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diff --git a/5249-h/5249-h.htm b/5249-h/5249-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de440c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/5249-h/5249-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5749 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Travels in England in 1782, by Charles P. Moritz</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Travels in England in 1782, by Charles P. +Moritz, Edited by Henry Morley + + +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: Travels in England in 1782 + + +Author: Charles P. Moritz + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: July 2, 2014 [eBook #5249] +[This file was first posted on June 11, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS IN ENGLAND IN 1782*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1886 Cassell & Company edition by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1><span class="smcap">Travels in England</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall"><span class="smcap">In</span></span><span +class="GutSmall"> 1782</span></h1> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="GutSmall">BY</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">C. P. MORITZ.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/tpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative graphic" +title= +"Decorative graphic" +src="images/tps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center">CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:<br +/> +<span class="GutSmall"><i>LONDON</i></span><span +class="GutSmall">, </span><span +class="GutSmall"><i>PARIS</i></span><span class="GutSmall">, +</span><span class="GutSmall"><i>NEW YORK & +MELBOURNE</i></span><span class="GutSmall">.</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">1886.</span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Charles</span> P. <span +class="smcap">Moritz’s</span> “Travels, chiefly on +foot, through several parts of England in 1782, described in +Letters to a Friend,” were translated from the German by a +lady, and published in 1795. John Pinkerton included them +in the second volume of his Collection of Voyages and +Travels.</p> +<p>The writer of this account of England as it was about a +hundred years ago, and seven years before the French Revolution, +was a young Prussian clergyman, simply religious, calmly +enthusiastic for the freer forms of citizenship, which he found +in England and contrasted with the military system of +Berlin. The touch of his times was upon him, with some of +the feeling that caused Frenchmen, after the first outbreak of +the Revolution, to hail Englishmen as “their forerunners in +the glorious race.” He had learnt English at home, +and read Milton, whose name was inscribed then in German +literature on the banners of the free.</p> +<p>In 1782 Charles Moritz came to England with little in his +purse and “Paradise Lost” in his pocket, which he +meant to read in the Land of Milton. He came ready to +admire, and enthusiasm adds some colour to his earliest +impressions; but when they were coloured again by hard +experience, the quiet living sympathy remained. There is +nothing small in the young Pastor Moritz, we feel a noble nature +in his true simplicity of character.</p> +<p>He stayed seven weeks with us, three of them in London. +He travelled on foot to Richmond, Windsor, Oxford, Birmingham, +and Matlock, with some experience of a stage coach on the way +back; and when, in dread of being hurled from his perch on the +top as the coach flew down hill, he tried a safer berth among the +luggage in the basket, he had further experience. It was +like that of Hood’s old lady, in the same place of inviting +shelter, who, when she crept out, had only breath enough left to +murmur, “Oh, them boxes!”</p> +<p>Pastor Moritz’s experience of inns was such as he hardly +could pick up in these days of the free use of the feet. +But in those days everybody who was anybody rode. And even +now, there might be cold welcome to a shabby-looking pedestrian +without a knapsack. Pastor Moritz had his Milton in one +pocket and his change of linen in the other. From some inns +he was turned away as a tramp, and in others he found cold +comfort. Yet he could be proud of a bit of practical wisdom +drawn by himself out of the “Vicar of Wakefield,” +that taught him to conciliate the innkeeper by drinking with him; +and the more the innkeeper drank of the ale ordered the better, +because Pastor Moritz did not like it, and it did not like +him. He also felt experienced in the ways of the world +when, having taken example from the manners of a bar-maid, if he +drank in a full room he did not omit to say, “Your healths, +gentlemen all.”</p> +<p>Fielding’s Parson Adams, with his Æschylus in his +pocket, and Parson Moritz with his Milton, have points of +likeness that bear strong witness to Fielding’s power of +entering into the spirit of a true and gentle nature. After +the first touches of enthusiastic sentiment, that represent real +freshness of enjoyment, there is no reaction to excess in +opposite extreme. The young foot traveller settles down to +simple truth, retains his faith in English character, and reports +ill-usage without a word of bitterness.</p> +<p>The great charm of this book is its unconscious expression of +the writer’s character. His simple truthfulness +presents to us of 1886 as much of the England of 1782 as he was +able to see with eyes full of intelligence and a heart full of +kindness. He heard Burke speak on the death of his friend +and patron Lord Rockingham, with sudden rebuke to an indolent and +inattentive house. He heard young Pitt, and saw how he +could fix, boy as he looked, every man’s attention.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us<br /> +To see oursels as others see us!<br /> +It wad frae many a blunder free us,<br /> + And foolish notion.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And when the power is so friendly as that of the Pastor +Moritz, we may, if wise, know ourselves better than from a +thousand satires, but if foolish we may let all run into +self-praise.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">H. M.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>On the Thames</i>, 31st +<i>May</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> length, my dearest Gedike, I +find myself safely landed on the happy shores of that country, a +sight of which has, for many years, been my most earnest wish; +and whither I have so often in imagination transported +myself. A few hours ago the green hills of England yet swam +imperfectly before our eyes, scarcely perceptible in the distant +horizon: they now unfold themselves on either side, forming as it +were a double amphitheatre. The sun bursts through the +clouds, and gilds alternately the shrubs and meadows on the +distant shores, and we now espy the tops of two masts of ships +just peeping above the surface of the deep. What an awful +warning to adventurous men! We now sail close by those very +sands (the Goodwin) where so many unfortunate persons have found +their graves.</p> +<p>The shores now regularly draw nearer to each other: the danger +of the voyage is over; and the season for enjoyment, unembittered +by cares, commences. How do we feel ourselves, we, who have +long been wandering as it were, in a boundless space, on having +once more gained prospects that are not without limits! I +should imagine our sensations as somewhat like those of the +traveller who traverses the immeasurable deserts of America, when +fortunately he obtains a hut wherein to shelter himself; in those +moments he certainly enjoys himself; nor does he then complain of +its being too small. It is indeed the lot of man to be +always circumscribed to a narrow space, even when he wanders over +the most extensive regions; even when the huge sea envelops him +all around, and wraps him close to its bosom, in the act, as it +were, of swallowing him up in a moment: still he is separated +from all the circumjacent immensity of space only by one small +part, or insignificant portion of that immensity.</p> +<p>That portion of this space, which I now see surrounding me, is +a most delightful selection from the whole of beautiful +nature. Here is the Thames full of large and small ships +and boats, dispersed here and there, which are either sailing on +with us, or lying at anchor; and there the hills on either side, +clad with so soft and mild a green, as I have nowhere else ever +seen equalled. The charming banks of the Elbe, which I so +lately quitted, are as much surpassed by these shores as autumn +is by spring! I see everywhere nothing but fertile and +cultivated lands; and those living hedges which in England more +than in any other country, form the boundaries of the green +cornfields, and give to the whole of the distant country the +appearance of a large and majestic garden. The neat +villages and small towns with sundry intermediate country seats, +suggest ideas of prosperity and opulence which is not possible to +describe.</p> +<p>The prospect towards Gravesend is particularly +beautiful. It is a clever little town, built on the side of +a hill; about which there lie hill and dale and meadows, and +arable land, intermixed with pleasure grounds and country seats; +all diversified in the most agreeable manner. On one of the +highest of these hills near Gravesend stands a windmill, which is +a very good object, as you see it at some distance, as well as +part of the country around it, on the windings of the +Thames. But as few human pleasures are ever complete and +perfect, we too, amidst the pleasing contemplation of all these +beauties, found ourselves exposed on the quarter-deck to +uncommonly cold and piercing weather. An unintermitting +violent shower of rain has driven me into the cabin, where I am +now endeavouring to divert a gloomy hour by giving you the +description of a pleasing one.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 2<i>nd</i> +<i>June</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> morning those of us who were +fellow passengers together in the great cabin, being six in +number, requested to be set on shore in a boat, a little before +the vessel got to Dartford, which is still sixteen miles from +London. This expedient is generally adopted, instead of +going up the Thames, towards London, where on account of the +astonishing number of ships, which are always more crowded +together the nearer you approach the city, it frequently requires +many days before a ship can finish her passage. He +therefore who wishes to lose no time unnecessarily, and wishes +also to avoid other inconveniences, such as frequent stoppages, +and perhaps, some alarming dashings against other ships, prefers +travelling those few miles by land in a post-chaise, which is not +very expensive, especially when three join together, as three +passengers pay no more than one. This indulgence is allowed +by act of parliament.</p> +<p>As we left the vessel we were honoured with a general huzza, +or in the English phrase with three cheers, echoed from the +German sailors of our ship. This nautical style of bidding +their friends farewell our Germans have learned from the +English. The cliff where we landed was white and chalky, +and as the distance was not great, nor other means of conveyance +at hand, we resolved to go on foot to Dartford: immediately on +landing we had a pretty steep hill to climb, and that gained, we +arrived at the first English village, where an uncommon neatness +in the structure of the houses, which in general are built with +red bricks and flat roofs, struck me with a pleasing surprise, +especially when I compared them with the long, rambling, +inconvenient, and singularly mean cottages of our peasants. +We now continued our way through the different villages, each +furnished with his staff, and thus exhibited no remote +resemblance of a caravan. Some few people who met us seemed +to stare at us, struck, perhaps, by the singularity of our dress, +or the peculiarity of our manner of travelling. On our +route we passed a wood where a troop of gipsies had taken up +their abode around a fire under a tree. The country, as we +continued to advance, became more and more beautiful. +Naturally, perhaps, the earth is everywhere pretty much alike, +but how different is it rendered by art! How different is +that on which I now tread from ours, and every other spot I have +ever seen. The soil is rich even to exuberance, the verdure +of the trees and hedges, in short the whole of this paradisaical +region is without a parallel! The roads too are +incomparable; I am astonished how they have got them so firm and +solid; every step I took I felt, and was conscious it was English +ground on which I trod.</p> +<p>We breakfasted at Dartford. Here, for the first time, I +saw an English soldier, in his red uniform, his hair cut short +and combed back on his forehead, so as to afford a full view of +his fine, broad, manly face. Here too I first saw (what I +deemed a true English fight) in the street, two boys boxing.</p> +<p>Our little party now separated, and got into two post-chaises, +each of which hold three persons, though it must be owned three +cannot sit quite so commodiously in these chaises as two: the +hire of a post-chaise is a shilling for every English mile. +They may be compared to our extra posts, because they are to be +had at all times. But these carriages are very neat and +lightly built, so that you hardly perceive their motion as they +roll along these firm smooth roads; they have windows in front, +and on both sides. The horses are generally good, and the +postillions particularly smart and active, and always ride on a +full trot. The one we had wore his hair cut short, a round +hat, and a brown jacket of tolerable fine cloth, with a nosegay +in his bosom. Now and then, when he drove very hard, he +looked round, and with a smile seemed to solicit our +approbation. A thousand charming spots, and beautiful +landscapes, on which my eye would long have dwelt with rapture, +were now rapidly passed with the speed of an arrow.</p> +<p>Our road appeared to be undulatory, and our journey, like the +journey of life, seemed to be a pretty regular alternation of up +hill and down, and here and there it was diversified with copses +and woods; the majestic Thames every now and then, like a little +forest of masts, rising to our view, and anon losing itself among +the delightful towns and villages. The amazing large signs +which at the entrance of villages hang in the middle of the +street, being fastened to large beams, which are extended across +the street from one house to another opposite to it, particularly +struck me; these sign-posts have the appearance of gates or of +gateways, for which I at first took them, but the whole +apparatus, unnecessarily large as it seems to be, is intended for +nothing more than to tell the inquisitive traveller that there is +an inn. At length, stunned as it were by this constant +rapid succession of interesting objects to engage our attention, +we arrived at Greenwich nearly in a state of stupefaction.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>The Prospect of London</i>.</p> +<p>We first descried it enveloped in a thick smoke or fog. +St. Paul’s arose like some huge mountain above the enormous +mass of smaller buildings. The Monument, a very lofty +column, erected in memory of the great fire of London, exhibited +to us, perhaps, chiefly on account of its immense height, +apparently so disproportioned to its other dimensions (for it +actually struck us as resembling rather a slender mast, towering +up in immeasurable height into the clouds, than as that it really +is, a stately obelisk) an unusual and singular appearance. +Still we went on, and drew nearer and nearer with amazing +velocity, and the surrounding objects became every moment more +distinct. Westminster Abbey, the Tower, a steeple, one +church, and then another, presented themselves to our view; and +we could now plainly distinguish the high round chimneys on the +tops of the houses, which yet seemed to us to form an innumerable +number of smaller spires, or steeples.</p> +<p>The road from Greenwich to London is actually busier and far +more alive than the most frequented streets in Berlin. At +every step we met people on horseback, in carriages, and foot +passengers; and everywhere also, and on each side of the road, +well-built and noble houses, whilst all along, at proper +distances, the road was lined with lamp-posts. One thing, +in particular, struck and surprised me not a little. This +was the number of people we met riding and walking with +spectacles on, among whom were many who appeared stout, healthy, +and young. We were stopped at least three times at barriers +or gates, here called turnpikes, to pay a duty or toll which, +however small, as being generally paid in their copper coinage, +in the end amounted to some shillings.</p> +<p>At length we arrived at the magnificent bridge of +Westminster. The prospect from this bridge alone seems to +afford one the epitome of a journey, or a voyage in miniature, as +containing something of everything that mostly occurs on a +journey. It is a little assemblage of contrasts and +contrarieties. In contrast to the round, modern, and +majestic cathedral of St. Paul’s on your right, the +venerable, old-fashioned, and hugely noble, long abbey of +Westminster, with its enormous pointed roof, rises on the +left. Down the Thames to the right you see +Blackfriar’s Bridge, which does not yield much, if at all, +in beauty to that of Westminster; on the left bank of the Thames +are delightful terraces, planted with trees, and those new +tasteful buildings called the Adelphi. On the Thames itself +are countless swarms of little boats passing and repassing, many +with one mast and one sail, and many with none, in which persons +of all ranks are carried over. Thus there is hardly less +stir and bustle on this river, than there is in some of its own +London’s crowded streets. Here, indeed, you no longer +see great ships, for they come no farther than London Bridge.</p> +<p>We now drove into the city by Charing Cross, and along the +Strand, to those very Adelphi Buildings which had just afforded +us so charming a prospect on Westminster Bridge.</p> +<p>My two travelling companions, both in the ship and the +post-chaise, were two young Englishmen, who living in this part +of the town, obligingly offered me any assistance and services in +their power, and in particular, to procure me a lodging the same +day in their neighbourhood.</p> +<p>In the streets through which we passed, I must own the houses +in general struck me as if they were dark and gloomy, and yet at +the same time they also struck me as prodigiously great and +majestic. At that moment, I could not in my own mind +compare the external view of London with that of any other city I +had ever before seen. But I remember (and surely it is +singular) that about five years ago, on my first entrance into +Leipzig, I had the very same sensations I now felt. It is +possible that the high houses, by which the streets at Leipzig +are partly darkened, the great number of shops, and the crowd of +people, such as till then I had never seen, might have some faint +resemblance with the scene now surrounding me in London.</p> +<p>There are everywhere leading from the Strand to the Thames, +some well-built, lesser, or subordinate streets, of which the +Adelphi Buildings are now by far the foremost. One district +in this neighbourhood goes by the name of York Buildings, and in +this lies George Street, where my two travelling companions +lived. There reigns in those smaller streets towards the +Thames so pleasing a calm, compared to the tumult and bustle of +people, and carriages, and horses, that are constantly going up +and down the Strand, that in going into one of them you can +hardly help fancying yourself removed at a distance from the +noise of the city, even whilst the noisiest part of it is still +so near at hand.</p> +<p>It might be about ten or eleven o’clock when we arrived +here. After the two Englishmen had first given me some +breakfast at their lodgings, which consisted of tea and bread and +butter, they went about with me themselves, in their own +neighbourhood, in search of an apartment, which they at length +procured for me for sixteen shillings a week, at the house of a +tailor’s widow who lived opposite to them. It was +very fortunate, on other accounts, that they went with me, for +equipped as I was, having neither brought clean linen nor change +of clothes from my trunk, I might perhaps have found it difficult +to obtain good lodgings.</p> +<p>It was a very uncommon but pleasing sensation I experienced on +being now, for the first time in my life, entirely among +Englishmen: among people whose language was foreign, their +manners foreign, and in a foreign climate, with whom, +notwithstanding, I could converse as familiarly as though we had +been educated together from our infancy. It is certainly an +inestimable advantage to understand the language of the country +through which you travel. I did not at first give the +people I was with any reason to suspect I could speak English, +but I soon found that the more I spoke, the more attention and +regard I met with. I now occupy a large room in front on +the ground floor, which has a carpet and mats, and is very neatly +furnished; the chairs are covered with leather, and the tables +are of mahogany. Adjoining to this I have another large +room. I may do just as I please, and keep my own tea, +coffee, bread and butter, for which purpose my landlady has given +me a cupboard in my room, which locks up.</p> +<p>The family consists of the mistress of the house, her maid, +and her two sons, Jacky and Jerry; singular abbreviations for +John and Jeremiah. The eldest, Jacky, about twelve years +old, is a very lively boy, and often entertains me in the most +pleasing manner by relating to me his different employments at +school, and afterwards desiring me in my turn to relate to him +all manner of things about Germany. He repeats his +<i>amo</i>, <i>amas</i>, <i>amavi</i>, in the same singing tone +as our common school-boys. As I happened once when he was +by, to hum a lively tune, he stared at me with surprise, and then +reminded me it was Sunday; and so, that I might not forfeit his +good opinion by any appearance of levity, I gave him to +understand that, in the hurry of my journey, I had forgotten the +day. He has already shown me St. James’s Park, which +is not far from hence; and now let me give you some description +of the renowned</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>St. James’s Park</i>.</p> +<p>The park is nothing more than a semicircle, formed of an alley +of trees, which enclose a large green area in the middle of which +is a marshy pond.</p> +<p>The cows feed on this green turf, and their milk is sold here +on the spot, quite new.</p> +<p>In all the alleys or walks there are benches, where you may +rest yourself. When you come through the Horse Guards +(which is provided with several passages) into the park, on the +right hand is St. James’s Palace, or the king’s place +of residence, one of the meanest public buildings in +London. At the lower end, quite at the extremity, is the +queen’s palace, a handsome and modern building, but very +much resembling a private house. As for the rest, there are +generally everywhere about St. James’s Park very good +houses, which is a great addition to it. There is also +before the semicircle of the trees just mentioned a large vacant +space, where the soldiers are exercised.</p> +<p>How little this famous park is to be compared with our park at +Berlin, I need not mention. And yet one cannot but form a +high idea of St. James’s Park and other public places in +London; this arises, perhaps, from their having been oftener +mentioned in romances and other books than ours have. Even +the squares and streets of London are more noted and better known +than many of our principal towns.</p> +<p>But what again greatly compensates for the mediocrity of this +park, is the astonishing number of people who, towards evening in +fine weather, resort here; our finest walks are never so full +even in the midst of summer. The exquisite pleasure of +mixing freely with such a concourse of people, who are for the +most part well-dressed and handsome, I have experienced this +evening for the first time.</p> +<p>Before I went to the park I took another walk with my little +Jacky, which did not cost me much fatigue and yet was most +uncommonly interesting. I went down the little street in +which I live, to the Thames nearly at the end of it, towards the +left, a few steps led me to a singularly pretty terrace, planted +with trees, on the very brink of the river.</p> +<p>Here I had the most delightful prospect you can possibly +imagine. Before me was the Thames with all its windings, +and the stately arches of its bridges; Westminster with its +venerable abbey to the right, to the left again London, with St. +Paul’s, seemed to wind all along the windings of the +Thames, and on the other side of the water lay Southwark, which +is now also considered as part of London. Thus, from this +single spot, I could nearly at one view see the whole city, at +least that side of it towards the Thames. Not far from +hence, in this charming quarter of the town, lived the renowned +Garrick. Depend upon it I shall often visit this delightful +walk during my stay in London.</p> +<p>To-day my two Englishmen carried me to a neighbouring tavern, +or rather an eating-house, where we paid a shilling each for some +roast meat and a salad, giving at the same time nearly half as +much to the waiter, and yet this is reckoned a cheap house, and a +cheap style of living. But I believe, for the future, I +shall pretty often dine at home; I have already begun this +evening with my supper. I am now sitting by the fire in my +own room in London. The day is nearly at an end, the first +I have spent in England, and I hardly know whether I ought to +call it only one day, when I reflect what a quick and varied +succession of new and striking ideas have, in so short a time, +passed in my mind.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 5<i>th</i> +<i>June</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> length, dearest Gedike, I am +again settled, as I have now got my trunk and all my things from +the ship, which arrived only yesterday. Not wishing to have +it taken to the Custom House, which occasions a great deal of +trouble, I was obliged to give a douceur to the officers, and +those who came on board the ship to search it. Having +pacified, as I thought, one of them with a couple of shillings, +another came forward and protested against the delivery of the +trunk upon trust till I had given him as much. To him +succeeded a third, so that it cost me six shillings, which I +willingly paid, because it would have cost me still more at the +Custom House.</p> +<p>By the side of the Thames were several porters, one of whom +took my huge heavy trunk on his shoulders with astonishing ease, +and carried it till I met a hackney coach. This I hired for +two shillings, immediately put the trunk into it, accompanying it +myself without paying anything extra for my own seat. This +is a great advantage in the English hackney coaches, that you are +allowed to take with you whatever you please, for you thus save +at least one half of what you must pay to a porter, and besides +go with it yourself, and are better accommodated. The +observations and the expressions of the common people here have +often struck me as peculiar. They are generally laconic, +but always much in earnest and significant. When I came +home, my landlady kindly recommended it to the coachman not to +ask more than was just, as I was a foreigner; to which he +answered, “Nay, if he were not a foreigner I should not +overcharge him.”</p> +<p>My letters of recommendation to a merchant here, which I could +not bring with me on account of my hasty departure from Hamburgh, +are also arrived. These have saved me a great deal of +trouble in the changing of my money. I can now take my +German money back to Germany, and when I return thither myself, +refund to the correspondent of the merchant here the sum which he +here pays me in English money. I should otherwise have been +obliged to sell my Prussian Fredericks-d’or for what they +weighed; for some few Dutch dollars which I was obliged to part +with before I got this credit they only gave me eight +shillings.</p> +<p>A foreigner has here nothing to fear from being pressed as a +sailor, unless, indeed, he should be found at any suspicious +place. A singular invention for this purpose of pressing is +a ship, which is placed on land not far from the Tower, on Tower +Hill, furnished with masts and all the appurtenances of a +ship. The persons attending this ship promise simple +country people, who happen to be standing and staring at it, to +show it to them for a trifle, and as soon as they are in, they +are secured as in a trap, and according to circumstances made +sailors of or let go again.</p> +<p>The footway, paved with large stones on both sides of the +street, appears to a foreigner exceedingly convenient and +pleasant, as one may there walk in perfect safety, in no more +danger from the prodigious crowd of carts and coaches, than if +one was in one’s own room, for no wheel dares come a +finger’s breadth upon the curb stone. However, +politeness requires you to let a lady, or any one to whom you +wish to show respect, pass, not, as we do, always to the right, +but on the side next the houses or the wall, whether that happens +to be on the right or on the left, being deemed the safest and +most convenient. You seldom see a person of any +understanding or common sense walk in the middle of the streets +in London, excepting when they cross over, which at Charing Cross +and other places, where several streets meet, is sometimes really +dangerous.</p> +<p>It has a strange appearance—especially in the Strand, +where there is a constant succession of shop after shop, and +where, not unfrequently, people of different trades inhabit the +same house—to see their doors or the tops of their windows, +or boards expressly for the purpose, all written over from top to +bottom with large painted letters. Every person, of every +trade or occupation, who owns ever so small a portion of a house, +makes a parade with a sign at his door; and there is hardly a +cobbler whose name and profession may not be read in large golden +characters by every one that passes. It is here not at all +uncommon to see on doors in one continued succession, +“Children educated here,” “Shoes mended +here,” “Foreign spirituous liquors sold here,” +and “Funerals furnished here;” of all these +inscriptions. I am sorry to observe that “Dealer in +foreign spirituous liquors” is by far the most +frequent. And indeed it is allowed by the English +themselves, that the propensity of the common people to the +drinking of brandy or gin is carried to a great excess; and I own +it struck me as a peculiar phraseology, when, to tell you that a +person is intoxicated or drunk, you hear them say, as they +generally do, that he is in liquor. In the late riots, +which even yet are hardly quite subsided, and which are still the +general topic of conversation, more people have been found dead +near empty brandy-casks in the streets, than were killed by the +musket-balls of regiments that were called in. As much as I +have seen of London within these two days, there are on the whole +I think not very many fine streets and very fine houses, but I +met everywhere a far greater number and handsomer people than one +commonly meets in Berlin. It gives me much real pleasure +when I walk from Charing Cross up the Strand, past St. +Paul’s to the Royal Exchange, to meet in the thickest crowd +persons from the highest to the lowest ranks, almost all +well-looking people, and cleanly and neatly dressed. I +rarely see even a fellow with a wheel-barrow who has not a shirt +on, and that, too, such a one as shows it has been washed; nor +even a beggar without both a shirt and shoes and stockings. +The English are certainly distinguished for cleanliness.</p> +<p>It has a very uncommon appearance in this tumult of people, +where every one, with hasty and eager step, seems to be pursuing +either his business or his pleasure, and everywhere making his +way through the crowd, to observe, as you often may, people +pushing one against another, only perhaps to see a funeral +pass. The English coffins are made very economically, +according to the exact form of the body; they are flat, and broad +at top; tapering gradually from the middle, and drawing to a +point at the feet, not very unlike the case of a violin.</p> +<p>A few dirty-looking men, who bear the coffin, endeavour to +make their way through the crowd as well as they can; and some +mourners follow. The people seem to pay as little attention +to such a procession, as if a hay-cart were driving past. +The funerals of people of distinction, and of the great, are, +however, differently regarded.</p> +<p>These funerals always appear to me the more indecent in a +populous city, from the total indifference of the beholders, and +the perfect unconcern with which they are beheld. The body +of a fellow-creature is carried to his long home as though it had +been utterly unconnected with the rest of mankind. And yet, +in a small town or village, everyone knows everyone; and no one +can be so insignificant as not to be missed when he is taken +away.</p> +<p>That same influenza which I left at Berlin, I have had the +hard fortune again to find here; and many people die of it. +It is as yet very cold for the time of the year, and I am obliged +every day to have a fire. I must own that the heat or +warmth given by sea-coal, burnt in the chimney, appears to me +softer and milder than that given by our stoves. The sight +of the fire has also a cheerful and pleasing effect. Only +you must take care not to look at it steadily, and for a +continuance, for this is probably the reason that there are so +many young old men in England, who walk and ride in the public +streets with their spectacles on; thus anticipating, in the bloom +of youth, those conveniences and comforts which were intended for +old age.</p> +<p>I now constantly dine in my own lodgings; and I cannot but +flatter myself that my meals are regulated with frugality. +My usual dish at supper is some pickled salmon, which you eat in +the liquor in which it is pickled, along with some oil and +vinegar; and he must be prejudiced or fastidious who does not +relish it as singularly well tasted and grateful food.</p> +<p>I would always advise those who wish to drink coffee in +England, to mention beforehand how many cups are to be made with +half an ounce; or else the people will probably bring them a +prodigious quantity of brown water; which (notwithstanding all my +admonitions) I have not yet been able wholly to avoid. The +fine wheaten bread which I find here, besides excellent butter +and Cheshire-cheese, makes up for my scanty dinners. For an +English dinner, to such lodgers as I am, generally consists of a +piece of half-boiled, or half-roasted meat; and a few cabbage +leaves boiled in plain water; on which they pour a sauce made of +flour and butter. This, I assure you, is the usual method +of dressing vegetables in England.</p> +<p>The slices of bread and butter, which they give you with your +tea, are as thin as poppy leaves. But there is another kind +of bread and butter usually eaten with tea, which is toasted by +the fire, and is incomparably good. You take one slice +after the other and hold it to the fire on a fork till the butter +is melted, so that it penetrates a number of slices at once: this +is called toast.</p> +<p>The custom of sleeping without a feather-bed for a covering +particularly pleased me. You here lie between two sheets: +underneath the bottom sheet is a fine blanket, which, without +oppressing you, keeps you sufficiently warm. My shoes are +not cleaned in the house, but by a person in the neighbourhood, +whose trade it is; who fetches them every morning, and brings +them back cleaned; for which she receives weekly so much. +When the maid is displeased with me, I hear her sometimes at the +door call me “the German”; otherwise in the family I +go by the name of “the Gentleman.”</p> +<p>I have almost entirely laid aside riding in a coach, although +it does not cost near so much as it does at Berlin; as I can go +and return any distance not exceeding an English mile for a +shilling, for which I should there at least pay a florin. +But, moderate as English fares are, still you save a great deal, +if you walk or go on foot, and know only how to ask your +way. From my lodging to the Royal Exchange is about as far +as from one end of Berlin to the other, and from the Tower and +St. Catharine’s, where the ships arrive in the Thames, as +far again; and I have already walked this distance twice, when I +went to look after my trunk before I got it out of the +ship. As it was quite dark when I came back the first +evening, I was astonished at the admirable manner in which the +streets are lighted up; compared to which our streets in Berlin +make a most miserable show. The lamps are lighted whilst it +is still daylight, and are so near each other, that even on the +most ordinary and common nights, the city has the appearance of a +festive illumination, for which some German prince, who came to +London for the first time, once, they say, actually took it, and +seriously believed it to have been particularly ordered on +account of his arrival.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The</i> 9<i>th</i> <i>June</i>, +1782.