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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume
+1, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume 1
+
+Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7876]
+[This file was first posted on May 29, 2003]
+[Last updated on December 17, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PASSAGES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PASSAGES FROM THE ENGLISH NOTE-BOOKS
+
+OF
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+VOL. I.
+
+
+
+To Francis Bennoch, Esq.,
+
+The dear and valued friend, who, by his generous and genial hospitality
+and unfailing sympathy, contributed so largely (as is attested by the
+book itself) to render Mr. Hawthorne's residence in England agreeable and
+homelike, these ENGLISH NOTES are dedicated, with sincere respect and
+regard, by                 The Editor.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+It seems justly due to Mr. Hawthorne that the occasion of any portion of
+his private journals being brought before the Public should be made
+known, since they were originally designed for his own reference only.
+
+There had been a constant and an urgent demand for a life or memoir of
+Mr. Hawthorne; yet, from the extreme delicacy and difficulty of the
+subject, the Editor felt obliged to refuse compliance with this demand.
+Moreover, Mr. Hawthorne had frequently and emphatically expressed the
+hope that no one would attempt to write his Biography; and the Editor
+perceived that it would be impossible for any person, outside of his own
+domestic circle, to succeed in doing it, on account of his extreme
+reserve.  But it was ungracious to do nothing, and therefore the Editor,
+believing that Mr. Hawthorne himself was alone capable of satisfactorily
+answering the affectionate call for some sketch of his life, concluded to
+publish as much as possible of his private records, and even extracts
+from his private letters, in order to gratify the desire of his friends
+and of literary artists to become more intimately acquainted with him.
+The Editor has been severely blamed and wondered at, in some instances,
+for allowing many things now published to see the light; but it has been
+a matter both of conscience and courtesy to withhold nothing that could
+be given up.  Many of the journals were doubtless destroyed; for the
+earliest date found in his American papers was that of 1835.
+
+The Editor has transcribed the manuscripts just as they were left,
+without making any new arrangement or altering any sequence,--merely
+omitting some passages, and being especially careful to preserve whatever
+could throw any light upon his character.  To persons on a quest for
+characteristics, however, each of his books reveals a great many, and it
+is believed that with the aid of the Notes (both American and English)
+the Tales and Romances will make out a very complete and true picture of
+his individuality; and the Notes are often an open sesame to the artistic
+works.
+
+Several thickly written pages of observations--fine and accurate
+etchings--have been omitted, sometimes because too personal with regard
+to himself or others, and sometimes because they were afterwards absorbed
+into one or another of the Romances or papers in Our Old Home.  It seemed
+a pity not to give these original cartoons fresh from his mind, because
+they are so carefully finished at the first stroke.  Yet, as Mr.
+Hawthorne chose his own way of presenting them to the public, it was
+thought better not to exhibit what he himself withheld.  Besides, to any
+other than a fellow-artist they might seem mere repetitions.
+
+It is very earnestly hoped that these volumes of notes--American,
+English, and presently Italian--will dispel an often-expressed opinion
+that Mr. Hawthorne was gloomy and morbid.  He had the inevitable
+pensiveness and gravity of a person who possessed what a friend of his
+called "the awful power of insight"; but his mood was always cheerful and
+equal, and his mind peculiarly healthful, and the airy splendor of his
+wit and humor was the light of his home.  He saw too far to be
+despondent, though his vivid sympathies and shaping imagination often
+made him sad in behalf of others.  He also perceived morbidness, wherever
+it existed, instantly, as if by the illumination of his own steady cheer;
+and he had the plastic power of putting himself into each person's
+situation, and of looking from every point of view, which made his
+charity most comprehensive.  From this cause he necessarily attracted
+confidences, and became confessor to very many sinning and suffering
+souls, to whom he gave tender sympathy and help, while resigning judgment
+to the Omniscient and All-wise.
+
+Throughout his journals it will be seen that Mr. Hawthorne is
+entertaining, and not asserting, opinions and ideas.  He questions,
+doubts, and reflects with his pen, and, as it were, instructs himself.
+So that these Note-Books should be read, not as definitive conclusions of
+his mind, but merely as passing impressions often.  Whatever conclusions
+be arrived at are condensed in the works given to the world by his own
+hand, in which will never be found a careless word.  He was so extremely
+scrupulous about the value and effect of every expression that the Editor
+has felt great compunction in allowing a single sentence to be printed.
+unrevised by himself; but, with the consideration of the above remarks
+always kept in mind, these volumes are intrusted to the generous
+interpretation of the reader.  If any one must be harshly criticised, it
+ought certainly to be the Editor.
+
+When a person breaks in, unannounced, upon the morning hours of an
+artist, and finds him not in full dress, the intruder, and not the
+surprised artist, is doubtless at fault.         S.  H.
+
+Dresden, April, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+
+PASSAGES FROM HAWTHORNE'S ENGLISH NOTE-BOOKS
+
+
+
+
+Liverpool, August 4th, 1853.--A month lacking two days since we left
+America,--a fortnight and some odd days since we arrived in England.  I
+began my services, such as they are, on Monday last, August 1st, and here
+I sit in my private room at the Consulate, while the Vice-Consul and
+clerk are carrying on affairs in the outer office.
+
+The pleasantest incident of the morning is when Mr. Pearce (the
+Vice-Consul) makes his appearance with the account-books, containing the
+receipts and expenditures of the preceding day, and deposits on my desk a
+little rouleau of the Queen's coin, wrapped up in a piece of paper.  This
+morning there were eight sovereigns, four half-crowns, and a shilling,--a
+pretty fair day's work, though not more than the average ought to be.
+This forenoon, thus far, I have had two calls, not of business,--one from
+an American captain and his son, another from Mr. H----  B----, whom I
+met in America, and who has showed us great attention here.  He has
+arranged for us to go to the theatre with some of his family this
+evening.
+
+Since I have been in Liverpool we have hardly had a day, until yesterday,
+without more or less of rain, and so cold and shivery that life was
+miserable.  I am not warm enough even now, but am gradually getting
+acclimated in that respect.
+
+Just now I have been fooled out of half a crown by a young woman, who
+represents herself as an American and destitute, having come over to see
+an uncle whom she found dead, and she has no means of getting back again.
+Her accent is not that of an American, and her appearance is not
+particularly prepossessing, though not decidedly otherwise.  She is
+decently dressed and modest in deportment, but I do not quite trust her
+face.  She has been separated from her husband, as I understand her, by
+course of law, has had two children, both now dead.  What she wants is to
+get back to America, and perhaps arrangements may be made with some
+shipmaster to take her as stewardess or in some subordinate capacity.  My
+judgment, on the whole, is that she is an English woman, married to and
+separated from an American husband,--of no very decided virtue.  I might
+as well have kept my half-crown, and yet I might have bestowed it worse.
+She is very decent in manner, cheerful, at least not despondent.
+
+At two o'clock I went over to the Royal Rock Hotel, about fifteen or
+twenty minutes' steaming from this side of the river.  We are going there
+on Saturday to reside for a while.  Returning, I found that, Mr. B., from
+the American Chamber of Commerce, had called to arrange the time and
+place of a visit to the Consul from a delegation of that body.  Settled
+for to-morrow at quarter past one at Mr. Blodgett's.
+
+
+August 5th.--An invitation this morning from the Mayor to dine at the
+Town Hall on Friday next.  Heaven knows I had rather dine at the humblest
+inn in the city, inasmuch as a speech will doubtless be expected from me.
+However, things must be as they may.
+
+At a quarter past one I was duly on hand at Mr. Blodgett's to receive the
+deputation from the Chamber of Commerce.  They arrived pretty seasonably,
+in two or three carriages, and were ushered into the drawing-room,--seven
+or eight gentlemen, some of whom I had met before.  Hereupon ensued a
+speech from Mr. B., the Chairman of the delegation, short and sweet,
+alluding to my literary reputation and other laudatory matters, and
+occupying only a minute or two.  The speaker was rather embarrassed,
+which encouraged me a little, and yet I felt more diffidence on this
+occasion than in my effort at Mr. Crittenden's lunch, where, indeed, I
+was perfectly self-possessed.  But here, there being less formality, and
+more of a conversational character in what was said, my usual diffidence
+could not so well be kept in abeyance.  However, I did not break down to
+an intolerable extent, and, winding up my eloquence as briefly as
+possible, we had a social talk.  Their whole stay could not have been
+much more than a quarter of an hour.
+
+A call, this morning, at the Consulate, from Dr. Bowrug, who is British
+minister, or something of the kind, in China, and now absent on a
+twelvemonth's leave.  The Doctor is a brisk person, with the address of a
+man of the world,--free, quick to smile, and of agreeable manners.  He
+has a good face, rather American than English in aspect, and does not
+look much above fifty, though he says he is between sixty and seventy.  I
+should take him rather for an active lawyer or a man of business than for
+a scholar and a literary man.  He talked in a lively way for ten or
+fifteen minutes, and then took his leave, offering me any service in his
+power in London,--as, for instance, to introduce me to the Athenaeum
+Club.
+
+
+August 8th.--Day before yesterday I escorted my family to Rock Ferry, two
+miles either up or down the Mersey (and I really don't know which) by
+steamer, which runs every half-hour.  There are steamers going
+continually to Birkenhead and other landings, and almost always a great
+many passengers on the transit.  At this time the boat was crowded so as
+to afford scanty standing-room; it being Saturday, and therefore a kind
+of gala-day.  I think I have never seen a populace before coming to
+England; but this crowd afforded a specimen of one, both male and female.
+The women were the most remarkable; though they seemed not disreputable,
+there was in them a coarseness, a freedom, an--I don't know what, that
+was purely English.  In fact, men and women here do things that would at
+least make them ridiculous in America.  They are not afraid to enjoy
+themselves in their own way, and have no pseudo-gentility to support.
+Some girls danced upon the crowded deck, to the miserable music of a
+little fragment of a band which goes up and down the river on each trip
+of the boat.  Just before the termination of the voyage a man goes round
+with a bugle turned upwards to receive the eleemosynary pence and
+half-pence of the passengers.  I gave one of them, the other day, a
+silver fourpence, which fell into the vitals of the instrument, and
+compelled the man to take it to pieces.
+
+At Rock Ferry there was a great throng, forming a scene not unlike one of
+our muster-days or a Fourth of July, and there were bands of music and
+banners, and small processions after them, and a school of charity
+children, I believe, enjoying a festival.  And there was a club of
+respectable persons, playing at bowls on the bowling-green of the hotel,
+and there were children, infants, riding on donkeys at a penny a ride,
+while their mothers walked alongside to prevent a fall.  Yesterday, while
+we were at dinner, Mr. B. came in his carriage to take us to his
+residence, Poulton Hall.  He had invited us to dine; but I misunderstood
+him, and thought he only intended to give us a drive.  Poulton Hall is
+about three miles from Rock Ferry, the road passing through some pleasant
+rural scenery, and one or two villages, with houses standing close
+together, and old stone or brick cottages, with thatched roofs, and now
+and then a better mansion, apart among trees.  We passed an old church,
+with a tower and spire, and, half-way up, a patch of ivy, dark green, and
+some yellow wall-flowers, in full bloom, growing out of the crevices of
+the stone.  Mr. B. told us that the tower was formerly quite clothed with
+ivy from bottom to top, but that it had fallen away for lack of the
+nourishment that it used to find in the lime between the stones.  This
+old church answered to my Transatlantic fancies of England better than
+anything I have yet seen.  Not far from it was the Rectory, behind a deep
+grove of ancient trees; and there lives the Rector, enjoying a thousand
+pounds a year and his nothing-to-do, while a curate performs the real
+duty on a stipend of eighty pounds.
+
+We passed through a considerable extent of private road, and finally
+drove over a lawn, studded with trees and closely shaven, till we reached
+the door of Poulton Hall.  Part of the mansion is three or four hundred
+years old; another portion is about a hundred and fifty, and still
+another has been built during the present generation.  The house is two
+stories high, with a sort of beetle-browed roof in front.  It is not very
+striking, and does not look older than many wooden houses which I have
+seen in America.  There is a curious stately staircase, with a twisted
+balustrade much like that of the old Province House in Boston.  The
+drawing-room is a handsome modern apartment, being beautifully painted
+and gilded and paper-hung, with a white marble fireplace and rich
+furniture, so that the impression is that of newness, not of age.  It is
+the same with the dining-room, and all the rest of the interior so far as
+I saw it.
+
+Mr. B. did not inherit this old hall, nor, indeed, is he the owner, but
+only the tenant of it.  He is a merchant of Liverpool, a bachelor, with
+two sisters residing with him.  In the entrance-hall, there was a stuffed
+fox with glass eyes, which I never should have doubted to be an actual
+live fox except for his keeping so quiet; also some grouse and other
+game.  Mr. B. seems to be a sportsman, and is setting out this week on an
+excursion to Scotland, moor-fowl shooting.
+
+While the family and two or three guests went to dinner, we walked out to
+see the place.  The gardener, an Irishman, showed us through the garden,
+which is large and well cared for.  They certainly get everything from
+Nature which she can possibly be persuaded to give them, here in England.
+There were peaches and pears growing against the high brick southern
+walls,--the trunk and branches of the trees being spread out perfectly
+flat against the wall, very much like the skin of a dead animal nailed up
+to dry, and not a single branch protruding.  Figs were growing in the
+same way.  The brick wall, very probably, was heated within, by means of
+pipes, in order to re-enforce the insufficient heat of the sun.  It seems
+as if there must be something unreal and unsatisfactory in fruit that
+owes its existence to such artificial methods.  Squashes were growing
+under glass, poor things!  There were immensely large gooseberries in the
+garden; and in this particular berry, the English, I believe, have
+decidedly the advantage over ourselves.  The raspberries, too, were large
+and good.  I espied one gigantic hog-weed in the garden; and, really, my
+heart warmed to it, being strongly reminded of the principal product of
+my own garden at Concord.  After viewing the garden sufficiently, the
+gardener led us to other parts of the estate, and we had glimpses of a
+delightful valley, its sides shady with beautiful trees, and a rich,
+grassy meadow at the bottom.  By means of a steam-engine and subterranean
+pipes and hydrants, the liquid manure from the barn-yard is distributed
+wherever it is wanted over the estate, being spouted in rich showers from
+the hydrants.  Under this influence, the meadow at the bottom of the
+valley had already been made to produce three crops of grass during the
+present season, and would produce another.
+
+The lawn around Poulton Hall, like thousands of other lawns in England,
+is very beautiful, but requires great care to keep it so, being shorn
+every three or four days.  No other country will ever have this charm,
+nor the charm of lovely verdure, which almost makes up for the absence of
+sunshine.  Without the constant rain and shadow which strikes us as so
+dismal, these lawns would be as brown as an autumn leaf.  I have not,
+thus far, found any such magnificent trees as I expected.  Mr. B. told me
+that three oaks, standing in a row on his lawn, were the largest in the
+county.  They were very good trees, to be sure, and perhaps four feet in
+diameter near the ground, but with no very noble spread of foliage.  In
+Concord there are, if not oaks, yet certainly elms, a great deal more
+stately and beautiful.  But, on the whole, this lawn, and the old Hall in
+the midst of it, went a good way towards realizing some of my fancies of
+English life.
+
+By and by a footman, looking very quaint and queer in his livery coat,
+drab breeches, and white stockings, came to invite me to the table, where
+I found Mr. B. and his sisters and guests sitting at the fruit and wine.
+There were port, sherry, madeira, and one bottle of claret, all very
+good; but they take here much heavier wines than we drink now in America.
+After a tolerably long session we went to the tea-room, where I drank
+some coffee, and at about the edge of dusk the carriage drew up to the
+door to take us home.  Mr. B. and his sisters have shown us genuine
+kindness, and they gave us a hearty invitation to come and ramble over
+the house whenever we pleased, during their absence in Scotland.  They
+say that there are many legends and ghost-stories connected with the
+house; and there is an attic chamber, with a skylight, which is called
+the Martyr's chamber, from the fact of its having, in old times, been
+tenanted by a lady, who was imprisoned there, and persecuted to death for
+her religion.  There is an old black-letter library, but the room
+containing it is shut, barred, and padlocked,--the owner of the house
+refusing to let it be opened, lest some of the books should be stolen.
+Meanwhile the rats are devouring them, and the damps destroying them.
+
+
+August 9th.--A pretty comfortable day, as to warmth, and I believe there
+is sunshine overhead; but a sea-cloud, composed of fog and coal-smoke,
+envelops Liverpool.  At Rock Ferry, when I left it at half past nine,
+there was promise of a cheerful day.  A good many gentlemen (or, rather,
+respectable business people) came in the boat, and it is not unpleasant,
+on these fine mornings, to take the breezy atmosphere of the river.  The
+huge steamer Great Britain, bound for Australia, lies right off the Rock
+Ferry landing; and at a little distance are two old hulks of ships of
+war, dismantled, roofed over, and anchored in the river, formerly for
+quarantine purposes, but now used chiefly or solely as homes for old
+seamen, whose light labor it is to take care of these condemned ships.
+There are a great many steamers plying up and down the river to various
+landings in the vicinity; and a good many steam-tugs; also, many boats,
+most of which have dark-red or tan-colored sails, being oiled to resist
+the wet; also, here and there, a yacht or pleasure-boat, and a few ships
+riding stately at their anchors, probably on the point of sailing.  The
+river, however, is by no means crowded; because the immense multitude of
+ships are ensconced in the docks, where their masts make an intricate
+forest for miles up and down the Liverpool shore.  The small black
+steamers, whizzing industriously along, many of them crowded with
+passengers, snake up the chief life of the scene.  The Mersey has the
+color of a mud-puddle, and no atmospheric effect, as far as I have seen,
+ever gives it a more agreeable tinge.
+
+Visitors to-day, thus far, have been H. A. B., with whom I have arranged
+to dine with us at Rock Ferry, and then he is to take us on board the
+Great Britain, of which his father is owner (in great part).  Secondly,
+Monsieur H., the French Consul, who can speak hardly any English, and who
+was more powerfully scented with cigar-smoke than any man I ever
+encountered; a polite, gray-haired, red-nosed gentleman, very courteous
+and formal.  Heaven keep him from me!  At one o'clock, or thereabouts, I
+walked into the city, down through Lord Street, Church Street, and back
+to the Consulate through various untraceable crookednesses.  Coming to
+Chapel Street, I crossed the graveyard of the old Church of St. Nicholas.
+This is, I suppose, the oldest sacred site in Liverpool, a church having
+stood here ever since the Conquest, though, probably, there is little or
+nothing of the old edifice in the present one, either the whole of the
+edifice or else the steeple, being thereto shaken by a chime of bells,--
+perhaps both, at different times,--has tumbled down; but the present
+church is what we Americans should call venerable.  When the first church
+was built, and long afterwards, it must have stood on the grassy verge of
+the Mersey; but now there are pavements and warehouses, and the thronged
+Prince's and George's Docks, between it and the river; and all around it
+is the very busiest bustle of commerce, rumbling wheels, hurrying men,
+porter-shops, everything that pertains to the grossest and most practical
+life.  And, notwithstanding, there is the broad churchyard extending on
+three sides of it, just as it used to be a thousand years ago.  It is
+absolutely paved from border to border with flat tombstones, on a level
+with the soil and with each other, so that it is one floor of stone over
+the whole space, with grass here and there sprouting between the
+crevices.  All these stones, no doubt, formerly had inscriptions; but as
+many people continually pass, in various directions, across the
+churchyard, and as the tombstones are not of a very hard material, the
+records on many of them are effaced.  I saw none very old.  A quarter of
+a century is sufficient to obliterate the letters, and make all smooth,
+where the direct pathway from gate to gate lies over the stones.  The
+climate and casual footsteps rub out any inscription in less than a
+hundred years.  Some of the monuments are cracked.  On many is merely cut
+"The burial place of" so and so; on others there is a long list of
+half-readable names; on some few a laudatory epitaph, out of which,
+however, it were far too tedious to pick the meaning.  But it really is
+interesting and suggestive to think of this old church, first built when
+Liverpool was a small village, and remaining, with its successive dead of
+ten centuries around it, now that the greatest commercial city in the
+world has its busiest centre there.  I suppose people still continue to
+be buried in the cemetery.  The greatest upholders of burials in cities
+are those whose progenitors have been deposited around or within the city
+churches.  If this spacious churchyard stood in a similar position in one
+of our American cities, I rather suspect that long ere now it would have
+run the risk of being laid out in building-lots, and covered with
+warehouses; even if the church itself escaped,--but it would not escape
+longer than till its disrepair afforded excuse for tearing it down.  And
+why should it, when its purposes might be better served in another spot?
+
+We went on board the Great Britain before dinner, between five and six
+o'clock,--a great structure, as to convenient arrangement and adaptation,
+but giving me a strong impression of the tedium and misery of the long
+voyage to Australia.  By way of amusement, she takes over fifty pounds'
+worth of playing-cards, at two shillings per pack, for the use of
+passengers; also, a small, well-selected library.  After a considerable
+time spent on board, we returned to the hotel and dined, and Mr. B. took
+his leave at nine o'clock.
+
+
+August 10th.--I left Rock Ferry for the city at half past nine.  In the
+boat which arrived thence, there were several men and women with baskets
+on their heads, for this is a favorite way of carrying burdens; and they
+trudge onward beneath them, without any apparent fear of an overturn, and
+seldom putting up a hand to steady them.  One woman, this morning, had a
+heavy load of crockery; another, an immense basket of turnips, freshly
+gathered, that seemed to me as much as a man could well carry on his
+back.  These must be a stiff-necked people.  The women step sturdily and
+freely, and with not ungraceful strength.  The trip over to town was
+pleasant, it being a fair morning, only with a low-hanging fog.  Had it
+been in America, I should have anticipated a day of burning heat.
+
+Visitors this morning.  Mr. Ogden of Chicago, or somewhere in the Western
+States, who arrived in England a fortnight ago, and who called on me at
+that time.  He has since been in Scotland, and is now going to London and
+the Continent; secondly, the Captain of the Collins steamer Pacific,
+which sails to-day; thirdly, an American shipmaster, who complained that
+he had never, in his heretofore voyages, been able to get sight of the
+American Consul.
+
+Mr. Pearce's customary matutinal visit was unusually agreeable to-day,
+inasmuch as he laid on my desk nineteen golden sovereigns and thirteen
+shillings.  It being the day of the steamer's departure, an unusual
+number of invoice certificates had been required,--my signature to each
+of which brings me two dollars.
+
+The autograph of a living author has seldom been so much in request at so
+respectable a price.  Colonel Crittenden told me that he had received as
+much as fifty pounds on a single day.  Heaven prosper the trade between
+America and Liverpool!
+
+
+August 15th.--Many scenes which I should have liked to record have
+occurred; but the pressure of business has prevented me from recording
+them from day to day.
+
+On Thursday I went, on invitation from Mr. B., to the prodigious steamer
+Great Britain, down the harbor, and some miles into the sea, to escort
+her off a little way on her voyage to Australia.  There is an immense
+enthusiasm among the English people about this ship, on account of its
+being the largest in the world.  The shores were lined with people to see
+her sail, and there were innumerable small steamers, crowded with men,
+all the way out into the ocean.  Nothing seems to touch the English
+nearer than this question of nautical superiority; and if we wish to hit
+them to the quick, we must hit them there.
+
+On Friday, at 7 P.M., I went to dine with the Mayor.  It was a dinner
+given to the Judges and the Grand Jury.  The Judges of England, during
+the time of holding an Assize, are the persons first in rank in the
+kingdom.  They take precedence of everybody else,--of the highest
+military officers, of the Lord Lieutenants, of the Archbishops,--of the
+Prince of Wales,--of all except the Sovereign, whose authority and
+dignity they represent.  In case of a royal dinner, the Judge would lead
+the Queen to the table.
+
+The dinner was at the Town Hall, and the rooms and the whole affair were
+all in the most splendid style.  Nothing struck me more than the footmen
+in the city livery.  They really looked more magnificent in their
+gold-lace and breeches and white silk stockings than any officers of
+state.  The rooms were beautiful; gorgeously painted and gilded,
+gorgeously lighted, gorgeously hung with paintings,--the plate was
+gorgeous, and the dinner gorgeous in the English fashion.
+
+After the removal of the cloth the Mayor gave various toasts, prefacing
+each with some remarks,--the first, of course, the Sovereign, after which
+"God save the Queen" was sung, the company standing up and joining in the
+chorus, their ample faces glowing with wine, enthusiasm, and loyalty.
+Afterwards the Bar, and various other dignities and institutions were
+toasted; and by and by came the toast to the United States, and to me, as
+their Representative.  Hereupon either "Hail Columbia," or "Yankee
+Doodle," or some other of our national tunes (but Heaven knows which),
+was played; and at the conclusion, being at bay, and with no alternative,
+I got upon my legs, and made a response.  They received me and listened
+to my nonsense with a good deal of rapping, and my speech seemed to give
+great satisfaction; my chief difficulty being in not knowing how to pitch
+my voice to the size of the room.  As for the matter, it is not of the
+slightest consequence.  Anybody may make an after-dinner speech who will
+be content to talk onward without saying anything.  My speech was not
+more than two or three inches long; and, considering that I did not know
+a soul there, except the Mayor himself, and that I am wholly unpractised
+in all sorts of oratory, and that I had nothing to say, it was quite
+successful.  I hardly thought it was in me, but, being once started, I
+felt no embarrassment, and went through it as coolly as if I were going
+to be hanged.
+
+Yesterday, after dinner, I took a walk with my family.  We went through
+by-ways and private roads, and saw more of rural England, with its
+hedge-rows, its grassy fields, and its whitewashed old stone cottages,
+than we have before seen since our arrival.
+
+
+August 20th.--This being Saturday, there early commenced a throng of
+visitants to Rock Ferry.  The boat in which I came over brought from the
+city a multitude of factory-people.  They had bands of music, and banners
+inscribed with the names of the mills they belong to, and other devices:
+pale-looking people, but not looking exactly as if they were underfed.
+They are brought on reduced terms by the railways and steamers, and come
+from great distances in the interior.  These, I believe, were from
+Preston.  I have not yet had an opportunity of observing how they amuse
+themselves during these excursions.
+
+At the dock, the other day, the steamer arrived from Rock Ferry with a
+countless multitude of little girls, in coarse blue gowns, who, as they
+landed, formed in procession, and walked up the dock.  These girls had
+been taken from the workhouses and educated at a charity-school, and
+would by and by be apprenticed as servants.  I should not have conceived
+it possible that so many children could have been collected together,
+without a single trace of beauty or scarcely of intelligence in so much
+as one individual; such mean, coarse, vulgar features and figures
+betraying unmistakably a low origin, and ignorant and brutal parents.
+They did not appear wicked, but only stupid, animal, and soulless.  It
+must require many generations of better life to wake the soul in them.
+All America could not show the like.
+
+
+August 22d.--A Captain Auld, an American, having died here yesterday, I
+went with my clerk and an American shipmaster to take the inventory of
+his effects.  His boarding-house was in a mean street, an old dingy
+house, with narrow entrance,--the class of boarding-house frequented by
+mates of vessels, and inferior to those generally patronized by masters.
+A fat elderly landlady, of respectable and honest aspect, and her
+daughter, a pleasing young woman enough, received us, and ushered us into
+the deceased's bedchamber.  It was a dusky back room, plastered and
+painted yellow; its one window looking into the very narrowest of
+back-yards or courts, and out on a confused multitude of back buildings,
+appertaining to other houses, most of them old, with rude chimneys of
+wash-rooms and kitchens, the bricks of which seemed half loose.
+
+The chattels of the dead man were contained in two trunks, a chest, a
+sail-cloth bag, and a barrel, and consisted of clothing, suggesting a
+thickset, middle-sized man; papers relative to ships and business, a
+spyglass, a loaded iron pistol, some books of navigation, some charts,
+several great pieces of tobacco, and a few cigars; some little plaster
+images, that he had probably bought for his children, a cotton umbrella,
+and other trumpery of no great value.  In one of the trunks we found
+about twenty pounds' worth of English and American gold and silver, and
+some notes of hand, due in America.  Of all these things the clerk made
+an inventory; after which we took possession of the money and affixed the
+consular seal to the trunks, bag, and chest.
+
+While this was going on, we heard a great noise of men quarrelling in an
+adjoining court; and, altogether, it seemed a squalid and ugly place to
+live in, and a most undesirable one to die in.  At the conclusion of our
+labors, the young woman asked us if we would not go into another chamber,
+and look at the corpse, and appeared to think that we should be rather
+glad than otherwise of the privilege.  But, never having seen the man
+during his lifetime, I declined to commence his acquaintance now.
+
+His bills for board and nursing amount to about the sum which we found in
+his trunk; his funeral expenses will be ten pounds more; the surgeon has
+sent in a bill of eight pounds, odd shillings; and the account of another
+medical man is still to be rendered.  As his executor, I shall pay his
+landlady and nurse; and for the rest of the expenses, a subscription must
+be made (according to the custom in such cases) among the shipmasters,
+headed by myself.  The funeral pomp will consist of a hearse, one coach,
+four men, with crape hatbands, and a few other items, together with a
+grave at five pounds, over which his friends will be entitled to place a
+stone, if they choose to do so, within twelve months.
+
+As we left the house, we looked into the dark and squalid dining-room,
+where a lunch of cold meat was set out; but having no associations with
+the house except through this one dead man, it seemed as if his presence
+and attributes pervaded it wholly.  He appears to have been a man of
+reprehensible habits, though well advanced in years.  I ought not to
+forget a brandy-flask (empty) among his other effects.  The landlady and
+daughter made a good impression on me, as honest and respectable persons.
+
+
+August 24th.--Yesterday, in the forenoon, I received a note, and shortly
+afterwards a call at the Consulate from Miss H----, whom I apprehend to
+be a lady of literary tendencies.  She said that Miss L. had promised her
+an introduction, but that, happening to pass through Liverpool, she had
+snatched the opportunity to make my acquaintance.  She seems to be a
+mature lady, rather plain, but with an honest and intelligent face.  It
+was rather a singular freedom, methinks, to come down upon a perfect
+stranger in this way,--to sit with him in his private office an hour or
+two, and then walk about the streets with him, as she did; for I did the
+honors of Liverpool, and showed her the public buildings.  Her talk was
+sensible, but not particularly brilliant nor interesting; a good, solid
+personage, physically and intellectually.  She is an English woman.
+
+In the afternoon, at three o'clock, I attended the funeral of Captain
+Auld.  Being ushered into the dining-room of his boarding-house, I found
+brandy, gin, and wine set out on a tray, together with some little
+spicecakes.  By and by came in a woman, who asked if I were going to the
+funeral; and then proceeded to put a mourning-band on my hat,--a
+black-silk band, covering the whole hat, and streaming nearly a yard
+behind.  After waiting the better part of an hour, nobody else appeared,
+although several shipmasters had promised to attend.  Hereupon, the
+undertaker was anxious to set forth; but the landlady, who was arrayed in
+shining black silk, thought it a shame that the poor man should be buried
+with such small attendance.  So we waited a little longer, during which
+interval I heard the landlady's daughter sobbing and wailing in the
+entry; and but for this tender-heartedness there would have been no tears
+at all.  Finally we set forth,--the undertaker, a friend of his, and a
+young man, perhaps the landlady's son, and myself, in the black-plumed
+coach, and the landlady, her daughter, and a female friend, in the coach
+behind.  Previous to this, however, everybody had taken some wine or
+spirits; for it seemed to be considered disrespectful not to do so.
+
+Before us went the plumed hearse, a stately affair, with a bas-relief of
+funereal figures upon its sides.  We proceeded quite across the city to
+the Necropolis, where the coffin was carried into a chapel, in which we
+found already another coffin, and another set of mourners, awaiting the
+clergyman.  Anon he appeared,--a stern, broad-framed, large, and
+bald-headed man, in a black-silk gown.  He mounted his desk, and read the
+service in quite a feeble and unimpressive way, though with no lack of
+solemnity.  This done, our four bearers took up the coffin, and carried
+it out of the chapel; but, descending the steps, and, perhaps, having
+taken a little too much brandy, one of them stumbled, and down came the
+coffin,--not quite to the ground, however; for they grappled with it, and
+contrived, with a great struggle, to prevent the misadventure.  But I
+really expected to see poor Captain Auld burst forth among us in his
+grave-clothes.
+
+The Necropolis is quite a handsome burial-place, shut in by high walls,
+so overrun with shrubbery that no part of the brick or stone is visible.
+Part of the space within is an ornamental garden, with flowers and green
+turf; the rest is strewn with flat gravestones, and a few raised
+monuments; and straight avenues run to and fro between.  Captain Auld's
+grave was dug nine feet deep.  It is his own for twelve months; but, if
+his friends do not choose to give him a stone, it will become a common
+grave at the end of that time; and four or five more bodies may then be
+piled upon his.  Every one seemed greatly to admire the grave; the
+undertaker praised it, and also the dryness of its site, which he took
+credit to himself for having chosen.  The grave-digger, too, was very
+proud of its depth, and the neatness of his handiwork.  The clergyman,
+who had marched in advance of us from the chapel, now took his stand at
+the head of the grave, and, lifting his hat, proceeded with what remained
+of the service, while we stood bareheaded around.  When he came to a
+particular part, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the undertaker lifted a
+handful of earth, and threw it rattling on the coffin,--so did the
+landlady's son, and so did I.  After the funeral the undertaker's friend,
+an elderly, coarse-looking man, looked round him, and remarked that "the
+grass had never grown on the parties who died in the cholera year"; but
+at this the undertaker laughed in scorn.
+
+As we returned to the gate of the cemetery, the sexton met us, and
+pointed to a small office, on entering which we found the clergyman, who
+was waiting for his burial-fees.  There was now a dispute between the
+clergyman and the undertaker; the former wishing to receive the whole
+amount for the gravestone, which the undertaker, of course, refused to
+pay.  I explained how the matter stood; on which the clergyman
+acquiesced, civilly enough; but it was very strange to see the worldly,
+business-like way in which he entered into this squabble, so soon after
+burying poor Captain Auld.
+
+During our drive back in the mourning-coach, the undertaker, his friend,
+and the landlady's son still kept descanting on the excellence of the
+grave,--"Such a fine grave,"--"Such a nice grave,"--"Such a splendid
+grave,"--and, really, they seemed almost to think it worth while to die,
+for the sake of being buried there.  They deemed it an especial pity that
+such a grave should ever become a common grave.  "Why," said they to me,
+"by paying the extra price you may have it for your own grave, or for
+your family!" meaning that we should have a right to pile ourselves over
+the defunct Captain.  I wonder how the English ever attain to any
+conception of a future existence, since they so overburden themselves
+with earth and mortality in their ideas of funerals.  A drive with an
+undertaker, in a sable-plumed coach!--talking about graves!--and yet he
+was a jolly old fellow, wonderfully corpulent, with a smile breaking out
+easily all over his face,--although, once in a while, he looked
+professionally lugubrious.
+
+All the time the scent of that horrible mourning-coach is in my nostrils,
+and I breathe nothing but a funeral atmosphere.
+
+
+Saturday, August 27th.--This being the gala-day of the manufacturing
+people about Liverpool, the steamboats to Rock Ferry were seasonably
+crowded with large parties of both sexes.  They were accompanied with two
+bands of music, in uniform; and these bands, before I left the hotel,
+were playing, in competition and rivalry with each other in the
+coach-yard, loud martial strains from shining brass instruments.  A prize
+is to be assigned to one or to the other of these bands, and I suppose
+this was a part of the competition.  Meanwhile the merry-making people
+who thronged the courtyard were quaffing coffee from blue earthen mugs,
+which they brought with them,--as likewise they brought the coffee, and
+had it made in the hotel.
+
+It had poured with rain about the time of their arrival, notwithstanding
+which they did not seem disheartened; for, of course, in this climate, it
+enters into all their calculations to be drenched through and through.
+By and by the sun shone out, and it has continued to shine and shade
+every ten minutes ever since.  All these people were decently dressed;
+the men generally in dark clothes, not so smartly as Americans on a
+festal day, but so as not to be greatly different as regards dress.  They
+were paler, smaller, less wholesome-looking and less intelligent, and, I
+think, less noisy, than so many Yankees would have been.  The women and
+girls differed much more from what American girls and women would be on a
+pleasure-excursion, being so shabbily dressed, with no kind of smartness,
+no silks, nothing but cotton gowns, I believe, and ill-looking bonnets,--
+which, however, was the only part of their attire that they seemed to
+care about guarding from the rain.  As to their persons, they generally
+looked better developed and healthier than the men; but there was a woful
+lack of beauty and grace, not a pretty girl among them, all coarse and
+vulgar.  Their bodies, it seems to me, are apt to be very long in
+proportion to their limbs,--in truth, this kind of make is rather
+characteristic of both sexes in England.  The speech of these folks, in
+some instances, was so broad Lancashire that I could not well understand
+it.
+
+
+
+A WALK TO BEBBINGTON.
+
+
+Rock Ferry, August 29th.--Yesterday we all took a walk into the country.
+It was a fine afternoon, with clouds, of course, in different parts of
+the sky, but a clear atmosphere, bright sunshine, and altogether a
+Septembrish feeling.  The ramble was very pleasant, along the hedge-lined
+roads in which there were flowers blooming, and the varnished holly,
+certainly one of the most beautiful shrubs in the world, so far as
+foliage goes.  We saw one cottage which I suppose was several hundred
+years old.  It was of stone, filled into a wooden frame, the black-oak of
+which was visible like an external skeleton; it had a thatched roof, and
+was whitewashed.  We passed through a village,--higher Bebbington, I
+believe,--with narrow streets and mean houses all of brick or stone, and
+not standing wide apart from each other as in American country villages,
+but conjoined.  There was an immense almshouse in the midst; at least, I
+took it to be so.  In the centre of the village, too, we saw a
+moderate-sized brick house, built in imitation of a castle with a tower
+and turret, in which an upper and an under row of small cannon were
+mounted,--now green with moss.  There were also battlements along the
+roof of the house, which looked as if it might have been built eighty or
+a hundred years ago.  In the centre of it there was the dial of a clock,
+but the inner machinery had been removed, and the hands, hanging
+listlessly, moved to and fro in the wind.  It was quite a novel symbol of
+decay and neglect.  On the wall, close to the street, there were certain
+eccentric inscriptions cut into slabs of stone, but I could make no sense
+of them.  At the end of the house opposite the turret, we peeped through
+the bars of an iron gate and beheld a little paved court-yard, and at the
+farther side of it a small piazza, beneath which seemed to stand the
+figure of a man.  He appeared well advanced in years, and was dressed in
+a blue coat and buff breeches, with a white or straw hat on his head.
+Behold, too, in a kennel beside the porch, a large dog sitting on his
+hind legs, chained!  Also, close beside the gateway, another man, seated
+in a kind of arbor!  All these were wooden images; and the whole
+castellated, small, village-dwelling, with the inscriptions and the queer
+statuary, was probably the whim of some half-crazy person, who has now,
+no doubt, been long asleep in Bebbington churchyard.
+
+The bell of the old church was ringing as we went along, and many
+respectable-looking people and cleanly dressed children were moving
+towards the sound.  Soon we reached the church, and I have seen nothing
+yet in England that so completely answered my idea of what such a thing
+was, as this old village church of Bebbington.
+
+It is quite a large edifice, built in the form of a cross, a low peaked
+porch in the side, over which, rudely cut in stone, is the date 1300 and
+something.  The steeple has ivy on it, and looks old, old, old; so does
+the whole church, though portions of it have been renewed, but not so as
+to impair the aspect of heavy, substantial endurance, and long, long
+decay, which may go on hundreds of years longer before the church is a
+ruin.  There it stands, among the surrounding graves, looking just the
+same as it did in Bloody Mary's days; just as it did in Cromwell's time.
+A bird (and perhaps many birds) had its nest in the steeple, and flew in
+and out of the loopholes that were opened into it.  The stone framework
+of the windows looked particularly old.
+
+There were monuments about the church, some lying flat on the ground,
+others elevated on low pillars, or on cross slabs of stone, and almost
+all looking dark, moss-grown, and very antique.  But on reading some of
+the inscriptions, I was surprised to find them very recent; for, in fact,
+twenty years of this climate suffices to give as much or more antiquity
+of aspect, whether to gravestone or edifice, than a hundred years of our
+own,--so soon do lichens creep over the surface, so soon does it blacken,
+so soon do the edges lose their sharpness, so soon does Time gnaw away
+the records.  The only really old monuments (and those not very old) were
+two, standing close together, and raised on low rude arches, the dates on
+which were 1684 and 1686.  On one a cross was rudely cut into the stone.
+But there may have been hundreds older than this, the records on which
+had been quite obliterated, and the stones removed, and the graves dug
+over anew.  None of the monuments commemorate people of rank; on only one
+the buried person was recorded as "Gent."
+
+While we sat on  the flat slabs resting ourselves, several little girls,
+healthy-looking and prettily dressed enough, came into the churchyard,
+and began to talk and laugh, and to skip merrily from one tombstone to
+another.  They stared very broadly at us, and one of them, by and by, ran
+up to U. and J., and gave each of them a green apple, then they skipped
+upon the tombstones again, while, within the church, we heard them
+singing, sounding pretty much as I have heard it in our pine-built New
+England meeting-houses.  Meantime the rector had detected the voices of
+these naughty little girls, and perhaps had caught glimpses of them
+through the windows; for, anon, out came the sexton, and, addressing
+himself to us, asked whether there had been any noise or disturbance in
+the churchyard.  I should not have borne testimony against these little
+villagers, but S. was so anxious to exonerate our own children that she
+pointed out these poor little sinners to the sexton, who forthwith turned
+them out.  He would have done the same to us, no doubt, had my coat been
+worse than it was; but, as the matter stood, his demeanor was rather
+apologetic than menacing, when he informed us that the rector had sent
+him.
+
+We stayed a little longer, looking at the graves, some of which were
+between the buttresses of the church and quite close to the wall, as if
+the sleepers anticipated greater comfort and security the nearer they
+could get to the sacred edifice.
+
+As we went out of the churchyard, we passed the aforesaid little girls,
+who were sitting behind the mound of a tomb, and busily babbling
+together.  They called after us, expressing their discontent that we had
+betrayed them to the sexton, and saying that it was not they who made the
+noise.  Going homeward, we went astray in a green lane, that terminated
+in the midst of a field, without outlet, so that we had to retrace a good
+many of our footsteps.
+
+Close to the wall of the church, beside the door, there was an ancient
+baptismal font of stone.  In fact, it was a pile of roughly hewn stone
+steps, five or six feet high, with a block of stone at the summit, in
+which was a hollow about as big as a wash-bowl.  It was full of
+rainwater.
+
+The church seems to be St. Andrew's Church, Lower Bebbington, built in
+1100.
+
+
+September 1st.--To-day we leave the Rock Ferry Hotel, where we have spent
+nearly four weeks.  It is a comfortable place, and we have had a good
+table and have been kindly treated.  We occupied a large parlor,
+extending through the whole breadth of the house, with a bow-window,
+looking towards Liverpool, and adown the intervening river, and to
+Birkenhead, on the hither side.  The river would be a pleasanter object,
+if it were blue and transparent, instead of such a mud-puddly hue; also,
+if it were always full to its brine; whereas it generally presents a
+margin, and sometimes a very broad one, of glistening mud, with here and
+there a small vessel aground on it.
+
+Nevertheless, the parlor-window has given us a pretty good idea of the
+nautical business of Liverpool; the constant objects being the little
+black steamers puffing unquietly along, sometimes to our own ferry,
+sometimes beyond it to Eastham, and sometimes towing a long string of
+boats from Runcorn or otherwhere up the river, laden with goods, and
+sometimes gallanting a tall ship in or out.  Some of these ships lie for
+days together in the river, very majestic and stately objects, often with
+the flag of the stars and stripes waving over them.  Now and then, after
+a gale at sea, a vessel comes in with her masts broken short off in the
+midst, and with marks of rough handling about the hull.  Once a week
+comes a Cunard steamer, with its red funnel pipe whitened by the salt
+spray; and, firing off cannon to announce her arrival, she moors to a
+large iron buoy in the middle of the river, and a few hundred yards from
+the stone pier of our ferry.  Immediately comes poring towards her a
+little mail-steamer, to take away her mail-bags and such of the
+passengers as choose to land; and for several hours afterwards the Cunard
+lies with the smoke and steam coming out of her, as if she were smoking
+her pipe after her toilsome passage across the Atlantic.  Once a
+fortnight comes an American steamer of the Collins line; and then the
+Cunard salutes her with cannon, to which the Collins responds, and moors
+herself to another iron buoy, not far from the Cunard.  When they go to
+sea, it is with similar salutes; the two vessels paying each other the
+more ceremonious respect, because they are inimical and jealous of each
+other.
+
+Besides these, there are other steamers of all sorts and sizes, for
+pleasure-excursions, for regular trips to Dublin, the Isle of Man, and
+elsewhither; and vessels which are stationary, as floating lights, but
+which seem to relieve one another at intervals; and small vessels, with
+sails looking as if made of tanned leather; and schooners, and yachts,
+and all manner of odd-looking craft, but none so odd as the Chinese junk.
+This junk lies by our own pier, and looks as if it were copied from some
+picture on an old teacup.  Beyond all these objects we see the other side
+of the Mersey, with the delectably green fields opposite to us, while the
+shore becomes more and more thickly populated, until about two miles off
+we see the dense centre of the city, with the dome of the Custom House,
+and steeples and towers; and, close to the water, the spire of St.
+Nicholas; and above, and intermingled with the whole city scene, the
+duskiness of the coal-smoke gushing upward.  Along the bank we perceive
+the warehouses of the Albert dock, and the Queen's tobacco warehouses,
+and other docks, and, nigher to us, a shipyard or two.  In the evening
+all this sombre picture gradually darkens out of sight, and in its place
+appear only the lights of the city, kindling into a galaxy of earthly
+stars, for a long distance, up and down the shore; and, in one or two
+spots, the bright red gleam of a furnace, like the "red planet Mars"; and
+once in a while a bright, wandering beam gliding along the river, as a
+steamer cones or goes between us and Liverpool.
+
+
+
+ROCK PARK.
+
+
+September 2d.--We got into our new house in Rock Park yesterday.  It is
+quite a good house, with three apartments, beside kitchen and pantry on
+the lower floor; and it is three stories high, with four good chambers in
+each story.  It is a stone edifice, like almost all the English houses,
+and handsome in its design.  The rent, without furniture, would probably
+have been one hundred pounds; furnished, it is one hundred and sixty
+pounds.  Rock Park, as the locality is called, is private property, and
+is now nearly covered with residences for professional people, merchants,
+and others of the upper middling class; the houses being mostly built, I
+suppose, on speculation, and let to those who occupy them.  It is the
+quietest place imaginable, there being a police station at the entrance,
+and the officer on duty allows no ragged or ill-looking person to pass.
+There being a toll, it precludes all unnecessary passage of carriages;
+and never were there more noiseless streets than those that give access
+to these pretty residences.  On either side there is thick shrubbery,
+with glimpses through it of the ornamented portals, or into the trim
+gardens with smooth-shaven lawns, of no large extent, but still affording
+reasonable breathing-space.  They are really an improvement on anything,
+save what the very rich can enjoy, in America.  The former occupants of
+our house (Mrs. Campbell and family) having been fond of flowers, there
+are many rare varieties in the garden, and we are told that there is
+scarcely a month in the year when a flower will not be found there.
+
+The house is respectably, though not very elegantly, furnished.  It was a
+dismal, rainy day yesterday, and we had a coal-fire in the sitting-room,
+beside which I sat last evening as twilight came on, and thought, rather
+sadly, how many times we have changed our home since we were married.  In
+the first place, our three years at the Old Manse; then a brief residence
+at Salem, then at Boston, then two or three years at Salem again; then at
+Lenox, then at West Newton, and then again at Concord, where we imagined
+that we were fixed for life, but spent only a year.  Then this farther
+flight to England, where we expect to spend four years, and afterwards
+another year or two in Italy, during all which time we shall have no real
+home.  For, as I sat in this English house, with the chill, rainy English
+twilight brooding over the lawn, and a coal-fire to keep me comfortable
+on the first evening of September, and the picture of a stranger--the
+dead husband of Mrs. Campbell--gazing down at me from above the
+mantel-piece,--I felt that I never should be quite at home here.
+Nevertheless, the fire was very comfortable to look at, and the shape of
+the fireplace--an arch, with a deep cavity--was an improvement on the
+square, shallow opening of an American coal-grate.
+
+
+September 7th.--It appears by the annals of Liverpool, contained in
+Gore's Directory, that in 1076 there was a baronial castle built by Roger
+de Poictiers on the site of the present St. George's Church.  It was
+taken down in 1721.  The church now stands at one of the busiest points
+of the principal street of the city.  The old Church of St. Nicholas,
+founded about the time of the Conquest, and more recently rebuilt, stood
+within a quarter of a mile of the castle.
+
+In 1150, Birkenhead Priory was founded on the Cheshire side of the
+Mersey.  The monks used to ferry passengers across to Liverpool until
+1282, when Woodside Ferry was established,--twopence for a horseman, and
+a farthing for a foot-passenger.  Steam ferry-boats now cross to
+Birkenhead, Monk's Ferry, and Woodside every ten minutes; and I believe
+there are large hotels at all these places, and many of the business men
+of Liverpool have residences in them.
+
+In 1252 a tower was built by Sir John Stanley, which continued to be a
+castle of defence to the Stanley family for many hundred years, and was
+not finally taken down till 1820, when its site had become the present
+Water Street, in the densest commercial centre of the city.
+
+There appear to have been other baronial castles and residences in
+different parts of the city, as a hall in old Hall Street, built by Sir
+John de la More, on the site of which a counting-house now stands.  This
+knightly family of De la More sometimes supplied mayors to the city, as
+did the family of the Earls of Derby.
+
+About 1582, Edward, Earl of Derby, maintained two hundred and fifty
+citizens of Liverpool, fed sixty aged persons twice a day, and provided
+twenty-seven hundred persons with meat, drink, and money every Good
+Friday.
+
+In 1644, Prince Rupert besieged the town for twenty-four days, and
+finally took it by storm.  This was June 26th, and the Parliamentarians,
+under Sir John Meldrum, repossessed it the following October.
+
+In 1669 the Mayor of Liverpool kept an inn.
+
+In 1730 there was only one carriage in town, and no stage-coach came
+nearer than Warrington, the roads being impassable.
+
+In 1734 the Earl of Derby gave a great entertainment in the tower.
+
+In 1737 the Mayor was George Norton, a saddler, who frequently took, the
+chair with his leather apron on.  His immediate predecessor seems to have
+been the Earl of Derby, who gave the above-mentioned entertainment during
+his mayoralty.  Where George's Dock now is, there used to be a battery of
+fourteen eighteen-pounders for the defence of the town, and the old sport
+of bull-baiting was carried on in that vicinity, close to the Church of
+St. Nicholas.
+
+
+September 12th.--On Saturday a young man was found wandering about in
+West Derby, a suburb of Liverpool, in a state of insanity, and, being
+taken before a magistrate, he proved to be an American.  As he seemed to
+be in a respectable station of life, the magistrate sent the master of
+the workhouse to me, in order to find out whether I would take the
+responsibility of his expenses, rather than have him put in the
+workhouse.  My clerk went to investigate the matter, and brought me his
+papers.  His name proves to be ---- ------, belonging to ------,
+twenty-five years of age.  One of the papers was a passport from our
+legation in Naples; likewise there was a power of attorney from his
+mother (who seems to have been married a second time) to dispose of some
+property of hers abroad; a hotel bill, also, of some length, in which
+were various charges for wine; and, among other evidences of low funds, a
+pawnbroker's receipt for a watch, which he had pledged at five pounds.
+There was also a ticket for his passage to America, by the screw steamer
+Andes, which sailed on Wednesday last.  The clerk found him to the last
+degree incommunicative; and nothing could be discovered from him but what
+the papers disclosed.  There were about a dozen utterly unintelligible
+notes among the papers, written by himself since his derangement.
+
+I decided to put him into the insane hospital, where he now accordingly
+is, and to-morrow (by which time he may be in a more conversable mood) I
+mean to pay him a visit.
+
+The clerk tells me that there is now, and has been for three years, an
+American lady in the Liverpool almshouse, in a state of insanity.  She is
+very accomplished, especially in music; but in all this time it has been
+impossible to find out who she is, or anything about her connections or
+previous life.  She calls herself Jenny Lind, and as for any other name
+or identity she keeps her own secret.
+
+
+September 14th.--It appears that Mr. ------ (the insane young gentleman)
+being unable to pay his bill at the inn where he was latterly staying,
+the landlord had taken possession of his luggage, and satisfied himself
+in that way.  My clerk, at my request, has taken his watch out of pawn.
