their watery beds; the +clumpy, shrubby trees wore the same ragged coats of moss; and no +feature of the scene mended for the better from year to year. + +Then came the great Blind Painter, with his rude, iron pencils, to +the help of Nature. He came with the Axe, Plough and Spade, her +mightiest allies. With these he had driven wild Druidic Paganism +back mile by mile from England's centre; back into her dark +fastnesses. With the Axe, Spade and Plough he chased the foul +beasts and barbarisms from the island. Two centuries long was he in +painting this Beautiful Valley. Nature ground and mixed the colors +for him all the while, for he was blind. He was poor; often cold +and hungry, and his children, with blue fingers and pale, silent +eyes, sometimes asked for bread in winter he could not give. He +lived in a low cottage, small, damp and dark, and laid him down at +night upon a bed of straw. He could not read; and his thoughts of +human life and its hereafter were few and small. He had no taste +for music, and seldom whistled at his work. He wore a coarse +garment, of ghostly pattern, called a smock-frock. His hat just +rounded his head to a more globular and mindless form. His shoes +were as heavy as a horse's with iron nails. He had no eye nor taste +for colors. If all the trees, if all the crops of grain, grass and +roots on which he wrought his life long, had come out in brickdust +and oil, it would have been all the same to him, if they had sold as +high in the market, and beer and bread had been as cheap for the +uniformity. And yet he was the Turner of this great painting. He +is the artist that has made England a gallery of the finest +agricultural pictures in the world. And in no country in +Christendom is High Art so appreciated to such pecuniary patronage +and valuation as here. In none is the genius of the Pencil so +treasured, so paid, and almost worshipped as here. The public and +private galleries of Britain hold pictures that would buy every acre +of the island at the price current of it when Elizabeth was queen. +One of Turner's landscapes would pay for a whole Highland county at +its valuation when Mary held her first court at Holyrood. + +I sit here and look off upon this largest, loveliest picture the +Blind Painter has given to England. I note his grouping of the ivy- +framed fields, of every size and form, panelling the gently-rounded +hills, and all the soft slopes down to the foot of the valley; the +silvery, ripe barley against the dark-green beans; the rich gold of +the wheat against the smooth, blue-dashed leaves of the mangel +wurzel or rutabaga; the ripening oats overlooking a foreground of +vividly green turnips, with alternations of pasture and meadow land, +hedges running in every direction, plantations, groves, copses +sprinkled over the whole vista, as if the whole little world, clear +up to the soft, blue fringe of the horizon, were the design and work +of a single artist. And this, and ten thousand pictures of the same +genius, were the work of the Briarean-handed BLIND PAINTER, who +still wears a smock-frock and hob-nailed shoes, and lives in a low, +damp cottage, and dines on bread and cheese among the golden sheaves +of harvest! + +O, Mother England! thou that knightest the artists while living, and +buildest their sepulchres when dead; thou that honorest to such +stature of praise the plagiarists upon Nature, and clothest the +copyists of patient Labor's pictures in such purple and fine linen; +thou whose heart is softening to the sweet benevolences of Christian +charity in so many directions,--wilt thou not think, with a new +sentiment of kindness and sympathy, on this Blind Painter, who has +tapestried the hills and valleys of thy island with an artistry that +angels might look upon with admiration and wonder! + +Wilt thou not build him a better cottage to live in? + +Wilt thou not give him something better than dry bread and cold +bacon for dinner in harvest? + +Wilt thou not teach all his children to read the alphabet and the +blessed syllables of the Great Revelation of God's Love to man? + +Wilt thou not make a morning-ward door in his dwelling and show him +a future with a sun in it, in _this_ world, as well as the world to +come? + +Wilt thou not open up a pathway through the valley of his +humiliation by which his children may ascend to the better +conditions of society? + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +NOTTINGHAM AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS--NEWSTEAD ABBEY--MANSFIELD--TALK +IN A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP--CHESTERFIELD, CHATSWORTH AND HADDON HALL-- +ARISTOCRATIC CIVILISATION, PRESENT AND PAST. + +From the Belvoir Vale I continued my walk to Nottingham the +following day; crossing a grand old bridge over the Trent. Take it +all in all, this may be called perhaps the most English town in +England; stirring, plucky and radical; full of industrial intellect +and vigor. Its chief businesses involve and exercise thought; and +thought educed into one direction and activity, runs naturally into +others. The whole population, under these influences, has become +_peopled_ to a remarkable status and strength of opinion, sentiment +and action. They prefix that large and generous quality to their +best doings and institutions, and have their Peoples' College, +Peoples' Park, etc. The Peoples' Charter had its stronghold here, +and all radical reforms are sure to find sympathy and support among +the People of Nottingham. I should think no equal population in the +kingdom would sing "Britons never, never will be slaves," with more +spirit, or, perhaps, with more understanding. Their plucky, English +natures became terribly stirred up in the exciting time of the +Reform Bill, and they burned down the magnificent palace-castle of +the old Duke of Newcastle, crowning the mountainous rock which +terminates on the west the elevated ridge on which the town is +built. When the Bill was carried, and the People had cooled down to +their normal condition of mind, they were obliged to pay for this +evening's illumination of their wrath pretty dearly. The Duke +mulcted the town and county to the tune of 21,000 pounds, or full +$100,000. The castle was no Chepstow structure, rough and rude for +war, but more like the ornate and castellated palace at Heidelberg, +and it was almost as high above the Trent as the latter is above the +Neckar. The view the site commands is truly magnificent, embracing +the Trent Valley, and an extensive vista beyond it. It was really +the great lion of the town, and the People, having paid the 21,000 +pounds for dismounting it, because it roared in the wrong direction +on the Reform Bill, expected, of course, that His Grace the Duke +would set it up again on the old pedestal, with its mane and tail +and general aspect much improved. But they counted without their +host. "Is it not lawful to do what I will with my own," was the +substance of his reply; and there stands the blackened, crumbling +ruin to this day, as a silent but grim reproach to the People for +letting their angry passions rise to such destructive excitement on +political questions. + +Hosiery and lace are the two great manufacturing interests of +Nottingham, and the tons of these articles it turns out yearly for +the world are astonishing in number and value. A single London +house employs 3,000 hands in the town and immediate vicinity upon +hosiery alone for its establishment. Lace now seems to lead the +way, and there are whole streets of factories and warehouses busy +with its manufacture and sale. Perhaps no fabric in the world ever +tested the ingenuity and value of machinery like this. The cost has +been reduced, from the old hand-working to the present process, from +three dollars to three cents a yard! I think no machinery yet +invented has been endowed with more delicate functions of human +reason and genius than that employed upon the flower-work of this +subtle drapery. Until I saw it with my own eyes, I had concluded +that the machinery invented or employed in America for setting card- +teeth was the most astute, and as nearly approaching the faculties +of the human mind in its apparent thought-power, as it was reverent +and safe to carry anything made of iron and steel, or made by man at +all. To construct a machine which should pass between its fingers a +broad belt of leather and a fine thread of wire, prick rows of holes +across the breadth of the leather, bend, cut off, and insert the +shank ends of the teeth clear through these holes, and clinch them +on the back side, and pour out a continuous, uninterrupted stream of +perfectly-teethed belt, all ready for carding,--this, I fancied, was +the ne plus ultra of mechanical inventions. But it is quite +surpassed by the lace-weaving looms of Nottingham, that work out, to +exquisite perfection, all the flowers, leaves, vines and vein-work +of nature. It was wonderful to see the ductility of cotton, as here +exemplified. The _bobbins_, which, I suppose, are a mere refinement +upon the old hand-thrown shuttle, are of brass, about the size of +half-a-crown. A groove that will just admit the thin edge of a +case-knife, is cut into the rim of the little wheel, about one +quarter of an inch deep. A cotton thread, 120 yards in length, and +strong enough to be twitched about and twisted by a score of +vigorous, chattering, iron fingers, is wound around in this groove. +But it would be idle to attempt a description of either the +machinery or the process. + +I went next into a large establishment for dyeing, dressing, winding +and packing the lace for market. It was startling to see the acres +of it dyed black for mourning. Really there seemed enough of it to +drape the whole valley of the shadow of death! It was an impressive +sight truly. If there were other establishments doing the same +thing, Nottingham must turn out weeds of grief enough for several +millions of mourning widows, mothers, sisters and daughters in a +year. I ascended into the dressing-room, I think they called it, in +the upper story, where there was a piece containing one twenty-fifth +of an acre of lace undergoing a fearful operation for a human +constitution to sustain. It was necessary that the heat of the +apartment should be kept at _one hundred and twenty_ degrees! There +was a large number of women and girls, and a few men and boys +working under this melting ordeal. And one of the proprietors was +at their head, in a rather summer dress, and with a seethed and +crimson face beaded with hot perspiration. It was a very delicate +and important operation which he had not only to watch with his own +eyes, but to work at with his own hands. I was glad to learn that +he was a staunch Protestant, and did not believe in _purgatory_; but +those poor girls!--could they be expected to hold to the same belief +under such a test? + +I was told that they could get up lace so cheap that the people of +the town frequently cover their gooseberry bushes with it to keep +off the insects. Spider-webbing is a scarcely more gossamer-like +fabric. Sixteen square yards of this lace only weigh about an +ounce! If the negroes on one of the South Carolina Sea-island +plantations could have been shut into that dressing-room for two +whole minutes, with the mercury at 120 degrees, they would have +rolled up the whites of their eyes in perfect amazement and made a +rush for "Dixie" again. + +From Nottingham I made an afternoon walk to Mansfield. The weather +was splendid and the country in all the glory of harvest. On +reaching Newstead Abbey, I found, to my regret, that the entree to +the public had been closed by the new proprietor, one, I was told, +of the manufacturing gentry of the Manchester school. Not that he +was less liberal and accommodating to sight-seers than his +predecessors, but because he was making very extensive and costly +improvements in the buildings and grounds. I have seen nothing yet +in England to compare, for ornate carving, with the new gate-way he +is making to the park. It is of the finest kind of arabesque work +done in stone that much resembles the Caen. This prevention barred +me from even a distant view of the once famous residence of Lord +Byron, as it could not be seen from the public road. + +Within about three miles of Mansfield, I came to a turnpike gate,--a +neat, cozy, comfortable cottage, got up in the Gothic order. I +stopped to rest a moment, and noticing the good woman setting her +tea-table, I invited myself to a seat at it, on the inn basis, and +had a pleasant meal and chat with her and an under-gamekeeper of the +Duke of Portland, who had come in a little before me. The stories +he told me about the extent of the Duke's possessions were +marvellous, more especially in reference to his game preserves. I +should think there must be a larger number of hares, rabbits and +partridges on his estate than in the whole of New England. As I sat +engaged in conversation with the woman of the house and this +accidental guest, an unmistakable American face met my eyes, as I +raised them to the opposite wall. It was the familiar face of a +Bristol clock, made in the Connecticut village adjoining the one in +which I was born. It wore the same honest expression, which a great +many ill-natured people, especially in our Southern States, have +regarded as covering a dishonest and untruthful mind, or a bad +memory of the hours. Still it is the most ubiquitous Americanism in +the world, and it is pleasant to see its face in so many cottages of +laboring men from Land's End to John O'Groat's. + +Mansfield is a very substantial and venerable town, bearing a name +which one distinguished man has rendered illustrious by wearing it +through a brilliant life. It is situated near the celebrated +Sherwood Forest, and is marked by many features of peculiar +interest. One of its noticeable celebrities is the house in which +Lord Chesterfield resided. It is now occupied by a Wesleyan +minister, who elaborates his sermons in the very room, I believe, in +which that fashionable nobleman penned his polite literature for +youthful candidates for the uppermost circles of society. In the +centre of the market place there is a magnificent monument erected +to the memory of the late Lord George Bentinck, who was held in high +esteem by the people of the town and vicinity. The manufactures are +pretty much the same as in Nottingham. They turn out a great +production of raw material in red sandstone, very much resembling +our Portland, quite as fine, hard and durable. Immense blocks of it +are quarried and conveyed to London and to all parts of the kingdom. +The town also supplies a vast amount of moulding sand, of nearly the +same color and consistency as that we procure from Albany. I +stopped on my way into the town to take a turn through the cemetery, +which was very beautifully laid out, and looked like a great garden +lawn belted with shrubbery, and illuminated with the variegated +lamps of flowers of every hue and breath. The meandering walks were +all laid with asphalte, which presented a new and striking contrast +to the gorgeous borders and the vivid green of the cleanly shaven +grass. Many of the little graves were made in nests of geraniums +and other modest and sweet-eyed stars of hope. + +Next day I had a very enjoyable walk in a north-westerly direction +to Chesterfield. On the way, called in at a blacksmith's shop, and +had a long talk with the smith-in-chief on matters connected with +his trade. The "custom-work" of such shops in country villages in +England is like that in ours fifty years ago--embracing the greatest +variety of jobs. Articles now made with us in large manufacturing +establishments at a price which would starve a master and his +apprentice to compete with, are hammered out in these English shops +on a single anvil. On comparing notes with this knight of the +hammer, I learned a fact I had not known before. His price for +horse-shoeing varied according to the size of the hoof, just as our +leather-shoemakers charge according to the foot. On taking leave of +him he intimated, in the most frank and natural way in the world, +that, in our exchange of information, the balance was in his favor, +and that I could not but think it fair to pay him the difference. I +looked at him first inquiringly and doubtingly, embarrassed with the +idea that I had not understood him, or that he was a journeyman and +not the master of the establishment. But he was as free and easy +and natural as possible. An American tobacco-chewer, of fifty +years' standing, would not have asked a cut from a neighbor's +"lady's twist," or "pig-tail" in more perfect good faith. That +good, round, English face would have blushed crimson if the man +suspected that I misunderstood him. Nay, more, he would quite +likely have thrown the pennies at my head if I had offered them to +him to buy bread or bacon with for himself and family. I had no +reason for a moment's doubt. It all meant _beer_, "only that and +nothing more;" a mere pour boire souvenir to celebrate our mutual +acquaintance. So I gave him a couple of pennies, just as I would +have given him a bite of tobacco if we had both been in that line. +I feared to give him more, lest he might think I meant bread and +bacon and thought him a beggar. But I ventured to tell him, +however, that I did not use that beverage myself, and hoped he would +wish me health in some better enjoyment. + +I saw, for the first time, a number of Spanish cattle feeding in a +pasture. They were large, variously colored animals with the +widely-branching horns that distinguish them. A man must have a +long range of buildings to stable a score of creatures with such +horns, and for that reason they will only be kept as curiosities in +these northern latitudes. And they are curiosities of animal life, +heightened to a wonderment when placed side by side with the black +Galloways, or those British breeds of cattle which have no horns at +all. I should not wonder, however, if this large, cream-colored +stock from Spain should be introduced here to cross with the +Durhams, Devons, and Herefords. + +When about half-way from Mansfield to Chesterfield, a remarkable +change came over the face of the landscape. The mosaic work of the +hill-sides and valleys showed more green squares than before. +Three-fourths of the fields were meadow or pasture, or in mangel or +turnips. There was but one here and there in wheat or other grain. +The road beneath and the sky above began to blacken, and the +chimneys of coal-pits to thicken. Sooty-faced men, horses and +donkeys passed with loaded carts; and all the premonitory aspects of +the "black country" multiplied as I proceeded. I do not recollect +ever seeing a landscape change so suddenly in England. + +Chesterfield is an intelligent looking town, evidently growing in +population and prosperity. It has its own unique speciality; almost +as strikingly distinctive as that of Strasburg or Pisa. This is the +most ambiguous and mysterious church spire in the world. It would +be very difficult to convey any idea of it by any description from +an unaided pen; and there is nothing extant that would avail as an +illustration. The church is very old and large, and stands upon a +commanding eminence. The massive tower supports a tall but suddenly +tapering spire of the most puzzling construction to the eye. It +must have been designed by a monk of the olden time, with a Chinese +turn of ingenuity. There is no order known to architecture to +furnish a term or likeness for it. A ridgy, spiral spire are the +three most descriptive words, but these are not half enough for +stating the shape, style and posture of this strange steeple. It is +difficult even to assist the imagination to form an idea of it. I +will essay a few words in that direction. Suppose, then, a plain +spire, 100 feet high, in the form of an attenuated cone, planted +upon a heavy church tower. Now, in imagination, plough this cone +all around into deep ridges from top to bottom. Then mount to the +top, and, with a great iron wrench, give it an even twist clear down +to the base, so that each ridge shall wind entirely around the spire +between the bottom and the top. Then, in giving it this screw- +looking twist, bend over the top, with a gentle incline all the way +down, so that it shall be "out of perpendicular" by about three +feet. Then come down and look at your work, and you will be +astonished at it, standing far or near. The tall, ridgy, curved, +conical screw puzzles you with all sorts of optical illusions. As +the eyes in a front-face portrait follow you around the room in +which it is hung, so this strange spire seems to lean over upon you +at every point, as you walk round the church. Indeed, I believe it +was only found out several centuries after its erection, that it +absolutely leaned more in one direction than another. It is a +remarkable sight from the railway as you approach the town from a +distance. If it may be said reverently, the church, standing on +comparatively a hill, not only lifts its horn on high, but one like +that of a rhinoceros, considerably curved. Just outside the town +stands the house in which George Stephenson lived his last days, and +ended his great life of benefaction to mankind; leaving upon that +haloed spot a _biograph_ which the ages of time to come shall not +wash out. + +From Chesterfield I diverged westward to see Chatsworth and Haddon +Hall. Whoever makes this walk or ride, let him be sure to stop at +Watch Hill on the way, and look at the view eastward. It is grander +than that of Belvoir Vale, if not so beautiful. + +It was a pleasure quite equal to my anticipation to visit Chatsworth +for the first time, after a sojourn in England, off and on, for +sixteen years. It is the lion number three, according to the +American ranking of the historical edifices and localities of +England. Stratford-upon-Avon, Westminster Abbey and Chatsworth are +the three representative celebrities which our travellers think they +must visit, if they would see the life of England's ages from the +best stand-points. And this is the order in which they rank them. +Chatsworth and Haddon Hall should be seen the same day if possible; +so that you may carry the impressions of the one fresh and active +into the other. They are the two most representative buildings in +the kingdom. Haddon is old English feudalism _edificed_. It +represents the rough grandeur, hospitality, wassail and rude romance +of the English nobility five hundred years ago. It was all in its +glory about the time when Thomas-a-Becket the Magnificent used to +entertain great companies of belted knights of the realm in a manner +that exceeded regal munificence in those days,--even directing fresh +straw to be laid for them on his ample mansion floor, that they +might not soil the bravery of their dresses when they bunked down +for the night. The building is brimful of the character and history +of that period. Indeed, there are no two milestones of English +history so near together, and yet measuring such a space of the +nation's life and manners between them, as this hall and that of +Chatsworth. It was built, of course, in the bow-and-arrow times, +when the sun had to use the same missiles in shooting its barbed +rays into the narrow apertures of old castles--or the stone coffins +of fear-hunted knights and ladies, as they might be called. What a +monument this to the dispositions and habits of the world, outside +and inside, of that early time! Here is the porter's or warder's +lodge just inside the huge gate. To think of a living being with a +human soul in him burrowing in such a place!