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">preached</span> this day at the German +church on Ludgate Hill, for the Rev. Mr. Wendeborn. He is +the author of “Die statischen Beyträge zur nähern +Kentniss Grossbrittaniens.” This valuable book has +already been of uncommon service to me, and I cannot but +recommend it to everyone who goes to England. It is the +more useful, as you can with ease carry it in your pocket, and +you find in it information on every subject. It is natural +to suppose that Mr. Wendeborn, who has now been a length of time +in England, must have been able more frequently, and with greater +exactness to make his observations, than those who only pass +through, or make a very short stay. It is almost impossible +for anyone, who has this book always at hand, to omit anything +worthy of notice in or about London; or not to learn all that is +most material to know of the state and situation of the kingdom +in general.</p> +<p>Mr. Wendeborn lives in New Inn, near Temple Bar, in a +philosophical, but not unimproving, retirement. He is +almost become a native; and his library consists chiefly of +English books. Before I proceed, I must just mention, that +he has not hired, but bought his apartments in this great +building, called New Inn: and this, I believe, is pretty +generally the case with the lodgings in this place. A +purchaser of any of these rooms is considered as a proprietor; +and one who has got a house and home, and has a right, in +parliamentary or other elections, to give his vote, if he is not +a foreigner, which is the case with Mr. Wendeborn, who, +nevertheless, was visited by Mr. Fox when he was to be chosen +member for Westminster.</p> +<p>I saw, for the first time, at Mr. Wendeborn’s, a very +useful machine, which is little known in Germany, or at least not +much used.</p> +<p>This is a press in which, by means of very strong iron +springs, a written paper may be printed on another blank paper, +and you thus save yourself the trouble of copying; and at the +same time multiply your own handwriting. Mr. Wendeborn +makes use of this machine every time he sends manuscripts abroad, +of which he wishes to keep a copy. This machine was of +mahogany, and cost pretty high. I suppose it is because the +inhabitants of London rise so late, that divine service begin +only at half-past ten o’clock. I missed Mr. Wendeborn +this morning, and was therefore obliged to enquire of the +door-keeper at St. Paul’s for a direction to the German +church, where I was to preach. He did not know it. I +then asked at another church, not far from thence. Here I +was directed right, and after I had passed through an iron gate +to the end of a long passage, I arrived just in time at the +church, where, after the sermon, I was obliged to read a public +thanksgiving for the safe arrival of our ship. The German +clergy here dress exactly the same as the English +clergy—<i>i.e.</i>, in long robes with wide +sleeves—in which I likewise was obliged to wrap +myself. Mr. Wendeborn wears his own hair, which curls +naturally, and the toupee is combed up.</p> +<p>The other German clergymen whom I have seen wear wigs, as well +as many of the English.</p> +<p>I yesterday waited on our ambassador, Count Lucy, and was +agreeably surprised at the simplicity of his manner of +living. He lives in a small private house. His +secretary lives upstairs, where also I met with the Prussian +consul, who happened just then to be paying him a visit. +Below, on the right hand, I was immediately shown into his +Excellency’s room, without being obliged to pass through an +antechamber. He wore a blue coat, with a red collar and red +facings. He conversed with me, as we drank a dish of +coffee, on various learned topics; and when I told him of the +great dispute now going on about the <i>tacismus</i> or +<i>stacismus</i>, he declared himself, as a born Greek, for the +<i>stacismus</i>.</p> +<p>When I came to take my leave, he desired me to come and see +him without ceremony whenever it suited me, as he should be +always happy to see me.</p> +<p>Mr. Leonhard, who has translated several celebrated English +plays, such as “The School for Scandal,” and some +others, lives here as a private person, instructing Germans in +English, and Englishmen in German, with great ability. He +also it is who writes the articles concerning England for the new +Hamburgh newspaper, for which he is paid a stated yearly +stipend. I may add also, that he is the master of a German +Freemasons’ lodge in London, and representative of all the +German lodges in England—an employment of far more trouble +than profit to him, for all the world applies to him in all cases +and emergencies. I also was recommended to him from +Hamburgh. He is a very complaisant man, and has already +shown me many civilities. He repeats English poetry with +great propriety, and speaks the language nearly with the same +facility as he does his mother language. He is married to +an amiable Englishwoman. I wish him all possible +happiness. And now let me tell you something of the so +often imitated, but perhaps inimitable</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Vauxhall</i>.</p> +<p>I yesterday visited Vauxhall for the first time. I had +not far to go from my lodgings, in the Adelphi Buildings, to +Westminster Bridge, where you always find a great number of boats +on the Thames, which are ready on the least signal to serve those +who will pay them a shilling or sixpence, or according to the +distance.</p> +<p>From hence I went up the Thames to Vauxhall, and as I passed +along I saw Lambeth; and the venerable old palace belonging to +the archbishops of Canterbury lying on my left.</p> +<p>Vauxhall is, properly speaking, the name of a little village +in which the garden, now almost exclusively bearing the same +name, is situated. You pay a shilling entrance.</p> +<p>On entering it, I really found, or fancied I found, some +resemblance to our Berlin Vauxhall, if, according to Virgil, I +may be permitted to compare small things with great ones. +The walks at least, with the paintings at the end, and the high +trees, which, here and there form a beautiful grove, or wood, on +either side, were so similar to those of Berlin, that often, as I +walked along them, I seemed to transport myself, in imagination, +once more to Berlin, and forgot for a moment that immense seas, +and mountains, and kingdoms now lie between us. I was the +more tempted to indulge in this reverie as I actually met with +several gentlemen, inhabitants of Berlin, in particular Mr. +S—r, and some others, with whom I spent the evening in the +most agreeable manner. Here and there (particularly in one +of the charming woods which art has formed in this garden) you +are pleasingly surprised by the sudden appearance of the statues +of the most renowned English poets and philosophers, such as +Milton, Thomson, and others. But, what gave me most +pleasure was the statue of the German composer Handel, which, on +entering the garden, is not far distant from the orchestra.</p> +<p>This orchestra is among a number of trees situated as in a +little wood, and is an exceedingly handsome one. As you +enter the garden, you immediately hear the sound of vocal and +instrumental music. There are several female singers +constantly hired here to sing in public.</p> +<p>On each side of the orchestra are small boxes, with tables and +benches, in which you sup. The walks before these, as well +as in every other part of the garden, are crowded with people of +all ranks. I supped here with Mr. S—r, and the +secretary of the Prussian ambassador, besides a few other +gentlemen from Berlin; but what most astonished me was the +boldness of the women of the town, who often rushed in upon us by +half dozens, and in the most shameless manner importuned us for +wine, for themselves and their followers. Our gentlemen +thought it either unwise, unkind, or unsafe, to refuse them so +small a boon altogether.</p> +<p>Latish in the evening we were entertained with a sight, that +is indeed singularly curious and interesting. In a +particular part of the garden a curtain was drawn up, and by +means of some mechanism of extraordinary ingenuity, the eye and +the ear are so completely deceived, that it is not easy to +persuade one’s self it is a deception, and that one does +not actually see and hear a natural waterfall from a high +rock. As everyone was flocking to this scene in crowds, +there arose all at once a loud cry of “Take care of your +pockets.” This informed us, but too clearly, that +there were some pickpockets among the crowd, who had already made +some fortunate strokes.</p> +<p>The rotunda, a magnificent circular building in the garden, +particularly engaged my attention. By means of beautiful +chandeliers, and large mirrors, it was illuminated in the most +superb manner; and everywhere decorated with delightful +paintings, and statues, in the contemplation of which you may +spend several hours very agreeably, when you are tired of the +crowd and the bustle, in the walks of the garden.</p> +<p>Among the paintings one represents the surrender of a besieged +city. If you look at this painting with attention, for any +length of time, it affects you so much that you even shed +tears. The expression of the greatest distress, even +bordering on despair, on the part of the besieged, the fearful +expectation of the uncertain issue, and what the victor will +determine concerning those unfortunate people, may all be read so +plainly, and so naturally in the countenances of the inhabitants, +who are imploring for mercy, from the hoary head to the suckling +whom his mother holds up, that you quite forget yourself, and in +the end scarcely believe it to be a painting before you.</p> +<p>You also here find the busts of the best English authors, +placed all round on the sides. Thus a Briton again meets +with his Shakespeare, Locke, Milton, and Dryden in the public +places of his amusements; and there also reveres their +memory. Even the common people thus become familiar with +the names of those who have done honour to their nation; and are +taught to mention them with veneration. For this rotunda is +also an orchestra in which the music is performed in rainy +weather. But enough of Vauxhall!</p> +<p>Certain it is that the English classical authors are read more +generally, beyond all comparison, than the German; which in +general are read only by the learned; or, at most, by the middle +class of people. The English national authors are in all +hands, and read by all people, of which the innumerable editions +they have gone through are a sufficient proof.</p> +<p>My landlady, who is only a tailor’s widow, reads her +Milton; and tells me, that her late husband first fell in love +with her on this very account: because she read Milton with such +proper emphasis. This single instance, perhaps, would prove +but little; but I have conversed with several people of the lower +class, who all knew their national authors, and who all have read +many, if not all, of them. This elevates the lower ranks, +and brings them nearer to the higher. There is hardly any +argument or dispute in conversation, in the higher ranks, about +which the lower cannot also converse or give their opinion. +Now, in Germany, since Gellert, there has as yet been no +poet’s name familiar to the people. But the quick +sale of the classical authors is here promoted also by cheap and +convenient editions. They have them all bound in pocket +volumes, as well as in a more pompous style. I myself +bought Milton in duodecimo for two shillings, neatly bound; it is +such a one as I can, with great convenience, carry in my +pocket. It also appears to me to be a good fashion, which +prevails here, and here only, that the books which are most read, +are always to be had already well and neatly bound. At +stalls, and in the streets, you every now and then meet with a +sort of antiquarians, who sell single or odd volumes; sometimes +perhaps of Shakespeare, etc., so low as a penny; nay, even +sometimes for a halfpenny a piece. Of one of these +itinerant antiquarians I bought the two volumes of the Vicar of +Wakefield for sixpence, <i>i.e.</i> for the half of an English +shilling. In what estimation our German literature is held +in England, I was enabled to judge, in some degree, by the +printed proposals of a book which I saw. The title was, +“The Entertaining Museum, or Complete Circulating +Library,” which is to contain a list of all the English +classical authors, as well as translations of the best French, +Spanish, Italian, and even German novels.</p> +<p>The moderate price of this book deserves also to be noticed; +as by such means books in England come more within the reach of +the people; and of course are more generally distributed among +them. The advertisement mentions that in order that +everyone may have it in his power to buy this work, and at once +to furnish himself with a very valuable library, without +perceiving the expense, a number will be sent out weekly, which, +stitched, costs sixpence, and bound with the title on the back, +ninepence. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth numbers +contain the first and second volume of the Vicar of Wakefield, +which I had just bought of the antiquarian above-mentioned.</p> +<p>The only translation from the German which has been +particularly successful in England, is Gesner’s +“Death of Abel.” The translation of that work +has been oftener reprinted in England than ever the original was +in Germany. I have actually seen the eighteenth edition of +it; and if the English preface is to be regarded, it was written +by a lady. “Klopstock’s Messiah,” as is +well known, has been here but ill received; to be sure, they say +it is but indifferently translated. I have not yet been +able to obtain a sight of it. The Rev. Mr. Wendeborn has +written a grammar for the German language in English, for the use +of Englishmen, which has met with much applause.</p> +<p>I must not forget to mention, that the works of Mr. Jacob +Boehmen are all translated into English.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 13<i>th</i> +<i>June</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Often</span> as I had heard Ranelagh +spoken of, I had yet formed only an imperfect idea of it. I +supposed it to be a garden somewhat different from that of +Vauxhall; but, in fact, I hardly knew what I thought of it. +Yesterday evening I took a walk in order to visit this famous +place of amusement; but I missed my way and got to Chelsea; where +I met a man with a wheel-barrow, who not only very civilly showed +me the right road, but also conversed with me the whole of the +distance which we walked together. And finding, upon +enquiry, that I was a subject of the King of Prussia, he desired +me, with much eagerness, to relate to him some anecdotes +concerning that mighty monarch. At length I arrived at +Ranelagh; and having paid my half-crown on entrance, I soon +enquired for the garden door, and it was readily shown to me; +when, to my infinite astonishment, I found myself in a poor, +mean-looking, and ill-lighted garden, where I met but few +people. I had not been here long before I was accosted by a +young lady, who also was walking there, and who, without +ceremony, offered me her arm, asking me why I walked thus +solitarily? I now concluded, this could not possibly be the +splendid, much-boasted Ranelagh; and so, seeing not far from me a +number of people entering a door, I followed them, in hopes +either to get out again, or to vary the scene.</p> +<p>But it is impossible to describe, or indeed to conceive, the +effect it had on me, when, coming out of the gloom of the garden, +I suddenly entered a round building, illuminated by many hundred +lamps; the splendour and beauty of which surpassed everything of +the kind I had ever seen before. Everything seemed here to +be round; above, there was a gallery divided into boxes; and in +one part of it an organ with a beautiful choir, from which issued +both instrumental and vocal music. All around, under this +gallery, are handsome painted boxes for those who wish to take +refreshments: the floor was covered with mats, in the middle of +which are four high black pillars; within which there are neat +fire-places for preparing tea, coffee and punch; and all around, +also, there are placed tables, set out with all kinds of +refreshments. Within these four pillars, in a kind of magic +rotundo, all the beau-monde of London move perpetually round and +round.</p> +<p>I at first mixed with this immense concourse of people, of all +sexes, ages, countries, and characters; and I must confess, that +the incessant change of faces, the far greater number of which +were strikingly beautiful, together with the illumination, the +extent and majestic splendour of the place, with the continued +sound of the music, makes an inconceivably delightful impression +on the imagination; and I take the liberty to add, that, on +seeing it now for the first time, I felt pretty nearly the same +sensations that I remember to have felt when, in early youth, I +first read the Fairy Tales.</p> +<p>Being, however, at length tired of the crowd, and being tired +also with always moving round and round in a circle, I sat myself +down in one of the boxes, in order to take some refreshment, and +was now contemplating at my ease this prodigious collection and +crowd of a happy, cheerful world, who were here enjoying +themselves devoid of care, when a waiter very civilly asked me +what refreshments I wished to have, and in a few moments returned +with what I asked for. To my astonishment he would accept +no money for these refreshments; which I could not comprehend, +till he told me that everything was included in the half-crown I +had paid at the door; and that I had only to command if I wished +for anything more; but that if I pleased, I might give him as a +present a trifling douceur. This I gave him with pleasure, +as I could not help fancying I was hardly entitled to so much +civility and good attention for one single half-crown.</p> +<p>I now went up into the gallery, and seated myself in one of +the boxes there; and from thence becoming all at once a grave and +moralising spectator, I looked down on the concourse of people +who were still moving round and round in the fairy circle; and +then I could easily distinguish several stars and other orders of +knighthood; French queues and bags contrasted with plain English +heads of hair, or professional wigs; old age and youth, nobility +and commonalty, all passing each other in the motley swarm. +An Englishman who joined me during this my reverie, pointed out +to me on my enquiring, princes and lords with their dazzling +stars; with which they eclipsed the less brilliant part of the +company.</p> +<p>Here some moved round in an eternal circle to see and be seen; +there a group of eager connoisseurs had placed themselves before +the orchestra and were feasting their ears, while others at the +well-supplied tables were regaling the parched roofs of their +mouths in a more substantial manner, and again others, like +myself, were sitting alone, in the corner of a box in the +gallery, making their remarks and reflections on so interesting a +scene.</p> +<p>I now and then indulged myself in the pleasure of exchanging, +for some minutes, all this magnificence and splendour for the +gloom of the garden, in order to renew the pleasing surprise I +experienced on my first entering the building. Thus I spent +here some hours in the night in a continual variation of +entertainment; when the crowd now all at once began to lessen, +and I also took a coach and drove home.</p> +<p>At Ranelagh the company appeared to me much better, and more +select than at Vauxhall; for those of the lower class who go +there, always dress themselves in their best, and thus endeavour +to copy the great. Here I saw no one who had not silk +stockings on. Even the poorest families are at the expense +of a coach to go to Ranelagh, as my landlady assured me. +She always fixed on some one day in the year, on which, without +fail, she drove to Ranelagh. On the whole the expense at +Ranelagh is nothing near so great as it is at Vauxhall, if you +consider the refreshments; for any one who sups at Vauxhall, +which most people do, is likely, for a very moderate supper, to +pay at least half-a-guinea.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>The Parliament</i>.</p> +<p>I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have already been to +the Parliament House; and yet this is of most importance. +For, had I seen nothing else in England but this, I should have +thought my journey thither amply rewarded.</p> +<p>As little as I have hitherto troubled myself with politics, +because indeed with us it is but little worth our while, I was +however desirous of being present at a meeting of +parliament—a wish that was soon amply gratified.</p> +<p>One afternoon, about three o’clock, at which hour, or +thereabouts, the house most commonly meets, I enquired for +Westminster Hall, and was very politely directed by an +Englishman. These directions are always given with the +utmost kindness. You may ask whom you please, if you can +only make yourself tolerably well understood; and by thus asking +every now and then, you may with the greatest ease find your way +throughout all London.</p> +<p>Westminster Hall is an enormous Gothic building, whose vaulted +roof is supported, not by pillars, but instead of these there +are, on each side, large unnatural heads of angels, carved in +wood, which seem to support the roof.</p> +<p>When you have passed through this long hall, you ascend a few +steps at the end, and are led through a dark passage into the +House of Commons, which, below, has a large double-door; and +above, there is a small staircase, by which you go to the +gallery, the place allotted for strangers.</p> +<p>The first time I went up this small staircase, and had reached +the rails, I saw a very genteel man in black standing +there. I accosted him without any introduction, and I asked +him whether I might be allowed to go into the gallery. He +told me that I must be introduced by a member, or else I could +not get admission there. Now, as I had not the honour to be +acquainted with a member, I was under the mortifying necessity of +retreating, and again going down-stairs, as I did much +chagrined. And now, as I was sullenly marching back, I +heard something said about a bottle of wine, which seemed to be +addressed to me.</p> +<p>I could not conceive what it could mean, till I got home, when +my obliging landlady told me I should have given the well-dressed +man half-a-crown, or a couple of shillings for a bottle of +wine. Happy in this information, I went again the next day; +when the same man who before had sent me away, after I had given +him only two shillings, very politely opened the door for me, and +himself recommended me to a good seat in the gallery.</p> +<p>And thus I now, for the first time, saw the whole of the +British nation assembled in its representatives, in rather a +mean-looking building, that not a little resembles a +chapel. The Speaker, an elderly man, with an enormous wig, +with two knotted kind of tresses, or curls, behind, in a black +cloak, his hat on his head, sat opposite to me on a lofty chair; +which was not unlike a small pulpit, save only that in the front +of there was no reading-desk. Before the Speaker’s +chair stands a table, which looks like an altar; and at this +there sit two men, called clerks, dressed in black, with black +cloaks. On the table, by the side of the great parchment +acts, lies a huge gilt sceptre, which is always taken away, and +placed in a conservatory under the table, as soon as ever the +Speaker quits the chair; which he does as often as the House +resolves itself into a committee. A committee means nothing +more than that the House puts itself into a situation freely to +discuss and debate any point of difficulty and moment, and, while +it lasts, the Speaker partly lays aside his power as a +legislator. As soon as this is over, some one tells the +Speaker that he may now again be seated; and immediately on the +Speaker being again in the chair, the sceptre is also replaced on +the table before him.</p> +<p>All round on the sides of the house, under the gallery, are +benches for the members, covered with green cloth, always one +above the other, like our choirs in churches, in order that he +who is speaking may see over those who sit before him. The +seats in the gallery are on the same plan. The members of +parliament keep their hats on, but the spectators in the gallery +are uncovered.</p> +<p>The members of the House of Commons have nothing particular in +their dress. They even come into the House in their great +coats, and with boots and spurs. It is not at all uncommon +to see a member lying stretched out on one of the benches while +others are debating. Some crack nuts, others eat oranges, +or whatever else is in season. There is no end to their +going in and out; and as often as any one wishes to go out, he +places himself before the Speaker, and makes him his bow, as if, +like a schoolboy, he asked tutor’s permission.</p> +<p>Those who speak seem to deliver themselves with but little, +perhaps not always with even a decorous, gravity. All that +is necessary is to stand up in your place, take off your hat, +turn to the Speaker (to whom all the speeches are addressed), to +hold your hat and stick in one hand, and with the other to make +any such motions as you fancy necessary to accompany your +speech.</p> +<p>If it happens that a member rises who is but a bad speaker, or +if what he says is generally deemed not sufficiently interesting, +so much noise is made, and such bursts of laughter are raised, +that the member who is speaking can scarcely distinguish his own +words. This must needs be a distressing situation; and it +seems then to be particularly laughable, when the Speaker in his +chair, like a tutor in a school, again and again endeavours to +restore order, which he does by calling out “<i>To +order</i>, <i>to order</i>,” apparently often without much +attention being paid to it.</p> +<p>On the contrary, when a favourite member, and one who speaks +well and to the purpose, rises, the most perfect silence reigns, +and his friends and admirers, one after another, make their +approbation known by calling out, “<i>Hear him</i>,” +which is often repeated by the whole House at once; and in this +way so much noise is often made that the speaker is frequently +interrupted by this same emphatic “<i>Hear +him</i>.” Notwithstanding which, this calling out is +always regarded as a great encouragement; and I have often +observed that one who began with some diffidence, and even +somewhat inauspiciously, has in the end been so animated that he +has spoken with a torrent of eloquence.</p> +<p>As all speeches are directed to the Speaker, all the members +always preface their speeches with “<i>Sir</i>” and +he, on being thus addressed, generally moves his hat a little, +but immediately puts it on again. This +“<i>Sir</i>” is often introduced in the course of +their speeches, and serves to connect what is said. It +seems also to stand the orator in some stead when any one’s +memory fails him, or he is otherwise at a loss for matter. +For while he is saying “<i>Sir</i>,” and has thus +obtained a little pause, he recollects what is to follow. +Yet I have sometimes seen some members draw a kind of +memorandum-book out of their pockets, like a candidate who is at +a loss in his sermon. This is the only instance in which a +member of the British parliament seems to read his speeches.</p> +<p>The first day that I was at the House of Commons an English +gentleman who sat next to me in the gallery very obligingly +pointed out to me the principal members, such as Fox, Burke, +Rigby, etc., all of whom I heard speak. The debate happened +to be whether, besides being made a peer, any other specific +reward should be bestowed by the nation on their gallant admiral +Rodney. In the course of the debate, I remember, Mr. Fox +was very sharply reprimanded by young Lord Fielding for having, +when minister, opposed the election of Admiral Hood as a member +for Westminster.</p> +<p>Fox was sitting to the right of the Speaker, not far from the +table on which the gilt sceptre lay. He now took his place +so near it that he could reach it with his hand, and, thus +placed, he gave it many a violent and hearty thump, either to +aid, or to show the energy with which he spoke. If the +charge was vehement, his defence was no less so. He +justified himself against Lord Fielding by maintaining that he +had not opposed this election in the character of a minister, but +as an individual, or private person; and that, as such, he had +freely and honestly given his vote for another—namely, for +Sir Cecil Wray, adding that the King, when he appointed him +Secretary of State, had entered into no agreement with him by +which he lost his vote as an individual; to such a requisition he +never would have submitted. It is impossible for me to +describe with what fire and persuasive eloquence he spoke, and +how the Speaker in the chair incessantly nodded approbation from +beneath his solemn wig, and innumerable voices incessantly called +out, “Hear him! hear him!” and when there was the +least sign that he intended to leave off speaking they no less +vociferously exclaimed, “Go on;” and so he continued +to speak in this manner for nearly two hours. Mr. Rigby, in +reply, made a short but humorous speech, in which he mentioned of +how little consequence the title of “lord” and +“lady” was without money to support it, and finished +with the Latin proverb, “infelix paupertas—quia +ridiculos miseros facit.” After having first very +judiciously observed that previous inquiry should be made whether +Admiral Rodney had made any rich prizes or captures; because, if +that should be the case, he would not stand in need of further +reward in money. I have since been almost every day at the +parliament house, and prefer the entertainment I there meet with +to most other amusements.</p> +<p>Fox is still much beloved by the people, notwithstanding that +they are (and certainly with good reason) displeased at his being +the cause of Admiral Rodney’s recall, though even I have +heard him again and again almost extravagant in his encomiums on +this noble admiral. The same celebrated Charles Fox is a +short, fat, and gross man, with a swarthy complexion, and dark; +and in general he is badly dressed. There certainly is +something Jewish in his looks. But upon the whole, he is +not an ill-made nor an ill-looking man, and there are many strong +marks of sagacity and fire in his eyes. I have frequently +heard the people here say that this same Mr. Fox is as cunning as +a fox. Burke is a well-made, tall, upright man, but looks +elderly and broken. Rigby is excessively corpulent, and has +a jolly rubicund face.</p> +<p>The little less than downright open abuse, and the many really +rude things which the members said to each other, struck me +much. For example, when one has finished, another rises, +and immediately taxes with absurdity all that the right +honourable gentleman (for with this title the members of the +House of Commons always honour each other) had just +advanced. It would, indeed, be contrary to the rules of the +House flatly to tell each other that what they have spoken is +<i>false</i>, or even <i>foolish</i>. Instead of this, they +turn themselves, as usual, to the Speaker, and so, whilst their +address is directed to him, they fancy they violate neither the +rules of parliament nor those of good breeding and decorum, +whilst they utter the most cutting personal sarcasms against the +member or the measure they oppose.</p> +<p>It is quite laughable to see, as one sometimes does, one +member speaking, and another accompanying the speech with his +action. This I remarked more than once in a worthy old +citizen, who was fearful of speaking himself, but when his +neighbour spoke he accompanied every energetic sentence with a +suitable gesticulation, by which means his whole body was +sometimes in motion.</p> +<p>It often happens that the jett, or principal point in the +debate is lost in these personal contests and bickerings between +each other. When they last so long as to become quite +tedious and tiresome, and likely to do harm rather than good, the +House takes upon itself to express its disapprobation; and then +there arises a general cry of, “The question! the +question!” This must sometimes be frequently +repeated, as the contending members are both anxious to have the +last word. At length, however, the question is put, and the +votes taken, when the Speaker says, “Those who are for the +question are to say <i>aye</i>, and those who are against it +<i>no</i>.” You then hear a confused cry of +“<i>aye</i>” and “<i>no</i>” but at +length the Speaker says, “I think there are more +<i>ayes</i> than <i>noes</i>, or more <i>noes</i> than +<i>ayes</i>. The <i>ayes</i> have it; or the <i>noes</i> +have it,” as the case may be. But all the spectators +must then retire from the gallery; for then, and not till then, +the voting really commences. And now the members call aloud +to the gallery, “Withdraw! withdraw!” On this +the strangers withdraw, and are shut up in a small room at the +foot of the stairs till the voting is over, when they are again +permitted to take their places in the gallery. Here I could +not help wondering at the impatience even of polished +Englishmen. It is astonishing with what violence, and even +rudeness, they push and jostle one another as soon as the room +door is again opened, eager to gain the first and best seats in +the gallery. In this manner we (the strangers) have +sometimes been sent away two or three times in the course of one +day, or rather evening, afterwards again permitted to +return. Among these spectators are people of all ranks, and +even, not unfrequently, ladies. Two shorthand writers have +sat sometimes not far distant from me, who (though it is rather +by stealth) endeavour to take down the words of the speaker; and +thus all that is very remarkable in what is said in parliament +may generally be read in print the next day. The shorthand +writers, whom I noticed, are supposed to be employed and paid by +the editors of the different newspapers. There are, it +seems, some few persons who are constant attendants on the +parliament; and so they pay the door-keeper beforehand a guinea +for a whole session. I have now and then seen some of the +members bring their sons, whilst quite little boys, and carry +them to their seats along with themselves.</p> +<p>A proposal was once made to erect a gallery in the House of +Peers also for the accommodation of spectators. But this +never was carried into effect. There appears to be much +more politeness and more courteous behaviour in the members of +the upper House. But he who wishes to observe mankind, and +to contemplate the leading traits of the different characters +most strongly marked, will do well to attend frequently the +lower, rather than the other, House.</p> +<p>Last Tuesday was (what is here called) hanging-day. +There was also a parliamentary election. I could only see +one of the two sights, and therefore naturally preferred the +latter, while I only heard tolling at a distance the death-bell +of the sacrifice to justice. I now, therefore, am going to +describe to you, as well as can, an</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Election for a Member of +Parliament</i>.</p> +<p>The cities of London and Westminster send, the one four, and +the other two, members to parliament. Mr. Fox is one of the +two members for Westminster. One seat was vacant, and that +vacancy was now to be filled. And the same Sir Cecil Wray, +whom Fox had before opposed to Lord Hood, was now publicly +chosen. They tell me that at these elections, when there is +a strong opposition party, there is often bloody work; but this +election was, in the electioneering phrase, a “hollow +thing”—<i>i.e.</i> quite sure, as those who had voted +for Admiral Hood now withdrew, without standing a poll, as being +convinced beforehand their chance to succeed was desperate.</p> +<p>The election was held in Covent Garden, a large market-place +in the open air. There was a scaffold erected just before +the door of a very handsome church, which is also called St. +Paul’s, but which, however, is not to be compared to the +cathedral.</p> +<p>A temporary edifice, formed only of boards and wood nailed +together, was erected on the occasion. It was called the +hustings, and filled with benches; and at one end of it, where +the benches ended, mats were laid, on which those who spoke to +the people stood. In the area before the hustings immense +multitudes of people were assembled, of whom the greatest part +seemed to be of the lowest order. To this tumultuous crowd, +however, the speakers often bowed very low, and always addressed +them by the title of “gentlemen.” Sir Cecil +Wray was obliged to step forward and promise these same +gentlemen, with hand and heart, that he would faithfully fulfil +his duties as their representative. He also made an apology +because, on account of his long journey and ill-health, he had +not been able to wait on them, as became him, at their respective +houses. The moment that he began to speak, even this rude +rabble became all as quiet as the raging sea after a storm, only +every now and then rending the air with the parliamentary cry of +“Hear him! hear him!” and as soon as he had done +speaking, they again vociferated aloud an universal +“<i>huzza</i>,” every one at the same time waving his +hat.</p> +<p>And now, being formally declared to have been legally chosen, +he again bowed most profoundly, and returned thanks for the great +honour done him, when a well-dressed man, whose name I could not +learn, stepped forward, and in a well-indited speech +congratulated both the chosen and the choosers. “Upon +my word,” said a gruff carter who stood near me, +“that man speaks well.”</p> +<p>Even little boys clambered up and hung on the rails and on the +lamp-posts; and as if the speeches had also been addressed to +them, they too listened with the utmost attention, and they too +testified their approbation of it by joining lustily in the three +cheers and waving their hats.