+It proves to be not a very good one, though doubtless worth more than
+five pounds, for which it was pledged.  The Governor of the Lunatic
+Asylum wrote me yesterday, stating that the patient was in want of a
+change of clothes, and that, according to his own account, he had left
+his luggage at the American Hotel.  After office-hours, I took a cab, and
+set out with my clerk, to pay a visit to the Asylum, taking the American
+Hotel in our way.
+
+The American Hotel is a small house, not at all such a one as American
+travellers of any pretension would think of stopping at, but still very
+respectable, cleanly, and with a neat sitting-room, where the guests
+might assemble, after the American fashion.  We asked for the landlady,
+and anon down she came, a round, rosy, comfortable-looking English dame
+of fifty or thereabouts.  On being asked whether she knew a Mr. ------,
+she readily responded that he had been there, but, had left no luggage,
+having taken it away before paying his bill; and that she had suspected
+him of meaning to take his departure without paying her at all.  Hereupon
+she had traced him to the hotel before mentioned, where she had found
+that he had stayed two nights,--but was then, I think, gone from thence.
+Afterwards she encountered him again, and, demanding her due, went with
+him to a pawnbroker's, where he pledged his watch and paid her.  This was
+about the extent of the landlady's knowledge of the matter.  I liked the
+woman very well, with her shrewd, good-humored, worldly, kindly
+disposition.
+
+Then we proceeded to the Lunatic Asylum, to which we were admitted by a
+porter at the gate.  Within doors we found some neat and comely
+servant-women, one of whom showed us into a handsome parlor, and took my
+card to the Governor.  There was a large bookcase, with a glass front,
+containing handsomely bound books, many of which, I observed, were of a
+religious character.  In a few minutes the Governor came in, a
+middle-aged man, tall, and thin for an Englishman, kindly and agreeable
+enough in aspect, but not with the marked look of a man of force and
+ability.  I should not judge from his conversation that he was an
+educated man, or that he had any scientific acquaintance with the subject
+of insanity.
+
+He said that Mr. ------ was still quite incommunicative, and not in a
+very promising state; that I had perhaps better defer seeing him for a
+few days; that it would not be safe, at present, to send him home to
+America without an attendant, and this was about all.  But on returning
+home I learned from my wife, who had had a call from Mrs. Blodgett, that
+Mrs. Blodgett knew Mr. ------ and his mother, who has recently been
+remarried to a young husband, and is now somewhere in Italy.  They seemed
+to have boarded at Mrs. Blodgett's house on their way to the Continent,
+and within a week or two, an acquaintance and pastor of Mr. ------, the
+Rev. Dr. ------, has sailed for America.  If I could only have caught
+him, I could have transferred the care, expense, and responsibility of
+the patient to him.  The Governor of the Asylum mentioned, by the way,
+that Mr. ------ describes himself as having been formerly a midshipman in
+the navy.
+
+I walked through the St. James's cemetery yesterday.  It is a very pretty
+place, dug out of the rock, having formerly, I believe, been a
+stone-quarry.  It is now a deep and spacious valley, with graves and
+monuments on its level and grassy floor, through which run gravel-paths,
+and where grows luxuriant shrubbery.  On one of the steep sides of the
+valley, hewn out of the rock, are tombs, rising in tiers, to the height
+of fifty feet or more; some of them cut directly into the rock with
+arched portals, and others built with stone.  On the other side the bank
+is of earth, and rises abruptly, quite covered with trees, and looking
+very pleasant with their green shades.  It was a warm and sunny day, and
+the cemetery really had a most agreeable aspect.  I saw several
+gravestones of Americans; but what struck me most was one line of an
+epitaph on an English woman, "Here rests in peace a virtuous wife."  The
+statue of Huskisson stands in the midst of the valley, in a kind of
+mausoleum, with a door of plate-glass, through which you look at the dead
+statesman's effigy.
+
+
+September 22d.--. . . . Some days ago an American captain came to the
+office, and said he had shot one of his men, shortly after sailing from
+New Orleans, and while the ship was still in the river.  As he described
+the event, he was in peril of his life from this man, who was an
+Irishman; and he fired his pistol only when the man was coming upon him,
+with a knife in one hand, and some other weapon of offence in the other,
+while he himself was struggling with one or two more of the crew.  He was
+weak at the time, having just recovered from the yellow fever.  The shots
+struck the man in the pit of the stomach, and he lived only about a
+quarter of an hour.  No magistrate in England has a right to arrest or
+examine the captain, unless by a warrant from the Secretary of State, on
+the charge of murder.  After his statement to me, the mother of the slain
+man went to the police officer, and accused him of killing her son.  Two
+or three days since, moreover, two of the sailors came before me, and
+gave their account of the matter; and it looked very differently from
+that of the captain.  According to them, the man had no idea of attacking
+the captain, and was so drunk that he could not keep himself upright
+without assistance.  One of these two men was actually holding him up
+when the captain fired two barrels of his pistol, one immediately after
+the other, and lodged two balls in the pit of his stomach.  The man sank
+down at once, saying, "Jack, I am killed,"--and died very shortly.
+Meanwhile the captain drove this man away, under threats of shooting him
+likewise.  Both the seamen described the captain's conduct, both then and
+during the whole voyage, as outrageous, and I do not much doubt that it
+was so.  They gave their evidence like men who wished to tell the truth,
+and were moved by no more than a natural indignation at the captain's
+wrong.
+
+I did not much like the captain from the first,--a hard, rough man, with
+little education, and nothing of the gentleman about him, a red face and
+a loud voice.  He seemed a good deal excited, and talked fast and much
+about the event, but yet not as if it had sunk deeply into him.  He
+observed that he "would not have had it happen for a thousand dollars,"
+that being the amount of detriment which he conceives himself to suffer
+by the ineffaceable blood-stain on his hand.  In my opinion it is little
+short of murder, if at all; but what would be murder on shore is almost a
+natural occurrence when done in such a hell on earth as one of these
+ships, in the first hours of the voyage.  The men are then all drunk,--
+some of them often in delirium tremens; and the captain feels no safety
+for his life except in making himself as terrible as a fiend.  It is the
+universal testimony that there is a worse set of sailors in these short
+voyages between Liverpool and America than in any other trade whatever.
+
+There is no probability that the captain will ever be called to account
+for this deed.  He gave, at the time, his own version of the affair in
+his log-book; and this was signed by the entire crew, with the exception
+of one man, who had hidden himself in the hold in terror of the captain.
+His mates will sustain his side of the question; and none of the sailors
+would be within reach of the American courts, even should they be sought
+for.
+
+
+October 1st.--On Thursday I went with Mr. Ticknor to Chester by railway.
+It is quite an indescribable old town, and I feel at last as if I had had
+a glimpse of old England.  The wall encloses a large space within the
+town, but there are numerous houses and streets not included within its
+precincts.  Some of the principal streets pass under the ancient
+gateways; and at the side there are flights of steps, giving access to
+the summit.  Around the top of the whole wall, a circuit of about two
+miles, there runs a walk, well paved with flagstones, and broad enough
+for three persons to walk abreast.  On one side--that towards the
+country--there is a parapet of red freestone three or four feet high.  On
+the other side there are houses, rising up immediately from the wall, so
+that they seem a part of it.  The height of it, I suppose, may be thirty
+or forty feet, and, in some parts, you look down from the parapet into
+orchards, where there are tall apple-trees, and men on the branches,
+gathering fruit, and women and children among the grass, filling bags or
+baskets.  There are prospects of the surrounding country among the
+buildings outside the wall; at one point, a view of the river Dee, with
+an old bridge of arches.  It is all very strange, very quaint, very
+curious to see how the town has overflowed its barrier, and how, like
+many institutions here, the ancient wall still exists, but is turned to
+quite another purpose than what it was meant for,--so far as it serves
+any purpose at all.  There are three or four towers in the course of the
+circuit; the most interesting being one from the top of which King
+Charles the First is said to have seen the rout of his army by the
+Parliamentarians.  We ascended the short flight of steps that led up into
+the tower, where an old man pointed out the site of the battle-field, now
+thickly studded with buildings, and told us what we had already learned
+from the guide-book.  After this we went into the cathedral, which I will
+perhaps describe on some other occasion, when I shall have seen more of
+it, and to better advantage.  The cloisters gave us the strongest
+impression of antiquity; the stone arches being so worn and blackened by
+time.  Still an American must always have imagined a better cathedral
+than this.  There were some immense windows of painted glass, but all
+modern.  In the chapter-house we found a coal-fire burning in a grate,
+and a large heap of old books--the library of the cathedral--in a
+discreditable state of decay,--mildewed, rotten, neglected for years.
+The sexton told us that they were to be arranged and better ordered.
+Over the door, inside, hung two failed and tattered banners, being those
+of the Cheshire regiment.
+
+The most utterly indescribable feature of Chester is the Rows, which
+every traveller has attempted to describe.  At the height of several feet
+above some of the oldest streets, a walk runs through the front of the
+houses, which project over it.  Back of the walk there are shops; on the
+outer side is a space of two or three yards, where the shopmen place
+their tables, and stands, and show-cases; overhead, just high enough for
+persons to stand erect, a ceiling.  At frequent intervals little narrow
+passages go winding in among the houses, which all along are closely
+conjoined, and seem to have no access or exit, except through the shops,
+or into these narrow passages, where you can touch each side with your
+elbows, and the top with your hand.  We penetrated into one or two of
+them, and they smelt anciently and disagreeably.  At one of the doors
+stood a pale-looking, but cheerful and good-natured woman, who told us
+that she had come to that house when first married, twenty-one years
+before, and had lived there ever since; and that she felt as if she had
+been buried through the best years of her life.  She allowed us to peep
+into her kitchen and parlor,--small, dingy, dismal, but yet not wholly
+destitute of a home look.  She said that she had seen two or three
+coffins in a day, during cholera times, carried out of that narrow
+passage into which her door opened.  These avenues put me in mind of
+those which run through ant-hills, or those which a mole makes
+underground.  This fashion of Rows does not appear to be going out; and,
+for aught I can see, it may last hundreds of years longer.  When a house
+becomes so old as to be untenantable, it is rebuilt, and the new one is
+fashioned like the old, so far as regards the walk running through its
+front.  Many of the shops are very good, and even elegant, and these Rows
+are the favorite places of business in Chester.  Indeed, they have many
+advantages, the passengers being sheltered from the rain, and there being
+within the shops that dimmer light by which tradesmen like to exhibit
+their wares.
+
+A large proportion of the edifices in the Rows must be comparatively
+modern; but there are some very ancient ones, with oaken frames visible
+on the exterior.  The Row, passing through these houses, is railed with
+oak, so old that it has turned black, and grown to be as hard as stone,
+which it might be mistaken for, if one did not see where names and
+initials have been cut into it with knives at some bygone period.
+Overhead, cross-beams project through the ceiling so low as almost to hit
+the head.  On the front of one of these buildings was the inscription,
+"GOD'S PROVIDENCE IS MINE INHERITANCE," said to have been put there by
+the occupant of the house two hundred years ago, when the plague spared
+this one house only in the whole city.  Not improbably the inscription
+has operated as a safeguard to prevent the demolition of the house
+hitherto; but a shopman of an adjacent dwelling told us that it was soon
+to be taken down.
+
+Here and there, about some of the streets through which the Rows do not
+run, we saw houses of very aged aspect, with steep, peaked gables.  The
+front gable-end was supported on stone pillars, and the sidewalk passed
+beneath.  Most of these old houses seemed to be taverns,--the Black Bear,
+the Green Dragon, and such names.  We thought of dining at one of them,
+but, on inspection, they looked rather too dingy and close, and of
+questionable neatness.  So we went to the Royal Hotel, where we probably
+fared just as badly at much more expense, and where there was a
+particularly gruff and crabbed old waiter, who, I suppose, thought
+himself free to display his surliness because we arrived at the hotel on
+foot.  For my part, I love to see John Bull show himself.  I must go
+again and again and again to Chester, for I suppose there is not a more
+curious place in the world.
+
+Mr. Ticknor, who has been staying at Rock Park with us since Tuesday, has
+steamed away in the Canada this morning.  His departure seems to make me
+feel more abroad, more dissevered from my native country, than before.
+
+
+October 3d.--Saturday evening, at six, I went to dine with Mr. Aiken, a
+wealthy merchant here, to meet two of the sons of Burns.  There was a
+party of ten or twelve, Mr. Aiken and his two daughters included.  The
+two sons of Burns have both been in the Indian army, and have attained
+the ranks of Colonel and Major; one having spent thirty, and the other
+twenty-seven years in India.  They are now old gentlemen of sixty and
+upwards, the elder with a gray head, the younger with a perfectly white
+one,--rather under than above the middle stature, and with a British
+roundness of figure,--plain, respectable, intelligent-looking persons,
+with quiet manners.  I saw no resemblance in either of them to any
+portrait of their father.  After the ladies left the table, I sat next to
+the Major, the younger of the two, and had a good deal of talk with him.
+He seemed a very kindly and social man, and was quite ready to speak
+about his father, nor was he at all reluctant to let it be seen how much
+he valued the glory of being descended from the poet.  By and by, at Mr.
+Aiken's instance, he sang one of Burns's songs,--the one about "Annie"
+and the "rigs of barley."  He sings in a perfectly simple style, so that
+it is little more than a recitative, and yet the effect is very good as
+to humor, sense, and pathos.  After rejoining the ladies, he sang
+another, "A posie for my ain dear May," and likewise "A man's a man for
+a' that."  My admiration of his father, and partly, perhaps, my being an
+American, gained me some favor with him, and he promised to give me what
+he considered the best engraving of Burns, and some other remembrance of
+him.  The Major is that son of Burns who spent an evening at Abbotsford
+with Sir Walter Scott, when, as Lockhart writes, "the children sang the
+ballads of their sires."  He spoke with vast indignation of a recent
+edition of his father's works by Robert Chambers, in which the latter
+appears to have wronged the poet by some misstatements.--I liked them
+both and they liked me, and asked me to go and see there at Cheltenham,
+where they reside.  We broke up at about midnight.
+
+The members of this dinner-party were of the more liberal tone of
+thinking here in Liverpool.  The Colonel and Major seemed to be of
+similar principles; and the eyes of the latter glowed, when he sang his
+father's noble verse, "The rank is but the guinea's stamp," etc.  It
+would have been too pitiable if Burns had left a son who could not feel
+the spirit of that verse.
+
+
+October 8th.--Coning to my office, two or three mornings ago, I found
+Mrs. ------, the mother of Mr. ------, the insane young man of whom I had
+taken charge. She is a lady of fifty or thereabouts, and not very
+remarkable anyway, nor particularly lady-like.  However, she was just
+come off a rapid journey, having travelled from Naples, with three small
+children, without taking rest, since my letter reached her.  A son (this
+proved to be her new husband) of about twenty had come with her to the
+Consulate.  She was, of course, infinitely grieved about the young man's
+insanity, and had two or three bursts of tears while we talked the matter
+over.  She said he was the hope of her life,--the best, purest, most
+innocent child that ever was, and wholly free from every kind of vice.
+But it appears that he had a previous attack of insanity, lasting three
+months, about three years ago.
+
+After I had told her all I knew about him, including my personal
+observations at a visit a week or two since, we drove in a cab to the
+Asylum.  It must have been a dismal moment to the poor lady, as we
+entered the gateway through a tall, prison-like wall.  Being ushered into
+the parlor, the Governor soon appeared, and informed us that Mr. ------
+had had a relapse within a few days, and was not now so well as when I
+saw him.  He complains of unjust confinement, and seems to consider
+himself, if I rightly understand, under persecution for political
+reasons.  The Governor, however, proposed to call him down, and I took my
+leave, feeling that it would be indelicate to be present at his first
+interview with his mother.  So here ended my guardianship of the poor
+young fellow.
+
+In the afternoon I called at the Waterloo Hotel, where Mrs. ------ was
+staying, and found her in the coffee-room with the children.  She had
+determined to take a lodging in the vicinity of the Asylum, and was going
+to remove thither as soon as the children had had something to eat.  They
+seemed to be pleasant and well-behaved children, and impressed me more
+favorably than the mother, whom I suspect to be rather a foolish woman,
+although her present grief makes her appear in a more respectable light
+than at other times.  She seemed anxious to impress me with the
+respectability and distinction of her connections in America, and I had
+observed the same tendency in the insane patient, at my interview with
+him.  However, she has undoubtedly a mother's love for this poor
+shatterbrain, and this may weigh against the folly of her marrying an
+incongruously youthful second husband, and many other follies.
+
+This was day before yesterday, and I have heard nothing of her since.
+The same day I had applications for assistance in two other domestic
+affairs; one from an Irishman, naturalized in America, who wished me to
+get him a passage thither, and to take charge of his wife and family
+here, at my own private expense, until he could remit funds to carry them
+across.  Another was from an Irishman, who had a power of attorney from a
+countrywoman of his in America, to find and take charge of an infant whom
+she had left in the Liverpool work-house, two years ago.  I have a great
+mind to keep a list of all the business I am consulted about and employed
+in.  It would be very curious.  Among other things, all penniless
+Americans, or pretenders to Americanism, look upon me as their banker;
+and I could ruin myself any week, if I had not laid down a rule to
+consider every applicant for assistance an impostor until he prove
+himself a true and responsible man,--which it is very difficult to do.
+Yesterday there limped in a very respectable-looking old man, who
+described himself as a citizen of Baltimore, who had been on a trip to
+England and elsewhere, and, being detained longer than he expected, and
+having had an attack of rheumatism, was now short of funds to pay his
+passage home, and hoped that I would supply the deficiency.  He had quite
+a plain, homely, though respectable manner, and, for aught I know, was
+the very honestest man alive; but as he could produce no kind of proof of
+his character and responsibility, I very quietly explained the
+impossibility of my helping him.  I advised him to try to obtain a
+passage on board of some Baltimore ship, the master of which might be
+acquainted with him, or, at all events, take his word for payment, after
+arrival.  This he seemed inclined to do, and took his leave.  There was a
+decided aspect of simplicity about this old man, and yet I rather judge
+him to be an impostor.
+
+It is easy enough to refuse money to strangers and unknown people, or
+whenever there may be any question about identity; but it will not be so
+easy when I am asked for money by persons whom I know, but do not like to
+trust.  They shall meet the eternal "No," however.
+
+
+October 13th.--In Ormerod's history of Chester it is mentioned that
+Randal, Earl of Chester, having made an inroad into Wales about 1225, the
+Welshmen gathered in mass against him, and drove him into the castle of
+Nothelert in Flintshire.  The Earl sent for succor to the Constable of
+Chester, Roger Lacy, surnamed "Hell," on account of his fierceness.  It
+was then fair-time at Chester, and the constable collected a
+miscellaneous rabble of fiddlers, players, cobblers, tailors, and all
+manner of debauched people, and led them to the relief of the Earl.  At
+sight of this strange army the Welshmen fled; and forever after the Earl
+assigned to the constable of Chester power over all fiddlers, shoemakers,
+etc., within the bounds of Cheshire.  The constable retained for himself
+and his heirs the control of the shoemakers; and made over to his own
+steward, Dutton, that of the fiddlers and players, and for many hundreds
+of years afterwards the Duttons of Dutton retained the power.  On
+midsummer-day, they used to ride through Chester, attended by all the
+minstrels playing on their several instruments, to the Church of St.
+John, and there renew their licenses.  It is a good theme for a legend.
+Sir Peter Leycester, writing in Charles the Second's time, copies the
+Latin deed from the constable to Dutton; rightly translated, it seems to
+mean "the magisterial power over all the lewd people . . . . in the whole
+of Cheshire," but the custom grew into what is above stated.  In the time
+of Henry VII., the Duttons claimed, by prescriptive right, that the
+Cheshire minstrels should deliver them, at the feast of St. John, four
+bottles of wine and a lance, and that each separate minstrel should pay
+fourpence halfpenny. . . .
+
+Another account says Ralph Dutton was the constable's son-in-law, and "a
+lusty youth."
+
+
+October 19th.--Coming to the ferry this morning a few minutes before the
+boat arrived from town, I went into the ferry-house, a small stone
+edifice, and found there an Irishman, his wife and three children, the
+oldest eight or nine years old, and all girls.  There was a good fire
+burning in the room, and the family was clustered round it, apparently
+enjoying the warmth very much; but when I went in both husband and wife
+very hospitably asked me to come to the fire, although there was not more
+than room at it for their own party.  I declined on the plea that I was
+warm enough, and then the woman said that they were very cold, having
+been long on the road.  The man was gray-haired and gray-bearded, clad in
+an old drab overcoat, and laden with a huge bag, which seemed to contain
+bedclothing or something of the kind.  The woman was pale, with a thin,
+anxious, wrinkled face, but with a good and kind expression.  The
+children were quite pretty, with delicate faces, and a look of patience
+and endurance in them, but yet as if they had suffered as little as they
+possibly could.  The two elder were cuddled up close to the father, the
+youngest, about four years old, sat in its mother's lap, and she had
+taken off its small shoes and stockings, and was warming its feet at the
+fire.  Their little voices had a sweet and kindly sound as they talked in
+low tones to their parents and one another.  They all looked very shabby,
+and yet had a decency about them; and it was touching to see how they
+made themselves at home at this casual fireside, and got all the comfort
+they could out of the circumstances.  By and by two or three market-women
+came in and looked pleasantly at them, and said a word or two to the
+children.
+
+They did not beg of me, as I supposed they would; but after looking at
+them awhile, I pulled out a piece of silver, and handed it to one of the
+little girls.  She took it very readily, as if she partly expected it,
+and then the father and mother thanked me, and said they had been
+travelling a long distance, and had nothing to subsist upon, except what
+they picked up on the road.  They found it impossible to live in England,
+and were now on their way to Liverpool, hoping to get a passage back to
+Ireland, where, I suppose, extreme poverty is rather better off than
+here.  I heard the little girl say that she should buy bread with the
+money.  There is not much that can be caught in the description of this
+scene; but it made me understand, better than before, how poor people
+feel, wandering about in such destitute circumstances, and how they
+suffer; and yet how they have a life not quite miserable, after all, and
+how family love goes along with them.  Soon the boat arrived at the pier,
+and we all went on board; and as I sat in the cabin, looking up through a
+broken pane in the skylight, I saw the woman's thin face, with its
+anxious, motherly aspect; and the youngest child in her arms, shrinking
+from the chill wind, but yet not impatiently; and the eldest of the girls
+standing close by with her expression of childish endurance, but yet so
+bright and intelligent that it would evidently take but a few days to
+make a happy and playful child of her.  I got into the interior of this
+poor family, and understand, through sympathy, more of them than I can
+tell.  I am getting to possess some of the English indifference as to
+beggars and poor people; but still, whenever I come face to face with
+them, and have any intercourse, it seems as if they ought to be the
+better for me.  I wish, instead of sixpence, I had given the poor family
+ten shillings, and denied it to a begging subscriptionist, who has just
+fleeced me to that amount.  How silly a man feels in this latter
+predicament!
+
+I have had a good many visitors at the Consulate from the United States
+within a short time,--among others, Mr. D. D. Barnard, our late minister
+to Berlin, returning homeward to-day by the Arctic; and Mr. Sickles,
+Secretary of Legation to London, a fine-looking, intelligent, gentlemanly
+young man. . . . With him came Judge Douglas, the chosen man of Young
+America.  He is very short, extremely short, but has an uncommonly good
+head, and uncommon dignity without seeming to aim at it, being free and
+simple in manners.  I judge him to be a very able man, with the Western
+sociability and free-fellowship.  Generally I see no reason to be ashamed
+of my countrymen who come out here in public position, or otherwise
+assuming the rank of gentlemen.
+
+
+October 20th.--One sees incidents in the streets here, occasionally,
+which could not be seen in an American city.  For instance, a week or two
+since, I was passing a quiet-looking, elderly gentleman, when, all of a
+sudden, without any apparent provocation, he uplifted his stick, and
+struck a black-gowned boy a smart blow on the shoulders.  The boy looked
+at him wofully and resentfully, but said nothing, nor can I imagine why
+the thing was done.  In Tythebarne Street to-day I saw a woman suddenly
+assault a man, clutch at his hair, and cuff him about the ears.  The man,
+who was of decent aspect enough, immediately took to his heels, full
+speed, and the woman ran after him, and, as far as I could discern the
+pair, the chase continued.
+
+
+October 22d.--At a dinner-party at Mr. Holland's last evening, a
+gentleman, in instance of Charles Dickens's unweariability, said that
+during some theatrical performances in Liverpool he acted in play and
+farce, spent the rest of the night making speeches, feasting, and
+drinking at table, and ended at seven o'clock in the morning by jumping
+leap-frog over the backs of the whole company.
+
+In Moore's diary he mentions a beautiful Guernsey lily having been given
+to his wife, and says that the flower was originally from Guernsey.  A
+ship from there had been wrecked on the coast of Japan, having many of
+the lilies on board, and the next year the flowers appeared,--springing
+up, I suppose, on the wave-beaten strand.
+
+Wishing to send a letter to a dead man, who may be supposed to have gone
+to Tophet,--throw it into the fire.
+
+Sir Arthur Aston had his brains beaten out with his own wooden leg, at
+the storming of Tredagh in Ireland by Cromwell.
+
+In the county of Cheshire, many centuries ago, there lived a half-idiot,
+named Nixon, who had the gift of prophecy, and made many predictions
+about places, families, and important public events, since fulfilled.  He
+seems to have fallen into fits of insensibility previous to uttering his
+prophecies.
+
+The family of Mainwaring (pronounced Mannering), of Bromborough, had an
+ass's head for a crest.
+
+"Richard Dawson, being sick of the plague, and perceiving he must die,
+rose out of his bed and made his grave, and caused his nephew to cast
+straw into the grave, which was not far from the house, and went and laid
+him down in the said grave, and caused clothes to be laid upon him, and
+so departed out of this world.  This he did because he was a strong man,
+and heavier than his said nephew and a serving-wench were able to bury.
+He died about the 24th of August.  Thus was I credibly told he did,
+1625."  This was in the township of Malpas, recorded in the parish
+register.
+
+At Bickley Hall, taken down a few years ago, used to be shown the room
+where the body of the Earl of Leicester was laid for a whole
+twelvemonth,--1659 to 1660,--he having been kept unburied all that time,
+owing to a dispute which of his heirs should pay his funeral expenses.
+
+
+November 5th.--We all, together with Mr. Squarey, went to Chester last
+Sunday, and attended the cathedral service.  A great deal of ceremony,
+and not unimposing, but rather tedious before it was finished,--occupying
+two hours or more.  The Bishop was present, but did nothing except to
+pronounce the benediction.  In America the sermon is the principal thing;
+but here all this magnificent ceremonial of prayer and chanted responses
+and psalms and anthems was the setting to a short, meagre discourse,
+which would not have been considered of any account among the elaborate
+intellectual efforts of New England ministers.  While this was going on,
+the light came through the stained glass windows and fell upon the
+congregation, tingeing them with crimson.  After service we wandered
+about the aisles, and looked at the tombs and monuments,--the oldest of
+which was that of some nameless abbot, with a staff and mitre half
+obliterated from his tomb, which was under a shallow arch on one side of
+the cathedral.  There were also marbles on the walls, and lettered stones
+in the pavement under our feet; but chiefly, if not entirely, of modern
+date.  We lunched at the Royal Hotel, and then walked round the city
+walls, also crossing the bridge of one great arch over the Dee, and
+penetrating as far into Wales as the entrance of the Marquis of
+Westminster's Park at Eaton.  It was, I think, the most lovely day as
+regards weather that I have seen in England.
+
+I passed, to-day, a man chanting a ballad in the street about a recent
+murder, in a voice that had innumerable cracks in it, and was most
+lugubrious.  The other day I saw a man who was reading in a loud voice
+what seemed to be an account of the late riots and loss of life in Wigan.
+He walked slowly along the street as he read, surrounded by a small crowd
+of men, women, and children; and close by his elbow stalked a policeman,
+as if guarding against a disturbance.
+
+
+November 14th.--There is a heavy dun fog on the river and over the city
+to-day, the very gloomiest atmosphere that ever I was acquainted with.
+On the river the steamboats strike gongs or ring bells to give warning of
+their approach.  There are lamps burning in the counting-rooms and
+lobbies of the warehouses, and they gleam distinctly through the windows.
+
+The other day, at the entrance of the market-house, I saw a woman sitting
+in a small hand-wagon, apparently for the purpose of receiving alms.
+There was no attendant at hand; but I noticed that one or two persons who
+passed by seemed to inquire whether she wished her wagon to be moved.
+Perhaps this is her mode of making progress about the city, by the
+voluntary aid of boys and other people who help to drag her.  There is
+something in this--I don't yet well know what--that has impressed me, as
+if I could make a romance out of the idea of a woman living in this
+manner a public life, and moving about by such means.
+
+
+November 29th.--Mr. H. A. B. told me of his friend Mr. ------ (who was
+formerly attache to the British Legation at Washington, and whom I saw at
+Concord), that his father, a clergyman, married a second wife.  After the
+marriage, the noise of a coffin being nightly carried down the stairs was
+heard in the parsonage.  It could be distinguished when the coffin
+reached a certain broad lauding and rested on it.  Finally, his father
+had to remove to another residence.  Besides this, Mr. ------ had had
+another ghostly experience,--having seen a dim apparition of an uncle at
+the precise instant when the latter died in a distant place.  The attache
+is a credible and honorable fellow, and talks of these matters as if he
+positively believed them.  But Ghostland lies beyond the jurisdiction of
+veracity.
+
+In a garden near Chester, in taking down a summer-house, a tomb was
+discovered beneath it, with a Latin inscription to the memory of an old
+doctor of medicine, William Bentley, who had owned the place long ago,
+and died in 1680.  And his dust and bones had lain beneath all the merry
+times in the summer-house.
+
+
+December 1st.--It is curious to observe how many methods people put in
+practice here to pick up a halfpenny.  Yesterday I saw a man standing
+bareheaded and barelegged in the mud and misty weather, playing on a
+fife, in hopes to get a circle of auditors.  Nobody, however, seemed to
+take any notice.  Very often a whole band of musicians will strike up,--
+passing a hat round after playing a tune or two.  On board the ferry,
+until the coldest weather began, there were always some wretched
+musicians, with an old fiddle, an old clarinet, and an old verdigrised
+brass bugle, performing during the passage, and, as the boat neared the
+shore, sending round one of their number to gather contributions in the
+hollow of the brass bugle.  They were a very shabby set, and must have
+made a very scanty living at best.  Sometimes it was a boy with an
+accordion, and his sister, a smart little girl, with a timbrel,--which,
+being so shattered that she could not play on it, she used only to
+collect halfpence in.  Ballad-singers, or rather chanters or croakers,
+are often to be met with in the streets, but hand-organ players are not
+more frequent than in our cities.
+
+I still observe little girls and other children barelegged and barefooted
+on the wet sidewalks.  There certainly never was anything so dismal as
+the November weather has been; never any real sunshine; almost always a
+mist; sometimes a dense fog, like slightly rarefied wool, pervading the
+atmosphere.
+
+An epitaph on a person buried on a hillside in Cheshire, together with
+some others, supposed to have died of the plague, and therefore not
+admitted into the churchyards:--
+
+    "Think it not strange our bones ly here,
+     Thine may ly thou knowst not where."
+                               Elizabeth Hampson.
+
+These graves were near the remains of two rude stone crosses, the purpose
+of which was not certainly known, although they were supposed to be
+boundary marks.  Probably, as the plague-corpses were debarred from
+sanctified ground, the vicinity of these crosses was chosen as having a
+sort of sanctity.
+
+"Bang beggar,"--an old Cheshire term for a parish beadle.
+
+Hawthorne Hall, Cheshire, Macclesfield Hundred, Parish of Wilmslow, and
+within the hamlet of Morley.  It was vested at an early period in the
+Lathoms of Irlam, Lancaster County, and passed through the Leighs to the
+Pages of Earlshaw.  Thomas Leigh Page sold it to Mr. Ralph Bower of
+Wilmslow, whose children owned it in 1817.  The Leighs built a chancel in
+the church of Wilmslow, where some of them are buried, their arms painted
+in the windows.  The hall is an "ancient, respectable mansion of brick."
+
+
+December 2d.--Yesterday, a chill, misty December day, yet I saw a woman
+barefooted in the street, not to speak of children.
+
+Cold and uncertain as the weather is, there is still a great deal of
+small trade carried on in the open air.  Women and men sit in the streets
+with a stock of combs and such small things to sell, the women knitting
+as if they sat by a fireside.  Cheap crockery is laid out in the street,
+so far out that without any great deviation from the regular
+carriage-track a wheel might pass straight through it.  Stalls of apples
+are innumerable, but the apples are not fit for a pig.  In some streets
+herrings are very abundant, laid out on boards.  Coals seem to be for
+sale by the wheelbarrowful.  Here and there you see children with some
+small article for sale,--as, for instance, a girl with two linen caps.  A
+somewhat overladen cart of coal was passing along and some small quantity
+of the coal fell off; no sooner had the wheels passed than several women
+and children gathered to the spot, like hens and chickens round a handful
+of corn, and picked it up in their aprons.  We have nothing similar to
+these street-women in our country.
+
+
+December 10th.--I don't know any place that brings all classes into
+contiguity on equal ground so completely as the waiting-room at Rock
+Ferry on these frosty days.  The room is not more than eight feet,
+square, with walls of stone, and wooden benches ranged round them, and an
+open stove in one corner, generally well furnished with coal.  It is
+almost always crowded, and I rather suspect that many persons who have no
+fireside elsewhere creep in here and spend the most comfortable part of
+their day.
+
+This morning, when I looked into the room, there were one or two
+gentlemen and other respectable persons; but in the best place, close to
+the fire, and crouching almost into it, was an elderly beggar, with the
+raggedest of overcoats, two great rents in the shoulders of it disclosing
+the dingy lining, all bepatched with various stuff covered with dirt, and
+on his shoes and trousers the mud of an interminable pilgrimage.  Owing
+to the posture in which he sat, I could not see his face, but only the
+battered crown and rim of the very shabbiest hat that ever was worn.
+Regardless of the presence of women (which, indeed, Englishmen seldom do
+regard when they wish to smoke), he was smoking a pipe of vile tobacco;
+but, after all, this was fortunate, because the man himself was not
+personally fragrant.  He was terribly squalid,--terribly; and when I had
+a glimpse of his face, it well befitted the rest of his development,--
+grizzled, wrinkled, weather-beaten, yet sallow, and down-looking, with a
+watchful kind of eye turning upon everybody and everything, meeting the
+glances of other people rather boldly, yet soon shrinking away; a long
+thin nose, a gray beard of a week's growth; hair not much mixed with
+gray, but rusty and lifeless;--a miserable object; but it was curious to
+see how he was not ashamed of himself, but seemed to feel that he was one
+of the estates of the kingdom, and had as much right to live as other
+men.  He did just as he pleased, took the best place by the fire, nor
+would have cared though a nobleman were forced to stand aside for him.
+When the steamer's bell rang, he shouldered a large and heavy pack, like
+a pilgrim with his burden of sin, but certainly journeying to hell
+instead of heaven.  On board he looked round for the best position, at
+first stationing himself near the boiler-pipe; but, finding the deck damp
+underfoot, he went to the cabin-door, and took his stand on the stairs,
+protected from the wind, but very incommodiously placed for those who
+wished to pass.  All this was done without any bravado or forced
+impudence, but in the most quiet way, merely because he was seeking his
+own comfort, and considered that he had a right to seek it.  It was an
+Englishman's spirit; but in our country, I imagine, a beggar considers
+himself a kind of outlaw, and would hardly assume the privileges of a man
+in any place of public resort.  Here beggary is a system, and beggars are
+a numerous class, and make themselves, in a certain way, respected as
+such.  Nobody evinced the slightest disapprobation of the man's
+proceedings.  In America, I think, we should see many aristocratic airs
+on such provocation, and probably the ferry people would there have
+rudely thrust the beggar aside; giving him a shilling, however, which no
+Englishman would ever think of doing.  There would also have been a great
+deal of fun made of his squalid and ragged figure; whereas nobody smiled
+at him this morning, nor in any way showed the slightest disrespect.
+This is good; but it is the result of a state of things by no means good.
+For many days there has been a great deal of fog on the river, and the
+boats have groped their way along, continually striking their bells,
+while, on all sides, there are responses of bell and gong; and the
+vessels at anchor look shadow-like as we glide past them, and the master
+of one steamer shouts a warning to the master of another which he meets.
+The Englishmen, who hate to run any risk without an equivalent object,
+show a good deal of caution and timidity on these foggy days.
+
+December 13th.--Chill, frosty weather; such an atmosphere as forebodes
+snow in New England, and there has been a little here.  Yet I saw a
+barefooted young woman yesterday.  The feet of these poor creatures have
+exactly the red complexion of their hands, acquired by constant exposure
+to the cold air.
+
+At the ferry-room, this morning, was a small, thin, anxious-looking
+woman, with a bundle, seeming in rather poor circumstances, but decently
+dressed, and eying other women, I thought, with an expression of slight
+ill-will and distrust; also, an elderly, stout, gray-haired woman, of
+respectable aspect, and two young lady-like persons, quite pretty, one of
+whom was reading a shilling volume of James's "Arabella Stuart."  They
+talked to one another with that up-and-down intonation which English
+ladies practise, and which strikes an unaccustomed ear as rather
+affected, especially in women of size and mass.  It is very different
+from an American lady's mode of talking: there is the difference between
+color and no color; the tone variegates it.  One of these young ladies
+spoke to me, making some remark about the weather,--the first instance I
+have met with of a gentlewoman's speaking to an unintroduced gentleman.
+Besides these, a middle-aged man of the lower class, and also a
+gentleman's out-door servant, clad in a drab great-coat, corduroy
+breeches, and drab cloth gaiters buttoned from the knee to the ankle.  He
+complained to the other man of the cold weather; said that a glass of
+whiskey, every half-hour, would keep a man comfortable; and, accidentally
+hitting his coarse foot against one of the young lady's feet, said, "Beg
+pardon, ma'am,"--which she acknowledged with a slight movement of the
+head.  Somehow or other, different classes seem to encounter one another
+in an easier manner than with us; the shock is less palpable.  I suppose
+the reason is that the distinctions are real, and therefore need not be
+continually asserted.
+
+Nervous and excitable persons need to talk a great deal, by way of
+letting off their steam.
+
+On board the Rock Ferry steamer, a gentleman coming into the cabin, a
+voice addresses him from a dark corner, "How do you do, sir?"--"Speak
+again!" says the gentleman.  No answer from the dark corner; and the
+gentleman repeats, "Speak again!"  The speaker now comes out of the dark
+corner, and sits down in a place where he can be seen.  "Ah!" cries the
+gentleman, "very well, I thank you.  How do you do?  I did not recognize
+your voice."  Observable, the English caution, shown in the gentleman's
+not vouchsafing to say, "Very well, thank you!" till he knew his man.
+
+What was the after life of the young man, whom Jesus, looking on,
+"loved," and bade him sell all that he had, and give to the poor, and
+take up his cross and follow him?  Something very deep and beautiful
+might be made out of this.
+
+
+December 31st.--Among the beggars of Liverpool, the hardest to encounter
+is a man without any legs, and, if I mistake not, likewise deficient in
+arms.  You see him before you all at once, as if he had sprouted halfway
+out of the earth, and would sink down and reappear in some other place
+the moment he has done with you.  His countenance is large, fresh, and
+very intelligent; but his great power lies in his fixed gaze, which is
+inconceivably difficult to bear.  He never once removes his eye from you
+till you are quite past his range; and you feel it all the same, although
+you do not meet his glance.  He is perfectly respectful; but the
+intentness and directness of his silent appeal is far worse than any
+impudence.  In fact, it is the very flower of impudence.  I would rather
+go a mile about than pass before his battery.  I feel wronged by him, and
+yet unutterably ashamed.  There must be great force in the man to produce
+such an effect.  There is nothing of the customary squalidness of beggary
+about him, but remarkable trimness and cleanliness.  A girl of twenty or
+thereabouts, who vagabondizes about the city on her hands and knees,
+possesses, to a considerable degree, the same characteristics.  I think
+they hit their victims the more effectually from being below the common
+level of vision.
+
+
+January 3d, 1854.--Night before last there was a fall of snow, about
+three or four inches, and, following it, a pretty hard frost.  On the
+river, the vessels at anchor showed the snow along their yards, and on
+every ledge where it could lie.  A blue sky and sunshine overhead, and
+apparently a clear atmosphere close at hand; but in the distance a
+mistiness became perceptible, obscuring the shores of the river, and
+making the vessels look dim and uncertain.  The steamers were ploughing
+along, smoking their pipes through the frosty air.  On the landing stage
+and in the streets, hard-trodden snow, looking more like my New England
+Home than anything I have yet seen.  Last night the thermometer fell as
+low as 13 degrees, nor probably is it above 20 degrees to-day.  No such
+frost has been known in England these forty years! and Mr. Wilding tells
+me that he never saw so much snow before.
+
+
+January 6th.--I saw, yesterday, stopping at a cabinet-maker's shop in
+Church Street, a coach with four beautiful white horses, and a postilion
+on each near-horse; behind, in the dicky, a footman; and on the box a
+coachman, all dressed in livery.  The coach-panel bore a coat-of-arms
+with a coronet, and I presume it must have been the equipage of the Earl
+of Derby.  A crowd of people stood round, gazing at the coach and horses;
+and when any of them spoke, it was in a lower tone than usual.  I doubt
+not they all had a kind of enjoyment of the spectacle, for these English
+are strangely proud of having a class above them.
+
+Every Englishman runs to "The Times" with his little grievance, as a
+child runs to his mother.
+
+I was sent for to the police court the other morning, in the case of an
+American sailor accused of robbing a shipmate at sea.  A large room, with
+a great coal-fire burning on one side, and above it the portrait of Mr.
+Rushton, deceased, a magistrate of many years' continuance.  A long
+table, with chairs, and a witness-box.  One of the borough magistrates, a
+merchant of the city, sat at the head of the table, with paper and pen
+and ink before him; but the real judge was the clerk of the court, whose
+professional knowledge and experience governed all the proceedings.  In
+the short time while I was waiting, two cases were tried, in the first of
+which the prisoner was discharged.  The second case was of a woman,--a
+thin, sallow, hard-looking, careworn, rather young woman,--for stealing a
+pair of slippers out of a shop: The trial occupied five minutes or less,
+and she was sentenced to twenty-one days' imprisonment,--whereupon,
+without speaking, she looked up wildly first into one policeman's face,
+then into another's, at the same time wringing her hands with no theatric
+gesture, but because her torment took this outward shape,--and was led
+away.  The Yankee sailor was then brought up,--an intelligent, but
+ruffian-like fellow,--and as the case was out of the jurisdiction of the
+English magistrates, and as it was not worth while to get him sent over
+to America for trial, he was forthwith discharged.  He stole a comforter.
+
+If mankind were all intellect, they would be continually changing, so
+that one age would be entirely unlike another.  The great conservative is
+the heart, which remains the same in all ages; so that commonplaces of a
+thousand years' standing are as effective as ever.
+
+
+Monday, February 20th.--At the police court on Saturday, I attended the
+case of the second mate and four seamen of the John and Albert, for
+assaulting, beating, and stabbing the chief mate.  The chief mate has
+been in the hospital ever since the assault, and was brought into the
+court to-day to give evidence,--a man of thirty, black hair, black eyes,
+a dark complexion, disagreeable expression; sallow, emaciated, feeble,
+apparently in pain, one arm disabled.  He sat bent and drawn upward, and
+had evidently been severely hurt, and was not yet fit to be out of bed.
+He had some brandy-and-water to enable him to sustain himself.  He gave
+his evidence very clearly, beginning (sailor-like) with telling in what
+quarter the wind was at the time of the assault, and which sail was taken
+in.  His testimony bore on one man only, at whom he cast a vindictive
+look; but I think he told the truth as far as he knew and remembered it.
+Of the prisoners the second mate was a mere youth, with long sandy hair,
+and an intelligent and not unprepossessing face, dressed as neatly as a
+three or four weeks' captive, with small, or no means, could well allow,
+in a frock-coat, and with clean linen,--the only linen or cotton shirt in
+the company.  The other four were rude, brutish sailors, in flannel or
+red-baize shirts.  Three of them appeared to give themselves little
+concern; but the fourth, a red-haired and red-bearded man,--Paraman, by
+name,--evidently felt the pressure of the case upon himself.  He was the
+one whom the mate swore to have given him the first blow; and there was
+other evidence of his having been stabbed with a knife.  The captain of
+the ship, the pilot, the cook, and the steward, all gave their evidence;
+and the general bearing of it was, that the chief mate had a devilish
+temper, and had misused the second mate and crew,--that the four seamen
+had attacked him, and that Paraman had stabbed him; while all but the
+steward concurred in saying that the second mate had taken no part in the
+affray.  The steward, however, swore to having seen him strike the chief
+mate with a wooden marlinspike, which was broken by the blow.  The
+magistrate dismissed all but Paraman, whom I am to send to America for
+trial.  In my opinion the chief mate got pretty nearly what he deserved,
+under the code of natural justice.  While business was going forward, the
+magistrate, Mr. Mansfield, talked about a fancy ball at which he had been
+present the evening before, and of other matters grave and gay.  It was
+very informal; we sat at the table, or stood with our backs to the fire;
+policemen came and went; witnesses were sworn on the greasiest copy of
+the Gospels I ever saw, polluted by hundreds and thousands of perjured
+kisses; and for hours the prisoners were kept standing at the foot of the
+table, interested to the full extent of their capacity, while all others
+were indifferent.  At the close of the case, the police officers and
+witnesses applied to me about their expenses.
+
+Yesterday I took a walk with my wife and two children to Bebbington
+Church.  A beautifully sunny morning.  My wife and U. attended church, J.
+and I continued our walk.  When we were at a little distance from the
+church, the bells suddenly chimed out with a most cheerful sound, and
+sunny as the morning.  It is a pity we have no chimes of bells, to give
+the churchward summons, at home.  People were standing about the ancient
+church-porch and among the tombstones.  In the course of our walk, we
+passed many old thatched cottages, built of stone, and with what looked
+like a cow-house or pigsty at one end, making part of the cottage; also
+an old stone farm-house, which may have been a residence of gentility in
+its day.  We passed, too, a small Methodist chapel, making one of a row
+of low brick edifices.  There was a sound of prayer within.  I never saw
+a more unbeautiful place of worship; and it had not even a separate
+existence for itself, the adjoining tenement being an alehouse.
+
+The grass along the wayside was green, with a few daisies.  There was
+green holly in the hedges, and we passed through a wood, up some of the
+tree-trunks of which ran clustering ivy.
+
+
+February 23d.--There came to see me the other day a young gentleman with
+a mustache and a blue cloak, who announced himself as William Allingham,
+and handed me a copy of his poems, a thin volume, with paper covers,
+published by Routledge.  I thought I remembered hearing his name, but had
+never seen any of his works.  His face was intelligent, dark, pleasing,
+and not at all John-Bullish.  He said that he had been employed in the
+Customs in Ireland, and was now going to London to live by literature,--
+to be connected with some newspaper, I imagine.  He had been in London
+before, and was acquainted with some of the principal literary people,--
+among others, Tennyson and Carlyle.  He seemed to have been on rather
+intimate terms with Tennyson.  We talked awhile in my dingy and dusky
+Consulate, and he then took leave.  His manners are good, and he appears
+to possess independence of mind.
+
+Yesterday I saw a British regiment march down to George's Pier, to embark
+in the Niagara for Malta.  The troops had nothing very remarkable about
+them; but the thousands of ragged and squalid wretches, who thronged the
+pier and streets to gaze on them, were what I had not seen before in such
+masses.  This was the first populace I have beheld; for even the Irish,
+on the other side of the water, acquire a respectability of aspect.  John
+Bull is going with his whole heart into the Turkish war.  He is very
+foolish.  Whatever the Czar may propose to himself, it is for the
+interest of democracy that he should not be easily put down.  The
+regiment, on its way to embark, carried the Queen's colors, and, side by
+side with them, the banner of the 28th,--yellow, with the names of the
+Peninsular and other battles in which it had been engaged inscribed on it
+in a double column.  It is a very distinguished regiment; and Mr. Henry
+Bright mentioned as one of its distinctions, that Washington had formerly
+been an officer in it.  I never heard of this.
+
+
+February 27th.--We walked to Woodside in the pleasant forenoon, and
+thence crossed to Liverpool.  On our way to Woodside, we saw the remains
+of the old Birkenhead Priory, built of the common red freestone, much
+time-worn, with ivy creeping over it, and birds evidently at hone in its
+old crevices.  These ruins are pretty extensive, and seem to be the
+remains of a quadrangle.  A handsome modern church, likewise of the same
+red freestone, has been built on part of the site occupied by the Priory;
+and the organ was sounding within, while we walked about the premises.
+On some of the ancient arches, there were grotesquely carved stone faces.
+The old walls have been sufficiently restored to make them secure,
+without destroying their venerable aspect.  It is a very interesting
+spot; and so much the more so because a modern town, with its brick and
+stone houses, its flags and pavements, has sprung up about the ruins,
+which were new a thousand years ago.  The station of the Chester railway
+is within a hundred yards.  Formerly the monks of this Priory kept the
+only ferry that then existed on the Mersey.
+
+At a dinner at Mr. Bramley Moore's a little while ago, we had a
+prairie-hen from the West of America.  It was a very delicate bird, and a
+gentleman carved it most skilfully to a dozen guests, and had still a
+second slice to offer to them.
+
+Aboard the ferry-boat yesterday, there was a laboring man eating oysters.
+He took them one by one from his pocket in interminable succession,
+opened them with his jack-knife, swallowed each one, threw the shell
+overboard, and then sought for another.  Having concluded his meal, he
+took out a clay tobacco-pipe, filled it, lighted it with a match, and
+smoked it,--all this, while the other passengers were looking at him, and
+with a perfect coolness and independence, such as no single man can ever
+feel in America.  Here a man does not seem to consider what other people
+will think of his conduct, but only whether it suits his own convenience
+to do so and so.  It may be the better way.
+
+A French military man, a veteran of all Napoleon's wars, is now living,
+with a false leg and arm, both movable by springs, false teeth, a false
+eye, a silver nose with a flesh-colored covering, and a silver plate
+replacing part of the skull.  He has the cross of the Legion of Honor.
+
+
+March 18th.--On Saturday I went with Mr. B---- to the Dingle, a pleasant
+domain on the banks of the Mersey almost opposite to Rock Ferry.  Walking
+home, we looked into Mr. Thorn's Unitarian Chapel, Mr. B----'s family's
+place of worship.  There is a little graveyard connected with the chapel,
+a most uninviting and unpicturesque square of ground, perhaps thirty or
+forty yards across, in the midst of back fronts of city buildings.  About
+half the space was occupied by flat tombstones, level with the ground,
+the remainder being yet vacant.  Nevertheless, there were perhaps more
+names of men generally known to the world on these few tombstones than in
+any other churchyard in Liverpool,--Roscoe, Blanco White, and the Rev.
+William Enfield, whose name has a classical sound in my ears, because,
+when a little boy, I used to read his "Speaker" at school.  In the vestry
+of the chapel there were many books, chiefly old theological works, in
+ancient print and binding, much mildewed and injured by the damp.  The
+body of the chapel is neat, but plain, and, being not very large, has a
+kind of social and family aspect, as if the clergyman and his people must
+needs have intimate relations among themselves.  The Unitarian sect in
+Liverpool have, as a body, great wealth and respectability.
+
+Yesterday I walked with my wife and children to the brow of a hill,
+overlooking Birkenhead and Tranmere, and commanding a fine view of the
+river, and Liverpool beyond.  All round about new and neat residences for
+city people are springing up, with fine names,--Eldon Terrace, Rose
+Cottage, Belvoir Villa, etc., etc., with little patches of ornamented
+garden or lawn in front, and heaps of curious rock-work, with which the
+English are ridiculously fond of adorning their front yards.  I rather
+think the middling classes--meaning shopkeepers, and other
+respectabilities of that level--are better lodged here than in America;
+and, what I did not expect, the houses are a great deal newer than in our
+new country!  Of course, this can only be the case in places
+circumstanced like Liverpool and its suburbs.  But, scattered among these
+modern villas, there are old stone cottages of the rudest structure, and
+doubtless hundreds of years old, with thatched roofs, into which the
+grass has rooted itself, and now looks verdant.  These cottages are in
+themselves as ugly as possible, resembling a large kind of pigsty; but
+often, by dint of the verdure on their thatch and the shrubbery
+clustering about them, they look picturesque.