--a big, black +sarcophagus without a lid to it, set deep in the solid wall. Then +there is the chapel. Compare it with that of Chatsworth, and you +may count almost on your fingers the centuries that have intervened +between them. It was new-roofed soon after the discovery of +America, and perhaps done up to some show of decency and comfort. +But how small and rude the pulpit and pews--looking like rough- +boarded potato-bins! Here is the great banquet-hall, full to +overflowing with the tracks and cross-tracks of that wild, strange +life of old. There is a fire-place for you, and a mark in the +chimney-back of five hundred Christmas logs. Doubtless this great +stone pavement of a floor was carpeted with straw at these banquets, +after the illustrious Becket's pattern. Here is a memento of the +feast hanging up at the top of the kitchenward door;--a pair of +roughly-forged, rusty handcuffs amalgamated into one pair of jaws, +like a musk-rat trap. What was the use of that thing, conductor? +"That, sir, they put the 'ands in of them as shirked and didn't +drink up all the wine as was poured into their cups, and there they +made them stand on tiptoe up against that door, sir, before all the +company, sir, until they was ashamed of theirselves." Descend into +the kitchen, all scarred with the tremendous cookery of ages. Here +they roasted bullocks whole, and just back in that dark vault with a +slit or two in it for the light, they killed and dressed them. +There are the relics of the shambles. And here is the great form on +which they cut them up into manageable pieces. It would do you +good, you Young America, to see that form, and the cross-gashes of +the meat-axe in it. It is the half of a gigantic English oak, which +was growing in Julius Caesar's time, sawed through lengthwise, +making a top surface several feet wide, black and smooth as ebony. +Some of the bark still clings to the under side. The dancing hall +is the great room of the building. All that the taste, art and +wealth of that day could do, was done to make it a splendid +apartment, and it would pass muster still as a comfortable and +respectable salon. As we pass out, you may decipher the short +prayer cut in the wasting stone of a side portal, "GOD SAVE THE +VERNONS!" I hope this prayer has been favorably answered; for +history records much virtue in the family, mingled with some +romantic escapades, which have contributed, I believe, to the +entertainment of many novel readers. + +Just what Haddon Hall was to the baronial life and society of +England five hundred years ago, is Chatsworth to the full stature of +modern civilization and aristocratic wealth, taste and position. Of +this it is probably the best measure and representative in the +kingdom; and as such it possesses a special value and interest to +the world at large. Were it not for here and there such an +establishment, we should lack waymarks in the progress of the arts, +sciences and tastes of advancing civilization. Governments and +joint-stock companies may erect and fill, with a world of utilities +and curiosities of ancient and modern times, British Museums, +National Galleries, Crystal Palaces and Polytechnic Institutions; +but not one of these, nor the Louvre, nor Versailles, nor the +Tuileries can compete with one private mind, taste and will +concentrated upon one great work for a lifetime, when endowed with +the requisite perceptions and means competent to carry that work to +the highest perfection of science, genius and art. Museums, +galleries and public institutions of art are exclusively _visiting_ +places. The elegancies of _home_ life are all shut out of their +attractions. You see in them the work and presence of a committee, +or corporation, often in discrepant layers of taste and plan. One +mind does not stand out or above the whole, fashioning the tout- +ensemble to the symmetrical lines of one governing, all-pervading +and shaping thought. You see no exquisite artistry of drawing-room +or boudoir elegance and luxury running through living apartments of +home, out into the conservatories, lawns, gardens, park and all its +surroundings and embellishments, making the whole like a great +illuminated volume of family life, which you may peruse page by +page, and trace the same pen and the same story from beginning to +end. Even the grandest royal residences lack, in this quality, what +you will find at Chatsworth. They all show the sharp-edged strata +of unaffiliated tastes and styles of different ages and artists. +They lack the oneness of a single individuality, of one great +symmetrical conception. + +This one-mindedness, this one-man power of conception and execution +gives to the Duke of Devonshire's palace at Chatsworth an interest +and a value that probably do not attach to any other private +establishment in England. In this felicitous characteristic it +stands out in remarkable prominence and in striking contrast with +nearly all the other baronial halls of the country. It is the +parlor pier-glass of the present century. It reflects the two +images in vivid apposition--the brilliant civilization of this last, +unfinished age in which we live and the life of bygone centuries; +that is, if Haddon Hall shows its face in it, or if you have the +features of that antiquity before your eyes when you look into the +Chatsworth mirror. The whole of this magnificent establishment +bears the impress of the nineteenth century, inside and outside. +The architecture, sculpture, carving, paintings, engravings, +furniture, libraries, conservatories, flowers, shrubberies and +rockeries all bear and honor the finger-prints of modern taste and +art. In no casket in England, probably, have so many jewels of this +century's civilization been treasured for posterity as in this +mansion on the little meandering Derwent. If England has no grand +National Gallery like the French Louvre, she has works of art that +would fill fifty Louvres, collected and treasured in these quiet +private halls, embosomed in green parks and plantations, from one +end of the land to the other. And in no other country are the +private treasure-houses of genius so accessible to the public as in +this. They doubtless act as educational centres for refining the +habits of the nation; exerting an influence that reaches and +elevates the homes of the people, cultivating in them new +perceptions of beauty and comfort; diffusing a taste for embowering +even humble cottages in shrubbery; making little flower-fringed +lawns, six feet by eight or less; rockeries and ferneries, and +artificial ruins of castles or abbeys of smaller dimensions still. + +In passing through the galleries and gardens of Chatsworth you will +recognise the originals of many works of art which command the +admiration of the world. The most familiar to the American visitor +will probably be the great painting of the Bolton Abbey Scene, the +engravings of which are so numerous and admired on both sides of the +Atlantic. But there is the original of a greater work, which has +made the wonder of the age. It is the original of the Great Crystal +Palace of 1851, and the mother of all the palaces of the same +structure which have been or will be erected in time past or to +come. Here it diadems at Chatsworth the choice plants and flowers +of all the tropics; presenting a model which needed only expansion, +and some modifications, to furnish the reproduction that delighted +the world in Hyde Park in 1851. + +I was pleasantly impressed with one feature of the economy that +ruled at Chatsworth. Although there were between one and two +thousand deer flecking the park, it was utilised to the pasture of +humbler and more useful animals. Over one hundred poor people's +cows were feeding demurely over its vast extent, even to the gilded +gates of the palace. They are charged only 2 pounds for the season; +which is very moderate, even cheaper than the stony pasturage around +the villages of New England. I noticed a flock of Spanish sheep, +black-and-white, looking like a drove of Berkshire hogs, and +seemingly clothed with bristles instead of wool. They are kept +rather as curiosities than for use. + +Chatsworth, with all its treasures and embodiments of wealth, art +and genius, with an estate continuous in one direction for about +thirty miles, is but one of the establishments of the Duke of +Devonshire. He owns a palace on the Thames that might crown the +ambition of a German prince. He also counts in his possessions old +abbeys, baronial halls, parks and towns that once were walled, and +still have streets called after their gates. If any country is to +have a personage occupying such a position, it is well to have a +considerable number of the same class, to yeomanise such an +aristocracy--to make each feel that he has his peers in fifty +others. Otherwise an isolated duke would have to live and move +outside the pale of human society; a proud, haughty entity dashing +about, with not even a comet's orbit nor any fixed place in the +constellation of a nation's communities. It is of great necessity +to him, independent of political considerations, that there is a +House of Peers instituted, in which he may find his social level; +where he may meet his equals in considerable numbers, and feel +himself but a man. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +SHEFFIELD AND ITS INDIVIDUALITY--THE COUNTRY, ABOVE GROUND AND UNDER +GROUND--WAKEFIELD AND LEEDS--WHARF VALE--FARNLEY HALL--HARROGATE; +RIPLEY CASTLE; RIPON; CONSERVATISM OF COUNTRY TOWNS--FOUNTAIN ABBEY; +STUDLEY PARK--RIEVAULX ABBEY--LORD FAVERSHAM'S SHORT-HORN STOCK. + +From Chatsworth I went on to Sheffield, crossing a hilly moorland +belonging to the Duke of Rutland, and containing 10,000 acres in one +solid block. It was all covered with heather, and kept in this +wild, bleak condition for game. Here and there well-cultivated +farms, as it were, bit into this cold waste, rescuing large, square +morsels of land, and making them glow with the warm flush and glory +of luxuriant harvests; thus showing how such great reaches of desert +may be made to blossom like the rose under the hand of human labor. + +Here is Sheffield, down here, sweltering, smoking, and sweating, +with face like the tan, under the walls of these surrounding hills. +Here live and labor Briareus and Cyclops of modern mythology. Here +they-- + + Swing their heavy sledge, + With measured beats and slow; + Like the sexton ringing the village bell, + When the evening sun is low. + +Here live the lineal descendants of Thor, christianised to human +industries. Here the great hammer of the Scandinavian Thunderer +descended, took nest, and hatched a brood of ten thousand little +iron beetles for beating iron and steel into shapes and uses that +Tubal Cain never dreamed of. Here you may hear their clatter night +and day upon a thousand anvils. O, Vale of Vulcan! O, Valley of +Knives! Was ever a boy put into trousers, in either hemisphere, +that did not carry in the first pocket made for him one of thy cheap +blades? Did ever a reaper in the Old World or New cut and bind a +sheaf of grain, who did not wield one of thy famous sickles? All +Americans who were boys forty years ago, will remember three English +centres of peculiar interest to them. These were Sheffield, +Colebrook Dale, and Paternoster Row. There was hardly a house or +log cabin between the Penobscot and the Mississippi which could not +show the imprint of these three places, on the iron tea-kettle, the +youngest boy's Barlow knife, and his younger sister's picture-book. +To the juvenile imagination of those times, Sheffield was a huge +jack-knife, Colebrook Dale a porridge-pot, and Paternoster Row a +psalm-book, each in the generative case. How we young reapers used +to discuss the comparative merits and meanings of those mysterious +letters on our sickles, B.Y and I.R! What were they? Were they +beginnings of words, or whole words themselves? Did they stand for +things, qualities, or persons? "Mine is a _By_ sickle; mine is an +_Ir_ one. Mine is the best," says the last, "for it has the finest +teeth and the best curve." That was our boys' talk in walking +through the rye, with bent backs and red faces, a little behind our +fathers; who cut a wider work to enable us to keep near them. + +In what blacksmith shop or hardware house in America does not +Sheffield show its face and faculties? Did any American, knowing +the difference between cast-iron and cast-steel, ever miss the sight +of Naylor and Sanderson's yellow labels in his travels? How many +millions of acres of primeval forest have the ages edged with their +fine steel cut through, and given to the plough! Fashion has its +Iron Age as well as its Golden; and, what is more remarkable, the +first of the two has come last, in the fitful histories of custom. +And this last freak of feminine taste has brought a wonderful grist +of additional business to the Sheffield mill. The fair Eugenie has +done a good thing for this smoky town, well deserving of a monument +of burnished steel erected to her memory on one of these hills. +More than this; as Empress of Crinoline, she should wear the iron +crown of Charlemagne in her own right. Her husband's empire is but +a mere arondissement compared with the domain that does homage to +her sceptre. Sheffield is the great arsenal of her armaments. +Sheffield cases ships of war with iron plates a foot thick; but that +is nothing, in pounds avoirdupois, compared with the weight of steel +it spins into elastic springs for casing the skirts of two hundred +millions of the fair Eugenie's sex and lieges in the two +hemispheres. It is estimated that ten thousand tons of steel are +annually absorbed into this use in Christendom; and Sheffield, +doubtless, furnishes a large proportion of it. + +Here I had another involuntary walk, not put down in the programme +of my expectations. On inquiring the way to Fir Vale, a picturesque +suburb where a friend resided, I was directed to a locality which, +it was suggested, must be the one I meant, though it was called Fir +View. I followed the direction given for a considerable distance, +when it was varied successively by persons of whom I occasionally +inquired. After ascending and descending a number of steep hills, I +suddenly came down upon the town again from the south, having made a +complete circuit of it; a performance that cost me about two hours +of time and much unsatisfactory perspiration. Fearing that a second +attempt would be equally unsuccessful, I took the Leeds road, and +left the Jericho at the first round. Walked about nine miles to a +furnace-lighted village called very appropriately Hoyland, or +Highland, when anglicised from the Danish. It commands truly a +grand view of wooded hills and deep valleys dashed with the sheen of +ripened grain. + +The next day I passed through a good sample section of England's +wealth and industry. Mansions and parks of the gentry, hill, +valley, wheat-fields, meadows of the most vivid green; crops +luxuriant in most picturesque alternations; in a word, the whole a +vista of the richest agricultural scenery. And yet out of the +brightest and broadest fields of wheat, barley and oats, towered up +the colliery chimneys in every direction, like good-natured and +swarthy giants smoking their pipes complacently and "with +comfortable breasts" in view of the goodly scene. The golden grain +grew thick and tall up to the very pit's mouth. In the sun-light +above and gas-light below human industry was plying its differently- +bitted implements. There were men reaping and studding the pathway +of their sickles through the field with thickly-planted sheaves. +But right under them, a hundred fathoms deep, subterranean farmers +were at work, with black and sweaty brows, garnering the coal- +harvest sown there before the Flood. Sickle above and pick below +were gathering simultaneously the layers of wealth that Nature had +stored in her parlor and cellar for man. + +I passed through Barnsley and Wakefield on this day's walk,--towns +full of profitable industries and busy populations, and growing in +both after the American impulse and expansion. If the good "Vicar +of Wakefield" of the olden time could revisit the scene of his +earthly experience, and look upon the old church of his ministry as +it now appears, renovated from bottom to the top of its grand and +lofty spire, he would not be entrapped again so easily into assent +to the Greek apothegm of the swindler. + +I lodged at a little village inn between Wakefield and Leeds, after +a day of the most enjoyable walk that I had made. Never before, +between sun and sun, had I passed over such a section of above- +ground and under-ground industry and wealth. The next morning I +continued northward, and noticed still more striking combinations of +natural productions and human industries than on the preceding day. +One small, rural area in which these were blended impressed me +greatly, and I stopped to photograph the scene on my mind. In a +circle hardly a third of a mile in diameter, there was the heaviest +crop of oats growing that I had yet seen in England; in another part +of the same field there was a large brick-kiln; in another, an +extensive quarry and machinery for sawing the stone into all sizes +and shapes; then a furnace for casting iron, and lastly, a coal +mine; and all these departments of labor and production were in full +operation. It is quite possible that not one of the hundred +laborers on and under this ten-acre patch ever thought it an +extraordinary focus of production. Perhaps even the proprietors and +managers of the five different enterprises worked on the small space +had taken its rich and diversified fertilities as a matter of +course, as we take the rain, light and heat of summer; but to a +traveller "taking stock" of a country's resources, it could not but +be a point of view exciting admiration. I left it behind me deeply +impressed with the conviction that I had seen the most productive +ten-acre field that could be found on the surface of the globe, +counting in the variety and value of its surface and sub-surface +crops. + +I took tea with a friend in Leeds, remaining only an hour or two in +that town, then pursuing my course northward. The wide world knows +so much of Leeds that any notice that I could give of it might seem +affected and presumptuous. It is to the Cloth-World what Rome is to +the Catholic. Its Cloth Hall is the St. Peter's of Coat-and- +trouserdom. Its rivers, streams and canals run black and blue with +the stringent juices of all the woods and weeds of the world used in +dyeing. The woods of all the continents come floating in here, like +baled summer clouds of heaven. It is a city of magnipotent +chimneys; and they stand thick and tall on the hills and in the +valleys around, and puff their black breathings into the face and +eyes of the sky above, baconising its countenance, and giving it no +time to wash up and look sober, calm and clean, except a few hours +on the sabbath. The Leeds Mercury is a power in the land, and +everybody who reads the English language in either hemisphere knows +Edward Baines by name. + +As I emerged from the great, busy town on the north, I passed by the +estates and residences of its manufacturing aristocracy. The homes +they have built and embellished should satisfy the tastes and +ambitions of any hereditary nobility. They need only a little more +age to make them rival many baronial establishments. It is +interesting to see how the different classes of society are stepping +into each other's shoes in going up into higher grades of social +life. The merchant and manufacturing princes of England have not +only reached but surpassed the conditions of wealth, taste and +elegance which the hereditary peers of the realm occupied a century +ago; while the latter have gone up to the rich and luxurious +surroundings of kings and queens of that period. The upward +movement has reached the very lowest strata of society. Not only +have the small tradesmen and farmers ascended to the comfortable +conditions of large merchants and landowners of one hundred years +ago, but common day laborers are lifted upward by the general +uprising. I should not wonder if all the damp, low cellarless +cottages they now frequently inhabit should be swept away in less +than fifty years and replaced by as comfortable buildings as the +great middle class occupied in the childhood of the present +generation. + +I found comfortable quarters for the night in the little village of +Bramhope, about five miles from Leeds. The next day I walked to +Harrogate, passing through Otley and across the celebrated Wharf +Vale. The scenery of this valley, as it opens upon you suddenly on +descending from the south into Otley, is exceedingly beautiful; not +so extensive as that of Belvoir Vale, but with all the features of +the latter landscape compressed in a smaller space; like a portrait +taken on a smaller scale. As you look off from the southern ridge +or wall of the valley, you seem to stand on the cord of a segment of +a circle, the radius of which touches the horizon at about five +miles to the north. This crescent is filled with the most delicate +lineaments of Nature's beauty. The opposite walls of the gallery +slope upward from the meandering Wharf so gently and yet reach the +blue ceiling of the sky so near, that all the paintings that panel +them are vividly distinct to your eye, and you can group all their +lights and shades in the compass of a single glance. + +On the opposite side, half hidden and half revealed among the trees +of an ample park, stands Farnley Hall, a historical residence of an +old historical family. I had a letter of introduction to the +present proprietor, Mr. Fawkes, who, I hope, will not deem it a +disparagement to be called one of the Knights of the Shorthorns--a +more extensive, useful, and cosmopolitan order than were the Knights +of Rhodes or of Malta. Unfortunately for me, he was not at home; +but his steward, a very intelligent, gentlemanly and genial man, +took me over the establishment, and showed me all the stock that was +stabled, mostly bulls of different ages. They were all of the best +families of Shorthorn blood, and a better connoisseur of animal life +than myself could not have enjoyed the sight of such well-made +creatures more thoroughly than I did. The prince of the blood, in +my estimation, was "Lord Cobham," a cream-colored bull, with which +compared that famous animal in Greek mythology which played himself +off as such an Adonis among the bovines, must have been a shabby, +scraggy quadruped. Poor Europa! it would have been bad enough if +she had been run away with by a "Lord Cobham." But the like of him +did not live in her day. + +After going through the housings for cattle, the steward took me to +the Hall, a grand old mansion full of English history, especially of +the Commonwealth period. Indeed, one large apartment was a museum +of relics of that stirring and stormy time. There, against the +antique, carved wainscoting, hung the great broad-brim of Oliver +Cromwell, with a circumference nearly as large as an opened +umbrella, heavy, coarse and grim. There hung a sword he wielded in +the fiery rifts of battle. There was Fairfax's sword hanging by its +side; and his famous war-drum lay beneath. Its leather lungs, that +once shouted the charge, were now still and frowsy, with no martial +speech left in them. + +Mr. Fawkes owns about 15,000 acres of land, including most of the +valley of Otley, and extending back almost to Harrogate. He farms +about 450 acres, but grows no wheat. Indeed, I did not see a field +of it in a circle of five miles' diameter. + +I reached Harrogate in the dusk of the evening, and found the town +alive