</p> +<p>All the enthusiasm of my earliest years kindled by the +patriotism of the illustrious heroes of Rome. Coriolanus, +Julius Cæsar, and Antony were now revived in my mind; and +though all I had just seen and heard be, in fact, but the +semblance of liberty, and that, too, tribunitial liberty, yet at +that moment I thought it charming, and it warmed my heart. +Yes, depend on it, my friend, when you here see how, in the happy +country, the lowest and meanest member of society thus +unequivocally testifies the interest which he takes in everything +of a public nature; when you see how even women and children bear +a part in the great concerns of their country; in short, how high +and low, rich and poor, all concur in declaring their feelings +and their convictions that a carter, a common tar, or a +scavenger, is still a man—nay, an Englishman, and as such +has his rights and privileges defined and known as exactly and as +well as his king, or as his king’s minister—take my +word for it, you will feel yourself very differently affected +from what you are when staring at our soldiers in their exercises +at Berlin.</p> +<p>When Fox, who was among the voters, arrived at the beginning +of the election, he too was received with an universal shout of +joy. At length, when it was nearly over, the people took it +into their heads to hear him speak, and every one called out, +“Fox! Fox!” I know not why, but I seemed +to catch some of the spirit of the place and time, and so I also +bawled “Fox! Fox!” and he was obliged to come +forward and speak, for no other reason that I could find but that +the people wished to hear him speak. In this speech he +again confirmed, in the presence of the people, his former +declaration in parliament, that he by no means had any influence +as minister of State in this election, but only and merely as a +private person.</p> +<p>When the whole was over, the rampant spirit of liberty and the +wild impatience of a genuine English mob were exhibited in +perfection. In a very few minutes the whole scaffolding, +benches, and chairs, and everything else, was completely +destroyed, and the mat with which it had been covered torn into +ten thousand long strips, or pieces, or strings, with which they +encircled or enclosed multitudes of people of all ranks. +These they hurried along with them, and everything else that came +in their way, as trophies of joy; and thus, in the midst of +exultation and triumph, they paraded through many of the most +populous streets of London.</p> +<p>Whilst in Prussia poets only speak of the love of country as +one of the dearest of all human affections, here there is no man +who does not feel, and describe with rapture, how much he loves +his country. “Yes, for my country I’ll shed the +last drop of my blood!” often exclaims little Jacky, the +fine boy here in the house where I live, who is yet only about +twelve years old. The love of their country, and its +unparalleled feats in war are, in general, the subject of their +ballads and popular songs, which are sung about the streets by +women, who sell them for a few farthings. It was only the +other day our Jacky brought one home, in which the history of an +admiral was celebrated who bravely continued to command, even +after his two legs were shot off and he was obliged to be +supported. I know not well by what means it has happened +that the King of England, who is certainly one of the best the +nation ever had, is become unpopular. I know not how many +times I have heard people of all sorts object to their king at +the same time that they praised the King of Prussia to the +skies. Indeed, with some the veneration for our monarch +went so far that they seriously wished he was their king. +All that seems to shock and dishearten them is the prodigious +armies he keeps up, and the immense number of soldiers quartered +in Berlin alone. Whereas in London, at least in the city, +not a single troop of soldiers of the King’s guard dare +make their appearance.</p> +<p>A few days ago I saw what is here deemed a great +sight—viz., a lord mayor’s procession. The lord +mayor was in an enormous large gilt coach, which was followed by +an astonishing number of most showy carriages, in which the rest +of the city magistrates, more properly called aldermen of London, +were seated. But enough for the present.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, <i>June</i> +17<i>th</i>, 1782.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> now been pretty nearly all +over London, and, according to my own notions, have now seen most +of the things I was most anxious to see. Hereafter, then, I +propose to make an excursion into the country; and this purpose, +by the blessing of God, I hope to be able to carry into effect in +a very few days, for my curiosity is here almost satiated. +I seem to be tired and sick of the smoke of these sea-coal fires, +and I long, with almost childish impatience, once more to breathe +a fresher and clearer air.</p> +<p>It must, I think, be owned, that upon the whole, London is +neither so handsomely nor so well built as Berlin is; but then it +certainly has far more fine squares. Of these there are +many that in real magnificence and beautiful symmetry far surpass +our Gens d’Armes Markt, our Denhoschen and William’s +Place. The squares or quadrangular places contain the best +and most beautiful buildings of London; a spacious street, next +to the houses, goes all round them, and within that there is +generally a round grass-plot, railed in with iron rails, in the +centre of which, in many of them, there is a statue, which +statues most commonly are equestrian and gilt. In Grosvenor +Square, instead of this green plot or area, there is a little +circular wood, intended, no doubt, to give one the idea of <i>rus +in urbe</i>.</p> +<p>One of the longest and pleasantest walks I have yet taken is +from Paddington to Islington; where to the left you have a fine +prospect of the neighbouring hills, and in particular of the +village of Hampstead, which is built on one of them; and to the +right the streets of London furnish an endless variety of +interesting views. It is true that it is dangerous to walk +here alone, especially in the afternoon and in an evening, or at +night, for it was only last week that a man was robbed and +murdered on this very same road. But I now hasten to +another and a more pleasing topic:</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>The British Museum</i>.</p> +<p>I have had the happiness to become acquainted with the Rev. +Mr. Woide; who, though well known all over Europe to be one of +the most learned men of the age, is yet, if possible, less +estimable for his learning than he is for his unaffected goodness +of heart. He holds a respectable office in the museum, and +was obliging enough to procure me permission to see it, luckily +the day before it was shut up. In general you must give in +your name a fortnight before you can he admitted. But after +all, I am sorry to say, it was the rooms, the glass cases, the +shelves, or the repository for the books in the British Museum +which I saw, and not the museum itself, we were hurried on so +rapidly through the apartments. The company, who saw it +when and as I did, was various, and some of all sorts; some, I +believe, of the very lowest classes of the people, of both sexes; +for, as it is the property of the nation, every one has the same +right (I use the term of the country) to see it that another +has. I had Mr. Wendeborn’s book in my pocket, and it, +at least, enabled me to take a somewhat more particular notice of +some of the principal things; such as the Egyptian mummy, a head +of Homer, &c. The rest of the company, observing that I +had some assistance which they had not, soon gathered round me; I +pointed out to them as we went along, from Mr. Wendeborn’s +German book, what there was most worth seeing here. The +gentleman who conducted us took little pains to conceal the +contempt which he felt for my communications when he found out +that it was only a German description of the British Museum I had +got. The rapidly passing through this vast suite of rooms, +in a space of time little, if at all, exceeding an hour, with +leisure just to cast one poor longing look of astonishment on all +these stupendous treasures of natural curiosities, antiquities, +and literature, in the contemplation of which you could with +pleasure spend years, and a whole life might be employed in the +study of them—quite confuses, stuns, and overpowers +one. In some branches this collection is said to be far +surpassed by some others; but taken altogether, and for size, it +certainly is equalled by none. The few foreign divines who +travel through England generally desire to have the Alexandrian +manuscript shewn them, in order to be convinced with their own +eyes whether the passage, “These are the three that bear +record, &c.,” is to be found there or not.</p> +<p>The Rev. Mr. Woide lives at a place called Lisson Street, not +far from Paddington; a very village-looking little town, at the +west end of London. It is quite a rural and pleasant +situation; for here I either do, or fancy I do, already breathe a +purer and freer air than in the midst of the town. Of his +great abilities, and particularly in oriental literature, I need +not inform you; but it will give you pleasure to hear that he is +actually meditating a fac-simile edition of the Alexandrian +MS. I have already mentioned the infinite obligations I lie +under to this excellent man for his extraordinary courtesy and +kindness.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>The Theatre in the +Haymarket</i>.</p> +<p>Last week I went twice to an English play-house. The +first time “The Nabob” was represented, of which the +late Mr. Foote was the author, and for the entertainment, a very +pleasing and laughable musical farce, called “The Agreeable +Surprise.” The second time I saw “The English +Merchant:” which piece has been translated into German, and +is known among us by the title of “The Scotchwoman,” +or “The Coffee-house.” I have not yet seen the +theatres of Covent Garden and Drury Lane, because they are not +open in summer. The best actors also usually spend May and +October in the country, and only perform in winter.</p> +<p>A very few excepted, the comedians whom I saw were certainly +nothing extraordinary. For a seat in the boxes you pay five +shillings, in the pit three, in the first gallery two, and in the +second or upper gallery, one shilling. And it is the +tenants in this upper gallery who, for their shilling, make all +that noise and uproar for which the English play-houses are so +famous. I was in the pit, which gradually rises, +amphitheatre-wise, from the orchestra, and is furnished with +benches, one above another, from the top to the bottom. +Often and often, whilst I sat there, did a rotten orange, or +pieces of the peel of an orange, fly past me, or past some of my +neighbours, and once one of them actually hit my hat, without my +daring to look round, for fear another might then hit me on my +face.</p> +<p>All over London as one walks, one everywhere, in the season, +sees oranges to sell; and they are in general sold tolerably +cheap, one and even sometimes two for a halfpenny; or, in our +money, threepence. At the play-house, however, they charged +me sixpence for one orange, and that noways remarkably good.</p> +<p>Besides this perpetual pelting from the gallery, which renders +an English play-house so uncomfortable, there is no end to their +calling out and knocking with their sticks till the curtain is +drawn up. I saw a miller’s, or a baker’s boy, +thus, like a huge booby, leaning over the rails and knocking +again and again on the outside, with all his might, so that he +was seen by everybody, without being in the least ashamed or +abashed. I sometimes heard, too, the people in the lower or +middle gallery quarrelling with those of the upper one. +Behind me, in the pit, sat a young fop, who, in order to display +his costly stone buckles with the utmost brilliancy, continually +put his foot on my bench, and even sometimes upon my coat, which +I could avoid only by sparing him as much space from my portion +of the seat as would make him a footstool. In the boxes, +quite in a corner, sat several servants, who were said to be +placed there to keep the seats for the families they served till +they should arrive; they seemed to sit remarkably close and +still, the reason of which, I was told, was their apprehension of +being pelted; for if one of them dares but to look out of the +box, he is immediately saluted with a shower of orange peel from +the gallery.</p> +<p>In Foote’s “Nabob” there are sundry local +and personal satires which are entirely lost to a +foreigner. The character of the Nabob was performed by a +Mr. Palmer. The jett of the character is, this Nabob, with +many affected airs and constant aims at gentility, is still but a +silly fellow, unexpectedly come into the possession of immense +riches, and therefore, of course, paid much court to by a society +of natural philosophers, Quakers, and I do not know who +besides. Being tempted to become one of their members, he +is elected, and in order to ridicule these would-be philosophers, +but real knaves, a fine flowery fustian speech is put into his +mouth, which he delivers with prodigious pomp and importance, and +is listened to by the philosophers with infinite +complacency. The two scenes of the Quakers and +philosophers, who, with countenances full of imaginary +importance, were seated at a green table with their president at +their head while the secretary, with the utmost care, was making +an inventory of the ridiculous presents of the Nabob, were truly +laughable. One of the last scenes was best received: it is +that in which the Nabob’s friend and school-fellow visit +him, and address him without ceremony by his Christian name; but +to all their questions of “Whether he does not recollect +them? Whether he does not remember such and such a play; or +such and such a scrape into which they had fallen in their +youth?” he uniformly answers with a look of ineffable +contempt, only, “No sir!” Nothing can possibly +be more ludicrous, nor more comic.</p> +<p>The entertainment, “The Agreeable Surprise,” is +really a very diverting farce. I observed that, in England +also, they represent school-masters in ridiculous characters on +the stage, which, though I am sorry for, I own I do not wonder +at, as the pedantry of school-masters in England, they tell me, +is carried at least as far as it is elsewhere. The same +person who, in the play, performed the school-fellow of the Nabob +with a great deal of nature and original humour, here acted the +part of the school-master: his name is Edwin, and he is, without +doubt, one of the best actors of all that I have seen.</p> +<p>This school-master is in love with a certain country girl, +whose name is Cowslip, to whom he makes a declaration of his +passion in a strange mythological, grammatical style and manner, +and to whom, among other fooleries, he sings, quite enraptured, +the following air, and seems to work himself at least up to such +a transport of passion as quite overpowers him. He begins, +you will observe, with the conjugation, and ends with the +declensions and the genders; the whole is inimitably droll:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Amo, amas,<br /> +I love a lass,<br /> +She is so sweet and tender,<br /> +It is sweet Cowslip’s Grace<br /> +In the Nominative Case.<br /> +And in the feminine Gender.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Those two sentences in particular, “in the Nominative +Case,” and “in the feminine Gender,” he affects +to sing in a particularly languishing air, as if confident that +it was irresistible. This Edwin, in all his comic +characters, still preserves something so inexpressibly +good-tempered in his countenance, that notwithstanding all his +burlesques and even grotesque buffoonery, you cannot but be +pleased with him. I own, I felt myself doubly interested +for every character which he represented. Nothing could +equal the tone and countenance of self-satisfaction with which he +answered one who asked him whether he was a scholar? +“Why, I was a master of scholars.” A Mrs. Webb +represented a cheesemonger, and played the part of a woman of the +lower class so naturally as I have nowhere else ever seen +equalled. Her huge, fat, and lusty carcase, and the whole +of her external appearance seemed quite to be cut out for it.</p> +<p>Poor Edwin was obliged, as school-master, to sing himself +almost hoarse, as he sometimes was called on to repeat his +declension and conjugation songs two or three times, only because +it pleased the upper gallery, or “the gods,” as the +English call them, to roar out “encore.” Add to +all this, he was farther forced to thank them with a low bow for +the great honour done him by their applause.</p> +<p>One of the highest comic touches in the piece seemed to me to +consist in a lie, which always became more and more enormous in +the mouths of those who told it again, during the whole of the +piece. This kept the audience in almost a continual fit of +laughter. This farce is not yet printed, or I really think +I should be tempted to venture to make a translation, or rather +an imitation of it.</p> +<p>“The English Merchant, or the Scotchwoman,” I have +seen much better performed abroad than it was here. Mr. +Fleck, at Hamburg, in particular, played the part of the English +merchant with more interest, truth, and propriety than one Aickin +did here. He seemed to me to fail totally in expressing the +peculiar and original character of Freeport; instead of which, by +his measured step and deliberate, affected manner of speaking, he +converted him into a mere fine gentleman.</p> +<p>The trusty old servant who wishes to give up his life for his +master he, too, had the stately walk, or strut, of a +minister. The character of the newspaper writer was +performed by the same Mr. Palmer who acted the part of the Nabob, +but every one said, what I thought, that he made him far too much +of a gentleman. His person, and his dress also, were too +handsome for the character.</p> +<p>The character of Amelia was performed by an actress, who made +her first appearance on the stage, and from a timidity natural on +such an occasion, and not unbecoming, spoke rather low, so that +she could not everywhere be heard; “Speak louder! speak +louder!” cried out some rude fellow from the upper-gallery, +and she immediately, with infinite condescension, did all she +could, and not unsuccessfully, to please even an upper gallery +critic.</p> +<p>The persons near me, in the pit, were often extravagantly +lavish of their applause. They sometimes clapped a single +solitary sentiment, that was almost as unmeaning as it was short, +if it happened to be pronounced only with some little emphasis, +or to contain some little point, some popular doctrine, a +singularly pathetic stroke, or turn of wit.</p> +<p>“The Agreeable Surprise” was repeated, and I saw +it a second time with unabated pleasure. It is become a +favourite piece, and always announced with the addition of the +favourite musical farce. The theatre appeared to me +somewhat larger than the one at Hamburg, and the house was both +times very full. Thus much for English plays, play-houses, +and players.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>English Customs and +Education</i>.</p> +<p>A few words more respecting pedantry. I have seen the +regulation of one seminary of learning, here called an +academy. Of these places of education, there is a +prodigious number in London, though, notwithstanding their +pompous names, they are in reality nothing more than small +schools set up by private persons, for children and young +people.</p> +<p>One of the Englishmen who were my travelling companions, made +me acquainted with a Dr. G— who lives near P—, and +keeps an academy for the education of twelve young people, which +number is here, as well as at our Mr. Kumpe’s, never +exceeded, and the same plan has been adopted and followed by many +others, both here and elsewhere.</p> +<p>At the entrance I perceived over the door of the house a large +board, and written on it, Dr. G—’s Academy. Dr. +G— received me with great courtesy as a foreigner, and +shewed me his school-room, which was furnished just in the same +manner as the classes in our public schools are, with benches and +a professor’s chair or pulpit.</p> +<p>The usher at Dr. G—’s is a young clergyman, who, +seated also in a chair or desk, instructs the boys in the Greek +and Latin grammars.</p> +<p>Such an under-teacher is called an usher, and by what I can +learn, is commonly a tormented being, exactly answering the +exquisite description given of him in the “Vicar of +Wakefield.” We went in during the hours of +attendance, and he was just hearing the boys decline their Latin, +which he did in the old jog-trot way; and I own it had an odd +sound to my ears, when instead of pronouncing, for example +<i>viri veeree</i> I heard them say <i>viri</i>, <i>of the +man</i>, exactly according to the English pronunciation, and +<i>viro</i>, <i>to the man</i>. The case was just the same +afterwards with the Greek.</p> +<p>Mr. G— invited us to dinner, when I became acquainted +with his wife, a very genteel young woman, whose behaviour to the +children was such that she might be said to contribute more to +their education than any one else. The children drank +nothing but water. For every boarder Dr. G— receives +yearly no more than thirty pounds sterling, which however, he +complained of as being too little. From forty to fifty +pounds is the most that is generally paid in these academies.</p> +<p>I told him of our improvements in the manner of education, and +also spoke to him of the apparent great worth of character of his +usher. He listened very attentively, but seemed to have +thought little himself on this subject. Before and after +dinner the Lord’s Prayer was repeated in French, which is +done in several places, as if they were eager not to waste +without some improvement, even this opportunity also, to practise +the French, and thus at once accomplish two points. I +afterwards told him my opinion of this species of prayer, which +however, he did not take amiss.</p> +<p>After dinner the boys had leave to play in a very small yard, +which in most schools or academies, in the city of London, is the +<i>ne plus ultra</i> of their playground in their hours of +recreation. But Mr. G— has another garden at the end +of the town, where he sometimes takes them to walk.</p> +<p>After dinner Mr. G— himself instructed the children in +writing, arithmetic, and French, all which seemed to be well +taught here, especially writing, in which the young people in +England far surpass, I believe, all others. This may +perhaps be owing to their having occasion to learn only one sort +of letters. As the midsummer holidays were now approaching +(at which time the children in all the academies go home for four +weeks), everyone was obliged with the utmost care to copy a +written model, in order to show it to their parents, because this +article is most particularly examined, as everybody can tell what +is or is not good writing. The boys knew all the rules of +syntax by heart.</p> +<p>All these academies are in general called +boarding-schools. Some few retain the old name of schools +only, though it is possible that in real merit they may excel the +so much-boasted of academies.</p> +<p>It is in general the clergy, who have small incomes, who set +up these schools both in town and country, and grown up people +who are foreigners, are also admitted here to learn the English +language. Mr. G— charged for board, lodging, and +instruction in the English, two guineas a-week. He however, +who is desirous of perfecting himself in the English, will do +better to go some distance into the country, and board himself +with any clergyman who takes scholars, where he will hear nothing +but English spoken, and may at every opportunity be taught both +by young and old.</p> +<p>There are in England, besides the two universities, but few +great schools or colleges. In London, there are only St. +Paul’s and Westminster schools; the rest are almost all +private institutions, in which there reigns a kind of family +education, which is certainly the most natural, if properly +conducted. Some few grammar schools, or Latin schools, are +notwithstanding here and there to be met with, where the master +receives a fixed salary, besides the ordinary profits of the +school paid by the scholars.</p> +<p>You see in the streets of London, great and little boys +running about in long blue coats, which, like robes, reach quite +down to the feet, and little white bands, such as the clergy +wear. These belong to a charitable institution, or school, +which hears the name of the Blue Coat School. The singing +of the choristers in the streets, so usual with us, is not at all +customary here. Indeed, there is in England, or at least in +London, such a constant walking, riding, and driving up and down +in the streets, that it would not be very practicable. +Parents here in general, nay even those of the lowest classes, +seem to be kind and indulgent to their children, and do not, like +our common people, break their spirits too much by blows and +sharp language. Children should certainly be inured early +to set a proper value on themselves; whereas with us, parents of +the lower class bring up their children to the same slavery under +which they themselves groan.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding the constant new appetites and calls of +fashion, they here remain faithful to nature—till a certain +age. What a contrast, when I figure to myself our petted, +pale-faced Berlin boys, at six years old, with a large bag, and +all the parade of grown-up persons, nay even with laced coats; +and here, on the contrary see nothing but fine, ruddy, slim, +active boys, with their bosoms open, and their hair cut on their +forehead, whilst behind it flows naturally in ringlets. It +is something uncommon here to meet a young man, and more +especially a boy, with a pale or sallow face, with deformed +features, or disproportioned limbs. With us, alas! it is +not to be concealed, the case is very much otherwise; if it were +not, handsome people would hardly strike us so very much as they +do in this country.</p> +<p>This free, loose, and natural dress is worn till they are +eighteen, or even till they are twenty. It is then, indeed, +discontinued by the higher ranks, but with the common people it +always remains the same. They then begin to have their hair +dressed, and curled with irons, to give the head a large bushy +appearance, and half their backs are covered with powder. I +am obliged to remain still longer under the hands of an English, +than I was under a German hair-dresser; and to sweat under his +hot irons with which he curls my hair all over, in order that I +may appear among Englishmen, somewhat English. I must here +observe that the English hair-dressers are also barbers, an +office however, which they perform very badly indeed; though I +cannot but consider shaving as a far more proper employment for +these petit maîtres than it is for surgeons, who you know +in our country are obliged to shave us. It is incredible +how much the English at present Frenchify themselves; the only +things yet wanting are bags and swords, with which at least I +have seen no one walking publicly, but I am told they are worn at +court.</p> +<p>In the morning it is usual to walk out in a sort of +negligée or morning dress, your hair not dressed, but +merely rolled up in rollers, and in a frock and boots. In +Westminster, the morning lasts till four or five o’clock, +at which time they dine, and supper and going to bed are +regulated accordingly. They generally do not breakfast till +ten o’clock. The farther you go from the court into +the city, the more regular and domestic the people become; and +there they generally dine about three o’clock, <i>i.e.</i> +as soon as the business or ‘Change is over.</p> +<p>Trimmed suits are not yet worn, and the most usual dress is in +summer, a short white waistcoat, black breeches, white silk +stockings, and a frock, generally of very dark blue cloth, which +looks like black; and the English seem in general to prefer dark +colours. If you wish to be full dressed, you wear +black. Officers rarely wear their uniforms, but dress like +other people, and are to be known to be officers only by a +cockade in their hats.</p> +<p>It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any +people are about dress, the more effeminate they are. I +attribute it entirely to this idle adventitious passion for +finery, that these people are become so over and above careful of +their persons; they are for ever, and on every occasion, putting +one another on their guard against catching cold; +“you’ll certainly catch cold,” they always tell +you if you happen to be a little exposed to the draught of the +air, or if you be not clad, as they think, sufficiently +warm. The general topic of conversation in summer, is on +the important objects of whether such and such an acquaintance be +in town, or such a one in the country. Far from blaming it, +I think it natural and commendable, that nearly one half of the +inhabitants of this great city migrate into the country in +summer. And into the country, I too, though not a Londoner, +hope soon to wander.</p> +<p>Electricity happens at present to be the puppet-show of the +English. Whoever at all understands electricity is sure of +being noticed and successful. This a certain Mr. +Katterfelto experiences, who gives himself out for a Prussian, +speaks bad English, and understands beside the usual electrical +and philosophical experiments, some legerdemain tricks, with +which (at least according to the papers) he sets the whole world +in wonder. For in almost every newspaper that appears, +there are some verses on the great Katterfelto, which some one or +other of his hearers are said to have made extempore. Every +sensible person considers Katterfelto as a puppy, an ignoramus, a +braggadocio, and an impostor; notwithstanding which he has a +number of followers. He has demonstrated to the people, +that the influenza is occasioned by a small kind of insect, which +poisons the air; and a nostrum, which he pretends to have found +out to prevent or destroy it, is eagerly bought of him. A +few days ago he put into the papers: “It is true that Mr. +Katterfelto has always wished for cold and rainy weather, in +order to destroy the pernicious insects in the air; but now, on +the contrary, he wishes for nothing more than for fair weather, +as his majesty and the whole royal family have determined, the +first fine day, to be eye-witnesses of the great wonder, which +this learned philosopher will render visible to +them.” Yet all this while the royal family have not +so much as even thought of seeing the wonders of Mr. +Katterfelto. This kind of rhodomontade is very finely +expressed in English by the word puff, which in its literal +sense, signifies a blowing, or violent gust of wind, and in the +metaphorical sense, a boasting or bragging.</p> +<p>Of such puffs the English newspapers are daily full, +particularly of quack medicines and empirics, by means of which +many a one here (and among others a German who goes by the name +of the German doctor) are become rich. An advertisement of +a lottery in the papers begins with capitals in this +manner,—“Ten Thousand Pounds for a Sixpence! +Yes, however astonishing it may seem, it is nevertheless +undoubtedly true, that for the small stake of sixpence, ten +thousand pounds, and other capital prizes, may be won, +etc.”—But enough for this time of the puffs of the +English.</p> +<p>I yesterday dined with the Rev. Mr. Schrader, son-in-law to +Professor Foster of Halle. He is chaplain to the German +chapel at St. James’s; but besides himself he has a +colleague or a reader, who is also in orders, but has only fifty +pounds yearly salary. Mr. Schrader also instructs the +younger princes and princesses of the royal family in their +religion. At his house I saw the two chaplains, Mr. +Lindeman and Mr. Kritter, who went with the Hanoverian troops to +Minorca, and who were returned with the garrison. They were +exposed to every danger along with the troops. The German +clergy, as well as every other person in any public station +immediately under Government, are obliged to pay a considerable +tax out of their salaries.</p> +<p>The English clergy (and I fear those still more particularly +who live in London) are noticeable, and lamentably conspicuous, +by a very free, secular, and irregular way of life. Since +my residence in England, one has fought a duel in Hyde Park, and +shot his antagonist. He was tried for the offence, and it +was evident the judge thought him guilty of murder; but the jury +declared him guilty only of manslaughter; and on this verdict he +was burnt in the hand, if that may be called burning which is +done with a cold iron; this being a privilege which the nobility +and clergy enjoy above other murderers.</p> +<p>Yesterday week, after I had preached for Mr. Wendeborne, we +passed an English church in which, we understood the sermon was +not yet quite finished. On this we went in, and then I +heard a young man preaching, with a tolerable good voice, and a +proper delivery; but, like the English in general, his manner was +unimpassioned, and his tone monotonous. From the church we +went to a coffee-house opposite to it, and there we dined. +We had not been long there before the same clergyman whom we had +just heard preaching, also came in. He called for pen and +ink, and hastily wrote down a few pages on a long sheet of paper, +which he put into his pocket; I suppose it was some rough sketch +or memorandum that occurred to him at that moment, and which he +thus reserved for some future sermon. He too ordered some +dinner, which he had no sooner ate, than he returned immediately +to the same church. We followed him, and he again mounted +the pulpit, where he drew from his pocket a written paper, or +book of notes, and delivered in all probability those very words +which he had just before composed in our presence at the +coffee-house.</p> +<p>In these coffee-houses, however, there generally prevails a +very decorous stillness and silence. Everyone speaks softly +to those only who sit next him. The greater part read the +newspapers, and no one ever disturbs another. The room is +commonly on the ground floor, and you enter it immediately from +the street; the seats are divided by wooden wainscot +partitions. Many letters and projects are here written and +planned, and many of those that you find in the papers are dated +from some of these coffee-houses. There is, therefore, +nothing incredible, nor very extraordinary, in a person’s +composing a sermon here, excepting that one would imagine it +might have been done better at home, and certainly should not +have thus been put off to the last minute.</p> +<p>Another long walk that I have taken pretty often, is through +Hanover Square and Cavendish Square, to Bulstrode Street, near +Paddington, where the Danish ambassador lives, and where I have +often visited the Danish <i>Charge d’Affaires</i>, M. +Schornborn. He is well known in Germany, as having +attempted to translate Pindar into German. Besides this, +and besides being known to be a man of genius, he is known to be +a great proficient in most of the branches of natural +philosophy. I have spent many very pleasant hours with +him.</p> +<p>Sublime poetry, and in particular odes, are his forte; there +are indeed few departments of learning in which he has not +extensive knowledge, and he is also well read in the Greek and +Roman authors. Everything he studies, he studies merely +from the love he bears to the science itself, and by no means for +the love of fame.</p> +<p>One could hardly help saying it is a pity that so excellent a +man should be so little known, were it not generally the case +with men of transcendent merit. But what makes him still +more valuable is his pure and open soul, and his amiable +unaffected simplicity of character, which has gained him the love +and confidence of all who know him. He has heretofore been +secretary to the ambassador at Algiers; and even here in London, +when he is not occupied by the business arising from his public +station, he lives exceedingly retired, and devotes his time +almost entirely to the study of the sciences. The more +agreeable I find such an acquaintance, the harder it will be for +me to lose, as I soon must, his learned, his instructive, and his +friendly conversation.</p> +<p>I have seen the large Freemasons’ Hall here, at the +tavern of the same name. This hall is of an astonishing +height and breadth, and to me it looked almost like a +church. The orchestra is very much raised, and from that +you have a fine view of the whole hall, which makes a majestic +appearance. The building is said to have cost an immense +sum. But to that the lodges in Germany also +contributed. Freemasonry seems to be held in but little +estimation in England, perhaps because most of the lodges are now +degenerated into mere drinking clubs; though I hope there still +are some who assemble for nobler and more essential +purposes. The Duke of Cumberland is now grand master.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 20<i>th</i> +<i>June</i>, 1782.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> length my determination of going +into the country takes effect; and I am to set off this very +afternoon in a stage; so that I now write to you my last letter +from London, I mean till I return from my pilgrimage, for as soon +as ever I have got beyond the dangerous neighbourhood of London, +I shall certainly no longer suffer myself to be cooped up in a +post-coach, but take my staff and pursue my journey on +foot. In the meantime, however, I will relate to you what I +may either have forgotten to write before, or what I have seen +worth notice within these few days last past; among which the +foremost is</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>St. Paul’s</i>.