+
+The old-fashioned flowers in the gardens of New England--blue-bells,
+crocuses, primroses, foxglove, and many others--appear to be wild flowers
+here on English soil.  There is something very touching and pretty in
+this fact, that the Puritans should have carried their field and hedge
+flowers, and nurtured theme in their gardens, until, to us, they seem
+entirely the product of cultivation.
+
+
+March 16th.--Yesterday, at the coroner's court, attending the inquest on
+a black sailor who died on board an American vessel, after her arrival at
+this port.  The court-room is capable of accommodating perhaps fifty
+people, dingy, with a pyramidal skylight above, and a single window on
+one side, opening into a gloomy back court.  A private room, also lighted
+with a pyramidal skylight, is behind the court-room, into which I was
+asked, and found the coroner, a gray-headed, grave, intelligent, broad,
+red-faced man, with an air of some authority, well mannered and
+dignified, but not exactly a gentleman,--dressed in a blue coat, with a
+black cravat, showing a shirt-collar above it.  Considering how many and
+what a variety of cases of the ugliest death are constantly coming before
+him, he was much more cheerful than could be expected, and had a kind of
+formality and orderliness which I suppose balances the exceptionalities
+with which he has to deal.  In the private room with him was likewise the
+surgeon, who professionally attends the court.  We chatted about suicide
+and such matters,--the surgeon, the coroner, and I,--until the American
+case was ready, when we adjourned to the court-room, and the coroner
+began the examination.  The American captain was a rude, uncouth
+Down-Easter, about thirty years old, and sat on a bench, doubled and bent
+into an indescribable attitude, out of which he occasionally straightened
+himself, all the time toying with a ruler, or some such article.  The
+case was one of no interest; the man had been frost-bitten, and died from
+natural causes, so that no censure was deserved or passed upon the
+captain.  The jury, who had been examining the body, were at first
+inclined to think that the man had not been frostbitten, but that his
+feet had been immersed in boiling water; but, on explanation by the
+surgeon, readily yielded their opinion, and gave the verdict which the
+coroner put into their mouths, exculpating the captain from all blame.
+In fact, it is utterly impossible that a jury of chance individuals
+should not be entirely governed by the judgment of so experienced and
+weighty a man as the coroner.  In the court-room were two or three police
+officers in uniform, and some other officials, a very few idle
+spectators, and a few witnesses waiting to be examined.  And while the
+case was going forward, a poor-looking woman came in, and I heard her, in
+an undertone, telling an attendant of a death that had just occurred.
+The attendant received the communication in a very quiet and
+matter-of-course way, said that it should be attended to, and the woman
+retired.
+
+THE DIARY OF A CORONER would be a work likely to meet with large popular
+acceptance.  A dark passageway, only a few yards in extent, leads from
+the liveliest street in Liverpool to this coroner's court-room, where all
+the discussion is about murder and suicide.  It seems, that, after a
+verdict of suicide, the corpse can only be buried at midnight, without
+religious rites.
+
+"His lines are cast in pleasant places,"--applied to a successful angler.
+
+A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.  You
+may strip off the outer ones without doing much mischief, perhaps none at
+all; but you keep taking off one after another, in expectation of coming
+to the inner nucleus, including the whole value of the matter.  It proves
+however, that there is no such nucleus, and that chastity is diffused
+through the whole series of coats, is lessened with the removal of each,
+and vanishes with the final one, which you supposed would introduce you
+to the hidden pearl.
+
+
+March 23d.--Mr. B. and I took a cab Saturday afternoon, and drove out of
+the city in the direction of Knowsley.  On our way we saw many
+gentlemen's or rich people's places, some of them dignified with the
+title of Halls,--with lodges at their gates, and standing considerably
+removed from the road.  The greater part of them were built of brick,--a
+material with which I have not been accustomed to associate ideas of
+grandeur; but it was much in use here in Lancashire, in the Elizabethan
+age,--more, I think, than now.  These suburban residences, however, are
+of much later date than Elizabeth's time.  Among other places, Mr. B.
+called at the Hazels, the residence of Sir Thomas Birch, a kinsman of
+his.  It is a large brick mansion, and has old trees and shrubbery about
+it, the latter very fine and verdant,--hazels, holly, rhododendron, etc.
+Mr. B. went in, and shortly afterwards Sir Thomas Birch came out,--a very
+frank and hospitable gentleman,--and pressed me to enter and take
+luncheon, which latter hospitality I declined.
+
+His house is in very nice order.  He had a good many pictures, and,
+amongst them, a small portrait of his mother, painted by Sir Thomas
+Lawrence, when a youth.  It is unfinished, and when the painter was at
+the height of his fame, he was asked to finish it.  But Lawrence, after
+looking at the picture, refused to retouch it, saying that there was a
+merit in this early sketch which he could no longer attain.  It was
+really a very beautiful picture of a lovely woman.
+
+Sir Thomas Birch proposed to go with us and get us admittance into
+Knowsley Park, where we could not possibly find entrance without his aid.
+So we went to the stables, where the old groom had already shown
+hospitality to our cabman, by giving his horse some provender, and
+himself some beer.  There seemed to be a kindly and familiar sort of
+intercourse between the old servant and the Baronet, each of them, I
+presume, looking on their connection as indissoluble.
+
+The gate-warden of Knowsley Park was an old woman, who readily gave us
+admittance at Sir Thomas Birch's request.  The family of the Earl of
+Derby is not now at the Park.  It was a very bad time of year to see it;
+the trees just showing the earliest symptoms of vitality, while whole
+acres of ground were covered with large, dry, brown ferns,--which I
+suppose are very beautiful when green.  Two or three hares scampered out
+of these ferns, and sat on their hind legs looking about them, as we
+drove by.  A sheet of water had been drawn off, in order to deepen its
+bed.  The oaks did not seem to me so magnificent as they should be in an
+ancient noble property like this.  A century does not accomplish so much
+for a tree, in this slow region, as it does in ours.  I think, however,
+that they were more individual and picturesque, with more character in
+their contorted trunks; therein somewhat resembling apple-trees.  Our
+forest-trees have a great sameness of character, like our people,--
+because one and the other grow too closely.
+
+In one part of the Park we came to a small tower, for what purpose I know
+not, unless as an observatory; and near it was a marble statue on a high
+pedestal.  The statue had been long exposed to the weather, and was
+overgrown and ingrained with moss and lichens, so that its classic beauty
+was in some sort gothicized.  A half-mile or so from this point, we saw
+the mansion of Knowsley, in the midst of a very fine prospect, with a
+tolerably high ridge of hills in the distance.  The house itself is
+exceedingly vast, a front and two wings, with suites of rooms, I suppose,
+interminable.  The oldest part, Sir Thomas Birch told us, is a tower of
+the time of Henry VII.  Nevertheless, the effect is not overwhelming,
+because the edifice looks low in proportion to its great extent over the
+ground; and besides, a good deal of it is built of brick, with white
+window-frames, so that, looking at separate parts, I might think them
+American structures, without the smart addition of green Venetian blinds,
+so universal with us.  Portions, however, were built of red freestone;
+and if I had looked at it longer, no doubt I should have admired it more.
+We merely drove round it from the rear to the front.  It stands in my
+memory rather like a college or a hospital, than as the ancestral
+residence of a great English noble.
+
+We left the Park in another direction, and passed through a part of Lord
+Sefton's property, by a private road.
+
+By the by, we saw half a dozen policemen, in their blue coats and
+embroidered collars, after entering Knowsley Park; but the Earl's own
+servants would probably have supplied their place, had the family been at
+home.  The mansion of Croxteth, the seat of Lord Sefton, stands near the
+public road, and, though large, looked of rather narrow compass after
+Knowsley.
+
+The rooks were talking together very loquaciously in the high tops of the
+trees near Sir Thomas Birch's house, it being now their building-time.
+It was a very pleasant sound, the noise being comfortably softened by the
+remote height.  Sir Thomas said that more than half a century ago the
+rooks used to inhabit another grove of lofty trees, close in front of the
+house; but being noisy, and not altogether cleanly in their habits, the
+ladies of the family grew weary of them and wished to remove them.
+Accordingly, the colony was driven away, and made their present
+settlement in a grove behind the house.  Ever since that time not a rook
+has built in the ancient grove; every year, however, one or another pair
+of young rooks attempt to build among the deserted tree-tops, but the old
+rooks tear the new nest to pieces as often as it is put together.  Thus,
+either the memory of aged individual rooks or an authenticated tradition
+in their society has preserved the idea that the old grove is forbidden
+and inauspicious to them.
+
+A soil of General Arnold, named William Fitch Arnold, and born in 1794,
+now possesses the estate of Little Messenden Abbey, Bucks County, and is
+a magistrate for that county.  He was formerly Captain of the 19th
+Lancers.  He has now two sons and four daughters.  The other three sons
+of General Arnold, all older than this one, and all military men, do not
+appear to have left children; but a daughter married to Colonel Phipps,
+of the Mulgrave family, has a son and two daughters.  I question whether
+any of our true-hearted Revolutionary heroes have left a more prosperous
+progeny than this arch-traitor.  I should like to know their feelings
+with respect to their ancestor.
+
+
+April 3d.--I walked with J-----, two days ago, to Eastham, a village on
+the road to Chester, and five or six miles from Rock Ferry.  On our way
+we passed through a village, in the centre of which was a small stone
+pillar, standing on a pedestal of several steps, on which children were
+sitting and playing.  I take it to have been an old Catholic cross; at
+least, I know not what else it is.  It seemed very ancient.  Eastham is
+the finest old English village I have seen, with many antique houses, and
+with altogether a rural and picturesque aspect, unlike anything in
+America, and yet possessing a familiar look, as if it were something I
+had dreamed about.  There were thatched stone cottages intermixed with
+houses of a better kind, and likewise a gateway and gravelled walk, that
+perhaps gave admittance to the Squire's mansion.  It was not merely one
+long, wide street, as in most New England villages, but there were
+several crooked ways, gathering the whole settlement into a pretty small
+compass.  In the midst of it stood a venerable church of the common red
+freestone, with a most reverend air, considerably smaller than that of
+Bebbington, but more beautiful, and looking quite as old.  There was ivy
+on its spire and elsewhere.  It looked very quiet and peaceful, and as if
+it had received the people into its low arched door every Sabbath for
+many centuries.  There were many tombstones about it, some level with the
+ground, some raised on blocks of stone, on low pillars, moss-grown and
+weather-worn; and probably these were but the successors of other stones
+that had quite crumbled away, or been buried by the accumulation of dead
+men's dust above them.  In the centre of the churchyard stood an old
+yew-tree, with immense trunk, which was all decayed within, so that it is
+a wonder how the tree retains any life,--which, nevertheless, it does.
+It was called "the old Yew of Eastham," six hundred years ago!
+
+After passing through the churchyard, we saw the village inn on the other
+side.  The doors were fastened, but a girl peeped out of the window at
+us, and let us in, ushering us into a very neat parlor.  There was a
+cheerful fire in the grate, a straw carpet on the floor, a mahogany
+sideboard, and a mahogany table in the middle of the room; and, on the
+walls, the portraits of mine host (no doubt) and of his wife and
+daughters,--a very nice parlor, and looking like what I might have found
+in a country tavern at home, only this was an ancient house, and there is
+nothing at home like the glimpse, from the window, of the church, and its
+red, ivy-grown tower.  I ordered some lunch, being waited on by the girl,
+who was very neat, intelligent, and comely,--and more respectful than a
+New England maid.  As we came out of the inn, some village urchins left
+their play, and ran to me begging, calling me "Master!"  They turned at
+once from play to begging, and, as I gave them nothing, they turned to
+their play again.
+
+This village is too far from Liverpool to have been much injured as yet
+by the novelty of cockney residences, which have grown up almost
+everywhere else, so far as I have visited.  About a mile from it,
+however, is the landing-place of a steamer (which runs regularly, except
+in the winter months), where a large, new hotel is built.  The grounds
+about it are extensive and well wooded.  We got some biscuits at the
+hotel, and I gave the waiter (a splendid gentleman in black) four
+halfpence, being the surplus of a shilling.  He bowed and thanked me very
+humbly.  An American does not easily bring his mind to the small measure
+of English liberality to servants; if anything is to be given, we are
+ashamed not to give more, especially to clerical-looking persons, in
+black suits and white neckcloths.
+
+I stood on the Exchange at noon, to-day, to see the 18th Regiment, the
+Connaught Rangers, marching down to embark for the East.  They were a
+body of young, healthy, and cheerful-looking men, and looked greatly
+better than the dirty crowd that thronged to gaze at them.  The royal
+banner of England, quartering the lion, the leopard, and the harp, waved
+on the town-house, and looked gorgeous and venerable.  Here and there a
+woman exchanged greetings with an individual soldier, as he marched
+along, and gentlemen shook hands with officers with whom they happened to
+be acquainted.  Being a stranger in the land, it seemed as if I could see
+the future in the present better than if I had been an Englishman; so I
+questioned with myself how many of these ruddy-cheeked young fellows,
+marching so stoutly away, would ever tread English ground again.  The
+populace did not evince any enthusiasm, yet there could not possibly be a
+war to which the country could assent more fully than to this.  I
+somewhat doubt whether the English populace really feels a vital interest
+in the nation.
+
+Some years ago, a piece of rude marble sculpture, representing St. George
+and the Dragon, was found over the fireplace of a cottage near Rock
+Ferry, on the road to Chester.  It was plastered over with pipe-clay, and
+its existence was unknown to the cottagers, until a lady noticed the
+projection and asked what it was.  It was supposed to have originally
+adorned the walls of the Priory at Birkenhead.  It measured fourteen and
+a half by nine inches, in which space were the heads of a king and queen,
+with uplifted hands, in prayer; their daughters also in prayer, and
+looking very grim; a lamb, the slain dragon, and St. George, proudly
+prancing on what looks like a donkey, brandishing a sword over his head.
+
+The following is a legend inscribed on the inner margin of a curious old
+box:--
+
+    "From Birkenhead into Hilbree
+     A squirrel might leap from tree to tree."
+
+I do not know where Hilbree is; but all round Birkenhead a squirrel would
+scarcely find a single tree to climb upon.  All is pavement and brick
+buildings now.
+
+
+Good Friday.--The English and Irish think it good to plant on this day,
+because it was the day when our Saviour's body was laid in the grave.
+Seeds, therefore, are certain to rise again.
+
+At dinner the other day, Mrs. ------ mentioned the origin of Franklin's
+adoption of the customary civil dress, when going to court as a
+diplomatist.  It was simply that his tailor had disappointed him of his
+court suit, and he wore his plain one with great reluctance, because he
+had no other.  Afterwards, gaining great success and praise by his
+mishap, he continued to wear it from policy.
+
+The grandmother of Mrs. ------ died fifty years ago, at the age of
+twenty-eight.  She had great personal charms, and among them a head of
+beautiful chestnut hair.  After her burial in the family tomb, the coffin
+of one of her children was laid on her own, so that the lid seems to have
+decayed, or been broken from this cause; at any rate, this was the case
+when the tomb was opened about a year ago.  The grandmother's coffin was
+then found to be filled with beautiful, glossy, living chestnut ringlets,
+into which her whole substance seems to have been transformed, for there
+was nothing else but these shining curls, the growth of half a century in
+the tomb.  An old man, with a ringlet of his youthful mistress treasured
+on his heart, might be supposed to witness this wonderful thing.
+
+Madam ------, who is now at my house, and very infirm, though not old,
+was once carried to the grave, and on the point of being buried.  It was
+in Barbary, where her husband was Consul-General.  He was greatly
+attached to her, and told the pall-bearers at the grave that he must see
+her once more.  When her face was uncovered, he thought he discerned
+signs of life, and felt a warmth.  Finally she revived, and for many
+years afterwards supposed the funeral procession to have been a dream;
+she having been partially conscious throughout, and having felt the wind
+blowing on her, and lifting the shroud from her feet,--for I presume she
+was to be buried in Oriental style, without a coffin.  Long after, in
+London, when she was speaking of this dream, her husband told her the
+facts, and she fainted away.  Whenever it is now mentioned, her face
+turns white.  Mr. ------, her son, was born on shipboard, on the coast of
+Spain, and claims four nationalities,--those of Spain, England, Ireland,
+and the United States; his father being Irish, his mother a native of
+England, himself a naturalized citizen of the United States, and his
+father having registered his birth and baptism in a Catholic church of
+Gibraltar, which gives him Spanish privileges.  He has hereditary claims
+to a Spanish countship.  His infancy was spent in Barbary, and his lips
+first lisped in Arabic.  There has been an unsettled and wandering
+character in his whole life.
+
+The grandfather of Madam ------, who was a British officer, once
+horsewhipped Paul Jones,--Jones being a poltroon.  How singular it is
+that the personal courage of famous warriors should be so often called in
+question!
+
+
+May 20th.--I went yesterday to a hospital to take the oath of a mate to a
+protest.  He had met with a severe accident by a fall on shipboard.  The
+hospital is a large edifice of red freestone, with wide, airy passages,
+resounding with footsteps passing through them.  A porter was waiting in
+the vestibule.  Mr. Wilding and myself were shown to the parlor, in the
+first instance,--a neat, plainly furnished room, with newspapers and
+pamphlets lying on the table and sofas.  Soon the surgeon of the house
+came,--a brisk, alacritous, civil, cheerful young man, by whom we were
+shown to the apartment where the mate was lying.  As we went through the
+principal passage, a man was borne along in a chair looking very pale,
+rather wild, and altogether as if he had just been through great
+tribulation, and hardly knew as yet whereabouts he was.  I noticed that
+his left arm was but a stump, and seemed done up in red baize,--at all
+events it was of a scarlet line.  The surgeon shook his right hand
+cheerily, and he was carried on.  This was a patient who had just had his
+arm cut off.  He had been a rough person apparently, but now there was a
+kind of tenderness about him, through pain and helplessness.
+
+In the chamber where the mate lay, there were seven beds, all of them
+occupied by persons who had met with accidents.  In the centre of the
+room was a stationary pine table, about the length of a man, intended, I
+suppose, to stretch patients upon for necessary operations.  The
+furniture of the beds was plain and homely.  I thought that the faces of
+the patients all looked remarkably intelligent, though they were
+evidently men of the lower classes.  Suffering had educated them morally
+and intellectually.  They gazed curiously at Mr. Wilding and me, but
+nobody said a word.  In the bed next to the mate lay a little boy with a
+broken thigh.  The surgeon observed that children generally did well with
+accidents; and this boy certainly looked very bright and cheerful.  There
+was nothing particularly interesting about the mate.
+
+After finishing our business, the surgeon showed us into another room of
+the surgical ward, likewise devoted to cases of accident and injury.  All
+the beds were occupied, and in two of them lay two American sailors who
+had recently been stabbed.  They had been severely hurt, but were doing
+very well.  The surgeon thought that it was a good arrangement to have
+several cases together, and that the patients kept up one another's
+spirits,--being often merry together.  Smiles and laughter may operate
+favorably enough from bed to bed; but dying groans, I should think, must
+be somewhat of a discouragement.  Nevertheless, the previous habits and
+modes of life of such people as compose the more numerous class of
+patients in a hospital must be considered before deciding this matter.
+It is very possible that their misery likes such bedfellows as it here
+finds.
+
+As we were taking our leave, the surgeon asked us if we should not like
+to see the operating-room; and before we could reply he threw open the
+door, and behold, there was a roll of linen "garments rolled in blood,"--
+and a bloody fragment of a human arm!  The surgeon glanced at me, and
+smiled kindly, but as if pitying my discomposure.
+
+Gervase Elwes, son of Sir Gervase Elwes, Baronet, of Stoke, Suffolk,
+married Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Hervey, Knight, and sister of
+the first Earl of Bristol.  This Gervase died before his father, but left
+a son, Henry, who succeeded to the Baronetcy.  Sir Henry died without
+issue, and was succeeded by his sister's son, John Maggott Twining, who
+assumed the name of Elwes.  He was the famous miser, and must have had
+Hawthorne blood in him, through his grandfather, Gervase, whose mother
+was a Hawthorne.  It was to this Gervase that my ancestor, William
+Hawthorne, devised some land in Massachusetts, "if he would come over,
+and enjoy it."  My ancestor calls him his nephew.
+
+
+June 12th.--Barry Cornwall, Mr. Procter, called on me a week or more ago,
+but I happened not to be in the office.  Saturday last he called again,
+and as I had crossed to Rock Park he followed me thither.  A plain,
+middle-sized, English-looking gentleman, elderly, with short, white hair,
+and particularly quiet in his manners.  He talks in a somewhat low tone
+without emphasis, scarcely distinct.  His head has a good outline, and
+would look well in marble.  I liked him very well.  He talked
+unaffectedly, showing an author's regard to his reputation, and was
+evidently pleased to hear of his American celebrity.  He said that in his
+younger days he was a scientific pugilist, and once took a journey to
+have a sparring encounter with the Game-Chicken.  Certainly, no one would
+have looked for a pugilist in this subdued old gentleman.  He is now
+Commissioner of Lunacy, and makes periodical circuits through the
+country, attending to the business of his office.  He is slightly deaf,
+and this may be the cause of his unaccented utterance,--owing to his not
+being able to regulate his voice exactly by his own ear.  He is a good
+man, and much better expressed by his real name, Procter, than by his
+poetical one, Barry Cornwall. . . . He took my hand in both of his at
+parting. . . .
+
+
+June 17th.--At eleven, at this season (and how much longer I know not),
+there is still a twilight.  If we could only have such dry, deliciously
+warm evenings as we used to have in our own land, what enjoyment there
+might be in these interminable twilights!  But here we close the
+window-shutters, and make ourselves cosey by a coal-fire.
+
+All three of the children, and, I think, my wife and myself, are going
+through the hooping-cough.  The east-wind of this season and region is
+most horrible.  There have been no really warm days; for though the
+sunshine is sometimes hot, there is never any diffused heat throughout
+the air.  On passing from the sunshine into the shade, we immediately
+feel too cool.
+
+
+June 20th.--The vagabond musicians about town are very numerous.  On
+board the steam ferry-boats, I have heretofore spoken of them.  They
+infest them from May to November, for very little gain apparently.  A
+shilling a day per man must be the utmost of their emolument.  It is
+rather sad to see somewhat respectable old men engaged in this way, with
+two or three younger associates.  Their instruments look much the worse
+for wear, and even my unmusical ear can distinguish more discord than
+harmony.  They appear to be a very quiet and harmless people.  Sometimes
+there is a woman playing on a fiddle, while her husband blows a wind
+instrument.  In the streets it is not unusual to find a band of half a
+dozen performers, who, without any provocation or reason whatever, sound
+their brazen instruments till the houses re-echo.  Sometimes one passes a
+man who stands whistling a tune most unweariably, though I never saw
+anybody give him anything.  The ballad-singers are the strangest, from
+the total lack of any music in their cracked voices.  Sometimes you see a
+space cleared in the street, and a foreigner playing, while a girl--
+weather-beaten, tanned, and wholly uncomely in face and shabby in attire
+dances ballets.  The common people look on, and never criticise or treat
+any of these poor devils unkindly or uncivilly; but I do not observe that
+they give them anything.
+
+A crowd--or, at all events, a moderate-sized group--is much more easily
+drawn together here than with us.  The people have a good deal of idle
+and momentary curiosity, and are always ready to stop when another person
+has stopped, so as to see what has attracted his attention.  I hardly
+ever pause to look at a shop-window, without being immediately incommoded
+by boys and men, who stop likewise, and would forthwith throng the
+pavement if I did not move on.
+
+
+June 30th.--If it is not known how and when a man dies, it makes a ghost
+of him for many years thereafter, perhaps for centuries.  King Arthur is
+an example; also the Emperor Frederic, and other famous men, who were
+thought to be alive ages after their disappearance.  So with private
+individuals.  I had an uncle John, who went a voyage to sea about the
+beginning of the War of 1812, and has never returned to this hour.  But
+as long as his mother lived, as many as twenty years, she never gave up
+the hope of his return, and was constantly hearing stories of persons
+whose description answered to his.  Some people actually affirmed that
+they had seen him in various parts of the world.  Thus, so far as her
+belief was concerned, he still walked the earth.  And even to this day I
+never see his name, which is no very uncommon one, without thinking that
+this may be the lost uncle.
+
+Thus, too, the French Dauphin still exists, or a kind of ghost of him;
+the three Tells, too, in the cavern of Uri.
+
+
+July 6th.--Mr. Cecil, the other day, was saying that England could
+produce as fine peaches as any other country.  I asked what was the
+particular excellence of a peach, and he answered, "Its cooling and
+refreshing quality, like that of a melon!"  Just think of this idea of
+the richest, most luscious, of all fruits!  But the untravelled
+Englishman has no more idea of what fruit is than of what sunshine is; he
+thinks he has tasted the first and felt the last, but they are both alike
+watery.  I heard a lady in Lord Street talking about the "broiling sun,"
+when I was almost in a shiver.  They keep up their animal heat by means
+of wine and ale, else they could not bear this climate.
+
+
+July 19th.--A week ago I made a little tour in North Wales with Mr.
+Bright.  We left Birkenhead by railway for Chester at two o'clock; thence
+for Bangor; thence by carriage over the Menai bridge to Beaumaris.  At
+Beaumaris, a fine old castle,--quite coming up to my idea of what an old
+castle should be.  A gray, ivy-hung exterior wall, with large round
+towers at intervals; within this another wall, the place of the
+portcullis between; and again, within the second wall the castle itself,
+with a spacious green court-yard in front.  The outer wall is so thick
+that a passage runs in it all round the castle, which covers a space of
+three acres.  This passage gives access to a chapel, still very perfect,
+and to various apartments in the towers,--all exceedingly dismal, and
+giving very unpleasant impressions of the way in which the garrison of
+the castle lived.  The main castle is entirely roofless, but the hall and
+other rooms are pointed out by the guide, and the whole is tapestried
+with abundant ivy, so that my impression is of gray walls, with here and
+there a vast green curtain; a carpet of green over the floors of halls
+and apartments; and festoons around all the outer battlement, with an
+uneven and rather perilous foot-path running along the top.  There is a
+fine vista through the castle itself, and the two gateways of the two
+encompassing walls.  The passage within the wall is very rude, both
+underfoot and on each side, with various ascents and descents of rough
+steps,--sometimes so low that your head is in danger; and dark, except
+where a little light comes through a loophole or window in the thickness
+of the wall.  In front of the castle a tennis-court was fitted up, by
+laying a smooth pavement on the ground, and casing the walls with tin or
+zinc, if I recollect aright.  All this was open to the sky; and when we
+were there, some young men of the town were playing at the game.  There
+are but very few of these tennis-courts in England; and this old castle
+was a very strange place for one.
+
+The castle is the property of Sir Richard Bulkely, whose seat is in the
+vicinity, and who owns a great part of the island of Anglesea, on which
+Beaumaris lies.  The hotel where we stopped was the Bulkely Arms, and Sir
+Richard has a kind of feudal influence in the town.
+
+In the morning we walked along a delightful road, bordering on the Menai
+Straits, to Bangor Ferry.  It was really a very pleasant road, overhung
+by a growth of young wood, exceedingly green and fresh.  English trees
+are green all about their stems, owing to the creeping plants that
+overrun them.  There were some flowers in the hedges, such as we
+cultivate in gardens.  At the ferry, there was a whitewashed cottage; a
+woman or two, some children, and a fisherman-like personage, walking to
+and fro before the door.  The scenery of the strait is very beautiful and
+picturesque, and directly opposite to us lay Bangor,--the strait being
+here almost a mile across.  An American ship from Boston lay in the
+middle of it.  The ferry-boat was just putting off for the Bangor side,
+and, by the aid of a sail, soon neared the shore.
+
+At Bangor we went to a handsome hotel, and hired a carriage and two
+horses for some Welsh place, the name of which I forget; neither can I
+remember a single name of the places through which we posted that day,
+nor could I spell them if I heard them pronounced, nor pronounce them if
+I saw them spelt.  It was a circuit of about forty miles, bringing us to
+Conway at last.  I remember a great slate-quarry; and also that many of
+the cottages, in the first part of our drive, were built of blocks of
+slate.  The mountains were very bold, thrusting themselves up abruptly in
+peaks,--not of the dumpling formation, which is somewhat too prevalent
+among the New England mountains.  At one point we saw Snowdon, with its
+bifold summit.  We also visited the smaller waterfall (this is a
+translation of an unpronounceable Welsh name), which is the largest in
+Wales.  It was a very beautiful rapid, and the guide-book considers it
+equal in sublimity to Niagara.  Likewise there were one or two lakes
+which the guide-book greatly admired, but which to me, who remembered a
+hundred sheets of blue water in New England, seemed nothing more than
+sullen and dreary puddles, with bare banks, and wholly destitute of
+beauty.  I think they were nowhere more than a hundred yards across.  But
+the hills were certainly very good, and, though generally bare of trees,
+their outlines thereby were rendered the stronger and more striking.
+
+Many of the Welsh women, particularly the older ones, wear black beaver
+hats, high-crowned, and almost precisely like men's.  It makes them look
+ugly and witchlike.  Welsh is still the prevalent language, and the only
+one spoken by a great many of the inhabitants.  I have had Welsh people
+in my office, on official business, with whom I could not communicate
+except through an interpreter.
+
+At some unutterable village we went into a little church, where we saw an
+old stone image of a warrior, lying on his back, with his hands clasped.
+It was the natural son (if I remember rightly) of David, Prince of Wales,
+and was doubtless the better part of a thousand years old.  There was
+likewise a stone coffin of still greater age; some person of rank and
+renown had mouldered to dust within it, but it was now open and empty.
+Also, there were monumental brasses on the walls, engraved with portraits
+of a gentleman and lady in the costumes of Elizabeth's time.  Also, on
+one of the pews, a brass record of some persons who slept in the vault
+beneath; so that, every Sunday, the survivors and descendants kneel and
+worship directly over their dead ancestors.  In the churchyard, on a flat
+tombstone, there was the representation of a harp.  I supposed that it
+must be the resting-place of a bard; but the inscription was in memory of
+a merchant, and a skilful manufacturer of harps.
+
+This was a very delightful town.  We saw a great many things which it is
+now too late to describe, the sharpness of the first impression being
+gone; but I think I can produce something of the sentiment of it
+hereafter.
+
+We arrived at Conway late in the afternoon, to take the rail for Chester.
+I must see Conway, with its old gray wall and its unrivalled castle,
+again.  It was better than Beaumaris, and I never saw anything more
+picturesque than the prospect from the castle-wall towards the sea.  We
+reached Chester at 10 P. M.  The next morning, Mr. Bright left for
+Liverpool before I was awake.  I visited the Cathedral, where the organ
+was sounding, sauntered through the Rows, bought some playthings for the
+children, and left for home soon after twelve.
+
+
+Liverpool, August 8th.--Visiting the Zoological Gardens the other day
+with J-----, it occurred to me what a fantastic kind of life a person
+connected with them might be depicted as leading,--a child, for instance.
+The grounds are very extensive, and include arrangements for all kinds of
+exhibitions calculated to attract the idle people of a great city.  In
+one enclosure is a bear, who climbs a pole to get cake and gingerbread
+from the spectators.  Elsewhere, a circular building, with compartments
+for lions, wolves, and tigers.  In another part of the garden is a colony
+of monkeys, the skeleton of an elephant, birds of all kinds.  Swans and
+various rare water-fowl were swimming on a piece of water, which was
+green, by the by, and when the fowls dived they stirred up black mud.  A
+stork was parading along the margin, with melancholy strides of its long
+legs, and came slowly towards us, as if for companionship.  In one
+apartment was an obstreperously noisy society of parrots and macaws, most
+gorgeous and diversified of hue.  These different colonies of birds and
+beasts were scattered about in various parts of the grounds, so that you
+came upon them unexpectedly.  Also, there were archery and
+shooting-grounds, and a sewing.  A theatre, also, at which a rehearsal
+was going on,--we standing at one of the doors, and looking in towards the
+dusky stage where the company, in their ordinary dresses, were rehearsing
+something that had a good deal of dance and action in it.  In the open
+air there was an arrangement of painted scenery representing a wide
+expanse of mountains, with a city at their feet, and before it the sea,
+with actual water, and large vessels upon it, the vessels having only the
+side that would be presented to the spectator.  But the scenery was so
+good that at a first casual glance I almost mistook it for reality.
+There was a refreshment-room, with drinks and cakes and pastry, but, so
+far as I saw, no substantial victual.  About in the centre of the garden
+there was an actual, homely-looking, small dwelling-house, where perhaps
+the overlookers of the place live.  Now this might be wrought, in an
+imaginative description, into a pleasant sort of a fool's paradise, where
+all sorts of unreal delights should cluster round some suitable
+personage; and it would relieve, in a very odd and effective way, the
+stern realities of life on the outside of the garden-walls.  I saw a
+little girl, simply dressed, who seemed to have her habitat within the
+grounds.  There was also a daguerreotypist, with his wife and family,
+carrying on his business in a shanty, and perhaps having his home in its
+inner room.  He seemed to be an honest, intelligent, pleasant young man,
+and his wife a pleasant woman; and I had J-----'s daguerreotype taken for
+three shillings, in a little gilded frame.  In the description of the
+garden, the velvet turf, of a charming verdure, and the shrubbery and
+shadowy walks and large trees, and the slopes and inequalities of ground,
+must not be forgotten.  In one place there was a maze and labyrinth,
+where a person might wander a long while in the vain endeavor to get out,
+although all the time looking at the exterior garden, over the low hedges
+that border the walks of the maze.  And this is like the inappreciable
+difficulties that often beset us in life.
+
+I will see it again before long, and get some additional record of it.
+
+
+August 10th.--We went to the Isle of Man, a few weeks ago, where S-----
+and the children spent a fortnight.  I spent two Sundays with them.
+
+I never saw anything prettier than the little church of Kirk Madden
+there.  It stands in a perfect seclusion of shadowy trees,--a plain
+little church, that would not be at all remarkable in another situation,
+but is most picturesque in its solitude and bowery environment.  The
+churchyard is quite full and overflowing with graves, and extends down
+the gentle slope of a hill, with a dark mass of shadow above it.  Some of
+the tombstones are flat on the ground, some erect, or laid horizontally
+on low pillars or masonry.  There were no very old dates on any of these
+stones; for the climate soon effaces inscriptions, and makes a stone of
+fifty years look as old as one of five hundred,--unless it be slate, or
+something harder than the usual red freestone.  There was an old Runic
+monument, however, near the centre of the churchyard, that had some
+strange sculpture on it, and an inscription still legible by persons
+learned in such matters.  Against the tower of the church, too, there is
+a circular stone, with carving on it, said to be of immemorial antiquity.
+There is likewise a tall marble monument, as much as fifty feet high,
+erected some years ago to the memory of one of the Athol family by his
+brother-officers of a local regiment of which he was colonel.  At one of
+the side-entrances of the church, and forming the threshold within the
+thickness of the wall, so that the feet of all who enter must tread on
+it, is a flat tombstone of somebody who felt himself a sinner, no doubt,
+and desired to be thus trampled upon.  The stone is much worn.
+
+The structure is extremely plain inside and very small.  On the walls,
+over the pews, are several monumental sculptures,--a quite elaborate one
+to a Colonel Murray, of the Coldstreamn Guards; his military profession
+being designated by banners and swords in marble.--Another was to a
+farmer.
+
+On one side of the church-tower there was a little penthouse, or
+lean-to,--merely a stone roof, about three or four feet high, and
+supported by a single pillar, beneath which was once deposited the bier.
+
+I have let too much time pass before attempting to record my impressions
+of the Isle of Man; but, as regards this church, no description can come
+up to its quiet beauty, its seclusion, and its every requisite for an
+English country church.
+
+Last Sunday I went to Eastham, and, entering the churchyard, sat down on
+a tombstone under the yew-tree which has been known for centuries as the
+Great Tree of Eastham.  Some of the village people were sitting on the
+graves near the door; and an old woman came towards me, and said, in a
+low, kindly, admonishing tone, that I must not let the sexton see me,
+because he would not allow any one to be there in sacrament-time.  I
+inquired why she and her companions were there, and she said they were
+waiting for the sacrament.  So I thanked her, gave her a sixpence, and
+departed.  Close under the eaves, I saw two upright stones, in memory of
+two old servants of the Stanley family,--one over ninety, and the other
+over eighty years of age.
+
+August 12th.--J----- and I went to Birkenhead Park yesterday.  There is a
+large ornamental gateway to the Park, and the grounds within are neatly
+laid out, with borders of shrubbery.  There is a sheet of water, with
+swans and other aquatic fowl, which swim about, and are fed with dainties
+by the visitors.  Nothing can be more beautiful than a swan.  It is the
+ideal of a goose,--a goose beautified and beatified.  There were not a
+great many visitors, but some children were dancing on the green, and a
+few lover-like people straying about.  I think the English behave better
+than the Americans at similar places.
+
+There was a camera-obscure, very wretchedly indistinct.  At the
+refreshment-room were ginger-beer and British wines.
+
+
+August 21st.--I was in the Crown Court on Saturday, sitting in the
+sheriff's seat.  The judge was Baron ------, an old gentleman of sixty,
+with very large, long features.  His wig helped him to look like some
+strange kind of animal,--very queer, but yet with a sagacious, and, on
+the whole, beneficent aspect.  During the session some mischievous young
+barrister occupied himself with sketching the judge in pencil; and, being
+handed about, it found its way to me.  It was very like and very
+laughable, but hardly caricatured.  The judicial wig is an exceedingly
+odd affair; and as it covers both ears, it would seem intended to prevent
+his Lordship, and justice in his person, from hearing any of the case on
+either side, that thereby he may decide the better.  It is like the old
+idea of blindfolding the statue of Justice.
+
+It seems to me there is less formality, less distance between the judge,
+jury, witnesses, and bar, in the English courts than in our own.  The
+judge takes a very active part in the trial, constantly asking a question
+of the witness on the stand, making remarks on the conduct of the trial,
+putting in his word on all occasions, and allowing his own sense of the
+matter in hand to be pretty plainly seen; so that, before the trial is
+over, and long before his own charge is delivered, he must have exercised
+a very powerful influence over the minds of the jury.  All this is done,
+not without dignity, yet in a familiar kind of way.  It is a sort of
+paternal supervision of the whole matter, quite unlike the cold awfulness
+of an American judge.  But all this may be owing partly to the personal
+characteristics of Baron ------.  It appeared to me, however, that, from
+the closer relations of all parties, truth was likely to be arrived at
+and justice to be done.  As an innocent man, I should not be afraid to be
+tried by Baron ------.
+
+
+
+EATON HALL.
+
+
+August 24th.--I went to Eaton Hall yesterday with my wife and Mr. G. P.
+Bradford, via Chester.  On our way, at the latter place, we visited St.
+John's Church.  It is built of the same red freestone as the cathedral,
+and looked exceedingly antique, and venerable; this kind of stone, from
+its softness, and its liability to be acted upon by the weather, being
+liable to an early decay.  Nevertheless, I believe the church was built
+above a thousand years ago,--some parts of it, at least,--and the surface
+of the tower and walls is worn away and hollowed in shallow sweeps by the
+hand of Time.  There were broken niches in several places, where statues
+had formerly stood.  All, except two or three, had fallen or crumbled
+away, and those which remained were much damaged.  The face and details
+of the figure were almost obliterated.  There were many gravestones round
+the church, but none of them of any antiquity.  Probably, as the names
+become indistinguishable on the older stones, the graves are dug over
+again, and filled with new occupants and covered with new stones, or
+perhaps with the old ones newly inscribed.
+
+Closely connected with the church was the clergyman's house, a
+comfortable-looking residence; and likewise in the churchyard, with
+tombstones all about it, even almost at the threshold, so that the
+doorstep itself might have been a tombstone, was another house, of
+respectable size and aspect.  We surmised that this might be the sexton's
+dwelling, but it proved not to be so; and a woman, answering our knock,
+directed us to the place where he might be found.  So Mr. Bradford and I
+went in search of him, leaving S----- seated on a tombstone.  The sexton
+was a jolly-looking, ruddy-faced man, a mechanic of some sort,
+apparently, and he followed us to the churchyard with much alacrity.  We
+found S----- standing at a gateway, which opened into the most ancient,
+and now quite ruinous, part of the church, the present edifice covering
+much less ground than it did some centuries ago.  We went through this
+gateway, and found ourselves in an enclosure of venerable walls, open to
+the sky, with old Norman arches standing about, beneath the loftiest of
+which the sexton told us the high altar used to stand.  Of course, there
+were weeds and ivy growing in the crevices, but not so abundantly as I
+have seen them elsewhere.  The sexton pointed out a piece of a statue
+that had once stood in one of the niches, and which he himself, I think,
+had dug up from several feet below the earth; also, in a niche of the
+walls, high above our heads, he showed us an ancient wooden coffin, hewn
+out of a solid log of oak, the hollow being made rudely in the shape of a
+human figure.  This too had been dug up, and nobody knew how old it was.
+While we looked at all this solemn old trumpery, the curate, quite a
+young man, stood at the back door of his house, elevated considerably
+above the ruins, with his young wife (I presume) and a friend or two,
+chatting cheerfully among themselves.  It was pleasant to see them there.
+After examining the ruins, we went inside of the church, and found it a
+dim and dusky old place, quite paved over with tombstones, not an inch of
+space being left in the aisles or near the altar, or in any nook or
+corner, uncovered by a tombstone.  There were also mural monuments and
+escutcheons, and close against the wall lay the mutilated statue of a
+Crusader, with his legs crossed, in the style which one has so often read
+about.  The old fellow seemed to have been represented in chain armor;
+but he had been more battered and bruised since death than even during
+his pugnacious life, and his nose was almost knocked away.  This figure
+had been dug up many years ago, and nobody knows whom it was meant to
+commemorate.
+
+The nave of the church is supported by two rows of Saxon pillars, not
+very lofty, but six feet six inches (so the sexton says) in diameter.
+They are covered with plaster, which was laid on ages ago, and is now so
+hard and smooth that I took the pillars to be really composed of solid
+shafts of gray stone.  But, at one end of the church, the plaster had
+been removed from two of the pillars, in order to discover whether they
+were still sound enough to support the building; and they prove to be
+made of blocks of red freestone, just as sound as when it came from the
+quarry; for though this stone soon crumbles in the open air, it is as
+good as indestructible when sheltered from the weather.  It looked very
+strange to see the fresh hue of these two pillars amidst the dingy
+antiquity of the rest of the structure.
+
+The body of the church is covered with pews, the wooden enclosures of
+which seemed of antique fashion.  There were also modern stoves; but the
+sexton said it was very cold there, in spite of the stoves.  It had, I
+must say, a disagreeable odor pervading it, in which the dead people of
+long ago had doubtless some share,--a musty odor, by no means amounting
+to a stench, but unpleasant, and, I should think, unwholesome.  Old
+wood-work, and old stones, and antiquity of all kinds, moral and
+physical, go to make up this smell.  I observed it in the cathedral, and
+Chester generally has it, especially under the Rows.  After all, the
+necessary damp and lack of sunshine, in such a shadowy old church as
+this, have probably more to do with it than the dead people have;
+although I did think the odor was particularly strong over some of the
+tombstones.  Not having shillings to give the sexton, we were forced to
+give him half a crown.
+
+The Church of St. John is outside of the city walls.  Entering the East
+gate, we walked awhile under the Rows, bought our tickets for Eaton Hall
+and its gardens, and likewise some playthings for the children; for this
+old city of Chester seems to me to possess an unusual number of
+toy-shops.  Finally we took a cab, and drove to the Hall, about four
+miles distant, nearly the whole of the way lying through the wooded Park.
+There are many sorts of trees, making up a wilderness, which looked not
+unlike the woods of our own Concord, only less wild.  The English oak is
+not a handsome tree, being short and sturdy, with a round, thick mass of
+foliage, lying all within its own bounds.  It was a showery day.  Had
+there been any sunshine, there might doubtless have been many beautiful
+effects of light and shadow in these woods.  We saw one or two herds of
+deer, quietly feeding, a hundred yards or so distant.  They appeared to
+be somewhat wilder than cattle, but, I think, not much wilder than sheep.
+Their ancestors have probably been in a half-domesticated state,
+receiving food at the hands of man, in winter, for centuries.  There is a
+kind of poetry in this, quite as much as if they were really wild deer,
+such as their forefathers were, when Hugh Lupus used to hunt them.
+
+Our miserable cab drew up at the steps of Eaton Hall, and, ascending
+under the portico, the door swung silently open, and we were received
+very civilly by two old men,--one, a tall footman in livery; the other,
+of higher grade, in plain clothes.  The entrance-hall is very spacious,
+and the floor is tessellated or somehow inlaid with marble.  There was
+statuary in marble on the floor, and in niches stood several figures in
+antique armor, of various dates; some with lances, and others with
+battle-axes and swords.  There was a two-handed sword, as much as six
+feet long; but not nearly so ponderous as I have supposed this kind of
+weapon to be, from reading of it.  I could easily have brandished it.
+
+I don't think I am a good sight-seer; at least, I soon get satisfied with
+looking at the sights, and wish to go on to the next.
+
+The plainly dressed old man now led us into a long corridor, which goes,
+I think, the whole length of the house, about five hundred feet, arched
+all the way, and lengthened interminably by a looking-glass at the end,
+in which I saw our own party approaching like a party of strangers.  But
+I have so often seen this effect produced in dry-goods stores and
+elsewhere, that I was not much impressed.  There were family portraits
+and other pictures, and likewise pieces of statuary, along this arched
+corridor; and it communicated with a chapel with a scriptural
+altar-piece, copied from Rubens, and a picture of St. Michael and the
+Dragon, and two, or perhaps three, richly painted windows.  Everything
+here is entirely new and fresh, this part having been repaired, and never
+yet inhabited by the family.  This brand-newness makes it much less
+effective than if it had been lived in; and I felt pretty much as if I
+were strolling through any other renewed house.  After all, the utmost
+force of man can do positively very little towards making grand things or
+beautiful things.  The imagination can do so much more, merely on
+shutting one's eyes, that the actual effect seems meagre; so that a new
+house, unassociated with the past, is exceedingly unsatisfactory,
+especially when you have heard that the wealth mud skill of man has here
+done its best.  Besides, the rooms, as we saw them, did not look by any
+means their best, the carpets not being down, and the furniture being
+covered with protective envelopes.  However, rooms cannot be seen to
+advantage by daylight; it being altogether essential to the effect, that
+they should be illuminated by artificial light, which takes them somewhat
+out of the region of bare reality.  Nevertheless, there was undoubtedly
+great splendor, for the details of which I refer to the guide-book.
+Among the family portraits, there was one of a lady famous for her
+beautiful hand; and she was holding it up to notice in the funniest way,
+--and very beautiful it certainly was.  The private apartments of the
+family were not shown us.  I should think it impossible for the owner of
+this house to imbue it with his personality to such a degree as to feel
+it to be his home.  It must be like a small lobster in a shell much too
+large for him.
+
+After seeing what was to be seen of the rooms, we visited the gardens, in
+which are noble conservatories and hot-houses, containing all manner of
+rare and beautiful flowers, and tropical fruits.  I noticed some large
+pines, looking as if they were really made of gold.  The gardener
+(under-gardener I suppose he was) who showed this part of the spectacle
+was very intelligent as well as kindly, and seemed to take an interest in
+his business.  He gave S----- a purple everlasting flower, which will
+endure a great many years, as a memento of our visit to Eaton Hall.
+Finally, we took a view of the front of the edifice, which is very fine,
+and much more satisfactory than the interior,--and returned to Chester.
+
+We strolled about under the unsavory Rows, sometimes scudding from side
+to side of the street, through the shower; took lunch in a confectioner's
+shop, and drove to the railway station in time for the three-o'clock
+train.  It looked picturesque to see two little girls, hand in hand,
+racing along the ancient passages of the Rows; but Chester has a very
+evil smell.
+
+At the railroad station, S----- saw a small edition of "Twice-Told
+Tales," forming a volume of the Cottage Library; and, opening it, there
+was the queerest imaginable portrait of myself,--so very queer that we
+could not but buy it.  The shilling edition of "The Scarlet Letter" and
+"Seven Gables" are at all the book-stalls and shop-windows; but so is
+"The Lamplighter," and still more trashy books.
+
+
+August 26th.--All past affairs, all home conclusions, all people whom I
+have known in America and meet again here, are strangely compelled to
+undergo a new trial.  It is not that they suffer by comparison with
+circumstances of English life and forms of English manhood or womanhood;
+but, being free from my old surroundings, and the inevitable prejudices
+of home, I decide upon them absolutely.
+
+I think I neglected to record that I saw Miss Martineau a few weeks
+since.  She is a large, robust, elderly woman, and plainly dressed; but
+withal she has so kind, cheerful, and intelligent a face that she is
+pleasanter to look at than most beauties.  Her hair is of a decided gray,
+and she does not shrink from calling herself old.  She is the most
+continual talker I ever heard; it is really like the babbling of a brook,
+and very lively and sensible too; and all the while she talks, she moves
+the bowl of her ear-trumpet from one auditor to another, so that it
+becomes quite an organ of intelligence and sympathy between her and
+yourself.  The ear-trumpet seems a sensible part of her, like the
+antennae of some insects.  If you have any little remark to make, you
+drop it in; and she helps you to make remarks by this delicate little
+appeal of the trumpet, as she slightly directs it towards you; and if you
+have nothing to say, the appeal is not strong enough to embarrass you.
+All her talk was about herself and her affairs; but it did not seem like
+egotism, because it was so cheerful and free from morbidness.  And this
+woman is an Atheist, and thinks that the principle of life will become
+extinct when her body is laid in the grave!  I will not think so; were it
+only for her sake.  What! only a few weeds to spring out of her
+mortality, instead of her intellect and sympathies flowering and fruiting
+forever!
+
+
+September 13th.--My family went to Rhyl last Thursday, and on Saturday I
+joined them there, in company with O'Sullivan, who arrived in the Behama
+from Lisbon that morning.  We went by way of Chester, and found S-----
+waiting for us at the Rhyl station.  Rhyl is a most uninteresting place,
+--a collection of new lodging-houses and hotels, on a long sand-beach,
+which the tide leaves bare almost to the horizon.  The sand is by no
+means a marble pavement, but sinks under the foot, and makes very heavy
+walking; but there is a promenade in front of the principal range of
+houses, looking on the sea, whereon we have rather better footing.
+Almost all the houses were full, and S----- had taken a parlor and two
+bedrooms, and is living after the English fashion, providing her own
+table, lights, fuel, and everything.  It is very awkward to our American
+notions; but there is an independence about it, which I think must make
+it agreeable on better acquaintance.  But the place is certainly
+destitute of attraction, and life seems to pass very heavily.  The
+English do not appear to have a turn for amusing themselves.
+
+Sunday was a bright and hot day, and in the forenoon I set out on a walk,
+not well knowing whither, over a very dusty road, with not a particle of
+shade along its dead level.  The Welsh mountains were before me, at the
+distance of three or four miles,--long ridgy hills, descending pretty
+abruptly upon the plain; on either side of the road, here and there, an
+old whitewashed, thatched stone cottage, or a stone farm-house, with an
+aspect of some antiquity.  I never suffered so much before, on this side
+of the water, from heat and dust, and should probably have turned back
+had I not espied the round towers and walls of an old castle at some
+distance before me.  Having looked at a guide-book, previously to setting
+out, I knew that this must be Rhyddlan Castle, about three miles from
+Rhyl; so I plodded on, and by and by entered an antiquated village, on
+one side of which the castle stood.  This Welsh village is very much like
+the English villages, with narrow streets and mean houses or cottages,
+built in blocks, and here and there a larger house standing alone;
+everything far more compact than in our rural villages, and with no
+grassy street-margin nor trees; aged and dirty also, with dirty children
+staring at the passenger, and an undue supply of mean inns; most, or many
+of the men in breeches, and some of the women, especially the elder ones,
+in black beaver hats.  The streets were paved with round pebbles, and
+looked squalid and ugly.
+
+The children and grown people stared lazily at me as I passed, but showed
+no such alert and vivacious curiosity as a community of Yankees would
+have done.  I turned up a street that led me to the castle, which looked
+very picturesque close at hand,--more so than at a distance, because the
+towers and walls have not a sufficiently broken outline against the sky.
+There are several round towers at the angles of the wall very large in
+their circles, built of gray stone, crumbling, ivy-grown, everything that
+one thinks of in an old ruin.  I could not get into the inner space of
+the castle without climbing over a fence, or clambering down into the
+moat; so I contented myself with walking round it, and viewing it from
+the outside.  Through the gateway I saw a cow feeding on the green grass
+in the inner court of the castle.  In one of the walls there was a large
+triangular gap, where perhaps the assailants had made a breach.  Of
+course there were weeds on the ruinous top of the towers, and along the
+summit of the wall.  This was the first castle built by Edward I. in
+Wales, and he resided here during the erection of Conway Castle, and here
+Queen Eleanor gave birth to a princess.  Some few years since a meeting
+of Welsh bards was held within it.