with people mostly in the streets. It is a snug and cozy +little Saratoga among the hills of Yorkshire, away from the smoke, +soot and savor of the great manufacturing centres. It is a favorite +resort for a mild class of invalids, and of persons who need the +medicine of pure air and gentle exercise, blended with the quiet +tonics of cheery mirth and recreation. Superadded to all these +stimulants, there is a mineral spring at which the visitors, young +and old, drink most voluminously. I went down to it in the morning +before breakfast, and found it thronged by a multitude of men, women +and children, who drank off great goblets of it with astonishing +faith and facility. The rotunda was so filled with the fumes of +sulphur that I found it more easy to inhale than to imbibe, and +preferred to satisfy that sense as to the merits of the water. + +The next day I reached the brave old city of Ripon. On the way I +stopped an hour or two at Ripley and visited the castle. The +building itself is a good specimen of the baronial hall of the olden +time. But the gardens and grounds constitute its distinguishing +feature. I never saw before such an exquisite arrangement of +flowers, even at Chatsworth or the Kew Gardens. All forms +imaginable were produced by them. The most extensive and elaborate +combination was a row of flower sofas reaching around the garden. +Each was from 20 to 30 feet in length. The seat was wrought in +geraniums of every tint, all grown to an even, compact surface, +presenting figures as diversified as the alternating hues could +produce. The back was worked in taller flowers, presenting the same +evenness of line and surface. On entering the garden gate and +catching the first sight of these beautiful structures, you take +them for veritable sofas, as perfectly wrought as anything was ever +done in Berlin wool. + +Ripon is an interesting little city, with a fact-roll of history +reaching back into the dimmest centuries of the land. It has run +the gauntlet of all the Saxon, Danish, Scotch and Norman raids and +regimes. It was burnt once or twice by each of these races in the +struggle for supremacy. But with a plucky tenacity of life, it +arose successively out of its own ashes and spread its phoenix wings +to a new and vigorous vitality. A venerable cathedral looks down +upon it with a motherly face. Unique old buildings, with half their +centuries unrecorded and lost in oblivion, stand to this day in good +repair, as the homes of happy children, who play at marbles and the +last sports of the day just as if they were born in houses only a +year older than themselves. Institutions and customs older than the +cathedral are kept up with a filial faith in their virtue. One of +the most interesting of these, I believe, was established by the +Saxon Edgar or Alfred--it matters not which; they were only a +century or two apart, and that space is but a trifling circumstance +in the history of this old country. One of these kings appointed an +officer called a "wakeman" for the town. He must originally have +been a kind of secular beadle of the community, or a curfew +constable, to see the whole population well a-bed in good season. +One of his duties consisted in blowing a horn every night at nine +o'clock as a signal to turn in. But a remarkable consideration was +attached to faithful compliance with this summons. If any house or +shop was robbed before sunrise, a tax was levied upon every +inhabitant, of 4d. if his house had one outer door, and of 8d. if it +had two. This tax was to compensate the sufferer for his loss, and +also to put the whole community under bonds to keep the peace and to +feel responsible for the safety of each other's property. Thus it +not only acted as a great mutual insurance company of which every +householder was a member, but it made him, as it were, a special +constable against burglary. This old Saxon institution is in full +life and vigor to-day. The wakeman is still the highest secular +official of the town. For a thousand consecutive years the +wakeman's toot-horn has been blown at night over the successive +generations of the little cathedral city. This is an interesting +fact, full of promise. No American could fail to admire this +conservatism who appreciates national individuality. No one, at +heart, could more highly esteem these salient traits of a people's +character. And here I may as well put in a few thoughts on this +subject as at any stage of my walk. + +Good-natured reader, are you a man of sensitive perceptions as to +the proprieties and dignities of dress and deportment which should +characterise some great historical personage whose name you have +held in profound veneration all your life long? Now, in the wayward +drift of your imagination among the freaks of modern fashion, did it +ever dare to present before your eyes St. Paul in strapped +pantaloons, figured velvet vest, swallow-tailed coat, stove-pipe +hat, and a cockney glass at his eye? Did your fancy, in its wildest +fictions, ever pass such an image across the speculum of your mental +vision? + +Gentle reader, "in maiden meditation, fancy free," did a dreamy +thought of yours ever stray through the histories of your sex and +its modes of dress and adornment, and so blend or transpose them as +to present to you, in a sudden flash of the imagination, the Virgin +Mary dressed like the Empress Eugenie? Readers both, did not that +fancy trouble you, as if an unholy thought had fallen into the soul? +Well, a thought like that must trouble the American when his fancy +passes before his mind's eye the image of Old England Americanised. +And a faculty more serious and trusty than fancy will present this +transformation to him, day by day, as he visits the great centres of +the nation's life and industry. In London, Manchester, Liverpool, +and all the most busy and prosperous commercial and manufacturing +towns, he will see that England is becoming Americanised shockingly +fast. In all these populous places it is losing the old +individuality that once distinguished the grandfatherland of fifty +millions who now speak its language beyond the sea. Look at London! +look at the miles of three and four story houses under the mason's +hands, now running out in every direction from the city. Will you +see a single feature of the Old England of our common memories in +them? No, not one! no more than in a modern English dress-coat, or +in one of the iron rails of the British Great Western, or of the +Illinois Central. It is doubtful if there will be anything of +England left in London at the end of the next fifty years, unless it +be the fog and the Lord Mayor's Show. Already the radicals are +crying out against both of these institutions, which are merely +local, by the way. The tailor's shears, the mason's trowel, and the +carpenter's edge-tools are evening everything in Christendom to one +dead level of uniformity. The railroads and telegraphs are all +working to the same end. All these agencies of modern civilization +at first lay their innovating hands upon large cities or commercial +centres. Thence they work outward slowly and transform the +appearance and habits of the country. The transformations I have +noticed in England since 1846 are wonderful, utilitarian, and +productive of absolute and rigid comfort to the people; still, I +must confess, they inspire in me a sentiment akin to that which our +village fathers experienced when the old church in which they +worshipped from childhood was pulled down to make room for a better +one. + +To every American, sympathising with these sentiments, it must be +interesting to visit such a rural little city as Ripon, and find +populations that cling with reverence and affection to the old Saxon +institutions of Alfred. It will make him feel that he stands in the +unbroken lineage of the centuries, to hear the wakeman's horn, and +to know that it has been blown, spring, summer, autumn and winter, +in all weathers, in weal and in woe, for a thousand years. As Old +England is driven farther and farther back from London, Manchester, +Liverpool, and other great improving towns, she will find refuge and +residence in these retired country villages. Here she will wear +longest and last the features in which she was engraven on the minds +of all the millions who call her mother beyond the sea. + +The next day I visited the celebrated Fountain Abbey in Studley +Park,--a grand relic of antiquity, framed with silver and emerald +work of lakelets, lawns, shrubberies and trees as beautifully +arranged as art, taste and wealth could set them. The old abbey is +a majestic ruin which fills one with wonder as he looks up at its +broken arches and towers and sees the dimensions marked by the +pedestals or foot-prints of its templed columns. It stands rather +in a narrow glen than in a valley, and was commenced, it is +supposed, about 1130. The yew-trees under which the monks +bivouacked while at work upon the magnificent edifice, are still +standing, bearing leaves as large and green as those that covered +the enthusiastic architects of that early time. In the height of +its prosperity and power, the lands of the abbey embraced over +72,000 acres. The Park enclosing this great monument of an earlier +age contains 250 acres, and is really an earthly elysium of beauty. +It was comforting to learn that it was laid out so late as 1720, and +that all the noble trees that filled it had grown to their present +grandeur within the intervening period. Here I saw for the first +time in England our hard-maple. It was a spindling thing, looking +as if it had suffered much from fever and ague or rheumatism; but it +was pleasant to see it admitted into a larger fellowship of trees +than our New England soil ever bore. On a green, lawn-faced slope, +at the turning of the principal walk, there was a little tree a few +feet high enclosed in by a circular wire fence. It was planted by +the Princess of Wales on a visit of the royal pair to Studley soon +after their marriage. The fair Dane left her card in this way to +the old Abbey, which began to rise upon its foundations soon after +the stalwart Danish sovereign of England fell at the Battle of +Hastings. Will any one of her posterity ever bear his name and sit +upon the throne he vacated for that bloody grave? No! She will +remember a better name at the font. The day and the name of the +Harolds, Williams, Henrys, Charles's, and Georges are over and gone +forever. ALBERT THE GOOD has estopped that succession; and England, +doubtless, for centuries to come, will wear that name and its +memories in her crown. + +After spending a few hours at Studley Park, I returned to Ripon and +went on to Thirsk, where I spent the Sabbath with a Friend. The +next day he drove me over to Rievaulx Abbey, which was the mother of +Fountain Abbey. On the way to it we passed the ruins of another of +these grand structures of that religious age, called Byland Abbey, +where Robert Bruce came within an ace of capturing King Edward on +his retreat from Scotland, after the Battle of Bannockburn. + +One of the objects of this excursion was to visit the establishment +of Lord Faversham, near Helmsley, who is one of the most scientific +and successful stock-raisers, of the Shorthorn blood, in England, +and to whom I had a note of introduction. But he, too, was not at +home, which I much regretted, as I was desirous of seeing one of the +peers of the realm who enter into this culture of animal life with +so much personal interest and assiduity. His manager, however, was +very affable and attentive, ready and pleased to give any +information desired upon different points. He showed us a splendid +set of animals. Indeed, I had never seen a herd to equal it. There +were several bulls of different ages with a perfection of form truly +admirable. Some of them had already drawn first prizes at different +shows. Several noble specimens of this celebrated herd have been +sold to stock-raisers in America, Australia and in continental +countries. The most perfect of all the well-made animals on the +establishment, according to my untrained perceptions of symmetry, +was a milk-white cow, called "The Lady in White," three years old. +She and Mr. Fawkes' "Lord Cobham" should be shown together. I doubt +if a better mated pair could be found in England. There was a large +number of cows feeding in the park which would command admiration at +any exhibition of stock. Lord Faversham's famous "Skyrocket" ended +his days with much eclat. When getting into years, and into +monstrous obesity, he was presented as a contribution to the +Lancashire Relief Fund. Before passing into the butcher's hands, he +was exhibited in Leeds, and realised about 200 pounds as a show. +Thus as a curiosity first, and as a small mountain of fat beef +afterward, he proved a generous gift to the suffering operatives in +the manufacturing districts. + +Passing through the park gate, we entered upon a lawn esplanade +looking down upon the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. This broad terrace +extended for apparently a half of a mile, and was as finely carpeted +piece of ground as you will find in England. No hair of horse or +dog groomed and brushed with the nicest care, and soft and shining +with the healthiest vitality, could surpass in delicacy and life of +surface the grass coverlet of this long terrace, from which you +looked down upon that grand monument of twelfth-century architecture +half veiled among the trees of the glen. This was one of the oldest +abbeys in the north of England, and the mother of several of them. +Some of its walls are still as entire and perfect as those of +Tintern, on the Wye. It was founded by the monks of the St. Bernard +order, in 1131, according to the historical record. Really those +black-cowled masons and carvers must have given the enthusiasm and +genius of the early painters of the Virgin to these magnificent +structures. I will not go into the subject at large here, leaving +it to form an entire chapter, when I have seen most of the old +abbeys of the country. In looking up at their walls, arches and +columns, one marvels to see the most delicate and elaborate vine and +flower-work of the carver's chisel apparently as perfect as when it +engraved the last line; and this, too, in face of the frosts and +beating storms of six hundred years. The largest ivy I ever saw +buttressed one of the windowed walls with ten thousand cross-folded +fingers and foliage of vivid green piled thick and high upon the +teeth-marks of time. The trunk was a full foot through at the butt. +A few years ago a large mound was uncovered near the ruin, and found +to be composed of cinders, showing incontestably that the monks had +worked iron ore very extensively, thus teaching the common people +that art as well as agriculture. These cinders have been used very +largely in repairing the roads for a considerable distance around. + +On returning to Thirsk over the Hambleton range of hills, we crossed +thousands of acres of moor-land covered with heather in full bloom, +looking like a purple sea. It was a splendid sight. My friend, who +was an artist, stopped for a while to sketch one or two views of the +scene. As we proceeded, we saw several green and golden fields +impinging upon this florid waste, serving to illustrate what might +be done with the vast tracts of land in England and Scotland now +bristling with this thick and prickly vegetation. The heatherland +over which we were passing was utilised in a rather singular manner. +It yielded pasturage to two sets of industrials--sheep and bees. As +the heather blossom is thought to impart a peculiarly pleasant +flavor to honey, I was told many bee-stock-raisers of Lincolnshire +brought their hives to this section to pasture them for a season on +this purple prairie. + +The westward view from the precipitous heights of the Hambleton +ridge is one of the most beautiful and extensive you will find in +England, well worth a special journey to see it. The declining sun +was flooding the great basin with the day's last, best smile, +filling it to the golden rim of the horizon with a soft light in +which lay a landscape of thirty miles' depth, embracing full fifty +villages and hamlets, parks, plantations and groves, all looking +"like emeralds chased in gold." On the whole, I am inclined to +think many tourists would regard this view as even superior to that +of Belvoir Vale. It might be justly placed between that and Wharf +Vale. + +A London gentleman produced a most unique picture on the forehead of +one of these hills, which may be seen at a great distance. In the +first place, he had a smooth, lawn-like surface prepared on the +steep slope. Then he cut out the form of a horse in the green turf, +sowing the whole contour of the animal with lime. This brought out +in such bold relief the body and limbs, that, at several miles +distance, you seem to see a colossal white horse standing on his +four legs, perfect in form and feature, even to ear and nostril. +The symmetry is perfect, although the body, head, legs and tail +cover a space of _four_ acres! + +The next day I took staff for Northallerton, reaching that town +about the middle of the afternoon. Passed through a highly +cultivated district, and saw, for the first time, several reaping +machines at work in the fields. I was struck at the manner in which +they were used. I have noticed a peculiarity in reaping in this +section which must appear singular to an American. The men cut +inward instead of outward, as with us. And these machines were +following the same rule! As they went around the field, they were +followed or rather met by men and women, each with an allotted beat, +who rushed in behind and gathered up the fallen from the standing +grain so as to make a clear path for the next round. There seemed +to be no reason for this singular and awkward practice, except the +adhesion to an old custom of reaping. The grain was not very stout, +nor was it lodged. + +From Northallerton I hastened on to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in order to +attend, for the first time in my life, the meetings of the British +Association. I reached that town on the 25th of August, and +remained there a week, enjoying one of the greatest treats that ever +fell to my lot. I will reserve a brief description of it for a +separate chapter at the end of this volume, if my Notes on other +matters do not crowd it out. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +HEXHAM--THE NORTH TYNE--BORDER-LAND AND ITS SUGGESTIONS--HAWICK-- +TEVIOTDALE--BIRTH-PLACE OF LEYDEN--MELROSE AND DRYBURGH ABBEYS-- +ABBOTSFORD: SIR WALTER SCOTT; HOMAGE TO HIS GENIUS--THE FERRY AND +THE OAR-GIRL--NEW FARM STEDDINGS--SCENERY OF THE TWEED VALLEY-- +EDINBURGH AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS. + +On Thursday, Sept. 3rd, I left Newcastle, and proceeded first +westward to the old town of Hexham, with the view of taking a more +central route into Scotland. Here, too, are the ruins of one of the +most ancient of the abbeys. The parish church wears the wrinkles of +as many centuries as the oldest in the land. Indeed, the town is +full of antiquities of different dates and races,--Roman, Scotch, +Saxon, Danish and Norman. They all left the marks of their glaived +hands upon it. + +From Hexham I faced northward and followed the North Tyne up through +a very picturesque and romantic valley, thickly wooded and studded +with baronial mansions, parks, castles and residences of gentry, +with comfortable farm-houses looking sunny and cheerful on the green +hill slopes and on the quiet banks of the river. I saw fields of +wheat quite green, looking as if they needed another month's sun to +fit them for harvesting. Lodged in a little village about eight +miles from Hexham. The next day walked on to the little hamlet of +Fallstones, a distance of about twenty miles. As I ascended the +valley, the scene changed rapidly. The river dwindled to a narrow +stream. The hills that walled it in on either side grew higher and +balder, and the clouds lay cold and dank upon their bleak and sullen +brows. The hamlets edged in here and there grew thinner, smaller +and shabbier. The road was barred and gated about once in a mile, +to keep cattle and sheep from wandering; there being no fences nor +hedges running parallel with it. In a word, the premonitory +symptoms of a bare border-land thickened at every turn. + +Another day brought me into the midst of a wild region, which might +be called No-man's-land; although most of it belongs to the Duke of +Northumberland. It is all in the solitary grandeur of heather- +haired hills, which tinge, with their purple flush, the huge, black- +winged clouds that alight upon them. Only here and there a +shepherd's cottage is to be seen half way up the heights, or +sheltering itself in a clump of trees in glen or gorge, like a +benighted traveller bivouacking for a night in a desert. Sheep, of +the Cheviot breed mostly, are nearly the sole inhabitants and +industrials of this mountainous waste. They climb to the highest +peaks and bring down the white wealth of their wool to man. It was +pleasant to see them like walking mites, flecking the dark brows of +the mountains. They made a picture; they made a tableau vivant of +the same illustration as Landseer's lamb looking into the grass- +covered cannon's mouth. + +This is the Border-land! Here the fiercest antagonisms of hostile +nationalities met in deadly conflict. Fire and blood, rapine and +wrath blackened and reddened and ravaged for centuries across this +bleak territory. Robber-chieftains and knighted free-booters +carried on their guerilla raids backward and forward, under the +counterfeited banner of patriotism. Scotch and English armies led +by kings marched and counter-marched over this sombre boundary. +Never before was there one apparently more insoluble as a barrier +between two peoples. Never before in Christendom was there one that +required a longer space of time to melt. Never before did the +fusing of two nationalities encounter more fierce and prolonged +opposition. Did ever patriotism pour out a swifter and deeper tide +of chivalrous sentiment against merging one in another?