</p> +<p>I must own that on my entrance into this massy building, an +uncommon vacancy, which seemed to reign in it, rather damped than +raised an impression of anything majestic in me. All around +me I could see nothing but immense bare walls and pillars. +Above me, at an astonishing height, was the vaulted stone roof; +and beneath me a plain, flat even floor, paved with marble. +No altar was to be seen, or any other sign that this was a place +where mankind assembled to adore the Almighty. For the +church itself, or properly that part of it where they perform +divine service, seems as it were a piece stuck on or added to the +main edifice, and is separated from the large round empty space +by an iron gate, or door. Did the great architects who +adopted this style of building mean by this to say that such a +temple is most proper for the adoration of the Almighty? If +this was their aim, I can only say I admire the great temple of +nature, the azure vaulted sky, and the green carpet with which +the earth is spread. This is truly a large temple; but then +there is in it no void, no spot unappropriated, or unfulfilled, +but everywhere proofs in abundance of the presence of the +Almighty. If, however, mankind, in their honest ambition to +worship the great God of nature, in a style not wholly unsuitable +to the great object of their reverence, and in their humble +efforts at magnificence, aim in some degree to rival the +magnificence of nature, particular pains should be taken to hit +on something that might atone for the unavoidable loss of the +animation and ampleness of nature; something in short that should +clearly indicate the true and appropriated design and purpose of +such a building. If, on the other hand, I could be +contented to consider St. Paul’s merely as a work of art, +built as if merely to show the amazing extent of human powers, I +should certainly gaze at it with admiration and astonishment, but +then I wish rather to contemplate it with awe and +veneration. But, I perceive, I am wandering out of my +way. St. Paul’s is here, as it is, a noble pile, and +not unworthy of this great nation. And even if I were sure +that I could, you would hardly thank me for showing you how it +might have been still more worthy of this intelligent +people. I make a conscience however of telling you always, +with fidelity, what impression everything I see or hear makes on +me at the time. For a small sum of money I was conducted +all over the church by a man whose office it seemed to be, and he +repeated to me, I dare say, exactly his lesson, which no doubt he +has perfectly got by rote: of how many feet long and broad it +was; how many years it was in building, and in what year +built. Much of this rigmarole story, which, like a parrot, +he repeated mechanically, I could willingly have dispensed +with. In the part that was separated from the rest by the +iron gate above mentioned, was what I call the church itself; +furnished with benches, pews, pulpit, and an altar; and on each +side seats for the choristers, as there are in our +cathedrals. This church seemed to have been built purposely +in such a way, that the bishop, or dean, or dignitary, who should +preach there, might not be obliged to strain his voice too +much. I was now conducted to that part which is called the +whispering gallery, which is a circumference of prodigious +extent, just below the cupola. Here I was directed to place +myself in a part of it directly opposite to my conductor, on the +other side of the gallery, so that we had the whole breadth of +the church between us, and here as I stood, he, knowing his cue +no doubt, flung to the door with all his force, which gave a +sound that I could compare to nothing less than a peal of +thunder. I was next desired to apply my ear to the wall, +which, when I did, I heard the words of my conductor: “Can +you hear me?” which he softly whispered quite on the other +side, as plain and as loud as one commonly speaks to a deaf +person. This scheme to condense and invigorate sound at so +great a distance is really wonderful. I once noticed some +sound of the same sort in the senatorial cellar at Bremen; but +neither that, nor I believe any other in the world, can pretend +to come in competition with this.</p> +<p>I now ascended several steps to the great gallery, which runs +on the outside of the great dome, and here I remained nearly two +hours, as I could hardly, in less time, satisfy myself with the +prospect of the various interesting objects that lay all round +me, and which can no where be better seen, than from hence.</p> +<p>Every view, and every object I studied attentively, by viewing +them again and again on every side, for I was anxious to make a +lasting impression of it on my imagination.</p> +<p>Below me lay steeples, houses, and palaces in countless +numbers; the squares with their grass plots in their middle that +lay agreeably dispersed and intermixed, with all the huge +clusters of buildings, forming meanwhile a pleasing contrast, and +a relief to the jaded eye.</p> +<p>At one end rose the Tower—itself a city—with a +wood of masts behind it; and at the other Westminster Abbey with +its steeples. There I beheld, clad in smiles, those +beautiful green hills that skirt the environs of Paddington and +Islington; here, on the opposite bank of the Thames, lay +Southwark; the city itself it seems to be impossible for any eye +to take in entirely, for with all my pains I found it impossible +to ascertain either where it ended, or where the circumjacent +villages began; far as the eye could reach, it seemed to be all +one continued chain of buildings.</p> +<p>I well remember how large I thought Berlin when first I saw it +from the steeple of St. Mary, and from the Temple Yard Hills, but +how did it now sink and fall in my imagination, when I compared +it with London!</p> +<p>It is, however, idle and vain to attempt giving you in words, +any description, however faint and imperfect, of such a prospect +as I have just been viewing. He who wishes at one view to +see a world in miniature, must come to the dome of St +Paul’s.</p> +<p>The roof of St. Paul’s itself with its two lesser +steeples lay below me, and as I fancied, looked something like +the background of a small ridge of hills, which you look down +upon when you have attained the summit of some huge rock or +mountain. I should gladly have remained here sometime +longer, but a gust of wind, which in this situation was so +powerful that it was hardly possible to withstand it, drove me +down.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding that St. Paul’s is itself very high, the +elevation of the ground on which it stands contributes greatly to +its elevation.</p> +<p>The church of St. Peter at Berlin, notwithstanding the total +difference between them in the style of building, appears in some +respects to have a great resemblance to St. Paul’s in +London. At least its large high black roof rises above the +other surrounding buildings just as St. Paul’s does.</p> +<p>What else I saw in this stately cathedral was only a wooden +model of this very edifice, which was made before the church was +built, and which suggests some not unpleasing reflections when +one compares it with the enormous building itself.</p> +<p>The churchyard is enclosed with an iron rail, and it appears a +considerable distance if you go all round.</p> +<p>Owing to some cause or other, the site of St. Paul’s +strikes you as being confined, and it is certain that this +beautiful church is on every side closely surrounded by +houses.</p> +<p>A marble statue of Queen Anne in an enclosed piece of ground +in the west front of the church is something of an ornament to +that side.</p> +<p>The size of the bell of St. Paul’s is also worthy of +notice, as it is reckoned one of those that are deemed the +largest in Europe. It takes its place, they say, next to +that at Vienna.</p> +<p>Everything that I saw in St. Paul’s cost me only a +little more than a shilling, which I paid in pence and halfpence, +according to a regulated price, fixed for every different +curiosity.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Westminster Abbey</i>.</p> +<p>On a very gloomy dismal day, just such a one as it ought to +be, I went to see Westminster Abbey.</p> +<p>I entered at a small door, which brought me immediately to the +poets’ corner, where the monuments and busts of the +principal poets, artists, generals, and great men, are +placed.</p> +<p>Not far from the door, immediately on my entrance, I perceived +the statue of Shakespeare, as large as life; with a band, +&c., in the dress usual in his time.</p> +<p>A passage out of one of Shakespeare’s own plays (the +<i>Tempest</i>), in which he describes in the most solemn and +affecting manner, the end, or the dissolution of all things, is +here, with great propriety, put up as his epitaph; as though none +but Shakespeare could do justice to Shakespeare.</p> +<p>Not far from this immortal bard is Rowe’s monument, +which, as it is intimated in the few lines that are inscribed as +his epitaph, he himself had desired to be placed there.</p> +<p>At no great distance I saw the bust of that amiable writer, +Goldsmith: to whom, as well as to Butler, whose monument is in a +distant part of the abbey, though they had scarcely necessary +bread to eat during their life time, handsome monuments are now +raised. Here, too you see, almost in a row, the monuments +of Milton, Dryden, Gay, and Thomson. The inscription on +Gay’s tombstone is, if not actually immoral, yet futile and +weak; though he is said to have written it himself:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Life is a jest, and all things shew it,<br +/> +‘I thought so once but now I know it.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our Handel has also a monument here, where he is represented +as large as life.</p> +<p>An actress, Pritchard, and Booth, an actor, have also very +distinguished monuments erected here to their memories.</p> +<p>For Newton, as was proper, there is a very costly one. +It is above, at the entrance of the choir, and exactly opposite +to this, at the end of the church, another is erected, which +refers you to the former.</p> +<p>As I passed along the side walls of Westminster Abbey, I +hardly saw any thing but marble monuments of great admirals, but +which were all too much loaded with finery and ornaments, to make +on me at least, the intended impression.</p> +<p>I always returned with most pleasure to the poets’ +corner, where the most sensible, most able, and most learned men, +of the different ages, were re-assembled; and particularly where +the elegant simplicity of the monuments made an elevated and +affecting impression on the mind, while a perfect recollection of +some favourite passage, of a Shakespeare, or Milton, recurred to +my idea, and seemed for a moment to re-animate and bring back the +spirits of those truly great men.</p> +<p>Of Addison and Pope I have found no monuments here. The +vaults where the kings are buried, and some other things worth +notice in the abbey, I have not yet seen; but perhaps I may at my +return to London from the country.</p> +<p>I have made every necessary preparation for this journey: In +the first place, I have an accurate map of England in my pocket; +besides an excellent book of the roads, which Mr. Pointer, the +English merchant to whom I am recommended, has lent me. The +title is “A new and accurate description of all the direct +and principal cross roads in Great Britain.” This +book, I hope, will be of great service to me in my ramblings.</p> +<p>I was for a long time undecided which way I should go, whether +to the Isle of Wight, to Portsmouth, or to Derbyshire, which is +famous for its natural curiosities, and also for its romantic +situation. At length I have determined on Derbyshire.</p> +<p>During my absence I leave my trunk at Mr. Mulhausen’s +(one of Mr. Pointer’s senior partners), that I may not be +at the needless expense of paying for my lodging without making +use of it. This Mr. Pointer lived long in Germany, and is +politely partial to us and our language, and speaks it +well. He is a well-bred and singularly obliging man; and +one who possesses a vast fund of information, and a good +taste. I cannot but feel myself happy in having obtained a +recommendation to so accomplished a man. I got it from +Messrs. Persent and Dorner, to whom I had the honour to be +recommended by Mr. Von Taubenheim, Privy Counsellor at +Berlin. These recommendations have been of infinite use to +me.</p> +<p>I propose to go to-day as far as Richmond; for which place a +stage sets out about two o’clock from some inn, not far +from the new church in the Strand. Four guineas, some +linen, my English book of the roads, and a map and pocket-book, +together with Milton’s Paradise Lost, which I must put in +my pocket, compose the whole of my equipage; and I hope to walk +very lightly with it. But it now strikes half-past one, and +of course it is time for me to be at the stage. +Farewell! I will write to you again from Richmond.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Richmond</i>, 21<i>st</i> +<i>June</i>, 1782.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Yesterday</span> afternoon I had the +luxury for the first time of being driven in an English +stage. These coaches are, at least in the eyes of a +foreigner, quite elegant, lined in the inside; and with two seats +large enough to accommodate six persons; but it must be owned, +when the carriage is full, the company are rather crowded.</p> +<p>At the White Hart from whence the coach sets out, there was, +at first only an elderly lady who got in; but as we drove along, +it was soon filled, and mostly by ladies, there being only one +more gentleman and myself. The conversation of the ladies +among themselves, who appeared to be a little acquainted with +each other, seemed to me to be but very insipid and +tiresome. All I could do was, I drew out my book of the +roads, and marked the way we were going.</p> +<p>Before you well know that you are out of London you are +already in Kensington and Hammersmith; because there are all the +way houses on both sides, after you are out of the city; just as +you may remember the case is with us when you drive from Berlin +to Schoneberg; although in point of prospect, houses and streets, +the difference, no doubt, is prodigious.</p> +<p>It was a fine day, and there were various delightful prospects +on both sides, on which the eye would willingly have dwelt +longer, had not our coach rolled on past them, so provokingly +quick. It appeared somewhat singular to me, when at a few +miles from London, I saw at a distance a beautiful white house; +and perceived on the high road, on which we were driving, a +direction post, on which were written these words: “that +great white house at a distance is a boarding-school!”</p> +<p>The man who was with us in the coach pointed out to us the +country seats of the lords and great people by which we passed; +and entertained us with all kind of stories of robberies which +had been committed on travellers, hereabouts; so that the ladies +at last began to be rather afraid; on which he began to stand up +for the superior honour of the English robbers, when compared +with the French: the former he said robbed only, the latter both +robbed and murdered.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding this there are in England another species of +villains, who also murder, and that oftentimes for the merest +trifle, of which they rob the person murdered. These are +called footpads, and are the lowest class of English rogues; +amongst whom in general there reigns something like some regard +to character.</p> +<p>The highest order of thieves are the pickpockets or cutpurses, +whom you find everywhere; and sometimes even in the best +companies. They are generally well and handsomely dressed, +so that you take them to be persons of rank; as indeed may +sometimes be the case: persons who by extravagance and excesses +have reduced themselves to want, and find themselves obliged at +last to have recourse to pilfering and thieving.</p> +<p>Next to them come the highwaymen, who rob on horseback; and +often, they say, even with unloaded pistols, they terrify +travellers, in order to put themselves in possession of their +purses. Among these persons, however, there are instances +of true greatness of soul, there are numberless instances of +their returning a part of their booty, where the party robbed has +appeared to be particularly distressed; and they are seldom +guilty of murder.</p> +<p>Then comes the third and lowest, and worst of all thieves and +rogues, the footpads before mentioned; who are on foot, and often +murder in the most inhuman manner, for the sake of only a few +shillings, any unfortunate people who happen to fall in their +way. Of this several mournful instances may be read almost +daily in the English papers. Probably they murder, because +they cannot like highwaymen, aided by their horses, make a rapid +flight: and therefore such pests are frequently pretty easily +pursued and taken if the person robbed gives information of his +robbery in time.</p> +<p>But to return to our stage, I must observe, that they have +here a curious way of riding, not in, but upon a +stage-coach. Persons to whom it is not convenient to pay a +full price, instead of the inside, sit on the top of the coach, +without any seats or even a rail. By what means passengers +thus fasten themselves securely on the roof of these vehicles, I +know not; but you constantly see numbers seated there, apparently +at their ease, and in perfect safety.</p> +<p>This they call riding on the outside; for which they pay only +half as much as those pay who are within: we had at present six +of these passengers over our heads, who, when we alighted, +frequently made such a noise and bustle, as sometimes almost +frightened us. He who can properly balance himself, rides +not incommodiously on the outside; and in summer time, in fine +weather, on account of the prospects, it certainly is more +pleasant than it is within: excepting that the company is +generally low, and the dust is likewise more troublesome than in +the inside, where, at any rate, you may draw up the windows +according to your pleasure.</p> +<p>In Kensington, where we stopped, a Jew applied for a place +along with us; but as there was no seat vacant in the inside, he +would not ride on the outside, which seemed not quite to please +my travelling companions. They could not help thinking it +somewhat preposterous that a Jew should be ashamed to ride on the +outside, or on any side, and in any way; since as they added, he +was nothing more than a Jew. This antipathy and prejudice +against the Jews, I have noticed to be far more common here, than +it is even with us, who certainly are not partial to them.</p> +<p>Of the beautiful country seats and villas which we now passed, +I could only through the windows of our coach gain a partial and +indistinct prospect, which led me to wish, as I soon most +earnestly did, to be released from this movable prison. +Towards evening we arrived at Richmond. In London, before I +set out, I had paid one shilling; another was now demanded, so +that upon the whole, from London to Richmond, the passage in the +stage costs just two shillings.</p> +<p>As soon as I had alighted at an inn and had drunk my tea, I +went out immediately to see the town and the circumjacent +country.</p> +<p>Even this town, though hardly out of sight of London, is more +countrified, pleasanter, and more cheerful than London, and the +houses do not seem to be so much blackened by smoke. The +people also appeared to me here more sociable and more +hospitable. I saw several sitting on benches before their +doors, to enjoy the cool breeze of the evening. On a large +green area in the middle of the town, a number of boys, and even +young men, were enjoying themselves, and playing at +trap-ball. In the streets there reigned here, compared to +London, a pleasing rural tranquillity, and I breathed a purer and +fresher air.</p> +<p>I went now out of the town over a bridge, which lies across +the Thames, and where you pay a penny as often as you pass over +it. The bridge is lofty and built in the form of an arch, +and from it you enter immediately into a most charming valley, +that winds all along the banks of the Thames.</p> +<p>It was evening. The sun was just shedding her last +parting rays on the valley; but such an evening, and such a +valley! Oh, it is impossible I should ever forget +them. The terrace at Richmond does assuredly afford one of +the finest prospects in the world. Whatever is charming in +nature, or pleasing in art, is to be seen here. Nothing I +had ever seen, or ever can see elsewhere, is to be compared to +it. My feelings, during the few short enraptured minutes +that I stood there, it is impossible for any pen to describe.</p> +<p>One of my first sensations was chagrin and sorrow for the days +and hours I had wasted in London, and I had vented a thousand +bitter reproaches on my irresolution, that I had not long ago +quitted that huge dungeon to come here and pass my time in +paradise.</p> +<p>Yes, my friend, whatever be your ideas of paradise, and how +luxuriantly soever it may be depicted to your imagination, I +venture to foretell that here you will be sure to find all those +ideas realised. In every point of view, Richmond is +assuredly one of the first situations in the world. Here it +was that Thomson and Pope gleaned from nature all those beautiful +passages with which their inimitable writings abound.</p> +<p>Instead of the incessant distressing noise in London, I saw +here at a distance, sundry little family parties walking arm in +arm along the banks of the Thames. Everything breathed a +soft and pleasing calm, which warmed my heart and filed it with +some of the most pleasing sensations of which our nature is +susceptible.</p> +<p>Beneath I trod on that fresh, even, and soft verdure which is +to be seen only in England. On one side of me lay a wood, +than which nature cannot produce a finer, and on the other the +Thames, with its shelvy bank and charming lawns rising like an +amphitheatre, along which, here and there, one espies a +picturesque white house, aspiring in majestic simplicity to +pierce the dark foliage of the surrounding trees; thus studding, +like stars in the galaxy, the rich expanse of this charming +vale.</p> +<p>Sweet Richmond! never, no, never, shall I forget that lovely +evening, when from thy fairy hills thou didst so hospitably smile +on me, a poor lonely, insignificant stranger! As I +traversed to and fro thy meads, thy little swelling hills and +flowery dells, and above all that queen of all rivers, thy own +majestic Thames, I forgot all sublunary cares, and thought only +of heaven and heavenly things. Happy, thrice happy am I, I +again and again exclaimed, that I am no longer in yon gloomy +city, but here in Elysium, in Richmond.</p> +<p>O ye copsy hills, ye green meadows, and ye rich streams in +this blessed country, how have ye enchanted me? Still, +however, let me recollect and resolve, as I firmly do, that even +ye shall not prevent my return to those barren and dusty lands +where my, perhaps a less indulgent, destiny has placed me, and +where, in the due discharge of all the arduous and important +duties of that humble function to which providence has called me, +I must and I will faithfully exert my best talents, and in that +exertion find pleasure, and I trust, happiness. In every +future moment of my life, however, the recollection of this +scene, and the feelings it inspired, shall cheer my labours and +invigorate my efforts.</p> +<p>These were some of my reflections, my dearest friend, during +my solitary walk. Of the evening I passed at Richmond, I +speak feebly when I content myself with saying only, it was one +of the pleasantest I ever spent in my life.</p> +<p>I now resolved to go to bed early, with a firm purpose of also +rising early the next day to revisit this charming walk; for I +thought to myself, I have now seen this temple of the modern +world imperfectly; I have seen it only by moonlight. How +much more charming must it be when glistening with the morning +dew! These fond hopes, alas, were all disappointed. +In all great schemes of enjoyment, it is, I believe, no bad way +always to figure to yourself some possible evil that may arise, +and to anticipate a disappointment. If I had done so, I +should not perhaps have felt the mortification I then experienced +quite so pungent. By some means or other I stayed too long +out, and so when I returned to Richmond, I had forgot the name +and the sign of the inn where I had before stopped; it cost me no +little trouble to find it again.</p> +<p>When at last I got back, I told the people what a sweet walk I +had had, and they then spoke much of a prospect from a +neighbouring hill, known by the name of Richmond Hill, which was +the very same hill from the top of which I had just been gazing +at the houses in the vale, the preceding evening. From this +same kill, therefore, I resolved the next morning to see the sun +rise.</p> +<p>The landlady of this house was a notable one, and talked so +much and so loud to her servants, that I could not get to sleep +till it was pretty late. However, I was up next morning at +three o’clock, and was now particularly sensible of the +great inconveniences they sustain in England by their bad custom +of rising so late, for as I was the only one in this family who +was up, I could not get out of the house. This obliged me +to spend three most irksome and heavy hours till six +o’clock; however, a servant at length opened the door, and +I rushed out to climb Richmond Hill. To my infinite +disappointment, within the space of an hour, the sky had become +overcast, and it was now so cloudy that I could not even see, nor +of course enjoy one half of the delightful prospect that lay +before me.</p> +<p>On the top of this hill is an alley of chestnut trees, under +which here and there seats are placed. Behind the alley is +a row of well-built gentlemen’s country seats. One +does not wonder to see it thus occupied; besides the pure air, +the prospect exceeds everything else of the kind in the +world. I never saw a palace which, if I were the owner of +it, I would not give for any of the houses I now saw on Richmond +Terrace.</p> +<p>The descent of the hill to the Thames is covered with verdure, +the Thames at the foot of it forms near a semicircle, in which it +seems to embrace woody plains, with meadows and country seats in +its bosom. On one side you see the town and its magnificent +bridge, and on the other a dark wood.</p> +<p>At a distance you could perceive, peeping out among the +meadows and woods, sundry small villages, so that notwithstanding +the dulness of the weather, this prospect even now was one of the +finest I had ever seen. But what is the reason that +yesterday evening my feelings were far more acute and lively, the +impressions made on me much stronger, when from the vale I viewed +the hill and fancied that there was in it every thing that was +delightful, than they are this morning, when from the hill I +overlooked the vale and knew pretty exactly what it +contained?</p> +<p>I have now finished my breakfast, and once more seize my +staff, the only companion I have, and now again set out on this +romantic journey on foot. From Windsor you shall hear more +of me.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Windsor</i>, 23<i>rd</i> +<i>June</i>.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> already, my dearest friend, +now that I write to you from hence, experienced so many +inconveniences as a traveller on foot, that I am at some loss to +determine whether or no I shall go on with my journey in the same +manner.</p> +<p>A traveller on foot in this country seems to be considered as +a sort of wild man or out-of-the way being, who is stared at, +pitied, suspected, and shunned by everybody that meets him. +At least this has hitherto been my case on the road from Richmond +to Windsor.</p> +<p>My host at Richmond, yesterday morning, could not sufficiently +express his surprise that I intended to venture to walk as far as +Oxford, and still farther. He however was so kind as to +send his son, a clever little boy, to show me the road leading to +Windsor.</p> +<p>At first I walked along a very pleasant footway by the side of +the Thames, where close to my right lay the king’s +garden. On the opposite bank of the Thames was Isleworth, a +spot that seemed to be distinguished by some elegant +gentlemen’s country-seats and gardens. Here I was +obliged to ferry the river in order to get into the Oxford Road, +which also leads to Windsor.</p> +<p>When I was on the other side of the water, I came to a house +and asked a man who was standing at the door if I was on the +right road to Oxford. “Yes,” said he, +“but you want a carriage to carry you thither.” +When I answered him that I intended walking it, he looked at me +significantly, shook his head, and went into the house again.</p> +<p>I was now on the road to Oxford. It is a charming fine +broad road, and I met on it carriages without number, which, +however, on account of the heat, occasioned a dust that was +extremely troublesome and disagreeable. The fine green +hedges, which border the roads in England, contribute greatly to +render them pleasant. This was the case in the road I now +travelled, for when I was tired I sat down in the shade under one +of these hedges and read Milton. But this relief was soon +rendered disagreeable to me, for those who rode or drove past me, +stared at me with astonishment, and made many significant +gestures as if they thought my head deranged; so singular must it +needs have appeared to them to see a man sitting along the side +of a public road and reading. I therefore found myself +obliged, when I wished to rest myself and read, to look out for a +retired spot in some by-lane or crossroad.</p> +<p>When I again walked, many of the coachmen who drove by called +out to me, ever and anon, and asked if I would not ride on the +outside; and when, every now and then, a farmer on horseback met +me, he said, and seemingly with an air of pity for me, +“’Tis warm walking, sir;” and when I passed +through a village, every old woman testified her pity by an +exclamation of—“Good God!”</p> +<p>As far as Hounslow the way was very pleasant; afterwards I +thought it not quite so good. It lay across a common, which +was of a considerable extent, and bare and naked, excepting that +here and there I saw sheep feeding.</p> +<p>I now began to be very tired, when, to my astonishment, I saw +a tree in the middle of the common that stood quite solitary, and +spread a shade like an arbour round it. At the bottom, +round the trunk, a bench was placed, on which one may sit +down. Beneath the shade of this tree I reposed myself a +little, read some of Milton, and made a note in my +memorandum-book that I would remember this tree, which had so +charitably and hospitably received under its shade a weary +traveller. This, you see, I have now done.</p> +<p>The short English miles are delightful for walking. You +are always pleased to find, every now and then, in how short a +time you have walked a mile, though, no doubt, a mile is +everywhere a mile, I walk but a moderate pace, and can accomplish +four English miles in an hour. It used to take me pretty +nearly the same time for one German mile. Now it is a +pleasing exchange to find that in two hours I can walk eight +miles. And now I fancy I was about seventeen miles from +London, when I came to an inn, where, for a little wine and +water, I was obliged to pay sixpence. An Englishman who +happened to be sitting by the side of the innkeeper found out +that I was a German, and, of course, from the country of his +queen, in praise of whom he was quite lavish, observing more than +once that England never had had such a queen, and would not +easily get such another.</p> +<p>It now began to grow hot. On the left hand, almost close +to the high road, I met with a singularly clear rivulet. In +this I bathed, and was much refreshed, and afterwards, with fresh +alacrity, continued my journey.</p> +<p>I had now got over the common, and was once more in a country +rich and well cultivated beyond all conception. This +continued to be the case as far as Slough, which is twenty miles +and a half from London, on the way to Oxford, and from which to +the left there is a road leading to Windsor, whose high white +castle I have already seen at a distance.</p> +<p>I made no stay here, but went directly to the right, along a +very pleasant high road, between meadows and green hedges, +towards Windsor, where I arrived about noon.</p> +<p>It strikes a foreigner as something particular and unusual +when, on passing through these fine English towns, he observed +one of those circumstances by which the towns in Germany are +distinguished from the villages—no walls, no gates, no +sentries, nor garrisons. No stern examiner comes here to +search and inspect us or our baggage; no imperious guard here +demands a sight of our passports; perfectly free and unmolested, +we here walk through villages and towns as unconcerned as we +should through a house of our own.</p> +<p>Just before I got to Windsor I passed Eton College, one of the +first public schools in England, and perhaps in the world. +I have before observed that there are in England fewer of these +great schools than one might expect. It lay on my left; and +on the right, directly opposite to it, was an inn, into which I +went.</p> +<p>I suppose it was during the hour of recreation, or in +playtime, when I got to Eton, for I saw the boys in the yard +before the college, which was enclosed by a low wall, in great +numbers, walking and running up and down.</p> +<p>Their dress struck me particularly. From the biggest to +the least, they all wore black cloaks, or gowns, over coloured +clothes, through which there was an aperture for their +arms. They also wore besides a square hat or cap, that +seemed to be covered with velvet, such as our clergymen in many +places wear.</p> +<p>They were differently employed—some talking together, +some playing, and some had their books in their hands, and were +reading; but I was soon obliged to get out of their sight, they +stared at me so as I came along, all over dust, with my stick in +my hand.</p> +<p>As I entered the inn, and desired to have something to eat, +the countenance of the waiter soon gave me to understand that I +should there find no very friendly reception. Whatever I +got they seemed to give me with such an air as showed too plainly +how little they thought of me, and as if they considered me but +as a beggar. I must do them the justice to own, however, +that they suffered me to pay like a gentleman. No doubt +this was the first time this pert, bepowdered puppy had ever been +called on to wait on a poor devil who entered their place on +foot. I was tired, and asked for a bedroom where I might +sleep. They showed me into one that much resembled a prison +for malefactors. I requested that I might have a better +room at night; on which, without any apology, they told me that +they had no intention of lodging me, as they had no room for such +guests, but that I might go back to Slough, where very probably I +might get a night’s lodging.</p> +<p>With money in my pocket, and a consciousness, moreover, that I +was doing nothing that was either imprudent, unworthy, or really +mean, I own it mortified and vexed me to find myself obliged to +put up with this impudent ill-usage from people who ought to +reflect that they are but the servants of the public, and little +likely to recommend themselves to the high by being insolent to +the low. They made me, however, pay them two shillings for +my dinner and coffee, which I had just thrown down, and was +preparing to shake off the dust from my shoes, and quit this +inhospitable St. Christopher, when the green hills of Windsor +smiled so friendly upon me, that they seemed to invite me first +to visit them.</p> +<p>And now trudging through the streets of Windsor, I at length +mounted a sort of hill; a steep path led me on to its summit, +close to the walls of the castle, where I had an uncommonly +extensive and fine prospect, which so much raised my heart, that +in a moment I forgot not only the insults of waiters and +tavern-keepers, but the hardship of my lot in being obliged to +travel in a manner that exposed me to the scorn of a people whom +I wished to respect. Below me lay the most beautiful +landscapes in the world—all the rich scenery that nature, +in her best attire, can exhibit. Here were the spots that +furnished those delightful themes of which the muse of Denham and +Pope made choice. I seemed to view a whole world at once, +rich and beautiful beyond conception. At that moment what +more could I have wished for?</p> +<p>And the venerable castle, that royal edifice which, in every +part of it, has strong traces of antiquity, smiles through its +green trees, like the serene countenance of some hoary sage, who, +by the vigour of a happy constitution, still retains many of the +charms of youth.</p> +<p>Nothing inspired me with more veneration and awe than the fine +old building St. George’s Church, which, as you come down +from the castle, is on your right. At the sight of it past +centuries seemed to revive in my imagination.</p> +<p>But I will see no more of those sights which are shown you by +one of those venal praters, who ten times a day, parrot-wise, +repeat over the same dull lesson they have got by heart. +The surly fellow, who for a shilling conducted me round the +church, had nearly, with his chattering, destroyed the finest +impressions. Henry VIII., Charles I., and Edward IV. are +buried here. After all, this church, both within and +without, has a most melancholy and dismal appearance.</p> +<p>They were building at what is called the queen’s palace, +and prodigious quantities of materials are provided for that +purpose.