+
+After viewing it awhile, and listening to the babble of some children who
+lay on the grass near by, I resumed my walk, and, meeting a Welshman in
+the village street, I asked him my nearest way back to Rhyl.  "Dim
+Sassenach," said he, after a pause.  How odd that an hour or two on the
+railway should have brought me amongst a people who speak no English!
+Just below the castle, there is an arched stone bridge over the river
+Clwyd, and the best view of the edifice is from hence.  It stands on a
+gentle eminence, commanding the passage of the river, and two twin round
+towers rise close beside one another, whence, I suppose, archers have
+often drawn their bows against the wild Welshmen, on the river-banks.
+Behind was the line of mountains; and this was the point of defence
+between the hill country and the lowlands.  On the bridge stood a good
+many idle Welshmen, leaning over the parapet, and looking at some small
+vessels that had come up the river from the sea.  There was the frame of
+a new vessel on the stocks near by.
+
+As I returned, on my way home, I again inquired my way of a man in
+breeches, who, I found, could speak English very well.  He was kind, and
+took pains to direct me, giving me the choice of three ways, viz. the one
+by which I came, another across the fields, and a third by the embankment
+along the river-side.  I chose the latter, and so followed the course of
+the Clwyd, which is very ugly, with a tidal flow and wide marshy banks.
+On its farther side was Rhyddlan marsh, where a battle was fought between
+the Welsh and Saxons a thousand years ago.  I have forgotten to mention
+that the castle and its vicinity was the scene of the famous battle of
+the fiddlers, between De Blandeville, Earl of Chester, and the Welsh,
+about the time of the Conqueror.
+
+
+
+CONWAY CASTLE.
+
+
+September 13th.--On Monday we went with O'Sullivan to Conway by rail.
+Certainly this must be the most perfect specimen of a ruinous old castle
+in the whole world; it quite fills up one's idea.  We first walked round
+the exterior of the wall, at the base of which are hovels, with dirty
+children playing about them, and pigs rambling along, and squalid women
+visible in the doorways; but all these things melt into the
+picturesqueness of the scene, and do not harm it.  The whole town of
+Conway is built in what was once the castle-yard, and the whole circuit
+of the wall is still standing in a delightful state of decay.  At the
+angles, and at regular intervals, there are round towers, having half
+their circle on the outside of the walls, and half within.  Most of these
+towers have a great crack pervading them irregularly from top to bottom;
+the ivy hangs upon them,--the weeds grow on the tops.  Gateways, three or
+four of them, open through the walls, and streets proceed from them into
+the town.  At some points, very old cottages or small houses are close
+against the sides, and, old as they are, they must have been built after
+the whole structure was a ruin.  In one place I saw the sign of an
+alehouse painted on the gray stones of one of the old round towers.  As
+we entered one of the gates, after making the entire circuit, we saw an
+omnibus coming down the street towards us, with its horn sounding.
+Llandudno was its place of destination; and, knowing no more about it
+than that it was four miles off, we took our seats.  Llandudno is a
+watering-village at the base of the Great Orme's Head, at the mouth of
+the Conway River.  In this omnibus there were two pleasant-looking girls,
+who talked Welsh together,--a guttural, childish kind of a babble.
+Afterwards we got into conversation with them, and found them very
+agreeable.  One of them was reading Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy."  On
+reaching Llandudno, S----- waited at the hotel, while O'Sullivan, U----,
+and I ascended the Great Orme's Head.  There are copper-mines here, and
+we heard of a large cave, with stalactites, but did not go so far as
+that.  We found the old shaft of a mine, however, and threw stones down
+it, and counted twenty before we heard them strike the bottom.  At the
+base of the Head, on the side opposite the village, we saw a small church
+with a broken roof, and horizontal gravestones of slate within the stone
+enclosure around it.  The view from the hill was most beautiful,--a blue
+summer sea, with the distant trail of smoke from a steamer, and many
+snowy sails; in another direction the mountains, near and distant, some
+of them with clouds below their peaks.
+
+We went to one of the mines which are still worked, and boys came running
+to meet us with specimens of the copper ore for sale.  The miners were
+not now hoisting ore from the shaft, but were washing and selecting the
+valuable fragments from great heaps of crumbled stone and earth.  All
+about this spot there are shafts and well-holes, looking fearfully deep
+and black, and without the slightest protection, so that we might just as
+easily have walked into them as not.  Having examined these matters
+sufficiently, we descended the hill towards the village, meeting parties
+of visitors, mounted on donkeys, which is a much more sensible way of
+ascending in a hot day than to walk.  On the sides and summit of the hill
+we found yellow gorse,--heath of two colors, I think, and very
+beautiful,--and here and there a harebell.  Owing to the long-continued
+dry weather, the grass was getting withered and brown, though not so much
+so as on American hill-pastures at this season.  Returning to the
+village, we all went into a confectioner's shop, and made a good
+luncheon.  The two prettiest young ladies whom I have seen in England
+came into the shop and ate cakes while we were there.  They appeared to
+be living together in a lodging-house, and ordered some of their
+housekeeping articles from the confectioner.
+
+Next we went into the village bazaar,--a sort of tent or open shop, full
+of knick-knacks and gewgaws, and bought some playthings for the children.
+At half past one we took our seats in the omnibus, to return to Conway.
+
+We had as yet only seen the castle wall and the exterior of the castle;
+now we were to see the inside.  Right at the foot of it an old woman has
+her stand for the sale of lithographic views of Conway and other places;
+but these views are ridiculously inadequate, so that we did not buy any
+of them.  The admittance into the castle is by a wooden door of modern
+construction, and the present seneschal is, I believe, the sexton of a
+church.  He remembered me as having been there a month or two ago; and
+probably, considering that I was already initiated, or else because he
+had many other visitors, he left us to wander about the castle at will.
+It is altogether impossible to describe Conway Castle.  Nothing ever can
+have been so perfect in its own style, and for its own purposes, when it
+was first built; and now nothing else can be so perfect as a picture of
+ivy-grown, peaceful ruin.  The banqueting-hall, all open to the sky and
+with thick curtains of ivy tapestrying the walls, and grass and weeds
+growing on the arches that overpass it, is indescribably beautiful.  The
+hearthstones of the great old fireplaces, all about the castle, seem to
+be favorite spots for weeds to grow.  There are eight large round towers,
+and out of four of them, I think, rise smaller towers, ascending to a
+much greater height, and once containing winding staircases, all of which
+are now broken, and inaccessible from below, though, in at least one of
+the towers, the stairs seemed perfect, high aloft.  It must have been the
+rudest violence that broke down these stairs; for each step was a thick
+and heavy slab of stone, built into the wall of the tower.  There is no
+such thing as a roof in any part; towers, hall, kitchen, all are open to
+the sky.  One round tower, directly overhanging the railway, is so
+shattered by the falling away of the lower part, that you can look quite
+up into it and through it, while sitting in the cars; and yet it has
+stood thus, without falling into complete ruin, for more than two hundred
+years.  I think that it was in this tower that we found the castle oven,
+an immense cavern, big enough to bake bread for an army.  The railway
+passes exactly at the base of the high rock, on which this part of the
+castle is situated, and goes into the town through a great arch that has
+been opened in the castle wall.  The tubular bridge across the Conway has
+been built in a style that accords with the old architecture, and I
+observed that one little sprig of ivy had rooted itself in the new
+structure.
+
+There are numberless intricate passages in the thickness of the castle
+walls, forming communications between tower and tower,--damp, chill
+passages, with rough stone on either hand, darksome, and very likely
+leading to dark pitfalls.  The thickness of the walls is amazing; and the
+people of those days must have been content with very scanty light, so
+small were the apertures,--sometimes merely slits and loopholes,
+glimmering through many feet of thickness of stone.  One of the towers
+was said to have been the residence of Queen Eleanor; and this was better
+lighted than the others, containing an oriel-window, looking out of a
+little oratory, as it seemed to be, with groined arches and traces of
+ornamental sculpture, so that we could dress up some imperfect image of a
+queenly chamber, though the tower was roofless and floorless.  There was
+another pleasant little windowed nook, close beside the oratory, where
+the Queen might have sat sewing or looking down the river Conway at the
+picturesque headlands towards the sea.  We imagined her stately figure in
+antique robes, standing beneath the groined arches of the oratory.  There
+seem to have been three chambers, one above another, in these towers, and
+the one in which was the embowed window was the middle one.  I suppose
+the diameter of each of these circular rooms could not have been more
+than twenty feet on the inside.  All traces of wood-work and iron-work
+are quite gone from the whole castle.  These are said to have been taken
+away by a Lord Conway in the reign of Charles II.  There is a grassy
+space under the windows of Queen Eleanor's tower,--a sort of outwork of
+the castle, where probably, when no enemy was near, the Queen used to
+take the open air in summer afternoons like this.  Here we sat down on
+the grass of the ruined wall, and agreed that nothing in the world could
+be so beautiful and picturesque as Conway Castle, and that never could
+there have been so fit a time to see it as this sunny, quiet, lovely
+afternoon.  Sunshine adapts itself to the character of a ruin in a
+wonderful way; it does not "flout the ruins gray," as Scott says, but
+sympathizes with their decay, and saddens itself for their sake.  It
+beautifies the ivy too.
+
+We saw, at the corner of this grass-plot around Queen Eleanor's tower, a
+real trunk of a tree of ivy, with so stalwart a stem, and such a vigorous
+grasp of its strong branches, that it would be a very efficient support
+to the wall, were it otherwise inclined to fall.  O that we could have
+ivy in America!  What is there to beautify us when our time of ruin
+comes?
+
+Before departing, we made the entire circuit of the castle on its walls,
+and O'Sullivan and I climbed by a ladder to the top of one of the towers.
+While there, we looked down into the street beneath, and saw a
+photographist preparing to take a view of the castle, and calling out to
+some little girl in some niche or on some pinnacle of the walls to stand
+still that he might catch her figure and face.  I think it added to the
+impressiveness of the old castle, to see the streets and the
+kitchen-gardens and the homely dwellings that had grown up within the
+precincts of this feudal fortress, and the people of to-day following
+their little businesses about it.  This does not destroy the charm; but
+tourists and idle visitors do impair it.  The earnest life of to-day,
+however, petty and homely as it may be, has a right to its place
+alongside of what is left of the life of other days; and if it be vulgar
+itself, it does not vulgarize the scene.  But tourists do vulgarize it;
+and I suppose we did so, just like others.
+
+We took the train back to Rhyl, where we arrived at about four o'clock,
+and, having dined, we again took the rail for Chester, and thence to Rock
+Park (that is, O'Sullivan and I), and reached home at about eleven
+o'clock.
+
+Yesterday, September 13th, I began to wear a watch from Bennet's, 65
+Cheapside, London.  W. C. Bennet warrants it as the best watch which they
+can produce.  If it prove as good and as durable as he prophesies, J-----
+will find it a perfect time-keeper long after his father has done with
+Time.  If I had not thought of his wearing it hereafter, I should have
+been content with a much inferior one.  No. 39,620.
+
+
+September 20th.--I went back to Rhyl last Friday in the steamer.  We
+arrived at the landing-place at nearly four o'clock, having started at
+twelve, and I walked thence to our lodgings, 18 West Parade.  The
+children and their mother were all gone out, and I sat some time in our
+parlor before anybody came.  The next morning I made an excursion in the
+omnibus as far as Ruthin, passing through Rhyddlan, St. Asaph, Denbigh,
+and reaching Ruthin at one o'clock.  All these are very ancient places.
+St. Asaph has a cathedral which is not quite worthy of that name, but is
+a very large and stately church in excellent repair.  Its square
+battlemented tower has a very fine appearance, crowning the clump of
+village houses on the hill-top, as you approach from Rhyddlan.  The
+ascent of the hill is very steep; so it is at Denbigh and at Ruthin,--the
+steepest streets, indeed, that I ever climbed.  Denbigh is a place of
+still more antique aspect than St. Asaph; it looks, I think, even older
+than Chester, with its gabled houses, many of their windows opening on
+hinges, and their fronts resting on pillars, with an open porch beneath.
+The castle makes an admirably ruinous figure on the hill, higher than the
+village.  I had come hither with the purpose of inspecting it, but as it
+began to rain just then, I concluded to get into the omnibus and go to
+Ruthin.  There was another steep ascent from the commencement of the long
+street of Ruthin, till I reached the market-place, which is of nearly
+triangular shape, and an exceedingly old-looking place.  Houses of stone
+or plastered brick; one or two with timber frames; the roofs of an uneven
+line, and bulging out or sinking in; the slates moss-grown.  Some of them
+have two peaks and even three in a row, fronting on the streets, and
+there is a stone market-house with a table of regulations.  In this
+market-place there is said to be a stone on which King Arthur beheaded
+one of his enemies; but this I did not see.  All these villages were very
+lively, as the omnibus drove in; and I rather imagine it was market-day
+in each of them,--there being quite a bustle of Welsh people.  The old
+women came round the omnibus courtesying and intimating their willingness
+to receive alms,--witch-like women, such as one sees in pictures or reads
+of in romances, and very unlike anything feminine in America.  Their
+style of dress cannot have changed for centuries.  It was quite
+unexpected to me to hear Welsh so universally and familiarly spoken.
+Everybody spoke it.  The omnibus-driver could speak but imperfect
+English; there was a jabber of Welsh all through the streets and
+market-places; and it flowed out with a freedom quite different from the
+way in which they expressed themselves in English.  I had had an idea
+that Welsh was spoken rather as a freak and in fun than as a native
+language; it was so strange to find another language the people's actual
+and earnest medium of thought within so short a distance of England.  But
+English is scarcely more known to the body of the Welsh people than to
+the peasantry of France.  However, they sometimes pretend to ignorance,
+when they might speak it fairly enough.
+
+I took luncheon at the hotel where the omnibus stopped, and then went to
+search out the castle.  It appears to have been once extensive, but the
+remains of it are now very few, except a part of the external wall.
+Whatever other portion may still exist, has been built into a modern
+castellated mansion, which has risen within the wide circuit of the
+fortress,--a handsome and spacious edifice of red freestone, with a high
+tower, on which a flag was flying.  The grounds were well laid out in
+walks, and really I think the site of the castle could not have been
+turned to better account.  I am getting tired of antiquity.  It is
+certainly less interesting in the long run than novelty; and so I was
+well content with the fresh, warm, red hue of the modern house, and the
+unworn outline of its walls, and its cheerful, large windows; and was
+willing that the old ivy-grown ruins should exist now only to contrast
+with the modernisms.  These ancient walls, by the by, are of immense
+thickness.  There is a passage through the interior of a portion of them,
+the width from this interior passage to the outer one being fifteen feet
+on one side, and I know not how much on the other.
+
+It continued showery all day; and the omnibus was crowded.  I had chosen
+the outside from Rhyl to Denbigh, but, all the rest of the journey,
+imprisoned myself within.  On our way home, an old lady got into the
+omnibus,--a lady of tremendous rotundity; and as she tumbled from the
+door to the farthest part of the carriage, she kept advising all the rest
+of the passengers to get out.  "I don't think there will be much rain,
+gentlemen," quoth she, "you'll be much more comfortable on the outside."
+As none of us complied, she glanced along the seats.  "What! are you all
+Saas'uach?" she inquired.  As we drove along, she talked Welsh with great
+fluency to one of the passengers, a young woman with a baby, and to as
+many others as could understand her.  It has a strange, wild sound, like
+a language half blown away by the wind.  The lady's English was very
+good; but she probably prided herself on her proficiency in Welsh.  My
+excursion to-day had been along the valley of the Clwyd, a very rich and
+fertile tract of country.
+
+The next day we all took a long walk on the beach, picking up shells.
+
+On Monday we took an open carriage and drove to Rhyddlan; whence we sent
+back the carriage, meaning to walk home along the embankment of the river
+Clwyd, after inspecting the castle.  The fortress is very ruinous, having
+been dismantled by the Parliamentarians.  There are great gaps,--two, at
+least, in the walls that connect the round towers, of which there were
+six, one on each side of a gateway in front, and the same at a gateway
+towards the river, where there is a steep descent to a wall and square
+tower, at the water-side.  Great pains and a great deal of gunpowder must
+have been used in converting this castle into a ruin.  There were one or
+two fragments lying where they had fallen more than two hundred years
+ago, which, though merely a conglomeration of small stones and mortar,
+were just as hard as if they had been solid masses of granite.  The
+substantial thickness of the walls is composed of these agglomerated
+small stones and mortar, the casing being hewn blocks of red freestone.
+This is much worn away by the weather, wherever it has been exposed to
+the air; but, under shelter, it looks as if it might have been hewn only
+a year or two ago.  Each of the round towers had formerly a small
+staircase turret rising beside and ascending above it, in which a warder
+might be posted, but they have all been so battered and shattered that it
+is impossible for an uninstructed observer to make out a satisfactory
+plan of then.  The interior of each tower was a small room, not more than
+twelve or fifteen feet across; and of these there seem to have been three
+stories, with loop-holes for archery and not much other light than what
+came through them.  Then there are various passages and nooks and corners
+and square recesses in the stone, some of which must have been intended
+for dungeons, and the ugliest and gloomiest dungeons imaginable, for they
+could not have had any light or air.  There is not, the least, splinter
+of wood-work remaining in any part of the castle,--nothing but bare
+stone, and a little plaster in one or two places, on the wall.  In the
+front gateway we looked at the groove on each side, in which the
+portcullis used to rise and fall; and in each of the contiguous round
+towers there was a loop-hole, whence an enemy on the outer side of the
+portcullis might be shot through with an arrow.
+
+The inner court-yard is a parallelogram, nearly a square, and is about
+forty-five of my paces across.  It is entirely grass-grown, and vacant,
+except for two or three trees that have been recently set out, and which
+are surrounded with palings to keep away the cows that pasture in and
+about the place.  No window looks from the walls or towers into this
+court-yard; nor are there any traces of buildings having stood within the
+enclosure, unless it be what looks something like the flue of a chimney
+within one of the walls.  I should suppose, however, that there must have
+been, when the castle was in its perfect state, a hall, a kitchen, and
+other commodious apartments and offices for the King and his train, such
+as there were at Conway and Beaumaris.  But if so, all fragments have
+been carried away, and all hollows of the old foundations scrupulously
+filled up.  The round towers could not have comprised all the
+accommodation of the castle.  There is nothing more striking in these
+ruins than to look upward from the crumbling base, and see flights of
+stairs, still comparatively perfect, by which you might securely ascend
+to the upper heights of the tower, although all traces of a staircase
+have disappeared below, and the upper portion cannot be attained.  On
+three sides of the fortress is a moat, about sixty feet wide, and cased
+with stone.  It was probably of great depth in its day, but it is now
+partly filled up with earth, and is quite dry and grassy throughout its
+whole extent.  On the inner side of the moat was the outer wall of the
+castle, portions of which still remain.  Between the outer wall and the
+castle itself the space is also about sixty feet.
+
+The day was cloudy and lowering, and there were several little
+spatterings of rain, while we rambled about.  The two children ran
+shouting hither and thither, and were continually clambering into
+dangerous places, racing along ledges of broken wall.  At last they
+altogether disappeared for a good while; their voices, which had
+heretofore been plainly audible, were hushed, nor was there any answer
+when we began to call them, while making ready for our departure.  But
+they finally appeared, coming out of the moat, where they had been
+picking and eating blackberries,--which, they said, grew very plentifully
+there, and which they were very reluctant to leave.  Before quitting the
+castle, I must not forget the ivy, which makes a perfect tapestry over a
+large portion of the walls.
+
+We walked about the village, which is old and ugly; small, irregular
+streets, contriving to be intricate, though there are few of them; mean
+houses, joining to each other.  We saw, in the principal one, the
+parliament house in which Edward I. gave a Charter, or allowed rights of
+some kind to his Welsh subjects.  The ancient part of its wall is
+entirely distinguishable from what has since been built upon it.
+
+Thence we set out to walk along the embankment, although the sky looked
+very threatening.  The wind, however, was so strong, and had such a full
+sweep at us, on the top of the bank, that we decided on taking a path
+that led from it across the moor.  But we soon had cause to repent of
+this; for, which way soever we turned, we found ourselves cut off by a
+ditch or a little stream; so that here we were, fairly astray on Rhyddlan
+moor, the old battle-field of the Saxons and Britons, and across which, I
+suppose, the fiddlers and mountebanks had marched to the relief of the
+Earl of Chester.  Anon, too, it began to shower; and it was only after
+various leaps and scramblings that we made our way to a large farm-house,
+and took shelter under a cart-shed.  The back of the house to which we
+gained access was very dirty and ill-kept; some dirty children peeped at
+us as we approached, and nobody had the civility to ask us in; so we took
+advantage of the first cessation of the shower to resume our way.  We
+were shortly overtaken by a very intelligent-looking and civil man, who
+seemed to have come from Rhyddlan, and said he was going to Rhyl.  We
+followed his guidance over stiles and along hedge-row paths which we
+never could have threaded rightly by ourselves.
+
+By and by our kind guide had to stop at an intermediate farm; but he gave
+us full directions how to proceed, and we went on till it began to shower
+again pretty briskly, and we took refuge in a little bit of old stone
+cottage, which, small as it was, had a greater antiquity than any mansion
+in America.  The door was open, and as we approached, we saw several
+children gazing at us; and their mother, a pleasant-looking woman, who
+seemed rather astounded at the visit that was about to befall her, tried
+to draw a tattered curtain over a part of her interior, which she fancied
+even less fit to be seen than the rest.  To say the truth, the house was
+not at all better than a pigsty; and while we sat there, a pig came
+familiarly to the door, thrust in his snout, and seemed surprised that he
+should be driven away, instead of being admitted as one of the family.
+The floor was of brick; there was no ceiling, but only the peaked gable
+overhead.  The room was kitchen, parlor, and, I suppose, bedroom for the
+whole family; at all events, there was only the tattered curtain between
+us and the sleeping accommodations.  The good woman either could not or
+would not speak a word of English, only laughing when S----- said, "Dim
+Sassenach?" but she was kind and hospitable, and found a chair for each
+of us.  She had been making some bread, and the dough was on the dresser.
+Life with these people is reduced to its simplest elements.  It is only a
+pity that they cannot or do not choose to keep themselves cleaner.
+Poverty, except in cities, need not be squalid.  When the shower abated a
+little, we gave all the pennies we had to the children, and set forth
+again.  By the by, there were several colored prints stuck up against the
+walls, and there was a clock ticking in a corner and some paper-hangings
+pinned upon the slanting roof.
+
+It began to rain again before we arrived at Rhyl, and we were driven into
+a small tavern.  After staying there awhile, we set forth between the
+drops; but the rain fell still heavier, so that we were pretty well
+damped before we got to our lodgings.  After dinner, I took the rail for
+Chester and Rock Park, and S----- and the children and maid followed the
+next day.
+
+
+September 22d.--I dined on Wednesday evening at Mr. John Heywood's,
+Norris Green.  Mr. Mouckton Mimes and lady were of the company.  Mr.
+Mimes is a very agreeable, kindly man, resembling Longfellow a good deal
+in personal appearance; and he promotes, by his genial manners, the same
+pleasant intercourse which is so easily established with Longfellow.  He
+is said to be a very kind patron of literary men, and to do a great deal
+of good among young and neglected people of that class.  He is considered
+one of the best conversationists at present in society: it may very well
+be so; his style of talking being very simple and natural, anything but
+obtrusive, so that you might enjoy its agreeableness without suspecting
+it.  He introduced me to his wife (a daughter of Lord Crewe), with whom
+and himself I had a good deal of talk.  Mr. Milnes told me that he owns
+the land in Yorkshire, whence some of the pilgrims of the Mayflower
+emigrated to Plymouth, and that Elder Brewster was the Postmaster of the
+village. . . . He also said that in the next voyage of the Mayflower,
+after she carried the Pilgrims, she was employed in transporting a cargo
+of slaves from Africa,--to the West Indies, I suppose.  This is a queer
+fact, and would be nuts for the Southerners.
+
+Mem.--An American would never understand the passage in Bunyan about
+Christian and Hopeful going astray along a by-path into the grounds of
+Giant Despair,--from there being no stiles and by-paths in our country.
+
+
+September 26th.--On Saturday evening my wife and I went to a soiree given
+by the Mayor and Mrs. Lloyd at the Town Hall to receive the Earl of
+Harrowby.  It was quite brilliant, the public rooms being really
+magnificent, and adorned for the occasion with a large collection of
+pictures, belonging to Mr. Naylor.  They were mostly, if not entirely, of
+modern artists,--of Turner, Wilkie, Landseer, and others of the best
+English painters.  Turner's seemed too ethereal to have been done by
+mortal hands.
+
+The British Scientific Association being now in session here, many
+distinguished strangers were present.
+
+
+September 29th.--Mr. Monekton Milnes called on me at the Consulate day
+before yesterday.  He is pleasant and sensible.  Speaking of American
+politicians, I remarked that they were seldom anything but politicians,
+and had no literary or other culture beyond their own calling.  He said
+the case was the same in England, and instanced Sir ------, who once
+called on him for information when an appeal had been made to him
+respecting two literary gentlemen.  Sir ------ had never heard the names
+of either of these gentlemen, and applied to Mr. Milnes as being somewhat
+conversant with the literary class, to know whether they were
+distinguished and what were their claims.  The names of the two literary
+men were James Sheridan Knowles and Alfred Tennyson.
+
+
+October 5th.--Yesterday I was present at a dejeuner on board the James
+Barnes, on occasion of her coming under the British flag, having been
+built for the Messrs. Barnes by Donald McKay of Boston.  She is a
+splendid vessel, and magnificently fitted up, though not with consummate
+taste.  It would be worth while that ornamental architects and
+upholsterers should study this branch of art, since the ship-builders
+seem willing to expend a good deal of money on it.  In fact, I do not see
+that there is anywhere else so much encouragement to the exercise of
+ornamental art.  I saw nothing to criticise in the solid and useful
+details of the ship; the ventilation, in particular, being free and
+abundant, so that the hundreds of passengers who will have their berths
+between decks, and at a still lower depth, will have good air and enough
+of it.
+
+There were four or five hundred persons, principally Liverpool merchants
+and their wives, invited to the dejeuner; and the tables were spread
+between decks, the berths for passengers not being yet put in.  There was
+not quite light enough to make the scene cheerful, it being an overcast
+day; and, indeed, there was an English plainness in the arrangement of
+the festal room, which might have been better exchanged for the flowery
+American taste, which I have just been criticising.  With flowers, and
+the arrangement of flags, we should have made something very pretty of
+the space between decks; but there was nothing to hide the fact that in a
+few days hence there would be crowded berths and sea-sick steerage
+passengers where we were now feasting.  The cheer was very good,--cold
+fowl and meats; cold pies of foreign manufacture very rich, and of
+mysterious composition; and champagne in plenty, with other wines for
+those who liked them.
+
+I sat between two ladies, one of them Mrs. ------, a pleasant young
+woman, who, I believe, is of American provincial nativity, and whom I
+therefore regarded as half a countrywoman.  We talked a good deal
+together, and I confided to her my annoyance at the prospect of being
+called up to answer a toast; but she did not pity me at all, though she
+felt, much alarm about her husband, Captain ------, who was in the same
+predicament.  Seriously, it is the most awful part of my official duty,--
+this necessity of making dinner-speeches at the Mayor's, and other public
+or semi-public tables.  However, my neighborhood to Mrs. ------ was good
+for me, inasmuch as by laughing over the matter with her came to regard
+it in a light and ludicrous way; and so, when the time actually came, I
+stood up with a careless dare-devil feeling.  The chairman toasted the
+president immediately after the Queen, and did me the honor to speak of
+myself in a most flattering manner, something like this: "Great by his
+position under the Republic,--greater still, I am bold to say, in the
+Republic of letters!"  I made no reply at all to this; in truth, I forgot
+all about it when I began to speak, and merely thanked the company in
+behalf of the President, and my countrymen, and made a few remarks with
+no very decided point to them.  However, they cheered and applauded, and
+I took advantage of the applause to sit down, and Mrs. ------ informed me
+that I had succeeded admirably.  It was no success at all, to be sure;
+neither was it a failure, for I had aimed at nothing, and I had exactly
+hit it.  But after sitting down, I was conscious of an enjoyment in
+speaking to a public assembly, and felt as if I should like to rise
+again.  It is something like being under fire,--a sort of excitement, not
+exactly pleasure, but more piquant than most pleasures.  I have felt this
+before, in the same circumstances; but, while on my legs, my impulse is
+to get through with my remarks and sit down again as quickly as possible.
+The next speech, I think, was by Rev. Dr. ------, the celebrated Arctic
+gentleman, in reply to a toast complimentary to the clergy.  He turned
+aside from the matter in hand, to express his kind feelings towards
+America, where he said he had been most hospitably received, especially
+at Cambridge University.  He also made allusions to me, and I suppose it
+would have been no more than civil in me to have answered with a speech
+in acknowledgment, but I did not choose to make another venture, so
+merely thanked him across the corner of the table, for he sat near me.
+He is a venerable-looking, white-haired gentleman, tall and slender, with
+a pale, intelligent, kindly face.
+
+Other speeches were made; but from beginning to end there was not one
+breath of eloquence, nor even one neat sentence; and I rather think that
+Englishmen would purposely avoid eloquence or neatness in after-dinner
+speeches.  It seems to be no part of their object.  Yet any Englishman
+almost, much more generally than Americans, will stand up and talk on in
+a plain way, uttering one rough, ragged, and shapeless sentence after
+another, and will have expressed himself sensibly, though in a very rude
+manner, before he sits down.  And this is quite satisfactory to his
+audience, who, indeed, are rather prejudiced against the man who speaks
+too glibly.
+
+The guests began to depart shortly after three o'clock.  This morning I
+have seen two reports of my little speech,--one exceedingly incorrect;
+another pretty exact, but not much to my taste, for I seem to have left
+out everything that would have been fittest to say.
+
+
+October 6th.--The people, for several days, have been in the utmost
+anxiety, and latterly in the highest exultation about Sebastopol,--and
+all England, and Europe to boot, have been fooled by the belief that it
+had fallen.  This, however, now turns out to be incorrect; and the public
+visage is somewhat grim, in consequence.  I am glad of it.  In spite of
+his actual sympathies, it is impossible for a true American to be
+otherwise than glad.  Success makes an Englishman intolerable; and,
+already, on the mistaken idea that the way was open to a prosperous
+conclusion of the war, The Times had begun to throw out menaces against
+America.  I shall never love England till she sues to us for help, and,
+in the mean time, the fewer triumphs she obtains, the better for all
+parties.  An Englishman in adversity is a very respectable character; he
+does not lose his dignity, but merely comes to a proper conception of
+himself.  It is rather touching to an observer to see how much the
+universal heart is in this matter,--to see the merchants gathering round
+the telegraphic messages, posted on the pillars of the Exchange
+news-room, the people in the street who cannot afford to buy a paper
+clustering round the windows of the news-offices, where a copy is pinned
+up,--the groups of corporals and sergeants at the recruiting rendezvous,
+with a newspaper in the midst of them and all earnest and sombre, and
+feeling like one man together, whatever their rank.  I seem to myself
+like a spy or a traitor when I meet their eyes, and am conscious that I
+neither hope nor fear in sympathy with them, although they look at me in
+full confidence of sympathy.  Their heart "knoweth its own bitterness,"
+and as for me, being a stranger and all alien, I "intermeddle not with
+their joy."
+
+
+October 9th.--My ancestor left England in 1630.  I return in 1853.  I
+sometimes feel as if I myself had been absent these two hundred and
+twenty-three years, leaving England just emerging from the feudal system,
+and finding it, on my return, on the verge of republicanism.  It brings
+the two far-separated points of time very closely together, to view the
+matter thus.
+
+
+October 16th.--A day or two ago arrived the sad news of the loss of the
+Arctic by collision with a French steamer off Newfoundland, and the loss
+also of three or four hundred people.  I have seldom been more affected
+by anything quite alien from my personal and friendly concerns, than by
+the death of Captain Luce and his son.  The boy was a delicate lad, and
+it is said that he had never been absent from his mother till this time,
+when his father had taken him to England to consult a physician about a
+complaint in his hip.  So his father, while the ship was sinking, was
+obliged to decide whether he would put the poor, weakly, timorous child
+on board the boat, to take his hard chance of life there, or keep him to
+go down with himself and the ship.  He chose the latter; and within half
+an hour, I suppose, the boy was among the child-angels.  Captain Luce
+could not do less than die, for his own part, with the responsibility of
+all those lost lives upon him.  He may not have been in the least to
+blame for the calamity, but it was certainly too heavy a one for him to
+survive.  He was a sensible man, and a gentleman, courteous, quiet, with
+something almost melancholy in his address and aspect.  Oftentimes he has
+come into my inner office to say good-by before his departures, but I
+cannot precisely remember whether or no he took leave of me before this
+latest voyage.  I never exchanged a great many words with him; but those
+were kind ones.
+
+
+October 19th.--It appears to be customary for people of decent station,
+but in distressed circumstances, to go round among their neighbors and
+the public, accompanied by a friend, who explains the case.  I have been
+accosted in the street in regard to one of these matters; and to-day
+there came to my office a grocer, who had become security for a friend,
+and who was threatened with an execution,--with another grocer for
+supporter and advocate.  The beneficiary takes very little active part in
+the affair, merely looking careworn, distressed, and pitiable, and
+throwing in a word of corroboration, or a sigh, or an acknowledgment, as
+the case may demand.  In the present instance, the friend, a young,
+respectable-looking tradesman, with a Lancashire accent, spoke freely and
+simply of his client's misfortunes, not pressing the case unduly, but
+doing it full justice, and saying, at the close of the interview, that it
+was no pleasant business for himself.  The broken grocer was an elderly
+man, of somewhat sickly aspect.  The whole matter is very foreign to
+American habits.  No respectable American would think of retrieving his
+affairs by such means, but would prefer ruin ten times over; no friend
+would take up his cause; no public would think it worth while to prevent
+the small catastrophe.  And yet the custom is not without its good side
+as indicating a closer feeling of brotherhood, a more efficient sense of
+neighborhood, than exists among ourselves, although, perhaps, we are more
+careless of a fellow-creature's ruin, because ruin with us is by no means
+the fatal and irretrievable event that it is in England.
+
+I am impressed with the ponderous and imposing look of an English legal
+document,--an assignment of real estate in England, for instance,--
+engrossed on an immense sheet of thickest paper, in a formal hand,
+beginning with "This Indenture" in German text, and with occasional
+phrases of form, breaking out into large script,--very long and
+repetitious, fortified with the Mayor of Manchester's seal, two or three
+inches in diameter, which is certified by a notary-public, whose
+signature, again, is to have my consular certificate and official seal.
+
+
+November 2d.--A young Frenchman enters, of gentlemanly aspect, with a
+grayish cloak or paletot overspreading his upper person, and a handsome
+and well-made pair of black trousers and well-fitting boots below.  On
+sitting down, he does not throw off nor at all disturb the cloak.  Eying
+him more closely, one discerns that he has no shirt-collar, and that what
+little is visible of his shirt-bosom seems not to be of to-day nor of
+yesterday,--perhaps not even of the day before.  His manner is not very
+good; nevertheless, he is a coxcomb and a jackanapes.  He avers himself a
+naturalized citizen of America, where he has been tutor in several
+families of distinction, and has been treated like a son.  He left
+America on account of his health, and came near being tutor in the Duke
+of Norfolk's family, but failed for lack of testimonials; he is
+exceedingly capable and accomplished, but reduced in funds, and wants
+employment here, of the means of returning to America, where he intends
+to take a situation under government, which he is sure of obtaining.  He
+mentioned a quarrel which he had recently had with an Englishman in
+behalf of America, and would have fought a duel had such been the custom
+of the country.  He made the Englishman foam at the mouth, and told him
+that he had been twelve years at a military school, and could easily kill
+him.  I say to him that I see little or no prospect of his getting
+employment here, but offer to inquire whether any situation, as clerk or
+otherwise, can be obtained for him in a vessel returning to America, and
+ask his address.  He has no address.  Much to my surprise, he takes his
+leave without requesting pecuniary aid, but hints that he shall call
+again.  He is a very disagreeable young fellow, like scores of others who
+call on me in the like situation.  His English is very good for a
+Frenchman, and he says he speaks it the least well of five languages.  He
+has been three years in America, and obtained his naturalization papers,
+he says, as a special favor, and by means of strong interest.  Nothing is
+so absolutely odious as the sense of freedom and equality pertaining to
+an American grafted on the mind of a native of any other country in the
+world.  A naturalized citizen is HATEFUL.  Nobody has a right to our
+ideas, unless born to them.
+
+
+November 9th.--I lent the above Frenchman a small sum; he advertised for
+employment as a teacher; and he called this morning to thank me for my
+aid, and says Mr. C------ has engaged him for his children, at a guinea a
+week, and that he has also another engagement.  The poor fellow seems to
+have been brought to a very low ebb.  He has pawned everything, even to
+his last shirt, save the one he had on, and had been living at the rate
+of twopence a day.  I had procured him a chance to return to America, but
+he was ashamed to go back in such poor circumstances, and so determined
+to seek better fortune here.  I like him better than I did,--partly, I
+suppose, because I have helped him.
+
+
+November 14th.--The other day I saw an elderly gentleman walking in Dale
+Street, apparently in a state of mania; for as he limped along (being
+afflicted with lameness) he kept talking to himself, and sometimes
+breaking out into a threat against some casual passenger.  He was a very
+respectable-looking man; and I remember to have seen him last summer, in
+the steamer, returning from the Isle of Man, where he had been staying at
+Castle Mona.  What a strange and ugly predicament it would be for a
+person of quiet habits to be suddenly smitten with lunacy at noonday in a
+crowded street, and to walk along through a dim maze of extravagances,--
+partly conscious of then, but unable to resist the impulse to give way to
+them!  A long-suppressed nature might be represented as bursting out in
+this way, for want of any other safety-valve.
+
+In America, people seem to consider the government merely as a political
+administration; and they care nothing for the credit of it, unless it be
+the administration of their own political party.  In England, all people,
+of whatever party, are anxious for the credit of their rulers.  Our
+government, as a knot of persons, changes so entirely every four years,
+that the institution has come to be considered a temporary thing.
+
+Looking at the moon the other evening, little R----- said, "It blooms out
+in the morning!" taking the moon to be the bud of the sun.
+
+The English are a most intolerant people.  Nobody is permitted, nowadays,
+to have any opinion but the prevalent one.  There seems to be very little
+difference between their educated and ignorant classes in this respect;
+if any, it is to the credit of the latter, who do not show tokens of such
+extreme interest in the war.  It is agreeable, however, to observe how
+all Englishmen pull together,--how each man comes forward with his little
+scheme for helping on the war,--how they feel themselves members of one
+family, talking together about their common interest, as if they were
+gathered around one fireside; and then what a hearty meed of honor they
+award to their soldiers!  It is worth facing death for.  Whereas, in
+America, when our soldiers fought as good battles, with as great
+proportionate loss, and far more valuable triumphs, the country seemed
+rather ashamed than proud of them.
+
+Mrs. Heywood tells me that there are many Catholics among the lower
+classes in Lancashire and Cheshire,--probably the descendants of
+retainers of the old Catholic nobility and gentry, who are more numerous
+in these shires than in other parts of England.  The present Lord
+Sefton's grandfather was the first of that race who became Protestant.
+
+
+December 25th.--Commodore P------ called to see me this morning,--a
+brisk, gentlemanly, offhand, but not rough, unaffected and sensible man,
+looking not so elderly as he ought, on account of a very well made wig.
+He is now on his return from a cruise in the East Indian seas, and goes
+home by the Baltic, with a prospect of being very well received on
+account of his treaty with Japan.  I seldom meet with a man who puts
+himself more immediately on conversable terms than the Commodore.  He
+soon introduced his particular business with me,--it being to inquire
+whether I would recommend some suitable person to prepare his notes and
+materials for the publication of an account of his voyage.  He was good
+enough to say that he had fixed upon me, in his own mind, for this
+office; but that my public duties would of course prevent me from
+engaging in it.  I spoke of Herman Melville, and one or two others; but
+he seems to have some acquaintance with the literature of the day, and
+did not grasp very cordially at any name that I could think of; nor,
+indeed, could I recommend any one with full confidence.  It would be a
+very desirable task for a young literary man, or, for that matter, for an
+old one; for the world can scarcely have in reserve a less hackneyed
+theme than Japan.
+
+This is a most beautiful day of English winter; clear and bright, with
+the ground a little frozen, and the green grass along the waysides at
+Rock Ferry sprouting up through the frozen pools of yesterday's rain.
+England is forever green.  On Christmas day, the children found
+wall-flowers, pansies, and pinks in the garden; and we had a beautiful
+rose from the garden of the hotel grown in the open air.  Yet one is
+sensible of the cold here, as much as in the zero atmosphere of America.
+The chief advantage of the English climate is that we are not tempted to
+heat our rooms to so unhealthy a degree as in New England.
+
+I think I have been happier this Christmas than ever before,--by my own
+fireside, and with my wife and children about me,--more content to enjoy
+what I have,--less anxious for anything beyond it in this life.
+
+My early life was perhaps a good preparation for the declining half of
+life; it having been such a blank that any thereafter would compare
+favorably with it.  For a long, long while, I have occasionally been
+visited with a singular dream; and I have an impression that I have
+dreamed it ever since I have been in England.  It is, that I am still at
+college,--or, sometimes, even at school,--and there is a sense that I
+have been there unconscionably long, and have quite failed to make such
+progress as my contemporaries have done; and I seem to meet some of them
+with a feeling of shame and depression that broods over me as I think of
+it, even when awake.  This dream, recurring all through these twenty or
+thirty years, must be one of the effects of that heavy seclusion in which
+I shut myself up for twelve years after leaving college, when everybody
+moved onward, and left me behind.  How strange that it should come now,
+when I may call myself famous and prosperous!--when I am happy, too!
+
+
+January 3d, 1855.--The progress of the age is trampling over the
+aristocratic institutions of England, and they crumble beneath it.  This
+war has given the country a vast impulse towards democracy.  The nobility
+will never hereafter, I think, assume or be permitted to rule the nation
+in peace, or command armies in war, on any ground except the individual
+ability which may appertain to one of their number, as well as to a
+commoner.  And yet the nobles were never positively more noble than now;
+never, perhaps, so chivalrous, so honorable, so highly cultivated; but,
+relatively to the rest of the world, they do not maintain their old
+place.  The pressure of the war has tested and proved this fact, at home
+and abroad.  At this moment it would be an absurdity in the nobles to
+pretend to the position which was quietly conceded to them a year ago.
+This one year has done the work of fifty ordinary ones; or, more
+accurately, it has made apparent what has long been preparing itself.
+
+
+January 6th.--The American ambassador called on me to-day and stayed a
+good while,--an hour or two.  He is visiting at Mr. William Browne's, at
+Richmond Hill, having come to this region to bring his niece, who is to
+be bride's-maid at the wedding of an American girl.  I like Mr. ------.
+He cannot exactly be called gentlemanly in his manners, there being a
+sort of rusticity about him; moreover, he has a habit of squinting one
+eye, and an awkward carriage of his head; hut, withal, a dignity in his
+large person, and a consciousness of high position and importance, which
+gives him ease and freedom.  Very simple and frank in his address, he may
+be as crafty as other diplomatists are said to be; but I see only good
+sense and plainness of speech,--appreciative, too, and genial enough to
+make himself conversable.  He talked very freely of himself and of other
+public people, and of American and English affairs.  He returns to
+America, he says, next October, and then retires forever from public
+life, being sixty-four years of age, and having now no desire except to
+write memoirs of his times, and especially of the administration of Mr.
+Polk.  I suggested a doubt whether the people would permit him to retire;
+and he immediately responded to my hint as regards his prospects for the
+Presidency.  He said that his mind was fully made up, and that he would
+never be a candidate, and that he had expressed this decision to his
+friends in such a way as to put it out of his own power to change it.  He
+acknowledged that he should have been glad of the nomination for the
+Presidency in 1852, but that it was now too late, and that he was too
+old,--and, in short, he seemed to be quite sincere in his nolo
+episcopari; although, really, he is the only Democrat, at this moment,
+whom it would not be absurd to talk of for the office.  As he talked, his
+face flushed, and he seemed to feel inwardly excited.  Doubtless, it was
+the high vision of half his lifetime which he here relinquished.  I
+cannot question that he is sincere; but, of course, should the people
+insist upon having him for President, he is too good a patriot to refuse.
+I wonder whether he can have had any object in saying all this to me.  He
+might see that it would be perfectly natural for me to tell it to General
+Pierce.  But it is a very vulgar idea,--this of seeing craft and
+subtlety, when there is a plain and honest aspect.
+
+
+January 9th.--I dined at Mr. William Browne's (M. P.) last, evening with
+a large party.  The whole table and dessert service was of silver.
+Speaking of Shakespeare, Mr. ------ said that the Duke of Somerset, who
+is now nearly fourscore, told him that the father of John and Charles
+Kemble had made all possible research into the events of Shakespeare's
+life, and that he had found reason to believe that Shakespeare attended a
+certain revel at Stratford, and, indulging too much in the conviviality
+of the occasion, he tumbled into a ditch on his way home, and died there!
+The Kemble patriarch was an aged man when he communicated this to the
+Duke; and their ages, linked to each other; would extend back a good way;
+scarcely to the beginning of the last century, however.  If I mistake
+not, it was from the traditions of Stratford that Kemble had learned the
+above.  I do not remember ever to have seen it in print,--which is most
+singular.
+
+Miss L---- has an English rather than an American aspect,--being of
+stronger outline than most of our young ladies, although handsomer than
+English women generally, extremely self-possessed and well poised without
+affectation or assumption, but quietly conscious of rank, as much so as
+if she were an Earl's daughter.  In truth, she felt pretty much as an
+Earl's daughter would do towards the merchants' wives and daughters who
+made up the feminine portion of the party.
+
+I talked with her a little, and found her sensible, vivacious, and
+firm-textured, rather than soft and sentimental.  She paid me some
+compliments; but I do not remember paying her any.
+
+Mr. J-----'s daughters, two pale, handsome girls, were present.  One of
+them is to be married to a grandson of Mr. ------, who was also at the
+dinner.  He is a small young man, with a thin and fair mustache, . . . .
+and a lady who sat next me whispered that his expectations are 6,000
+pounds per annum.  It struck me, that, being a country gentleman's son,
+he kept himself silent and reserved, as feeling himself too good for this
+commercial dinner-party; but perhaps, and I rather think so, he was
+really shy and had nothing to say, being only twenty-one, and therefore
+quite a boy among Englishmen.  The only man of cognizable rank present,
+except Mr. ------ and the Mayor of Liverpool, was a Baronet, Sir Thomas
+Birch.
+
+
+January 17th.--S---- and I were invited to be present at the wedding of
+Mr. J-------'s daughter this morning, but we were also bidden to the
+funeral services of Mrs. G------, a young American lady; and we went to
+the "house of mourning," rather than to the "house of feasting."  Her
+death was very sudden.  I crossed to Rock Ferry on Saturday, and met her
+husband in the boat.  He said his wife was rather unwell, and that he had
+just been sent for to see her; but he did not seem at all alarmed.  And
+yet, on reaching home, he found her dead!  The body is to be conveyed to
+America, and the funeral service was read over her in her house, only a
+few neighbors and friends being present.  We were shown into a darkened
+room, where there was a dim gaslight burning, and a fire glimmering, and
+here and there a streak of sunshine struggling through the drawn
+curtains.  Mr. G------ looked pale, and quite overcome with grief,--this,
+I suppose, being his first sorrow,--and he has a young baby on his hands,
+and no doubt, feels altogether forlorn in this foreign land.  The
+clergyman entered in his canonicals, and we walked in a little procession
+into another room, where the coffin was placed.
+
+Mr. G------ sat down and rested his head on the coffin: the clergyman
+read the service; then knelt down, as did most of the company, and prayed
+with great propriety of manner, but with no earnestness,--and we
+separated.
+
+Mr. G------ is a small, smooth, and pretty young man, not emphasized in
+any way; but grief threw its awfulness about him to-day in a degree which
+I should not have expected.
+
+
+January 20th.--Mr. Steele, a gentleman of Rock Ferry, showed me this
+morning a pencil-case formerly belonging to Dr. Johnson.  It is six or
+seven inches long, of large calibre, and very clumsily manufactured of
+iron, perhaps plated in its better days, but now quite bare.  Indeed, it
+looks as rough as an article of kitchen furniture.  The intaglio on the
+end is a lion rampant.  On the whole, it well became Dr. Johnson to have
+used such a stalwart pencil-case.  It had a six-inch measure on a part of
+it, so that it must have been at least eight inches long.  Mr. Steele
+says he has seen a cracked earthen teapot, of large size, in which Miss
+Williams used to make tea for Dr. Johnson.
+
+God himself cannot compensate us for being born for any period short of
+eternity.  All the misery endured here constitutes a claim for another
+life, and, still more, all the happiness; because all true happiness
+involves something more than the earth owns, and needs something more
+than a mortal capacity for the enjoyment of it.
+
+After receiving an injury on the head, a person fancied all the rest of
+his life that he heard voices flouting, jeering, and upbraiding him.
+
+
+February 19th.--I dined with the Mayor at the Town Hall last Friday
+evening.  I sat next to Mr. W. J------, an Irish-American merchant, who
+is in very good standing here.  He told me that he used to be very well
+acquainted with General Jackson, and that he was present at the street
+fight between him and the Bentons, and helped to take General Jackson off
+the ground.  Colonel Benton shot at him from behind; but it was Jesse
+Benton's ball that hit him and broke his arm.  I did not understand him
+to infer any treachery or cowardice from the circumstance of Colonel
+Benton's shooting at Jackson from behind, but, suppose it occurred in the
+confusion and excitement of a street fight.  Mr. W. J------ seems to
+think that, after all, the reconciliation between the old General and
+Benton was merely external, and that they really hated one another as
+before.  I do not think so.
+
+These dinners of the Mayors are rather agreeable than otherwise, except
+for the annoyance, in my case, of being called up to speak to a toast,
+and that is less disagreeable than at first.  The suite of rooms at the
+Town House is stately and splendid, and all the Mayors, as far as I have
+seen, exercise hospitality in a manner worthy of the chief magistrates of
+a great city.  They are supposed always to spend much more than their
+salary (which is 2,000 pounds) in these entertainments.  The town
+provides the wines, I am told, and it might be expected that they should
+be particularly good,--at least, those which improve by age, for a
+quarter of a century should be only a moderate age for wine from the
+cellars of centuries-long institutions, like a corporate borough.  Each
+Mayor might lay in a supply of the best vintage he could find, and trust
+his good name to posterity to the credit of that wine; and so he would be
+kindly and warmly remembered long after his own nose had lost its
+rubicundity.  In point of fact, the wines seem to be good, but not
+remarkable.  The dinner was good, and very handsomely served, with
+attendance enough, both in the hall below--where the door was wide open
+at the appointed hour, notwithstanding the cold--and at table; some
+being in the rich livery of the borough, and some in plain clothes.
+Servants, too, were stationed at various points from the hall to the
+reception-room; and the last one shouted forth the name of the entering
+guest.  There were, I should think, about fifty guests at this dinner.
+Two bishops were present.  The Bishops of Chester and New South Wales,
+dressed in a kind of long tunics, with black breeches and silk stockings,
+insomuch that I first fancied they were Catholics.  Also Dr. McNeil, in a
+stiff-collared coat, looking more like a general than a divine.  There
+were two officers in blue uniforms; and all the rest of us were in black,
+with only two white waistcoats,--my own being one,--and a rare sprinkling
+of white cravats.  How hideously a man looks in them!  I should like to
+have seen such assemblages as must have gathered in that reception-room,
+and walked with stately tread to the dining-hall, in times past, the
+Mayor and other civic dignitaries in their robes, noblemen in their state
+dresses, the Consul in his olive-leaf embroidery, everybody in some sort
+of bedizenment,--and then the dinner would have been a magnificent
+spectacle, worthy of the gilded hall, the rich table-service, and the
+powdered and gold-laced servitors.  At a former dinner I remember seeing
+a gentleman in small-clothes, with a dress-sword; but all formalities of
+the kind are passing away.  The Mayor's dinners, too, will no doubt be
+extinct before many years go by.  I drove home from the Woodside Ferry in
+a cab with Bishop Burke and two other gentlemen.  The Bishop is nearly
+seven feet high.