--against +uniting two thrones and two peoples in one? Did patriotism ever +fight bloodier battles to prevent such a union, or cling to local +sovereignty with a more desperate hold? + +This is the Border-land! Look up the purpled steeps of these +heathered hills. The white lambs are looking, with their soft, meek +eyes, into the grass-choked mouths of the rusty and dismantled +cannon of the war of nationalities between England and Scotland. +The deed has been consummated. The valor and patriotism of Wallace +and Bruce could not prevent it. The sheep of English and Scotch +shepherds feed side by side on these mountain heights, in spite of +Stirling and Bannockburn, of Flodden and Falkirk. The Iron Horse, +bearing the blended arms of the two realms on his shield, walks over +those battle-fields by night and day, treading their memories deeper +and deeper in the dust. The lambs are playing in the sun on the +boundary line of the two dominions. Does a Scot of to-day love his +native land less than the Campbell clansman or clan-chief in Bruce's +time? Not a whit. He carries a heartful of its choicest memories +with him into all countries of his sojourning. But there is a +larger sentiment that includes all these filial feelings towards his +motherland, while it draws additional warmth and strength from them. +It is the sentiment of Imperial Nationality; the feeling of a +Briton, that does not extinguish nor absorb, nor compete with, the +Scot in his heart;--the feeling that he is a political constituent +of a mighty nation, whose feet stand upon all the continents of the +earth, while it holds the best islands of the sea in its hands;--the +feeling with which he says _We_ with all the millions of a dominion +on which the sun never sets, and _Our_, when he speaks of its grand +and common histories, its hopes, prospects, progress, power and +aspirations. + +There was a Border-land, dark and bloody, between Saxon England and +Celtic Wales. For centuries the red foot-marks of savage conflict +scarred and covered its wild waste. Never before did so small a +people make so stout, and desperate and protracted struggle for +local independence and isolation. Never did one produce a more +strong-hearted and blind-eyed patriotism, or patriotism more poets +to thrill the listeners to their lays with the intoxicating +fanaticism of a national sentiment. On that Border-land the white +lambs now lie in the sun. The Welsh sentiment is as strong as ever +in the Snowdon shepherd, and he may not speak a dozen words of the +English tongue. But the Briton lives in his breast. The feeling of +its great meaning surrounds and illumines the inner circles of his +local attachment. He may never have seen a map of the Globe, and +never have been outside the wall of the Welsh mountains; but he +knows, without geography, who and what Queen Victoria is among the +earth's sovereigns, and the length and breadth of her sceptre's +reach and rule around the world. + +There was a Border-land between Britain and Ireland, blackened and +scarred by more burning antagonisms than those that once divided the +larger island. The record of several consecutive centuries is +graven deep in it by the brand and bayonet, and by the more incisive +teeth-marks of hate. The slumbering antipathies of race and +religion even now crop out here and there, over the unfused +boundary, in hissing tongues of flame. The Briton and the Celt are +still struggling for the precedence in the Irishman's breast; but it +is not a war of extermination. His ardent nature is given to +martial memories, and all the battles he boasts of are British +battles, in which he or his father played the hero number one. The +history of independent Ireland is poor and thin; still he holds it +back in his heart, and hesitates to link it with the great annals of +the "Saxon" realm, and thus make of both one grand and glorious +record, present and future. He cannot yet make up his mind to say +_We_ with all the other English-speaking millions of the empire, as +the Scotsman and Welshman have learned and loved to say it. He +cannot as yet say _Our_ with them with such a sentiment of joint- +interest, when the histories, hopes, expansion and capacities of +that empire unroll their vista before him. But the rains and the +dews of a milder century are falling upon this Border-land. The +lava of spent volcanoes that covered it is taking soil and seed of +green vegetation. The white lambs shall yet lie on it in the sun. + +What a volume might be filled with the succinctest history of the +Border-lands of Christendom! France was intersected with them for +centuries. Seemingly they were as implacable and obdurate as any +that ever divided the British isle. Local patriotism wrote poetry +and shed blood voluminously to prevent the fusion of these old +landmarks of pigmy nationalities. It took nearly a thousand years +to complete the blending; to make the _we_ and the _our_ of one +great consolidated empire the largest political sentiment of the men +of Normandy, Burgundy or Navarre. Long and fierce, and seemingly +endless was the struggle; but at last, on all those old obstinate +boundaries of hostile principalities, the white lambs lay in the +sun. + +There are Border-lands now in the south and east of Europe foaming +and seething with the same antagonisms of race and language; and +Christendom is tremulous with their emotion. It is the same old +struggle over again; and yet ninety-nine in a hundred of intelligent +and reading people, with the history of British and French Border- +lands before them, seem to think that a new and strange thing has +happened under the sun. Full that proportion of our English- +speaking race, in both hemispheres, closing the volume of its own +annals, have made up their minds to the belief that these Border- +lands between German and Magyar, Teuton and Latin, Russ and Pole, +bristle with antagonisms the like of which never were subdued, and +never ought to be subdued by human means or motives. To them, +naturally, the half century of this hissing and seething, +insurrection and repression, is longer than the five hundred years +and more it took to fuse into one the nationalities of England and +Wales. What a point of space is a century midway between the ninth +and nineteenth! Few are long-sighted enough in historic vision to +touch that point with a cambric needle. It may seem unfeeling to +say it or think it; still it is as true as the plainest history of +the last millenium. There is a patriotism that looks at the future +through a gimlet hole, and sees in it but a single star. That +patriotism is a natural, and most popular sentiment. It was strong +in the Welshman's breast a thousand years ago, and in the Scotsman's +half that distance back in the past. But it is a patriotism that +has its day and its rule; then both its eyes are opened, and it +looks upon the firmament of the future broadside on, and sees a +constellation where it once saw and half worshipped a solitary star. +Better to be the part of a great WHOLE than the whole of a little +_nothing_. + +These continental Border-lands may see the face of their future +history in the mirror of England's annals. They are quaking now +with the impetuous emotions of local nationality. They are +blackened and scarred in the contest for the Welsh and Scotch +independence of centuries agone. But over those boundary wastes the +grass shall yet grow soft, fair and green, and there, too, the white +lambs shall lie in the sun. + +My walk lay over the most inhospitable and unpeopled section I ever +saw. Calling at a station on the railway that passes through it, I +was told by the master that the nearest church or chapel was sixteen +miles in one direction, and over twenty in another. It is doubtful +if so large a churchless space could be found in Iowa or even +Kansas. I was glad to reach Hawick, a good, solid town but a little +way inside of the Scottish border, where I spent the sabbath and the +following Monday. This was a rallying and sallying point in the old +Border Wars, and was inundated two or three times by the flux and +reflux of this conflict, having been burnt twice, and put under the +ordeal of other calamities brought upon it when free-booting was +both the business, occupation and pastime of knighted chieftains and +their clansmen. It is now a thrifty, manufacturing town, lying in +the trough of the sea, or of the lofty hills that resemble waves +hardened to earth in their crests. Just opposite the Temperance Inn +in which I had my quarters, was the Tower Hotel, once a palatial +mansion of the Buccleuchs. There the Duchess of Monmouth used to +hold her drawing-rooms in an apartment which many a New England +journeyman mechanic would hardly think ample and comfortable enough +for his parlor. There is a curious conical mound in the town, +called the Moat-hill, which looks like a great, green carbuncle. It +is thought by some to be a Druidical monument, but is quite involved +in a mystery which no one has satisfactorily solved. It is strange +that no persistent and successful effort has been made to let day- +light through it. Some workmen a long time ago undertook to +perforate it, but were frightened away by a thunder-storm, which +they seemed to take as a reproof and threatened punishment for their +profanity. The great business of Hawick is the manufacture of a +woollen fabric called _Tweeds_. It came to this name in a singular +way. The clerk of the factory made out an invoice of the first lot +to a London house under the name of _Twilled_ goods. The London man +read it _Tweeds_, instead of Twilled, and ever since they have gone +by that title. As Sir Walter Scott was at that time making the name +"Tweed" illustrious, the mistake was a very lucrative one to the +manufacturers of the article. Here, too, in this border town +commences the chain of birthplaces of eminent men, who have honored +Scotland with their lives and history. Here was born James Wilson, +once the editor of The Economist, who worked his way up, through +intermediate positions of public honor and trust, to that of Finance +Minister for India, and died at the meridian of his manhood in that +country of dearly-bought distinctions. + +On Tuesday, Sept. 8th, I commenced my walk northward from this +threshold town of Scotland. Followed down the Teviot to Denholm, +the birth-place of the celebrated poet and linguist, Dr. John +Leyden, another victim who offered himself a sacrifice to the costly +honors and emoluments of East Indian official life. One great +thought fired his soul in all the perils and privations of that +deadly climate. It was to ascend one niche higher in knowledge of +oriental tongues than Sir William Jones. He labored to this end +with a desperate assiduity that perhaps was never surpassed or even +equalled. He died hugging the conviction that he had attained it. +This little village was his birthplace. Here he wrote his first +rhymes, and wooed and won the first inspirations of the muse. His +heart, as its last pulses grew weaker and slower, in that far-off +heathen land, took on its child-thoughts again and its child- +memories; and his last words were about this little, rural hamlet +where he was born. A beautiful monument has been erected to his +memory in the centre of the large common around which the village is +built. On each of the four sides of the monument there is a tribute +to his name and worth; one from Sir Walter Scott, and one taken from +his own poems, entitled "Scenes of my Infancy," a touching appeal to +his old friends and neighbors to hold him in kind remembrance. + +All this section is as fertile as it can be in the sceneries and +historical associations favorable for inspiring a strong-hearted +love of country, and for the development of the poetry of romantic +patriotism. It was pleasant to emerge from the dark, cold, barren +border-land, from the uncivilized mountains, standing sullen in the +wild, shaggy chevelure of nature, and to walk again between towering +hills dressed in the best toilet of human industry, crowned with +golden wheatfields, and zoned with broad girdles of the greenest +vegetation. It is when these contrasts are suddenly and closely +brought within the same vista that one sees and feels how the +Creator has honored the labor of human hands, and lifted it up into +partnership with His omnipotences in chronicling the consecutive +centuries of the earth in illuminated capitals of this joint +handwriting. It is a grand and impressive sight--one of those dark- +browed hills of the Border-land, bearded to its rock-ridged forehead +with such bush-bristles and haired with matted heather. In nature +it is what a painted Indian squaw in her blanket, eagle feathers and +moccasins, is in the world of humanity. We look upon both with a +species of admiration, as contrasts with objects whose worth is +measured by the comparison. The Empress Eugenie and the Princess of +Wales, and wives and sisters lovelier still to the circles of humble +life, look more beautiful and graceful when the eye turns to them +from a glance at the best-looking squaw of the North American wilds. +And so looked the well-dressed hills on each side of the Teviot, +compared with the uncultured and stunted mountains among which I had +so recently walked. + +Ascending from Teviotdale, I passed the Earl of Minto's seat, a +large and modern-looking mansion, surrounded with beautiful grounds +and noble trees, and commanding a grand and picturesque view of +valley and mountain from an excellent point of observation. As soon +as I lost sight of Teviotdale another grand vista of golden and +purpled hills and rich valleys burst upon my sight as suddenly as +theatrical sceneries are shifted on the stage. Dined in a little, +rural, unpoetical village bearing the name of Lilliesleaf. Resuming +my walk, I soon came in sight of the grand valley of the Tweed, a +great basin of natural beauty, holding, as it were, Scotland's +"apples of gold in pictures of silver." Every step commanded some +new feature of interest. Here on the left arose to the still, blue +bosom of the sky the three great Eildon Hills, with their heads +crowned with heather as with an emerald diadem. The sun is low, and +the far-off village in the valley shows dimly between the daylight +and darkness. There is the shadow of a broken edifice, broken but +grand, that arises out of the midst of the low houses. A little +farther on, arches, and the stone vein-work of glassless windows, +and ivy-netted towers come out more distinctly. I recognise them at +the next furlong. They stand thus in pictures hung up in the +parlors of thousands of common homes in America, Australia and +India. They are the ruins of Melrose Abbey. Here is the original +of the picture. I see it at last, as thousands of Americans have +seen it before. In history and association it is to them the +Westminster Abbey of Scotland, but in ruin. It looks natural, +though not at first glance what one expected. The familiar +engraving does not give us the real flesh and blood of the +antiquity, or the complexion of the stone; but it does not +exaggerate the exquisite symmetries and artistic genius of the +structure. These truly inspire one with wonder. They are all that +pen and pencil have described them. The great window, which is the +most salient feature in the common picture, is a magnificent piece +of work in stone, twenty-four feet in height and sixteen in breadth. +It is all in the elm-tree order of architecture. The old monks +belonged to that school, and they wrought out branches, leaves and +leaf-veins, and framed the lacework of their chisels with colored +glass most exquisitely. + +Melrose Abbey was the eldest daughter, I believe, of Rievaulx Abbey, +in Yorkshire, which has already been noticed; a year or two older in +its foundation than Fountain Abbey, in Studley Park. The fecundity +with which these ecclesiastical buildings multiplied and replenished +England and Scotland is a marvel, considering the age in which they +were erected and the small population and the poverty of the +country. But something on this aspect of the subject hereafter. +Here lie the ashes of Scottish kings, abbots and knights whose names +figured conspicuously in the history of public and private wars +which cover such a space of the country's life as an independent +nation. The Douglas family especially with several of its branches +found a resting-place for their dust within these walls. Built and +rebuilt, burnt and reburnt, mutilated, dismembered, consecrated and +desecrated, make up the history of this celebrated edifice, and that +of its like, from Land's End to John O'Groat's. It is a slight but +a very appreciable mitigation of these destructive acts that it was +ruined _artistically_; just as some enthusiastic castle and abbey- +painter would have suggested. + +Although I spent the night at Melrose, it was a dark and cloudy one, +so that I could not see the abbey by moonlight--a view so much +prized and celebrated. The next day I literally walked from morning +till evening among the tombstones of antiquity and monuments of +Scotch history invested with an interest which will never wane. In +the first place, I went down the Tweed a few miles and crossed it in +a ferry-boat to see Dryburgh Abbey. Here, embowered among the trees +in a silver curve of the river, stands this grand monument of one of +the most remarkable ages of the world. Within an hour's walk from +Melrose, and four or five years only after the completion of that +edifice, the foundations of this were laid. It is astonishing. We +will not dwell upon it now, but make a separate chapter on it when I +have seen most of the other ruins of the kind in the kingdom. The +French are given to the habit of festooning the monuments and graves +of their relatives and friends with immortelles. Nature has hung +one of hers to Dryburgh Abbey. It is a yew-tree opposite the door +by which you enter the ruins. The year-rings of its trunk register +all the centuries that the stones of the oldest wall have stood +imbedded one upon the other. The tree is still green, putting forth +its leaf in its season. But there is an immortelle hung to these +dark, crumbling walls that shall outlive the greenest trees now +growing on earth. Here, in a little vaulted chapel, or rather a +deep niche in the wall, lie the remains of Sir Walter Scott, his +wife and the brilliant Lockhart. How many thousands of all lands +where the English language is spoken will come and stand here in +mute and pensive communion before the iron gate of this family tomb +and look through the bars upon this group of simply-lettered stones! + +From Dryburgh I walked back to Melrose on the east side of the +Tweed. Lost the footpath, and for two hours clambered up and down +the precipitous cliffs that rise high and abrupt from the river. In +many places the zig-zag path was cut into the rock, hardly a foot in +breadth, overhanging a precipice which a person of weak nerves could +hardly face with composure. At last got out of these dark +fastnesses and ascended a range of lofty hills where I found a good +carriage road. This elevation commanded the most magnificent view +that I ever saw in Scotland, excepting, perhaps, the one from +Stirling Castle only for the feature which the Forth supplies. It +was truly beautiful beyond description, and it would be useless for +me to attempt one. + +After dinner in Melrose, I resumed my walk northward and came +suddenly upon Abbotsford. Indeed, I should have missed it, had I +not noticed a wooden gate open on the roadside, with some directions +upon it for those wishing to visit the house. As it stands low down +towards the river, and as all the space above it to the road is +covered with trees and shrubbery, it is entirely hidden from view in +that direction. The descent to the house is rather steep and long. +And here it is!--Abbotsford! It is the photograph of Sir Walter +Scott. It is brim full of him and his histories. No author's pen +ever gave such an individuality to a human home. It is all the +coinage of thoughts that have flooded the hemispheres. Pages of +living literature built up all these lofty walls, bent these arches, +panelled these ceilings, and filled the whole edifice with these +mementoes of the men and ages gone. Every one of these hewn stones +cost a paragraph; that carved and gilded crest, a column's length of +thinking done on paper. It must be true that pure, unaided literary +labor never built before a mansion of this magnitude and filled it +with such treasures of art and history. This will forever make it +and the pictures of it a monument of peculiar interest. I have said +that it is brim full of the author. It is equally full of all he +wrote about; full of the interesting topographs of Scotland's +history, back to the twilight ages; full inside and out, and in the +very garden and stable walls. The studio of an artist was never +fuller of models of human or animal heads, or of counterfeit +duplicates of Nature's handiwork, than Sir Walter's mansion is of +things his pen painted on in the long life of its inspirations. The +very porchway that leads into the house is hung with petrified stag- +horns, doubtless dug up in Scottish bogs, and illustrating a page of +the natural history of the country in some pre-historic century. +The halls are panelled with Scotland,--with carvings in oak from the +old palace of Dunfermline. Coats of arms of the celebrated Border +chieftains are arrayed in line around the walls. The armoury is a +miniature arsenal of all arms ever wielded since the time of the +Druids. And a history attaches to nearly every one of the weapons. +History hangs its webwork everywhere. It is built, high and low, +into the face of the outside walls. Quaint, old, carved stones from +abbey and castle ruins, arms, devices and inscriptions are all here +presented to the eye like the printed page of an open volume. Among +the interesting relics are a chair made from the rafters of the +house in which Wallace was betrayed, Rob Roy's pistol, and the key +of the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh. + +I was conducted through the rooms opened to visitors by a very +gentlemanly-looking man, who might be taken for an author himself, +from his intellectual appearance and conversation. The library is +the largest of all the apartments--fifty feet by sixty. Nor is it +too large for the collection of books it contains, which numbers +about 20,000 volumes, many of them very rare and valuable. But the +soul-centre of the building to me was the _study_, opening into the +library. There is the small writing-table, and there is the plain +armchair in which he sat by it and worked out those creations of +fancy which have excited such interest through the world. That +square foot over against this chair, where his paper lay, is the +focus, the point of incidence and reflection, of thoughts that +pencilled outward, like sun-rays, until their illumination reached +the antipodes,--thoughts that brought a pleasant shining to the sun- +burnt face of the Australian shepherd as he watched his flock at +noon from under the shadow of a stunted tree; thoughts which made a +cheery fellowship at night for the Hudson Bay hunter, in his snow- +buried cabin on the Saskatchiwine. The books of this little inner +library were the body-guard of his genius, chosen to be nearest him +in the outsallyings of his imagination. Here is a little +conversational closet, with a window in it to let in the leaf-sifted +light and air--a small recess large enough for a couple of chairs or +so, which he called a "Speak-a-bit." Here is something so near his +personality that it almost startles you like a sudden apparition of +himself. It is a glass case containing the clothes he last wore on +earth,--the large-buttoned, blue coat, the plaid trousers, the +broad-brimmed hat, and heavy, thick-soled shoes which he had on when +he came in from his last walk to lay himself down and die. + +On signing my name in the register, I was affected at a coincidence +which conveyed a tribute of respect to the memory of the great +author of striking significance, while it recorded the painful +catastrophe which has broken over upon the American Republic. It +was a sad sight to me to see the profane and suicidal antagonisms +which have rent it in twain brought to the shrine of this great +memory and graven upon its sacred tablet as it were with the +murdering dagger's point. New and bad initials! The father and +patriot Washington would have wept tears of blood to have read them +here,--to have read them anywhere, bearing such deplorable meaning. +They were U.S.A. and C.S.A., as it were chasing each other up and +down the pages of the visitors' register. Sad, sad was the sight-- +sadder, in a certain sense, than the smoke-wreaths of the Tuscarora +and Alabama ploughing the broad ocean with their keels. U.S.A. and +C.S.A.! What initials for Americans to write, with the precious +memories of a common history and a common weal still held to their +hearts--to write here or anywhere! What a riving and a ruin do +those letters record! Still they brought in their severed hands a +common