</p> +<p>I now went down a gentle declivity into the delightful park at +Windsor, at the foot of which it looks so sombrous and gloomy +that I could hardly help fancying it was some vast old Gothic +temple. This forest certainly, in point of beauty, +surpasses everything of the kind you can figure to +yourself. To its own charms, when I saw it, there were +added a most pleasing and philosophical solitude, the coolness of +an evening breeze, all aided by the soft sounds of music, which, +at this distance from the castle, from whence it issued, was +inexpressibly sweet. It threw me into a sort of +enthusiastic and pleasing reverie, which made me ample amends for +the fatigues, discourtesies, and continued cross accidents I had +encountered in the course of the day.</p> +<p>I now left the forest; the clock struck six, and the workmen +were going home from their work.</p> +<p>I have forgot to mention the large round tower of the castle, +which is also a very ancient building. The roads that lead +to it are all along their sides planted with shrubs; these, being +modern and lively, make a pleasing contrast to the fine old mossy +walls. On the top of this tower the flag of Great Britain +is usually displayed, which, however, as it was now late in the +evening, was taken in.</p> +<p>As I came down from the castle I saw the king driving up to it +in a very plain, two-wheeled, open carriage. The people +here were politer than I used to think they were in London, for I +did not see a single person, high or low, who did not pull off +their hats as their sovereign passed them.</p> +<p>I was now again in Windsor, and found myself, not far from the +castle, opposite to a very capital inn, where I saw many officers +and several persons of consequence going in and out. And +here at this inn, contrary to all expectation, I was received by +the landlord with great civility, and even kindness—very +contrary to the haughty and insolent airs which the upstart at +the other, and his jackanapes of a waiter, there thought fit to +give themselves.</p> +<p>However, it seemed to be my fate to be still a scandal and an +eyesore to all the waiters. The maid, by the order of her +master, showed me a room where I might adjust my dress a little; +but I could hear her mutter and grumble as she went along with +me. Having put myself a little to rights, I went down into +the coffee-room, which is immediately at the entrance of the +house, and told the landlord that I thought I wished to have yet +one more walk. On this he obligingly directed me to stroll +down a pleasant field behind his house, at the foot of which, he +said, I should find the Thames, and a good bathing place.</p> +<p>I followed his advice; and this evening was, if possible, +finer than the preceding. Here again, as I had been told I +should, I found the Thames with all its gentle windings. +Windsor shone nearly as bright over the green vale as those +charming houses on Richmond Hill, and the verdure was not less +soft and delicate. The field I was in seemed to slope a +little towards the Thames. I seated myself near a bush, and +there waited the going down of the sun. At a distance I saw +a number of people bathing in the Thames. When, after +sunset, they were a little dispersed, I drew near the spot I had +been directed to; and here, for the first time, I sported in the +cool tide of the Thames. The bank was steep, but my +landlord had dug some steps that went down into the water, which +is extremely convenient for those who cannot swim. Whilst I +was there, a couple of smart lively apprentice boys came also +from the town, who, with the greatest expedition, threw off their +clothes and leathern aprons, and plunged themselves, head +foremost, into the water, where they opposed the tide with their +sinewy arms till they were tired. They advised me, with +much natural civility, to untie my hair, and that then, like +them, I might plunge into the stream head foremost.</p> +<p>Refreshed and strengthened by this cool bath, I took a long +walk by moonlight on the banks of the Thames. To my left +were the towers of Windsor, before me a little village with a +steeple, the top of which peeped out among the green trees, at a +distance two inviting hills which I was to climb in the morning, +and around me the green cornfields. Oh! how indescribably +beautiful was this evening and this walk! At a distance +among the houses I could easily descry the inn where I lodged, +and where I seemed to myself at length to have found a place of +refuge and a home; and I thought, if I could but stay there, I +should not be very sorry if I were never to find another.</p> +<p>How soon did all these pleasing dreams vanish! On my +return the waiters (who, from my appearance, too probably +expected but a trifling reward for their attentions to me) +received me gruffly, and as if they were sorry to see me +again. This was not all; I had the additional mortification +to be again roughly accosted by the cross maid who had before +shown me to the bed-chamber, and who, dropping a kind of half +courtesy, with a suppressed laugh, sneeringly told me I might +look out for another lodging, as I could not sleep there, since +the room she had by mistake shown me was already engaged. +It can hardly be necessary to tell you that I loudly protested +against this sudden change. At length the landlord came, +and I appealed to him; and he with great courtesy immediately +desired another room to be shown me, in which, however, there +were two beds, so that I was obliged to admit a companion. +Thus was I very near being a second time turned out of an +inn.</p> +<p>Directly under my room was the tap-room, from which I could +plainly hear too much of the conversation of some low people, who +were drinking and singing songs, in which, as far as I could +understand them, there were many passages at least as vulgar and +nonsensical as ours.</p> +<p>This company, I guessed, consisted chiefly of soldiers and low +fellows. I was hardly well lulled to sleep by this +hurly-burly, when my chum (probably one of the drinking party +below) came stumbling into the room and against my bed. At +length, though not without some difficulty, he found his own bed, +into which he threw himself just as he was, without staying to +pull off either clothes or boots.</p> +<p>This morning I rose very early, as I had proposed, in order to +climb the two hills which yesterday presented me with so inviting +a prospect, and in particular that one of them on the summit of +which a high white house appeared among the dark-green trees; the +other was close by.</p> +<p>I found no regular path leading to these hills, and therefore +went straight forward, without minding roads, only keeping in +view the object of my aim. This certainly created me some +trouble. I had sometimes a hedge, and sometimes a hog to +walk round; but at length I had attained the foot of the so +earnestly wished-for hill with the high white house on its +summit, when, just as I was going to ascend it, and was already +pleasing myself in the idea with the prospect from the white +house, behold I read these words on a board: “Take care! +there are steel traps and spring guns here.”</p> +<p>All my labour was lost, and I now went round to the other +hill; but here were also steel traps and spring gnus, though +probably never intended to annoy such a wanderer as myself, who +wished only to enjoy the fine morning air from this eminence.</p> +<p>Thus disappointed in my hopes, I returned to Windsor, much in +the same temper and manner as I had yesterday morning from +Richmond Hill; where my wishes had also been frustrated.</p> +<p>When I got to my inn, I received from the ill-tempered maid, +who seemed to have been stationed there on purpose to plague and +vex me, the polite welcome, that on no account should I sleep +another night there. Luckily, that was not my +intention. I now write to you in the coffee room, where two +Germans are talking together, who certainly little suspect how +well I understand them; if I were to make myself known to them, +as a German, most probably, even these fellows would not speak to +me, because I travel on foot. I fancy they are +Hanoverians! The weather is so fine that, notwithstanding +the inconveniences I have hitherto experienced on this account, I +think I shall continue my journey in the same manner.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Oxford</i>, <i>June</i> 25.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">To</span> what various, singular, and +unaccountable fatalities and adventures are not foot-travellers +exposed, in this land of carriages and horses! But, I will +begin my relation in form and order.</p> +<p>In Windsor, I was obliged to pay for an old fowl I had for +supper, for a bedroom which I procured with some difficulty, and +not without murmurs, and in which, to complete my misadventures, +I was disturbed by a drunken fellow; and for a couple of dishes +of tea, nine shillings, of which the fowl alone was charged six +shillings.</p> +<p>As I was going away the waiter, who had served me with so very +ill a grace, placed himself on the stairs and said, “Pray +remember the waiter.” I gave him three halfpence, on +which he saluted me with the heartiest “G—d d—n +you, sir!” I had ever heard. At the door stood the +cross maid, who also accosted me with, “Pray remember the +chambermaid.” “Yes, yes,” said I, +“I shall long remember your most ill-mannered behaviour and +shameful incivility;” and so I gave her nothing. I +hope she was stung and nettled at my reproof; however, she strove +to stifle her anger by a contemptuous, loud, hoarse laugh. +Thus, as I left Windsor, I was literally followed by abuses and +curses.</p> +<p>I am very sorry to say that I rejoiced when I once more +perceived the towers of Windsor behind me. It is not proper +for wanderers to be prowling near the palaces of kings, and so I +sat me down, philosophically, in the shade of a green hedge, and +again read Milton, no friend of kings, though the first of +poets. Whatever I may think of their inns, it is impossible +not to admire and be charmed with this country.</p> +<p>I took my way through Slough, by Salthill, to +Maidenhead. At Salthill, which can hardly be called even a +village, I saw a barber’s shop, and so I resolved to get +myself both shaved and dressed. For putting my hair a +little in order, and shaving me, I was forced to pay him a +shilling. Opposite to this shop there stands an elegant +house and a neat garden.</p> +<p>Between Salthill and Maidenhead, I met with the first very +remarkable and alarming adventure that has occurred during my +pilgrimage.</p> +<p>Hitherto I had scarcely met a single foot passenger, whilst +coaches without number every moment rolled past me, for there are +few roads, even in England, more crowded than this western road, +which leads to Bath and Bristol as well as to Oxford. I now +also began to meet numbers of people on horseback, which is by no +means an usual method of travelling.</p> +<p>The road now led me along a low sunken piece of ground between +high trees, so that I could not see far before me, when a fellow +in a brown frock and round hat, with a stick in his hand a great +deal stronger than mine, came up to me. His countenance +immediately struck me as having in it something suspicious. +He however passed me; but, before I was aware, he turned back and +asked me for a halfpenny to buy, as he said, some bread, as he +had eaten nothing that day. I felt in my pocket, and found +that I had no halfpence: no, nor even a sixpence; in short, +nothing but shillings. I told him the circumstance, which I +hoped would excuse me; on which he said, with an air and manner +the drift of which I could not understand, “God bless my +soul!” This drew my attention still closer to the +huge brawny fist, which grasped his stick, and that closer +attention determined me immediately to put my hand in my pocket +and give him a shilling. Meanwhile a coach came up. +The fellow thanked me and went on. Had the coach come a +moment sooner, I should not easily have given him the shilling, +which, God knows, I could not well spare. Whether this was +a footpad or not, I will not pretend to say, but he had every +appearance of it.</p> +<p>I now came to Maidenhead bridge, which is five-and-twenty +English miles from London.</p> +<p>The English milestones give me much pleasure, and they +certainly are a great convenience to travellers. They have +often seemed to ease me of half the distance of a journey merely +by telling me how far I had already gone, and by assuring me that +I was on the right road. For, besides the distance from +London, every milestone informs you that to the next place is so +many miles, and where there are cross-roads there are +direction-posts, so that it is hardly possible to lose +one’s-self in walking. I must confess that all this +journey has seemed but as it were one continued walk for +pleasure.</p> +<p>From Maidenhead bridge there is a delightful prospect towards +a hill, which extends itself along the right bank of the Thames, +and on the top of it there are two beautiful country seats, all +surrounded with meadows and parks. The first is called +Taplow, and belongs to the Earl of Inchiquin; and a little +farther Cliefden, which also belongs to him.</p> +<p>These villas seem all to be surrounded with green meadows, +lying along thick woods, and, altogether, are most charming.</p> +<p>From this bridge it is not far to Maidenhead, near which, on +the left, is another prospect of a beautiful seat, belonging to +Pennyston Powney, Esq.</p> +<p>All this knowledge I have gained chiefly from my English +guide; which I have constantly in my hand; and in which +everything most worthy of notice in every mile is marked. +These notices I get confirmed or refuted by the people at whose +houses I stop; who wonder how I, who am a foreigner, have come to +be so well acquainted with their country.</p> +<p>Maidenhead is a place of little note; for some mulled ale, +which I desired them to make me, I was obliged to pay +ninepence. I fancy they did not take me to be either a +great, or a very rich man, for I heard them say, as I passed on, +“A stout fellow!” This, though perhaps not +untrue, did not seem to sound in my ears as very respectful.</p> +<p>At the end of the village was a shoemaker’s shop, just +as at the end of Salthill there was a barber’s shop.</p> +<p>From hence I went to Henley, which is eleven miles from +Maidenhead, and thirty-six from London.</p> +<p>Having walked pretty fast for six English miles together, and +being now only five miles from Henley, I came to a rising ground +where there just happened to be a milestone, near which I sat +down, to enjoy one of the most delightful prospects, the +contemplation of which I recommend to everyone who may ever +happen to come to this spot. Close before me rose a soft +hill, full of green cornfields, fenced with quick-hedges, and the +top of it was encircled with a wood.</p> +<p>At some little distance, in a large semicircle, one green hill +rose after another, all around me, gently raising themselves +aloft from the banks of the Thames, and on which woods, meadows, +arable lands, and villages were interspersed in the greatest and +most beautiful variety; whilst at their foot the Thames +meandered, in most picturesque windings, among villages, +gentlemen’s seats, and green vales.</p> +<p>The banks of the Thames are everywhere beautiful, everywhere +charming; how delighted was I with the sight of it when, having +lost it for a short time, I suddenly and unexpectedly saw it +again with all its beautiful banks. In the vale below, +flocks were feeding; and from the hills I heard the sweet chimes +of distant bells.</p> +<p>The circumstance that renders these English prospects so +enchantingly beautiful, is a concurrence and union of the <i>tout +ensemble</i>. Everything coincides and conspires to render +them fine, moving pictures. It is impossible to name, or +find a spot, on which the eye would not delight to dwell. +Any of the least beautiful of any of these views that I have seen +in England would, anywhere in Germany, be deemed a paradise.</p> +<p>Reinforced, as it were, by this gratifying prospect, to +support fresh fatigues, I now walked a quick pace, both up and +down the hills, the five remaining miles to Henley, where I +arrived about four in the afternoon.</p> +<p>To the left, just before I got to Henley, on this side of the +Thames, I saw on a hill a fine park and a magnificent country +seat, at present occupied by General Conway.</p> +<p>Just before my entrance into Henley, I walked a little +directly on the banks of the Thames; and sat myself down in the +high grass, whilst opposite to me, on the other side, lay the +park on the hill. As I was a little tired, I fell asleep, +and when I awoke the last rays of the setting sun just shone upon +me.</p> +<p>Invigorated by this sweet, though short, slumber, I walked on +and entered the town. Its appearance, however, indicated +that it was too fine a place for me, and so I determined to stop +at an inn on the road-side, such a one as the Vicar of Wakefield +well calls, “the resort of indigence and +frugality.”</p> +<p>The worst of it was, no one, even in these places of refuge, +would take me in. Yet, on this road, I met two farmers, the +first of whom I asked whether he thought I could get a +night’s lodging at a house which I saw at a distance, by +the road side. “Yes, sir, I daresay you may,” +he replied. But he was mistaken: when I came there, I was +accosted with that same harsh salutation, which though, alas, no +longer quite new to me, was still unpleasing to my ears; +“We have got no beds; you can’t stay here +to-night.” It was the same at the other inn on +the road; I was therefore obliged to determine to walk on as far +as Nettlebed, which was five miles farther, where I arrived +rather late in the evening, when it was indeed quite dark.</p> +<p>Everything seemed to be all alive in this little village; +there was a party of militia soldiers who were dancing, singing, +and making merry. Immediately on my entrance into the +village, the first house that I saw, lying on my left, was an +inn, from which, as usual in England, a large beam extended +across the street to the opposite house, from which hung dangling +an astonishing large sign, with the name of the proprietor.</p> +<p>“May I stay here to-night?” I asked with +eagerness. “Why, yes, you may;” an answer +which, however cold and surly, made me exceedingly happy.</p> +<p>They showed me into the kitchen, and set me down to sup at the +same table with some soldiers and the servants. I now, for +the first time, found myself in one of those kitchens which I had +so often read of in Fielding’s fine novels; and which +certainly give one, on the whole, a very accurate idea of English +manners.</p> +<p>The chimney in this kitchen, where they were roasting and +boiling, seemed to be taken off from the rest of the room and +enclosed by a wooden partition; the rest of the apartment was +made use of as a sitting and eating-room. All round on the +sides were shelves with pewter dishes and plates, and the ceiling +was well stored with provisions of various kinds, such as +sugar-loaves, black-puddings, hams, sausages, flitches of bacon, +&c.</p> +<p>While I was eating, a post-chaise drove up, and in a moment +both the folding-doors were thrown open and the whole house set +in motion, in order to receive, with all due respect, these +guests, who, no doubt, were supposed to be persons of +consequence. The gentlemen alighted, however, only for a +moment, and called for nothing but a couple of pots of beer, and +then drove away again. Notwithstanding, the people of the +house behaved to them with all possible attention, for they came +in a post-chaise.</p> +<p>Though this was only an ordinary village, and they certainly +did not take me for a person of consequence, they yet gave me a +carpeted bedroom, and a very good bed.</p> +<p>The next morning I put on clean linen, which I had along with +me, and dressed myself as well as I could. And now, when I +thus made my appearance, they did not, as they had the evening +before, show me into the kitchen, but into the parlour, a room +that seemed to be allotted for strangers, on the +ground-floor. I was also now addressed by the most +respectful term, “sir;” whereas the evening before I +had been called only “master”: by this latter +appellation, I believe, it is usual to address only farmers and +quite common people.</p> +<p>This was Sunday, and all the family were in their +Sunday-clothes. I now began to be much pleased with this +village, and so I resolved to stop at it for the day, and attend +divine service. For this purpose I borrowed a prayer-book +of my host. Mr. Illing was his name, which struck me the +more, perhaps, because it is a very common name in Germany. +During my breakfast I read over several parts of the English +liturgy, and could not help being struck at the circumstance that +every word in the whole service seems to be prescribed and +dictated to the clergyman. They do not visit the sick but +by a prescribed form; as, for instance, they must begin by +saying, “Peace be to this house,” &c.</p> +<p>Its being called a prayer-book, rather than, like ours, a +hymn-book, arises from the nature of the English service, which +is composed very little of singing, and almost entirely of +praying. The psalms of David, however, are here translated +into English verse, and are generally printed at the end of +English prayer-books.</p> +<p>The prayer-book which my landlord lent me was quite a family +piece, for all his children’s births and names, and also +his own wedding-day, were very carefully set down on it. +Even on this account alone the book would not have been +uninteresting to me.</p> +<p>At half-past nine the service began. Directly opposite +to our house, the boys of the village were all drawn up, as if +they had been recruits to be drilled; all well-looking, healthy +lads, neat and decently dressed, and with their hair cut short +and combed on the forehead, according to the English fashion; +their bosoms were open, and the white frills of their shirts +turned back on each side. They seemed to be drawn up here +at the entrance of the village merely to wait the arrival of the +clergyman.</p> +<p>I walked a little way out of the village, where, at some +distance, I saw several people coming from another village, to +attend divine service here at Nettlebed.</p> +<p>At length came the parson on horseback. The boys pulled +off their hats, and all made him very low bows. He appeared +to be rather an elderly man, and wore his own hair round and +decently dressed, or rather curled naturally.</p> +<p>The bell now rung in, and so I too, with a sort of secret +proud sensation, as if I also had been an Englishman, went with +my prayer-book under my arm to church, along with the rest of the +congregation; and when I got into the church, the clerk very +civilly seated me close to the pulpit.</p> +<p>Nothing can possibly be more simple, apt, and becoming than +the few decorations of this church.</p> +<p>Directly over the altar, on two tables in large letters, the +ten commandments were written. There surely is much wisdom +and propriety in thus placing, full in the view of the people, +the sum and substance of all morality.</p> +<p>Under the pulpit near the steps that led up to it, was a desk, +from which the clergyman read the liturgy, the responses were all +regularly made by the clerk; the whole congregation joining +occasionally, though but in a low voice; as for instance, the +minister said, “Lord, have mercy upon us!” the clerk +and the congregation immediately subjoin, “and forgive us +all our sins.” In general, when the clergyman offers +up a prayer, the clerk and the whole congregation answer only, +Amen!</p> +<p>The English service must needs be exceedingly fatiguing to the +officiating minister, inasmuch as besides a sermon, the greatest +part of the liturgy falls to his share to read, besides the +psalms and two lessons.</p> +<p>The joining of the whole congregation in prayer has something +exceedingly solemn and affecting in it.</p> +<p>Two soldiers, who sat near me in the church, and who had +probably been in London, seemed to wish to pass for philosophers, +and wits; for they did not join in the prayers of the church.</p> +<p>The service was now pretty well advanced, when I observed some +little stir in the desk, the clerk was busy, and they seemed to +be preparing for something new and solemn, and I also perceived +several musical instruments. The clergyman now stopped, and +the clerk then said in a loud voice, “Let us sing to the +praise and glory of God, the forty-seventh psalm.”</p> +<p>I cannot well express how affecting and edifying it seemed to +me, to hear this whole orderly and decent congregation, in this +small country church, joining together with vocal and +instrumental music, in the praise of their Maker. It was +the more grateful, as having been performed, not by mercenary +musicians, but by the peaceful and pious inhabitants of this +sweet village. I can hardly figure to myself any offering +more likely to be grateful to God.</p> +<p>The congregation sang and prayed alternately several times, +and the tunes of the psalms were particularly lively and +cheerful, though at the same time sufficiently grave, and +uncommonly interesting. I am a warm admirer of all sacred +music, and I cannot but add that that of the Church of England is +particularly calculated to raise the heart to devotion; I own it +often affected me even to tears.</p> +<p>The clergyman now stood up and made a short but very proper +discourse on this text: “Not all they who say, Lord, Lord! +shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” His language was +particularly plain, though forcible; his arguments were no less +plain, convincing, and earnest, but contained nothing that was +particularly striking. I do not think the sermon lasted +more than half an hour.</p> +<p>This clergyman had not perhaps a very prepossessing +appearance; I thought him also a little distant and reserved, and +I did not quite like his returning the bows of the farmers with a +very formal nod.</p> +<p>I stayed till the service was quite over, and then went out of +the church with the congregation, and amused myself with reading +the inscriptions on the tombstones in the churchyard, which in +general, are simpler, more pathetic, and better written than +ours.</p> +<p>There were some of them which, to be sure, were ludicrous and +laughable enough.</p> +<p>Among these is one on the tomb of a smith, which on account of +its singularity, I here copy and send you.</p> +<blockquote><p>“My sledge and anvil he declined,<br /> +My bellows too have lost their wind;<br /> +My fire’s extinct, my forge decayed,<br /> +My coals are spent, my iron’s gone,<br /> +My nails are drove: my work is done.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Many of these epitaphs closed with the following quaint +rhymes:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Physicians were in vain;<br /> +God knew the best;<br /> +So here I rest.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the body of the church I saw a marble monument of a son of +the celebrated Dr. Wallis, with the following simple and +affecting inscription:</p> +<blockquote><p>“The same good sense which qualified him for +every public employment<br /> +Taught him to spend his life here in retirement.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All the farmers whom I saw there were dressed, not as ours +are, in coarse frocks, but with some taste, in fine good cloth; +and were to be distinguished from the people of the town, not so +much by their dress, as by the greater simplicity and modesty of +their behaviour.</p> +<p>Some soldiers, who probably were ambitious of being thought to +know the world, and to be wits, joined me, as I was looking at +the church, and seemed to be quite ashamed of it, as they said it +was only a very miserable church. On which I took the +liberty to inform them, that no church could be miserable which +contained orderly and good people.</p> +<p>I stayed here to dinner. In the afternoon there was no +service; the young people however, went to church, and there sang +some few psalms; others of the congregation were also +present. This was conducted with so much decorum, that I +could hardly help considering it as actually a kind of +church-service. I stayed with great pleasure till this +meeting also was over.</p> +<p>I seemed indeed to be enchanted, and as if I could not leave +this village. Three times did I get off, in order to go on +farther, and as often returned, more than half resolved to spend +a week, or more, in my favourite Nettlebed.</p> +<p>But the recollection that I had but a few weeks to stay in +England, and that I must see Derbyshire, at length drove me +away. I cast many a longing, lingering look on the little +church-steeple, and those hospitable friendly roofs, where, all +that morning, I had found myself so perfectly at home.</p> +<p>It was now nearly three o’clock in the afternoon when I +left this place, and I was still eighteen miles from +Oxford. However, I seemed resolved to make more than one +stage of it to Oxford, that seat of the muses, and so, by passing +the night about five miles from it, to reach it in good time next +morning.</p> +<p>The road from Nettlebed seemed to me but as one long fine +gravel walk in a neat garden. And my pace in it was varied, +like that of one walking in a garden: I sometimes walked quick, +then slow, and then sat down and read Milton.</p> +<p>When I had got about eight miles from Nettlebed, and was now +not far from Dorchester, I had the Thames at some distance on my +left, and on the opposite side I saw an extensive hill, behind +which a tall mast seemed to rise. This led me to suppose +that on the other side of the hill there must needs also be a +river. The prospect I promised myself from this hill could +not possibly be passed, and so I went out of the road to the left +over a bridge across the Thames, and mounted the hill, always +keeping the mast in view. When I had attained the summit, I +found (and not without some shame and chagrin) that it was all an +illusion. There was, in fact, nothing before me but a great +plain, and the mast had been fixed there, either as a maypole +only, or to entice curious people out of their way.</p> +<p>I therefore now again, slowly and sullenly, descended the +hill, at the bottom of which was a house, where several people +were looking out of the window, and, as I supposed, laughing at +me. Even if it were so, it seemed to be but fair, and so it +rather amused, than vexed me, and I continued to jog on, without +much regretting my waste journey to the mast.</p> +<p>Not far from Dorchester, I had another delightful view. +The country here became so fine, that I positively could not +prevail on myself to quit it, and so I laid myself down on the +green turf, which was so fresh and sweet, that I could almost +have been contented, like Nebuchadnezzar, to have grazed on +it. The moon was at the full; the sun darted its last +parting rays through the green hedges, to all which was added, +the overpowering fragrance of the meadows, the diversified song +of the birds, the hills that skirted the Thames, some of them of +a light, and others of a dark-green hue, with the tufted tops of +trees dispersed here and there among them. The +contemplation of all these delightful circumstances well-nigh +overcame me.</p> +<p>I arrived rather late at Dorchester. This is only a +small place, but there is in it a large and noble old +church. As I was walking along, I saw several ladies with +their heads dressed, leaning out of their windows, or standing +before the houses, and this made me conclude that this was too +fine a place for me, and so I determined to walk on +three-quarters of a mile farther to Nuneham, which place is only +five miles from Oxford. When I reached Nuneham, I was not a +little tired, and it was also quite dark.</p> +<p>The place consists of two rows of low, neat houses, built +close to each other, and as regular and uniform as a London +street. All the doors seemed to be shut, and even a light +was to be seen only in a few of them.</p> +<p>At length quite at the end of the place, I perceived a great +sign hanging across the street, and the last house to the left +was the inn, at which everything seemed to be still in +motion.</p> +<p>I entered without ceremony, and told them my errand, which +was, that I intended to sleep there that night. “By +no means,” was the answer, “it was utterly +impossible; the whole house was full, and all their beds engaged, +and, as I had come so far, I might even as well walk on the +remaining five miles to Oxford.”</p> +<p>Being very hungry, I requested that, at least, they would give +me something to eat. To this they answered that, as I could +not stay all night there, it would be more proper for me to sup +where I lodged, and so I might go on.</p> +<p>At length, quite humbled by the untowardness of my +circumstances, I asked for a pot of beer, and that they did +vouchsafe to give me, for ready money only; but a bit of bread to +eat with it (for which also I would willingly have paid) they +peremptorily refused me.</p> +<p>Such unparalleled inhospitality I really could not have +expected in an English inn, but resolving, with a kind of +spiteful indignation, to see how far their inhumanity would carry +them, I begged that they would only let me sleep on a bench, and +merely give me house-room, adding, that if they would grant me +that boon only, I would pay them the same as for a bed, for, that +I was so tired, I could not possibly go any farther. Even +in the moment that I was thus humbly soliciting this humble boon, +they banged the door to full in my face.</p> +<p>As here, in a small village, they had refused to receive me, +it seemed to be presumption to hope that I should gain admittance +at Oxford. What could I do? I was much tired, and so, +as it was not a very cold night, I resolved to pass it in the +open air; in this resolution, bouncing from this rude inn, I went +to look out for a convenient spot for that purpose in an +adjoining field, beneath some friendly tree. Just as I had +found a place, which I thought would do, and was going to pull +off my great coat to lay under my head by way of pillow, I heard +someone behind me, following me with a quick pace. At first +I was alarmed, but my fears were soon dispelled by his calling +after me, and asking “if I would accept of +company.”</p> +<p>As little as anyone is to be trusted who thus follows you into +a field in a dark night, yet it was a pleasure to me to find that +there were still some beings not quite inhuman, and at least one +person who still interested himself about me, I therefore +stopped, and as he came up to me he said that if I was a good +walker, we might keep each other company, as he was also going to +Oxford. I readily accepted of his proposal, and so we +immediately set off together.</p> +<p>Now, as I could not tell whether my travelling companion was +to be trusted or not, I soon took an opportunity to let him know +that I was poor, and much distressed. To confirm this, I +told him of the inhumanity with which I had just been treated at +the inn, where they refused a poor wanderer so much as a place to +lay his head, or even a morsel of bread for his money.</p> +<p>My companion somewhat excused the people by saying that the +house was really full of people who had been at work in the +neighbourhood, and now slept there. But that they had +refused me a bit of bread he certainly could not justify. +As we went along, other topics of conversation were started, and +among other things he asked me where I came from that day.</p> +<p>I answered from Nettlebed, and added, that I had attended +divine service there that morning.</p> +<p>“As you probably passed through Dorchester this +afternoon,” said he, “you might have heard me preach +also, had you come into the church there, for that is my curacy, +from which I am just come, and am now returning to +Oxford.” “So you are a clergyman;” said +I, quite overjoyed that, in a dark night, I had met a companion +on the road, who was of the same profession as myself. +“And I, also,” said I, “am a preacher of the +gospel, though not of this country.” And now I +thought it right to give him to understand, that it was not, as I +had before intimated, out of absolute poverty, but with a view of +becoming better acquainted with men and manners, that I thus +travelled on foot. He was as much pleased with this +agreeable meeting as myself, and before we took a step farther, +we cordially shook hands.</p> +<p>He now began to address me in Latin, and on my answering him +in that language, which I attempted to pronounce according to the +English manner of speaking it, he applauded me not a little for +my correct pronunciation. He then told me, that some years +ago, in the night also, and nearly at the same spot where he +found me, he had met another German, who likewise spoke to him in +Latin; but this unknown countryman of mine had pronounced it so +very badly, that he said it was absolutely unintelligible.</p> +<p>The conversation now turned on various theological matters; +and among others on the novel notions of a Dr. Priestly, whom he +roundly blamed. I was not at all disposed to dispute that +point with him, and so, professing with great sincerity, a high +esteem for the Church of England, and great respect and regard +for its clergy, I seemed to gain his good opinion.</p> +<p>Beguiling the tediousness of the road by such discourse, we +were now got, almost without knowing it, quite to Oxford.</p> +<p>He told me I should now see one of the finest and most +beautiful cities, not only in England, but in all Europe. +All he lamented, was, that on account of the darkness of the +night, I should not immediately see it.</p> +<p>This really was the case: “And now,” said he, as +we entered the town, “I introduce you into Oxford by one of +the finest, the longest, and most beautiful streets, not only in +this city, but in England, and I may safely add in all +Europe.”