+
+After writing the foregoing account of a civic banquet, where I ate
+turtle-soup, salmon, woodcock, oyster patties, and I know not what else,
+I have been to the News-room and found the Exchange pavement densely
+thronged with people of all ages and of all manner of dirt and rags.
+They were waiting for soup-tickets, and waiting very patiently too,
+without outcry or disturbance, or even sour looks,--only patience and
+meekness in their faces.  Well, I don't know that they have a right to be
+impatient of starvation; but, still there does seem to be an insolence of
+riches and prosperity, which one day or another will have a downfall.
+And this will be a pity, too.
+
+On Saturday I went with my friend Mr. Bright to Otterpool and to Larkhill
+to see the skaters on the private waters of those two seats of gentlemen;
+and it is a wonder to behold--and it is always a new wonder to me--how
+comfortable Englishmen know how to make themselves; locating their
+dwellings far within private grounds, with secure gateways and porters'
+lodges, and the smoothest roads and trimmest paths, and shaven lawns, and
+clumps of trees, and every bit of the ground, every hill and dell, made
+the most of for convenience and beauty, and so well kept that even winter
+cannot cause disarray; and all this appropriated to the same family for
+generations, so that I suppose they come to believe it created
+exclusively and on purpose for them.  And, really, the result is good and
+beautiful.  It is a home,--an institution which we Americans have not;
+but then I doubt whether anybody is entitled to a home in this world, in
+so full a sense.
+
+The day was very cold, and the skaters seemed to enjoy themselves
+exceedingly.  They were, I suppose, friends of the owners of the grounds,
+and Mr. Bright said they were treated in a jolly way, with hot luncheons.
+The skaters practise skating more as an art, and can perform finer
+manoeuvres on the ice, than our New England skaters usually can, though
+the English have so much less opportunity for practice.  A beggar-woman
+was haunting the grounds at Otterpool, but I saw nobody give her
+anything.  I wonder how she got inside of the gate.
+
+Mr. W. J------ spoke of General Jackson as having come from the same part
+of Ireland as himself, and perhaps of the same family.  I wonder whether
+he meant to say that the General was born in Ireland,--that having been
+suspected in America.
+
+
+February 21st.--Yesterday two companies of work-people came to our house
+in Rock Park, asking assistance, being out of work and with no resource
+other than charity.  There were a dozen or more in each party.  Their
+deportment was quiet and altogether unexceptionable,--no rudeness, no
+gruffness, nothing of menace.  Indeed, such demonstrations would not have
+been safe, as they were followed about by two policemen; but they really
+seem to take their distress as their own misfortune and God's will, and
+impute it to nobody as a fault.  This meekness is very touching, and
+makes one question the more whether they have all their rights.  There
+have been disturbances, within a day or two, in Liverpool, and shops have
+been broken open and robbed of bread and money; but this is said to have
+been done by idle vagabonds, and not by the really hungry work-people.
+These last submit to starvation gently and patiently, as if it were an
+every-day matter with them, or, at least, nothing but what lay fairly
+within their horoscope.  I suppose, in fact, their stomachs have the
+physical habit that makes hunger not intolerable, because customary.  If
+they had been used to a full meat diet, their hunger would be fierce,
+like that of ravenous beasts; but now they are trained to it.
+
+I think that the feeling of an American, divided, as I am, by the ocean
+from his country, has a continual and immediate correspondence with the
+national feeling at home; and it seems to be independent of any external
+communication.  Thus, my ideas about the Russian war vary in accordance
+with the state of the public mind at home, so that I am conscious
+whereabouts public sympathy is.
+
+
+March 7th.--J----- and I walked to Tranmere, and passed an old house
+which I suppose to be Tranmere Hall.  Our way to it was up a hollow lane,
+with a bank and hedge on each side, and with a few thatched stone
+cottages, centuries old, their ridge-poles crooked and the stones
+time-worn, scattered along.  At one point there was a wide, deep well,
+hewn out of the solid red freestone, and with steps, also hewn in solid
+rock, leading down to it.  These steps were much hollowed by the feet of
+those who had come to the well; and they reach beneath the water, which
+is very high.  The well probably supplied water to the old cotters and
+retainers of Tranmere Hall five hundred years ago.  The Hall stands on
+the verge of a long hill which stretches behind Tranmere and as far as
+Birkenhead.
+
+It is an old gray stone edifice, with a good many gables, and windows
+with mullions, and some of them extending the whole breadth of the gable.
+In some parts of the house, the windows seem to have been built up;
+probably in the days when daylight was taxed.  The form of the Hall is
+multiplex, the roofs sloping down and intersecting one another, so as to
+make the general result indescribable.  There were two sun-dials on
+different sides of the house, both the dial-plates of which were of
+stone; and on one the figures, so far as I could see, were quite worn
+off, but the gnomon still cast a shadow over it in such a way that I
+could judge that it was about noon.  The other dial had some half-worn
+hour-marks, but no gnomon.  The chinks of the stones of the house were
+very weedy, and the building looked quaint and venerable; but it is now
+converted into a farm-house, with the farm-yard and outbuildings closely
+appended.  A village, too, has grown up about it, so that it seems out of
+place among modern stuccoed dwellings, such as are erected for tradesmen
+and other moderate people who have their residences in the neighborhood
+of a great city.  Among these there are a few thatched cottages, the
+homeliest domiciles that ever mortals lived in, belonging to the old
+estate.  Directly across the street is a Wayside Inn, "licensed to sell
+wine, spirits, ale, and tobacco."  The street itself has been laid out
+since the land grew valuable by the increase of Liverpool and Birkenhead;
+for the old Hall would never have been built on the verge of a public
+way.
+
+
+March 27th.--I attended court to day, at St. George's Hall, with my wife,
+Mr. Bright, and Mr. Channing, sitting in the High Sheriff's seat.  It was
+the civil side, and Mr. Justice Cresswell presided.  The lawyers, as far
+as aspect goes, seemed to me inferior to an American bar, judging from
+their countenances, whether as intellectual men or gentlemen.  Their wigs
+and gowns do not impose on the spectator, though they strike him as an
+imposition.  Their date is past.  Mr. Warren, of the "Ten Thousand a
+Year," was in court,--a pale, thin, intelligent face, evidently a nervous
+man, more unquiet than anybody else in court,--always restless in his
+seat, whispering to his neighbors, settling his wig, perhaps with an idea
+that people single him out.
+
+St. George's Hall--the interior hall itself, I mean--is a spacious,
+lofty, and most rich and noble apartment, and very satisfactory.  The
+pavement is made of mosaic tiles, and has a beautiful effect.
+
+
+April 7th.--I dined at Mr. J. P. Heywood's on Thursday, and met there Mr.
+and Mrs. ------ of Smithell's Hall.  The Hall is an old edifice of some
+five hundred years, and Mrs. ------ says there is a bloody footstep at
+the foot of the great staircase.  The tradition is that a certain martyr,
+in Bloody Mary's time, being examined before the occupant of the Hall,
+and committed to prison, stamped his foot, in earnest protest against the
+injustice with which he was treated.  Blood issued from his foot, which
+slid along the stone pavement, leaving a long footmark, printed in blood.
+And there it has remained ever since, in spite of the scrubbings of all
+succeeding generations.  Mrs. ------ spoke of it with much solemnity,
+real or affected.  She says that they now cover the bloody impress with a
+carpet, being unable to remove it.  In the History of Lancashire, which I
+looked at last night, there is quite a different account,--according to
+which the footstep is not a bloody one, but is a slight cavity or
+inequality in the surface of the stone, somewhat in the shape of a man's
+foot with a peaked shoe.  The martyr's name was George Marsh.  He was a
+curate, and was afterwards burnt.  Mrs. ------ asked me to go and see the
+Hall and the footmark; and as it is in Lancashire, and not a great way
+off, and a curious old place, perhaps I may.
+
+
+April 12th.--The Earl of ------, whom I saw the other day at St. George's
+Hall, has a somewhat elderly look,--a pale and rather thin face, which
+strikes one as remarkably short, or compressed from top to bottom.
+Nevertheless, it has great intelligence, and sensitiveness too, I should
+think, but a cold, disagreeable expression.  I should take him to be a
+man of not very pleasant temper,--not genial.  He has no physical
+presence nor dignity, yet one sees him to be a person of rank and
+consequence.  But, after all, there is nothing about him which it need
+have taken centuries of illustrious nobility to produce, especially in a
+man of remarkable ability, as Lord ------ certainly is.  S-----, who
+attended court all through the Hapgood trial, and saw Lord ------ for
+hours together every day, has come to conclusions quite different from
+mine.  She thinks him a perfectly natural person, without any assumption,
+any self-consciousness, any scorn of the lower world.  She was delighted
+with his ready appreciation and feeling of what was passing around him,--
+his quick enjoyment of a joke,--the simplicity and unaffectedness of his
+emotion at whatever incidents excited his interest,--the genial
+acknowledgment of sympathy, causing him to look round and exchange
+glances with those near him, who were not his individual friends, but
+barristers and other casual persons.  He seemed to her all that a
+nobleman ought to be, entirely simple and free from pretence and
+self-assertion, which persons of lower rank can hardly help bedevilling
+themselves with.  I saw him only for a very few moments, so cannot put my
+observation against hers, especially as I was influenced by what I had
+heard the Liverpool people say of him.
+
+I do not know whether I have mentioned that the handsomest man I have
+seen in England was a young footman of Mr. Heywood's.  In his rich
+livery, he was a perfect Joseph Andrews.
+
+In my Romance, the original emigrant to America may have carried away
+with him a family secret, whereby it was in his power, had he so chosen,
+to have brought about the ruin of the family.  This secret he transmits
+to his American progeny, by whom it is inherited throughout all the
+intervening generations.  At last, the hero of the Romance comes to
+England, and finds, that, by means of this secret, he still has it in his
+power to procure the downfall of the family.  It would be something
+similar to the story of Meleager, whose fate depended on the firebrand
+that his mother had snatched from the flames.
+
+
+April 24th.--On Saturday I was present at a dejeuner on board the Donald
+McKay; the principal guest being Mr. Layard, M. P.  There were several
+hundred people, quite filling the between decks of the ship, which was
+converted into a saloon for the occasion.  I sat next to Mr. Layard, at
+the head of the table, and so had a good opportunity of seeing and
+getting acquainted with him.  He is a man in early middle age,--of middle
+stature, with an open, frank, intelligent, kindly face.  His forehead is
+not expansive, but is prominent in the perceptive regions, and retreats a
+good deal.  His mouth is full,--I liked him from the first.  He was very
+kind and complimentary to me, and made me promise to go and see him in
+London.
+
+It would have been a very pleasant entertainment, only that my pleasure
+in it was much marred by having to acknowledge a toast, in honor of the
+President.  However, such things do not trouble me nearly so much as they
+used to do, and I came through it tolerably enough.  Mr. Layard's speech
+was the great affair of the day.  He speaks with much fluency (though he
+assured me that he had to put great force upon himself to speak
+publicly), and, as he warms up, seems to engage with his whole moral and
+physical man,--quite possessed with what he has to say.  His evident
+earnestness and good faith make him eloquent, and stand him instead of
+oratorical graces.  His views of the position of England and the
+prospects of the war were as dark as well could be; and his speech was
+exceedingly to the purpose, full of common-sense, and with not one word
+of clap-trap.  Judging from its effect upon the audience, he spoke the
+voice of the whole English people,--although an English Baronet, who sat
+next below me, seemed to dissent, or at least to think that it was not
+exactly the thing for a stranger to hear.  It concluded amidst great
+cheering.  Mr. Layard appears to be a true Englishman, with a moral force
+and strength of character, and earnestness of purpose, and fulness of
+common-sense, such as have always served England's turn in her past
+successes; but rather fit for resistance than progress.  No doubt, he is
+a good and very able man; but I question whether he could get England out
+of the difficulties which he sees so clearly, or could do much better
+than Lord Palmerston, whom he so decries.
+
+
+April 25th.--Taking the deposition of sailors yesterday, in a case of
+alleged ill-usage by the officers of a vessel, one of the witnesses was
+an old seaman of sixty.  In reply to some testimony of his, the captain
+said, "You were the oldest man in the ship, and we honored you as such."
+The mate also said that he never could have thought of striking an old
+man like that.  Indeed, the poor old fellow had a kind of dignity and
+venerableness about him, though he confessed to having been drunk, and
+seems to have been a mischief-maker, what they call a sea-preacher,--
+promoting discontent and grumbling.  He must have been a very handsome
+man in his youth, having regular features of a noble and beautiful cast.
+His beard was gray; but his dark hair had hardly a streak of white, and
+was abundant all over his head.  He was deaf, and seemed to sit in a kind
+of seclusion, unless when loudly questioned or appealed to.  Once he
+broke forth from a deep silence thus, "I defy any man!" and then was
+silent again.  It had a strange effect, this general defiance, which he
+meant, I suppose, in answer to some accusation that he thought was made
+against him.  His general behavior throughout the examination was very
+decorous and proper; and he said he had never but once hitherto been
+before a consul, and that was in 1819, when a mate had ill-used him, and,
+"being a young man then, I gave him a beating,"--whereupon his face
+gleamed with a quiet smile, like faint sunshine on an old ruin.  "By many
+a tempest has his beard been shook"; and I suppose he must soon go into a
+workhouse, and thence, shortly, to his grave.  He is now in a hospital,
+having, as the surgeon certifies, some ribs fractured; but there does not
+appear to have been any violence used upon him aboard the ship of such a
+nature as to cause this injury, though he swears it was a blow from a
+rope, and nothing else.  What struck me in the case was the respect and
+rank that his age seemed to give him, in the view of the officers; and
+how, as the captain's expression signified, it lifted him out of his low
+position, and made him a person to be honored.  The dignity of his manner
+is perhaps partly owing to the ancient mariner, with his long experience,
+being an oracle among the forecastle men.
+
+
+May 3d.--It rains to-day, after a very long period of east-wind and dry
+weather.  The east-wind here, blowing across the island, seems to be the
+least damp of all the winds; but it is full of malice and mischief, of an
+indescribably evil temper, and stabs one like a cold, poisoned dagger.  I
+never spent so disagreeable a spring as this, although almost every day
+for a month has been bright.
+
+
+Friday, May 11th.--A few weeks ago, a sailor, a most pitiable object,
+came to my office to complain of cruelty from his captain and mate.  They
+had beaten him shamefully, of which he bore grievous marks about his face
+and eyes, and bruises on his head and other parts of his person: and
+finally the ship had sailed, leaving him behind.  I never in my life saw
+so forlorn a fellow, so ragged, so wretched; and even his wits seemed to
+have been beaten out of him, if perchance he ever had any.  He got an
+order for the hospital; and there he has been, off and on, ever since,
+till yesterday, when I received a message that he was dying, and wished
+to see the Consul; so I went with Mr. Wilding to the hospital.  We were
+ushered into the waiting-room,--a kind of parlor, with a fire in the
+grate, and a centre-table, whereon lay one or two medical journals, with
+wood engravings; and there was a young man, who seemed to be an official
+of the house, reading.  Shortly the surgeon appeared,--a brisk, cheerful,
+kindly sort of person, whom I have met there on previous visits.  He told
+us that the man was dying, and probably would not be able to communicate
+anything, but, nevertheless, ushered us up to the highest floor, and into
+the room where he lay.  It was a large, oblong room, with ten or twelve
+beds in it, each occupied by a patient.  The surgeon said that the
+hospital was often so crowded that they were compelled to lay some of the
+patients on the floor.  The man whom we came to see lay on his bed in a
+little recess formed by a projecting window; so that there was a kind of
+seclusion for him to die in.  He seemed quite insensible to outward
+things, and took no notice of our approach, nor responded to what was
+said to him,--lying on his side, breathing with short gasps,--his
+apparent disease being inflammation of the chest, although the surgeon
+said that he might be found to have sustained internal injury by bruises.
+he was restless, tossing his head continually, mostly with his eyes shut,
+and much compressed and screwed up, but sometimes opening them; and then
+they looked brighter and darker than when I first saw them.  I think his
+face was not at any time so stupid as at his first interview with me; but
+whatever intelligence he had was rather inward than outward, as if there
+might be life and consciousness at a depth within, while as to external
+matters he was in a mist.  The surgeon felt his wrist, and said that
+there was absolutely no pulsation, and that he might die at any moment,
+or might perhaps live an hour, but that there was no prospect of his
+being able to communicate with me.  He was quite restless, nevertheless,
+and sometimes half raised himself in bed, sometimes turned himself quite
+over, and then lay gasping for an instant.  His woollen shirt being
+thrust up on his arm, there appeared a tattooing of a ship and
+anchor, and other nautical emblems, on both of them, which another
+sailor-patient, on examining them, said must have been done years ago.
+This might be of some importance, because the dying man had told me, when
+I first saw him, that he was no sailor, but a farmer, and that, this
+being his first voyage, he had been beaten by the captain for not doing a
+sailor's duty, which he had had no opportunity of learning.  These
+sea-emblems indicated that he was probably a seaman of some years'
+service.
+
+While we stood in the little recess, such of the other patients as were
+convalescent gathered near the foot of the bed; and the nurse came and
+looked on, and hovered about us,--a sharp-eyed, intelligent woman of
+middle age, with a careful and kind expression, neglecting nothing that
+was for the patient's good, yet taking his death as coolly as any other
+incident in her daily business.  Certainly, it was a very forlorn
+death-bed; and I felt--what I have heretofore been inclined to doubt--
+that it might, be a comfort to have persons whom one loves, to go with us
+to the threshold of the other world, and leave us only when we are fairly
+across it.  This poor fellow had a wife and two children on the other
+side of the water.
+
+At first he did not utter any sound; but by and by he moaned a little,
+and gave tokens of being more sensible to outward concerns,--not quite so
+misty and dreamy as hitherto.  We had been talking all the while--myself
+in a whisper, but the surgeon in his ordinary tones--about his state,
+without his paying any attention.  But now the surgeon put his mouth down
+to the man's face and said, "Do you know that you are dying?"  At this
+the patient's head began to move upon the pillow; and I thought at first
+that it was only the restlessness that he had shown all along; but soon
+it appeared to be an expression of emphatic dissent, a negative shake of
+the head.  He shook it with all his might, and groaned and mumbled, so
+that it was very evident how miserably reluctant he was to die.  Soon
+after this he absolutely spoke.  "O, I want you to get me well!  I want
+to get away from here!" in a groaning and moaning utterance.  The
+surgeon's question had revived him, but to no purpose; for, being told
+that the Consul had come to see him, and asked whether he had anything to
+communicate, he said only, "O, I want him to get me well!" and the whole
+life that was left in him seemed to be unwillingness to die.  This did
+not last long; for he soon relapsed into his first state, only with his
+face a little more pinched and screwed up, and his eyes strangely sunken.
+And lost in his head; and the surgeon said that there would be no use in
+my remaining.  So I took my leave.  Mr. Wilding had brought a deposition
+of the man's evidence, which he had clearly made at the Consulate, for
+him to sign, and this we left with the surgeon, in case there should be
+such an interval of consciousness and intelligence before death as to
+make it possible for him to sign it.  But of this there is no
+probability.
+
+I have just received a note from the hospital, stating that the sailor,
+Daniel Smith, died about three quarters of an hour after I saw him.
+
+
+May 18th.--The above-mentioned Daniel Smith had about him a bundle of
+letters, which I have examined.  They are all very yellow, stained with
+sea-water, smelling of bad tobacco-smoke, and much worn at the folds.
+Never were such ill-written letters, nor such incredibly fantastic
+spelling.  They seem to be from various members of his family,--most of
+them from a brother, who purports to have been a deck-hand in the
+coasting and steamboat trade between Charleston and other ports; others
+from female relations; one from his father, in which he inquires how long
+his son has been in jail, and when the trial is to come on,--the offence,
+however, of which he was accused, not being indicated.  But from the
+tenor of his brother's letters, it would appear that he was a small
+farmer in the interior of South Carolina, sending butter, eggs, and
+poultry to be sold in Charleston by his brother, and receiving the
+returns in articles purchased there.  This was his own account of
+himself; and he affirmed, in his deposition before me, that he had never
+had any purpose of shipping for Liverpool, or anywhere else; but that,
+going on board the ship to bring a man's trunk ashore, he was compelled
+to remain and serve as a sailor.  This was a hard fate, certainly, and a
+strange thing to happen in the United States at this day,--that a free
+citizen should be absolutely kidnapped, carried to a foreign country,
+treated with savage cruelty during the voyage, and left to die on his
+arrival.  Yet all this has unquestionably been done, and will probably go
+unpunished.
+
+The seed of the long-stapled cotton, now cultivated in America, was sent
+there in 1786 from the Bahama Islands, by some of the royalist refugees,
+who had settled there.  The inferior short-stapled cotton had been
+previously cultivated for domestic purposes.  The seeds of every other
+variety have been tried without success.  The kind now grown was first
+introduced into Georgia.  Thus to the refugees America owes as much of
+her prosperity as is due to the cotton-crops, and much of whatever harm
+is to result from slavery.
+
+
+May 22d.--Captain J------ says that he saw, in his late voyage to
+Australia and India, a vessel commanded by an Englishman, who had with
+him his wife and thirteen children.  This ship was the home of the
+family, and they had no other.  The thirteen children had all been born
+on board, and had been brought up on board, and knew nothing of dry land,
+except by occasionally setting foot on it.
+
+Captain J------ is a very agreeable specimen of the American shipmaster,
+--a pleasant, gentlemanly man, not at all refined, and yet with fine and
+honorable sensibilities.  Very easy in his manners and conversation, yet
+gentle,--talking on freely, and not much minding grammar; but finding a
+sufficient and picturesque expression for what he wishes to say; very
+cheerful and vivacious; accessible to feeling, as yesterday, when talking
+about the recent death of his mother.  His voice faltered, and the tears
+came into his eyes, though before and afterwards he smiled merrily, and
+made us smile; fond of his wife, and carrying her about the world with
+him, and blending her with all his enjoyments; an excellent and sagacious
+man of business; liberal in his expenditure; proud of his ship and flag;
+always well dressed, with some little touch of sailor-like flashiness,
+but not a whit too much; slender in figure, with a handsome face, and
+rather profuse brown beard and whiskers; active and alert; about
+thirty-two.  A daguerreotype sketch of any conversation of his would do
+him no justice, for its slang, its grammatical mistakes, its mistaken
+words (as "portable" for "portly"), would represent a vulgar man, whereas
+the impression he leaves is by no means that of vulgarity; but he is a
+character quite perfect within itself, fit for the deck and the cabin,
+and agreeable in the drawing-room, though not amenable altogether to its
+rules.  Being so perfectly natural, he is more of a gentleman for those
+little violations of rule, which most men, with his opportunities, might
+escape.
+
+The men whose appeals to the Consul's charity are the hardest to be
+denied are those who have no country,---Hungarians, Poles, Cubans,
+Spanish-Americans, and French republicans.  All exiles for liberty come
+to me, if the representative of America were their representative.
+Yesterday, came an old French soldier, and showed his wounds; to-day, a
+Spaniard, a friend of Lopez,--bringing his little daughter with him.  He
+said he was starving, and looked so.  The little girl was in good
+condition enough, and decently dressed.--May 23d.
+
+
+May 30th.--The two past days have been Whitsuntide holidays; and they
+have been celebrated at Tranmere in a manner very similar to that of the
+old "Election" in Massachusetts, as I remember it a good many years ago,
+though the festival has now almost or quite died out.  Whitsuntide was
+kept up on our side of the water, I am convinced, under pretence of
+rejoicings at the election of Governor.  It occurred at precisely the
+same period of the year,--the same week; the only difference being, that
+Monday and Tuesday are the Whitsun festival days, whereas, in
+Massachusetts, Wednesday was "Election day," and the acme of the
+merry-making.
+
+I passed through Tranmere yesterday forenoon, and lingered awhile to see
+the sports.  The greatest peculiarity of the crowd, to my eye, was that
+they seemed not to have any best clothes, and therefore had put on no
+holiday suits,--a grimy people, as at all times, heavy, obtuse, with
+thick beer in their blood.  Coarse, rough-complexioned women and girls
+were intermingled, the girls with no maiden trimness in their attire,
+large and blowsy.  Nobody seemed to have been washed that day.  All the
+enjoyment was of an exceedingly sombre character, so far as I saw it,
+though there was a richer variety of sports than at similar festivals in
+America.  There were wooden horses, revolving in circles, to be ridden a
+certain number of rounds for a penny; also swinging cars gorgeously
+painted, and the newest named after Lord Raglan; and four cars balancing
+one another, and turned by a winch; and people with targets and rifles,--
+the principal aim being to hit an apple bobbing on a string before the
+target; other guns for shooting at the distance of a foot or two, for a
+prize of filberts; and a game much in fashion, of throwing heavy sticks
+at earthen mugs suspended on lines, three throws for a penny.  Also,
+there was a posture-master, showing his art in the centre of a ring of
+miscellaneous spectators, and handing round his bat after going through
+all his attitudes.  The collection amounted to only one halfpenny, and,
+to eke it out, I threw in three more.  There were some large booths with
+tables placed the whole length, at which sat men and women drinking and
+smoking pipes; orange-girls, a great many, selling the worst possible
+oranges, which had evidently been boiled to give them a show of
+freshness.  There were likewise two very large structures, the walls made
+of boards roughly patched together, and rooted with canvas, which seemed
+to have withstood a thousand storms.  Theatres were there, and in front
+there were pictures of scenes which were to be represented within; the
+price of admission being twopence to one theatre, and a penny to the
+other.  But, small as the price of tickets was, I could not see that
+anybody bought them.  Behind the theatres, close to the board wall, and
+perhaps serving as the general dressing-room, was a large windowed wagon,
+in which I suppose the company travel and live together.  Never, to my
+imagination, was the mysterious glory that has surrounded theatrical
+representation ever since my childhood brought down into such dingy
+reality as this.  The tragedy queens were the same coarse and homely
+women and girls that surrounded me on the green.  Some of the people had
+evidently been drinking more than was good for them; but their
+drunkenness was silent and stolid, with no madness in it.  No ebullition
+of any sort was apparent.
+
+
+May 31st.--Last Sunday week, for the first time, I heard the note of the
+cuckoo.  "Cuck-oo--cuck-oo" it says, repeating the word twice, not in a
+brilliant metallic tone, but low and flute-like, without the excessive
+sweetness of the flute,--without an excess of saccharine juice in the
+sound.  There are said to be always two cuckoos seen together.  The note
+is very soft and pleasant.  The larks I have not yet heard in the sky;
+though it is not infrequent to hear one singing in a cage, in the streets
+of Liverpool.
+
+Brewers' draymen are allowed to drink as much of their master's beverage
+as they like, and they grow very brawny and corpulent, resembling their
+own horses in size, and presenting, one would suppose, perfect pictures
+of physical comfort and well-being.  But the least bruise, or even the
+hurt of a finger, is liable to turn to gangrene or erysipelas, and become
+fatal.
+
+When the wind blows violently, however clear the sky, the English say,
+"It is a stormy day."  And, on the other hand, when the air is still, and
+it does not actually rain, however dark and lowering the sky may be, they
+say, "The weather is fine!"
+
+
+June 2d.--The English women of the lower classes have a grace of their
+own, not seen in each individual, but nevertheless belonging to their
+order, which is not to be found in American women of the corresponding
+class.  The other day, in the police court, a girl was put into the
+witness-box, whose native graces of this sort impressed me a good deal.
+She was coarse, and her dress was none of the cleanest, and nowise smart.
+She appeared to have been up all night, too, drinking at the Tranmere
+wake, and had since ridden in a cart, covered up with a rug.  She
+described herself as a servant-girl, out of place; and her charm lay in
+all her manifestations,--her tones, her gestures, her look, her way of
+speaking and what she said, being so appropriate and natural in a girl of
+that class; nothing affected; no proper grace thrown away by attempting
+to appear lady-like,--which an American girl would have attempted,--and
+she would also have succeeded in a certain degree.  If each class would
+but keep within itself, and show its respect for itself by aiming at
+nothing beyond, they would all be more respectable.  But this kind of
+fitness is evidently not to be expected in the future; and something else
+must be substituted for it.
+
+These scenes at the police court are often well worth witnessing.  The
+controlling genius of the court, except when the stipendiary magistrate
+presides, is the clerk, who is a man learned in the law.  Nominally the
+cases are decided by the aldermen, who sit in rotation, but at every
+important point there comes a nod or a whisper from the clerk; and it is
+that whisper which sets the defendant free or sends him to prison.
+Nevertheless, I suppose the alderman's common-sense and native shrewdness
+are not without their efficacy in producing a general tendency towards
+the right; and, no doubt, the decisions of the police court are quite as
+often just as those of any other court whatever.
+
+June 11th.--I walked with J----- yesterday to Bebington Church.  When I
+first saw this church, nearly two years since, it seemed to me the
+fulfilment of my ideal of an old English country church.  It is not so
+satisfactory now, although certainly a venerable edifice.  There used
+some time ago to be ivy all over the tower; and at my first view of it,
+there was still a little remaining on the upper parts of the spire.  But
+the main roots, I believe, were destroyed, and pains were taken to clear
+away the whole of the ivy, so that now it is quite bare,--nothing but
+homely gray stone, with marks of age, but no beauty.  The most curious
+thing about the church is the font.  It is a massive pile, composed of
+five or six layers of freestone in an octagon shape, placed in the angle
+formed by the projecting side porch and the wall of the church, and
+standing under a stained-glass window.  The base is six or seven feet
+across, and it is built solidly up in successive steps, to the height of
+about six feet,--an octagonal pyramid, with the basin of the font
+crowning the pile hewn out of the solid stone, and about a foot in
+diameter and the same in depth.  There was water in it from the recent
+rains,--water just from heaven, and therefore as holy as any water it
+ever held in old Romish times.  The aspect of this aged font is extremely
+venerable, with moss in the basin and all over the stones; grass, and
+weeds of various kinds, and little shrubs, rooted in the chinks of the
+stones and between the successive steps.
+
+At each entrance of Rock Park, where we live, there is a small Gothic
+structure of stone, each inhabited by a policeman and his family; very
+small dwellings indeed, with the main apartment opening directly
+out-of-doors; and when the door is open, one can see the household fire,
+the good wife at work, perhaps the table set, and a throng of children
+clustering round, and generally overflowing the threshold.  The policeman
+walks about the Park in stately fashion, with his silver-laced blue
+uniform and snow-white gloves, touching his hat to gentlemen who reside
+in the Park.  In his public capacity he has rather an awful aspect, but
+privately he is a humble man enough, glad of any little job, and of old
+clothes for his many children, or, I believe, for himself.  One of the
+two policemen is a shoemaker and cobbler.  His pay, officially, is
+somewhere about a guinea a week.
+
+The Park, just now, is very agreeable to look at, shadowy with trees and
+shrubs, and with glimpses of green leaves and flower-gardens through the
+branches and twigs that line the iron fences.  After a shower the
+hawthorn blossoms are delightfully fragrant.  Golden tassels of the
+laburnum are abundant.
+
+I may have mentioned elsewhere the traditional prophecy, that, when the
+ivy should reach the top of Bebbington spire, the tower was doomed to
+fall.  It lies still, therefore, a chance of standing for centuries.  Mr.
+Turner tells me that the font now used is inside of the church, but the
+one outside is of unknown antiquity, and that it was customary, in
+papistical time, to have the font without the church.
+
+There is a little boy often on board the Rock Ferry steamer with an
+accordion,--an instrument I detest; but nevertheless it becomes tolerable
+in his hands, not so much for its music, as for the earnestness and
+interest with which he plays it.  His body and the accordion together
+become one musical instrument on which his soul plays tunes, for he sways
+and vibrates with the music from head to foot and throughout his frame,
+half closing his eyes and uplifting his face, as painters represent St.
+Cecilia and other famous musicians; and sometimes he swings his accordion
+in the air, as if in a perfect rapture.  After all, my ears, though not
+very nice, are somewhat tortured by his melodies, especially when
+confined within the cabin.  The boy is ten years old, perhaps, and rather
+pretty; clean, too, and neatly dressed, very unlike all other street and
+vagabond children whom I have seen in Liverpool.  People give him their
+halfpence more readily than to any other musicians who infest the boat.
+
+J-----, the other day, was describing a soldier-crab to his mother, he
+being much interested in natural history, and endeavoring to give as
+strong an idea as possible of its warlike characteristics, and power to
+harm those who molest it.  Little R----- sat by, quietly listening and
+sewing, and at last, lifting her head, she remarked, "I hope God did not
+hurt himself, when he was making him!"
+
+
+
+LEAMINGTON.
+
+
+June 21st.--We left Rock Ferry and Liverpool on Monday the 18th by the
+rail for this place; a very dim and rainy day, so that we had no pleasant
+prospects of the country; neither would the scenery along the Great
+Western Railway have been in any case very striking, though sunshine
+would have made the abundant verdure and foliage warm and genial.  But a
+railway naturally finds its way through all the common places of a
+country, and is certainly a most unsatisfactory mode of travelling, the
+only object being to arrive.  However, we had a whole carriage to
+ourselves, and the children enjoyed the earlier part of the journey very
+much.  We skirted Shrewsbury, and I think I saw the old tower of a church
+near the station, perhaps the same that struck Falstaff's "long hour."
+As we left the town I saw the Wrekin, a round, pointed hill of regular
+shape, and remembered the old toast, "To all friends round the Wrekin!"
+As we approached Birmingham, the country began to look somewhat
+Brummagemish, with its manufacturing chimneys, and pennons of flame
+quivering out of their tops; its forges, and great heaps of mineral
+refuse; its smokiness and other ugly symptoms.  Of Birmingham itself we
+saw little or nothing, except the mean and new brick lodging-houses, on
+the outskirts of the town.  Passing through Warwick, we had a glimpse of
+the castle,--an ivied wall and two turrets, rising out of imbosoming
+foliage; one's very idea of an old castle.  We reached Leamington at a
+little past six, and drove to the Clarendon Hotel,--a very spacious and
+stately house, by far the most splendid hotel I have yet seen in England.
+The landlady, a courteous old lady in black, showed my wife our rooms,
+and we established ourselves in an immensely large and lofty parlor, with
+red curtains and ponderous furniture, perhaps a very little out of date.
+The waiter brought me the book of arrivals, containing the names of all
+visitors for from three to five years back.  During two years I estimated
+that there had been about three hundred and fifty persons only, and while
+we were there, I saw nobody but ourselves to support the great hotel.
+Among the names were those of princes, earls, countesses, and baronets;
+and when the people of the house heard from R-----'s nurse that I too was
+a man of office, and held the title of Honorable in my own country, they
+greatly regretted that I entered myself as plain "Mister" in the book.
+We found this hotel very comfortable, and might doubtless have made it
+luxurious, had we chosen to go to five times the expense of similar
+luxuries in America; but we merely ordered comfortable things, and so
+came off at no very extravagant rate,--and with great honor, at all
+events, in the estimation of the waiter.
+
+During the afternoon we found lodgings, and established ourselves in them
+before dark.
+
+This English custom of lodgings, of which we had some experience at Rhyl
+last year, has its advantages; but is rather uncomfortable for strangers,
+who, in first settling themselves down, find that they must undertake all
+the responsibility of housekeeping at an instant's warming, and cannot
+get even a cup of tea till they have made arrangements with the grocer.
+Soon, however, there comes a sense of being at home, and by our exclusive
+selves, which never can be attained at hotels nor boarding-houses.  Our
+house is well situated and respectably furnished, with the dinginess,
+however, which is inseparable from lodging-houses,--as if others had used
+these things before and would use them again after we had gone,--a
+well-enough adaptation, but a lack of peculiar appropriateness; and I
+think one puts off real enjoyment from a sense of not being truly fitted.
+
+
+July 1st.--On Friday I took the rail with J----- for Coventry.  It was a
+bright and very warm day, oppressively so, indeed; though I think that
+there is never in this English climate the pervading warmth of an
+American summer day.  The sunshine may be excessively hot, but an
+overshadowing cloud or the shade of a tree or of a building at once
+affords relief; and if the slightest breeze stirs, you feel the latent
+freshness of the air.
+
+Coventry is some nine or ten miles from Leamington.  The approach to it
+from the railway presents nothing very striking,--a few church-towers,
+and one or two tall steeples; and the houses first seen are of modern and
+unnoticeable aspect.  Getting into the interior of the town, however, you
+find the streets very crooked, and some of them very narrow.  I saw one
+place where it seemed possible to shake hands from one jutting storied
+old house to another.  There were whole streets of the same kind of
+houses, one story impending over another, such as used to be familiar to
+me in Salem, and in some streets of Boston.  In fact, the whole aspect of
+the town--its irregularity and continual indirectness--reminded me very
+much of Boston, as I used to see it, in rare visits thither, when a
+child.
+
+These Coventry houses, however, many of them, are much larger than any of
+similar style that I have seen elsewhere, and they spread into greater
+bulk as they ascend, by means of one story jutting over the other.
+Probably the New-Englanders continued to follow this fashion of
+architecture after it had been abandoned in the mother country.  The old
+house built, by Philip English, in Salem, dated about 1692; and it was in
+this style,--many gabled, and impending.  Here the edifices of such
+architecture seem to be Elizabethan, and of earlier date.  A woman in
+Stratford told us that the rooms, very low on the ground-floor, grew
+loftier from story to story to the attic.  The fashion of windows, in
+Coventry, is such as I have not hitherto seen.  In the highest story, a
+window of the ordinary height extends along the whole breadth of the
+house, ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty feet, just like any other window of a
+commonplace house, except for this inordinate width.  One does not easily
+see what the inhabitants want of so much window-light; but the fashion is
+very general, and in modern houses, or houses that have been modernized,
+this style of window is retained.  Thus young people who grow up amidst
+old people contract quaint and old-fashioned manners and aspect.
+
+I imagine that these ancient towns--such as Chester and Stratford,
+Warwick and Coventry--contain even a great deal more antiquity than meets
+the eye.  You see many modern fronts; but if you peep or penetrate
+inside, you find an antique arrangement,--old rafters, intricate
+passages, and ancient staircases, which have put on merely a new outside,
+and are likely still to prove good for the usual date of a new house.
+They put such an immense and stalwart ponderosity into their frameworks,
+that I suppose a house of Elizabeth's time, if renewed, has at least an
+equal chance of durability with one that is new in every part.  All the
+hotels in Coventry, so far as I noticed them, are old, with new fronts;
+and they have an archway for the admission of vehicles into the
+court-yard, and doors opening into the rooms of the building on each side
+of the arch.  Maids and waiters are seen darting across the arched
+passage from door to door, and it requires a guide (in my case, at least)
+to show you the way to the coffee-room or the bar.  I have never been up
+stairs in any of them, but can conceive of infinite bewilderment of
+zigzag corridors between staircase and chamber.
+
+It was fair-day in Coventry, and this gave what no doubt is an unusual
+bustle to the streets.  In fact, I have not seen such crowded and busy
+streets in any English town; various kinds of merchandise being for sale
+in the open air, and auctioneers disposing of miscellaneous wares, pretty
+much as they do at musters and other gatherings in the United States.
+The oratory of the American auctioneer, however, greatly surpasses that
+of the Englishman in vivacity and fun.  But this movement and throng,
+together with the white glow of the sun on the pavements, make the scene,
+in my recollection, assume an American aspect, and this is strange in so
+antique and quaint a town as Coventry.
+
+We rambled about without any definite aim, but found our way, I believe,
+to most of the objects that are worth seeing.  St. Michael's Church was
+most magnificent,--so old, yet enduring; so huge, so rich; with such
+intricate minuteness in its finish, that, look as long as you will at it,
+you can always discover something new directly before your eyes.  I
+admire this in Gothic architecture,--that you cannot master it all at
+once, that it is not a naked outline; but, as deep and rich as human
+nature itself, always revealing new ideas.  It is as if the builder had
+built himself and his age up into it, and as if the edifice had life.
+Grecian temples are less interesting to me, being so cold and
+crystalline.  I think this is the only church I have seen where there are
+any statues still left standing in the niches of the exterior walls.  We
+did not go inside.  The steeple of St. Michael's is three hundred and
+three feet high, and no doubt the clouds often envelop the tip of the
+spire.  Trinity, another church with a tall spire, stands near St.
+Michael's, but did not attract me so much; though I, perhaps, might have
+admired it equally, had I seen it first or alone.  We certainly know
+nothing of church-building in America, and of all English things that I
+have seen, methinks the churches disappoint me least.  I feel, too, that
+there is something much more wonderful in them than I have yet had time
+to know and experience.
+
+In the course of the forenoon, searching about everywhere in quest of
+Gothic architecture, we found our way into St. Mary's Hall.  The doors
+were wide open; it seemed to be public,--there was a notice on the wall
+desiring visitors to give nothing to attendants for showing it, and so we
+walked in.  I observed, in the guide-books, that we should have obtained
+an order for admission from some member of the town council; but we had
+none, and found no need of it.  An old woman, and afterwards an old man,
+both of whom seemed to be at home on the premises, told us that we might
+enter, and troubled neither themselves nor us any further.
+
+St. Mary's Hall is now the property of the Corporation of Coventry, and
+seems to be the place where the Mayor and Council hold their meetings.
+It was built by one of the old guilds or fraternities of merchants and
+tradesmen  The woman shut the kitchen door when I approached, so that I
+did not see the great fireplaces and huge cooking-utensils which are said
+to be there.  Whether these are ever used nowadays, and whether the Mayor
+of Coventry gives such hospitable banquets as the Mayor of Liverpool, I
+do not know.
+
+We went to the Red Lion, and had a luncheon of cold lamb and cold
+pigeon-pie.  This is the best way of dining at English hotels,--to call
+the meal a luncheon, in which case you will get as good or better a
+variety than if it were a dinner, and at less than half the cost.  Having
+lunched, we again wandered about town, and entered a quadrangle of gabled
+houses, with a church, and its churchyard on one side.  This proved to be
+St. John's Church, and a part of the houses were the locality of Bond's
+Hospital, for the reception of ten poor men, and the remainder was
+devoted to the Bablake School.  Into this latter I peered, with a real
+American intrusiveness, which I never found in myself before, but which I
+must now assume, or miss a great many things which I am anxious to see.
+Running along the front of the house, under the jut of the impending
+story, there was a cloistered walk, with windows opening on the
+quadrangle.  An arched oaken door, with long iron hinges, admitted us
+into a school-room about twenty feet square, paved with brick tiles, blue
+and red.  Adjoining this there is a larger school-room which we did not
+enter, but peeped at, through one of the inner windows, from the
+cloistered walk.  In the room which we entered, there were seven
+scholars' desks, and an immense arched fireplace, with seats on each
+side, under the chimney, on  a stone slab resting on a brick pedestal.
+The opening of the fireplace was at least twelve feet in width.  On one
+side of the room were pegs for fifty-two boys' hats and clothes, and
+there was a boy's coat, of peculiar cut, hanging on a peg, with the
+number "50" in brass upon it.  The coat looked ragged and shabby.  An old
+school-book was lying on one of the desks, much tattered, and without a
+title; but it seemed to treat wholly of Saints' days and festivals of the
+Church.  A flight of stairs, with a heavy balustrade of carved oak,
+ascended to a gallery, about eight or nine feet from the lower floor,
+which runs along two sides of the room, looking down upon it.  The room
+is without a ceiling, and rises into a peaked gable, about twenty feet
+high.  There is a large clock in it, and it is lighted by two windows,
+each about ten feet wide,--one in the gallery, and the other beneath it.
+Two benches or settles, with backs, stood one on each side of the
+fireplace.  An old woman in black passed through the room while I was
+making my observations, and looked at me, but said nothing.  The school
+was founded in 1563, by Thomas Whealby, Mayor of Coventry; the revenue is
+about 900 pounds, and admits children of the working-classes at eleven
+years old, clothes and provides for them, and finally apprentices them
+for seven years.  We saw some of the boys playing in the quadrangle,
+dressed in long blue coats or gowns, with cloth caps on their heads.  I
+know not how the atmosphere of antiquity, and massive continuance
+from age to age, which was the charm to me in this scene of a
+charity school-room, can be thrown over it in description.  After noting
+down these matters, I looked into the quiet precincts of Bond's Hospital,
+which, no doubt, was more than equally interesting; but the old men were
+lounging about or lolling at length, looking very drowsy, and I had not
+the heart nor the face to intrude among them.  There is something
+altogether strange to an American in these charitable institutions,--in
+the preservation of antique modes and customs which is effected by them,
+insomuch that, doubtless, without at all intending it, the founders have
+succeeded in preserving a model of their own long-past age down into the
+midst of ours, and how much later nobody can know.
+
+We were now rather tired, and went to the railroad, intending to go home;
+but we got into the wrong train, and were carried by express, with
+hurricane speed, to Bradon, where we alighted, and waited a good while
+for the return train to Coventry.  At Coventry again we had more than an
+hour to wait, and therefore wandered wearily up into the city, and took
+another look at its bustling streets, in which there seems to be a good
+emblem of what England itself really is,--with a great deal of antiquity
+in it, and which is now chiefly a modification of the old.  The new
+things are based and supported on the sturdy old things, and often
+limited and impeded by them; but this antiquity is so massive that there
+seems to be no means of getting rid of it without tearing society to
+pieces.
+
+
+July 2d.--To-day I shall set out on my return to Liverpool, leaving my
+family here.
+
+
+
+TO THE LAKES.
+
+
+July 4th.--I left Leamington on Monday, shortly after twelve, having been
+accompanied to the railway station by U---- and J-----, whom I sent away
+before the train started.  While I was waiting, a rather gentlemanly,
+well-to-do, English-looking man sat down by me, and began to talk of the
+Crimea, of human affairs in general, of God and his Providence, of the
+coming troubles of the world, and of spiritualism, in a strange free way
+for an Englishman, or, indeed, for any man.  It was easy to see that he
+was an enthusiast of some line or other.  He being bound for Birmingham
+and I for Rugby, we soon had to part; but he asked my name, and told me
+his own, which I did not much attend to, and immediately forgot.
+
+[Here follows a long account of a visit to Lichfield and Uttoxeter,
+condensed in "Our Old Home."]
+
+
+July 6th.--The day after my arrival, by way of Lichfield and Uttoxeter,
+at Liverpool, the door of the Consulate opened, and in came the very
+sociable personage who accosted me at the railway station at Leamington.
+He was on his way towards Edinburgh, to deliver a course of lectures or a
+lecture, and had called, he said, to talk with me about spiritualism,
+being desirous of having the judgment of a sincere mind on the subject.
+In his own mind, I should suppose, he is past the stage of doubt and
+inquiry; for he told me that in every action of his life he is governed
+by the counsels received from the spiritual world through a medium.  I
+did not inquire whether this medium (who is a small boy) had suggested
+his visit to me.  My remarks to him were quite of a sceptical character
+in regard to the faith to which he had surrendered himself.  He has
+formerly lived in America, and had had a son born there.  He gave me a
+pamphlet written by himself, on the cure of consumption and other
+diseases by antiseptic remedies.  I hope he will not bore me any more,
+though he seems to be a very sincere and good man; but these enthusiasts
+who adopt such extravagant ideas appear to one to lack imagination,
+instead of being misled by it, as they are generally supposed to be.
+
+
+
+NEWBY BRIDGE.--FOOT OF WINDERMERE.
+
+
+July 13th.--I left Liverpool on Saturday last, by the London and
+Northwestern Railway, for Leamington, spent Sunday there, and started on
+Monday for the English lakes, with the whole family.  We should not have
+taken this journey just now, but I had an official engagement which it
+was convenient to combine with a pleasure-excursion.  The first night we
+arrived at Chester, and put up at the Albion Hotel, where we found
+ourselves very comfortable.  We took the rail at twelve the next day, and
+went as far as Milnethorpe station, where we engaged seats in an
+old-fashioned stage-coach, and came to Newby Bridge.  I suppose there are
+not many of these coaches now running on any road in Great Britain; but
+this appears to be the genuine machine, in all respects, and especially
+in the round, ruddy coachman, well moistened with ale, good-natured,
+courteous, and with a proper sense of his dignity and important position.
+U----, J-----, and I mounted atop, S-----, nurse, and R----- got inside,
+and we bowled off merrily towards the hearts of the hills.  It was more
+than half past nine when we arrived at Newby Bridge, and alighted at the
+Swan Hotel, where we now are.
+
+It is a very agreeable place: not striking as to scenery, but with a
+pleasant rural aspect.  A stone bridge of five arches crosses the river
+Severn (which is the communication between Windermere Lake and Morecambe
+Bay) close to the house, which sits low--and well sheltered in the lap of
+hills,--an old-fashioned inn, where the landlord and his people have a
+simple and friendly way of dealing with their guests, and yet provide
+them with all sorts of facilities for being comfortable.  They load our
+supper and breakfast tables with trout, cold beef, ham, toast, and
+muffins; and give us three fair courses for dinner, and excellent wine,
+the cost of all which remains to be seen.  This is not one of the
+celebrated stations among the lakes; but twice a day the stage-coach
+passes from Milnethorpe towards Ulverton, and twice returns, and three
+times a little steamer passes to and fro between our hotel and the head
+of the lake.  Young ladies, in broad-brimmed hats, stroll about, or row
+on the river in the light shallops, of which there are abundance;
+sportsmen sit on the benches under the windows of the hotel, arranging
+their fishing-tackle; phaetons and post-chaises, with postilions in
+scarlet jackets and white breeches, with one high-topped boot, and the
+other leathered far up on the leg to guard against friction between the
+horses, dash up to the door.  Morning and night comes the stage-coach,
+and we inspect the outside passengers, almost face to face with us, from
+our parlor-windows, up one pair of stairs.  Little boys, and J----- among
+them, spend hours on hours fishing in the clear, shallow river for the
+perch, chubs, and minnows that may be seen flashing, like gleams of light
+over the flat stones with which the bottom is paved.  I cannot answer for
+the other boys, but J----- catches nothing.
+
+There are a good many trees on the hills and roundabout, and pleasant
+roads loitering along by the gentle river-side, and it has been so sunny
+and warm since we came here that we shall have quite a genial
+recollection of the place, if we leave it before the skies have time to
+frown.  The day after we came, we climbed a high and pretty steep hill,
+through a path shadowed with trees and shrubbery, up to a tower, from the
+summit of which we had a wide view of mountain scenery and the greater
+part of Windermere.  This lake is a lovely little pool among the hills,
+long and narrow, beautifully indented with tiny bays and headlands; and
+when we saw it, it was one smile (as broad a smile as its narrowness
+allowed) with really brilliant sunshine.  All the scenery we have yet met
+with is in excellent taste, and keeps itself within very proper bounds,--
+never getting too wild and rugged to shock the sensibilities of
+cultivated people, as American scenery is apt to do.  On the rudest
+surface of English earth, there is seen the effect of centuries of
+civilization, so that you do not quite get at naked Nature anywhere.  And
+then every point of beauty is so well known, and has been described so
+much, that one must needs look through other people's eyes, and feels as
+if he were seeing a picture rather than a reality.  Man has, in short,
+entire possession of Nature here, and I should think young men might
+sometimes yearn for a fresher draught.  But an American likes it.
+
+
+
+FURNESS ABBEY.
+
+
+Yesterday, July 12th, we took a phaeton and went to Furness Abbey,--a
+drive of about sixteen miles, passing along the course of the Leam to
+Morecambe Bay, and through Ulverton and other villages.  These villages
+all look antique, and the smallest of them generally are formed of such
+close, contiguous clusters of houses, and have such narrow and crooked
+streets, that they give you an idea of a metropolis in miniature.  The
+houses along the road (of which there are not many, except in the
+villages) are almost invariably old, built of stone, and covered with a
+light gray plaster; generally they have a little flower-garden in front,
+and, often, honeysuckles, roses, or some other sweet and pretty rustic
+adornment, are flowering over the porch.  I have hardly had such images
+of simple, quiet, rustic comfort and beauty, as from the look of these
+houses; and the whole impression of our winding and undulating road,
+bordered by hedges, luxuriantly green, and not too closely clipped,
+accords with this aspect.  There is nothing arid in an English landscape;
+and one cannot but fancy that the same may be true of English rural life.
+The people look wholesome and well-to-do,--not specimens of hard, dry,
+sunburnt muscle, like our yeomen,--and are kind and civil to strangers,
+sometimes making a little inclination of the head in passing.  Miss
+Martineau, however, does not seem to think well of their mental and moral
+condition.