homage-gift to the memory of the Writer of Abbotsford. If +they represented the dissolution of a great political fabric, in +which they once gloried with equal pride, they meant union here--a +oneness indissoluble in admiration for a great genius whose memory +can no more be localised to a nation than the interest of his works. + +American names, both of the North and South, may be found on almost +every page of the register. I wrote mine next to that of a +gentleman from Worcester, Mass., my old place of residence, who only +left an hour before my arrival. Abbotsford and Stratford-upon-Avon +are points to which our countrymen converge in their travels in this +country; and you will find more of their signatures in the registry +of these two haloed homesteads of genius than anywhere else in +Europe. + +The valley of the Tweed in this section is all an artist would +delight in as a surrounding of such histories. The hills are lofty, +declining into gorges or dells at different angles with the river, +which they wall in precipitously with their wooded sides in many +places. They are mostly cultivated to the top, and now in harvest +many of them were crowned with stooked sheaves of wheat, each +looking in the distance like Nature with her golden curls done up in +paper, dressing for the harvest-home of the season. Some of them +wore belts and gores of turnip foliage of different nuances of green +luxuriance, combining with every conceivable shade and alternation +of vegetable coloring. Indeed, as already intimated, the view from +the eminence almost overhanging the little sequestered peninsula on +which Old Melrose stood twelve centuries ago, is indescribably +beautiful, and well worth a long journey to see, disconnected from +its historical associations. The Eildon Hills towering up heather- +crowned to the height of over 1,300 feet above the level of the sea +right out of the sheen of barley fields, as from a sea of silver, +form one of the salient features of this glorious landscape. This +is an interesting peculiarity of Scotch scenery;--civilization +sapping the barbarism of the wilderness; wheat-fields mordant biting +in upon peaty moorlands, or climbing to the tops of cold, bald +mountains, shearing off their thorny locks of heather and covering +them with the well-dressed chevelure of yellow grain. Where the +farmer's horse cannot climb with the plough, or the little sheep +cannot graze to advantage, human hands plant the Scotch larch or +fir, just as a tenant-gardener would set out cabbage-plants in odd +corners of his little holding which he could have no other use for. + +Abbotsferry is just above Abbotsford, and is crossed in a small row- +boat. The river here is of considerable width and quite rapid. The +boat was kept on the other side; so I hallooed to a man engaged in +thatching a rick of oats to come and ferry me over. Without +descending from the ladder, he called to some one in the cottage, +when, to my surprise, a well-dressed young woman, in rather flowing +dress, red jacket, and with her hair tastefully done up in a net a- +la-mode, made her appearance. Descending to the river, she folded +up her gown, and, settling herself to the oars, "pushed her light +shallop from the shore" with the grace of The Lady of the Lake. In +a few minutes she ran the prow upon the pebbled beach at my feet, +and I took my seat at the other end of the boat. She did it all so +naturally, and without any other flush upon her pleasant face than +that of the exercise of rowing, that I felt quite easy myself and +checked the expression of regret I was on the point of uttering for +putting her to such service. A few questions convinced me it was +her regular employment, especially when her father was busy. I +could not help asking her if she had ever read "The Lady of the +Lake," but found that neither that romance nor any other had ever +invested her river experience with any sensibility except of a +cheerful duty. She was going to do the whole for a penny, her usual +charge, but I declined to take back any change for the piece of +silver I gave to her, intimating that I regarded it cheap at that to +be rowed over a river by such hands. + +Almost opposite to Abbotsford I passed one of the best farming +establishments I had seen in Scotland. I was particularly struck +with a feature which will hereafter distinguish the steddings or +farm buildings in Great Britain. Steam has already accomplished +many changes, and among others one that could hardly have been +anticipated when it was first applied to common uses. It has +virtually turned the threshing-floor out of doors. Grain growing +has become completely out-of-door work, from seeding to sending to +market. The day of building two-story barns for storing and +threshing wheat, barley and oats is over, I am persuaded, in this +country. A quadrangle of slate-roofed cow-sheds, for housing horses +and cattle, will displace the old-fashioned barns, each with its +rood of roof. This I saw on crossing the Tweed was quite new, and +may serve as a model of the housing that will come into vogue +rapidly. One familiar with New England in the "old meeting-house" +time would call this establishment a hollow square of horse-sheds, +without a break or crevice at the angles. + +I reached Galashiels about 5 p.m., and stopped an hour for tea. +This is a vigorous and thrifty town, that makes a profitable and +useful business of the manufacture of tweeds, tartans and shawls. +It is situated on the banks of the Gala, a little, rapid, shallow +river that joins the Tweed about a mile below. After tea I resumed +my walk, but owing to the confused direction of the landlady, took +the wrong side of the river, and diverged westward toward Peebles. +I had made three miles or more in this direction before I found out +my mistake, so was obliged to return to Galashiels, where I +concluded to spend the night, after another involuntary excursion +more unsatisfactory than my walk around Sheffield, inasmuch as I had +to travel over the same road twice for the whole distance. Thus the +three mistakes thus far made have cost me twenty miles of extra +footing. The next morning I set out in good season, determined to +reach Edinburgh, if possible, by night. + +Followed the Gala Water, as it is called here, just as if it were a +placid lake or land-locked bay, though it is a tortuous and swift- +running stream. The scenery was still picturesque, in some places +very grand and romantic. There was one great amphitheatre just +before reaching the village of Stow which was peculiarly +interesting. It was a great bowl full of earth's glory up to the +very rim. The circular wall was embossed with the best patterns and +colors of vegetation. The hills of every tournure showed each in a +fir setting, looking, with their sloping fields of grain, like +inverted goblets of gold vined with emerald leafwork. In the valley +a reaping machine was at work with its peculiar chatter and clatter, +and men and women were following in its wake, gathering up and +binding the grain as it fell and clearing the way for the next +round. Up and down these hills frequently runs a stripe of Scotch +firs or larches a few rods wide; here and there they resemble those +geometrical figures often seen in gardens and pleasure grounds. The +sun peeping out of the clouds, and flooding these features with a +sudden, transient river of light, gives them a glow and glory that +would delight the artist. After a long walk through such scenery, I +reached, late in the evening, Auld Reekie, a favorite home-name +which the modern Athenians love to give to Edinburgh. Being anxious +to push on and complete my journey as soon as practicable, I only +remained in the celebrated Scotch metropolis one night, taking staff +early next morning, and holding northward towards the Highlands. + +Edinburgh has made its mark upon the world and its place among the +great centres of the world's civilization. On the whole, no city in +Great Britain, or in Christendom, has ever attained to such well- +developed, I will not say angular, but salient individuality. This +is deep-featured and ineffaceable. It is, not was. Edinburgh has +reared great men prolifically and supplied the world with them, and +kept always a good number back for itself to give a shaping to +others the world needed. Its prestige is great in the production of +such intellects. But it keeps up with the times. It is faithful to +its antecedents, and appreciates them at their full value and +obligation. It does not lie a-bed until noon because it has got its +name up for educating brilliant minds. Its grand old University +holds its own among the wranglers of learning. Its High School is +proportionately as high as ever, notwithstanding the rapid growth of +others of the same purpose. Its pulpit boasts of its old mind-power +and moral stature. Its Theology stands iron-cabled, grand and solid +as an iceberg in the sea of modern speculation, unsoftened under the +patter of the heterodox sentimentalities of human philanthropy. It +is growing more and more a City of Palaces. And the palaces are all +built for housing the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak +and the vilest of the vile. These hospitals are the Holyroods of +Edinburgh II. They honor it with a renown better than the royal +palace of the latter name ever won. + +I said Edinburgh the Second. That is correct. There are two towns, +the Old and the New; the last about half a century's age. But the +oldest will be the youngest fifty years hence. The hand of a +"higher civilization," with its spirit-level, pick, plane and +trowel, is upon it with the grip of a Samson. That hand will tone +down its great distinctive individualities and give it the modern +_uniformity_ of design, face and feature. All these tall houses, +built skyward layer upon layer or flat upon flat, until they show +half a dozen stories on one street, and twice that number on the +other, are doomed, and they will be done for, one by one in its +turn. They probably came in with Queen Mary, and they will go out +under the blue-eyed Alexandra. They will be supplanted by the most +improved architecture of modern taste and utilitarianism. Edinburgh +will be Anglicised and put in the fashionable costume of a +progressive age; in the same swallow-tailed coat, figured vest and +stovepipe hat worn by London, Liverpool and Manchester. It will not +be allowed to wear tweed pantaloons except for one circumstance;-- +that it is now building its best houses of stone instead of brick. + +But there are physical features that will always distinguish +Edinburgh from all other cities of the world and which no +architectural changes can ever obliterate or deface. There are +Arthur's Seat, Salisbury Crags, the Calton Hill, and the Castle +Height, and there they will stand forever--the grandest surroundings +and garniture of Nature ever given to any capital or centre of the +earth's populations. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +LOCH LEVEN-ITS ISLANDCASTLE--STRATHS--PERTH--SALMON-BREEDING-- +THOUGHTS ON FISH-FARMING--DUNKELD--BLAIR ATHOLL--DUCAL TREE-PLANTER- +-STRATHSPEY AND ITS SCENERY--THE ROADS--SCOTCH CATTLE AND SHEEP-- +NIGHT IN A WAYSIDE COTTAGE--ARRIVAL AT INVERNESS. + +On Friday, Sept. 11th, I left for the north the morning after my +arrival in Edinburgh, hoping to finish my long walk before the rainy +season commenced. My old friend and host accompanied me across the +Forth, by the Granton Ferry, and walked with me for some distance on +the other side; then bidding me God-speed, he returned to the city. +The weather was fine, and the farmers were very busy at work. A +vast quantity of grain, especially of oats, was cut and ready for +carting; but little of it had been ricked in consequence of frequent +showers. I noticed that they used a different snath for their +scythes here from that common in England. It is in two parts, like +the handles of a plough, joining a foot or two above the blade. One +is shorter than the other, each having a thole. It is a singular +contrivance, but seems to be preferred here to the old English pole. +I have never seen yet an American scythe-snath in England or +Scotland, although so much of our implemental machinery has been +introduced. American manure-forks and hay-forks, axes and augurs +you will now find exposed for sale in nearly every considerable +town, but one of our beautifully mounted scythes would be a great +novelty here. + +The scenery varies, but retains the peculiarly Scotch features. +Hills which we should call mountains are frequently planted with +trees as far up as the soil will lie upon the precipitous sides. On +passing one of great height, bald at the top, but bearded to the +eyebrows with fir and larch, I asked an elderly man, a blacksmith, +standing in his shop-door, if they were a natural growth. He said +that he and his two boys planted them all about forty-eight years +ago. They were now worth, on an average, twelve English shillings, +or about three dollars a-piece. + +I lodged in Kinross, a pleasant-faced, quiet and comfortable little +town, done up with historical associations of special interest. +Here is Loch Leven, serene and placid, like a mirror framed with +wooded hills, looking at their faces in it. It is a beautiful sheet +of water, taking the history out of it. But putting that in and +around it, you see a picture before you that you will remember. +Here is more of Mary the Unfortunate. You see reflected in the +silver sheen of the lake that face which looks at you with its soft +appeal for sympathy in all the galleries of Christendom. Out there, +on that little islet, green and low, stands the black castle in +which they prisoned her. There they made her trembling, indignant +fingers write herself "a queen without a crown." Southward there, +where amateurs now fish for trout, young Douglas rowed her ashore +with muffled oars so softly that they stirred no ripple at the bow. +The keys of the castle they threw into the lake to bar pursuit, lay +in the mud for nearly three centuries, when they were found by a lad +of the village, and presented to the Earl of Morton, a +representative of the Douglas family. + +The next day I walked on to Perth, passing through a very +interesting section, which nature and history have enriched with +landscapes and manscapes manifold. It is truly a romantic region +for both these qualities, with delightful views in sudden and +frequent alternation. Glens deep, winding and dark, with steep +mountain walls folding their tree-hands over the road; lofty hills +in full Scotch uniform, in tartan heather and yellow grain plaided +in various figures; chippering streams, now hidden, now coming to +the light, in white flashing foam in a rocky glade of the dell; +straths or savannas, like great prairie gardens, threaded by +meandering rivers and studded with wheat in sheaves, shocks and +ricks, seen over long reaches of unreapt harvests; villages, +hamlets, white cottages nestling in the niches and green gorges of +the mountains,--and all these sceneries set in romantic histories +dating back to the Danes and their doings in Scotland, make up a +prevista for the eye and a revista for the mind that keep both in +exhilarating occupation every rod of the distance from Kinross to +Perth. + +The road via Glenfarg would be a luxury of the first enjoyment to +any tourist with an eye to the wild, romantic and picturesque. +Debouching from this long, winding, tree-arched dell, you come out +upon Strathearn, or the bottom-land of the river Earn, which joins +the Tay a few miles below. The term strath is peculiarly a Scottish +designation which many American readers may not have fully +comprehended, although it is so blended with the history and romance +of this country. It is not a valley proper, as we use that term; as +the Valley of the Mississippi or the Valley of the Connecticut. If +the word were admissible, it might be called most descriptively the +land-bay of a river, at a certain distance between its source and +mouth, such for instance as the German Flats on the Mohawk, or the +Oxbow on the Connecticut, at Wethersfield, in Vermont, or the great +onion-growing flat on the same river at Wethersfield in Connecticut. +These straths are numerous in Scotland, and constitute the great +productive centres of the mountain sections. They are generally +cultivated to the highest perfection of agricultural science and +economy and are devoted mostly to grain. As they are always walled +in by bald-headed mountains and lofty hills, cropped as high as man +and horse can climb with a plough and planted with firs and larches +beyond, they show beautifully to the eye, and constitute, with these +surroundings, the peculiar charm of Scotch scenery. The term is +always prefixed to the name of the river, as Strathearn, Strathspey, +etc. + +I noticed on this day's walk the same singular habit that struck me +in the north part of Yorkshire; that is, of cutting inward upon the +standing grain. Several persons, frequently women and boys, follow +the mowers, and pick up the swath and bind it into sheaves, using no +rake at all in the process. So pertinaciously they seem to adhere +to this remarkable and awkward custom, that I saw two mowers walk +down a hill, a distance of full a hundred rods, with their scythes +under their arms, in order to begin a new swath in the same way; +four or five men and women running after them full tilt to bind the +grain as it fell! Here was a loss of at least five minutes each to +half a dozen hands, amounting to half an hour to a single man at the +end of each swath or work. Supposing the mowers made twenty in ten +hours from bottom to top of the field, here is the loss of one whole +day for one man, or one sixth of the whole aggregate time applied to +the harvesting of the crop, given to the mere running down that hill +of six pairs of legs for no earthly purpose but to cut inward +instead of outward, as we do. The grain-ricks in Scotland are +nearly all round and quite small. Every one of them is rounded up +at the top and fitted with a Mandarin-looking hat of straw, which +sheds the rain well. A good-sized farm-house is flanked with quite +a village of these little round stacks, looking like a comfortable +colony of large, yellow tea-caddies in the distance. + +Reached Perth a little after dark, having made a walk of nearly +twenty miles after 11 a.m. Here I remained over the Sabbath, and +greatly enjoyed both its rest and the devotional exercises in some +of the churches of the city. + +The Fair City of Perth is truly most beautifully situated at the +head of navigation on the Tay, as Stirling is on the Forth. It has +no mountainous eminence in its midst, castle-crowned, like Stirling, +from which to look off upon such a scene as the latter commands. +But Nature has erected grand and lofty observatories near by in the +Moncrieffe and Kinnoull Hills, from which a splendid prospect is +unrolled to the eye. There is some historical or legendary +authority for the idea that the Romans contemplated this view from +Moncrieffe Hill; and, as the German army, returning homeward from +France, shouted with wild enthusiasm, at its first sight, Der Rhein! +Der Rhein! so these soldiers of the Caesars shouted at the view of +the Tay and the Corse of Gowrie, Ecce Tiber! Ecce Compus Martius! +There was more patriotism than parity in the comparison. The +Italian river is a Rhine in history, but a mere Goose Creek within +its actual banks compared with the Tay. In history, Perth has its +full share of "love and murder," rhyme and romance, sieges, +battering and burning, royals and rebels. In the practical life of +to-day, it is a progressive, thriving town, busy, intelligent, +respected and honorable. The two natural features which would +attract, perhaps, the most special attention of the traveller are +the two Inches, North and South, divided by the city. This is a +peculiar Scotch term which an untravelled American will hardly +understand. It has no relation to measurement of any kind; but +signifies what we should call a low, level green or common in or +adjoining a town. The Inches of Perth are, to my eye, the finest in +Scotland, each having about a mile and a half in circumference, and +making delightful and healthy playgrounds and promenades for the +whole population. + +On Monday, Sept. 14th, I took staff and set out for another week- +stage of my walk, or from Perth to Inverness. Crossed the Tay and +proceeded northward up the east side of that fertile river. Fertile +may sound at first a singular qualification for a broad, rapid +stream running down out of the mountains and widening into a bay or +firth at its mouth. But it may be applied in the best sense of +production to the Tay; and not only that, but other terms known to +practical agriculture. Up to the present moment, no river in the +world has been cultivated with more science and success. None has +been sown so thickly with seed-vitalities or produced more valuable +crops of aquatic life. Here salmon are hatched by hand and folded +and herded with a shepherd's care. Here pisciculture, or, to use a +far better and more euphonious word, fish-farming, is carried to the +highest perfection in Great Britain. It is a tillage that must +hereafter take its place with agriculture as a great and honored +industry. If the cold, bald-headed mountains, the wild, stony +reaches of poverty-stricken regions, moor, morass, steppe and +prairie are made the pasturage of sheep innumerable, the thousands +of rivers in both hemispheres will not be suffered to run to waste +through another century. The utilitarian genius of the present age +will turn them into pasturage worth more per acre than the value of +the richest land on their banks. Just think of the pasturage of the +Tay. It rents for 14,000 pounds a year; and those who hire it must +make it produce at least 50,000 pounds, or $240,000 annually. Let +us assume that the whole length of this salmon-pasturage is fifty +miles, and its average width one-eighth of a mile. Then the whole +distance would contain the space of 4,000 square acres, and the +annual rent for fishing would amount to over 3 pounds 13s. per acre. +This would make every fish-bearing acre of the river worth 100 +pounds, calculated on the land basis of interest or rent. + +Having heard of the Stormontfields' Ponds for breeding salmon, I had +a great desire to see them. They are situated on the Tay, a few +miles above Perth, and are well worthy of the inspection and +admiration of the scientific as well as the utilitarian world. The +process is as simple as it is successful and valuable. A race or +canal, filled with a clear, mountain stream, and constructed many +years ago to supply motive power to a corn-mill, runs parallel with +the river, at the distance from it of about twenty rods. At right +angles with this stream, there are twenty-five wooden boxes side by +side, about fifty feet in length, placed on a slight decline. These +boxes or troughs, each about two feet wide and one foot deep, are +divided into partitions by cross-boards, which do not reach, within +a few inches, the top of the siding, so that the water shall make a +continuous surface the whole length of the trough. Each trough is +filled with round river stones or pebbles washed clean, on which the +spawn is laid. The water is let out of the mill-race upon these +troughs through a wire-cloth filter, covering them about two inches +deep above the stones. At the bottom, a lateral channel or race, +running at right angles to the troughs, conducts the waste water in +a rapid, bubbling stream down into the feeding-pond, which covers +the space of about one-fifth of an