</p> +<p>The beauty and the magnificence of the street I could not +distinguish; but of its length I was perfectly sensible by my +fatigue; for we still went on, and still through the longest, the +finest, and most beautiful street in Europe, which seemed to have +no end; nor had I any assurance that I should be able to find a +bed for myself in all this famous street. At length my +companion stopped to take leave of me, and said he should now go +to his college.</p> +<p>“And I,” said I, “will seat myself for the +night on this stone bench and await the morning, as it will be in +vain for me, I imagine, to look for shelter in a house at this +time of night.”</p> +<p>“Seat yourself on a stone!” said my companion, and +shook his head. “No, no! come along with me to a +neighbouring ale-house, where it is possible they mayn’t be +gone to bed, and we may yet find company.” We went on +a few houses further, and then knocked at a door. It was +then nearly twelve. They readily let us in; but how great +was my astonishment, when, on being shown into a room on the +left, I saw a great number of clergymen, all with their gowns and +bands on, sitting round a large table, each with his pot of beer +before him. My travelling companion introduced me to them, +as a German clergyman, whom he could not sufficiently praise for +my correct pronunciation of the Latin, my orthodoxy, and my good +walking.</p> +<p>I now saw myself in a moment, as it were, all at once +transported into the midst of a company, all apparently very +respectable men, but all strangers to me. And it appeared +to me extraordinary that I should, thus at midnight, be in +Oxford, in a large company of Oxonian clergy, without well +knowing how I had got there. Meanwhile, however, I took all +the pains in my power to recommend myself to my company, and in +the course of conversation, I gave them as good an account as I +could of our German universities, neither denying nor concealing +that, now and then, we had riots and disturbances. +“Oh, we are very unruly here, too,” said one of the +clergymen as he took a hearty draught out of his pot of beer, and +knocked on the table with his hand. The conversation now +became louder, more general, and a little confused; they enquired +after Mr. Bruns, at present professor at Helmstadt, and who was +known by many of them.</p> +<p>Among these gentlemen there was one of the name of Clerk, who +seemed ambitious to pass for a great wit, which he attempted by +starting sundry objections to the Bible. I should have +liked him better if he had confined himself to punning and +playing on his own name, by telling us again and again, that he +should still be at least a Clerk, even though he should never +become a clergyman. Upon the whole, however, he was, in his +way, a man of some humour, and an agreeable companion.</p> +<p>Among other objections to the Scriptures, he started this one +to my travelling companion, whose name I now learnt was Maud, +that it was said in the Bible that God was a wine-bibber. +On this Mr. Maud fell into a violent passion, and maintained that +it was utterly impossible that any such passage should be found +in the Bible. Another divine, a Mr. Caern referred us to +his absent brother, who had already been forty years in the +church, and must certainly know something of such a passage if it +were in the Bible, but he would venture to lay any wager his +brother knew nothing of it.</p> +<p>“Waiter! fetch a Bible!” called out Mr. Clerk, and +a great family Bible was immediately brought in, and opened on +the table among all the beer jugs.</p> +<p>Mr. Clerk turned over a few leaves, and in the book of Judges, +9th chapter, verse xiii, he read, “Should I leave my wine, +which cheereth God and man?”</p> +<p>Mr. Maud and Mr. Caern, who had before been most violent, now +sat as if struck dumb. A silence of some minutes prevailed, +when all at once, the spirit of revelation seemed to come on me, +and I said, “Why, gentlemen, you must be sensible that it +is but an allegorical expression;” and I added, “how +often in the Bible are kings called gods!”</p> +<p>“Why, yes, to be sure,” said Mr. Maud and Mr. +Caern, “it is an allegorical expression; nothing can be +more clear; it is a metaphor, and therefore it is absurd to +understand it in a literal sense.” And now they, in +their turn, triumphed over poor Clerk, and drank large draughts +to my health in strong ale; which, as my company seemed to like +so much, I was sorry I could not like. It either +intoxicated or stupefied me; and I do think it overpowers one +much sooner than so much wine would. The conversation now +turned on many other different subjects. At last, when +morning drew near, Mr. Maud suddenly exclaimed, “D-n me, I +must read prayers this morning at All-Souls!” D-n me +is an abbreviation of G—d d—n me; which, in England, +does not seem to mean more mischief or harm than any of our or +their common expletives in conversation, such as O gemini! or, +The deuce take me!</p> +<p>Before Mr. Maud went away, he invited me to go and see him in +the morning, and very politely offered himself to show me the +curiosities of Oxford. The rest of the company now also +dispersed; and as I had once (though in so singular a manner) +been introduced into so reputable a society, the people of the +house made no difficulty of giving me lodging, but with great +civility showed me a very decent bed-chamber.</p> +<p>I am almost ashamed to own, that next morning, when I awoke, I +had got so dreadful a headache, from the copious and numerous +toasts of my jolly and reverend friends, that I could not +possibly get up; still less could I wait on Mr. Maud at his +college.</p> +<p>The inn where I was goes by the name of the Mitre. +Compared to Windsor, I here found prince-like attendance. +Being, perhaps, a little elevated the preceding evening, I had in +the gaiety, or perhaps in the vanity of my heart, told the +waiter, that he must not think, because I came on foot, that +therefore I should give him less than others gave. I +assured him of the contrary. It was probably not a little +owing to this assurance that I had so much attention shown to +me.</p> +<p>I now determined to stay at least a couple of days at Oxford; +it was necessary and proper, if for no other reason, yet merely +that I might have clean linen. No people are so cleanly as +the English, nor so particular about neat and clean linen. +For, one afternoon, my shirt not having been lately changed, as I +was walking through a little street, I heard two women, who were +standing at a door, call after me, “Look at the gentleman +there! a fine gentleman, indeed, who cannot afford even a clean +shirt!”</p> +<p>I dined below with the family, and a few other persons, and +the conversation in general was agreeable enough. I was +obliged to tell them many wonderful stories (for who are so +illiterate or insensible as not to be delighted with the +marvellous!) concerning Germany and the King of Prussia. +They could not sufficiently admire my courage in determining to +travel on foot, although they could not help approving of the +motive. At length, however, it came out, and they candidly +owned, that I should not have been received into their house, had +I not been introduced as I was.</p> +<p>I was now confirmed in my suspicions, that, in England, any +person undertaking so long a journey on foot, is sure to be +looked upon and considered as either a beggar or a vagabond, or +some necessitous wretch, which is a character not much more +popular than that of a rogue; so that I could now easily account +for my reception in Windsor and at Nuneham. But, with all +my partiality for this country, it is impossible even in theory, +and much less so in practice, to approve of a system which +confines all the pleasures and benefits of travel to the +rich. A poor peripatetic is hardly allowed even the humble +merit of being honest.</p> +<p>As I still intended to pursue my journey to Derbyshire, I was +advised (at least till I got further into the country) to take a +place in a post-coach. They told me that the further I got +from London, the more reasonable and humble I should find the +people; everything would be cheaper, and everybody more +hospitable. This determined me to go in the post-coach from +Oxford to Birmingham; where Mr. Pointer, of London, had +recommended me to a Mr. Fothergill, a merchant there; and from +thence to continue my journey on foot.</p> +<p>Monday I spent at Oxford, but rather unpleasantly, on account +of my headache. Mr. Maud himself came to fetch me, as he +had promised he would, but I found myself unable to go with +him.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding this, in the afternoon, I took a little walk +up a hill, which lies to the north of Oxford; and from the top of +which I could see the whole city; which did not, however, appear +to me nearly so beautiful and magnificent as Mr. Maud had +described it to me during our last night’s walk.</p> +<p>The colleges are mostly in the Gothic taste, and much +overloaded with ornaments, and built with grey stone; which, +perhaps, while it is new, looks pretty well, but it has now the +most dingy, dirty, and disgusting appearance that you can +possibly imagine.</p> +<p>Only one of these colleges is in the modern style. The +houses of the city are in general ordinary, in some parts quite +miserable; in some streets they are only one story high, and have +shingled roofs. To me Oxford seemed to have but a dull and +gloomy look; and I cannot but wonder how it ever came to be +considered as so fine a city, and next to London.</p> +<p>I remained on the hill, on which there was a flight of steps +that led to a subterraneous walk, till sunset, and saw several +students walking here, who wore their black gowns over their +coloured clothes, and flat square hats, just like those I had +seen worn by the Eton scholars. This is the general dress +of all those who belong to the universities, with the exception +of a very trifling difference, by which persons of high birth and +rank are distinguished.</p> +<p>It is probably on account of these gowns that the members of +the university are called Gownsmen, to distinguish them from the +citizens, who are called Townsmen; and when you want to mention +all the inhabitants of Oxford together, you say, “the whole +town, Gownsmen and Townsmen.”</p> +<p>This dress, I must own, pleases me far beyond the boots, +cockades, and other frippery, of many of our students. Nor +am I less delighted with the better behaviour and conduct which, +in general, does so much credit to the students of Oxford.</p> +<p>The next morning Mr. Maud, according to his promise, showed me +some of the things most worthy of notice in Oxford. And +first he took me to his own room in his own college, which was on +the ground floor, very low and dark, and resembled a cell, at +least as much as a place of study. The name of this college +is Corpus Christi. He next conducted me to All Souls’ +College, a very elegant building, in which the chapel is +particularly beautiful. Mr. Maud also showed me, over the +altar here, a fine painting of Mengs, at the sight of which he +showed far more sensibility than I thought him possessed +of. He said that notwithstanding he saw that painting +almost daily, he never saw it without being much affected.</p> +<p>The painting represented Mary Magdalene when she first +suddenly sees Jesus standing before her, and falls at His +feet. And in her countenance pain, joy, grief, in short +almost all the strongest of our passions, are expressed in so +masterly a manner, that no man of true taste was ever tired of +contemplating it; the longer it is looked at the more it is +admired. He now also showed me the library of this college, +which is provided with a gallery round the top, and the whole is +most admirably regulated and arranged. Among other things, +I here saw a description of Oxford, with plates to illustrate it: +and I cannot help observing what, though trite, is true, that all +these places look much better, and are far more beautiful on +paper, than they appeared to me to be as I looked at them where +they actually stand.</p> +<p>Afterwards Mr. Maud conducted me to the Bodleian Library, +which is not unworthy of being compared to the Vatican at Rome; +and next to the building which is called the Theatre, and where +the public orations are delivered. This is a circular +building with a gallery all round it, which is furnished with +benches one above the other, on which the doctors, masters of +arts, and students sit, and directly opposite to each other are +erected two chairs, or pulpits, from which the disputants +harangue and contend.</p> +<p>Christ Church and Queen’s College are the most modern, +and, I think, indisputably the best built of all the +colleges. Balliol College seems particularly to be +distinguished on account of its antiquity, and its complete +Gothic style of building.</p> +<p>Mr. Maud told me that a good deal of money might be sometimes +earned by preaching at Oxford; for all the members of a certain +standing are obliged in their turn to preach in the church of the +university; but many of them, when it comes to their turn, prefer +the procuring a substitute; and so not unfrequently pay as high +as five or six guineas for a sermon.</p> +<p>Mr. Maud also told me he had been now eighteen years at this +university, and might be made a doctor whenever he chose it: he +was a master of arts, and according to his own account gave +lectures in his college on the classics. He also did the +duty and officiated as curate, occasionally, in some of the +neighbouring villages. Going along the street we met the +English poet laureate, Warton, now rather an elderly man; and yet +he is still the fellow of a college. His greatest pleasure +next to poetry is, as Mr. Maud told me, shooting wild ducks.</p> +<p>Mr. Maud seemed upon the whole to be a most worthy and +philanthropic man. He told me, that where he now officiated +the clerk was dead, and had left a numerous family in the +greatest distress; and that he was going to the place next day, +on purpose to try if he could bring about the election of the +son, a lad about sixteen years of age, in the place of his +deceased father, as clerk, to support a necessitous family.</p> +<p>At the Mitre, the inn where I lodged, there was hardly a +minute in which some students or others did not call, either to +drink, or to amuse themselves in conversation with the daughter +of the landlord, who is not only handsome, but sensible, and well +behaved.</p> +<p>They often spoke to me much in praise of a German, of the name +of Mitchel, at least they pronounced it so, who had for many +years rendered himself famous as a musician. I was rejoiced +to hear one of my countrymen thus praised by the English; and +wished to have paid him a visit, but I had not the good fortune +to find him at home.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Castleton</i>, <i>June</i> +30<i>th</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Before</span> I tell you anything of the +place where I now am, I will proceed regularly in my narrative, +and so begin now where I left off in my last letter. On +Tuesday afternoon Mr. Maud took me to the different walks about +Oxford, and often remarked, that they were not only the finest in +England, but he believed in Europe. I own I do not think he +over-rated their merit. There is one in particular near the +river, and close to some charming meadows, behind Corpus Christi +College, which may fairly challenge the world.</p> +<p>We here seated ourselves on a bench, and Mr. Maud drew a +review from his pocket, where, among other things, a German book +of Professor Beckman’s was reviewed and applauded. +Mr. Maud seemed, on this occasion, to show some respect for +German literature. At length we parted. He went to +fill up the vacancy of the clerk’s place at Dorchester, and +I to the Mitre, to prepare for my departure from Oxford, which +took place on Wednesday morning at three o’clock, in the +post-coach. Considering the pleasing, if not kind attention +shown me here, I own I thought my bill not unreasonable; though +to be sure, it made a great hole in my little purse.</p> +<p>Within this coach there was another young man, who, though +dressed in black, yet to judge from the cockade in his hat might +be an officer. The outside was quite full with soldiers and +their wives. The women of the lower class here wear a kind +of short cloak made of red cloth: but women in general, from the +highest to the lowest, wear hats, which differ from each other +less in fashion than they do in fineness.</p> +<p>Fashion is so generally attended to among the English women, +that the poorest maid-servant is careful to be in the +fashion. They seem to be particularly so in their hats or +bonnets, which they all wear: and they are in my opinion far more +becoming than the very unsightly hoods and caps which our German +women, of the rank of citizens, wear. There is, through all +ranks here, not near so great a distinction between high and low +as there is in Germany.</p> +<p>I had, during this day, a little headache; which rendered me +more silent and reserved to my company than is either usual in +England or natural to me. The English are taxed, perhaps +too hastily, with being shy and distant to strangers. I do +not think this was, even formerly, their true character; or that +any such sentiment is conveyed in Virgil’s +“<i>Hospitibus feros</i>.” Be this as it may, +the case was here reversed. The Englishman here spoke to me +several times in a very friendly manner, while I testified not +the least inclination to enter into conversation with him.</p> +<p>He however owned afterwards that it was this very apparent +reserve of mine that first gained me his good opinion.</p> +<p>He said he had studied physic, but with no immediate view of +practising it. His intention, he said, was to go to the +East Indies, and there, first, to try his fortune as an +officer. And he was now going to Birmingham, merely to take +leave of his three sisters, whom he much loved, and who were at +school there.</p> +<p>I endeavoured to merit his confidence by telling him in my +turn of my journey on foot through England; and by relating to +him a few of the most remarkable of my adventures. He +frankly told me he thought it was venturing a great deal, yet he +applauded the design of my journey, and did not severely censure +my plan. On my asking him why Englishmen, who were so +remarkable for acting up to their own notions and ideas, did not, +now and then, merely to see life in every point of view, travel +on foot. “Oh,” said he, “we are too rich, +too lazy, and too proud.”</p> +<p>And most true it is, that the poorest Englishman one sees, is +prouder and better pleased to expose himself to the danger of +having his neck broken on the outside of a stage, than to walk +any considerable distance, though he might walk ever so much at +his ease. I own I was frightened and distressed when I saw +the women, where we occasionally stopped, get down from the top +of the coach. One of them was actually once in much danger +of a terrible fall from the roof, because, just as she was going +to alight, the horses all at once unexpectedly went on. +From Oxford to Birmingham is sixty-two miles; but all that was to +be seen between the two places was entirely lost to me, for I was +again mewed up in a post-coach, and driven along with such +velocity from one place to another, that I seemed to myself as +doing nothing less than travelling.</p> +<p>My companion, however, made me amends in some measure for this +loss. He seemed to be an exceedingly good-tempered and +intelligent man; and I felt in this short time a prepossession in +his favour one does not easily form for an ordinary person. +This, I flattered myself, was also the case with him, and it +would mortify me not a little to think he had quite forgotten me, +as I am sure I shall never forget him.</p> +<p>Just as we had been sometime eagerly conversing about +Shakespeare, we arrived, without either of us having thought of +it, at Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, where +our coach stopped, that being the end of one stage. We were +still two-and-twenty miles from Birmingham, and ninety-four from +London. I need not tell you what our feelings were, on thus +setting our feet on classic ground.</p> +<p>It was here that perhaps the greatest genius nature ever +produced was born. Here he first lisped his native tongue; +here first conceived the embryos of those compositions which were +afterwards to charm a listening world; and on these plains the +young Hercules first played. And here, too, in this lowly +hut, with a few friends, he happily spent the decline of his +life, after having retired from the great theatre of that busy +world whose manners he had so faithfully portrayed.</p> +<p>The river Avon is here pretty broad, and a row of neat though +humble cottages, only one storey high, with shingled roofs, are +ranged all along its banks. These houses impressed me +strongly with the idea of patriarchal simplicity and content.</p> +<p>We went to see Shakespeare’s own house, which, of all +the houses at Stratford I think is now the worst, and one that +made the least appearance. Yet, who would not be proud to +be the owner of it? There now however lived in it only two +old people, who show it to strangers for a trifle, and what +little they earn thus is their chief income.</p> +<p>Shakespeare’s chair, in which he used to sit before the +door, was so cut to pieces that it hardly looked like a chair; +for every one that travels through Stratford cuts off a chip as a +remembrance, which he carefully preserves, and deems a precious +relic, I also cut myself a piece of it, but reverencing +Shakespeare as I do, I am almost ashamed to own to you it was so +small that I have lost it, and therefore you will not see it on +my return.</p> +<p>As we travelled, I observed every spot with attention, +fancying to myself that such or such a spot might be the place +where such a genius as Shakespeare’s first dawned, and +received those first impressions from surrounding nature which +are so strongly marked in all his works. The first +impressions of childhood, I knew, were strong and permanent; of +course I made sure of seeing here some images at least of the +wonderful conceptions of this wonderful man. But my +imagination misled me, and I was disappointed; for I saw nothing +in the country thereabouts at all striking, or in any respect +particularly beautiful. It was not at all wild and +romantic; but rather distinguished for an air of neatness and +simplicity.</p> +<p>We arrived at Birmingham about three o’clock in the +afternoon. I had already paid sixteen shillings at +Stratford for my place in the coach from Oxford to +Birmingham. At Oxford they had not asked anything of me, +and indeed you are not obliged in general in England, as you are +in Germany, to pay your passage beforehand.</p> +<p>My companion and myself alighted at the inn where the coach +stopped. We parted with some reluctance, and I was obliged +to promise him that, on my return to London, I would certainly +call on him, for which purpose he gave me his address. His +father was Dr. Wilson, a celebrated author in his particular +style of writing.</p> +<p>I now inquired for the house of Mr. Fothergill, to whom I was +recommended, and I was readily directed to it, but had the +misfortune to learn, at the same time, that this very Mr. +Fothergill had died about eight days before. As, therefore, +under these circumstances, my recommendation to him was likely to +be but of little use, I had the less desire to tarry long at +Birmingham, and so, without staying a minute longer, I +immediately inquired the road to Derby, and left +Birmingham. Of this famous manufacturing town, therefore, I +can give you no account.</p> +<p>The road from Birmingham onwards is not very agreeable, being +in general uncommonly sandy. Yet the same evening I reached +a little place called Sutton, where everything, however, appeared +to be too grand for me to hope to obtain lodgings in it, till +quite at the end of it I came to a small inn with the sign of the +Swan, under which was written Aulton, brickmaker.</p> +<p>This seemed to have something in it that suited me, and +therefore I boldly went into it; and when in I did not +immediately, as heretofore, inquire if I could stay all night +there, but asked for a pint of ale. I own I felt myself +disheartened by their calling me nothing but master, and by their +showing me into the kitchen, where the landlady was sitting at a +table and complaining much of the toothache. The compassion +I expressed for her on this account, as a stranger, seemed soon +to recommend me to her favour, and she herself asked me if I +would not stay the night there? To this I most readily +assented; and thus I was again happy in a lodging for another +night.</p> +<p>The company I here met with consisted of a female +chimney-sweeper and her children, who, on my sitting down in the +kitchen, soon drank to my health, and began a conversation with +me and the landlady.</p> +<p>She related to us her history, which I am not ashamed to own I +thought not uninteresting. She had married early, but had +the hard luck to be soon deprived of her husband, by his being +pressed as a soldier. She neither saw nor heard of him for +many years, so concluded he was dead. Thus destitute, she +lived seven years as a servant in Ireland, without any +one’s knowing that she was married. During this time +her husband, who was a chimney-sweeper, came back to England and +settled at Lichfield, resumed his old trade, and did well in +it. As soon as he was in good circumstances, he everywhere +made inquiry for his wife, and at last found out where she was, +and immediately fetched her from Ireland. There surely is +something pleasing in this constancy of affection in a +chimney-sweeper. She told us, with tears in her eyes, in +what a style of grandeur he had conducted her into Lichfield; and +how, in honour to her, he made a splendid feast on the +occasion. At this same Lichfield, which is only two miles +from Sutton, and through which she said the road lay which I was +to travel to-morrow, she still lived with this same excellent +husband, where they were noted for their industry, where +everybody respected them, and where, though in the lowest sphere, +they are passing through life neither uselessly nor +unhappily.</p> +<p>The landlady, during her absence, told me as in confidence, +that this chimney-sweeper’s husband, as meanly as I might +fancy she now appeared, was worth a thousand pounds, and that +without reckoning in their plate and furniture, that he always +wore his silver watch, and that when he passed through Sutton, +and lodged there, he paid like a nobleman.</p> +<p>She further remarked that the wife was indeed rather +low-lived; but that the husband was one of the best-behaved, +politest, and civilest men in the world. I had myself taken +notice that this same dingy companion of mine had something +singularly coarse and vulgar in her pronunciation. The word +old, for example, she sounded like auld. In other respects, +I had not yet remarked any striking variety or difference from +the pronunciation of Oxford or London.</p> +<p>To-morrow the chimney-sweeper, said she, her husband, would +not be at home, but if I came back by the way of Lichfield, she +would take the liberty to request the honour of a visit, and to +this end she told me her name and the place of her abode.</p> +<p>At night the rest of the family, a son and daughter of the +landlady, came home, and paid all possible attention to their +sick mother. I supped with the family, and they here +behaved to me as if we had already lived many years together.</p> +<p>Happening to mention that I was, if not a scholar, yet a +student, the son told me there was at Sutton a celebrated +grammar-school, where the school-master received two hundred +pounds a year settled salary, besides the income arising from the +scholars.</p> +<p>And this was only in a village. I thought, and not +without some shame and sorrow, of our grammar-schools in Germany, +and the miserable pay of the masters.</p> +<p>When I paid my reckoning the next morning, I observed the +uncommon difference here and at Windsor, Nettlebed, and +Oxford. At Oxford I was obliged to pay for my supper, bed, +and breakfast at least three shillings, and one to the +waiter. I here paid for my supper, bed, and breakfast only +one shilling, and to the daughter, whom I was to consider as +chambermaid, fourpence; for which she very civilly thanked me, +and gave me a written recommendation to an inn at Lichfield, +where I should be well lodged, as the people in Lichfield were, +in general, she said, very proud. This written +recommendation was a masterpiece of orthography, and showed that +in England, as well as elsewhere, there are people who write +entirely from the ear, and as they pronounce. In English, +however, it seems to look particularly odd, but perhaps that may +be the case in all languages that are not native.</p> +<p>I took leave here, as one does of good friends, with a certain +promise that on my return I would certainly call on them +again.</p> +<p>At noon I got to Lichfield, an old-fashioned town with narrow +dirty streets, where for the first time I saw round panes of +glass in the windows. The place to mime wore an unfriendly +appearance; I therefore made no use of my recommendation, but +went straight through, and only bought some bread at a +baker’s, which I took along with me.</p> +<p>At night I reached Burton, where the famous Burton ale is +brewed. By this time I felt myself pretty well tired, and +therefore proposed to stay the night here. But my courage +failed me, and I dropped the resolution immediately on my +entering the town. The houses and everything else seemed to +wear as grand an appearance, almost, as if I had been still in +London. And yet the manners of some of its inhabitants were +so thoroughly rustic and rude, that I saw them actually pointing +at me with their fingers as a foreigner. And now, to +complete my chagrin and mortification, I came to a long street, +where everybody on both sides of the way were at their doors, and +actually made me run the gauntlet through their inquiring +looks. Some even hissed at me as I passed along. All +my arguments to induce me to pluck up my courage, such as the +certainty that I should never see these people again nor they me, +were of no use. Burton became odious and almost +insupportable to me; and the street appeared as long and tired me +as much, as if I had walked a mile. This strongly-marked +contemptuous treatment of a stranger, who was travelling through +their country merely from the respect he bore it, I experienced +nowhere but at Burton.</p> +<p>How happy did I feel when I again found myself out of their +town, although at that moment I did not know where I should find +a lodging for the night, and was, besides, excessively +tired. But I pursued my journey, and still kept in the road +to Derby, along a footpath which I knew to be right. It led +across a very pleasant mead, the hedges of which were separated +by stiles, over which I was often obliged to clamber. When +I had walked some distance without meeting with an inn on the +road, and it had already begun to be dark, I at last sat me down +near a small toll-house, or a turnpike-gate, in order to rest +myself, and also to see whether the man at the turnpike could and +would lodge me.</p> +<p>After I had sat here a considerable time, a farmer came riding +by, and asked me where I wanted to go? I told him I was so +tired that I could go no farther. On this the good-natured +and truly hospitable man, of his own accord and without the least +distrust, offered to take me behind him on his horse and carry me +to a neighbouring inn, where he said I might stay all night.</p> +<p>The horse was a tall one, and I could not easily get up. +The turnpike-man, who appeared to be quite decrepid and infirm, +on this came out. I took it for granted, however, that he +who appeared to have hardly sufficient strength to support +himself could not help me. This poor looking, feeble old +man, however, took hold of me with one arm, and lifted me with a +single jerk upon the horse so quick and so alertly that it quite +astonished me.</p> +<p>And now I trotted on with my charming farmer, who did not ask +me one single impertinent question, but set me down quietly at +the inn, and immediately rode away to his own village, which lay +to the left.</p> +<p>This inn was called the Bear, and not improperly; for the +landlord went about and growled at his people just like a bear, +so that at first I expected no favourable reception. I +endeavoured to gentle him a little by asking for a mug of ale, +and once or twice drinking to him. This succeeded; he soon +became so very civil and conversable, that I began to think him +quite a pleasant fellow. This device I had learnt of the +“Vicar of Wakefield,” who always made his hosts +affable by inviting them to drink with him. It was an +expedient that suited me also in another point of view, as the +strong ale of England did not at all agree with me.</p> +<p>This innkeeper called me sir; and he made his people lay a +separate table for himself and me; for he said he could see +plainly I was a gentleman.</p> +<p>In our chat, we talked much of George the Second, who appeared +to be his favourite king, much more so than George the +Third. And among others things, we talked of the battle at +Dettingen, of which he knew many particulars. I was obliged +also in my turn to tell him stories of our great King of Prussia, +and his numerous armies, and also what sheep sold for in +Prussia. After we had been thus talking some time, chiefly +on political matters, he all at once asked me if I could blow the +French horn? This he supposed I could do, only because I +came from Germany; for he said he remembered, when he was a boy, +a German had once stopped at the inn with his parents who blew +the French horn extremely well. He therefore fancied this +was a talent peculiar to the Germans.</p> +<p>I removed this error, and we resumed our political topics, +while his children and servants at some distance listened with +great respect to our conversation.</p> +<p>Thus I again spent a very agreeable evening; and when I had +breakfasted in the morning, my bill was not more than it had been +at Sutton. I at length reached the common before Derby on +Friday morning. The air was mild, and I seemed to feel +myself uncommonly cheerful and happy. About noon the +romantic part of the country began to open upon me. I came +to a lofty eminence, where all at once I saw a boundless prospect +of hills before me, behind which fresh hills seemed always to +arise, and to be infinite.</p> +<p>The ground now seemed undulatory, and to rise and fall like +waves; when at the summit of the rise I seemed to be first raised +aloft, and had an extensive view all around me, and the next +moment, when I went down the hill, I lost it.</p> +<p>In the afternoon I saw Derby in the vale before me, and I was +now an hundred and twenty-six miles from London. Derby is +but a small, and not very considerable town. It was +market-day when I got there, and I was obliged to pass through a +crowd of people: but there was here no such odious curiosity, no +offensive staring, as at Burton. At this place too I took +notice that I began to be always civilly bowed to by the children +of the villages through which I passed.</p> +<p>From Derby to the baths of Matlock, which is one of the most +romantic situations, it was still fifteen miles. On my way +thither, I came to a long and extensive village, which I believe +was called Duffield. They here at least did not show me +into the kitchen, but into the parlour; and I dined on cold +victuals.</p> +<p>The prints and pictures which I have generally seen at these +inns are, I think, almost always prints of the royal family, +oftentimes in a group, where the king, as the father of the +family, assembles his children around him; or else I have found a +map of London, and not seldom the portrait of the King of +Prussia; I have met with it several times. You also +sometimes see some of the droll prints of Hogarth. The heat +being now very great, I several times in this village heard the +commiserating exclamation of “Good God Almighty!” by +which the people expressed their pity for me, as being a poor +foot passenger.</p> +<p>At night I again stopped at an inn on the road, about five +miles from Matlock. I could easily have reached Matlock, +but I wished rather to reserve the first view of the country till +the next day than to get there when it was dark.</p> +<p>But I was not equally fortunate in this inn, as in the two +former. The kitchen was full of farmers, among whom I could +not distinguish the landlord, whose health I should otherwise +immediately have drank. It is true I heard a country girl +who was also in the kitchen, as often as she drank say, +“Your health, gentlemen all!” But I do not know +how it was, I forgot to drink any one’s health, which I +afterwards found was taken much amiss. The landlord drank +twice to my health sneeringly, as if to reprimand me for my +incivility; and then began to join the rest in ridiculing me, who +almost pointed at me with their fingers. I was thus obliged +for a time to serve the farmers as a laughing-stock, till at +length one of them compassionately said, “Nay, nay, we must +do him no harm, for he is a stranger.” The landlord, +I suppose, to excuse himself, as if he thought he had perhaps +before gone too far said, “Ay, God forbid we should hurt +any stranger,” and ceased his ridicule; but when I was +going to drink his health, he slighted and refused my attention, +and told me, with a sneer, all I had to do was to seat myself in +the chimney-corner, and not trouble myself about the rest of the +world. The landlady seemed to pity me, and so she led me +into another room where I could be alone, saying, “What +wicked people!”</p> +<p>I left this unfriendly roof early the next morning, and now +quickly proceeded to Matlock.