+
+We reached Furness Abbey about twelve.  There is a railway station close
+by the ruins; and a new hotel stands within the precincts of the abbey
+grounds; and continually there is the shriek, the whiz, the rumble, the
+bell-ringing, denoting the arrival of the trains; and passengers alight,
+and step at once (as their choice may be) into the refreshment-room, to
+get a glass of ale or a cigar,--or upon the gravelled paths of the lawn,
+leading to the old broken walls and arches of the abbey.  The ruins are
+extensive, and the enclosure of the abbey is stated to have covered a
+space of sixty-five acres.  It is impossible to describe them.  The most
+interesting part is that which was formerly the church, and which, though
+now roofless, is still surrounded by walls, and retains the remnants of
+the pillars that formerly supported the intermingling curves of the
+arches.  The floor is all overgrown with grass, strewn with fragments and
+capitals of pillars.  It was a great and stately edifice, the length of
+the nave and choir having been nearly three hundred feet, and that of the
+transept more than half as much.  The pillars along the nave were
+alternately a round, solid one and a clustered one.  Now, what remains of
+some of them is even with the ground; others present a stump just high
+enough to form a seat; and others are, perhaps, a man's height from the
+ground,--and all are mossy, and with grass and weeds rooted into their
+chinks, and here and there a tuft of flowers, giving its tender little
+beauty to their decay.  The material of the edifice is a soft red stone,
+and it is now extensively overgrown with a lichen of a very light gray
+line, which, at a little distance, makes the walls look as if they had
+long ago been whitewashed, and now had partially returned to their
+original color.  The arches of the nave and transept were noble and
+immense; there were four of them together, supporting a tower which has
+long since disappeared,--arches loftier than I ever conceived to have
+been made by man.  Very possibly, in some cathedral that I have seen, or
+am yet to see, there may be arches as stately as these; but I doubt
+whether they can ever show to such advantage in a perfect edifice as they
+do in this ruin,--most of them broken, only one, as far as I recollect,
+still completing its sweep.  In this state they suggest a greater majesty
+and beauty than any finished human work can show; the crumbling traces of
+the half-obliterated design producing somewhat of the effect of the first
+idea of anything admirable, when it dawns upon the mind of an artist or a
+poet,--an idea which, do what he may, he is sure to fall short of in his
+attempt to embody it.
+
+In the middle of the choir is a much-dilapidated monument of a
+cross-legged knight (a crusader, of course) in armor, very rudely
+executed; and, against the wall, lie two or three more bruised and
+battered warriors, with square helmets on their heads and visors down.
+Nothing can be uglier than these figures; the sculpture of those days
+seems to have been far behind the architecture.  And yet they knew how to
+put a grotesque expression into the faces of their images, and we saw
+some fantastic shapes and heads at the lower points of arches which would
+do to copy into Punch.  In the chancel, just at the point below where the
+high altar stands, was the burial-place of the old Barons of Kendal.  The
+broken crusader, perhaps, represents one of them; and some of their
+stalwart bones might be found by digging down.  Against the wall of the
+choir, near the vacant space where the altar was, are some stone seats
+with canopies richly carved in stone, all quite perfectly preserved,
+where the priests used to sit at intervals, during the celebration of
+mass.  Conceive all these shattered walls, with here and there an arched
+door, or the great arched vacancy of a window; these broken stones and
+monuments scattered about; these rows of pillars up and down the nave;
+these arches, through which a giant might have stepped, and not needed to
+bow his head, unless in reverence to the sanctity of the place,--conceive
+it all, with such verdure and embroidery of flowers as the gentle, kindly
+moisture of the English climate procreates on all old things, making them
+more beautiful than new,--conceive it with the grass for sole pavement of
+the long and spacious aisle, and the sky above for the only roof.  The
+sky, to be sure, is more majestic than the tallest of those arches; and
+yet these latter, perhaps, make the stronger impression of sublimity,
+because they translate the sweep of the sky to our finite comprehension.
+It was a most beautiful, warm, sunny day, and the ruins had all the
+pictorial advantage of bright light and deep shadows.  I must not forget
+that birds flew in and out among the recesses, and chirped and warbled,
+and made themselves at home there.  Doubtless, the birds of the present
+generation are the posterity of those who first settled in the ruins,
+after the Reformation; and perhaps the old monks of a still earlier day
+may have watched them building about the abbey, before it was a ruin at
+all.
+
+We had an old description of the place with us, aided by which we traced
+out the principal part of the edifice, such as the church, as already
+mentioned, and, contiguous to this, the Chapter-house, which is better
+preserved than the church; also the kitchen, and the room where the monks
+met to talk; and the range of wall, where their cells probably were.  I
+never before had given myself the trouble to form any distinct idea of
+what an abbey or monastery was,--a place where holy rites were daily and
+continually to be performed, with places to eat and sleep contiguous and
+convenient, in order that the monks might always be at hand to perform
+those rites.  They lived only to worship, and therefore lived under the
+same roof with their place of worship, which, of course, was the
+principal object in the edifice, and hallowed the whole of it.  We
+found, too, at one end of the ruins, what is supposed to have been a
+school-house for the children of the tenantry or villeins of the abbey.
+All round this room is a bench of stone against the wall, and the
+pedestal also of the master's seat.  There are, likewise, the ruins of
+the mill; and the mill-stream, which is just as new as ever it was, still
+goes murmuring and babbling, and passes under two or three old bridges,
+consisting of a low gray arch overgrown with grass and shrubbery.  That
+stream was the most fleeting and vanishing thing about the ponderous and
+high-piled abbey; and yet it has outlasted everything else, and might
+still outlast another such edifice, and be none the worse for wear.
+
+There is not a great deal of ivy upon the walls, and though an ivied wall
+is a beautiful object, yet it is better not to have too much,--else it is
+but one wall of unbroken verdure, on which you can see none of the
+sculptural ornaments, nor any of the hieroglyphics of Time.  A sweep of
+ivy here and there, with the gray wall everywhere showing through, makes
+the better picture; and I think that nothing is so effective as the
+little bunches of flowers, a mere handful, that grow in spots where the
+seeds have been carried by the wind ages ago.
+
+I have made a miserable botch of this description; it is no description,
+but merely an attempt to preserve something of the impression it made on
+me, and in this I do not seem to have succeeded at all.  I liked the
+contrast between the sombreness of the old walls, and the sunshine
+falling through them, and gladdening the grass that floored the aisles;
+also, I liked the effect of so many idle and cheerful people, strolling
+into the haunts of the dead monks, and going babbling about, and peering
+into the dark nooks; and listening to catch some idea of what the
+building was from a clerical-looking personage, who was explaining it to
+a party of his friends.  I don't know how well acquainted this gentleman
+might be with the subject; but he seemed anxious not to impart his
+knowledge too extensively, and gave a pretty direct rebuff to an honest
+man who ventured an inquiry of him.  I think that the railway, and the
+hotel within the abbey grounds, add to the charm of the place.  A
+moonlight solitary visit might be very good, too, in its way; but I
+believe that one great charm and beauty of antiquity is, that we view it
+out of the midst of quite another mode of life; and the more perfectly
+this can be done, the better.  It can never be done more perfectly than
+at Furness Abbey, which is in itself a very sombre scene, and stands,
+moreover, in the midst of a melancholy valley, the Saxon name of which
+means the Vale of the Deadly Nightshade.
+
+The entrance to the stable-yard of the hotel is beneath a pointed arch of
+Saxon architecture, and on one side of this stands an old building,
+looking like a chapel, but which may have been a porter's lodge.  The
+Abbot's residence was in this quarter; and the clerical personage, before
+alluded to, spoke of these as the oldest part of the ruins.
+
+About half a mile on the hither side of the abbey stands the village of
+Dalton, in which is a castle built on a Roman foundation, and which was
+afterwards used by the abbots (in their capacity of feudal lords) as a
+prison.  The abbey was founded about 1027 by King Stephen, before he came
+to the throne; and the faces of himself and of his queen are still to be
+seen on one of the walls.
+
+We had a very agreeable drive home (our drive hither had been
+uncomfortably sunny and hot), and we stopped at Ulverton to buy a pair of
+shoes for J----- and some drawing-books and stationery.  As we passed
+through the little town in the morning, it was all alive with the bustle
+and throng of the weekly market; and though this had ceased on our
+return, the streets still looked animated, because the heat of the day
+drew most of the population, I should imagine, out of doors.  Old men
+look very antiquated here in their old-fashioned coats and breeches,
+sunning themselves by the wayside.
+
+We reached home somewhere about eight o'clock,--home I see I have called
+it; and it seems as homelike a spot as any we have found in England,--the
+old inn, close by the bridge, beside the clear river, pleasantly
+overshadowed by trees.  It is entirely English, and like nothing that one
+sees in America; and yet.  I feel as if I might have lived here a long
+while ago, and had now come back because I retained pleasant
+recollections of it.  The children, too, make themselves at home.  J-----
+spends his time from morning to night fishing for minnows or trout, and
+catching nothing at all, and U---- and R----- have been riding between
+fields and barn in a hay-cart.  The roads give us beautiful walks along
+the river-side, or wind away among the gentle hills; and if we had
+nothing else to look at in these walks, the hedges and stone fences would
+afford interest enough, so many and pretty are the flowers, roses,
+honeysuckles, and other sweet things, and so abundantly does the moss and
+ivy grow among the old stones of the fences, which would never have a
+single shoot of vegetation on them in America till the very end of time.
+But here, no sooner is a stone fence built, than Nature sets to work to
+make it a part of herself.  She adopts it and adorns it, as if it were
+her own child.  A little sprig of ivy may be seen creeping up the side,
+and clinging fast with its many feet; a tuft of grass roots itself
+between two of the stones, where a little dust from the road has been
+moistened into soil for it: a small bunch of fern grows in another such
+crevice; a deep, soft, green moss spreads itself over the top and all
+along the sides of the fence; and wherever nothing else will grow,
+lichens adhere to the stones and variegate their lines.  Finally, a great
+deal of shrubbery is sure to cluster along its extent, and take away all
+hardness from the outline; and so the whole stone fence looks as if God
+had had at least as much to do with it as man.  The trunks of the trees,
+too, exhibit a similar parasitical vegetation.  Parasitical is an unkind
+phrase to bestow on this beautiful love and kindness which seems to exist
+here between one plant and another; the strong thing--being always ready
+to give support and sustenance, and the weak thing to repay with beauty,
+so that both are the richer,--as in the case of ivy and woodbine,
+clustering up the trunk of a tall tree, and adding Corinthian grace to
+its lofty beauty.
+
+Mr. W------, our landlord, has lent us a splendid work with engravings,
+illustrating the antiquities of Furness Abbey.  I gather from it that the
+hotel must have been rebuilt or repaired from an old manor-house, which
+was itself erected by a family of Prestons, after the Reformation, and
+was a renewal from the Abbot's residence.  Much of the edifice probably,
+as it exists now, may have been part of the original one; and there are
+bas-reliefs of Scripture subjects, sculptured in stone, and fixed in the
+wall of the dining-room, which have been there since the Abbot's time.
+This author thinks that what we had supposed to be the school-house (on
+the authority of an old book) was really the building for the reception
+of guests, with its chapel.  He says that the tall arches in the church
+are sixty feet high.  The Earl of Burlington, I believe, is the present
+proprietor of the abbey.
+
+
+
+THE LAKES.
+
+
+July 16th.--On Saturday, we left Newby Bridge, and came by steamboat up
+Windermere Lake to Lowwood Hotel, where we now are.  The foot of the lake
+is just above Newby Bridge, and it widens from that point, but never to
+such a breadth that objects are not pretty distinctly visible from shore
+to shore.  The steamer stops at two or three places in the course of its
+voyage, the principal one being Bowness, which has a little bustle and
+air of business about it proper to the principal port of the lake.  There
+are several small yachts, and many skiffs rowing about.  The banks are
+everywhere beautiful, and the water, in one portion, is strewn with
+islands; few of which are large enough to be inhabitable, but they all
+seem to be appropriated, and kept in the neatest order.  As yet, I have
+seen no wildness; everything is perfectly subdued and polished and imbued
+with human taste, except, indeed, the outlines of the hills, which
+continue very much the same as God made them.  As we approached the head
+of the lake, the congregation of great hills in the distance became very
+striking.  The shapes of these English mountains are certainly far more
+picturesque than those which I have seen in Eastern America, where their
+summits are almost invariably rounded, as I remember them.  They are
+great hillocks, great bunches of earth, similar to one another in their
+developments.  Here they have variety of shape, rising into peaks,
+falling in abrupt precipices, stretching along in zigzag outlines, and
+thus making the most of their not very gigantic masses, and producing a
+remarkable effect.
+
+We arrived at the Lowwood Hotel, which is very near the head of the lake,
+not long after two o'clock.  It stands almost on the shore of Windermere,
+with only a green lawn between,--an extensive hotel, covering a good deal
+of ground; but low, and rather village-inn-like than lofty.  We found the
+house so crowded as to afford us no very comfortable accommodations,
+either as to parlor or sleeping-rooms, and we find nothing like the
+home-feeling into which we at once settled down at Newby Bridge.  There
+is a very pretty vicinity, and a fine view of mountains to the northwest,
+sitting together in a family group, sometimes in full sunshine, sometimes
+with only a golden gleam on one or two of them, sometimes all in a veil
+of cloud, from which here and there a great, dusky head raises itself,
+while you are looking at a dim obscurity.  Nearer, there are high, green
+slopes, well wooded, but with such decent and well-behaved wood as you
+perceive has grown up under the care of man; still no wildness, no
+ruggedness,--as how should there be, when, every half-mile or so, a
+porter's lodge or a gentleman's gateway indicates that the whole region
+is used up for villas.  On the opposite shore of the lake there is a
+mimic castle, which I suppose I might have mistaken for a real one two
+years ago.  It is a great, foolish toy of gray stone.
+
+A steamboat comes to the pier as many as six times a day, and
+stage-coaches and omnibuses stop at the door still oftener, communicating
+with Ambleside and the town of Windermere, and with the railway, which
+opens London and all the world to us.  We get no knowledge of our
+fellow-guests, all of whom, like ourselves, live in their own circles,
+and are just as remote from us as if the lake lay between.  The only
+words I have spoken since arriving here have been to my own family or to
+a waiter, save to one or two young pedestrians who met me on a walk, and
+asked me the distance to Lowwood Hotel.  "Just beyond here," said I, and
+I might stay for months without occasion to speak again.
+
+Yesterday forenoon J----- and I walked to Ambleside,--distant barely two
+miles.  It is a little town, chiefly of modern aspect, built on a very
+uneven hillside, and with very irregular streets and lanes, which
+bewilder the stranger as much as those of a larger city.  Many of the
+houses look old, and are probably the cottages and farm-houses which
+composed the rude village a century ago; but there are stuccoed shops and
+dwellings, such as may have been built within a year or two; and three
+hotels, one of which has the look of a good old village inn; and the
+others are fashionable or commercial establishments.  Through the midst
+of the village comes tumbling and rumbling a mountain streamlet, rushing
+through a deep, rocky dell, gliding under an old stone inch, and turning,
+when occasion calls, the great block of a water-mill.  This is the only
+very striking feature of the village,--the stream taking its rough
+pathway to the lake as it used to do before the poets had made this
+region fashionable.
+
+In the evening, just before eight o'clock, I took a walk alone, by a road
+which goes up the hill, back of our hotel, and which I supposed might be
+the road to the town of Windermere.  But it went up higher and higher,
+and for the mile or two that it led me along, winding up, I saw no traces
+of a town; but at last it turned into a valley between two high ridges,
+leading quite away from the lake, within view of which the town of
+Windermere is situated.  It was a very lonely road, though as smooth,
+hard, and well kept as any thoroughfare in the suburbs of a city; hardly
+a dwelling on either side, except one, half barn, half farm-house, and
+one gentleman's gateway, near the beginning of the road, and another more
+than a mile above.  At, two or three points there were stone barns, which
+are here built with great solidity.  At one place there was a painted
+board, announcing that a field of five acres was to be sold, and
+referring those desirous of purchasing to a solicitor in London.  The
+lake country is but a London suburb.  Nevertheless, the walk was lonely
+and lovely; the copses and the broad hillside, the glimpses of the lake,
+the great misty company of pikes and fells, beguiled me into a sense of
+something like solitude; and the bleating of the sheep, remote and near,
+had a like tendency.  Gaining the summit of the hill, I had the best view
+of Windermere which I have yet attained,--the best, I should think, that
+can be had, though, being towards the south, it brings the softer instead
+of the more striking features of the landscape into view.  But it shows
+nearly the whole extent of the lake, all the way from Lowwood, beyond
+Newby Bridge, and I think there can hardly be anything more beautiful in
+the world.  The water was like a strip and gleam of sky, fitly set among
+lovely slopes of earth.  It was no broader than many a river, and yet you
+saw at once that it could be no river, its outline being so different
+from that of a running stream, not straight nor winding, but stretching
+to one side or the other, as the shores made room for it.
+
+This morning it is raining, and we are not very comfortable nor
+contented, being all confined to our little parlor, which has a broken
+window, against which I have pinned The Times to keep out the chill damp
+air.  U---- has been ill, in consequence of having been overheated at
+Newby Bridge.  We have no books, except guide-books, no means of
+amusement, nothing to do.  There are no newspapers, and I shall remember
+Lowwood not very agreeably.  As far as we are concerned, it is a
+scrambling, ill-ordered hotel, with insufficient attendance, wretched
+sleeping-accommodations, a pretty fair table, but German-silver forks
+and spoons; our food does not taste very good, and yet there is really no
+definite fault to be found with it.
+
+Since writing the above, I have found the first volume of Sir Charles
+Grandison, and two of G. P. R. James's works, in the coffee-room.  The
+days pass heavily here, and leave behind them a sense of having answered
+no very good purpose.  They are long enough, at all events, for the sun
+does not set till after eight o'clock, and rises I know not when.  One of
+the most remarkable distinctions between England and the United States is
+the ignorance into which we fall of whatever is going on in the world the
+moment we get away from the great thoroughfares and centres of life.  In
+Leamington we heard no news from week's end to week's end, and knew not
+where to find a newspaper; and here the case is neither better nor worse.
+The rural people really seem to take no interest in public affairs; at
+all events, they have no intelligence on such subjects.  It is possible
+that the cheap newspapers may, in time, find their way into the cottages,
+or, at least, into the country taverns; but it is not at all so now.  If
+they generally know that Sebastopol is besieged, it is the extent of
+their knowledge.  The public life of America is lived through the mind
+and heart of every man in it; here the people feel that they have nothing
+to do with what is going forward, and, I suspect, care little or nothing
+about it.  Such things they permit to be the exclusive concern of the
+higher classes.
+
+In front of our hotel, on the lawn between us and the lake, there are two
+trees, which we have hitherto taken to be yews; but on examining them
+more closely, I find that they are pine-trees, and quite dead and dry,
+although they have the aspect of dark rich life.  But this is caused by
+the verdure of two great ivy-vines, which have twisted round them like
+gigantic snakes, and, clambering up and throttling the life out of them,
+have put out branches, and made crowns of thick green leaves, so that, at
+a little distance, it is quite impossible not to take them for genuine
+trees.  The trunks of the ivy-vines must be more than a foot in
+circumference, and one feels they have stolen the life that belonged to
+the pines.  The dead branches of one of the pines stick out horizontally
+through the ivy-boughs.  The other shows nothing but the ivy, and in
+shape a good deal resembles a poplar.  When the pine trunks shall have
+quite crumbled away, the ivy-stems will doubtless have gained sufficient
+strength to sustain themselves independently.
+
+
+July 19th.--Yesterday S----- went down the lake in the steamboat to take
+U----, baby, and nurse to Newby Bridge, while the three rest of us should
+make a tour through the lake region.  After mamma's departure, and when I
+had finished some letters, J----- and I set out on a walk, which finally
+brought us to Bowness, through much delightful shade of woods, and past
+beautiful rivulets or brooklets, and up and down many hills.  This chief
+harbor of the lakes seemed alive and bustling with tourists, it being a
+sunny and pleasant day, so that they were all abroad, like summer
+insects.  The town is a confused and irregular little place, of very
+uneven surface.  There is an old church in it, and two or three large
+hotels.  We stayed there perhaps half an hour, and then went to the pier,
+where shortly a steamer arrived, with music sounding,--on the deck of
+which, with her back to us, sat a lady in a gray travelling-dress.
+J----- cried out, "Mamma! mamma!" to which the lady deigned no notice,
+but, he repeating it, she turned round, and was as much surprised, no
+doubt, to see her husband and son, as if this little lake had been the
+great ocean, and we meeting each other from opposite shores of it.  We
+soon steamed back to Lowwood, and took a car thence for Rydal and
+Grasmere, after a cold luncheon.  At Bowness I met Miss Charlotte
+Cushman, who has been staying at the Lowwood Hotel with us since Monday,
+without either party being aware of it.
+
+Our road to Rydal lay through Ambleside, which is certainly a very pretty
+town, and looks cheerfully in a sunny day.  We saw Miss Martineau's
+residence, called "The Knoll," standing high up on a hillock, and having
+at its foot a Methodist chapel, for which, or whatever place of Christian
+worship, this good lady can have no occasion.  We stopped a moment in the
+street below her house, and deliberated a little whether to call on her;
+but concluded we would not.
+
+After leaving Ambleside, the road winds in and out among the hills, and
+soon brings us to a sheet (or napkin, rather than a sheet) of water,
+which the driver tells us is Rydal Lake!  We had already heard that it
+was but three quarters of a mile long, and one quarter broad; still, it
+being an idea of considerable size in our minds, we had inevitably drawn
+its ideal, physical proportions on a somewhat corresponding scale.  It
+certainly did look very small; and I said, in my American scorn, that I
+could carry it away easily in a porringer; for it is nothing more than a
+grass-bordered pool among the surrounding hills which ascend directly
+from its margin; so that one might fancy it, not, a permanent body of
+water, but a rather extensive accumulation of recent rain.  Moreover, it
+was rippled with a breeze, and so, as I remember it, though the sun
+shone, it looked dull and sulky, like a child out of humor.  Now, the
+best thing these small ponds can do is to keep perfectly calm and smooth,
+and not attempt to show off any airs of their own, but content themselves
+with serving as a mirror for whatever of beautiful or picturesque there
+may be in the scenery around them.  The hills about Rydal Water are not
+very lofty, but are sufficiently so as objects of every-day view,--
+objects to live with; and they are craggier than those we have hitherto
+seen, and bare of wood, which indeed would hardly grow on some of their
+precipitous sides.
+
+On the roadside, as we reach the foot of the lake, stands a spruce and
+rather large house of modern aspect, but with several gables and much
+overgrown with ivy,--a very pretty and comfortable house, built, adorned,
+and cared for with commendable taste.  We inquired whose it was, and the
+coachman said it was "Mr. Wordsworth's," and that "Mrs. Wordsworth was
+still residing there."  So we were much delighted to have seen his abode,
+and as we were to stay the night at Grasmere, about two miles farther on,
+we determined to come back and inspect it as particularly as should be
+allowable.  Accordingly, after taking rooms at Brown's Hotel, we drove
+back in our return car, and, reaching the head of Rydal Water, alighted
+to walk through this familiar scene of so many years of Wordsworth's
+life.  We ought to have seen De Quincey's former residence and Hartley
+Coleridge's cottage, I believe, on our way, but were not aware of it at
+the time.  Near the lake there is a stone-quarry, and a cavern of some
+extent, artificially formed, probably by taking out the stone.  Above the
+shore of the lake, not a great way from Wordsworth's residence, there is
+a flight of steps hewn in a rock and ascending to a rock seat where a
+good view of the lake may be attained; and, as Wordsworth has doubtless
+sat there hundreds of times, so did we ascend and sit down, and look at
+the hills and at the flags on the lake's shore.
+
+Reaching the house that had been pointed out to us as Wordsworth's
+residence, we began to peer about at its front and gables, and over the
+garden wall, on both sides of the road, quickening our enthusiasm as much
+as we could, and meditating to pilfer some flower or ivy-leaf from the
+house or its vicinity, to be kept as sacred memorials.  At this juncture
+a man approached, who announced himself as the gardener of the place, and
+said, too, that this was not Wordsworth's house at all, but the residence
+of Mr. Ball, a Quaker gentleman; but that his ground adjoined
+Wordsworth's, and that he had liberty to take visitors through the
+latter.  How absurd it would have been if we had carried away ivy-leaves
+and tender recollections from this domicile of a respectable Quaker!  The
+gardener was an intelligent man, of pleasant, sociable, and respectful
+address; and as we went along he talked about the poet, whom he had
+known, and who, he said, was very familiar with the country people.  He
+led us through Mr. Ball's grounds, up a steep hillside, by winding,
+gravelled walks, with summer-houses at points favorable for them.  It was
+a very shady and pleasant spot, containing about an acre of ground, and
+all turned to good account by the manner of laying it out; so that it
+seemed more than it really is.  In one place, on a small, smooth slab of
+slate, let into a rock, there is an inscription by Wordsworth, which I
+think I have read in his works, claiming kindly regards from those who
+visit the spot after his departure, because many trees had been spared at
+his intercession.  His own grounds, or rather his ornamental garden, is
+separated from Mr. Ball's only by a wire fence, or some such barrier, and
+the gates have no fastening, so that the whole appears like one
+possession, and doubtless was so as regarded the poet's walks and
+enjoyments.  We approached by paths so winding that I hardly know how the
+house stands in relation to the road; but, after much circuity, we really
+did see Wordsworth's residence,--an old house with an uneven ridge-pole,
+built of stone, no doubt, but plastered over with some neutral tint,--a
+house that would not have been remarkably pretty in itself, but so
+delightfully situated, so secluded, so hedged about with shrubbery, and
+adorned with flowers, so ivy-grown on one side, so beautified with the
+personal care of him who lived in it and loved it, that it seemed the
+very place for a poet's residence; and as if, while he lived so long in
+it, his poetry had manifested itself in flowers, shrubbery, and ivy.  I
+never smelt such a delightful fragrance of flowers as there was all
+through the garden.  In front of the house there is a circular terrace of
+two ascents, in raising which Wordsworth had himself performed much of
+the labor; and here there are seats, from which we obtained a fine view
+down the valley of the Rothay, with Windermere in the distance,--a view
+of several miles, and which we did not suppose could be seen, after
+winding among the hills so far from the lake.  It is very beautiful and
+picture-like.  While we sat here, S----- happened to refer to the ballad
+of little Barbara Lewthwaite, and J----- began to repeat the poem
+concerning her, and the gardener said that "little Barbara" had died not
+a great while ago, an elderly woman, leaving grown-up children behind
+her.  Her marriage-name was Thompson, and the gardener believed there was
+nothing remarkable in her character.
+
+There is a summer-house at one extremity of the grounds, in deepest
+shadow, but with glimpses of mountain views through trees which shut it
+in, and which have spread intercepting boughs since Wordsworth died.  It
+is lined with pine-cones, in a pretty way enough, but of doubtful taste.
+I rather wonder that people of real taste should help Nature out, and
+beautify her, or perhaps rather prettify her so much as they do,--opening
+vistas, showing one thing, hiding another, making a scene picturesque,
+whether or no.  I cannot rid myself of the feeling that there is
+something false--a kind of humbug--in all this.  At any rate, the traces
+of it do not contribute to my enjoyment, and, indeed, it ought to be done
+so exquisitely as to leave no trace.  But I ought not to criticise in any
+way a spot which gave me so much pleasure, and where it is good to think
+of Wordsworth in quiet, past days, walking in his home-shadow of trees
+which he knew, and training flowers, and trimming shrubs, and chanting in
+an undertone his own verses up and down the winding walks.
+
+The gardener gave J----- a cone from the summer-house, which had fallen
+on the seat, and S----- got some mignonette, and leaves of laurel and ivy,
+and we wended our way back to the hotel.  Wordsworth was not the owner of
+this house; it being the property of Lady Fleming.  Mrs. Wordsworth still
+lives there, and is now at home.
+
+Five o'clock.---All day it has been cloudy and showery, with thunder now
+and then; the mists hang low on the surrounding hills, adown which, at
+various points, we can see the snow-white fall of little streamlets
+("forces" they call them here) swollen by the rain.  An overcast day is
+not so gloomy in the hill-country as in the lowlands; there are more
+breaks, more transfusion of skylight through the gloom, as has been the
+case to-day, and as I found in Lenox; we get better acquainted with
+clouds by seeing at what height they be on the hillsides, and find that
+the difference betwixt a fair day and a cloudy and rainy one is very
+superficial, after all.  Nevertheless, rain is rain, and wets a man just
+as much among the mountains as anywhere else; so we have been kept within
+doors all day, till an hour or so ago, when J----- and I went down to the
+village in quest of the post-office.
+
+We took a path that leads from the hotel across the fields, and, coming
+into a wood, crosses the Rothay by a one-arched bridge and passes the
+village church.  The Rothay is very swift and turbulent to-day, and
+hurries along with foam-specks on its surface, filling its banks from
+brim to brim,--a stream perhaps twenty feet wide, perhaps more; for I am
+willing that the good little river should have all it can fairly claim.
+It is the St. Lawrence of several of these English lakes, through which
+it flows, and carries off their superfluous waters.  In its haste, and
+with its rushing sound, it was pleasant both to see and hear; and it
+sweeps by one side of the old churchyard where Wordsworth lies buried,---
+the side where his grave is made.  The church of Grasmere is a very plain
+structure, with a low body, on one side of which is a small porch with a
+pointed arch.  The tower is square and looks ancient; but the whole is
+overlaid with plaster of a buff or pale yellow hue.  It was originally
+built, I suppose, of rough shingly stones, as many of the houses
+hereabouts are now, and, like many of them, the plaster is used to give a
+finish.  We found the gate of the churchyard wide open; and the grass was
+lying on the graves, having probably been mowed yesterday.  It is but a
+small churchyard, and with few monuments of any pretension in it, most of
+them being slate headstones, standing erect.  From the gate at which we
+entered, a distinct foot-track leads to the corner nearest the riverside,
+and I turned into it by a sort of instinct, the more readily as I saw a
+tourist-looking man approaching from that point, and a woman looking
+among the gravestones.  Both of these persons had gone by the time I came
+up, so that J----- and I were left to find Wordsworth's grave all by
+ourselves.
+
+At this corner of the churchyard there is a hawthorn bush or tree, the
+extremest branches of which stretch as far as where Wordsworth lies.
+This whole corner seems to be devoted to himself and his family and
+friends; and they all lie very closely together, side by side, and head
+to foot, as room could conveniently be found.  Hartley Coleridge lies a
+little behind, in the direction of the church, his feet being towards
+Wordsworth's head, who lies in the row of those of his own blood.  I
+found out Hartley Coleridge's grave sooner than Wordsworth's; for it is
+of marble, and, though simple enough, has more of sculptured device about
+it, having been erected, as I think the inscription states, by his
+brother and sister.  Wordsworth has only the very simplest slab of slate,
+with "William Wordsworth" and nothing else upon it.  As I recollect it,
+it is the midmost grave of the row.  It is or has been well grass-grown,
+but the grass is quite worn away from the top, though sufficiently
+luxuriant at the sides.  It looks as if people had stood upon it, and so
+does the grave next to it, which I believe is one of his children.  I
+plucked some grass and weeds from it, and as he was buried within so few
+years they may fairly be supposed to have drawn their nutriment from his
+mortal remains, and I gathered them from just above his head.  There is
+no fault to be found with his grave,--within view of the hills, within
+sound of the river, murmuring near by,--no fault except that he is
+crowded so closely with his kindred; and, moreover, that, being so old a
+churchyard, the earth over him must all have been human once.  He might
+have had fresh earth to himself; but he chose this grave deliberately.
+No very stately and broad-based monument can ever be erected over it
+without infringing upon, covering, and overshadowing the graves, not only
+of his family, but of individuals who probably were quite disconnected
+with him.  But it is pleasant to think and know--were it but on the
+evidence of this choice of a resting-place--that he did not care for a
+stately monument.
+
+After leaving the churchyard, we wandered about in quest of the
+post-office, and for a long time without success.  This little town of
+Grasmere seems to me as pretty a place as ever I met with in my life.  It
+is quite shut in by hills that rise up immediately around it, like a
+neighborhood of kindly giants.  These hills descend steeply to the verge
+of the level on which the village stands, and there they terminate at
+once, the whole site of the little town being as even as a floor.  I call
+it a village; but it is no village at all,--all the dwellings standing
+apart, each in its own little domain, and each, I believe, with its own
+little lane leading to it, independently of the rest.  Most of these are
+old cottages, plastered white, with antique porches, and roses and other
+vines trained against them, and shrubbery growing about them; and some
+are covered with ivy.  There are a few edifices of more pretension and of
+modern build, but not so strikingly so as to put the rest out of
+countenance.  The post-office, when we found it, proved to be an ivied
+cottage, with a good deal of shrubbery round it, having its own pathway,
+like the other cottages.  The whole looks like a real seclusion, shut out
+from the great world by these encircling hills, on the sides of which,
+whenever they are not too steep, you see the division lines of property,
+and tokens of cultivation,--taking from them their pretensions to savage
+majesty, but bringing them nearer to the heart of man.
+
+Since writing the above, I have been again with S----- to see
+Wordsworth's grave, and, finding the door of the church open, we went in.
+A woman and little girl were sweeping at the farther end, and the woman
+came towards us out of the cloud of dust which she had raised.  We were
+surprised at the extremely antique appearance of the church.  It is
+paved with bluish-gray flagstones, over which uncounted generations have
+trodden, leaving the floor as well laid as ever.  The walls are very
+thick, and the arched windows open through them at a considerable
+distance above the floor.  There is no middle aisle; but first a row of
+pews next either wall, and then an aisle on each side of the pews,
+occupying the centre of the church,--then, two side aisles, but no
+middle one.  And down through the centre or the church runs a row of
+five arches, very rude and round-headed, all of rough stone, supported
+by rough and massive pillars, or rather square, stone blocks, which
+stand in the pews, and stood in the same places probably, long before
+the wood of those pews began to grow. Above this row of arches is
+another row, built upon the same mass of stone, and almost as broad, but
+lower; and on this upper row rests the framework, the oaken beams, the
+black skeleton of the roof.  It is a very clumsy contrivance for
+supporting the roof, and if it were modern, we certainly should condemn
+it as very ugly; but being the relic of a simple age it comes in well
+with the antique simplicity of the whole structure. The roof goes up,
+barn-like, into its natural angle, and all the rafters and cross-beams
+are visible.  There is an old font; and in the chancel is a niche,
+where (judging from a similar one in Furness Abbey) the holy water used
+to be placed for the priest's use while celebrating mass.  Around the
+inside of the porch is a stone bench, against the wall, narrow and
+uneasy, but where a great many people had sat, who now have found
+quieter resting-places.
+
+The woman was a very intelligent-looking person, not of the usual English
+ruddiness, but rather thin and somewhat pale, though bright, of aspect.
+Her way of talking was very agreeable.  She inquired if we wished to see
+Wordsworth's monument, and at once showed it to us,--a slab of white
+marble fixed against the upper end of the central row of stone arches,
+with a pretty long inscription, and a profile bust, in bas-relief, of his
+aged countenance.  The monument, is placed directly over Wordsworth's
+pew, and could best be seen and read from the very corner seat where he
+used to sit.  The pew is one of those occupying the centre of the church,
+and is just across the aisle from the pulpit, and is the best of all for
+the purpose of seeing and hearing the clergyman, and likewise as
+convenient as any, from its neighborhood to the altar.  On the other side
+of the aisle, beneath the pulpit, is Lady Fleming's pew.  This and one or
+two others are curtained, Wordsworth's was not.  I think I can bring up
+his image in that corner seat of his pew--a white-headed, tall, spare
+man, plain in aspect--better than in any other situation.  The woman said
+that she had known him very well, and that he had made some verses on a
+sister of hers.  She repeated the first lines, something about a lamb,
+but neither S----- nor I remembered them.
+
+On the walls of the chancel there are monuments to the Flemings, and
+painted escutcheons of their arms; and along the side walls also, and on
+the square pillars of the row of arches, there are other monuments,
+generally of white marble, with the letters of the inscription blackened.
+On these pillars, likewise, and in many places in the walls, were hung
+verses from Scripture, painted on boards.  At one of the doors was a
+poor-box,--an elaborately carved little box, of oak, with the date 1648,
+and the name of the church--St. Oswald's--upon it.  The whole interior of
+the edifice was plain, simple, almost to grimness,--or would have been
+so, only that the foolish church-wardens, or other authority, have washed
+it over with the same buff color with which they have overlaid the
+exterior.  It is a pity; it lightens it up, and desecrates it greatly,
+especially as the woman says that there were formerly paintings on the
+walls, now obliterated forever.  I could have stayed in the old church
+much longer, and could write much more about it, but there must be an end
+to everything.  Pacing it from the farther end to the elevation before
+the altar, I found that it was twenty-five paces long.
+
+On looking again at the Rothay, I find I did it some injustice; for at
+the bridge, in its present swollen state, it is nearer twenty yards than
+twenty feet across.  Its waters are very clear, and it rushes along with
+a speed which is delightful to see, after an acquaintance with the muddy
+and sluggish Avon and Leam.
+
+Since tea I have taken a stroll from the hotel in a different direction
+from heretofore, and passed the Swan Inn, where Scott used to go daily to
+get a draught of liquor, when he was visiting Wordsworth, who had no wine
+nor other inspiriting fluid in his house.  It stands directly on the
+wayside,--a small, whitewashed house, with an addition in the rear that
+seems to have been built since Scott's time.  On the door is the painted
+sign of a swan, and the name "Scott's Swan Hotel."  I walked a
+considerable distance beyond it, but, a shower cooling up, I turned back,
+entered the inn, and, following the mistress into a snug little room, was
+served with a glass of bitter ale.  It is a very plain and homely inn,
+and certainly could not have satisfied Scott's wants if he had required
+anything very far-fetched or delicate in his potations.  I found two
+Westmoreland peasants in the room, with ale before them.  One went away
+almost immediately; but the other remained, and, entering into
+conversation with him, he told me that he was going to New Zealand, and
+expected to sail in September.  I announced myself as an American, and he
+said that a large party had lately gone from hereabouts to America; but
+he seemed not to understand that there was any distinction between Canada
+and the States.  These people had gone to Quebec.  He was a very civil,
+well-behaved, kindly sort of person, of a simple character, which I took
+to belong to the class and locality, rather than to himself individually.
+I could not very well understand all that he said, owing to his
+provincial dialect; and when he spoke to his own countrymen, or to the
+women of the house, I really could but just catch a word here and there.
+How long it takes to melt English down into a homogeneous mass!  He told
+me that there was a public library in Grasmere to which he has access in
+common with the other inhabitants, and a reading-room connected with it,
+where he reads The Times in the evening.  There was no American smartness
+in his mind.  When I left the house, it was showering briskly; but the
+drops quite ceased, and the clouds began to break away before I reached
+my hotel, and I saw the new moon over my right shoulder.
+
+
+July 21st.--We left Grasmere yesterday, after breakfast; it being a
+delightful morning, with some clouds, but the cheerfullest sunshine on
+great part of the mountainsides and on ourselves.  We returned, in the
+first place, to Ambleside, along the border of Grasmere Lake, which would
+be a pretty little piece of water, with its steep and high surrounding
+hills, were it not that a stubborn and straight-lined stone fence,
+running along the eastern shore, by the roadside, quite spoils its
+appearance.  Rydal Water, though nothing can make a lake of it, looked
+prettier and less diminutive than at the first view; and, in fact, I find
+that it is impossible to know accurately how any prospect or other thing
+looks, until after at least a second view, which always essentially
+corrects the first.  This, I think, is especially true in regard to
+objects which we have heard much about, and exercised our imagination
+upon; the first view being a vain attempt to reconcile our idea with the
+reality, and at the second we begin to accept the thing for what it
+really is.  Wordsworth's situation is really a beautiful one; and Nab
+Scaur behind his house rises with a grand, protecting air.  We passed
+Nab's cottage, in which De Quincey formerly lived, and where Hartley
+Coleridge lived and died.  It is a small, buff-tinted, plastered stone
+cottage, immediately on the roadside, and originally, I should think, of
+a very humble class; but it now looks as if persons of taste might some
+time or other have sat down in it, and caused flowers to spring up about
+it.  It is very agreeably situated under the great, precipitous hill, and
+with Rydal Water close at band, on the other side of the road.  An
+advertisement of lodgings to let was put up on this cottage.
+
+I question whether any part of the world looks so beautiful as England--
+this part of England, at least--on a fine summer morning.  It makes one
+think the more cheerfully of human life to see such a bright universal
+verdure; such sweet, rural, peaceful, flower-bordered cottages,--not
+cottages of gentility, but dwellings of the laboring poor; such nice
+villas along the roadside, so tastefully contrived for comfort and
+beauty, and adorned more and more, year after year, with the care and
+after-thought of people who mean to live in them a great while, and feel
+as if their children might live in them also, and so they plant trees to
+overshadow their walks, and train ivy and all beautiful vines up against
+their walls, and thus live for the future in another sense than we
+Americans do.  And the climate helps them out, and makes everything
+moist, and green, and full of tender life, instead of dry and arid, as
+human life and vegetable life is so apt to be with us.  Certainly,
+England can present a more attractive face than we can; even in its
+humbler modes of life, to say nothing of the beautiful lives that might
+be led, one would think, by the higher classes, whose gateways, with
+broad, smooth gravelled drives leading through them, one sees every mile
+or two along the road, winding into some proud seclusion.  All this is
+passing away, and society most assume new relations; but there is no harm
+in believing that there has been something very good in English life,--
+good for all classes while the world was in a state out of which these
+forms naturally grew.
+
+Passing through Ambleside, our phaeton and pair turned towards Ullswater,
+which we were to reach through the Pass of Kirkstone.  This is some three
+or four miles from Ambleside, and as we approached it the road kept
+ascending higher and higher, the hills grew more bare, and the country
+lost its soft and delightful verdure.  At last the road became so steep
+that J----- and I alighted to walk.  This is the aspiring road that
+Wordsworth speaks of in his ode; it passes through the gorge of
+precipitous hills,--or almost precipitous,--too much so for even the
+grass to grow on many portions, which are covered with gray smugly
+stones; and I think this pass, in its middle part, must have looked just
+the same when the Romans marched through it as it looks now.  No trees
+could ever have grown on the steep hillsides, whereon even the English
+climate can generate no available soil.  I do not know that I have seen
+anything more impressive than the stern gray sweep of these naked
+mountains, with nothing whatever to soften or adorn them.  The notch of
+the White Mountains, as I remember it in my youthful days, is more
+wonderful and richly picturesque, but of quite a different character.
+
+About the centre and at the highest point of the pass stands an old stone
+building of mean appearance, with the usual sign of an alehouse,
+"Licensed to retail foreign spirits, ale, and tobacco," over the door,
+and another small sign, designating it as the highest inhabitable house
+in England.  It is a chill and desolate place for a residence.  They keep
+a visitor's book here, and we recorded our names in it, and were not
+too sorry to leave the mean little hovel, smelling as it did of
+tobacco-smoke, and possessing all other characteristics of the humblest
+alehouse on the level earth.
+
+The Kirkstone, which gives the pass its name, is not seen in approaching
+from Ambleside, until some time after you begin to descend towards
+Brothers' Water.  When the driver first pointed it out, a little way up
+the hill on our left, it looked no more than a bowlder of a ton or two in
+weight, among a hundred others nearly as big; and I saw hardly any
+resemblance to a church or church-spire, to which the fancies of past
+generations have likened it.  As we descended the pass, however, and left
+the stone farther and farther behind, it continued to show itself, and
+assumed a more striking and prominent aspect, standing out clearly
+relieved against the sky, so that no traveller would fail to observe it,
+where there are so few defined objects to attract notice, amid the naked
+monotony of the stern hills; though, indeed, if I had taken it for any
+sort of an edifice, it would rather have been for a wayside inn or a
+shepherd's hut than for a church.  We lost sight of it, and again beheld
+it more and more brought out against the sky, by the turns of the road,
+several times in the course of our descent.  There is a very fine view of
+Brothers' Water, shut in by steep hills, as we go down Kirkstone Pass.
+
+At about half past twelve we reached Patterdale, at the foot of
+Ullswater, and here took luncheon.  The hotels are mostly very good all
+through this region, and this deserved that character.  A black-coated
+waiter, of more gentlemanly appearance than most Englishmen, yet taking a
+sixpence with as little scruple as a lawyer would take his fee; the
+mistress, in lady-like attire, receiving us at the door, and waiting upon
+us to the carriage-steps; clean, comely housemaids everywhere at hand,--
+all appliances, in short, for being comfortable, and comfortable, too,
+within one's own circle.  And, on taking leave, everybody who has done
+anything for you, or who might by possibility have done anything, is to
+be feed.  You pay the landlord enough, in all conscience; and then you
+pay all his servants, who have been your servants for the time.  But, to
+say the truth, there is a degree of the same kind of annoyance in an
+American hotel, although it is not so much an acknowledged custom.  Here,
+in the houses where attendance is not charged in the bill, no wages are
+paid by the host to those servants--chambermaid, waiter, and boots--who
+come into immediate contact with travellers.  The drivers of the cars,
+phaetons, and flys are likewise unpaid, except by their passengers, and
+claim threepence a mile with the same sense of right as their masters in
+charging for the vehicles and horses.  When you come to understand this
+claim, not as an appeal to your generosity, but as an actual and
+necessary part of the cost of the journey, it is yielded to with a more
+comfortable feeling; and the traveller has really option enough, as to
+the amount which he will give, to insure civility and good behavior on
+the driver's part.
+
+Ullswater is a beautiful lake, with steep hills walling it about, so
+steep, on the eastern side, that there seems hardly room for a road to
+run along the base.  We passed up the western shore, and turned off from
+it about midway, to take the road towards Keswick.  We stopped, however,
+at Lyulph's Tower, while our chariot went on up a hill, and took a guide
+to show us the way to Airey Force,--a small cataract, which is claimed as
+private property, and out of which, no doubt, a pretty little revenue is
+raised.  I do not think that there can be any rightful appropriation, as
+private property, of objects of natural beauty.  The fruits of the land,
+and whatever human labor can produce from it, belong fairly enough to the
+person who has a deed or a lease; but the beautiful is the property of
+him who can hive it and enjoy it.  It is very unsatisfactory to think of
+a cataract under lock and key.  However, we were shown to Airey Force by
+a tall and graceful mountain-maid, with a healthy cheek, and a step that
+had no possibility of weariness in it.  The cascade is an irregular
+streak of foamy water, pouring adown a rude shadowy glen.  I liked well
+enough to see it; but it is wearisome, on the whole, to go the rounds of
+what everybody thinks it necessary to see.  It makes me a little ashamed.
+It is somewhat as if we were drinking out of the same glass, and eating
+from the same dish, as a multitude of other people.
+
+Within a few miles of Keswick, we passed along at the foot of Saddleback,
+and by the entrance of the Vale of St. John, and down the valley, on one
+of the slopes, we saw the Enchanted Castle.  Thence we drove along by the
+course of the Greta, and soon arrived at Keswick, which lies at the base
+of Skiddaw, and among a brotherhood of picturesque eminences, and is
+itself a compact little town, with a market-house, built of the old
+stones of the Earl of Derwentwater's ruined castle, standing in the
+centre,--the principal street forking into two as it passes it.  We
+alighted at the King's Arms, and went in search of Southey's residence,
+which we found easily enough, as it lies just on the outskirts of the
+town.  We inquired of a group of people, two of whom, I thought, did not
+seem to know much about the matter; but the third, an elderly man,
+pointed it out at once,--a house surrounded by trees, so as to be seen
+only partially, and standing on a little eminence, a hundred yards or so
+from the road.
+
+We went up a private lane that led to the rear of the place, and so
+penetrated quite into the back-yard without meeting anybody,--passing a
+small kennel, in which were two hounds, who gazed at us, but neither
+growled nor wagged their tails.  The house is three stories high, and
+seems to have a great deal of room in it, so as not to discredit its
+name, "Greta Hall,"--a very spacious dwelling for a poet.  The windows
+were nearly all closed; there were no signs of occupancy, but a general
+air of neglect.  S-----, who is bolder than I in these matters, ventured
+through what seemed a back garden gate, and I soon heard her in
+conversation with some man, who now presented himself, and proved to be a
+gardener.  He said he had formerly acted in that capacity for Southey,
+although a gardener had not been kept by him as a regular part of his
+establishment.  This was an old man with an odd crookedness of legs, and
+strange, disjointed limp.  S----- had told him that we were Americans, and
+he took the idea that we had come this long distance, over sea and land,
+with the sole purpose of seeing Southey's residence, so that he was
+inclined to do what he could towards exhibiting it.  This was but little;
+the present occupant (a Mr. Radday, I believe the gardener called him)
+being away, and the house shut up.
+
+But he showed us about the grounds, and allowed us to peep into the
+windows of what had been Southey's library, and into those of another of
+the front apartments, and showed us the window of the chamber in the
+rear, in which Southey died.  The apartments into which we peeped looked
+rather small and low,--not particularly so, but enough to indicate an old
+building.  They are now handsomely furnished, and we saw over one of the
+fireplaces an inscription about Southey; and in the corner of the same
+room stood a suit, of bright armor.  It is taller than the country-houses
+of English gentlemen usually are, and it is even stately.  All about, in
+front, beside it and behind, there is a great profusion of trees, most of
+which were planted by Southey, who came to live here more than fifty
+years ago, and they have, of course, grown much more shadowy now than he
+ever beheld them; for he died about fourteen years since.  The grounds
+are well laid out, and neatly kept, with the usual lawn and gravelled
+walks, and quaint little devices in the ornamental way.  These may be of
+later date than Southey's time.  The gardener spoke respectfully of
+Southey, and of his first wife, and observed that "it was a great loss to
+the neighborhood when that family went down."
+
+The house stands directly above the Greta, the murmur of which is audible
+all about it; for the Greta is a swift little river, and goes on its way
+with a continual sound, which has both depth and breadth.  The gardener
+led us to a walk along its banks, close by the Hall, where he said
+Southey used to walk for hours and hours together.  He might, indeed, get
+there from his study in a moment.  There are two paths, one above the
+other, well laid out on the steep declivity of the high bank; and there
+is such a very thick shade of oaks and elms, planted by Southey himself
+over the bank, that all the ground and grass were moist, although it had
+been a sunny day.  It is a very sombre walk; not many glimpses of the sky
+through those dense boughs.  The Greta is here, perhaps, twenty yards
+across, and very dark of hue, and its voice is melancholy and very
+suggestive of musings and reveries; but I should question whether it were
+favorable to any settled scheme of thought.  The gardener told us that
+there used to be a pebbly beach on the margin of the river, and that it
+was Southey's habit to sit and write there, using a tree of peculiar
+shape for a table.  An alteration in the current of the river has swept
+away the beach, and the tree, too, has fallen.  All these things were
+interesting to me, although Southey was not, I think, a picturesque man,
+--not one whose personal character takes a strong hold on the
+imagination.  In these walks he used to wear a pair of shoes heavily
+clamped with iron; very ponderous they must have been, from the
+particularity with which the gardener mentioned them.
+
+The gardener took leave of us at the front entrance of the grounds, and,
+returning to the King's Arms, we ordered a one-horse fly for the fall of
+Lodore.  Our drive thither was along the banks of Derwentwater, and it is
+as beautiful a road, I imagine, as can be found in England or anywhere
+else.  I like Derwentwater the best of all the lakes, so far as I have
+yet seen them.  Skiddaw lies at the head of a long even ridge of
+mountains, rising into several peaks, and one higher than the rest.  On
+the eastern side there are many noble eminences, and on the west, along
+which we drove, there is a part of the way a lovely wood, and nearly the
+whole distance a precipitous range of lofty cliffs, descending sheer down
+without any slope, except what has been formed in the lapse of ages by
+the fall of fragments, and the washing down of smaller stones.  The
+declivity thus formed along the base of the cliffs is in some places
+covered with trees or shrubs; elsewhere it is quite bare and barren.  The
+precipitous parts of the cliffs are very grand; the whole scene, indeed,
+might be characterized as one of stern grandeur with an embroidery of
+rich beauty, without lauding it too much.  All the sternness of it is
+softened by vegetative beauty wherever it can possibly be thrown in; and
+there is not here, so strongly as along Windermere, evidence that human
+art has been helping out Nature.  I wish it were possible to give any
+idea of the shapes of the hills; with these, at least, man has nothing to
+do, nor ever will have anything to do.  As we approached the bottom of
+the lake, and of the beautiful valley in which it lies, we saw one hill
+that seemed to crouch down like a Titanic watch-dog, with its rear
+towards the spectator, guarding the entrance to the valley.  The great
+superiority of these mountains over those of New England is their variety
+and definiteness of shape, besides the abundance everywhere of water
+prospects, which are wanting among our own hills.  They rise up
+decidedly, and each is a hill by itself, while ours mingle into one
+another, and, besides, have such large bases that you can tell neither
+where they begin nor where they end.  Many of these Cumberland mountains
+have a marked vertebral shape, so that they often look like a group of
+huge lions, lying down with their backs turned toward each other.  They
+slope down steeply from narrow ridges; hence their picturesque seclusions
+of valleys and dales, which subdivide the lake region into so many
+communities.  Our hills, like apple-dumplings in a dish, have no such
+valleys as these.