acre, close to the river, with +which it is connected by a narrow race gated also with a wire-cloth, +to prevent the little living mites from being carried off before +their time. + +This may serve to give the reader some approximate idea of the +construction of the fish-fold. The next process is the stocking it +with the breeding ewes of the sea and river. The female salmon is +caught in the spawning season with a net, and the ova are expressed +from her by passing the hand gently down the body, when she is again +put into the river to go on her way. The manager told me that they +generally reckoned upon a thousand eggs to a pound of the salmon +caught. Thus fourteen good-sized fish would stock the twenty-five +troughs. When hatched, the little things run down into the race- +way, which carries them into the feeding-pond. Here they are fed +twice daily, with five pounds of beef's liver pulverised. They +remain in this water-yard from April to autumn, when the gate is +raised and they are let out into the river. And it is a very +singular and interesting fact that those only go which have got +their sea-coats on them, or have reached the "smolt" character. The +smaller fry remain in the pond until, as it has been said in higher +circles of society, their beards are grown, or, in their case, until +their scales are grown, to fit them for the rough and tumble of +salt-water life. + +The growth of the little bull-headed mites, after being turned into +the river-pasture, is wonderful--more rapid than that of lambs of +the Southdown breed. The keeper had marked some of them, on letting +them out, by clipping the dorsal fin. On being caught six or eight +months afterward, they weighed from five to seven pounds against +half a pound each when sent forth to take care of themselves. The +proprietors of the fisheries defray the expense of this breeding +establishment, being taxed only twopence in the pound of their +rental. This, of course, they get back with large interest and +profit from the tenant-farmers of the river. As a proof of the +enhanced production of the Tay fisheries under this cultivation the +fact will suffice, that they now rent for 14,000 pounds a year +against 11,000 pounds under the old system. + +Salmon-breeding is doubtless destined to rank with sheep-culture and +cattle-culture in the future. The remotest colonies of Great +Britain are moving in the matter with vigor and almost enthusiasm. +Vessels have been constructed on purpose to convey this fair and +mottled stock of British rivers to those of Australia and New +Zealand. In France, fish-farming has become a large and lucrative +occupation. I hope our own countrymen, who plume themselves on +going ahead in utilitarian enterprises, will show the world what +they can do in this. Surely our New England men, who claim to lead +in American industries and ingenuities, will not suffer half a +million acres of river-pasturage to run to waste for another half +century, when it would fold and feed millions of salmon. Once they +herded in the Connecticut in such multitudes that a special +stipulation was inserted in the indentures of apprentices in the +vicinity of the river, that they should not be obliged to eat salmon +more than a certain number of times in a week. Now, if a salmon is +caught between the mouth and source of the river, it is blazoned +forth in the newspapers as a very extraordinary and unnatural event. +There is no earthly reason why the Connecticut should not breed and +supply as great a number of these excellent and beautiful fish as +the Tay. Its waters are equally pure and quiet as those of the +Scotch river. Every acre of the Connecticut, from the northernmost +bridge that spans it in Vermont to its debouchment at Saybrook, +might be made productive of as great a value as any onion-garden +acre at Wethersfield. + +The salmon-shepherd at Stormontfields, having fully explained the +labors and duties of his charge, rowed me across the Tay, and I +continued my walk highly gratified in having seen one of the new +industries which this age is adding to the different cultures +provided for the sustentation and comfort of human life. The whole +way to Dunkeld was full of interest, nature and history making every +mile a scene to delight the eye and exhilarate the mind. The first +considerable village I passed through was Stanley, which gives the +name to that old family of British peers known in history by the +battle-cry of a badly-pressed sovereign, "On, Stanley, on!" +Murthley Castle, the seat of Sir William Stewart, and the beautiful +grounds which front and surround it, will excite the admiration of +the traveller and pay him well for a moment's pause to peruse its +illuminated pages opened to his view. The baronet is regarded as an +eccentric man, perhaps chiefly because he has built a splendid Roman +Catholic chapel quite near to his mansion and supports a priest of +that order mostly for his own spiritual good. Near Dunkeld, Birnam +Hill lifts its round, dark, bushy head to the height of over 1,500 +feet, grand and grim, as if it wore the bonnet of Macbeth and hid +his dagger beneath its tartan cloak of firs. "Birnam Wood," which +Shakespeare's genius has made one of the immortals among earthly +localities, was the setting of that hill in his day, and perhaps +centuries before it. Crossing the Tay by a magnificent bridge, you +are in the famous old city and capital of ancient Caledonia, +Dunkeld. Here centre some of the richest rivulets of Scotch +history, ecclesiastical and military, of church and state, cowl and +crown. Walled in here, on the upper waters of the Tay, by dark and +heavily-wooded mountains, it was just the place for the earliest +monks to select as the site of one of their cloistered communities. +The two best saints ever produced by these islands, St. Columba and +St. Cuthbert, are said to have been connected with the religious +foundations of this little sequestered city. The old cathedral, +having been knocked about like other Roman Catholic edifices in the +sledge-hammer crusades of the Reformation, was _ruined_ very +picturesquely, as a tourist, with one of Murray's red-book guides in +his hand, would be likely to say. But the choir was rebuilt and +fitted up for worship by the late Duke of Atholl at the expense of +about 5,000 pounds. + +Of this duke I must say a few words, for he has left the greenest +monument to his memory that a man ever planted over his grave. He +did something more and better than roofing the choir of a ruined +cathedral. He roofed a hundred hills and valleys with a larch-and- +fir work that will make them as glorious and beautiful as Lebanon +forever. One of the most illustrious and eloquent of the Iroquois +aristocracy was a chief called Corn-planter. This Duke of Atholl +should be named and known for evermore as the great Tree-planter of +Christendom. We have already dwelt upon the benefaction that such a +man leaves to coming generations. This Scotch nobleman virtually +founded a new order of knighthood far more useful and honorable than +the Order of the Garter. To talk of _garters_!--why, he not only +put the cold, ragged shivering hills of Scotland into garters, but +into stockings waist high, and doublets and bonnets and shoes of +beautifully green and thick fir-plaid. He planted 11,000 square +acres with the larch alone; and thousands of these acres stood up +edgewise against mountains and hills so steep that the planters must +have spaded the holes with ropes around their waists to keep them +from falling down the precipice. It is stated that he had twenty- +seven millions of the larch alone planted on his mountainous +estates, besides several millions of other trees. Now, it is +doubtful if the whole region thus dibbled with this tree-crop +yielded an average rental of one English shilling per acre as a +pasturage for sheep. On passing through miles and miles of this +magnificent wood-grain and taking an estimate of its value, I put it +at 10s., or $2 40c. per tree. Of the twenty-seven millions of +larches thus planted, ten must be worth that sum; making alone, +without counting the rest, 5,000,000 pounds, or $24,000,000. It is +quite probable that the larches, firs and other trees now covering +the Atholl estates, would sell for 10,000,000 pounds if brought to +the hammer. But he was not only the greatest arboriculturist in the +world, but the founder of tree-farming as a productive industry as +well as a decorative art. Already it has transformed the Highlands +of Scotland and trebled their value, as well as clothed them with a +new and beautiful scenery. What we call the Scotch larch was not +originally a native of that country. Close to the cathedral in +Dunkeld stand the two patriarchs of the family, first introduced +into Scotland from Switzerland in 1737. + +Having remained the best part of two days in Dunkeld, I held on +northward, through heavily-shaded and winding glen and valley to +Blair Atholl. For the whole distance of twenty miles the country is +quite Alpine, wild and grand, with mountains larched or firred to +the utmost reach and tenure of soil for roots; deep, dark gorges +pouring down into the narrowing river their foamy, dashing streams; +mansions planted here and there on sloping lawns showing sunnily +through groves and parks; now a hamlet of cottages set in the side +of a lofty hill, now a larger village opening suddenly upon you at +the turning of the turnpike road. I reached Blair Atholl at about +dark, and lodged at the largest hotel I slept in between London and +John O'Groat's. It is virtually the tourist's inn; for this is the +centre of some of the most interesting and striking sceneries and +localities in Scotland. Glens, waterfalls, stream, torrent, +mountain and valley, with their romantic histories, make this a very +attractive region to thousands of summer travellers from England and +other countries. The railway from Perth to Inverness via Dunkeld +and Blair Atholl, has just opened up this secluded Scotch +Switzerland to multitudes who never would have seen it without the +help of the Iron Horse. A month previous, this point had been the +most distant in Scotland from steam-routes of transportation and +travel. Now southern sportsmen were hiring up "the shooting" for +many miles on both sides of the line, making the hills and glens +echo with their fusillades. Blair Castle, the duke's mansion, is a +very ordinary building in appearance, looking from the public road +like a large four-story factory painted white, with small, old- +fashioned windows. He himself was lying in a very painful and +precarious condition, with a cancer in the throat, from which it was +the general impression that he never would recover. The day +preceding, the Queen had visited him, while en route for Balmoral, +having gone sixty miles out of her way to comfort him with such an +expression of her sympathy. + +The next day I reached the northern boundary of the Duke of Atholl's +estates, having walked for full forty miles continuously through it. +Passed over a very bleak, treeless, barren waste of mountain and +moorland, most of it too rocky or soilless for even heather. The +dashing, flashing, little Garry, which I had followed for a day or +two, thinned and narrowed down to a noisy brook as I ascended +towards its source. For a long distance the country was exceedingly +wild and desolate. Terrible must be the condition of a man +benighted therein, especially in winter. There were standing +beacons all along the road for miles, to indicate the track when it +was buried in drifting snow. These were painted posts, about six or +eight feet high, planted on the rocky, river side of the road, at a +few rods interval, to guide the traveller and keep him from dashing +over the concealed precipices. About the middle of the afternoon I +reached the summit of the two watersheds, where a horse's hoof might +so dam a balancing stream as to send it southward into the Tay or +northward into the Moray Firth. Soon a rivulet welled out in the +latter direction with a decided current. It was the Spey. A few +miles brought me suddenly into a little, glorious world of beauty. +The change of theatrical sceneries could hardly have produced a more +sudden and striking contrast than this presented to the wild, cold, +dark waste through which I had been travelling for a day. It was +Strathspey; and I doubt if there is another view in Scotland, of the +same dimensions, to equal it. It was indescribably grand and +beautiful, if you could blend the meaning of these two commonly- +coupled adjectives into one qualification, as you can blend two +colors on the easel. To get the full enjoyment of the scene at one +draught, you should enter it first from the south, after having +travelled for twenty miles without seeing a sheaf of wheat or patch +of vegetation tilled by the hand of man. I know nothing in America +to compare it with or to help the American reader to an approximate +idea of it. Imagine a land-lake, apparently shut in completely by a +circular wall of mountains of every stature, the tallest looking +over the shoulders of the lower hills, like grand giants standing in +steel helmets and green doublets and gilded corselets, to see the +soft and quiet beauty of the valley sleeping under their watch and +ward. As the sun-bursts from the strath-skies above darted out of +their shifting cloud-walls and flashed a flush of light upon the +solemn brows of these majestic apostles of nature one by one, they +stood haloed, like the favored saints in Scripture in the overflow +of the Transfiguration. It was just the kind of day to make the +scene glorious indescribably. The clouds and sky were in the +happiest disposition for the brilliant plays and pictures of light +and shade, and dissolving views of fascinating splendor succeeded +and surpassed each other at a minute's interval. Now, the great +land-lake, on whose bosom floated in the sunlight a thousand islands +oat-and-barley-gilded, and rimmed with the green and purple verdure +of the turnip and rutabaga, was all set a-glow by a luminous flood +from the opening clouds above. The next moment they closed this +disparted seam in their drapery, and opened a side one upon the +still, grave faces of the surrounding mountains; and, for a few +minutes, the smile went round from one to the other, and the great +centurions of the hills looked happy and almost human in the gleam. +Then shade's turn came in the play, and it played its part as +perfectly as light. It put in the touch of the old Italian masters, +giving an everchanging background to all the sublime pictures of the +panorama. + +I was not alone in the enjoyment of this scenery. For the first +time in this Walk I had a companion for a day. A clergyman from +near Edinburgh joined me at Kingussie, with whom I shared the luxury +of one of the most splendid views to be found in Scotland. Indeed, +few minds are so constituted as to prefer to see such natural +pictures alone. After a day's walk among these sceneries, we came +to the small village of Aviemore in the dusk of the evening. Here +we found that the only inn had been closed and turned into a private +residence, and that it was doubtful if a bed could be had for love +or money in the place. The railway through it to Inverness had just +been opened, and the navvies seemed still to constitute the largest +portion of the population. Neither of us had eaten any dinner, and +we were hungry as well as tired. Seeing a little, low cottage near +the railroad, with the sign of something for the public good over +the door, we went to it, and found that it had two rooms, one a kind +of rough, stone-floored shed, the other an apartment full ten feet +square, with two beds in it, which occupied half the entire space. +But, small as it was, the good man and woman made the most of it in +the way of entertainment, getting up a tea occasionally for persons +stopping over in the village at a meal-time, also selling small +articles of grocery to the laborers. Everything was brought from a +distance, even their bread, bacon and butter. Their stock of these +fundamentals was exhausted, so that they could not give us anything +with our tea until the arrival of the train from the north, which we +all watched with common interest. In the course of half an hour it +came, and soon our cabin-landlord brought in a large basket full of +the simplest necessaries of life, which we were quite prepared to +enjoy as its best luxuries. Soon a wood fire blazed for us in the +double-bedded parlor, and the unpainted deal table was spread in the +fire-light with a repast we relished with a pleasant appreciation. + +My companion was bound northward by the next train in that +direction, and was sure to find good quarters for the night; but as +there was not an inn for ten miles on the route I was to travel, and +as it was now quite night and the road mostly houseless and lonely, +I felt some anxiety about my own lodging. But on inquiry I was very +glad to find that one of the two beds in the room was unoccupied and +at my disposal. So, having accompanied my fellow-traveller to the +station and seen him off with mutual good wishes, I returned to the +cottage, and the mistress replenished the fire with a new supply of +chips and faggots, and I had two or three hours of rare enjoyment, +enhanced by some interesting books I found on a shelf by the window. +And this is a fact worthy of note and full of good meaning. You +will seldom find a cottage in Scotland, however poor and small, +without a shelf of books in it. I retired rather earlier than +usual; but before I fell asleep, the two regular lodgers, who +occupied the other bed, came in softly, and spoke in a suppressed +tone, as if reluctant to awaken me. And here I was much impressed +with another fact affiliated with the one I have mentioned--that of +praying as well as reading in the Scotch cottage. After a little +conversation just above a whisper, the elder of the two--and he not +twenty, while the other was apparently only sixteen--first read, +with full Scotch accent, one of the hard-rhymed psalms used in the +Scotch service. Then, after a short pause, he read with a low, +solemn voice a chapter in the Bible. A few minutes of silence +succeeded, as if a wordless prayer was going upward upon the still +wings of thought, which made no audible beating in their flight. It +was very impressive; an incident that I shall ever hold among the +most interesting of all I met with on my walk. They were not +brothers evidently, but most likely strangers thrown together on the +railroad. They doubtless came from different directions, but, from +Highlands or Lowlands, they came from Bible-lighted homes, whose +"voices of the night" were blended with the breathings of religious +life and instruction. Separated from such homes, they had agreed to +make this one after the same spiritual pattern, barring the parental +presence and teaching. + +The next day after breakfast, took leave of my kind cottage hosts, +exchanging good wishes for mutual happiness. Went out of the +amphitheatre of Strathspey by a gateway into another, surrounded by +mountains less lofty and entirely covered with heather. For several +miles beyond Carr Bridge I passed over the wildest moorland. The +road was marked by posts about ten feet high, painted white within +two feet of the top and black above. These are planted about +fifteen rods apart, to guide the traveller in the drifting and +blinding snows of winter. The road over this cold, desolate waste +exceeded anything I ever saw in America, even in the most +fashionable suburbs of New York and Boston. It was as smooth and +hard as a cement floor. Here on this treeless wild, I met several +men at work trimming the edges of the road by a line, with as much +precision and care as if they were laying out an aisle in a flower +garden. After a walk of about seventeen miles, I reached Freeburn +Inn about the middle of the afternoon, and as it began to rain and +to threaten bad weather for walking, I concluded to stop there for +the night, and found good quarters. + +The rain continued in showers, and I feared I should be unable to +reach Inverness to spend the Sabbath. There was a cattle fair at +the inn, and a considerable number of farmers and dealers came +together notwithstanding the weather. Indeed, there were nearly as +many men and boys as animals on the ground. A score or more had +come in, each leading or driving a single cow or calf. The cattle +generally were evidently of the Gaelic origin and antecedents-- +little, chubby, scraggy creatures, of all colors, but mostly black, +with wide-branching horns longer than their fore-legs. Their hair +is long and as coarse as a polar seal's, and they look as if they +knew no more of housing against snow, rain and wintry winds, or of a +littered bed, than the buffaloes beyond the upper waters of the +Missouri. One would be inclined to think they had lived from calf- +hood on nothing but heather or gorse, and that the prickly fodder +had penetrated through their hides and covered them with a growth +midway between hair and bristles. They will not average over 350 +lbs. when dressed; still they seem to hold their own among other +breeds which have attracted so much attention. This is probably +because they can browse out a living where the Durham and Devon +would starve. + +The sheep in this region are chiefly the old Scotch breed, with +curling horns and crocked faces and legs, such as are represented in +old pictures. The black seems to be spattered upon them, and looks +as if the heather would rub it off. The wool is long and coarse, +giving them a goat-like appearance. They seem to predominate over +any other breed in this part of Scotland, yet not necessarily nor +advantageously. A large sheep farmer from England was staying at +the inn, with whom I had much conversation on the subject. He said +the Cheviots were equally adapted to the Highlands, and thought they +would ultimately supplant the black faces. Although he lived in +Northumberland, full two hundred miles to the south, he had rented a +large sheep-walk, or mountain farm, in the Western Highlands, and +had come to this section to buy or hire another tract. He kept +about 4,000 sheep, and intended to introduce the Cheviots upon these +Scotch holdings, as their bodies were much heavier and their wool +worth nearly double that of the old black-faced breed. Sheep are +the principal source of wealth in the whole of the North and West of +Scotland. I was told that sometimes a flock of 20,000 is owned by +one man. The lands on which they are pastured will not rent above +one or two English shillings per acre; and a flock even of 1,000 +requires a vast range, as may be indicated by the reply of a Scotch +farmer to an English one, on being asked by the latter, "How many +sheep do you allow to the acre?" "Ah, mon," was the answer, "that's +nae the way we count in the Highlands; it's how monie acres to the +sheep." + +At about two p.m., the showers becoming less frequent, I set out +with the hope of reaching Inverness before night. The wind was +high, the road muddy, or _dirty_, as the English call that +condition; and the rain frequently compelled me to seek shelter in +some wayside cottage, or under the fir-trees that were planted in +groves at narrow intervals. The walking was heavy and slow in face +of the frequent showers, and a strong gale from the north-east; so +that I was exceedingly glad to reach an inn within four miles of +Inverness, where I promised myself comfortable lodgings for the +night. It was a rather large, but comfortless-looking house, +evidently concentrating all its entertainment for travellers in the +tap-room. After considerable hesitation, the landlady consented to +give me bed and board; and directed "the lassie" to make a fire for +me in a large and very respectable room on the second floor. I soon +began to feel quite at home by its side. My boots had leaked on the +way and my feet were very wet and cold; and it was with a pleasant +sense of comfort that I changed stockings, and warmed myself at the +ruddy grate, while the storm seemed to increase without. After +waiting about an hour for tea, I heard the lassie's heavy footstep +on the stairs; a knock--the door opens--now for the tray and the +steaming tea-pot, and happy vision of bread, oatcake and Scotch +_scones_! Alas! what a falling-off was there from this delicious +expectation! The lassie had brought a severe and peremptory message +from the master, who had just returned home. And she delivered it +commiseratingly but decidedly. She was to tell me from him that +there was nothing in the house to set before me; that the fair the +day before had eaten out the whole stock of his provisions; in +short, that I was to take my staff and walk on to Inverness. It was +in vain that I remonstrated, pleaded and urged wet feet, the +darkness, the wind and rain. "It is so," said the lassie, "and +can't be otherwise." She tried to encourage me to the journey by +shortening the distance by half its actual miles, saying it was only +two, when it was full four, and they of the longest kind. So I went +out into the night in my wet clothes, and put the best face and foot +to the head-wind and rain that I could bring to bear against them. +Both were strong, beating and drenching; and it was so dark that I +could hardly see the road. In the course of half an hour, I made +the lassie's two miles, and in another, the whole of the actual +distance, and found comfortable quarters in one of the temperance +inns of Inverness, reaching it between nine and ten at night. Here +I spent a quiet Sabbath, which I greatly enjoyed. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +INVERNESS--ROSS-SHIRE--TAIN--DORNOCH--GOLSPIE--PROGRESS OF +RAILROADS--THE SUTHERLAND EVICTION--SEA-COAST SCENERY--CAITHNESS-- +WICK: HERRING FISHERIES--JOHN O'GROAT'S: WALK'S END. + +Inverness is an interesting, good-sized town, with an intellectual +and pleasing countenance, of somewhat aristocratic and self- +complacent expression. It is considered the capital of the +Highlands, and wears a decidedly metropolitan air. It is well +situated on the Ness, just at its debouchement into the Moray +Firth,--a river that runs with a Rhine-like current through the town +and is spanned with a suspension bridge. It has streets of city- +built and city-bred buildings, showing wealth and elegance. Several +edifices are in process of erection that will rank with some of the +best in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It has a long and pretentious +history, reaching back to the Romans, and dashed with the romance of +the wild ages of the country. Oliver Cromwell, or Sledgehammer II., +Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor, Queen Mary, Prince Charlie, and other +historical celebrities, entered their names and doings on the +records of this goodly town. + +On Monday, Sept. 21st, I set out with a good deal of animation on +the last week-stage of my journey, which I was anxious to accomplish +as soon as possible, as the weather was becoming unsettled with +frequent rain. Reached Invergordon, passing through a most +interesting section of country, full of very fertile straths. It +was the part of Ross-shire lying on the Moray and Beauly Firths and +divided by rivers dashing down through the wooded gorges of the +mountains. I saw here some of the most productive land in Scotland. +Hundreds of acres were studded with wheat and barley stooks, and +about an equal space was covered with standing grain, though so near +the month of October. Plantations, parks, gentlemens' seats, glens +deep and grand, fir-clad mountains, villages, hamlets and scattered +cottages made up the features of every changing view. Indeed, one +travelling for a week between Perth and Inverness comes upon such a +region as this with pleasant surprise, as upon an exotic section, +imported from another latitude. + +The next day I held on northward, though the weather was very +unfavorable and the walking heavy and fatiguing. Passed what seemed +the bold and ridgy island of Cromarty, so associated with the +venerated memory of Hugh Miller. The beating rain drove me +frequently to the wayside cottages for shelter; and in every one of +them I was received with kind words and pleasant looks. One of +these was occupied by an old woman in the regular Scotch cap--a +venerable old saint, with her Bible and psalm-book library on her +window-sill, and her peat fire burning cheerily. When on leaving I +intimated that I was from America, she followed me out into the +road, asking me a hundred questions about the country and its +condition. She had three sons in Montreal, and felt a mother's +interest in the very name America. The cottage was one of a long +street of them by the sea-side, and I supposed it was a fishing +village; but I learned from her that the people were mostly the +evicted tenants of the Duke of Sutherland, who were turned out of +his county some thirty years ago to make room for sheep. I made +only eleven miles this day on account of the rain, and was glad to +find cheery and comfortable quarters in an excellent inn kept by a +widow and her three daughters in Tain. Nothing could exceed their +kindness and attention, which evidently flowed more from a +disposition than from a professional habit of making their guests at +home for a pecuniary or business consideration. I reached their +house about the middle of the afternoon, cold and wet, after several +hours' walk in the rain, and was received as one of the family; the +eldest daughter, who had all the grace and intelligence of a +cultivated lady, helping me off with my wet overcoat, and even +offering to pull off my water-soaked boots--an office no American +could accept, and which I gently declined, taking the will for the +deed. A large number of Scotch _navvies_ were at the inns of the +town, making an obstreperous auroval in celebration of the monthly +pay-day. They had received the day preceding a month's wages, and +they were now drinking up their money with the most reckless +hilarity; swallowing the pay of five long hours at the pick in a +couple of gills of whiskey. How strange that men can work in rain, +cold and heat at the shovel for a whole day, then drink up the whole +in two hours at the gin-shop! These pickmen pioneers of the Iron +Horse, with their worst habits, are yet a kind of John-the-Baptists +to the march and mission of civilization, preparing its way in the +wilderness, and bringing secluded and isolated populations to its +light and intercourse. It is wonderful how they are working their +way northward among these bald and thick-set mountains. When I +first visited Scotland, in 1846, the only piece of railroad north of +the Forth was that between Dundee and Arbroath, hardly an hour long. +Now the iron pathways are running in every direction, making grand +junctions at points which had never felt the navvy's pick a dozen +years ago. Here is one heading towards John O'Groat's, grubbing its +way like a mole around the firths, cutting spiral gains into the +rock-ribbed hills, bridging the deep and dark gorges, and holding on +steadily north-poleward with a brave faith and faculty of patience +that moves mountains, or as much of them as blocks its course. The +progress is slow, silent, but sure. The world, busy in other +doings, does not hear the pick, nor the speech of the powder when it +speaks to a huge rock a-straddle the path. The world, even +including the shareholders, hears but little, if anything, of the +progress of the work for months, perhaps for a year. Then the +consummation is announced in the form of an invitation to the public +to "assist" at the opening of a railroad through towns and villages +that never saw the daylight the locomotive brings in its wake. So +it will be here. Some day, in the present decade, there will be an +excursion train advertised to run from London to John O'Groat's; and +perhaps the lineal descendant of Sigurd, or some other old Norse +jarl, will wear the conductor's belt and cap or drive the engine. + +The weather was still unsettled, with much wind and rain. Resumed +my walk, and at about four miles from Tain, crossed the Dornoch +Firth in a sail ferry boat, and at noon reached Dornoch, the capital +of Sutherlandshire. This was one of the fourteen cities of +Scotland; and its little, chubby cathedral, and the tower of the old +bishop's palace still give it a kind of Canterbury air. The Earls +of Sutherland for many generations lie interred within the walls of +this ancient church. After stopping here for an hour or two for +dinner, I continued on to Golspie, the residence of the mighty lord +of the manor, or the owner, master and human disposer of this great +mountain county of Scotland. It is stated that full four-fifths of +it belong to him who now holds the title, and that his other great +estates, added to this territory, make him the largest landowner in +Great Britain and probably in Europe. Just before reaching Golspie, +a lofty, sombre mountain, with its bald head enveloped in the mist, +and which I had been two hours apparently in passing, cleared away +and revealed its full stature--and more. Towering up from its +topmost summit, a tall column lifted a human figure in bronze +skyward cloud-high and frequently higher still. I believe the +brazen face that thus looks into the pure and holy skies without +blushing, is a duplicate of the one worn in human flesh by His +Grace, Evictor I., who unpeopled his great county of many thousands +of human inhabitants, and made nearly its whole area of 18,000 +square miles a sheep-walk. But I will not break the seal of that +history. It was full of bitter experience to multitudes. Not for +the time being was it joyous, but grievous exceedingly--surpassing +endurance to many. But it is all over now. The ship-loads of +evicted men and women who looked their last upon Scotland while its +mountains and glens were reddened with the flames of their burning +cottages, carried away with them a bitter feeling in their hearts +which years of better experience did not soften. Not for their good +did it seem in the motive of the transaction; but for their good it +worked most blessedly. It was a rough transplanting, and the +tenderest fibres of human affection broke and bled under the +uptearing; but they took root in the Western World, and grew +luxuriantly under the light and dew of a happier destiny. It was +hard for fathers and mothers who were taking on the frostwork of age +upon their brows; but for their children it was the birth of a new +life; for them it was the introduction to a future which had a sun +in it, rayful and radiant with the beams of hope and promise. Let +those who denounce and deplore this harsh unpeopling come and stand +upon the cold, bleak summit of one of these Sutherland mountains. +Let them bring their compasses, or some other instrument for +measuring the angles, sines and cosines of human conditions. Plant +your theodolite here; wipe the telescope's eye with your +handkerchief; look your keenest in the line of the lineage of these +evicted thousands. Steady, now! while the most tranquil light of +the future is on the pathway of your eye. This first reach of your +vision is the life-track of the fathers and mothers unhoused among +these mountains. Look on beyond, over the longer life-line of their +children; then farther still under the horizon of the remotest +future to the track of their childrens' children. Can you make an +angle of a single degree's subtension in the hereditary conditions +of these generations, or a dozen beyond? Can you detect a point of +departure by which the second generation would have diverged from +the first, or the third from the second, and have attained to a +higher life of comfort, intelligence, social and political position +had they remained in these mountain cottages, grubbed on their +cottage farms, and lived from hand to mouth on stinted rations of +oatmeal and potatoes, as their ancestors had done from time +immemorial? Can you see among all the hopeful possibilities of +Time's tomorrows, any such change for the better? You can sight no +such prospect with your telescope in that direction. Turn it around +and sweep the horizon of that other condition into which they were +thrust, weeping and wrathful against their will. Follow them across +the Atlantic to North America, to their homes in the States and in +the Canadas. Measure the angle they made in this transposition, and +the latitude and longitude of social and moral life they have +reached from this Sutherland point of departure. The sons of the +fathers and mothers who had their family nests stirred up so +cruelly, and scattered, like those of rooks, from their holdings in +the cliffs, gorges and glens of these cold mountains, are now among +the most substantial and respected men of the Western World. Some +of them to-day are mayors of towns of larger population than the +whole county of Sutherland. Some, doubtless, are Members of +Congress, representing each a constituency of one hundred thousand +persons, and a vast amount of intelligence, wealth and industry. +They are merchants, manufacturers, farmers, teachers and preachers, +filling all the professions and occupations of the continent. Is +not that an angle of promise to your telescope? Is not that a line +of divergence which has conducted these evicted populations, at a +small distance from this point of departure, into the better +latitudes of human experience? The selling of this Scotch Joseph to +America was more purely and simply a pecuniary transaction than that +recorded in Scripture; for in that the unkind and jealous brothers +sold the innocent boy for envy, not for the love of pelf, though the +Ishmaelites bought him on speculation. But not for envy was the +Sutherland lad sold and shipped to a foreign land, but rather for a +contemptuous estimate of his money value. The proprietor-patriarch +of the county took to a more quiet and profitable favorite--the +sheep, and sent it to feed on a pasture enriched with the ashes of +Joseph's cottage. It is to be feared he meant only money; but +Providence meant a blessing beyond the measurement of money to the +evicted; and what Providence meant it made for him and his +posterity, and they are now enjoying it. + +Dunrobin Castle, the grand residence of the Duke of Sutherland, +looks off upon the sea at Golspie. It is truly a magnificent +edifice, ranking with the first palaces in Christendom. Nearly +eight hundred years has it been in building, though, I believe, all +that commands admiration for stature and style is the work of the +present century. Whatever the Sutherland family may have been in +local position and history in past centuries, one of the noblest +women that ever ennobled the nobility of Great Britain, has given +the name a celebrity and an estimation in America which all who ever +wore it before never won for it. The Duchess of Sutherland, the +noble and large-hearted sister of Lord Morpeth-Carlisle, has given +to the coronet she wore a lustre brighter to the American eye than +the light of diadems which have dazzled millions in Europe. When +the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Men shall come to its +high place in the hearts of nations as the crown-faith of all their +creeds, what this noble woman felt, said and did for the Slave in +his bonds shall be mentioned of her by the preachers of that great +doctrine in years to come. When the jewels of Humanity's memories +shall be made up, she who, as it were, bent down to him in his +prison-house and put her jewelled hands to the breaking of his +fetters, shall stand, with women of the same sympathy, only next to +her who broke her box of ointment on the Saviour's feet. + +The next day made a walk to Helmsdale, a distance of about eighteen +miles. The weather was favorable, the scenery grand and varied with +almost every feature that could give it interest. The finest of +roads wound in and out around the mountain headlands, so that +alternately I was walking upon a lofty esplanade overlooking the +still expanse of the steel-blue sea, then facing inward to the +gorges of the grand and solemn hills. Found comfortable quarters in +one of the inns of Helmsdale, a vigorous, busy, fishing village +nestling under the shadow of the mountains at the mouth of a little +river of the same name. After tea, went down to the wharf or quay +and had some conversation with one of the masters of the business. +He cured and put up about 30,000 barrels of herrings himself in a +season, employing, while it lasted, 500 persons. Their chief market +is the North of Europe, especially Poland, and the business was +consequently much depressed on account of the troubles in that +country. The occupation of this little sea-side village illustrated +the ramifications of commerce. They imported their salt from +Liverpool, their staves from Norway and their hoops from London. + +Set out again immediately after breakfast, feeling that I was +drawing near to the end of my journey. I was soon in the treeless +county of Caithness, so fraught with the wild romance of the +Norsemen. Passed over the bleakest district I had yet seen, called +Old Ord, a cold, rough, cloud-breeding region that the very heavens +above seem to frown upon with a scowl of dissatisfaction. Still, +the road over this dark, mountain desert, though staked on each side +to keep the traveller from wandering in the blinding snows of +winter, was as beautifully kept as the carriage-way in the park of +Dunrobin Castle. The sending of an English queen to conciliate the +Welsh, by giving birth to a son in one of their castles, was not a +much better stroke of policy than that of England in perforating +Scotland to the Northern Sea with this unparalleled and splendid +road, constructed at first for a military purpose. I heard a man +repeat a couplet, probably of unwritten poetry, in popular vogue +among the Highlands, and which has quite an Irish collocation of +ideas. It is spoken thus, as far as I can recollect-- + + Who knew these roads ere they were made + Should bless the Lord for General Wade. + +I doubt if there are ten consecutive miles of carriage-road in +America that could compare for excellence with that over the desert +of Old Ord. I was overtaken by a heavy shower before I had made the +trajet, and was glad to reach one of the most comfortable inns of +the Highlands, in the beautiful, romantic and picturesque glen of +Berriedale. Here, nestling between lofty mountain ridges, which +warded off the blasting sea-winds sweeping across from Norway, were +plantations and groves of trees, almost the only ones I saw in the +county. Nothing could exceed the hospitality of the family that +kept the large, white-faced hotel at the bottom of this pleasant +valley; especially after I incidentally said that I had walked all +the way from London to see the country and people. They admitted me +into the kitchen and gave me a seat by the great peat fire, where I +had a long talk with them, beginning with the mother. Having +intimated that I was an American, the whole family, old and young, +including the landlord, gathered around me and had a hundred +questions to ask. They related many incidents about the great +eviction in Sutherland, which was an event that seems to make a +large stock of legendary and unwritten stories, like the old Sagas +of the Northmen. When I had dried my clothes and eaten a +comfortable dinner before their kitchen fire and resumed my staff, +they all followed me out to the road, and then with their wishes for +a good journey as long as I was in hearing distance. Continued my +walk around headlands, now looking seaward, now mountainward, now +ascending on heather-bound esplanades, now descending in zig-zag +directions into deep glens, over massive and elegant bridges that +spanned the mountain streams and their steep and jagged banks. +After a walk of eighteen miles, put up at an inn a little north of +the village of Dunbeath, kept by an intelligent and industrious +farmer. The rain had continued most of the day, and I was obliged +to seek shelter sometimes under a stunted tree which helped out the +protecting power of a weather-beaten umbrella; now in the doorway of +an open stable or cow-shed, and once with my back against the door +of a wayside church, which kept off the rain in one direction. This +being a kind of border-season between summer and autumn, there were +no fires in the inns generally except in the kitchen, and I soon +learned to make for that, and always found a kindly welcome to its +comforts; though sometimes the good woman and her lassie would look +a little flushed at having their busiest culinary operations +revealed so suddenly to a stranger. Some of these kitchens are +fitted for sleeping apartments; occasionally having two tiers of +berths like a ship's cabin, slightly and rudely curtained. + +The family of this wayside inn, seemingly like every other family in +the country, had connections in America, embracing brothers, uncles +and cousins. I was shown a little paper casket of hair flower-work, +sent by _post_! It was wrought of locks of every shade and tint, +from the snow of a grandmother over one hundred years of age to the +little, sunny curls of the youngest child in the circle of kindred +families. The Scotch branch had collected specimens from relatives +in Great Britain and forwarded them to the family in America, one of +whose daughters had worked them into two bouquets of flowers, +sending one of them by post to this little, white cottage on the +Northern Sea, as a memento of affection. What enhanced the beauty +of this interchange was the fact, that forty-eight years had elapsed +since the landlord's brother left his native land for New England, +and had never seen it since. Still, the cousins, who had never seen +each other's faces, had kept up an affectionate correspondence. A +son and son-in-law of the brother in America were in the Federal +army, and here was a sea-divided family filled with all the sad, +silent solicitude of affection for beloved ones exposed to the +fearful hazards of a war sundering more ties of blood-relationship +than any other ever waged on earth. + +Saturday, September 27th. Resumed my walk with increased animation, +feeling myself within two days' distance of its end. The scenery +softens down to an agricultural aspect, the country declining +northerly toward the sea. Passed through a well-cultivated +district, never unpeopled or wasted by eviction, but held by a kind +of even yeomanry of proprietors. The cottages are comfortable, +resembling the white houses of New England considerably. They are +nearly all of one story, with a chimney at each end, broadside to +the road, and a door in the middle, dividing the house into two +apartments. They are built of stone, the newest ones having a slate +roof. Some of them are whitewashed, others so liberally jointed +with mortar as to give them a bright and cheery appearance. These, +of course, are the last edition of cottages, enlarged and amended in +every way. The old issues are ragged volumes, mostly bound in turf +or bog grass, well corded down with ropes of heather, giving the +roof a singular ribby look, rounded on the ridge. In many cases a +stone is attached to each end of the rope, so as to make it hug the +thatch closely. I