</p> +<p>The extent of my journey I had now resolved should be the +great cavern near Castleton, in the high Peak of +Derbyshire. It was about twenty miles beyond Matlock.</p> +<p>The country here had quite a different appearance from that at +Windsor and Richmond. Instead of green meadows and pleasant +hills, I now saw barren mountains and lofty rocks; instead of +fine living hedges, the fields and pasture lands here were fenced +with a wall of grey stone; and of this very same stone, which is +here everywhere to be found in plenty, all the houses are built +in a very uniform and patriarchal manner, inasmuch as the rough +stones are almost without any preparation placed one upon +another, and compose four walls, so that in case of necessity, a +man might here without much trouble build himself a house. +At Derby the houses seem to be built of the same stone.</p> +<p>The situation of Matlock itself surpassed every idea I had +formed of it. On the right were some elegant houses for the +bathing company, and lesser cottages suspended like birds’ +nests in a high rock; to the left, deep in the bottom, there was +a fine bold river, which was almost hid from the eye by a +majestic arch formed by high trees, which hung over it. A +prodigious stone wall extended itself above a mile along its +border, and all along there is a singularly romantic and +beautiful secret walk, sheltered and adorned by many beautiful +shrubs.</p> +<p>The steep rock was covered at the top with green bushes, and +now and then a sheep, or a cow, separated from the grazing flock, +came to the edge of the precipice, and peeped over it.</p> +<p>I have got, in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” +which I am reading thoroughly through, just to the part where he +describes Paradise, when I arrived here and the following +passage, which I read at the brink of the river, had a most +striking and pleasing effect on me. The landscape here +described was as exactly similar to that I saw before me, as if +the poet had taken it from hence</p> +<blockquote><p>“—delicious Paradise,<br /> +Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,<br /> +As with a rural mound, the champion head<br /> +Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides<br /> +With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,<br /> +Access denied.”—<i>Book</i> IV. v. 132.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>From Matlock Baths you go over Matlock Bridge, to the little +town of Matlock itself, which, in reality, scarcely deserves the +name of a village, as it consists of but a few and miserable +houses. There is here, on account of the baths, a number of +horses and carriages, and a great thoroughfare. From hence +I came through some villages to a small town of the name of +Bakewell. The whole country in this part is hilly and +romantic. Often my way led me, by small passes, over +astonishing eminences, where, in the deep below me, I saw a few +huts or cottages lying. The fencing of the fields with grey +stone gave the whole a wild and not very promising +appearance. The hills were in general not wooded, but naked +and barren; and you saw the flocks at a distance grazing on their +summit.</p> +<p>As I was coming through one of the villages, I heard a great +farmer’s boy eagerly ask another if he did not think I was +a Frenchman. It seemed as if he had been waiting some time +to see the wonder; for, he spoke as though his wish was now +accomplished.</p> +<p>When I was past Bakewell, a place far inferior to Derby, I +came by the side of a broad river, to a small eminence, where a +fine cultivated field lay before me. This field, all at +once, made an indescribable and very pleasing impression on me, +which at first, I could not account for; till I recollected +having seen, in my childhood, near the village where I was +educated, a situation strikingly similar to that now before me +here in England.</p> +<p>This field, as if it had been in Germany, was not enclosed +with hedges, but every spot in it was uninterruptedly diversified +with all kinds of crops and growths of different green and +yellowish colours, which gave the whole a most pleasing effect; +but besides this large field, the general view of the country, +and a thousand other little circumstances which I cannot now +particularly enumerate, served to bring back to my recollection +the years of my youth.</p> +<p>Here I rested myself a while, and when I was going on again I +thought of the place of my residence, on all my acquaintances, +and not a little on you, my dearest friend, and imagined what you +would think and say, if you were to see your friend thus +wandering here all alone, totally unknown, and in a foreign +land. And at that moment I first seriously felt the idea of +distance, and the thought that I was now in England, so very far +from all I loved, or who loved me, produced in me such sensations +as I have not often felt.</p> +<p>It was perhaps the same with you, my dearest friend, when on +our journey to Hamburg we drove from Perlsbeg, to your +birthplace, the village of Boberow; where, among the farmers, you +again found your own playmates, one of whom was now become the +bailiff of the place. On your asking them whether they knew +you, one and all of them answered so heartily, “O, yes, +yes—why, your are Master Frederic.” The +pedantic school-master, you will remember, was not so +frank. He expressed himself in the stiff town phrase of, +“He had not the honour of knowing you, as during your +residence in that village, when a child, he had not been <i>in +loco</i>.”</p> +<p>I now came through a little place of the name of Ashford, and +wished to reach the small village of Wardlow, which was only +three miles distant, when two men came after me, at a distance, +whom I had already seen at Matlock, who called to me to wait for +them. These were the only foot passengers since Mr. Maud, +who had offered to walk with me.</p> +<p>The one was a saddler, and wore a short brown jacket and an +apron, with a round hat. The other was very decently +dressed, but a very silent man, whereas the saddler was quite +talkative.</p> +<p>I listened with astonishment when I heard him begin to speak +of Homer, of Horace, and of Virgil; and still more when he quoted +several passages, by memory, from each of these authors, +pronouncing the words, and laying his emphasis, with as much +propriety as I could possibly have expected, had he been educated +at Cambridge or at Oxford. He advised me not to go to +Wardlow, where I should find bad accommodations, but rather a few +miles to Tideswell, where he lived. This name is, by a +singular abbreviation, pronounced Tidsel, the same as Birmingham +is called by the common people Brummidgeham.</p> +<p>We halted at a small ale-house on the road-side, where the +saddler stopped to drink and talk, and from whence he was in no +haste to depart. He had the generosity and honour, however, +to pay my share of the reckoning, because, as he said, he had +brought me hither.</p> +<p>At no great distance from the house we came to a rising +ground, where my philosophical saddler made me observe a +prospect, which was perhaps the only one of the kind in +England. Below us was a hollow, not unlike a huge kettle, +hollowed out of the surrounding mass of earth; and at the bottom +of it a little valley, where the green meadow was divided by a +small rivulet, that ran in serpentine windings, its banks graced +with the most inviting walks; behind a small winding, there is +just seen a house where one of the most distinguished inhabitants +of this happy vale, a great philosopher, lives retired, +dedicating almost all his time to his favourite studies. He +has transplanted a number of foreign plants into his +grounds. My guide fell into almost a poetic rapture as he +pointed out to me the beauties of this vale, while our third +companion, who grew tired, became impatient at our +tediousness.</p> +<p>We were now led by a steep road to the vale, through which we +passed, and then ascended again among the hills on the other +side.</p> +<p>Not far from Tideswell our third companion left us, as he +lived in a neighbouring place. As we now at length saw +Tideswell lying before us in the vale, the saddler began to give +me an account of his family, adding, by way of episode, that he +never quarrelled with his wife, nor had ever once threatened her +with his fist, much less, ever lifted it against her. For +his own sake, he said, he never called her names, nor gave her +the lie. I must here observe, that it is the greatest +offence you can give any one in England to say to him, <i>you +lie</i>.</p> +<p>To be called a <i>liar</i> is a still greater affront, and you +<i>are a damned liar</i>, is the very acme of vulgar abuse.</p> +<p>Just as in Germany, no one will bear the name of a +<i>scoundrel</i>, or <i>knave</i>, or as in all quarrels, the +bestowing such epithets on our adversary is the signal for +fighting, so the term of a <i>liar</i> in England is the most +offensive, and is always resented by blows. A man would +never forgive himself, nor be forgiven, who could bear to be +called a <i>liar</i>.</p> +<p>Our Jackey in London once looked at me with astonishment, on +my happening to say to him in a joke, you <i>are a +liar</i>. I assure you I had much to do before I could +pacify him.</p> +<p>If one may form a judgment of the character of the whole +nation, from such little circumstances as this, I must say this +rooted hatred of the word liar appears to me to be no bad trait +in the English.</p> +<p>But to return to my travelling companion, who further told me +that he was obliged to earn his livelihood, at some distance from +home, and that he was now returning for the first time, for these +two months, to his family.</p> +<p>He showed me a row of trees near the town which he said his +father had planted, and which, therefore, he never could look at +but with emotion, though he passed them often as he went +backwards and forwards on his little journeys to and from his +birthplace. His father, he added, had once been a rich man, +but had expended all his fortune to support one son. +Unfortunately for himself as well as his family, his father had +gone to America and left the rest of his children poor, +notwithstanding which, his memory was still dear to him, and he +was always affected by the sight of these trees.</p> +<p>Tideswell consists of two rows of low houses, built of rough +grey stone. My guide, immediately on our entrance into the +place, bade me take notice of the church, which was very +handsome, and notwithstanding its age, had still some pretensions +to be considered as an edifice built in the modern taste.</p> +<p>He now asked me whether he should show me to a great inn or to +a cheap one, and as I preferred the latter, he went with me +himself to a small public-house, and very particularly +recommended me to their care as his fellow-traveller, and a +clever man not without learning.</p> +<p>The people here also endeavoured to accommodate me most +magnificently, and for this purpose gave me some toasted cheese, +which was Cheshire cheese roasted and half melted at the +fire. This, in England it seems, is reckoned good eating, +but, unfortunately for me, I could not touch a bit of it; I +therefore invited my landlord to partake of it, and he indeed +seemed to feast on it. As I neither drank brandy nor ale, +he told me I lived far too sparingly for a foot traveller; he +wondered how I had strength to walk so well and so far.</p> +<p>I avail myself of this opportunity to observe that the English +innkeepers are in general great ale drinkers, and for this reason +most of them are gross and corpulent; in particular they are +plump and rosy in their faces. I once heard it said of one +of them, that the extravasated claret in his phiz might well +remind one, as Falstaff says of Bardolph, of hell-fire.</p> +<p>The next morning my landlady did me the honour to drink coffee +with me, but helped me very sparingly to milk and sugar. It +was Sunday, and I went with my landlord to a barber, on whose +shop was written “Shaving for a penny.” There +were a great many inhabitants assembled there, who took me for a +gentleman, on account, I suppose, of my hat, which I had bought +in London for a guinea, and which they all admired. I +considered this as a proof that pomp and finery had not yet +become general thus far from London.</p> +<p>You frequently find in England, at many of the houses of the +common people, printed papers, with sundry apt and good moral +maxims and rules fastened against the room door, just as we find +them in Germany. On such wretched paper some of the most +delightful and the finest sentiments may be read, such as would +do honour to any writer of any country.</p> +<p>For instance, I read among other things this golden rule on +such an ordinary printed paper stuck against a room door, +“Make no comparisons;” and if you consider how many +quarrels, and how much mischief arise in the world from odious +comparisons of the merits of one with the merits of another, the +most delightful lessons of morality are contained in the few +words of the above-mentioned rule.</p> +<p>A man to whom I gave sixpence conducted me out of the town to +the road leading to Castleton, which was close to a wall of +stones confusedly heaped one upon another, as I have before +described. The whole country was hilly and rough, and the +ground covered with brown heath. Here and there some sheep +were feeding.</p> +<p>I made a little digression to a hill to the left, where I had +a prospect awfully beautiful, composed almost entirely of naked +rocks, far and near, among which, those that were entirely +covered with black heath made a most tremendous appearance.</p> +<p>I was now a hundred and seventy miles from London, when I +ascended one of the highest hills, and all at once perceived a +beautiful vale below me, which was traversed by rivers and brooks +and enclosed on all sides by hills. In this vale lay +Castleton, a small town with low houses, which takes its name +from an old castle, whose ruins are still to be seen here.</p> +<p>A narrow path, which wound itself down the side of the rock, +led me through the vale into the street of Castleton, where I +soon found an inn, and also soon dined. After dinner I made +the best of my way to the cavern.</p> +<p>A little rivulet, which runs through the middle of the town, +led me to its entrance.</p> +<p>I stood here a few moments, full of wonder and astonishment at +the amazing height of the steep rock before me, covered on each +side with ivy and other shrubs. At its summit are the +decayed wall and towers of an ancient castle which formerly stood +on this rock, and at its foot the monstrous aperture or mouth to +the entrance of the cavern, where it is pitch dark when one looks +down even at mid-day.</p> +<p>As I was standing here full of admiration, I perceived, at the +entrance of the cavern, a man of a rude and rough appearance, who +asked me if I wished to see the Peak, and the echo strongly +reverberated his coarse voice.</p> +<p>Answering as I did in the affirmative, he next further asked +me if I should want to be carried to the other side of the +stream, telling me at the same time what the sum would be which I +must pay for it.</p> +<p>This man had, along with his black stringy hair and his dirty +and tattered clothes, such a singularly wild and infernal look, +that he actually struck me as a real Charon. His voice, and +the questions he asked me, were not of a kind to remove this +notion, so that, far from its requiring any effort of +imagination, I found it not easy to avoid believing that, at +length, I had actually reached Avernus, was about to cross +Acheron, and to be ferried by Charon.</p> +<p>I had no sooner agreed to his demand, than he told me all I +had to do was boldly to follow him, and thus we entered the +cavern.</p> +<p>To the left, in the entrance of the cavern, lay the trunk of a +tree that had been cut down, on which several of the boys of the +town were playing.</p> +<p>Our way seemed to be altogether on a descent, though not +steep, so that the light which came in at the mouth of the cavern +near the entrance gradually forsook us, and when we had gone +forward a few steps farther, I was astonished by a sight which, +of all other, I here the least expected. I perceived to the +right, in the hollow of the cavern, a whole subterranean village, +where the inhabitants, on account of its being Sunday, were +resting from their work, and with happy and cheerful looks were +sitting at the doors of their huts along with their children.</p> +<p>We had scarcely passed these small subterranean houses when I +perceived a number of large wheels, on which on week days these +human moles, the inhabitants of the cavern, make ropes.</p> +<p>I fancied I here saw the wheel of Ixion, and the incessant +labour of the Danaides.</p> +<p>The opening through which the light came seemed, as we +descended, every moment to become less and less, and the darkness +at every step to increase, till at length only a few rays +appeared, as if darting through a crevice, and just tinging the +small clouds of smoke which, at dusk, raised themselves to the +mouth of the cavern.</p> +<p>This gradual growth, or increase of darkness, awakens in a +contemplative mind a soft melancholy. As you go down the +gentle descent of the cavern, you can hardly help fancying the +moment is come when, without pain or grief, the thread of life is +about to be snapped; and that you are now going thus quietly to +that land of peace where trouble is no more.</p> +<p>At length the great cavern in the rock closed itself, in the +same manner as heaven and earth seem to join each other, when we +came to a little door, where an old woman came out of one of the +huts, and brought two candles, of which we each took one.</p> +<p>My guide now opened the door, which completely shut out the +faint glimmering of light, which, till then, it was still +possible to perceive, and led us to the inmost centre of this +dreary temple of old Chaos and Night, as if, till now, we had +only been traversing the outer courts. The rock was here so +low, that we were obliged to stoop very much for some few steps +in order to get through; but how great was my astonishment, when +we had passed this narrow passage and again stood upright, at +once to perceive, as well as the feeble light of our candles +would permit, the amazing length, breadth, and height of the +cavern; compared to which the monstrous opening through which we +had already passed was nothing!</p> +<p>After we had wandered here more than an hour, as beneath a +dark and dusky sky, on a level, sandy soil, the rock gradually +lowered itself, and we suddenly found ourselves on the edge of a +broad river, which, from the glimmering of our candles amid the +total darkness, suggested sundry interesting reflections. +To the side of this river a small boat was moored, with some +straw in its bottom. Into this boat my guide desired me to +step, and lay myself down in it quite flat; because, as he said, +towards the middle of the river, the rock would almost touch the +water.</p> +<p>When I had laid myself down as directed, he himself jumped +into the water, and drew the boat after him.</p> +<p>All around us was one still, solemn, and deadly silence; and +as the boat advanced, the rock seemed to stoop, and come nearer +and nearer to us, till at length it nearly touched my face; and +as I lay, I could hardly hold the candle upright. I seemed +to myself to be in a coffin rather than in a boat, as I had no +room to stir hand or foot till we had passed this frightful +strait, and the rock rose again on the other side, where my guide +once more handed me ashore.</p> +<p>The cavern was now become, all at once, broad and high: and +then suddenly it was again low and narrow.</p> +<p>I observed on both sides as we passed along a prodigious +number of great and small petrified plants and animals, which, +however, we could not examine, unless we had been disposed to +spend some days in the cavern.</p> +<p>And thus we arrived at the opposite side, at the second river +or stream, which, however, was not so broad as the first, as one +may see across it to the other side; across this stream my guide +carried me on his shoulders, because there was here no boat to +carry us over.</p> +<p>From thence we only went a few steps farther, when we came to +a very small piece of water which extended itself lengthways, and +led us to the end of the cavern.</p> +<p>The path along the edge of this water was wet and slippery, +and sometimes so very narrow, that one can hardly set one foot +before the other.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding, I wandered with pleasure on this subterranean +shore, and was regaling myself with the interesting contemplation +of all these various wonderful objects, in this land of darkness +and shadow of death, when, all at once, something like music at a +distance sounded in mine ears.</p> +<p>I instantly stopped, full of astonishment, and eagerly asked +my guide what this might mean? He answered, “Only +have patience, and you shall soon see.”</p> +<p>But as we advanced, the sounds of harmony seemed to die away; +the noise became weaker and weaker; and at length it seemed to +sink into a gentle hissing or hum, like distant drops of falling +rain.</p> +<p>And how great was my amazement when, ere long, I actually saw +and felt a violent shower of rain falling from the rock, as from +a thick cloud, whose drops, which now fell on our candles, had +caused that same melancholy sound which I had heard at a +distance.</p> +<p>This was what is here called a mizzling rain, which fell from +the ceiling or roof of the cavern, through the veins of the +rock.</p> +<p>We did not dare to approach too near with our candles, as they +might easily have been extinguished by the falling drops; and so +we perhaps have been forced to seek our way back in vain.</p> +<p>We continued our march therefore along the side of the water, +and often saw on the sides large apertures in the rock, which +seemed to be new or subordinate caverns, all which we passed +without looking into. At length my guide prepared me for +one of the finest sights we had yet seen, which we should now +soon behold.</p> +<p>And we had hardly gone on a few paces, when we entered what +might easily have been taken for a majestic temple, with lofty +arches, supported by beautiful pillars, formed by the plastic +hand of some ingenious artist.</p> +<p>This subterranean temple, in the structure of which no human +hand had borne a part, appeared to me at that moment to surpass +all the most stupendous buildings in the world, in point of +regularity, magnificence, and beauty.</p> +<p>Full of admiration and reverence, here, even in the inmost +recesses of nature, I saw the majesty of the Creator displayed; +and before I quitted this temple, here, in this solemn silence +and holy gloom, I thought it would be a becoming act of true +religion to adore, as I cordially did, the God of nature.</p> +<p>We now drew near the end of our journey. Our faithful +companion, the water, guided us through the remainder of the +cavern, where the rock is arched for the last time, and then +sinks till it touches the water, which here forms a semicircle, +and thus the cavern closes, so that no mortal can go one step +farther.</p> +<p>My guide here again jumped into the water, swam a little way +under the rock, and then came back quite wet, to show me that it +was impossible to go any further, unless this rock could be blown +up with powder, and a second cavern opened. I now thought +all we had to do was to return the nearest way; but there were +new difficulties still to encounter, and new scenes to behold +still more beautiful than any I had yet seen.</p> +<p>My guide now turned and went back towards the left, where I +followed him through a large opening in the rock.</p> +<p>And here he first asked me if I could determine to creep a +considerable distance through the rock, where it nearly touched +the ground. Having consented to do so, he told me I had +only to follow him, warning me at the same time to take great +care of my candle.</p> +<p>Thus we crept on our hands and feet, on the wet and muddy +ground, through the opening in the rock, which was often scarcely +large enough for us to get through with our bodies.</p> +<p>When at length we had got through this troublesome passage, I +saw in the cavern a steep hill, which was so high that it seemed +to lose itself as in a cloud, in the summit of the rock.</p> +<p>This hill was so wet and slippery, that as soon as I attempted +to ascend, I fell down. My guide, however, took hold of my +hand and told me I had only resolutely to follow him.</p> +<p>We now ascended such an amazing height, and there were such +precipices on each side, that it makes me giddy even now when I +think of it.</p> +<p>When we at length had gained the summit, where the hill seemed +to lose itself in the rock, my guide placed me where I could +stand firm, and told me to stay there quietly. In the +meantime he himself went down the hill with his candle, and left +me alone.</p> +<p>I lost sight of him for some moments, but at length I +perceived, not him, indeed, but his candle, quite in the bottom, +from whence it seemed to shine like a bright and twinkling +star.</p> +<p>After I had enjoyed this indescribably beautiful sight for +some time, my guide came back, and carried me safely down the +hill again on his shoulders. And as I now stood below, he +went up and let his candle shine again through an opening of the +rock, while I covered mine with my hand; and it was now as if on +a dark night a bright star shone down upon me, a sight which, in +point of beauty, far surpassed all that I had ever seen.</p> +<p>Our journey was now ended, and we returned, not without +trouble and difficulty, through the narrow passage. We +again entered the temple we had a short time before left; again +heard the pattering of the rain, which sounded as rain when we +were near it, but which at a distance seemed a sonorous, dull, +and melancholy hum; and now again we returned across the quiet +streams through the capacious entrance of the cavern to the +little door, where we had before taken our leave of daylight, +which, after so long a darkness, we now again hailed with +joy.</p> +<p>Before my guide opened the door, he told me I should now have +a view of a sight that would surpass all the foregoing. I +found that he was in the right, for when he had only half opened +the door, it really seemed as if I was looking into Elysium.</p> +<p>The day seemed to be gradually breaking, and night and +darkness to have vanished. At a distance you again just saw +the smoke of the cottages, and then the cottages themselves; and +as we ascended we saw the boys still playing around the hewn +trunk, till at length the reddish purple stripes in the sky +faintly appeared through the mouth of the hole; yet, just as we +came out, the sun was setting in the west.</p> +<p>Thus had I spent nearly the whole afternoon till it was quite +evening in the cavern; and when I looked at myself, I was, as to +my dress, not much unlike my guide; my shoes scarcely hung to my +feet, they were so soft and so torn by walking so long on the +damp sand, and the hard pointed stones.</p> +<p>I paid no more than half-a-crown for seeing all that I had +seen, with a trifle to my guide; for it seems he does not get the +half-crown, but is obliged to account for it to his master, who +lives very comfortably on the revenue he derives from this +cavern, and is able to keep a man to show it to strangers.</p> +<p>When I came home I sent for a shoemaker. There was one +who lived just opposite; and he immediately came to examine my +shoes. He told me he could not sufficiently wonder at the +badness of the work, for they were shoes I had brought from +Germany. Notwithstanding this, he undertook, as he had no +new ones ready, to mend them for me as well as he could. +This led me to make a very agreeable acquaintance with this +shoemaker; for when I expressed to him my admiration of the +cavern, it pleased him greatly that in so insignificant a place +as Castleton there should be anything which could inspire people +with astonishment, who came from such distant countries; and +thereupon offered to take a walk with me, to show me, at no great +distance, the famous mountain called Mam Tor, which is reckoned +among the things of most note in Derbyshire.</p> +<p>This mountain is covered with verdure on its summit and sides; +but at the end it is a steep precipice. The middle part +does not, like other mountains, consist of rock, but of a loose +earth, which gives way, and either rolls from the top of the +precipice in little pieces, or tears itself loose in large +masses, and falls with a thundering crash, thus forming a hill on +its side which is continually increasing.</p> +<p>From these circumstances probably is derived the name of Mam +Tor, which literally signifies Mother Hill; for Tor is either an +abbreviation of, or the old word for, Tower, and means not only a +lofty building, but any eminence. Mam is a familiar term, +that obtains in all languages, for Mother; and this mountain, +like a mother, produces several other small hills.</p> +<p>The inhabitants here have a superstitious notion that this +mountain, notwithstanding its daily loss, never decreases, but +always keeps its own, and remains the same.</p> +<p>My companion told me a shocking history of an inhabitant of +Castleton who laid a wager that he would ascend this steep +precipice.</p> +<p>As the lower part is not quite so steep, but rather slanting +upwards, he could get good hold in this soft loose earth, and +clambered up, without looking round. At length he had +gained more than half the ascent, and was just at the part where +it projects and overlooks its basis. From this astonishing +height the unfortunate man cast down his eyes, whilst the +threatening point of the rock hung over him, with tottering +masses of earth.</p> +<p>He trembled all over, and was just going to relinquish his +hold, not daring to move backwards or forwards; in this manner he +hung for some time between heaven and earth, surrounded by +despair. However, his sinews would bear it no longer, and +therefore, in an effort of despair, he once more collected all +his strength and got hold of first one loose stone, and then +another, all of which would have failed him had he not +immediately caught hold of another. By these means, +however, at length, to his own, as well as to the astonishment of +all the spectators, he avoided almost instant and certain death, +safely gained the summit of the hill, and won his wager.</p> +<p>I trembled as I heard this relation, seeing the mountain and +the precipice in question so near to me, I could not help +figuring to myself the man clambering up it.</p> +<p>Not far from hence is Elden Hole, a cavity or pit, or hole in +the earth, of such a monstrous depth, that if you throw in a +pebble stone, and lay your ear to the edge of the hole, you hear +it falling for a long time.</p> +<p>As soon as it comes to the bottom it emits a sound as if some +one were uttering a loud sigh. The first noise it makes on +its being first parted with affects the ear like a subterranean +thunder. This rumbling or thundering noise continues for +some time, and then decreases as the stone falls against first +one hard rock and then another at a greater and a greater depth, +and at length, when it has for some time been falling, the noise +stops with a kind of whizzing or a hissing murmur. The +people have also a world of superstitious stories relating to +this place, one of which is that some person once threw into it a +goose, which appeared again at two miles’ distance in the +great cavern I have already mentioned, quite stripped of its +feathers. But I will not stuff my letters with many of +these fabulous histories.</p> +<p>They reckon that they have in Derbyshire seven wonders of +nature, of which this Elden Hole, the hill of Mam Tor, and the +great cavern I have been at are the principal.</p> +<p>The remaining four wonders are Pool’s Hole, which has +some resemblance to this that I have seen, as I am told, for I +did not see it; next St. Anne’s Well, where there are two +springs which rise close to each other, the one of which is +boiling hot, the other as cold as ice; the next is Tide’s +Well, not far from the town of that name through which I +passed. It is a spring or well, which in general flows or +runs underground imperceptibly, and then all at once rushes forth +with a mighty rumbling or subterranean noise, which is said to +have something musical in it, and overflows its banks; lastly +Chatsworth, a palace or seat belonging to the Dukes of +Devonshire, at the foot of a mountain whose summit is covered +with eternal snow, and therefore always gives one the idea of +winter, at the same time that the most delightful spring blooms +at its foot. I can give you no further description of these +latter wonders, as I only know them by the account given me by +others. They were the subjects with which my guide, the +shoemaker, entertained me during our walk.</p> +<p>While this man was showing me everything within his knowledge +that he thought most interesting, he often expressed his +admiration on thinking how much of the world I had already seen; +and the idea excited in him so lively a desire to travel, that I +had much to do to reason him out of it. He could not help +talking of it the whole evening, and again and again protested +that, had he not got a wife and child, he would set off in the +morning at daybreak along with me; for here in Castleton there is +but little to be earned by the hardest labour or even +genius. Provisions are not cheap, and in short, there is no +scope for exertion. This honest man was not yet thirty.</p> +<p>As we returned, he wished yet to show me the lead mines, but +it was too late. Yet, late as it was, he mended my shoes +the same evening, and I must do him the justice to add in a very +masterly manner.</p> +<p>But I am sorry to tell you I have brought a cough from the +cavern that does not at all please me; indeed, it occasions me no +little pain, which makes me suppose that one must needs breathe a +very unwholesome damp air in this cavern. But then, were +that the case, I do not comprehend how my friend Charon should +have held it out so long and so well as he has.</p> +<p>This morning I was up very early in order to view the ruins, +and to climb a high hill alongside of them. The ruins are +directly over the mouth of the hole on the hill, which extends +itself some distance over the cavern beyond the ruins, and always +widens, though here in front it is so narrow that the building +takes up the whole.</p> +<p>From the ruins all around there is nothing but steep rock, so +that there is no access to it but from the town, where a crooked +path from the foot of the hill is hewn in the rock, but is also +prodigiously steep.</p> +<p>The spot on which the ruins stand is now all overgrown with +nettles and thistles. Formerly, it is said, there was a +bridge from this mountain to the opposite one, of which one may +yet discover some traces, as in the vale which divides the two +rocks we still find the remains of some of the arches on which +the bridge rested. This vale, which lies at the back of the +ruins and probably over the cavern, is called the Cave’s +Way, and is one of the greatest thoroughfares to the town. +In the part at which, at some distance, it begins to descend +between these two mountains, its descent is so gentle that one is +not at all tired in going down it; but if you should happen to +miss the way between the two rocks and continue on the heights, +you are in great danger of falling from the rock, which every +moment becomes steeper and steeper.</p> +<p>The mountain on which the ruins stand is everywhere +rocky. The one on the left of it, which is separated by the +vale, is perfectly verdant and fertile, and on its summit the +pasture hands are divided by stones, piled up in the form of a +wall. This green mountain is at least three times as high +as that on which the ruins stand.</p> +<p>I began to clamber up the green mountain, which is also pretty +steep; and when I had got more than half way up without having +once looked back, I was nearly in the same situation as the +adventurer who clambered up Mam Tor Hill, for when I looked +round, I found my eye had not been trained to view, unmoved, so +prodigious a height. Castleton with the surrounding country +lay below me like a map, the roofs of the houses seemed almost +close to the ground, and the mountain with the ruins itself +seemed to be lying at my feet.</p> +<p>I grew giddy at the prospect, and it required all my reason to +convince me that I was in no danger, and that, at all events, I +could only scramble down the green turf in the same manner as I +had got up. At length I seemed to grow accustomed to this +view till it really gave me pleasure, and I now climbed quite to +the summit and walked over the meadows, and at length reached the +way which gradually descends between the two mountains.</p> +<p>At the top of the green mountain I met with some neat country +girls, who were milking their cows, and coming this same way with +their milk-pails on their heads.</p> +<p>This little rural party formed a beautiful group when some of +them with their milk-pails took shelter, as it began to rain, +under a part of the rock, beneath which they sat down on natural +stone benches, and there, with pastoral innocence and glee, +talked and laughed till the shower was over.</p> +<p>My way led me into the town, from whence I now write, and +which I intend leaving in order to begin my journey back to +London, but I think I shall not now pursue quite the same +road.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Northampton</i>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I took my leave of the honest +shoemaker in Castleton, who would have rejoiced to have +accompanied me, I resolved to return, not by Tideswell, but by +Wardlow, which is nearer.