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diff --git a/old/teng10h.htm b/old/teng10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8000fb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/teng10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5733 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> +<title>Travels in England in 1782</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Travels in England in 1782, by Charles P. Moritz</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels in England in 1782, by Charles P. Moritz + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Travels in England in 1782 + +Author: Charles P. Moritz + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5249] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 11, 2002] +[Most recently updated: June 11, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII +</pre> +<p> +<a name="startoftext"></a> +Transcribed from the 1886 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +TRAVELS IN ENGLAND IN 1782<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +INTRODUCTION<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Charles P. Moritz’s “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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +“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.”<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +H. M.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER I.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>On the Thames, </i>31st <i>May.<br> +<br> +</i>At 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER II.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London,</i> <i>2nd June.<br> +<br> +</i>This 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<i>The Prospect of London.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +<i>St. James’s Park.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +The cows feed on this green turf, and their milk is sold here on the +spot, quite new.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER III.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London, 5th June.<br> +<br> +</i>At 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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IV.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>The 9th June</i>, 1782.<br> +<br> +I preached 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +The other German clergymen whom I have seen wear wigs, as well as many +of the English.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +<i>Vauxhall.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I must not forget to mention, that the works of Mr. Jacob Boehmen are +all translated into English.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER V.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London</i>, <i>13th June.<br> +<br> +</i>Often 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<i>The Parliament.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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, to order</i>,” apparently often without +much attention being paid to it.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +<i>Election for a Member of Parliament.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VI.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London, June</i> 17<i>th, </i>1782.<br> +<br> +I have 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +</i>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:<br> +<br> +<i>The British Museum.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<i>The Theatre in the Haymarket.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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:<br> +<br> +<br> +“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.”<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +<i>English Customs and Education.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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, of the man, </i>exactly +according to the English pronunciation, and <i>viro, to the man. +</i>The case was just the same afterwards with the Greek.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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</i> +<i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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:<i> </i>“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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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 has 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VII.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London, 20th June, </i>1782.<br> +<br> +At 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<br> +<br> +<i>St. Paul’s.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +Notwithstanding that St. Paul’s is itself very high, the elevation +of the ground on which it stands contributes greatly to its elevation.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +The churchyard is enclosed with an iron rail, and it appears a considerable +distance if you go all round.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<i>Westminster Abbey.<br> +<br> +</i>On a very gloomy dismal day, just such a one as it ought to be, +I went to see Westminster Abbey.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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:<br> +<br> +<br> +“Life is a jest, and all things shew it,<br> +‘I thought so once but now I know it.”<br> +<br> +<br> +Our Handel has also a monument here, where he is represented as large +as life.<br> +<br> +An actress, Pritchard, and Booth, an actor, have also very distinguished +monuments erected here to their memories.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VIII.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Richmond, </i>21st <i>June, </i>1782.<br> +<br> +Yesterday 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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?<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IX.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Windsor</i>, 23rd <i>June.<br> +<br> +</i>I have 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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?<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +They were building at what is called the queen’s palace, and prodigious +quantities of materials are provided for that purpose.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I now left the forest; the clock struck six, and the workmen were going +home from their work.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER X.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Oxford, June </i>25.<br> +<br> +To 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +Between Salthill and Maidenhead, I met with the first very remarkable +and alarming adventure that has occurred during my pilgrimage.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I now came to Maidenhead bridge, which is five-and-twenty English miles +from London.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +These villas seem all to be surrounded with green meadows, lying along +thick woods, and, altogether, are most charming.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +At the end of the village was a shoemaker’s shop, just as at the +end of Salthill there was a barber’s shop.<br> +<br> +From hence I went to Henley, which is eleven miles from Maidenhead, +and thirty-six from London.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +Nothing can possibly be more simple, apt, and becoming than the few +decorations of this church.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +The joining of the whole congregation in prayer has something exceedingly +solemn and affecting in it.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +There were some of them which, to be sure, were ludicrous and laughable +enough.<br> +<br> +Among these is one on the tomb of a smith, which on account of its singularity, +I here copy and send you.<br> +<br> +<br> +“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.”<br> +<br> +<br> +Many of these epitaphs closed with the following quaint rhymes:<br> +<br> +<br> +“Physicians were in vain;<br> +God knew the best;<br> +So here I rest.”<br> +<br> +<br> +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:<br> +<br> +<br> +“The same good sense which qualified him for every public employment<br> +Taught him to spend his life here in retirement.”<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I answered from Nettlebed, and added, that I had attended divine service +there that morning.<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +Beguiling the tediousness of the road by such discourse, we were now +got, almost without knowing it, quite to Oxford.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“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.”<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“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.<br> +<br> +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?”<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +“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!<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XI.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Castleton</i>, <i>June</i> 30<i>th</i>.<br> +<br> +Before 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +He however owned afterwards that it was this very apparent reserve of +mine that first gained me his good opinion.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +I left this unfriendly roof early the next morning, and now quickly +proceeded to Matlock.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +<br> +“ - 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.<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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>.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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>.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +</i>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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +A little rivulet, which runs through the middle of the town, led me +to its entrance.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I fancied I here saw the wheel of Ixion, and the incessant labour of +the Danaides.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +When I had laid myself down as directed, he himself jumped into the +water, and drew the boat after him.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +The cavern was now become, all at once, broad and high: and then suddenly +it was again low and narrow.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +My guide now turned and went back towards the left, where I followed +him through a large opening in the rock.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +My companion told me a shocking history of an inhabitant of Castleton +who laid a wager that he would ascend this steep precipice.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XII.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Northampton.<br> +<br> +When 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +At this same time I saw my innkeeper of Tideswell, who, however, had +not, like me, come on foot, but prancing proudly on horseback.<br> +<br> +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<br> +<br> +<br> +“Immediately the mountains huge appear<br> +Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave<br> +Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky.”<br> +<i>Book VII., </i>1. 285.<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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:<br> +<br> +<br> +“ - 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 - .”<br> +Book <i>VI., </i>1. 642.<br> +<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I was now only a few miles from Nottingham, where I arrived towards +noon.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +I now came through several villages, as Ruddington, Bradmore, and Buny, +to Castol, where I stayed all night.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +From Loughborough to Leicester was only ten miles, but the road was +sandy and very unpleasant walking.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +But this ride from Leicester to Northampton I shall remember as long +as I live.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +My companions on the top of the coach were a farmer, a young man very +decently dressed, and a blackamoor.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +“O, sir, sir, you will be shaken to death!” said the black, +but I flattered myself he exaggerated the unpleasantness of my post.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XIII.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +London, 15th <i>July, </i>1782.<br> +<br> +The 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +They asked me what part of the world I came from; whereas we in Germany +generally inquired what countryman a person is.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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).<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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!”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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</i> <i>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).<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.”<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XIV.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>London, </i>18th <i>July.<br> +<br> +</i>I write 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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +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.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TRAVELS IN ENGLAND IN 1782 ***<br> +<pre> + +******This file should be named teng10h.htm or teng10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, teng11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, teng10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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