+
+There is a good inn at Lodore,--a small, primitive country inn, which has
+latterly been enlarged and otherwise adapted to meet the convenience of
+the guests brought thither by the fame of the cascade; but it is still a
+country inn, though it takes upon itself the title of hotel.
+
+We found pleasant rooms here, and established ourselves for the night.
+From this point we have a view of the beautiful lake, and of Skiddaw at
+the head of it.  The cascade is within three or four minutes' walk,
+through the garden gate, towards the cliff, at the base of which the inn
+stands.  The visitor would need no other guide than its own voice, which
+is said to be audible sometimes at the distance of four miles.  As we
+were coming from Keswick, we caught glimpses of its white foam high up
+the precipice; and it is only glimpses that can be caught anywhere,
+because there is no regular sheet of falling water.  Once, I think, it
+must have fallen abruptly over the edge of the long line of precipice
+that here extends along parallel with the shore of the lake; but, in the
+course of time, it has gnawed and sawed its way into the heart of the
+cliff,--this persistent little stream,--so that now it has formed a rude
+gorge, adown which it hurries and tumbles in the wildest way, over the
+roughest imaginable staircase.  Standing at the bottom of the fall, you
+have a far vista sloping upward to the sky, with the water everywhere as
+white as snow, pouring and pouring down, now on one side of the gorge,
+now on the other, among immense bowlders, which try to choke its passage.
+It does not attempt to leap over these huge rocks, but finds its way in
+and out among then, and finally gets to the bottom after a hundred
+tumbles.  It cannot be better described than in Southey's verses, though
+it is worthy of better poetry than that.  After all, I do not know that
+the cascade is anything more than a beautiful fringe to the grandeur of
+the scene; for it is very grand,--this fissure through the cliff,--with a
+steep, lofty precipice on the right hand, sheer up and down, and on the
+other hand, too, another lofty precipice, with a slope of its own ruin on
+which trees and shrubbery have grown.  The right-hand precipice, however,
+has shelves affording sufficient hold for small trees, but nowhere does
+it slant.  If it were not for the white little stream falling gently
+downward, and for the soft verdure upon either precipice, and even along
+the very pathway of the cascade, it would be a very stern vista up that
+gorge.
+
+I shall not try to describe it any more.  It has not been praised too
+much, though it may have been praised amiss.  I went thither again in the
+morning, and climbed a good way up, through the midst of its rocky
+descent, and I think I could have reached the top in this way.  It is
+remarkable that the bounds of the water, from one step of its broken
+staircase to another, give an impression of softness and gentleness; but
+there are black, turbulent pools among the great bowlders, where the
+stream seems angry at the difficulties which it meets with.  Looking
+upward in the sunshine, I could see a rising mist, and I should not
+wonder if a speck of rainbow were sometimes visible.  I noticed a small
+oak in the bed of the cascade, and there is a lighter vegetation
+scattered about.
+
+At noon we took a car for Portinscale, and drove back along the road to
+Keswick, through which we passed, stopping to get a perhaps of letters at
+the post-office, and reached Portinscale, which is a mile from Keswick.
+After dinner we walked over a bridge, and through a green lane, to the
+church where Southey is buried.  It is a white church, of Norman
+architecture, with a low, square tower.  As we approached, we saw two
+persons entering the portal, and, following them in, we found the sexton,
+who was a tall, thin old man, with white hair, and an intelligent,
+reverent face, showing the edifice to a stout, red-faced, self-important,
+good-natured John Bull of a gentleman.  Without any question on our part,
+the old sexton immediately led us to Southey's monument, which is placed
+in a side aisle, where there is not breadth for it to stand free of the
+wall; neither is it in a very good light.  But, it seemed to me a good
+work of art,--a recumbent figure of white marble, on a couch, the drapery
+of which he has drawn about him,--being quite enveloped in what may be a
+shroud.  The sculptor has not intended to represent death, for the figure
+lies on its side, and has a book in its hand, and the face is lifelike,
+and looks full of expression,--a thin, high-featured, poetic face, with a
+finely proportioned head and abundant hair.  It represents Southey
+rightly, at whatever age he died, in the full maturity of manhood, when
+he was strongest and richest.  I liked the statue, and wished that it lay
+in a broader aisle, or in the chancel, where there is an old tomb of a
+knight and lady of the Ratcliffe family, who have held the place of honor
+long enough to yield it now to a poet.  Southey's sculptor was Lough.  I
+must not forget to mention that John Bull, climbing on a bench, to get a
+better view of the statue, tumbled off with a racket that resounded
+irreverently through the church.
+
+The old, white-headed, thin sexton was a model man of his class, and
+appeared to take a loving and cheerful interest in the building, and in
+those who, from age to age, have worshipped and been buried there.  It is
+a very ancient and interesting church.  Within a few years it has been
+thoroughly repaired as to the interior, and now looks as if it might
+endure ten more centuries; and I suppose we see little that is really
+ancient, except the double row of Norman arches, of light freestone, that
+support the oaken beams and rafters of the roof.  All the walls, however,
+are venerable, and quite preserve the identity of the edifice.  There is
+a stained-glass window of modern manufacture, and in one of the side
+windows, set amidst plain glass, there is a single piece, five hundred
+years old, representing St. Anthony, very finely executed, though it
+looks a little faded.  Along the walls, on each side, between the arched
+windows, there are marble slabs affixed, with inscriptions to the
+memories of those who used to occupy the seats beneath.  I remember none
+of great antiquity, nor any old monument, except that in the chancel,
+over the knight and lady of the Ratcliffe family.  This consists of a
+slab of stone, on four small stone pillars, about two feet high.  The
+slab is inlaid with a brass plate, on which is sculptured the knight in
+armor, and the lady in the costume of Elizabeth's time, exceedingly well
+done and well preserved, and each figure about eighteen inches in length.
+The sexton showed us a rubbing of them on paper.  Under the slab, which,
+supported by the low stone pillars, forms a canopy for them, lie two
+sculptured figures of stone, of life size, and at full length,
+representing the same persons; but I think the sculptor was hardly equal
+in his art to the engraver.
+
+The most-curious antique relic in the church is the font.  The bowl is
+very capacious, sufficiently so to admit of the complete immersion of a
+child of two or three months old.  On the outside, in several
+compartments, there are bas-reliefs of Scriptural and symbolic subjects,
+--such as the tree of life, the word proceeding out of God's mouth, the
+crown of thorns,--all in the quaintest taste, sculptured by some hand of
+a thousand years ago, and preserving the fancies of monkish brains, in
+stone.  The sexton was very proud of this font and its sculpture, and
+took a kindly personal interest, in showing it; and when we had spent as
+much time as we could inside, he led us to Southey's grave in the
+churchyard.  He told us that he had known Southey long and well, from
+early manhood to old age; for he was only twenty-nine when he came to
+Keswick to reside.  He had known Wordsworth too, and Coleridge, and
+Lovell; and he had seen Southey and Wordsworth walking arm in arm
+together in that churchyard.  He seemed to revere Southey's memory, and
+said that he had been much lamented, and that as many as a hundred people
+came to the churchyard when he was buried.  He spoke with great praise of
+Mrs. Southey, his first wife, telling of her charity to the poor, and how
+she was a blessing to the neighborhood; but he said nothing in favor of
+the second Mrs. Southey, and only mentioned her selling the library, and
+other things, after her husband's death, and going to London.  Yet I
+think she was probably a good woman, and meets with less than justice
+because she took the place of another good woman, and had not time and
+opportunity to prove herself as good.  As for Southey himself, my idea
+is, that few better or more blameless men have ever lived; but he seems
+to lack color, passion, warmth, or something that should enable me to
+bring him into close relation with myself.  The graveyard where his body
+lies is not so rural and picturesque as that where Wordsworth is buried;
+although Skiddaw rises behind it, and the Greta is murmuring at no very
+great distance away.  But the spot itself has a somewhat bare and bold
+aspect, with no shadow of trees, no shrubbery.
+
+Over his grave there is a ponderous, oblong block of slate, a native
+mineral of this region, as hard as iron, and which will doubtless last
+quite as long as Southey's works retain any vitality in English
+literature.  It is not a monument fit for a poet.  There is nothing airy
+or graceful about it,--and, indeed, there cannot be many men so solid and
+matter-of-fact as to deserve a tomb like that.  Wordsworth's grave is
+much better, with only a simple headstone, and the grass growing over his
+mortality, which, for a thousand years, at least, it never can over
+Southey's.  Most of the monuments are of this same black slate, and some
+erect headstones are curiously sculptured, and seem to have been recently
+erected.
+
+We now returned to the hotel, and took a car for the valley of St. John.
+The sky seemed to portend rain in no long time, and Skiddaw had put on
+his cap; but the people of the hotel and the driver said that there would
+be no rain this afternoon, and their opinion proved correct.  After
+driving a few miles, we again cane within sight of the Enchanted Castle.
+It stands rather more than midway adown the declivity of one of the
+ridges that form the valley to the left, as you go southward, and its
+site would have been a good one for a fortress, intended to defend the
+lower entrance of this mountain defile.  At a proper distance, it looks
+not unlike the gray dilapidation of a Gothic castle, which has been
+crumbling and crumbling away for ages, until Time might be supposed to
+have imperceptibly stolen its massive pile from man, and given it back to
+Nature; its towers and battlements and arched entrances being so much
+defaced and decayed that all the marks of human labor had nearly been
+obliterated, and the angles of the hewn stone rounded away, while mosses
+and weeds and bushes grow over it as freely as over a natural ledge of
+rocks.  It is conceivable that in some lights, and in some states of the
+atmosphere, a traveller, at the entrance of the valley, might really
+imagine that he beheld a castle here; but, for myself, I must acknowledge
+that it required a willing fancy to make me see it.  As we drew nearer,
+the delusion did not immediately grow less strong; but, at length, we
+found ourselves passing at the foot of the declivity, and, behold! it was
+nothing but an enormous ledge of rock, coming squarely out of the
+hillside, with other parts of the ledge cropping out in its vicinity.
+Looking back, after passing, we saw a knoll or hillock, of which the
+castled rock is the bare face.  There are two or three stone cottages
+along the roadside, beneath the magic castle, and within the enchanted
+ground.  Scott, in the Bridal of Triermain, locates the castle in the
+middle of the valley, and makes King Arthur ride around it, which any
+mortal would have great difficulty in doing.  This vale of St. John has
+very striking scenery.  Blencathra shuts it in to the northward, lying
+right across the entrance; and on either side there are lofty crags and
+declivities, those to the west being more broken and better wooded than
+the ridge to the eastward, which stretches along for several miles,
+steep, high, and bare, producing only grass enough for sheep pasture,
+until it rises into the dark brow of Helvellyn.  Adown this ridge, seen
+afar, like a white ribbon, comes here and there a cascade, sending its
+voice before it, which distance robs of all its fury, and makes it the
+quietest sound in the world; and while you see the foamy leap of its
+upper course a mile or two away, you may see and hear the selfsame little
+brook babbling through a field, and passing under the arch of a rustic
+bridge beneath your feet.  It is a deep seclusion, with mountains and
+crags on all sides.
+
+About a mile beyond the castle we stopped at a little wayside inn, the
+King's Head, and put up for the night.  This, I believe, is the only inn
+which I have found in England--the only one where I have eaten and slept
+--that does not call itself a hotel.  It is very primitive in its
+arrangements,--a long, low, whitewashed, unadorned, and ugly cottage of
+two stories.  At one extremity is a barn and cow-house, and next to these
+the part devoted to the better class of guests, where we had our parlor
+and chambers, contiguous to which is the kitchen and common room, paved
+with flagstones,--and, lastly, another barn and stable; all which
+departments are not under separate roofs, but under the same long
+contiguity, and forming the same building.  Our parlor opens immediately
+upon the roadside, without any vestibule.  The house appears to be of
+some antiquity, with beams across the low ceilings; but the people made
+us pretty comfortable at bed and board, and fed us with ham and eggs,
+veal-steaks, honey, oatcakes, gooseberry-tarts, and such cates and
+dainties,--making a moderate charge for all.  The parlor was adorned with
+rude engravings.  I remember only a plate of the Duke of Wellington, at
+three stages of his life; and there were minerals, delved, doubtless, out
+of the hearts of the mountains, upon the mantel-piece.  The chairs were
+of an antiquated fashion, and had very capacious seats.  We were waited
+upon by two women, who looked and acted not unlike the countryfolk of New
+England,--say, of New Hampshire,--except that these may have been more
+deferential.
+
+While we remained here, I took various walks to get a glimpse of
+Helvellyn, and a view of Thirlmere,--which is rather two lakes than one,
+being so narrow at one point as to be crossed by a foot-bridge.  Its
+shores are very picturesque, coming down abruptly upon it, and broken
+into crags and prominences, which view their shaggy faces in its mirror;
+and Helvellyn slopes steeply upward, from its southern shore, into the
+clouds.  On its eastern bank, near the foot-bridge, stands Armboth House,
+which Miss Martineau says is haunted; and I saw a painted board at the
+entrance of the road which leads to it advertising lodgings there.  The
+ghosts, of course, pay nothing for their accommodations.
+
+At noon, on the day after our arrival, J----- and I went to visit the
+Enchanted Castle; and we were so venturesome as to turn aside from the
+road, and ascend the declivity towards its walls, which indeed we hoped
+to surmount.  It proved a very difficult undertaking, the site of the
+fortress being much higher and steeper than we had supposed; but we did
+clamber upon what we took for the most elevated portion, when lo! we
+found that we had only taken one of the outworks, and that there was a
+gorge of the hill betwixt us and the main walls; while the citadel rose
+high above, at more than twice the elevation which we had climbed.
+J----- wished to go on, and I allowed him to climb, till he appeared to
+have reached so steep and lofty a height that he looked hardly bigger
+than a monkey, and I should not at all have wondered had he come rolling
+down to the base of the rock where I sat.  But neither did he get
+actually within the castle, though he might have done so but for a high
+stone fence, too difficult for him to climb, which runs from the rock
+along the hillside.  The sheep probably go thither much oftener than any
+other living thing, and to them we left the castle of St. John, with a
+shrub waving from its battlements, instead of a banner.
+
+After dinner we ordered a car for Ambleside, and while it was getting
+ready, I went to look at the river of St. John, which, indeed, flows
+close beside our inn, only just across the road, though it might well be
+overlooked unless you specially sought for it.  It is a brook brawling
+over the stones, very much as brooks do in New England, only we never
+think of calling them rivers there.  I could easily have made a leap from
+shore to shore, and J----- scrambled across on no better footing than a
+rail.  I believe I have complained of the want of brooks in other parts
+of England, but there is no want of them here, and they are always
+interesting, being of what size they may.
+
+We drove down the valley, and gazed at the vast slope of Helvellyn, and
+at Thirlmere beneath it, and at Eagle's Crag and Raven's Crag, which
+beheld themselves in it, and we cast many a look behind at Blencathra,
+and that noble brotherhood of mountains out of the midst of which we
+came.  But, to say the truth, I was weary of fine scenery, and it seemed
+to me that I had eaten a score of mountains, and quaffed as many lakes,
+all in the space of two or three days,--and the natural consequence was a
+surfeit.  There was scarcely a single place in all our tour where I
+should not have been glad to spend a month; but, by flitting so quickly
+from one point to another, I lost all the more recondite beauties, and
+had come away without retaining even the surface of much that I had seen.
+I am slow to feel,--slow, I suppose, to comprehend, and, like the
+anaconda, I need to lubricate any object a great deal before I can
+swallow it and actually make it my own.  Yet I shall always enjoy having
+made this journey, and shall wonder the more at England, which
+comprehends so much, such a rich variety, within its narrow bounds.  If
+England were all the world, it still would have been worth while for the
+Creator to have made it, and mankind would have had no cause to find
+fault with their abode; except that there is not room enough for so many
+as might be happy here.
+
+We left the great inverted arch of the valley behind us, looking back as
+long as we could at Blencathra, and Skiddaw over its shoulder, and the
+clouds were gathering over them at our last glimpse.  Passing by Dummail
+Raise (which is a mound of stones over an old British king), we entered
+Westmoreland, and soon had the vale of Grasmere before us, with the
+church where Wordsworth lies, and Nab Scaur and Rydal Water farther on.
+At Ambleside we took another car for Newby Bridge, whither we drove along
+the eastern shore of Windermere.  The superb scenery through which we had
+been passing made what we now saw look tame, although a week ago we
+should have thought it more than commonly interesting.  Hawkshead is the
+only village on our road,--a small, whitewashed old town, with a
+whitewashed old Norman church, low, and with a low tower, on the same
+pattern with others that we have seen hereabouts.  It was between seven
+and eight o'clock when we reached Newby Bridge, and heard U----'s voice
+greeting us, and saw her head, crowned with a wreath of flowers, looking
+down at us, out of the window of our parlor.
+
+And to-day, July 23d, I have written this most incomplete and
+unsatisfactory record of what we have done and seen since Wednesday last.
+I am pretty well convinced that all attempts at describing scenery,
+especially mountain scenery, are sheer nonsense.  For one thing, the
+point of view being changed, the whole description, which you made up
+from the previous point of view, is immediately falsified.  And when you
+have done your utmost, such items as those setting forth the scene in a
+play,--"a mountainous country, in the distance a cascade tumbling over a
+precipice, and in front a lake; on one side an ivy-covered cottage,"--
+this dry detail brings the matter before one's mind's eyes more
+effectually than all the art of word-painting.
+
+
+July 27th.--We are still at Newby Bridge, and nothing has occurred of
+remarkable interest, nor have we made any excursions, beyond moderate
+walks.  Two days have been rainy, and to-day there is more rain.  We find
+such weather as tolerable here as it would probably be anywhere; but it
+passes rather heavily with the children,--and for myself, I should prefer
+sunshine.  Though Mr. White's books afford me some entertainment,
+especially an odd volume of Ben Jonson's plays, containing "Volpone,"
+"The Alchemist," "Bartholomew Fair," and others.  "The Alchemist" is
+certainly a great play.  We watch all arrivals and other events from our
+parlor window,--a stage-coach driving up four times in the twenty-four
+hours, with its forlorn outsiders, all saturated with rain; the steamer,
+from the head of the lake, landing a crowd of passengers, who stroll up
+to the hotel, drink a glass of ale, lean over the parapet of the bridge,
+gaze at the flat stones which pave the bottom of the Liver, and then
+hurry back to the steamer again; cars, phaetons, horsemen, all damped and
+disconsolate.  There are a number of young men staying at the hotel, some
+of whom go forth in all the rain, fishing, and come back at nightfall,
+trudging heavily, but with creels on their backs that do not seem very
+heavy.  Yesterday was fair, and enlivened us a good deal.  Returning from
+a walk in the forenoon, I found a troop of yeomanry cavalry in the
+stable-yard of the hotel.  They were the North Lancashire Regiment, and
+were on their way to Liverpool for the purpose of drill.  Not being old
+campaigners, their uniforms and accoutrements were in so much the finer
+order, all bright, and looking span-new, and they themselves were a body
+of handsome and stalwart young men; and it was pleasant to look at their
+helmets, and red jackets and carbines, and steel scabbarded swords, and
+gallant steeds,--all so martial in aspect,--and to know that they were
+only play-soldiers, after all, and were never likely to do nor suffer any
+warlike mischief.  By and by their bugles sounded, and they trotted away,
+wheeling over the ivy-grown stone bridge, and disappearing behind the
+trees on the Milnethorpe road.  Our host comes forth from the bar with a
+bill, which he presents to an orderly-sergeant.  He, the host, then tells
+me that he himself once rode many years, a trooper, in this regiment, and
+that all his comrades were larger men than himself.  Yet Mr. Thomas White
+is a good-sized man, and now, at all events, rather overweight for a
+dragoon.
+
+Yesterday came one of those bands of music that seem to itinerate
+everywhere about the country.  It consisted of a young woman who played
+the harp, a bass-viol player, a fiddler, a flutist, and a bugler, besides
+a little child, of whom, I suppose, the woman was the mother.  They sat
+down on a bench by the roadside, opposite the house, and played several
+tunes, and by and by the waiter brought them a large pitcher of ale,
+which they quaffed with apparent satisfaction; though they seemed to be
+foreigners by their mustachios and sallow hue, and would perhaps have
+preferred a vinous potation.  One would like to follow these people
+through their vagrant life, and see them in their social relations, and
+overhear their talk with each other.  All vagrants are interesting; and
+there is a much greater variety of them here than in America,--people who
+cast themselves on Fortune, and take whatever she gives without a
+certainty of anything.  I saw a travelling tinker yesterday,--a man with
+a leather apron, and a string of skewers hung at his girdle, and a pack
+over his shoulders, in which, no doubt, were his tools and materials of
+trade.
+
+It is remarkable what a natural interest everybody feels in fishing.  An
+angler from the bridge immediately attracts a group to watch his luck.
+It is the same with J-----, fishing for minnows, on the platform near
+which the steamer lands its passengers.  By the by, U---- caught a minnow
+last evening, and, immediately after, a good-sized perch,--her first
+fish.
+
+
+July 30th.--We left Newby Bridge, all of us, on Saturday, at twelve
+o'clock, and steamed up the lake to Ambleside; a pretty good day as to
+weather, but with a little tendency to shower.  There was nothing new on
+the lake, and no new impressions, as far as I can remember.  At
+Ambleside, S----- and nurse went shopping, after which we took a carriage
+for Grasmere, and established ourselves at Brown's Hotel.  I find that my
+impressions from our previous sight of all these scenes do not change on
+revision.  They are very beautiful; but, if I must say it, I am a little
+weary of them.  We soon tire of things which we visit merely by way of
+spectacle, and with which we have no real and permanent connection.  In
+such cases we very quickly wish the spectacle to be taken away, and
+another substituted; at all events I do not care about seeing anything
+more of the English lakes for at least a year.
+
+Perhaps a part of my weariness is owing to the hotel-life which we lead.
+At an English hotel the traveller feels as if everybody, from the
+landlord downward, united in a joint and individual purpose to fleece
+him, because all the attendants who come in contact with him are to be
+separately considered.  So, after paying, in the first instance, a very
+heavy bill, for what would seem to cover the whole indebtedness, there
+remain divers dues still to be paid, to no trifling amount, to the
+landlord's servants,--dues not to be ascertained, and which you never can
+know whether you have properly satisfied.  You can know, perhaps, when
+you have less than satisfied them, by the aspect of the waiter, which I
+wish I could describe, not disrespectful in the slightest degree, but a
+look of profound surprise, a gaze at the offered coin (which he
+nevertheless pockets) as if he either did not see it, or did not know it,
+or could not believe his eyesight;--all this, however, with the most
+quiet forbearance, a Christian-like non-recognition of an unmerited wrong
+and insult; and finally, all in a moment's space indeed, he quits you and
+goes about his other business.  If you have given him too much, you are
+made sensible of your folly by the extra amount of his gratitude, and the
+bows with which he salutes you from the doorstep.  Generally, you cannot
+very decidedly say whether you have been right or wrong; but, in almost
+all cases, you decidedly feel that you have been fleeced.  Then the
+living at the best of English hotels, so far as my travels have brought
+me acquainted with them, deserves but moderate praise, and is especially
+lacking in variety.  Nothing but joints, joints, joints; sometimes,
+perhaps, a meat-pie, which, if you eat it, weighs upon your conscience,
+with the idea that you have eaten the scraps of other people's dinners.
+At the lake hotels, the fare is lamb and mutton and grout,--the latter
+not always fresh, and soon tired of.  We pay like nabobs, and are
+expected to be content with plain mutton.
+
+We spent the day yesterday at Grasmere, in quiet walks about the hotel;
+and at a little past six in the afternoon, I took my departure in the
+stage-coach for Windermere.  The coach was greatly overburdened with
+outside passengers,--fifteen in all, besides the four insiders, and one
+of the fifteen formed the apex of an immense pile of luggage on the top.
+It seems to me miraculous that we did not topple over, the road being so
+hilly and uneven, and the driver, I suspect, none the steadier for his
+visits to all the tap-rooms along the route from Cockermouth.  There was
+a tremendous vibration of the coach now and then; and I saw that, in case
+of our going over, I should be flung headlong against the high stone
+fence that bordered most of the road.  In view of this I determined to
+muffle my head in the folds of my thick shawl at the moment of overturn,
+and as I could do no better for myself, I awaited my fate with
+equanimity.  As far as apprehension goes, I had rather travel from Maine
+to Georgia by rail, than from Grasmere to Windermere by stage-coach.
+
+At Lowwood, the landlady espied me from the window, and sent out a large
+packet that had arrived by mail; but as it was addressed to some person
+of the Christian name of William, I did not venture to open it.  She
+said, also, that a gentleman had been there, who very earnestly desired
+to see me, and I have since had reason to suppose that this was
+Allingham, the poet.  We arrived at Windermere at half past seven, and
+waited nearly an hour for the train to start.  I took a ticket for
+Lancaster, and talked there about the war with a gentleman in the
+coffee-room, who took me for an Englishman, as most people do nowadays,
+and I heard from him--as you may from all his countrymen--an expression
+of weariness and dissatisfaction with the whole business.  These fickle
+islanders!  How differently they talked a year ago!  John Bull sees now
+that he never was in a worse predicament in his life; and yet it would
+not take much to make him roar as bellicosely as ever.  I went to bed at
+eleven, and slept unquietly on feathers.
+
+I had purposed to rise betimes, and see the town of Lancaster before
+breakfast.  But here I reckoned without my host; for, in the first place,
+I had no water for my ablutions, and my boots were not brushed; and so I
+could not get down stairs till the hour I named for my coffee and chops;
+and, secondly, the breakfast was delayed half an hour, though promised
+every minute.  In fine, I had but just time to take a hasty walk round
+Lancaster Castle, and see what I could of the town on my way,--a not very
+remarkable town, built of stone, with taller houses than in the middle
+shires of England, narrow streets up and down an eminence on which the
+castle is situated, with the town immediately about it.  The castle is a
+satisfactory edifice, but so renovated that the walls look almost
+entirely modern, with the exception of the fine old front, with the
+statue of an armed warrior, very likely John of Gaunt himself, in a niche
+over the Norman arch of the entrance.  Close beside the castle stands an
+old church.
+
+The train left Lancaster at half past nine, and reached Liverpool at
+twelve, over as flat and uninteresting a country as I ever travelled.  I
+have betaken myself to the Rock Ferry Hotel, where I am as comfortable as
+I could be anywhere but at home; but it is rather comfortless to think of
+hone as three years off, and three thousand miles away.  With what a
+sense of utter weariness, not fully realized till then, we shall sink
+down on our own threshold, when we reach it.  The moral effect of being
+without a settled abode is very wearisome.
+
+Our coachman from Grasmere to Windermere looked like a great beer-barrel,
+oozy with his proper liquor.  I suppose such solid soakers never get
+upset.
+
+
+
+THE LAUNCH.
+
+
+August 2d.--Mr. ------ has urged me very much to go with his father and
+family to see the launch of a great ship which has been built for their
+house, and afterwards to partake of a picnic; so, on Tuesday morning I
+presented myself at the landing-stage, and met the party, to take passage
+for Chester.  It was a showery morning, and looked wofully like a rainy
+day; but nothing better is to be expected in England; and, after all,
+there is seldom such a day that you cannot glide about pretty securely
+between the drops of rain.  This, however, did not turn out one of those
+tolerable days, but grew darker and darker, and worse and worse; and was
+worst of all when we had passed about six miles beyond Chester, and were
+just on the borders of Wales, on the hither side of the river Dee, where
+the ship was to be launched.  Here the train stopped, and absolutely
+deposited our whole party of excursionists, under a heavy shower, in the
+midst of a muddy potato-field, whence we were to wade through mud and
+mire to the ship-yard, almost half a mile off.  Some kind Christian, I
+know not whom, gave me half of his umbrella, and half of his cloak, and
+thereby I got to a shed near the ship, without being entirely soaked
+through.
+
+The ship had been built on the banks of the Dee, at a spot where it is
+too narrow for her to be launched directly across, and so she lay
+lengthwise of the river, and was so arranged as to take the water
+parallel with the stream.  She is, for aught I know, the largest ship in
+the world; at any rate, longer than the Great Britain,--an iron-screw
+steamer,--and looked immense and magnificent, and was gorgeously dressed
+out in flags.  Had it been a pleasant day, all Chester and half Wales
+would have been there to see the launch; and, in spite of the rain, there
+were a good many people on the opposite shore, as well as on our side;
+and one or two booths, and many of the characteristics of a fair,--that
+is to say, men and women getting intoxicated without any great noise and
+confusion.
+
+The ship was expected to go off at about twelve o'clock, and at that
+juncture all Mr. ------'s friends assembled under the bows of the ship,
+where we were a little sheltered from the rain by the projection of that
+part of the vessel over our heads.  The bottle of port-wine with which
+she was to be christened was suspended from the bows to the platform
+where we stood by a blue ribbon; and the ceremony was to be performed by
+Mrs. ------, who, I could see, was very nervous in anticipation of the
+ceremony.  Mr. ------ kept giving her instructions in a whisper, and
+showing her how to throw the bottle; and as the critical moment
+approached, he took hold of it along with her.  All this time we were
+waiting in momentary expectation of the ship going off, everything being
+ready, and only the touch of a spring, as it were, needed to make her
+slide into the water.  But the chief manager kept delaying a little
+longer, and a little longer; though the pilot on board sent to tell him
+that it was time she was off.  "Yes, yes; but I want as much water as I
+can get," answered the manager; and so he held on till, I suppose, the
+tide had raised the river Dee to its very acme of height.  At last the
+word was given; the ship began slowly to move; Mrs. ------ threw the
+bottle against the bow with a spasmodic effort that dashed it into a
+thousand pieces, and diffused the fragrance of the old port all around,
+where it lingered several minutes.  I did not think that there could have
+been such a breathless moment in an affair of this kind.
+
+The ship moved majestically down toward the river; and unless it were
+Niagara, I never saw anything grander and more impressive than the motion
+of this mighty mass as she departed from us.  We on the platform, and
+everybody along both shores of the Dee, took off our hats in the rain,
+waved handkerchiefs, cheered, shouted,--"Beautiful!"  "What a noble
+launch!"  "Never was so fair a sight!"--and, really, it was so grand,
+that calm, majestic movement, that I felt the tears come into my eyes.
+The wooden pathway adown which she was gliding began to smoke with the
+friction; when all at once, when we expected to see her plunge into the
+Dee, she came to a full stop.  Mr. ------, the father of my friend, a
+gentleman with white hair, a dark, expressive face, bright eyes, and an
+Oriental cast of features, immediately took the alarm.  A moment before
+his countenance had been kindled with triumph; but now he turned pale as
+death, and seemed to grow ten years older while I was looking at him.
+Well he might, for his noble ship was stuck fast in the land of the Dee,
+and without deepening the bed of the river, I do not see how her vast
+iron hulk is ever to be got out.
+
+[This steamer was afterwards successfully floated off on the 29th of the
+same month.]
+
+There was no help for it.  A steamboat was hitched on to the stranded
+vessel, but broke two or three cables without stirring her an inch.  So,
+after waiting long after we had given up all hope, we went to the office
+of the ship-yard, and there took a lunch; and still the rain was pouring,
+pouring, pouring, and I never experienced a blacker affair in all my
+days.  Then we had to wait a great while for a train to take us back, so
+that it was almost five o'clock before we arrived at Chester, where I
+spent an hour in rambling about the old town, under the Rows; and on the
+walls, looking down on the treetops, directly under my feet, and through
+their thick branches at the canal, which creeps at the base, and at the
+cathedral; walking under the dark intertwining arches of the cloisters,
+and looking up at the great cathedral tower, so wasted away externally by
+time and weather that it looks, save for the difference of color between
+white snow and red freestone, like a structure of snow, half dissolved by
+several warm days.
+
+At the lunch I met with a graduate of Cambridge (England), tutor of a
+grandson of Percival, with his pupil (Percival, the assassinated
+minister, I mean).  I should not like this position of tutor to a young
+Englishman; it certainly has an ugly twang of upper servitude.  I
+observed that the tutor gave his pupil the best seat in the railway
+carriage, and in all respects provided for his comfort before thinking of
+his own; and this, not as a father does for his child, out of love, but
+from a sense of place and duty, which I did not quite see how a gentleman
+could consent to feel.  And yet this Mr. C------ was evidently a
+gentleman, and a quiet, intelligent, agreeable, and, no doubt, learned
+man.  K------ being mentioned, Mr. C------ observed that he had known him
+well at college, having been his contemporary there.  He did not like
+him, however,--thought him a "dangerous man," as well as I could gather;
+he thinks there is some radical defect in K------'s moral nature, a lack
+of sincerity; and, furthermore, he believes him to be a sensualist in his
+disposition, in support of which view he said Mr. K------ had made
+drawings, such as no pure man could have made, or could allow himself to
+show or look at.  This was the only fact which Mr. C------ adduced,
+bearing on his opinion of K------; otherwise, it seemed to be one of
+those early impressions which a collegian gets of his fellow-students,
+and which he never gets rid of, whatever the character of the person may
+turn out to be in after years.  I have judged several persons in this
+way, and still judge them so, though the world has cone to very different
+conclusions.  Which is right?--the world, which has the man's whole
+mature life on its side; or his early companion, who has nothing for it
+but some idle passages of his youth?
+
+Mr. M------ remarked of newspaper reporters, that they may be known at
+all celebrations, and of any public occasion, by the enormous quantity of
+luncheon they eat.
+
+
+August 12th.--Mr. B------ dined with us at the Rock Ferry Hotel the day
+before yesterday.  Speaking of Helvellyn, and the death of Charles Cough,
+about whom Wordsworth and Scott have both sung, Mr. B------ mentioned a
+version of that story which rather detracts from the character of the
+faithful dog.
+
+But somehow it lowers one's opinion of human nature itself, to be
+compelled so to lower one's standard of a dog's nature.  I don't intend
+to believe the disparaging story, but it reminds me of the story of the
+New-Zealander who was asked whether he loved a missionary who had been
+laboring for his soul and those of his countrymen.  "To be sure I loved
+him.  Why, I ate a piece of him for my breakfast this morning!"
+
+For the last week or two I have passed my time between the hotel and the
+Consulate, and a weary life it is, and one that leaves little of profit
+behind it.  I am sick to death of my office,--brutal captains and brutal
+sailors; continual complaints of mutual wrong, which I have no power to
+set right, and which, indeed, seem to have no right on either side; calls
+of idleness or ceremony from my travelling countrymen, who seldom know
+what they are in search of at the commencement of their tour, and never
+have attained any desirable end at the close of it; beggars, cheats,
+simpletons, unfortunates, so mixed up that it is impossible to
+distinguish one from another, and so, in self-defence, the Consul
+distrusts them all. . . .
+
+At the hotel, yesterday, there was a large company of factory people from
+Preston, who marched up from the pier with a band of military music
+playing before them.  They spent the day in the gardens and ball-room of
+the hotel, dancing and otherwise merry-making; but I saw little of them,
+being at the Consulate.  Towards evening it drizzled, and the assemblage
+melted away gradually; and when the band marched down to the pier, there
+were few to follow, although one man went dancing before the musicians,
+flinging out his arms, and footing it with great energy and
+gesticulation.  Some young women along the road likewise began to
+dance as the music approached.
+
+Thackeray has a dread of servants, insomuch that he hates to address
+them, or to ask them for anything.  His morbid sensibility, in this
+regard, has perhaps led him to study and muse upon them, so that he may
+be presumed to have a more intimate knowledge of this class than any
+other man.
+
+Carlyle dresses so badly, and wears such a rough outside, that the
+flunkies are rude to him at gentlemen's doors.
+
+In the afternoon J----- and I took a walk towards Tranmere Hall, and
+beyond, as far as Oxton.  This part of the country, being so near
+Liverpool and Birkenhead, is all sprinkled over with what they call
+"Terraces," "Bellevues," and other pretty names for semi-detached villas
+("Recluse Cottage" was one) for a somewhat higher class.  But the old,
+whitewashed stone cottage is still frequent, with its roof of slate or
+thatch, which perhaps is green with weeds or grass.  Through its open
+door, you see that it has a pavement of flagstones, or perhaps of red
+freestone; and hogs and donkeys are familiar with the threshold.  The
+door always opens directly into the kitchen, without any vestibule; and,
+glimpsing in, you see that a cottager's life must be the very plainest
+and homeliest that ever was lived by men and women.  Yet the flowers
+about the door often indicate a native capacity for the beautiful; but
+often there is only a pavement of round stones or of flagstones, like
+those within.  At one point where there was a little bay, as it were, in
+the hedge fence, we saw something like a small tent or wigwam,--an arch
+of canvas three or four feet high, and open in front, under which sat a
+dark-complexioned woman and some children.  The woman was sewing, and I
+took them for gypsies.
+
+
+August 17th.--Yesterday afternoon J----- and I went to Birkenhead Park,
+which I have already described. . . . It so happened that there was a
+large school spending its holiday there; a school of girls of the lower
+classes, to the number of a hundred and fifty, who disported themselves
+on the green, under the direction of the schoolmistresses and of an old
+gentleman.  It struck me, as it always has, to observe how the lower
+orders of this country indicate their birth and station by their aspect
+and features.  In America there would be a good deal of grace and beauty
+among a hundred and fifty children and budding girls, belonging to
+whatever rank of life.  But here they had universally a most plebeian
+look,--stubbed, sturdy figures, round, coarse faces, snub-noses,--the
+most evident specimens of the brown bread of human nature.  They looked
+wholesome and good enough, and fit to sustain their rough share of life;
+but it would have been impossible to make a lady out of any one of them.
+Climate, no doubt, has most to do with diffusing a slender elegance over
+American young-womanhood; but something, perhaps, is also due to the
+circumstance of classes not being kept apart there as they are here: they
+interfuse, amid the continual ups and downs of our social life; and so,
+in the lowest stations of life, you may see the refining influence of
+gentle blood.  At all events, it is only necessary to look at such an
+assemblage of children as I saw yesterday, to be convinced that birth and
+blood do produce certain characteristics.  To be sure, I have seen no
+similar evidence in England or elsewhere of old gentility refining and
+elevating the race.
+
+These girls were all dressed in black gowns, with white aprons and
+neckerchiefs, and white linen caps on their heads,--a very dowdyish
+attire, and well suited to their figures.  I saw only two of their
+games,--in one, they stood in a circle, while two of their number chased
+one another within and without the ring of girls, which opened to let the
+fugitive pass, but closed again to impede the passage of the pursuer.
+The other was blind-man's-buff on a new plan: several of the girls,
+sometimes as many as twenty, being blinded at once, and pursuing a single
+one, who rang a hand-bell to indicate her whereabouts.  This was very
+funny; the bell-girl keeping just beyond their reach, and drawing them
+after her in a huddled group, so that they sometimes tumbled over one
+another and lay sprawling.  I think I have read of this game in Strutt's
+"English Sports and Pastimes."
+
+We walked from the Park home to Rock Ferry, a distance of three or four
+miles,--a part of which was made delightful by a foot-path, leading us
+through fields where the grass had just been mown, and others where the
+wheat harvest was commenced.  The path led us into the very midst of the
+rural labor that was going forward; and the laborers rested a moment to
+look at us; in fact, they seemed to be more willing to rest than American
+laborers would have been.  Children were loitering along this path or
+sitting down beside it; and we met one little maid, passing from village
+to village, intent on some errand.  Reaching Tranmere, I went into an
+alehouse, nearly opposite the Hall, and called for a glass of ale.  The
+doorstep before the house, and the flagstone floor of the entry and
+tap-room, were chalked all over in corkscrew lines,--an adornment that
+gave an impression of care and neatness, the chalked lines being
+evidently freshly made.  It was a low, old-fashioned room ornamented with
+a couple of sea-shells, and an earthen-ware figure on the mantel-piece;
+also with advertisements of Allsop's ale, and other drinks, and with a
+pasteboard handbill of "The Ancient Order of Foresters"; any member of
+which, paying sixpence weekly, is entitled to ten shillings per week, and
+the attendance of a first-rate physician in sickness, and twelve pounds
+to be paid to his friends in case of death.  Any member of this order,
+when travelling, is sure (says the handbill) to meet with a brother
+member to lend him a helping hand, there being nearly three thousand
+districts of this order, and more than a hundred and nine thousand
+members in Great Britain, whence it has extended to Australia, America,
+and other countries.
+
+Looking up at the gateway of Tranmere Hall, I discovered an inscription
+on the red freestone lintel, and, though much time-worn, I succeeded in
+reading it.  "Labor omnia vincit. 1614."  There were likewise some
+initials which I could not satisfactorily make out.  The sense of this
+motto would rather befit the present agricultural occupants of the house
+than the idle gentlefolks who built and formerly inhabited it.
+
+
+
+SMITHELL'S HALL.
+
+
+August 25th.--On Thursday I went by invitation to Smithell's Hall in
+Bolton le Moors to dine and spend the night.  The Hall is two or three
+miles from the town of Bolton, where I arrived by railway from Liverpool,
+and which seems to be a pretty large town, though the houses are
+generally modern, or with modernized fronts of brick or stucco.  It is a
+manufacturing town, and the tall brick chimneys rise numerously in the
+neighborhood, and are so near Smithell's Hall that I suspect the
+atmosphere is somewhat impregnated with their breath.  Mr. ------ can
+comfort himself with the rent which he receives from the factories
+erected upon his own grounds; and I suppose the value of his estate has
+greatly increased by the growth of manufactories; although, unless he
+wish to sell it, I do not see what good this can do him.
+
+Smithell's Hall is one of the oldest residences of England, and still
+retains very much the aspect that it must have had several centuries ago.
+The house formerly stood around all four sides of a quadrangle, enclosing
+a court, and with an entrance through an archway.  One side of this
+quadrangle was removed in the time of the present Mr. ------'s father,
+and the front is now formed by the remaining three sides.  They look
+exceedingly ancient and venerable, with their range of gables and lesser
+peaks.  The house is probably timber-framed throughout, and is overlaid
+with plaster, and its generally light line is painted with a row of
+trefoils in black, producing a very quaint effect.  The wing, forming one
+side of the quadrangle, is a chapel, and has been so from time
+immemorial; and Mr. ------ told me that he had a clergyman, and even a
+bishop, in his own diocese.  The drawing-room is on the opposite side of
+the quadrangle; and through an arched door, in the central portion, there
+is a passage to the rear of the house.  It is impossible to describe such
+an old rambling edifice as this, or to get any clear idea of its plan,
+even by going over it, without the aid of a map.  Mr. ------ has added
+some portions, and altered others, but with due regard to harmony with
+the original structure, and the great body of it is still mediaeval.
+
+The entrance-hall opens right upon the quadrangular court; and is a
+large, low room, with a settle of carved old oak, and other old oaken
+furniture,--a centre-table with periodicals and newspapers on it,--some
+family pictures on the walls,--and a large, bright coal-fire in the
+spacious grate.  The fire is always kept up, throughout summer and
+winter, and it seemed to me an excellent plan, and rich with cheerful
+effects; insuring one comfortable place, and that the most central in the
+house, whatever may be the inclemency of the weather.  It was a cloudy,
+moist, showery day, when I arrived; and this fire gave me the brightest
+and most hospitable smile, and took away any shivery feeling by its mere
+presence.  The servant showed me thence into a low-studded dining-room,
+where soon Mrs. ------ made her appearance, and, after some talk, brought
+me into the billiard-room, opening from the hall, where Mr. ------ and a
+young gentleman were playing billiards, and two ladies looking on.  After
+the game was finished, Mr. ------ took me round to see the house and
+grounds.
+
+The peculiarity of this house is what is called "The Bloody Footstep."
+In the time of Bloody Mary, a Protestant clergyman--George Marsh by name
+--was examined before the then proprietor of the Hall, Sir Roger Barton,
+I think, and committed to prison for his heretical opinions, and was
+ultimately burned at the stake.  As his guards were conducting him from
+the justice-room, through the stone-paved passage that leads from front
+to rear of Smithell's Hall, he stamped his foot upon one of the
+flagstones in earnest protestation against the wrong which he was
+undergoing.  The foot, as some say, left a bloody mark in the stone;
+others have it, that the stone yielded like wax under his foot, and that
+there has been a shallow cavity ever since.  This miraculous footprint is
+still extant; and Mrs. ------ showed it to me before her husband took me
+round the estate.  It is almost at the threshold of the door opening from
+the rear of the house, a stone two or three feet square, set among
+similar ones, that seem to have been worn by the tread of many
+generations.  The footprint is a dark brown stain in the smooth gray
+surface of the flagstone; and, looking sidelong at it, there is a shallow
+cavity perceptible, which Mrs. ------ accounted for as having been worn
+by people setting their feet just on this place, so as to tread the very
+spot, where the martyr wrought the miracle.  The mark is longer than any
+mortal foot, as if caused by sliding along the stone, rather than sinking
+into it; and it might be supposed to have been made by a pointed shoe,
+being blunt at the heel, and decreasing towards the toe.  The
+blood-stained version of the story is more consistent with the appearance
+of the mark than the imprint would be; for if the martyr's blood oozed
+out through his shoe and stocking, it might have made his foot slide
+along the stone, and thus have lengthened the shape.  Of course it is all
+a humbug,--a darker vein cropping up through the gray flagstone; but, it
+is probably a fact, and, for aught I know, may be found in Fox's Book of
+Martyrs, that George Marsh underwent an examination in this house [There
+is a full and pathetic account of the examination and martyrdom of George
+Marsh in the eleventh section of Fox's Book of Martyrs, as I have just
+found (June 9, 1867).  He went to Smithell's hall, among other places, to
+be questioned by Mr. Barton.--ED.]; and the tradition may have connected
+itself with the stone within a short time after the martyrdom; or,
+perhaps, when the old persecuting knight departed this life, and Bloody
+Mary was also dead, people who had stood at a little distance from the
+Hall door, and had seen George Marsh lift his hand and stamp his foot
+just at this spot,--perhaps they remembered this action and gesture, and
+really believed that Providence had thus made an indelible record of it
+on the stone; although the very stone and the very mark might have lain
+there at the threshold hundreds of years before.  But, even if it had
+been always there, the footprint might, after the fact, be looked upon as
+a prophecy, from the time when the foundation of the old house was laid,
+that a holy and persecuted man should one day set his foot here, on the
+way that was to lead him to the stake.  At any rate, the legend is a good
+one.
+
+Mrs. ------ tells me that the miraculous stone was once taken up from the
+pavement, and flung out of doors, where it remained many years; and in
+proof of this, it is cracked quite across at one end.  This is a pity,
+and rather interferes with the authenticity, if not of the stone itself,
+yet of its position in the pavement.  It is not far from the foot of the
+staircase, leading up to Sir Roger Barton's examination-room, whither we
+ascended, after examining the footprint.  This room now opens sideways on
+the Chapel, into which it looks down, and which is spacious enough to
+accommodate a pretty large congregation.  On one of the walls of the
+Chapel there is a marble tablet to the memory of one of the present
+family,--Mr.------'s father, I suppose; he being the first of the name
+who possessed the estate.  The present owners, however, seem to feel
+pretty much the same pride in the antiquity and legends of the house as
+if it had come down to them in an unbroken succession of their own
+forefathers.  It has, in reality, passed several times from one family to
+another, since the Conquest.
+
+Mr. ------ led me through a spacious old room, which was formerly
+panelled with carved oak, but which is converted into a brew-house, up a
+pair of stairs, into the garret of one of the gables, in order to show me
+the ancient framework of the house.  It is of oak, and preposterously
+ponderous,--immense beams and rafters, which no modern walls could
+support,--a gigantic old skeleton, which architects say must have stood a
+thousand years; and, indeed, it is impossible to ascertain the date of
+the original foundation, though it is known to have been repaired and
+restored between five and six centuries ago.  Of course, in the lapse of
+ages, it must continually have been undergoing minor changes, but without
+at all losing its identity.  Mr. ------ says that this old oak wood,
+though it looks as strong and as solid as ever, has really lost its
+strength, and that it would snap short off, on application of any force.
+
+After this we took our walk through the grounds, which are well wooded,
+though the trees will bear no comparison with those which I have seen in
+the midland parts of England.  It takes, I suspect, a much longer time
+for trees to attain a good size here than in America; and these trees, I
+think Mr. ------ told me, were principally set out by himself.  He is
+upwards of sixty,--a good specimen of the old English country-gentleman,
+sensible, loving his land and his trees and his dogs and his game, doing
+a little justice-business, and showing a fitness for his position; so
+that you feel satisfied to have him keep it.  He was formerly a member of
+Parliament.  I had met him before at dinner at Mrs. H------'s. . . . He
+took pleasure in showing me his grounds, through which he has laid out a
+walk, winding up and down through dells and over hillocks, and now and
+then crossing a rustic bridge; so that you have an idea of quite an
+extensive domain.
+
+Beneath the trees there is a thick growth of ferns, serving as cover for
+the game.  A little terrier-dog, who had hitherto kept us company, all at
+once disappeared; and soon afterwards we heard the squeak of some poor
+victim in the cover, whereupon Mr. ------ set out with agility, and ran
+to the rescue.--By and by the terrier came back with a very guilty look.
+From the wood we passed into the open park, whence we had a distant view
+of the house; and, returning thither, we viewed it in other aspects, and
+on all sides.  One portion of it is occupied by Mr. ------'s gardener,
+and seems not to have been repaired, at least as to its exterior, for a
+great many years,--showing the old wooden frame, painted black, with
+plaster in the interstices; and broad windows, extending across the whole
+breadth of the rooms, with hundreds of little diamond-shaped panes of
+glass.  Before dinner I was shown to my room, which opens from an ancient
+gallery, lined with oak, and lighted by a row of windows along one side
+of the quadrangle.  Along this gallery are the doors of several
+sleeping-chambers, one of which--I think it is here--is called "The Dead
+Man's Chamber."  It is supposed to have been the room where the corpses
+of persons connected with the household used to be laid out.  My own room
+was called "The Beam Chamber," from am immense cross-beam that projects
+from the ceiling, and seems to be an entire tree, laid across, and left
+rough-hewn, though at present it is whitewashed.  The but of the tree
+(for it diminishes from one end of the chamber to the other) is nearly
+two feet square, in its visible part.
+
+We dined, at seven o'clock, in a room some thirty-five or forty feet
+long, and proportionably broad, all panelled with the old carved oak
+which Mr. ------ took from the room which he had converted into a
+brew-house.  The oak is now of a very dark brown hue, and, being highly
+polished, it produces a sombre but rich effect.  It is supposed to be of
+the era of Henry the Seventh, and when I examined it the next morning, I
+found it very delicately and curiously wrought.  There are carved
+profiles of persons in the costume of the times, done with great skill;
+also foliage, intricate puzzles of intersecting lines, sacred devices,
+anagrams, and, among others, the device of a bar across a tun, indicating
+the name of Barton.  Most of the carving, however, is less elaborate and
+intricate than these specimens, being in a perpendicular style, and on
+one pattern.  Before the wood grew so very dark, the beauty of the work
+must have been much more easily seen than now, as to particulars, though
+I hardly think that the general effect could have been better; at least,
+the sombre richness that overspreads the entire square of the room is
+suitable to such an antique house.  An elaborate Gothic cornice runs
+round the whole apartment.  The sideboard and other furniture are of
+Gothic patterns, and, very likely, of genuine antiquity; but the
+fireplace is perhaps rather out of keeping, being of white marble with
+the arms of this family sculptured on it.
+
+Though hardly sunset when we sat down to dinner, yet, it being an
+overcast day, and the oaken room so sombre, we had candles burning on
+the table; and, long before dinner was over, the candle-light was all the
+light we had.  It is always pleasanter to dine by artificial light.
+Mrs. ------'s dinner was a good one, and Mr. ------'s wines were very
+good.  I had Mrs. ------ on one side, and another lady on the other
+side. . . .
+
+After dinner there were two card-parties formed in the dining-room, at
+one of which there was a game of Vingt-et-un, and at the other a game of
+whist, at which Mrs. ------ and I lost several shillings to a Mrs. Halton
+and Mr. Gaskell. . . . After finishing our games at cards, Mrs. Halton
+drove off in a pony-chaise to her own house; the other ladies retired,
+and the gentlemen sat down to chat awhile over the hall fire,
+occasionally sipping a glass of wine-and-water, and finally we all went
+off to our rooms.  It was past twelve o'clock when I composed myself to
+sleep, and I could not have slept long, when a tremendous clap of thunder
+woke me just in time to see a vivid flash of lightning.  I saw no ghosts,
+though Mrs. ------ tells me there is one, which makes a disturbance,
+unless religious services are regularly kept up in the Chapel.