noticed that in a considerable number of the old +cottages, the stone wall only reached up a foot or two from the +ground, the rest being made up of blocks of peat. Some of the +oldest had no premonitory symptoms of a chimney, except a hole in +the roof for the smoke. These in no way differed from the stone- +and-turf cottages in Ireland. + +Again occasional showers brought me into acquaintance with the +people living near the road. In every case I found them kind and +hospitable, giving me a pleasant welcome and the best seat by their +peat-fire. I sat by one an hour while the rain fell cold and fast +outside. The good woman and her daughter were busy baking barley- +cakes. They were the first I had seen, and I ate them with a +peculiar zest of appetite. Told them many stories about America in +return for a great deal of information about the customs and +condition of the working-people. They generally built their own +cottages, costing from 40 to 50 pounds, not counting their own +labor. I met on the road scores of fishermen returning to their +homes at the conclusion of the herring season; and was struck with +their appearance in every way. They are truly a stalwart race of +men, broad-chested, of intelligent physiognomy, with Scandinavian +features fully developed. A half dozen of them followed a horse- +cart containing their nets, all done up in a round ball, like a +bladder of snuff, with the number of their boat marked upon it. + +At about four p.m., I came in sight of the steeples of Wick, a brave +little city by the Norse Sea, which may not only be called the Wick +but the Candle of Northern Scotland; lighting, like a polar star, +this hyperborean shoreland of the British isle. I never entered a +town with livelier pleasure. It is virtually the last and farthest +on the mainland in this direction. Its history is full of interest. +Its great business is full of vigor, daring and danger. Here is the +great land-home of the Vikings of the nineteenth century; the +indomitable men who walk the roaring and crested billows of this +Northern Ocean in their black, tough sea-boats and bring ashore the +hard-earned spoils of the deep. This is the great metropolis of +Fishdom. Eric the Red, nor any other pre-Columbus navigator of the +North American Seas, ever mustered braver crews than these sea-boats +carry to their morning beats. Ten thousand of as hardy men as ever +wrestled with the waves, and threw them too, are out upon that wide +water-wold before the sun looks on it--half of them wearing the +features of their Norse lineage, as light-haired and crisp-whiskered +as the sailors of Harold the Fair-haired a thousand years ago. They +come from all the coasts of Scotland, from Orkney, Shetland, the +Hebrides and Lewis islands, and down out of the heart of the +Highlands. It is a hard and daring industry they follow, and +hundreds of graves on the shore and thousands at the bottom of the +sea have been made with no names on them, as the long record of the +hazards they run in the perilous occupation. But they keep their +ranks full from year to year, pushing out new boats marked with +higher numbers. + +The harbor has been dangerous and difficult of access, but of late a +great effort has been made to render it more safe and commodious. +The Scotch fisheries now yield from 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of +herrings annually, employing about 17,000 fishermen; Wick stands +first among all the fishing ports of the kingdom. It is a thriving +town, well supplied with churches, schools, hotels, banks and +printing-offices. Several new buildings are now being erected which +will rank high in architecture and add new features of elegance to +the place. The population is a vigorous, intelligent, highly moral +and well-read community, as I could not fail to notice on attending +service on the Sabbath at different places of worship. Wick is +honored with this distinction--it assembles a larger congregation of +men to listen to the glad Evangel on Sunday than any city of the +world ever musters under one roof for the same purpose. It is the +out-door church of the fishermen. They sometimes number 5,000 adult +men, sea-beaten and sun-burnt, gathered in from mountainous island +and mainland all around the northern coasts of Scotland. + +Monday, Sept. 28th. The weather was favorable, and I set out on my +last day's walk northward with a sense of satisfaction I could +hardly describe. The scenery was beautiful in every direction. The +road was perfect up to the last rod; as well kept as if it ran +through a nobleman's park. The country most of the way was well +cultivated--oats being the principal crop. Here, almost within +sight of the Orkneys, I heard the clatter of the reaping machine, +which, doubtless, puts out the same utterance over and upon the sea +at Land's End. It has travelled fast and far since 1851, when it +first made its appearance in Europe in the Crystal Palace, as one of +the wild, impracticable "notions" of American genius. In Wick I +visited a newspaper establishment, and saw in operation one of the +old "Columbians," or the American printing-press, surmounted by the +eagle of the Republic. The sewing-machine is in all the towns and +villages on the island. If there is not an American clock at John +O'Groat's, I hope some of my fellow townsmen will send one there, +Bristol-built. They are pleasant tokens of free-labor genius. No +land tilled by slaves could produce them. I saw many large and +highly-cultivated farms on these last miles of my walk. The country +was proportionately divided between food and fuel. Oats and barley +constitute the grain-crops. The uncultivated land interspersed with +the yellow fields of harvest, is reserved for _peat_--the poor man's +fuel and his wealth. For, were it not for the inexhaustible +abundance of this cheap and accessible firing, he could hardly +inhabit this region. It would seem strange to an American, who had +not realised the difference of the two climates, to see fields full +of reapers on the very threshold of October, as I saw them on this +last day's walk. I counted twelve women and two men in one field +plying the sickle, all strongly-built and good-looking and well- +dressed withal. + +The sea was still and blue as a lake. A lark was soaring and +warbling over it with as happy and hopeful a voice as if it were +singing over the greenest acres of an English meadow. When I had +made half of the seventeen miles between Wick and John O'Groat's, I +began to look with the liveliest interest for the first glimpse of +the Orkneys; but projecting and ragged headlands intercepted the +prospect. About three p.m., as the road emerged from behind one of +them, those famous islands burst suddenly into view! There they +were!--in full sight, so near that their grain-fields and white +cottages and all their distinguishing features seemed within half a +mile's distance. This was the most interesting coup d'oeil that I +ever caught in any country. Here, then, after weeks and months of +travel on foot, I was at the end of my journey. Through all the +days of this period I had faced northward, and here was the Ultima +Thule, the goal and termination of my tour. The road to the sea +diverged from the main turnpike, which continued around the coast to +Thurso. Followed this branch a couple of miles, when it ended at +the door of a little, quiet, one-story inn on the very shore of the +Pentland Firth. It was a moment of the liveliest enjoyment to me. +When I left London, about the middle of July, I was slowly +recovering from a severe indisposition, and hardly expected to be +able to make more than a few miles of my projected walk. But I had +gathered strength daily, and when I brought up at this little inn at +the very jumping-off end of Scotland, I was fresher and more +vigorous on foot than at any previous stage of the journey. + +Having found to my great satisfaction that they could give me a bed +for the night, I went with two gentlemen of the neighborhood to see +the site of the celebrated John O'Groat's House, about a mile and a +half from the inn. There was only a footpath to it across +intervening fields, and when we reached it, a rather vigorous +exercise of the organ of individuality was requisite to "locate" the +foundations of "the house that Jack built." Indeed, pilgrims to the +shrine of this famous domicile are liable to much disappointment at +finding so little remaining of a residence so historical. Literally +not one stone is left upon another. A large stone granary standing +near is said to have been built of the debris of the house, and this +helps out one's faith when struggling to believe in the existence of +such a building at all. A certain ridgy rising in the ground, to +which you try to give an octagonal shape, is pointed out as +indicating the foundations; but an unsatisfactory obscurity rests +upon the whole history of the establishment. Whether true or not, +that history of the house which one would prefer to believe runs +thus:-- + +In the reign of James IV. of Scotland, three brothers, Malcolm, +Gavin, and John de Groat, natives of Holland, came to this coast of +Caithness, with a letter in Latin from that monarch recommending +them to the protection and countenance of his subjects hereabout. +They got possession of a large district of land, and in process of +time multiplied and prospered until they numbered eight different +proprietors by the name of Groat. On one of the annual dinners +instituted to commemorate their arrival in Caithness, a dispute +arose as to the right of precedency in taking the door and the head +of the table. This waxed very serious and threatened to break up +these annual gatherings. But the wisdom and virtue of John +prevented this rupture. He made a touching speech to them, soothing +their angry spirits with an appeal to the common and precious +memories of their native land and to all their joint experiences in +this. He entreated them to return to their homes quietly, and he +would remedy the current difficulty at the next meeting. Won by his +kindly spirit and words, they complied with his request. In the +interval, John built a house expressly for the purpose, of an +octagonal form, with eight doors and windows. He then placed a +table of oak, of the same shape, in the middle; and when the next +meeting took place, he desired each head of the different Groat +families to enter at his own door and sit at the head of his own +table. This happy and ingenious plan restored good feeling and a +pleasant footing to the sensitive families, and gave to the good +Dutchman's name an interest which it will carry with it forever. + +After filling my pockets with some beautiful little shells strewing +the site of the building, called "John O'Groat's buckies," I +returned to the inn. One of the gentlemen who accompanied me was +the tenant of the farm which must have been John's homestead, +containing about two hundred acres. It was mostly in oats, still +standing, with a good promise of forty bushels to the acre. He +resided at Thurso, some twenty miles distant, and found no +difficulty in carrying on the estate through a hired foreman. I +never passed a more enjoyable evening than in the little, cozy, low- +jointed parlor of this sea-side inn. Scotch cakes never had such a +relish for me nor a peat-fire more comfortable fellowship of +pleasant fancies, as I sat at the tea-table. There was a moaning of +winds down the Pentland Firth--a clattering and chattering of window +shutters, as if the unrestful spirits of the old Vikings and Norse +heroes were walking up and down the scene of their wild histories +and gibbering over their feats and fates. Spent an hour or two in +writing letters to friends in England and America, to tell them of +my arrival at this extreme goal of my walk, and a full hour in +poring over the visitors' book, in which there were names from all +countries in Christendom, and also impressions and observations in +prose, poetry, English, French, Latin, German and other languages. +Many of the comments thus recorded intimated some dissatisfaction +that John O'Groat's House was so _mythical_; that so much had to be +supplied by the imagination; that not even a stone of the foundation +remained in its place to assist fancy to erect the building into a +positive fact of history. But they all bore full and sometimes +fervid testimony to the good cheer of the inn at the hands of the +landlady. There was one record which blended loyalty to palate and +patriotism--"The Roast Beef of Old England" and "God save the +Queen"--rather amusingly. A party wrote their impressions after +this manner--"Visited John O'Groat's House; found little to see; +came back tired and hungry; walked into a couple of tender chickens +and a good piece of bacon: God save Mrs. Manson and all the Royal +Family!" This concluding "sentiment" was doubtless sincere and +honest, although it involved a question of precedence in the rank of +two feelings which John the Dutchman could have hardly settled by +his eight-angled plan of adjustment. + +The next morning, for the first time for nearly three months of +continuous travel, I faced southward, leaving behind me the Orkneys +unvisited, though I had a strong desire to see those celebrated +islands--the theatre of so much interesting history. Twenty years +ago I translated all the "Sagas" relating to the voyages and +exploits of the Northmen in these northern seas and islands, their +explorations of the coast of North America centuries before Columbus +was born, their doings in Iceland and on all the islands great and +small now forming the British realms. This gave an additional zest +to my enjoyment in standing on the shore of the Pentland Firth and +looking over upon the scene of old Haco's and Sigurd's doing, daring +and dying. + +Footed it back to Wick, and there terminated my walk, having +measured, step by step, full seven hundred miles since I left +London, counting in the divergences from a straight line which I had +made. In the evening I addressed a large and intelligent audience +which had been convened at short notice, and I never stood up before +one with such peculiar satisfaction as in that North-star town of +Scotland. I had travelled nearly the whole distance incog., without +hearing my own name on a pair of human lips for weeks. To lay aside +this embargo and to speak to such a large congregation, face to +face, was like coming back again into the great communions of +humanity after a long and private fellowship with the secluded +quietudes of Nature. + +At four p.m. the next day, I took the Thurso coach and passed over +in the night the whole distance that had occupied me a week in +travelling by staff. Stopped a night in Inverness, another at +Elgin, and spent the Sabbath with my friend, Anthony Cruickshank, at +Sittyton, about fifteen miles north of Aberdeen. + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +ANTHONY CRUICKSHANK--THE GREATEST HERD OF SHORTHORNS IN THE WORLD-- +RETURN TO LONDON AND TERMINATION OF MY TOUR. + +Sittyton designates hardly a village in Aberdeenshire, but it has +become a point of great interest to the agricultural world--a second +Babraham. In this quiet, rural district, Anthony Cruickshank, a +quiet, modest, meek-voiced member of the Society of Friends, +"generally called Quakers," has made a history and a great +enterprise of vast value to the world. He is one of those four- +handed but one-minded men who, with a pair to each, build up +simultaneously two great businesses so symmetrically that you would +think they gave their whole intellect, will and genius to one. +Anthony Cruickshank, the Quaker of Sittyton, has made but little +more noise in the world than Nature makes in building up some of her +great and beautiful structures. His footsteps were so light and +gentle that few knew that he was running at all, until they saw him +lead the racers by a head at the end of the course. The world is +wide, and dews of every temperature fall upon its meadow and pasture +lands. Vast regions are fresh and green all the year round, +yielding food for cattle seemingly in the best conditions created +for their growth and perfection. The highest nobility and gentry of +this and other countries are giving to the living statuary of these +animals that science, taste and genius which the most enthusiastic +artists are giving to the still but speaking statuary of the canvas. +The competition in this cultivation of animal life is wide and +eager, and spreading fast over Christendom; emperors, kings, +princes, dukes and belted barons are on the lists. Antipodean +agriculturists meet in the great international concours of cattle, +horses, sheep and swine. Never was royal blood or the inheritance +of a crown threaded through divergent veins to its source with more +care and pride than the lineage of these four-footed "princes" and +"princesses," "dukes" and "duchesses," and "knights" and "ladies" of +the stable and pasture. No peerage ever kept a more jealous +heraldry than the herd-book of this great quadruped noblesse. The +world, by consent, has crowned the Shorthorn Durham as the best +blood that ever a horned animal carried in its veins. Princely +connoisseurs and amateurs, and all the dilettanti as well as +practical agriculturists of Christendom, are giving more thought to +the perfection and perpetuation of this blood than to any other name +and breed. Still--and this distinction is crowned with double merit +by the fact--Anthony Cruickshank, draper of Aberdeen, has worked his +way, gradually and noiselessly, to the very head and front of the +Shorthorn knighthood of the world. While pursuing the occupation to +which he was bred with as much assiduity and success as if it had +every thought and activity which a man should give to a business, he +built up, at a considerable distance from his warehouse, an +enterprise of an entirely different nature, to a magnitude which no +other man has ever equalled. He now owns the largest herd of +Shorthorns in the world, breeding and feeding them to the highest +perfection in the cold and naturally unfertile county of Aberdeen, +which no man of less patience and perseverance would select as the +ground on which to enter the lists against such an array of +competitors in Great Britain and other countries. I regret that my +Notes have already expanded to such a volume as to preclude a more +extended account of his operations in this great field of +usefulness. A few simple facts will suffice to give the reader an +approximate idea of what he has done in this department. + +About the year 1825, young Cruickshank was put to a Friends' school +in Cumberland. He was a farmer's son, and seems to have conceived a +great fancy for cattle from childhood. A gentleman resided not far +from the school, who was an owner and amateur of Shorthorns, and +Anthony would frequently spend his half-holidays with him, +inspecting and admiring his herd, and asking him questions about +their qualities and his way of treating them. From this school he +was sent as an apprentice to a trading establishment in Edinburgh, +and at the end of his term set up business for himself as a draper +in Aberdeen. All through this period he carried with him his first +interest in cattle-culture, but was unable to make a beginning in it +until 1837, when he purchased a single Shorthorn cow in the county +of Durham, and soon afterward two other animals of the same blood. +These constituted the nucleus of his herd at Sittyton. One by one +he added other animals of the same stock, purchased in different +parts of England, Ireland and Scotland. With these accessions by +purchase, and from natural increase, his herd grew rapidly and +prospered finely, so that he was obliged to add field to field and +farm to farm to produce feed for such a number of mouths. In a few +years he reached his present maximum which he does not wish to +exceed. That is, his herd now averages annually three hundred head +of this noble and beautiful race of animals, or the largest number +of them owned by any one man in the world. In 1841, he announced +his first sale of young bulls, and every year since that date has +put up at public auction the male progeny of the herd. These sales +usually take place in the first week of October, and are attended by +from 300 to 500 persons from all parts of the kingdom. After +carefully inspecting the various lots, they adjourn to a substantial +luncheon at twelve o'clock, and at one p.m. they repair to the sale +ring and the bidding begins in good earnest, and the auctioneer's +hammer falls quick and often, averaging about a minute and a half to +each lot. Thus the forty lots of young bulls from six to ten months +old are passed away, averaging from 33 to 44 guineas each. Besides +these, from fifty to sixty young bulls, cows and heifers are +disposed of by private sale during the season, ranging from 50 to +150 guineas, going to buyers from all parts of the world. + +It is Mr. Cruickshank's well-matured opinion, resulting from long +experience and observation, that there is no breed of cattle so +easily maintained in good condition as the Shorthorns. His are fed +on pasture grass from the 1st of May to the middle of October, lying +in the open field night and day. In the winter they are fed +_entirely on oat-straw and turnips_. Not a handful of hay or of +meal is given them. The calves are allowed to suck their dams at +pleasure. He is convinced that with this simple system of feeding, +together with the bracing air of Aberdeenshire, he has obtained a +tribe of animals of hardy and robust constitutions, of early +maturity, well calculated to improve the general stock of the +country. + +It was to me a delight to see this, the greatest herd of Shorthorns +in the world, numbering animals of apparently the highest perfection +to which they could attain under human treatment. What a court and +coterie of "princes," "dukes," "knights" and "ladies" those stables +contained--creatures that would not have dishonored higher names by +wearing them! I was pleased to find that Republics and their less +pretentious titles were not excluded from the goodly fellowship of +this short-horned aristocracy. There was one grand and noble bull +called "President Lincoln," not only, I fancy, out of respect to +"Honest Old Abe," but also in reference to the disposition and +capacities of the animal. Truly, if let loose in some of our New +England fields, he would prove himself a tremendous "railsplitter." + +After spending a quiet Sabbath with this old friend and host at his +farm-house at Sittyton, I took the train for Edinburgh and had a +week of the liveliest enjoyment in that city, attending the meetings +of the Social Science Congress. There I saw and heard for the first +time the venerable Lord Brougham, also men and women of less +reputation, but of equal heart and will to serve their kind and +country. I had intended to make a separate chapter on these +meetings and another on the re-unions of the British Association at +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but the space to which this volume must be +limited precludes any notice of these most interesting and important +gatherings. Stopping at different points on the way, I reached +London about the middle of October, having occupied just four months +in my northern tour; bringing back a heartful of sunny memories of +what I had seen and enjoyed. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK FROM LONDON TO JOHN O'GROAT'S*** + + +******* This file should be named 12000.txt or 12000.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/0/0/12000 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** |