</p> +<p>I there found but one single inn, and in it only a landlady, +who told me that her husband was at work in the lead mines, and +that the cavern at Castleton, and all that I had yet seen, was +nothing to be compared to these lead mines. Her husband, +she said, would be happy to show them to me.</p> +<p>When I came to offer to pay her for my dinner she made some +difficulty about it, because, as I had neither drank ale or +brandy, by the selling of which she chiefly made her livelihood, +she said she could not well make out my bill. On this I +called for a mug of ale (which I did not drink) in order to +enable me the better to settle her reckoning.</p> +<p>At this same time I saw my innkeeper of Tideswell, who, +however, had not, like me, come on foot, but prancing proudly on +horseback.</p> +<p>As I proceeded, and saw the hills rise before me, which were +still fresh in my memory, having so recently become acquainted +with them in my journey thither, I was just reading the passage +in Milton relative to the creation, in which the Angel describes +to Adam how the water subsided, and</p> +<blockquote><p>“Immediately the mountains huge appear<br /> +Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave<br /> +Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Book VII.</i>, 1. 285.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It seemed to me, while reading this passage, as if everything +around me were in the act of creating, and the mountains +themselves appeared to emerge or rise, so animated was the +scene.</p> +<p>I had felt something not very unlike this on my journey +hither, as I was sitting opposite to a hill, whose top was +covered with trees, and was reading in Milton the sublime +description of the combat of the angels, where the fallen angels +are made, with but little regard to chronology, to attack their +antagonists with artillery and cannon, as if it had been a battle +on earth of the present age. The better angels, however, +defend themselves against their antagonists by each seizing on +some hill by the tufts on its summit, tearing them up by the +root, and thus bearing them in their hands to fling them at their +enemy:</p> +<blockquote><p>“—they ran, they flew,<br /> +From their foundation loos’ning to and fro,<br /> +They pluck’d the seated hills with all their load,<br /> +Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops<br /> +Uplifting bore them in their hands—.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Book <i>VI.</i>, 1. 642.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I seemed to fancy to myself that I actually saw an angel there +standing and plucking up a hill before me and shaking it in the +air.</p> +<p>When I came to the last village before I got to Matlock, as it +was now evening and dark, I determined to spend the night there, +and inquired for an inn, which, I was told, was at the end of the +village; and so on I walked, and kept walking till near midnight +before I found this same inn. The place seemed to have no +end. On my journey to Castleton I must either not have +passed through this village or not have noticed its length. +Much tired, and not a little indisposed, I at length arrived at +the inn, where I sat myself down by the fire in the kitchen, and +asked for something to eat. As they told me I could not +have a bed here, I replied I absolutely would not be driven away, +for that if nothing better could be had I would sit all night by +the fire. This I actually prepared to do, and laid my head +on the table in order to sleep.</p> +<p>When the people in the kitchen thought that I was asleep, I +heard them taking about me, and guessing who or what I might +be. One woman alone seemed to take my part, and said, +“I daresay he is a well-bred gentleman;” another +scouted that notion, merely because, as she said, “I had +come on foot;” and “depend on it,” said she, +“he is some poor travelling creature!” My ears +yet ring with the contemptuous tone with which she uttered, +“poor travelling creature!” It seems to express +all the wretchedness of one who neither has house nor +home—a vagabond and outcast of society.</p> +<p>At last, when these unfeeling people saw that I was +determined, at all events, to stay there all night, they gave me +a bed, but not till I had long given up all hopes of getting +one. And in the morning, when they asked me a shilling for +it, I gave them half-a-crown, adding, with something of an air, +that I would have no change. This I did, though perhaps +foolishly, to show them that I was not quite “<i>a poor +creature</i>.” And now they took leave of me with +great civility and many excuses; and I now continued my journey +much at my ease.</p> +<p>When I had passed Matlock I did not go again towards Derby, +but took the road to the left towards Nottingham. Here the +hills gradually disappeared; and my journey now lay through +meadow grounds and cultivated fields.</p> +<p>I must here inform you that the word <i>Peake</i>, or +<i>Pike</i>, in old English signifies a point or summit. +The <i>Peak</i> of Derbyshire, therefore, means that part of the +country which is hilly, or where the mountains are highest.</p> +<p>Towards noon I again came to an eminence, where I found but +one single solitary inn, which had a singular inscription on its +sign. It was in rhyme, and I remember only that it ended +with these words, “Refresh, and then go on.” +“Entertainment for man and horse.” This I have +seen on several signs, but the most common, at all the lesser +ale-houses, is, “A. B. C. or D. dealer in foreign +spirituous liquors.”</p> +<p>I dined here on cold meat and salad. This, or else eggs +and salad, was my usual supper, and my dinner too, at the inns at +which I stopped. It was but seldom that I had the good +fortune to get anything hot. The salad, for which they +brought me all the ingredients, I was always obliged to dress +myself. This, I believe, is always done in England.</p> +<p>The road was now tolerably pleasant, but the country seemed +here to be uniform and unvaried, even to dulness. However, +it was a very fine evening, and as I passed through a village +just before sunset several people who met me accosted me with a +phrase which, at first, I thought odd, but which I now think +civil, if not polite. As if I could possibly want +information on such a point as they passed me, they all very +courteously told me, “’Twas a fine evening,” or +“A pleasant night.”</p> +<p>I have also often met people who as they passed me obligingly +and kindly asked: “How do you do?” To which +unexpected question from total strangers I have now learned to +answer, “Pretty well, I thank you; how do you +do?” This manner of address must needs appear very +singular to a foreigner, who is all at once asked by a person +whom he has never seen before how he does.</p> +<p>After I had passed through this village I came to a green +field, at the side of which I met with an ale-house. The +mistress was sitting at the window. I asked her if I could +stay the night there. She said “No!” and shut +the window in my face.</p> +<p>This unmannerliness recalled to my recollection the many +receptions of this kind to which I have now so often been +exposed, and I could not forbear uttering aloud my indignation at +the inhospitality of the English. This harsh sentiment I +soon corrected, however, as I walked on, by recollecting, and +placing in the opposite scale, the unbounded and unequalled +generosity of this nation, and also the many acts of real and +substantial kindness which I had myself experienced in it.</p> +<p>I at last came to another inn, where there was written on the +sign: “The Navigation Inn,” because it is the depot, +or storehouse, of the colliers of the Trent.</p> +<p>A rougher or ruder kind of people I never saw than these +colliers, whom I here met assembled in the kitchen, and in whose +company I was obliged to spend the evening.</p> +<p>Their language, their dress, their manners were, all of them, +singularly vulgar and disagreeable, and their expressions still +more so, for they hardly spoke a word, without adding “a +G—d d— me” to it, and thus cursing, +quarrelling, drinking, singing, and fighting, they seemed to be +pleased, and to enjoy the evening. I must do them the +justice to add, that none of them, however, at all molested me or +did me any harm. On the contrary, every one again and again +drank my health, and I took care not to forget to drink theirs in +return. The treatment of my host at Matlock was still fresh +in my memory, and so, as often as I drank, I never omitted +saying, “Your healths, gentlemen all!”</p> +<p>When two Englishmen quarrel, the fray is carried on, and +decided, rather by actions than by words; though loud and +boisterous, they do not say much, and frequently repeat the same +thing over and over again, always clinching it with an additional +“G— d— you!” Their anger seems to +overpower their utterance, and can vent only by coming to +blows.</p> +<p>The landlady, who sat in the kitchen along with all this +goodly company, was nevertheless well dressed, and a remarkably +well-looking woman. As soon as I had supped I hastened to +bed, but could not sleep; my quondam companions, the colliers, +made such a noise the whole night through. In the morning, +when I got up, there was not cue to be seen nor heard.</p> +<p>I was now only a few miles from Nottingham, where I arrived +towards noon.</p> +<p>This, of all the towns I have yet seen, except London, seemed +to me to be one of the best, and is undoubtedly the +cleanest. Everything here wore a modern appearance, and a +large place in the centre, scarcely yielded to a London square in +point of beauty.</p> +<p>From the town a charming footpath leads you across the meadows +to the high-road, where there is a bridge over the Trent. +Not far from this bridge was an inn, where I dined, though I +could get nothing but bread-and-butter, of which I desired to +have a toast made.</p> +<p>Nottingham lies high, and made a beautiful appearance at a +distance, with its neat high houses, red roofs, and its lofty +steeples. I have not seen so fine a prospect in any other +town in England.</p> +<p>I now came through several villages, as Ruddington, Bradmore, +and Buny, to Castol, where I stayed all night.</p> +<p>This whole afternoon I heard the ringing of bells in many of +the villages. Probably it is some holiday which they thus +celebrate. It was cloudy weather, and I felt myself not at +all well, and in these circumstances this ringing discomposed me +still more, and made me at length quite low-spirited and +melancholy.</p> +<p>At Castol there were three inns close to each other, in which, +to judge only from the outside of the houses, little but poverty +was to be expected. In the one at which I at length stopped +there was only a landlady, a sick butcher, and a sick carter, +both of whom had come to stay the night. This assemblage of +sick persons gave me the idea of an hospital, and depressed me +still more. I felt some degree of fever, was very restless +all night, and so I kept my bed very late the next morning, until +the woman of the house came and aroused me by saying she had been +uneasy on my account. And now I formed the resolution to go +to Leicester in the post-coach.</p> +<p>I was now only four miles from Loughborough, a small, and I +think, not a very handsome town, where I arrived late at noon, +and dined at the last inn on the road that leads to +Leicester. Here again, far beyond expectation, the people +treated me like a gentleman, and let me dine in the parlour.</p> +<p>From Loughborough to Leicester was only ten miles, but the +road was sandy and very unpleasant walking.</p> +<p>I came through a village called Mountsorrel, which perhaps +takes its name from a little hill at the end of it. As for +the rest, it was all one large plain, all the way to +Leicester.</p> +<p>Towards evening I came to a pleasant meadow just before I got +to Leicester, through which a footpath led me to the town, which +made a good appearance as I viewed it lengthways, and indeed much +larger than it really is.</p> +<p>I went up a long street before I got to the house from which +the post-coaches set out, and which is also an inn. I here +learnt that the stage was to set out that evening for London, but +that the inside was already full; some places were, however, +still left on the outside.</p> +<p>Being obliged to bestir myself to get back to London, as the +time drew near when the Hamburg captain, with whom I intend to +return, had fixed his departure, I determined to take a place as +far as Northampton on the outside.</p> +<p>But this ride from Leicester to Northampton I shall remember +as long as I live.</p> +<p>The coach drove from the yard through a part of the +house. The inside passengers got in in the yard, but we on +the outside were obliged to clamber up in the public street, +because we should have had no room for our heads to pass under +the gateway.</p> +<p>My companions on the top of the coach were a farmer, a young +man very decently dressed, and a blackamoor.</p> +<p>The getting up alone was at the risk of one’s life, and +when I was up I was obliged to sit just at the corner of the +coach, with nothing to hold by but a sort of little handle +fastened on the side. I sat nearest the wheel, and the +moment that we set off I fancied that I saw certain death await +me. All I could do was to take still safer hold of the +handle, and to be more and more careful to preserve my +balance.</p> +<p>The machine now rolled along with prodigious rapidity, over +the stones through the town, and every moment we seemed to fly +into the air, so that it was almost a miracle that we still stuck +to the coach and did not fall. We seemed to be thus on the +wing, and to fly, as often as we passed through a village, or +went down a hill.</p> +<p>At last the being continually in fear of my life became +insupportable, and as we were going up a hill, and consequently +proceeding rather slower than usual, I crept from the top of the +coach and got snug into the basket.</p> +<p>“O, sir, sir, you will be shaken to death!” said +the black, but I flattered myself he exaggerated the +unpleasantness of my post.</p> +<p>As long as we went up hill it was easy and pleasant. +And, having had little or no sleep the night before, I was almost +asleep among the trunks and the packages; but how was the case +altered when we came to go down hill! then all the trunks and +parcels began, as it were, to dance around me, and everything in +the basket seemed to be alive, and I every moment received from +them such violent blows that I thought my last hour was +come. I now found that what the black had told me was no +exaggeration, but all my complaints were useless. I was +obliged to suffer this torture nearly an hour, till we came to +another hill again, when quite shaken to pieces and sadly +bruised, I again crept to the top of the coach, and took +possession of my former seat. “Ah, did not I tell you +that you would be shaken to death?” said the black, as I +was getting up, but I made him no reply. Indeed, I was +ashamed; and I now write this as a warning to all strangers to +stage-coaches who may happen to take it into their heads, without +being used to it, to take a place on the outside of an English +post-coach, and still more, a place in the basket.</p> +<p>About midnight we arrived at Harborough, where I could only +rest myself a moment, before we were again called to set off, +full drive, through a number of villages, so that a few hours +before daybreak we had reached Northampton, which is, however, +thirty-three miles from Leicester.</p> +<p>From Harborough to Leicester I had a most dreadful journey, it +rained incessantly; and as before we had been covered with dust, +we now were soaked with rain. My neighbour, the young man +who sat next me in the middle, that my inconveniences might be +complete, every now and then fell asleep; and as, when asleep, he +perpetually bolted and rolled against me, with the whole weight +of his body, more than once he was very near pushing me entirely +off my seat.</p> +<p>We at last reached Northampton, where I immediately went to +bed, and have slept almost till noon. To-morrow morning I +intend to continue my journey to London in some other +stage-coach.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 15th <i>July</i>, +1782.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> journey from Northampton to +London I can again hardly call a journey, but rather a perpetual +motion, or removal from one place to another, in a close box; +during your conveyance you may, perhaps, if you are in luck, +converse with two or three people shut up along with you.</p> +<p>But I was not so fortunate, for my three travelling companions +were all farmers, who slept so soundly that even the hearty +knocks of the head with which they often saluted each other, did +not awake them.</p> +<p>Their faces, bloated and discoloured by their copious use of +ale and brandy, looked, as they lay before me, like so many lumps +of dead flesh. When now and then they woke, sheep, in which +they all dealt, was the first and last topic of their +conversation. One of the three, however, differed not a +little from the other two; his face was sallow and thin, his eyes +quite sunk and hollow, his long, lank fingers hung quite loose, +and as if detached from his hands. He was, in short, the +picture of avarice and misanthropy. The former he certainly +was; for at every stage he refused to give the coachman the +accustomed perquisite, which every body else paid; and every +farthing he was forced to part with, forced a “G—d +d—n” from his heart. As he sat in the coach, he +seemed anxious to shun the light; and so shut up every window +that he could come at, except when now and then I opened them to +take a slight view of the charms of the country through which we +seemed to be flying, rather than driving.</p> +<p>Our road lay through Newport Pagnell, Dunstable, St. Albans, +Barnet, to Islington, or rather to London itself. But these +names are all I know of the different places.</p> +<p>At Dunstable, if I do not mistake, we breakfasted; and here, +as is usual, everything was paid for in common by all the +passengers; as I did not know this, I ordered coffee separately; +however, when it came, the three farmers also drank of it, and +gave me some of their tea.</p> +<p>They asked me what part of the world I came from; whereas we +in Germany generally inquired what countryman a person is.</p> +<p>When we had breakfasted, and were again seated in the coach, +all the farmers, the lean one excepted, seemed quite alive again, +and now began a conversation on religion and on politics.</p> +<p>One of them brought the history of Samson on the carpet, which +the clergyman of his parish, he said, had lately explained, I +dare say very satisfactorily; though this honest farmer still had +a great many doubts about the great gate which Samson carried +away, and about the foxes with the firebrands between their +tails. In other respects, however, the man seemed not to be +either uninformed or sceptical.</p> +<p>They now proceeded to relate to each other various stories, +chiefly out of the Bible; not merely as important facts, but as +interesting narratives, which they would have told and listened +to with equal satisfaction had they met them anywhere else. +One of them had only heard these stories from his minister in the +church, not being able to read them himself.</p> +<p>The one that sat next to him now began to talk about the Jews +of the Old Testament, and assured us that the present race were +all descended from those old ones. “Ay, and they are +all damned to all eternity!” said his companion, as coolly +and as confidently as if at that moment he had seen them burning +in the bottomless pit.</p> +<p>We now frequently took up fresh passengers, who only rode a +short distance with us, and then got out again. Among +others was a woman from London, whose business was the making of +brandy. She entertained us with a very circumstantial +narrative of all the shocking scenes during the late riot in that +city. What particularly struck me was her saying that she +saw a man, opposite to her house, who was so furious, that he +stood on the wall of a house that was already half burnt down, +and there, like a demon, with his own hands pulled down and +tossed about the bricks which the fire had spared, till at length +he was shot, and fell back among the flames.</p> +<p>At length we arrived at London without any accident, in a hard +rain, about one o’clock. I had been obliged to pay +sixteen shillings beforehand at Northampton, for the sixty miles +to London. This the coachman seemed not to know for +certain, and therefore asked me more earnestly if I was sure I +had paid: I assured him I had, and he took my word.</p> +<p>I looked like a crazy creature when I arrived in London; +notwithstanding which, Mr. Pointer, with whom I left my trunk, +received me in the most friendly manner, and desired me during +dinner to relate to him my adventures.</p> +<p>The same evening I called on Mr. Leonhardi, who, as I did not +wish to hire a lodging for the few days I might be obliged to +wait for a fair wind, got me into the Freemasons’ +Tavern. And here I have been waiting these eight days, and +the wind still continues contrary for Hambro’; though I do +now most heartily wish for a fair wind, as I can no longer make +any improvement by my stay, since I must keep myself in constant +readiness to embark whenever the wind changes; and therefore I +dare go no great distance.</p> +<p>Everybody here is now full of the Marquis of +Rockingham’s death, and the change of the ministry in +consequence of it. They are much displeased that Fox has +given up his seat; and yet it is singular, they still are much +concerned, and interest themselves for him, as if whatever +interested him were the interest of the nation. On Tuesday +there was a highly important debate in Parliament. Fox was +called on to assign the true reasons of his resignation before +the nation. At eleven o’clock the gallery was so full +that nobody could get a place, and the debates only began at +three, and lasted this evening till ten.</p> +<p>About four Fox came. Every one was full of +expectation. He spoke at first with great vehemence, but it +was observed that he gradually became more and more moderate, and +when at length he had vindicated the step he had taken, and +showed it to be, in every point of view, just, wise, and +honourable, he added, with great force and pathos, “and now +I stand here once more as poor as ever I was.” It was +impossible to hear such a speech and such declarations +unmoved.</p> +<p>General Conway then gave his reasons why he did not resign, +though he was of the same political principles as Mr. Fox and Mr. +Burke; he was of the same opinion with them in regard to the +independency of America; the more equal representation of the +people in Parliament, and the regulations necessary in Ireland; +but he did not think the present minister, Lord Shelburne, would +act contrary to those principles. As soon as he did, he +should likewise resign, but not before.</p> +<p>Burke now stood up and made a most elegant though florid +speech, in praise of the late Marquis of Rockingham. As he +did not meet with sufficient attention, and heard much talking +and many murmurs, he said, with much vehemence and a sense of +injured merit, “This is not treatment for so old a member +of Parliament as I am, and I will be heard!”—on which +there was immediately a most profound silence. After he had +said much more in praise of Rockingham, he sub-joined, that with +regard to General Conway’s remaining in the ministry, it +reminded him of a fable he had heard in his youth, of a wolf, +who, on having clothed himself as a sheep, was let into the fold +by a lamb, who indeed did say to him, “Where did you get +those long nails, and those sharp teeth, mamma?” But +nevertheless let him in; the consequence of which was he murdered +the whole flock. Now with respect to General Conway, it +appeared to him, just as though the lamb certainly did perceive +the nails and teeth of the wolf, but notwithstanding, was so +good-tempered to believe that the wolf would change his nature, +and become a lamb. By this, he did not mean to reflect on +Lord Shelburne: only of this he was certain, that the present +administration was a thousand times worse than that under Lord +North (who was present).</p> +<p>When I heard Mr. Pitt speak for the first time, I was +astonished that a man of so youthful an appearance should stand +up at all; but I was still more astonished to see how, while he +spoke, he engaged universal attention. He seems to me not +to be more than one-and-twenty. This same Pitt is now +minister, and even Chancellor of the Exchequer.</p> +<p>It is shocking to a foreigner, to see what violent satires on +men, rather than on things, daily appear in the newspapers, of +which they tell me there are at least a dozen, if not more, +published every day. Some of them side with the Ministry, +and still more I think with the Opposition. A paper that +should be quite impartial, if that were possible, I apprehend +would be deemed so insipid as to find no readers. No longer +ago than yesterday, it was mentioned in one of these newspapers, +that when Fox, who is fallen, saw so young a man as Pitt made the +minister, he exclaimed with Satan, who, in “Paradise +Lost,” on perceiving the man approved by God, called out, +“O hateful sight!”</p> +<p>On Thursday the king went with the usual solemnity to prorogue +the Parliament for a stated time. But I pass this over as a +matter that has already been so often described.</p> +<p>I have also, during this period, become acquainted with Baron +Grothaus, the famous walker, to whom I had also a letter of +recommendation from Baron Groote of Hambro’. He lives +in Chesterfield House, not far from General Paoli, to whom he has +promised to introduce me, if I have time to call on him +again.</p> +<p>I have suffered much this week from the violent cough I +brought with me from the hole in Derbyshire, so that I could not +for some days stir; during which time Messrs. Schonborn and +Leonhardi have visited me very attentively, and contributed much +to my amendment.</p> +<p>I have been obliged to relate as much about my journey out of +London here as I probably shall in Germany of all England in +general. To most people to whom I give an account of my +journey, what I have seen is quite new. I must, however, +here insert a few remarks on the elocution, or manner of +speaking, of this country, which I had forgot before to write to +you.</p> +<p>English eloquence appears to me not to be nearly so capable of +so much variety and diffusion as ours is. Add to this, in +their Parliamentary speeches, in sermons in the pulpit, in the +dialogues on the stage; nay, even in common conversation, their +periods at the end of a sentence are always accompanied by a +certain singular uniform fall of the voice, which, +notwithstanding its monotony has in it something so peculiar, and +so difficult, that I defy any foreigner ever completely to +acquire it. Mr. Leonhardi in particular seemed to me, in +some passages which he repeated out of <i>Hamlet</i>, to have +learnt to sink his voice in the true English manner; yet any one +might know from his speaking that he is not an Englishman. +The English place the accent oftener on the adjectives than they +do on the substantive, which, though undoubtedly the most +significant word in any sentence, has frequently less stress laid +on it than you hear laid on mere epithets. On the stage +they pronounce the syllables and words extremely distinct, so +that at the theatres you may always gain most instruction in +English elocution and pronunciation.</p> +<p>This kingdom is remarkable for running into dialect: even in +London they are said to have one. They say, for example, +“it a’nt” instead of “it is not;” +“I don’t know,” for “I do not +know;” “I don’t know him,” for “I +do not know him;” the latter of which phrases has often +deceived me, as I mistook a negative for an affirmative.</p> +<p>The word “sir,” in English, has a great variety of +significations. With the appellation of “sir,” +an Englishman addresses his king, his friend, his foe, his +servant, and his dog; he makes use of it when asking a question +politely; and a member of Parliament, merely to fill up a +vacancy, when he happens to be at a loss. +“Sir?” in an inquiring tone of voice, signifies what +is your desire? “Sir!” in a humble +tone—gracious Sovereign!—“Sir!” in surly +tone, a box on the ear at your service! To a dog it means a +good beating. And in a speech in Parliament, accompanied by +a pause, it signifies, I cannot now recollect what it is I wish +to say farther.</p> +<p>I do not recollect to have heard any expression repeated +oftener than this, “Never mind it!” A porter +one day fell down, and cut his head on the pavement: “O, +never mind it!” said an Englishman who happened to be +passing by. When I had my trunk fetched from the ship in a +boat, the waterman rowed among the boats, and his boy, who stood +at the head of his boat, got a sound drubbing, because the others +would not let him pass: “O, never mind it!” said the +old one, and kept rowing on.</p> +<p>The Germans who have been here any time almost constantly make +use of Anglicisms, such as “<i>es will nicht +thun</i>” (it will not do), instead of <i>es ist nicht +hinlänglich</i> (it is not sufficient), and many such. +Nay, some even say, “<i>Ich habe es nicht +geminded</i>” (I did not mind it), instead of <i>ich habe +mich nicht daran errinnert</i>, oder <i>daran gedacht</i> (I did +not recollect it, or I did not think of it).</p> +<p>You can immediately distinguish Englishmen when they speak +German, by their pronunciation according to the English manner; +instead of <i>Ich befinde mich wohl</i>, they say <i>Ich +befirmich u’hol</i> (I am very well), the <i>w</i> being as +little noticed as <i>u</i> quickly sounded.</p> +<p>I have often heard, when directing any one in the street, the +phrase, “Go down the street as far as ever you can go, and +ask anybody.” Just as we say, “Every child can +direct you.”</p> +<p>I have already noticed in England they learn to write a much +finer hand than with us. This probably arises from their +making use of only one kind of writing, in which the letters are +all so exact that you would take it for print.</p> +<p>In general, in speaking, reading, in their expressions, and in +writing, they seem, in England, to have more decided rules than +we have. The lowest man expresses himself in proper +phrases, and he who publishes a book, at least writes correctly, +though the matter be ever so ordinary. In point of style, +when they write, they seem to be all of the same country, +profession, rank, and station.</p> +<p>The printed English sermons are beyond all question the best +in the world; yet I have sometimes heard sad, miserable stuff +from their pulpits. I have been in some churches where the +sermons seem to have been transcribed or compiled from essays and +pamphlets; and the motley composition, after all, very badly put +together. It is said that there are a few in London, by +whom some of the English clergy are supposed to get their sermons +made for money.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>London</i>, 18th <i>July</i>.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">write</span> to you now for the last +time from London; and, what is still more, from St. +Catherine’s, one of the most execrable holes in all this +great city, where I am obliged to stay, because the great ships +arrive in the Thames here, and go from hence, and we shall sail +as soon as the wind changes. This it has just now done, yet +still it seems we shall not sail till to-morrow. To-day +therefore I can still relate to you all the little that I have +farther noticed.</p> +<p>On Monday morning I moved from the Freemasons’ Tavern to +a public-house here, of which the master is a German; and where +all the Hambro’ captains lodge. At the +Freemasons’ Tavern, the bill for eight days’ lodging, +breakfast, and dinner came to one guinea and nine shillings and +nine pence. Breakfast, dinner, and coffee were always, with +distinction, reckoned a shilling each. For my lodging I +paid only twelve shillings a week, which was certainly cheap +enough.</p> +<p>At the German’s house in St. Catherine’s, on the +contrary, everything is more reasonable, and you here eat, drink, +and lodge for half-a-guinea a week. Notwithstanding, +however, I would not advise anybody who wishes to see London, to +lodge here long; for St. Catherine’s is one of the most +out-of-the-way and inconvenient places in the whole town.</p> +<p>He who lands here first sees this miserable, narrow, dirty +street, and this mass of ill-built, old, ruinous houses; and of +course forms, at first sight, no very favourable idea of this +beautiful and renowned city.</p> +<p>From Bullstrode Street, or Cavendish Square, to St. +Catherine’s, is little less than half a day’s +journey. Nevertheless, Mr. Schonborn has daily visited me +since I have lived here; and I have always walked back half-way +with him. This evening we took leave of each other near St. +Paul’s, and this separation cost me not a few tears.</p> +<p>I have had a very agreeable visit this afternoon from Mr. +Hansen, one of the assistants to the “Zollner book for all +ranks of men” who brought me a letter from the Rev. Mr. +Zollner at Berlin, and just arrived at London when I was going +away. He is going on business to Liverpool. I have +these few days past, for want of better employment, walked +through several parts of London that I had not before seen. +Yesterday I endeavoured to reach the west end of the town; and I +walked several miles, when finding it was grown quite dark, I +turned back quite tired, without having accomplished my end.</p> +<p>Nothing in London makes so disgusting an appearance to a +foreigner, as the butchers’ shops, especially in the +environs of the Tower. Guts and all the nastiness are +thrown into the middle of the street, and cause an insupportable +stench.</p> +<p>I have forgot to describe the ’Change to you; this +beautiful building is a long square in the centre of which is an +open area, where the merchants assemble. All round, there +are covered walks supported by pillars on which the name of the +different commercial nations you may wish to find are written up, +that among the crowd of people you may be able to find each +other. There are also stone benches made under the covered +walks, which after a ramble from St. Catherine’s, for +example, hither, are very convenient to rest yourself.</p> +<p>On the walls all kinds of handbills are stuck up. Among +others I read one of singular contents. A clergyman +exhorted the people not to assent to the shameful Act of +Parliament for the toleration of Catholics, by suffering their +children to their eternal ruin to be instructed and educated by +them; but rather to give him, an orthodox clergyman of the Church +of England, this employ and this emolument.</p> +<p>In the middle of the area is a stone statue of Charles the +Second. As I sat here on a bench, and gazed on the immense +crowds that people London, I thought that, as to mere dress and +outward appearance, these here did not seem to be materially +different from our people at Berlin.</p> +<p>Near the ’Change is a shop where, for a penny or even a +halfpenny only, you may read as many newspapers as you +will. There are always a number of people about these +shops, who run over the paper as they stand, pay their halfpenny, +and then go on.</p> +<p>Near the ’Change there is a little steeple with a set of +bells which have a charming tone, but they only chime one or two +lively tunes, though in this part of the City you constantly hear +bells ringing in your ears.</p> +<p>It has struck me that in London there is no occasion for any +elementary works or prints, for the instruction of +children. One need only lead them into the City, and show +them the things themselves as they really are. For here it +is contrived, as much as possible, to place in view for the +public inspection every production of art, and every effort of +industry. Paintings, mechanisms, curiosities of all kinds, +are here exhibited in the large and light shop windows, in the +most advantageous manner; nor are spectators wanting, who here +and there, in the middle of the street, stand still to observe +any curious performance. Such a street seemed to me to +resemble a well regulated cabinet of curiosities.</p> +<p>But the squares, where the finest houses are, disdain and +reject all such shows and ornaments, which are adapted only to +shopkeepers’ houses. The squares, moreover, are not +nearly so crowded or so populous as the streets and the other +parts of the city. There is nearly as much difference +between these squares and the Strand in London, in point of +population and bustle, as there is between Millbank and +Fredericksstadt in Berlin.</p> +<p>I do not at present recollect anything further, my dear +friend, worth your attention, which I can now write to you, +except that everything is ready for our departure +to-morrow. I paid Captain Hilkes, with whom I came over +from Hambro’, four guineas for my passage and my board in +the cabin. But Captain Braunschweig, with whom I am to +return, charges me five guineas; because provisions, he says, are +dearer in London than at Hambro’. I now have related +to you all my adventures and all my history from the time that I +took leave of you in the street, my voyage hither with Captain +Hilkes excepted. Of this, all that I think it necessary to +mention is, that, to my great dissatisfaction, it lasted a +fortnight, and three days I was sea-sick. Of my voyage back +I will give you a personal account. And now remember me to +Biester, and farewell till I see you again.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS IN ENGLAND IN 1782***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 5249-h.htm or 5249-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/2/4/5249 + + + +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. 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