+
+In the morning, before breakfast, we had prayers, read by Mr. ------, in
+the oak dining-room, all the servants coming in, and everybody kneeling
+down.  I should like to know how much true religious feeling is indicated
+by this regular observance of religious rites in English families.  In
+America, if people kneel down to pray, it is pretty certain that they
+feel a genuine interest in the matter, and their daily life is supposed
+to be in accordance with their devotions.  If an American is an infidel,
+he knows it; but an Englishman is often so without suspecting it,--being
+kept from that knowledge by this formality of family prayer, and his
+other regularities of external worship. . . .
+
+There was a parrot in a corner of the dining-room, and, when prayers were
+over, Mrs. ------ praised it very highly for having been so silent; it
+being Poll's habit, probably, to break in upon the sacred exercises with
+unseemly interjections and remarks.  While we were at breakfast, Poll
+began to whistle and talk very vociferously, and in a tone and with
+expressions that surprised me, till I learned that the bird is usually
+kept in the kitchen and servants' hall, and is only brought into the
+dining-room at prayer-time and breakfast.  Thus its mouth is full of
+kitchen talk, which flows out before the gentlefolks with the queerest
+effect.
+
+After breakfast I examined the carvings of the room.  Mr. ------ has
+added to its decorations the coats of arms of all the successive
+possessors of the house, with those of the families into which they
+married, including the Ratcliffes, Stanleys, and others.  From the
+dining-room I passed into the library, which contains books enough to
+make a rainy day pass pleasantly.  I remember nothing else that I need to
+record; and as I sat by the hall fire, talking with Mr. Gaskell, at about
+eleven o'clock, the butler brought me word that a fly, which I had
+bespoken, was ready to convey me to the railway.  I took leave of
+Mrs. ------, her last request being that I would write a ghost-story
+for her house,--and drove off.
+
+
+
+SHREWSBURY
+
+
+September 5th.--Yesterday we all of us set forth from Rock Ferry at half
+past twelve, and reached Shrewsbury between three and four o'clock, and
+took up our quarters at the Lion Hotel.  We found Shrewsbury situated on
+an eminence, around which the Severn winds, making a peninsula of it,
+quite densely covered by the town.  The streets ascend, and curve about,
+and intersect each other with the customary irregularity of these old
+English towns, so that it is quite impossible to go directly to any given
+point, or for a stranger to find his way to a place which he wishes to
+reach, though, by what seems a singular good fortune, the sought-for
+place is always offering itself when least expected.  On this account I
+never knew such pleasant walking as in old streets like those of
+Shrewsbury.  And there are passages opening under archways, and winding
+up between high edifices, very tempting to the explorer, and generally
+leading to some court, or some queer old range of buildings or piece of
+architecture, which it would be the greatest pity to miss seeing.  There
+was a delightful want of plan in the laying out of these ancient towns.
+In fact, they never were laid out at all, nor were restrained by any plan
+whatever, but grew naturally, with streets as eccentric as the pathway of
+a young child toddling about the floor.
+
+The first curious thing we particularly noticed, when we strolled out
+after dinner, was the old market-house, which stands in the midst of an
+oblong square; a gray edifice, elevated on pillars and arches, and with
+the statue of an armed knight, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, in a
+central niche, in its front.  The statue is older than the market-house,
+having been moved thither from one of the demolished towers of the city
+wall in 1795.  The market-house was erected in 1595.  There are other
+curious sculptures and carvings and quirks of architecture about this
+building; and the houses that stand about the square are, many of them,
+very striking specimens of what dwelling-houses used to be in Elizabeth's
+time, and earlier.  I have seen no such stately houses, in that style, as
+we found here in Shrewsbury.  There were no such fine ones in Coventry,
+Stratford, Warwick, Chester, nor anywhere else where we have been.  Their
+stately height and spaciousness seem to have been owing to the fact that
+Shrewsbury was a sort of metropolis of the country round about, and
+therefore the neighboring gentry had their town-houses there, when London
+was several days' journey off, instead of a very few hours; and, besides,
+it was once much the resort of kings, and the centre-point of great
+schemes of war and policy.  One such house, formerly belonging to a now
+extinct family, that of Ireland, rises to the height of four stories, and
+has a front consisting of what look like four projecting towers.  There
+are ranges of embowered windows, one above another, to the full height of
+the house, and these are surmounted by peaked gables.  The people of
+those times certainly did not deny themselves light; and while
+window-glass was an article of no very remote introduction, it was
+probably a point of magnificence and wealthy display to have enough of
+it.  One whole side of the room must often have been formed by the
+window.  This Ireland mansion, as well as all the rest of the old houses
+in Shrewsbury, is a timber house,--that is, a skeleton of oak, filled up
+with brick, plaster, or other material, and with the beams of the timber
+marked out with black paint; besides which, in houses of any pretension,
+there are generally trefoils, and other Gothic-looking ornaments,
+likewise painted black.  They have an indescribable charm for me,--the
+more, I think, because they are wooden; but, indeed, I cannot tell why it
+is that I like them so well, and am never tired of looking at them.  A
+street was a development of human life, in the days when these houses
+were built, whereas a modern street is but the cold plan of an architect,
+without individuality or character, and without the human emotion which a
+man kneads into the walls which he builds on a scheme of his own.
+
+We strolled to a pleasant walk under a range of trees, along the shore of
+the Severn.  It is called the Quarry Walk.  The Severn is a pretty river,
+the largest, I think (unless it be such an estuary as the Mersey), that I
+have met with in England; that is to say, about a fair stone's-throw
+across.  It is very gentle in its course, and winds along between grassy
+and sedgy banks, with a good growth of weeds in some part of its current.
+It has one stately bridge, called the English Bridge, of several arches,
+and, as we sauntered along the Quarry Walk, we saw a ferry where the boat
+seemed to be navigated across by means of a rope, stretched from bank to
+bank of the river.  After leaving the Quarry Walk, we passed an old tower
+of red freestone, the only one remaining of those formerly standing at
+intervals along the whole course of the town wall; and we also went along
+what little is now left of the wall itself.  And thence, through the
+irregular streets, which gave no account of themselves, we found our way,
+I know not how, back to our hotel.  It is an uncheerful old hotel, which
+takes upon itself to be in the best class of English country hotels, and
+charges the best price; very dark in the lower apartments, pervaded with
+a musty odor, but provided with a white-neckclothed waiter, who spares no
+ceremony in serving the joints of mutton.
+
+J----- and I afterwards walked forth again, and went this time to the
+castle, which stands exactly above the railway station.  A path, from its
+breadth quite a street, leads up to the arched gateway; but we found a
+board, giving notice that these are private grounds, and no strangers
+admitted; so that we only passed through the gate a few steps, and looked
+about us, and retired, on perceiving a man approaching us through the
+trees and shrubbery.  A private individual, it seems, has burrowed in
+this old warlike den, and turned the keep, and any other available
+apartment, into a modern dwelling, and laid out his pleasure-grounds
+within the precincts of the castle wall, which allows verge enough for
+the purpose.  The ruins have been considerably repaired.  This castle was
+built at various times, the keep by Edward I., and other portions at an
+earlier period, and it stands on the isthmus left by the Severn in its
+wandering course about the town.  The Duke of Cleveland now owns it.  I
+do not know who occupies it.
+
+In the course of this walk, we passed St. Mary's Church,--a very old
+church indeed, no matter how old, but say, eight hundred or a thousand
+years.  It has a very tall spire, and the spire is now undergoing
+repairs; and, seeing the door open, I went into the porch, but found no
+admission further.  Then, walking around it, through the churchyard, we
+saw that all the venerable Gothic windows--one of them grand in size--
+were set with stained glass, representing coats of arms and ancient
+armor, and kingly robes, and saints with glories about their heads, and
+Scriptural people; but all of these, as far as our actual perception was
+concerned, quite colorless, and with only a cold outline, dimly filled
+up.  Yet, had we been within the church, and had the sunlight been
+streaming through, what a warm, rich, gorgeous, roseate, golden life
+would these figures have showed!
+
+In the churchyard, close upon the street, so that its dust must be
+continually scattered over the spot, I saw a heavy gray tombstone, with a
+Latin inscription, purporting that Bishop Butler, the author of the
+Analogy, in his lifetime had chosen this as a burial-place for himself
+and his family.  There is a statue of him within the church.  From the
+top of the spire a man, above a hundred years ago, attempted to descend,
+by means of a rope, to the other side of the Severn; but the rope broke,
+and he fell in his midway flight, and was killed.  It was an undertaking
+worthy of Sam Patch.  There is a record of the fact on the outside of the
+tower.
+
+I remember nothing more that we saw yesterday; but, before breakfast,
+J----- and I sallied forth again, and inspected the gateway and interior
+court of the Council House,--a very interesting place, both in itself and
+for the circumstances connected with it, it having been the place where
+the councillors for the Welsh marches used to reside during their annual
+meetings; and Charles the First also lived here for six weeks in 1612.
+James II. likewise held his court here in 1687.  The house was originally
+built in 1501,--that is, the Council House itself,--the gateway, and the
+house through which it passes, being of as late date as 1620.  This
+latter is a fine old house, in the usual style of timber architecture,
+with the timber lines marked out, and quaint adornments in black paint;
+and the pillars of the gateway which passes beneath the front chamber are
+of curiously carved oak, which has probably stood the action of English
+atmosphere better than marble would have done.  Passing through this
+gateway, we entered a court, and saw some old buildings more or less
+modernized, but without destroying their aged stateliness, standing round
+three sides of it, with arched entrances and bow-windows, and windows in
+the roofs, and peaked gables, and all the delightful irregularity and
+variety that these houses have, and which make them always so fresh,--and
+with so much detail that every minute you see something heretofore
+unseen.  It must have been no unfit residence for a king and his court,
+when those three sides of the square, all composing one great fantastic
+house, were in their splendor.  The square itself, too, must have been a
+busy and cheerful scene, thronged with attendants, guests, horses, etc.
+
+After breakfast, we all walked out, and, crossing the English Bridge,
+looked at the Severn over its parapet.  The river is here broader than
+elsewhere, and very shallow, and has an island covered with bushes, about
+midway across.  Just over the bridge we saw a church, of red freestone,
+and evidently very ancient.  This is the Church of the Holy Cross, and is
+a portion of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. John, which formerly covered
+ten acres of ground.  We did not have time to go into the church; but the
+windows and other points of architecture, so far as we could discern
+them, and knew how to admire them, were exceedingly venerable and
+beautiful.  On the other side of the street, over a wide space, there are
+other remains of the old abbey; and the most interesting was a stone
+pulpit, now standing in the open air, seemingly in a garden, but which
+originally stood in the refectory of the abbey, and was the station
+whence one of the monks read to his brethren at their meals.  The pulpit
+is much overgrown with ivy.  We should have made further researches among
+these remains, though they seem now to be in private grounds; but a large
+mastiff came nut of his kennel, and, approaching us to the length of his
+iron chain, began barking very fiercely.  Nor had we time to see half
+that we would gladly have seen and studied here and elsewhere about
+Shrewsbury.  It would have been very interesting to have visited
+Hotspur's and Falstaff's battle-field, which is four miles from the town;
+too distant, certainly, for Falstaff to have measured the length of the
+fight by Shrewsbury clock.  There is now a church, built there by Henry
+IV., and said to cover the bones of those slain in the battle.
+
+Returning into the town, we penetrated some narrow lanes, where, as the
+old story goes, people might almost shake hands across from the top
+windows of the opposite houses, impending towards each other.  Emerging
+into a wider street, at a spot somewhat more elevated than other parts of
+the town, we went into a shop to buy some Royal Shrewsbury cakes, which
+we had seen advertised at several shop windows.  They are a very rich
+cake, with plenty of eggs, sugar, and butter, and very little flour.
+
+A small public building of stone, of modern date, was close by; and
+asking the shopwoman what it was, she said it was the Butter Cross, or
+market for butter, eggs, and poultry.  It is a remarkable site, for here,
+in ancient times, stood a stone cross, where heralds used to make
+proclamation, and where criminals of state used to be executed.  David,
+the last of the Welsh princes, was here cruelly put to death by Edward
+I., and many noblemen were beheaded on this spot, after being taken
+prisoners in the battle of Shrewsbury.
+
+I can only notice one other memorable place in Shrewsbury, and that is
+the Raven Inn, where Farquhar wrote his comedy of "The Recruiting
+Officer" in 1701.  The window of the room in which he wrote is said to
+look into the inn yard, and I went through the arched entrance to see if
+I could distinguish it.  The hostlers were currying horses in the yard,
+and so stared at me that I gave but the merest glance.  The Shrewsbury
+inns have not only the customary names of English inns,--as the Lion, the
+Stag,--but they have also the carved wooden figures of the object named,
+whereas, in all other towns, the name alone remains.
+
+We left Shrewsbury at half past ten, and arrived in London at about four
+in the afternoon.
+
+
+
+LONDON.
+
+
+September 7th.--On Wednesday, just before dusk, J----- and I walked
+forth, for the first time, in London.  Our lodgings are in George Street,
+Hanover Square, No. 21; and St. George's Church, where so many marriages
+in romance and in fashionable life have been celebrated, is a short
+distance below our house, in the same street.  The edifice seems to be of
+white marble, now much blackened with London smoke, and has a Grecian
+pillared portico.  In the square, just above us, is a statue of William
+Pitt.  We went down Bond Street, and part of Regent Street, just
+estraying a little way from our temporary nest, and taking good account
+of landmarks and corners, so as to find our way readily back again.  It
+is long since I have had such a childish feeling; but all that I had
+heard and felt about the vastness of London made it seem like swimming in
+a boundless ocean, to venture one step beyond the only spot I knew.  My
+first actual impression of London was of stately and spacious streets,
+and by no means so dusky and grimy as I had expected,--not merely in the
+streets about this quarter of the town, which is the aristocratic
+quarter, but in all the streets through which we had passed from the
+railway station.  If I had not first been so imbued with the smoke and
+dinginess of Liverpool, I should doubtless have seen a stronger contrast
+betwixt dusky London and the cheerful glare of our American cities.
+There are no red bricks here; all are of a dark hue, and whatever of
+stone or stucco has been white soon clothes itself in mourning.
+
+Yesterday forenoon I went out alone, and plunged headlong into London,
+and wandered about all day, without any particular object in view, but
+only to lose myself for the sake of finding myself unexpectedly among
+things that I had always read and dreamed about.  The plan was perfectly
+successful, for, besides vague and unprofitable wanderings, I saw, in the
+course of the day, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Whitehall, the two new
+Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross, St. Paul's, the, Strand, Fleet
+Street, Cheapside, Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, the Haymarket, and a
+great many other places, the names of which were classic in my memory.  I
+think what interests me most here, is the London of the writers of Queen
+Anne's age,--whatever Pope, The Spectator, De Foe, and down as late as
+Johnson and Goldsmith, have mentioned.  The Monument, for instance, which
+is of no great height nor beauty compared with that on Bunker Hill,
+charmed me prodigiously.  St. Paul's appeared to me unspeakably grand and
+noble, and the more so from the throng and bustle continually going on
+around its base, without in the least disturbing the sublime repose of
+its great dome, and, indeed, of all its massive height and breadth.
+Other edifices may crowd close to its foundation, and people may tramp as
+they like about it; but still the great cathedral is as quiet and serene
+as if it stood in the middle of Salisbury Plain.  There cannot be
+anything else in its way so good in the world as just this effect of St.
+Paul's in the very heart and densest tumult of London.  I do not know
+whether the church is built of marble, or of whatever other white or
+nearly white material; but in the time that it has been standing there,
+it has grown black with the smoke of ages, through which there are
+nevertheless gleams of white, that make a most picturesque impression on
+the whole.  It is much better than staring white; the edifice would not
+be nearly so grand without this drapery of black.
+
+I did not find these streets of the old city so narrow and irregular as I
+expected.  All the principal ones are sufficiently broad, and there are
+few houses that look antique, being, I suppose, generally modern-fronted,
+when not actually of modern substance.  There is little or no show or
+pretension in this part of London; it has a plain, business air,--an air
+of homely, actual life, as of a metropolis of tradesmen, who have been
+carrying on their traffic here, in sober earnest, for hundreds of years.
+You observe on the sign-boards, "Established ninety years in Threadneedle
+Street," "Established in 1109,"--denoting long pedigrees of silk-mercers
+and hosiers,--De Foe's contemporaries still represented by their
+posterity, who handle the hereditary yardstick on the same spot.
+
+I must not forget to say that I crossed the Thames over a bridge which, I
+think, is near Charing Cross.  Afterwards, I found my way to London
+Bridge, where there was a delightful density of throng.  The Thames is
+not so wide and majestic as I had imagined,--nothing like the Mersey, for
+example.  As a picturesque object, however, flowing through the midst of
+a city, it would lose by any increase of width.
+
+Omnibuses are a most important aid to wanderers about London.  I reached
+home, well wearied, about six o'clock.  In the course of the day, I had
+seen one person whom I knew,--Mr. Clarke, to whom Henry B------
+introduced me, when we went to see the great ship launched on the Dee.
+This, I believe, was in Regent Street.  In that street, too, I saw a
+company of dragoons, beautifully mounted, and defensively armed, in brass
+helmets and steel cuirasses, polished to the utmost excess of splendor.
+It was a pretty sight.  At one of the public edifices, on each side of
+the portal, sat a mounted trooper similarly armed, and with his carbine
+resting on his knee, just as motionless as a statue.  This, too, as a
+picturesque circumstance, was very good, and really made an impression on
+me with respect to the power and stability of the government, though I
+could not help smiling at myself for it.  But then the thought, that for
+generations an armed warrior has always sat just there, on his war-steed,
+and with his weapon in his hand, is pleasant to the imagination,--
+although it is questionable whether his carbine be loaded; and, no doubt,
+if the authorities had any message to send, they would choose some other
+messenger than this heavy dragoon,--the electric wire, for instance.
+Still, if he and his horse were to be withdrawn from their post, night or
+day (for I suppose the sentinels are on duty all night), it seems as if
+the monarchy would be subverted, and the English constitution crumble
+into rubbish; and, in honest fact, it will signify something like that,
+when guard is relieved there for the last time.
+
+
+September 8th.--Yesterday forenoon S-----, the two eldest children, and I
+went forth into London streets, and proceeded down Regent Street, and
+thence to St. James's Park, at the entrance of which is a statue of
+somebody,--I forget whom.  On the very spacious gravel-walks, covering
+several acres, in the rear of the Horse Guards, some soldiers were going
+through their exercise; and, after looking at them awhile, we strolled
+through the Park, alongside of a sheet of water, in which various kinds
+of ducks, geese, and rare species of waterfowl were swimming.  There was
+one swan of immense size, which moved about among the lesser fowls like a
+stately, full-rigged ship among gunboats.  By and by we found ourselves
+near what we since have discovered to be Buckingham Palace,--a long
+building, in the Italian style, but of no impressiveness, and which one
+soon wearies of looking at.  The Queen having gone to Scotland the day
+before, the palace now looked deserted, although there was a one-horse
+cab, of shabby aspect, standing at the principal front, where doubtless
+the carriages of princes and the nobility draw up.  There is a fountain
+playing before the palace, and water-fowl love to swim under its
+perpetual showers.  These ducks and geese are very tame, and swim to the
+margin of the pond to be fed by visitors, looking up at you with great
+intelligence.
+
+S----- asked a man in a sober suit of livery (of whom we saw several
+about the Park), whose were some of the large mansions which we saw, and
+he pointed out Stafford House, the residence of the Duke of Sutherland,
+--a very noble edifice, much more beautiful than the palace, though not
+so large; also the house of the Earl of Ellesmere, and residences of
+other noblemen.  This range of mansions, along the park, from the spot
+whence we viewed them, looks very much like Beacon Street, in Boston,
+bordering on the Common, allowing for a considerable enlargement of
+scale in favor of the Park residences.  The Park, however, has not the
+beautiful elms that overshadow Boston Common, nor such a pleasant
+undulation of surface, nor the fine off-view of the country, like that
+across Charles River.  I doubt whether London can show so delightful a
+spot as that Common, always excepting the superiority of English lawns,
+which, however, is not so evident in the London parks, there being less
+care bestowed on the grass than I should have expected.
+
+From this place we wandered into what I believe to be Hyde Park,
+attracted by a gigantic figure on horseback, which loomed up in the
+distance.  The effect of this enormous steed and his rider is very grand,
+seen in the misty atmosphere.  I do not understand why we did not see St.
+James's Palace, which is situated, I believe, at the extremity of the
+same range of mansions of which Stafford House is the opposite end.  From
+the entrance of Hyde Park, we seem to have gone along Piccadilly, and,
+making two or three turns, and getting bewildered, I put S----- and the
+children into a cab, and sent them home.  Continuing my wanderings, I
+went astray among squares of large aristocratic-looking edifices, all
+apparently new, with no shops among them, some yet unfinished, and the
+whole seeming like a city built for a colony of gentlefolks, who might be
+expected to emigrate thither in a body.  It was a dreary business to
+wander there, turning corner after corner, and finding no way of getting
+into a less stately and more genial region.  At last, however, I passed
+in front of the Queen's Mews, where sentinels were on guard, and where a
+jolly-looking man, in a splendidly laced scarlet coat and white-topped
+boots, was lounging at the entrance.  He looked like the prince of grooms
+or coachmen. . . .
+
+The corner of Hyde Park was within a short distance, and I took a Hansom
+at the cab-stand there, and drove to the American Despatch Agency, 26
+Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, having some documents of state to be
+sent by to-day's steamer.  The business of forwarding despatches to
+America, and distributing them to the various legations and consulates in
+Europe, must be a pretty extensive one; for Mr. Miller has a large
+office, and two clerks in attendance.
+
+From this point I went through Covent Garden Market, and got astray in
+the city, so that I can give no clear account of my afternoon's
+wanderings.  I passed through Holborn, however, and I think it was from
+that street that I passed through an archway (which I almost invariably
+do, when I see one), and found myself in a very spacious, gravelled
+square, surrounded on the four sides by a continuous edifice of dark
+brick, very plain, and of cold and stern aspect.  This was Gray's Inn,
+all tenanted by a multitude of lawyers.  Passing thence, I saw
+"Furnival's Inn" over another archway, but, being on the opposite side of
+the street, I did not go thither.  In Holborn, still, I went through
+another arched entrance, over which was "Staples Inn," and here likewise
+seemed to be offices; but, in a court opening inwards from this, there
+was a surrounding seclusion of quiet dwelling-houses, with beautiful
+green shrubbery and grass-plots in the court, and a great many sunflowers
+in full bloom.  The windows were open; it was a lovely summer afternoon,
+and I have a sense that bees were humming in the court, though this may
+have been suggested by my fancy, because the sound would have been so
+well suited to the scene.  A boy was reading at one of the windows.
+There was not a quieter spot in England than this, and it was very
+strange to have drifted into it so suddenly out of the bustle and rumble
+of Holborn; and to lose all this repose as suddenly, on passing through
+the arch of the outer court.  In all the hundreds of years since London
+was built, it has not been able to sweep its roaring tide over that
+little island of quiet.  In Holborn I saw the most antique-looking houses
+that I have yet met with in London, but none of very remarkable aspect.
+
+I think I must have been under a spell of enchantment to-day, connecting
+me with St. Paul's; for, trying to get away from it by various avenues, I
+still got bewildered, and again and again saw its great dome and
+pinnacles before me.  I observe that the smoke has chiefly settled on the
+lower part of the edifice, leaving its loftier portions and its spires
+much less begrimed.  It is very beautiful, very rich.  I did not think
+that anything but Gothic architecture could so have interested me.  The
+statues, the niches, the embroidery, as it were, of sculpture traced
+around it, produced a delightful effect.  In front of St. Paul's there is
+a statue of Queen Anne, which looks rather more majestic, I doubt not,
+than that fat old dame ever did.  St. Paul's churchyard had always been a
+place of immense interest in my imagination.  It is merely the not very
+spacious street, running round the base of the church,--at least, this
+street is included in the churchyard, together with the enclosure
+immediately about the church, sowed with tombstones.  I meant to look for
+the children's book-shop, but forgot it, or neglected it, from not
+feeling so much interest in a thing near at hand as when it seemed
+unattainable.
+
+I watched a man tearing down the brick wall of a house that did not
+appear very old; but it surprised me to see how crumbly the brick-work
+was, one stroke of his pick often loosening several bricks in a row.  It
+is my opinion that brick houses, after a moderate term of years, stand
+more by habit and courtesy than through any adhesive force of the old
+mortar.
+
+I recommenced my wanderings; but I remember nothing else particularly
+claiming to be mentioned, unless it be Paternoster Row,--a little,
+narrow, darksome lane, in which, it being now dusk in that density of the
+city, I could not very well see what signs were over the doors.  In this
+street, or thereabouts, I got into an omnibus, and, being set down near
+Regent's Circus, reached home well wearied.
+
+
+September 9th.--Yesterday, having some tickets to the Zoological Gardens,
+we went thither with the two eldest children.  It was a most beautiful
+sunny day, the very perfection of English weather,--which is as much as
+to say, the best weather in the world, except, perhaps, some few days in
+an American October.  These gardens are at the end of Regent's Park,
+farthest from London, and they are very extensive; though, I think, not
+quite worthy of London,--not so good as one would expect them to be,--not
+so fine and perfect a collection of beasts, birds, and fishes, as one
+might fairly look for, when the greatest metropolis of the world sets out
+to have such a collection at all.--My idea was, that here every living
+thing was provided for, in the way best suited to its nature and habits,
+and that the refinement of civilization had here restored a garden of
+Eden, where all the animal kingdom had regained a happy home.  This is
+not quite the case; though, I believe, the creatures are as comfortable
+as could be expected, and there are certainly a good many strange beasts
+here.  The hippopotamus is the chief treasure of the collection,--an
+immense, almost misshapen, mass of flesh.  At this moment I do not
+remember anything that interested me except a sick monkey,--a very large
+monkey, and elderly he seemed to be.  His keeper brought him some
+sweetened apple and water, and some tea; for the monkey had quite lost
+his appetite, and refused all ordinary diet.  He came, however, quite
+eagerly, and smelt of the tea and apple, the keeper exhorting him very
+tenderly to eat.  But the poor monkey shook his head slowly, and with the
+most pitiable expression, at the same time extending his hand to take the
+keeper's, as if claiming his sympathy and friendship.  By and by the
+keeper (who is rather a surly fellow) essayed harsher measures, and
+insisted that the monkey should eat what had been brought for him, and
+hereupon ensued somewhat of a struggle, and the tea was overturned upon
+the straw of the bed.  Then the keeper scolded him, and, seizing him by
+one arm, drew him out of his little bedroom into the larger cage, upon
+which the wronged monkey began a loud, dissonant, reproachful chatter,
+more expressive of a sense of injury than any words could be.
+
+Observing the spectators in front of the cage, he seemed to appeal to
+them, and addressed his chatter thitherward, and stretched out his long,
+lean arm and black hand between the bars, as if claiming the grasp of any
+one friend he might have in the whole world.  He was placable, however;
+for when the keeper called him in a gentler tone, he hobbled towards him
+with a very stiff and rusty movement, and the scene closed with their
+affectionately hugging one another.  But I fear the poor monkey will die.
+In a future state of being, I think it will be one of my inquiries, in
+reference to the mysteries of the present state, why monkeys were made.
+The Creator could not surely have meant to ridicule his own work.  It
+might rather be fancied that Satan had perpetrated monkeys, with a
+malicious purpose of parodying the masterpiece of creation!
+
+The Aquarium, containing, in some of its compartments, specimens of the
+animal and vegetable life of the sea, and, in others, those of the fresh
+water, was richly worth inspecting; but not nearly so perfect as it might
+be.  Now I think we have a right to claim, in a metropolitan
+establishment of this kind, in all its departments, a degree of
+perfection that shall quite outdo the unpractised thought of any man on
+that particular subject.
+
+There were a good many well-dressed people and children in the gardens,
+Saturday being a fashionable day for visiting them.  One great amusement
+was feeding some bears with biscuits and cakes, of which they seemed
+exceedingly fond.  One of the three bears clambered to the top of a high
+pole, whence he invited the spectators to hand him bits of cake on the
+end of a stick, or to toss them into his mouth, which he opened widely
+for that purpose.  Another, apparently an elderly bear, not having skill
+nor agility for these gymnastics, sat on the ground, on his hinder end,
+groaning most pitifully.  The third took what stray bits he could get,
+without earning them by any antics.
+
+At four o'clock there was some music from the band of the First
+Life-Guards, a great multitude of chairs being set on the greensward in
+the sunshine and shade, for the accommodation of the auditors.  Here we
+had the usual exhibition of English beauty, neither superior nor
+otherwise to what I have seen in other parts of England.  Before the
+music was over, we walked slowly homeward, along beside Regent's Park,
+which is very prettily laid out, but lacks some last touch of richness
+and beauty; though, after all, I do not well see what more could be done
+with grass, trees, and gravel-walks.  The children, especially J-----,
+who had raced from one thing to another all day long, grew tired; so we
+put them into a cab, and walked slowly through Portland Place, where are
+a great many noble mansions, yet no very admirable architecture; none
+that possessed, nor that ever can possess, the indefinable charm of some
+of those poor old timber houses in Shrewsbury.  The art of domestic
+architecture is lost.  We can rear stately and beautiful dwellings
+(though we seldom do), but they do not seem proper to the life of man, in
+the same way that his shell is proper to the lobster; nor, indeed, is the
+mansion of the nobleman proper to him, in the same kind and degree, that
+a hut is proper to a peasant.
+
+From Portland Place we passed into Regent Street, and soon reached home.
+
+
+September 10th.--Yesterday forenoon we walked out with the children,
+intending for Charing Cross; but, missing our way, as usual, we went down
+a rather wide and stately street, and saw before us an old brick edifice
+with a pretty extensive front, over which rose a clock-tower,--the whole
+dingy, and looking both gloomy and mean.  There was an arched entrance
+beneath the clock-tower, at which two Guardsmen, in their bear-skin caps,
+were stationed as sentinels; and from this circumstance, and our having
+some guess at the locality, we concluded the old brick building to be St.
+James's Palace.  Otherwise we might have taken it for a prison, or for a
+hospital, which, in truth, it was at first intended for.  But, certainly,
+there are many paupers in England who live in edifices of far more
+architectural pretension externally than this principal palace of the
+English sovereigns.
+
+Seeing other people go through the archway, we also went, meeting no
+impediment from the sentinels, and found ourselves in a large paved
+court, in the centre of which a banner was stuck down, with a few
+soldiers standing near it.  This flag was the banner of the regiment of
+guards on duty.  The aspect of the interior court was as naked and dismal
+as the outside, the brick being of that dark hue almost universal in
+England.  On one side of the court there was a door which seemed to give
+admission to a chapel, into which several persons went, and probably we
+might have gone too, had we liked.  From this court, we penetrated into
+at least two or three others; for the palace is very extensive, and all
+of it, so far as I could see, on the same pattern,--large, enclosed
+courts, paved, and quite bare of grass, shrubbery, or any beautiful
+thing,--dark, stern, brick walls, without the slightest show of
+architectural beauty, or even an ornament over the square, commonplace
+windows, looking down on those forlorn courts.  A carriage-drive passes
+through it, if I remember aright, from the principal front, emerging by
+one of the sides; and I suppose that the carriages roll through the
+palace, at the levees and drawing-rooms.  There was nothing to detain us
+here any long time, so we went from court to court, and came out through
+a side-opening.  The edifice is battlemented all round, and this, with
+somewhat of fantastic in the shape of the clock-tower, is the only
+attempt at ornament in the whole.
+
+Then we skirted along St. James's Park, passing Marlborough House,--a red
+brick building,--and a very long range of stone edifices, which, whether
+they were public or private, one house or twenty, we knew not.  We
+ascended the steps of the York column, and soon reached Charing Cross and
+Trafalgar Square, where there are more architectural monuments than in
+any other one place in London; besides two fountains, playing in large
+reservoirs of water, and various edifices of note and interest.
+
+Northumberland House, now, and for a long while, the town residence of
+the Percys, stands on the Strand side,--over the entrance a lion, very
+spiritedly sculptured, flinging out his long tail.  On another side of
+the square is Morley's Hotel, exceedingly spacious, and looking more
+American than anything else in the hotel line that I have seen here.
+
+The Nelson monument, with Lord Nelson, in a cocked hat, on its top, is
+very grand in its effect.  All about the square there were sundry
+loungers, people looking at the bas-reliefs on Nelson's Column, children
+paddling in the reservoirs of the fountains; and, it being a sunny day,
+it was a cheerful and lightsome, as well as an impressive scene.  On
+second thoughts, I do not know but that London should have a far better
+display of architecture and sculpture than this, on its finest site, and
+in its very centre; for, after all, there is nothing of the very best.
+But I missed nothing at the time.
+
+In the afternoon S----- and I set out to attend divine service in
+Westminster Abbey.  On our way thither we passed through Pall Mall, which
+is full of club-houses, and we were much struck with the beauty of the
+one lately erected for the Carleton Club.  It is built of a buff-colored
+or yellowish stone, with pillars or pilasters of polished Aberdeen
+granite, wonderfully rich and beautiful; and there is a running border of
+sculptured figures all round the upper part of the building, besides
+other ornament and embroidery, wherever there was room or occasion for
+it.  It being an oblong square, the smooth and polished aspect in this
+union of two rich colors in it,--this delicacy and minuteness of finish,
+this lavish ornament--made me think of a lady's jewel-box; and if it
+could be reduced to the size of about a foot square, or less, it would
+make the very prettiest one that ever was seen.  I question whether it
+have any right to be larger than a jewel-box; but it is certainly a most
+beautiful edifice.  We turned down Whitehall, at the head of which, over
+the very spot where the Regicides were executed, stands the bronze
+equestrian statue of Charles I.,--the statue that was buried under the
+earth during the whole of Cromwell's time, and emerged after the
+Restoration.  We saw the Admiralty and the Horse-Guards, and, in front of
+the latter, the two mounted sentinels, one of whom was flirting and
+laughing with some girls.  On the other side of the street stands the
+Banqueting-House, built by Inigo Jones; from a window of which King
+Charles stepped forth, wearing a kingly head, which, within a few minutes
+afterwards, fell with a dead thump on the scaffold.  It was nobly done,--
+and nobly suffered.  How rich is history in the little space around this
+spot!
+
+I find that the day after I reached London, I entirely passed by
+Westminster Abbey without knowing it, partly because my eyes were
+attracted by the gaudier show of the new Houses of Parliament, and partly
+because this part of the Abbey has been so much repaired and renewed that
+it has not the marks of age.  Looking at its front, I now found it very
+grand and venerable; but it is useless to attempt a description: these
+things are not to be translated into words; they can be known only by
+seeing them, and, until seen, it is well to shape out no idea of them.
+Impressions, states of mind, produced by noble spectacles of whatever
+kind, are all that it seems worth while to attempt reproducing with the
+pen.
+
+After coming out of the Abbey, we looked at the two Houses of Parliament,
+directly across the way,--an immense structure, and certainly most
+splendid, built of a beautiful warm-colored stone.  The building has a
+very elaborate finish, and delighted me at first; but by and by I began
+to be sensible of a weariness in the effect, a lack of variety in the
+plan and ornament, a deficiency of invention; so that instead of being
+more and more interested the longer one looks, as is the case with an old
+Gothic edifice, and continually reading deeper into it, one finds that
+one has seen all in seeing a little piece, and that the magnificent
+palace has nothing better to show one or to do for one.  It is wonderful
+how the old weather-stained and smoke-blackened Abbey shames down this
+brand-newness; not that the Parliament houses are not fine objects to
+look at, too.
+
+Yesterday morning we walked to Charing Cross, with U---- and J-----, and
+there took a cab to the Tower, driving thither through the Strand, Fleet
+Street, past St. Paul's, and amid all the thickest throng of the city.  I
+have not a very distinct idea of the Tower, but remember that our cab
+drove within an outer gate, where we alighted at a ticket-office; the old
+royal fortress being now a regular show-place, at sixpence a head,
+including the sight of armory and crown-jewels.  We saw about the gate
+several warders or yeomen of the guard, or beefeaters, dressed in scarlet
+coats of antique fashion, richly embroidered with golden crowns, both on
+the breast and back, and other royal devices and insignia; so that they
+looked very much like the kings on a pack of cards, or regular trumps, at
+all events.  I believe they are old soldiers, promoted to this position
+for good conduct.  One of them took charge of us, and when a sufficient
+number of visitors had collected with us, he led us to see what very
+small portion of the Tower is shown.
+
+There is a great deal of ground within the outer precincts; and it has
+streets and houses and inhabitants and a church within it; and, going up
+and down behind the warder, without any freedom to get acquainted with
+the place by strolling about, I know little more about it than when I
+went in,--only recollecting a mean and disagreeable confusion of brick
+walls, barracks, paved courts, with here and there a low bulky turret, of
+rather antique aspect, and, in front of one of the edifices, a range of
+curious old cannon, lying on the ground, some of them immensely large and
+long, and beautifully wrought in brass.  I observed by a plan, however,
+that the White Tower, containing the armory, stands about in the centre
+of the fortress, and that it is a square, battlemented structure, having
+a turret at each angle.  We followed the warder into the White Tower, and
+there saw, in the first place, a long gallery of mounted knights, and men
+at arms, which has been so often described that when I wish to recall it
+to memory I shall turn to some other person's account of it.  I was much
+struck, however, with the beautiful execution of a good many of the suits
+of armor, and the exquisite detail with which they were engraved.  The
+artists of those days attained very great skill, in this kind of
+manufacture.  The figures of the knights, too, in full array, undoubtedly
+may have shown a combination of stateliness and grace which heretofore I
+have not believed in,--not seeing how it could be compatible with iron
+garments.  But it is quite incomprehensible how, in the time of the
+heaviest armor, they could strike a blow, or possess any freedom of
+movement, except such as a turtle is capable of; and, in truth, they are
+said not to have been able to rise up when overthrown.  They probably
+stuck out their lances, and rode straight at the enemy, depending upon
+upsetting him by their mass and weight.  In the row of knights is Henry
+VIII.; also Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who must have been an
+immensely bulky man; also, a splendid suit of armor, gilded all over,
+presented by the city of London to Charles I.; also, two or three suits
+of boys' armor, for the little princes of the House of Stuart.  They
+began to wear these burdens betimes, in order that their manhood might be
+the more tolerant of them.  We went through this gallery so hastily that
+it would have been about as well not to have seen it at all.
+
+Then we went up a winding stair to another room, containing armor and
+weapons, and beautiful brass cannon, that appeared to have been for
+ornament rather than use, some of them being quite covered with embossed
+sculpture, marvellously well wrought.  In this room was John of Gaunt's
+suit, indicating a man seven feet high, and the armor seems to bear the
+marks of much wear; but this may be owing to great scrubbing, throughout
+the centuries since John of Gaunt died.  There, too, we saw the cloak in
+which Wolfe fell, on the Plains of Abraham,--a coarse, faded, threadbare,
+light-colored garment, folded up under a glass case.  Many other things
+we might have seen, worthy of being attended to, had there been time to
+look at them.
+
+Following into still another room, we were told that this was Sir Walter
+Raleigh's apartment, while confined in the Tower, so that it was within
+these walls that he wrote the History of the World.  The room was
+formerly lighted by lancet windows, and must have been very gloomy; but,
+if he had the whole length of it to himself, it was a good space to walk
+and meditate in.  On one side of the apartment is a low door, giving
+admittance, we were told, to the cell where Raleigh slept; so we went in,
+and found it destitute of any window, and so dark that we could not
+estimate its small extent except by feeling about.  At the threshold of
+this sleeping-kennel, there were one or two inscriptions, scratched in
+the wall, but not, I believe, by Raleigh.
+
+In this apartment, among a great many other curious things, are shown the
+devilish instruments of torture which the Spaniards were bringing to
+England in their Armada; and, at the end of the room, sits Queen
+Elizabeth on horseback, in her high ruff and faded finery.  Very likely
+none of these clothes were ever on her actual person.  Here, too, we saw
+a headsman's block,--not that on which Raleigh was beheaded, which I
+would have given gold to see, but the one which was used for the Scotch
+Lords Kilmarnock, Lovat, and others, executed on account of the Rebellion
+of 1745.  It is a block of oak, about two feet high, with a large knot in
+it, so that it would not easily be split by a blow of the axe; hewn and
+smoothed in a very workmanlike way, and with a hollow to accommodate the
+head and shoulders on each side.  There were two or three very strong
+marks of the axe in the part over which the neck lay, and several smaller
+cuts; as if the first stroke nearly severed the head, and then the
+chopping off was finished by smaller blows, as we see a butcher cutting
+meat with his cleaver.  A headsman's axe was likewise shown us,--its date
+unknown.
+
+In the White Tower we were shown the Regalia, under a glass, and within
+an iron cage.  Edward the Confessor's golden staff was very finely
+wrought; and there were a great many pretty things; but I have a
+suspicion, I know not why, that these are not the real jewels,--at least,
+that such inestimable ones as the Koh-i-noor (or however it is spelt) are
+less freely exhibited.
+
+The warder then led us into a paved court, which he said was the place of
+execution of all royal personages and others, who, from motives of fear
+or favor, were beheaded privately.  Raleigh was among these, and so was
+Anne Boleyn.  We then followed to the Beauchamp Tower, where many state
+prisoners of note were confined, and where, on the walls of one of the
+chambers, there are several inscriptions and sculptures of various
+devices, done by the prisoners,--and very skilfully done, too, though
+perhaps with no better instrument than an old nail.  These poor wretches
+had time and leisure enough to spend upon their work.  This chamber is
+lighted by small lancet windows, pierced at equal intervals round the
+circle of the Beauchamp Tower; and it contains a large, square fireplace,
+in which is now placed a small modern stove.  We were hurried away,
+before we could even glance at the inscriptions, and we saw nothing else,
+except the low, obscure doorway in the Bloody Tower, leading to the
+staircase, under which were found the supposed bones of the little
+princes; and lastly, the round, Norman arch, opening to the water
+passage, called the Traitor's Gate.  Finally, we ate some cakes and buns
+in the refreshment-room connected with the ticket-office, and then left
+the fortress.  The ancient moat, by the way, has been drained within a
+few years, and now forms a great hollow space, with grassy banks, round
+about the citadel.
+
+We now wished to see the Thames, and therefore threaded our way along
+Thames Street, towards London Bridge, passing through a fish-market,
+which I suppose to be the actual Billingsgate, whence originated all the
+foul language in England.  Under London Bridge there is a station for
+steamers running to Greenwich and Woolwich.  We got on board one of
+these, not very well knowing, nor much caring, whither it might take us,
+and steamed down the river, which is bordered with the shabbiest,
+blackest, ugliest, meanest buildings: it is the back side of the town;
+and, in truth, the muddy tide of the Thames deserves to see no better.
+There was a great deal of shipping in the river, and many steamers, and
+it was much more crowded than the Mersey, where all the ships go into
+docks; but the vessels were not so fine.  By and by we reached Greenwich,
+and went ashore there, proceeding up from the quay, past beer-shops and
+eating-houses in great numbers and variety.  Greenwich Hospital is here a
+very prominent object, and after passing along its extensive front,
+facing towards the river, we entered one of the principal gates, as we
+found ourselves free to do.
+
+We now left the hospital, and steamed back to London Bridge, whence we
+went up into the city, and, to finish the labors of the day, ascended the
+Monument.  This seems to be still a favorite adventure with the cockneys;
+for we heard one woman, who went up with us, saying that she had been
+thinking of going up all her life, and another said that she had gone up
+thirty years ago.  There is an iron railing, or rather a cage, round the
+top, through which it would be impossible for people to force their way,
+in order to precipitate themselves, as six persons have heretofore done.
+There was a mist over London, so that we did not gain a very clear view,
+except of the swarms of people running about, like ants, in the streets
+at the foot of the Monument.
+
+Descending, I put S----- and the children into a cab, and I myself
+wandered about the city.  Passing along Fleet Street, I turned in through
+an archway, which I rightly guessed to be the entrance to the Temple.  It
+is a very large space, containing many large, solemn, and serious
+edifices of dark brick, and no sooner do you pass under the arch than all
+the rumble and bustle of London dies away at once; and it seems as if a
+person might live there in perfect quiet, without suspecting that it was
+not always a Sabbath.  People appear to have their separate residences
+here; but I do not understand what is the economy of their lives.  Quite
+in the deepest interior of this region, there is a large garden,
+bordering on the Thames, along which it has a gravel-walk, and benches
+where it would be pleasant to sit.  On one edge of the garden, there is
+some scanty shrubbery, and flowers of no great brilliancy; and the
+greensward, with which the garden is mostly covered, is not particularly
+rich nor verdant.
+
+Emerging from the Temple, I stopped at a tavern in the Strand, the waiter
+of which observed to me, "They say Sebastopol is taken, sir!"  It was
+only such an interesting event that could have induced an English waiter
+to make a remark to a stranger, not called for in the way of business.
+
+The best view we had of the town--in fact, the only external view, and
+the only time we really saw the White Tower--was from the river, as we
+steamed past it.  Here the high, square, battlemented White Tower, with
+the four turrets at its corners, rises prominently above all other parts
+of the fortress.
+
+
+September 13th.--Mr. ------, the American Minister, called on me on
+Tuesday, and left his card; an intimation that I ought sooner to have
+paid my respects to him; so yesterday forenoon I set out to find his
+residence, 56 Harley Street.  It is a street out of Cavendish Square, in
+a fashionable quarter, although fashion is said to be ebbing away from
+it.  The ambassador seems to intend some little state in his
+arrangements; but, no doubt, the establishment compares shabbily enough
+with those of the legations of other great countries, and with the houses
+of the English aristocracy.  A servant, not in livery, or in a very
+unrecognizable one, opened the door for me, and gave my card to a sort of
+upper attendant, who took it in to Mr. ------.  He had three gentlemen
+with him, so desired that I should be ushered into the office of the
+legation, until he should be able to receive me.  Here I found a clerk or
+attache, Mr. M------, who has been two or three years on this side of the
+water; an intelligent person, who seems to be in correspondence with the
+New York Courier and Enquirer.  By and by came in another American to get
+a passport for the Continent, and soon the three gentlemen took leave of
+the ambassador, and I was invited to his presence.
+
+The tall, large figure of Mr. ------ has a certain air of state and
+dignity; he carries his head in a very awkward way, but still looks like
+a man of long and high authority, and, with his white hair, is now quite
+venerable.  There is certainly a lack of polish, a kind of rusticity,
+notwithstanding which you feel him to be a man of the world.  I should
+think he might succeed very tolerably in English society, being heavy and
+sensible, cool, kindly, and good-humored, with a great deal of experience
+of life.  We talked about various matters, politics among the rest; and
+he observed that if the President had taken the advice which he gave him
+in two long letters, before his inauguration, he would have had a
+perfectly quiet and successful term of office.  The advice was, to form a
+perfectly homogeneous cabinet of Union men, and to satisfy the extremes
+of the party by a fair distribution of minor offices; whereas he formed
+his cabinet of extreme men, on both sides, and gave the minor offices to
+moderate ones.  But the antislavery people, surely, had no representative
+in the cabinet.  Mr. ------ further observed, that he thought the
+President had a fair chance of re-nomination, for that the South could
+not, in honor, desert him; to which I replied that the South had been
+guilty of such things heretofore.  Mr. ------ thinks that the next
+Presidential term will be more important and critical, both as to our
+foreign relations and internal affairs, than any preceding one,--which I
+should judge likely enough to be the case, although I heard the sane
+prophecy often made respecting the present term.
+
+The ambassador dined with us at Rock Park a year or two ago, and I then
+felt, and always feel, as if he were a man of hearty feeling and
+simplicity, and certainly it would be unjust to conclude otherwise,
+merely from the fact (very suspicious, it is true) of his having been a
+life-long politician.  After we had got through a little matter of
+business (respecting a young American who has enlisted at Liverpool), the
+Minister rang his bell, and ordered another visitor to be admitted; and
+so I took my leave.  In the other room I found the Secretary of
+Legation,--a tall, slender man of about forty, with a small head and
+face,--gentlemanly enough, sensible, and well informed, yet I should
+judge, not quite up to his place.  There was also a Dr. B------ from
+Michigan present, and I rather fancy the ambassador is quite as much
+bored with visitors as the consul at Liverpool.  Before I left the
+office, Mr. ------ came in with Miss Sarah Clarke on his arm.  She had
+come thither to get her passport vised; and when her business was
+concluded, we went out together.
+
+She was going farther towards the West End, and I into the city; so we
+soon parted, and I lost myself among the streets and squares, arriving at
+last at Oxford Street, though even then I did not know whether my face
+were turned cityward or in the opposite direction.  Crossing Regent
+Street, however, I became sure of my whereabout, and went on through
+Holborn, and sought hither and thither for Grace Church Street, in order
+to find the American Consul, General Campbell; for I needed his aid to
+get a bank post-bill cashed.  But I could not find the street, go where I
+would; so at last I went to No. 65 Cheapside, and introduced myself to
+Mr. ------, whom I already knew by letter, and by a good many of his
+poems, which he has sent me, and by two excellent watches, which I bought
+of him.  This establishment, though it has the ordinary front of dingy
+brick, common to buildings in the city, looks like a time-long stand, the
+old shop of a London tradesman, with a large figure of a watch over the
+door, a great many watches (and yet no gorgeous show of them) in the
+window, a low, dark front shop, and a little room behind, where there was
+a chair or two.  Mr. ------ is a small, slender young man, quite
+un-English in aspect, with black, curly hair, a thin, dark, colorless
+visage, very animated and of quick expression, with a nervous
+temperament. . . . He dismounted from a desk when my card was handed
+to him, and turned to me with a vivid, glad look of recognition.
+
+We talked, in the first place, about poetry and such matters, about
+England and America, and the nature and depth of their mutual dislike,
+and, of course, the slavery question came up, as it always does, in one
+way or another.  Anon, I produced my bank post-bill; and Mr. ------
+kindly engaged to identify me at the bank, being ready to swear to me, he
+said, on the strength of my resemblance to my engraved portrait.  So we
+set out for the Bank of England, and, arriving there, were directed to
+the proper clerk, after much inquiry; but he told us that the bill was
+not yet due, having been drawn at seven days, and having two still to
+run,--which was the fact.  As I was almost shillingless, Mr. ------ now
+offered to cash it for me.  He is very kind and good. . . . Arriving at
+his shop again, he went out to procure the money, and soon returned with
+it.  At my departure he gave me a copy of a new poem of his, entitled
+"Verdicts," somewhat in the manner of Lowell's satire. . . . Mr. ------
+resides now at Greenwich, whither he hoped I would come and see him on my
+return to London.  Perhaps I will, for I like him.  It seems strange to
+see an Englishman with so little physical ponderosity and obtuseness of
+nerve.
+
+After parting from him, it being three o'clock or thereabouts, I resumed
+my wanderings about the city, of which I never weary as long as I can put
+one foot before the other.
+
+Seeing that the door of St. Paul's, under one of the semicircular
+porches, was partially open, I went in, and found that the afternoon
+service was about to be performed; so I remained to hear it, and to see
+what I could of the cathedral.  What a total and admirable contrast
+between this and a Gothic church! the latter so dim and mysterious, with
+its various aisles, its intricacy of pointed arches, its dark walls and
+columns and pavement, and its painted glass windows, bedimming even what
+daylight might otherwise get into its eternal evening.  But this
+cathedral was full of light, and light was proper to it.  There were no
+painted windows, no dim recesses, but a wide and airy space beneath the
+dome; and even through the long perspective of the nave there was no
+obscurity, but one lofty and beautifully rounded arch succeeding to
+another, as far as the eye could reach.  The walls were white, the
+pavement constructed of squares of gray and white marble.  It is a most
+grand and stately edifice, and its characteristic stems to be to continue
+forever fresh and new; whereas such a church as Westminster Abbey must
+have been as venerable as it is now from the first day when it grew to be
+an edifice at all.  How wonderful man is in his works!  How glad I am
+that there can be two such admirable churches, in their opposite styles,
+as St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey!
+
+The organ was played while I was there, and there was an anthem
+beautifully chanted by voices that came from afar off and remotely above,
+as if out of a sunny sky.  Meanwhile I looked at such monuments as were
+near; chiefly those erected to military or naval men,--Picton, General
+Ponsonby, Lord St. Vincent, and others; but against one of the pillars
+stands a statue of Dr. Johnson,--a noble and thoughtful figure, with a
+development of muscle befitting an athlete.  I doubt whether sculptors do
+not err in point of taste, by making all their statues models of physical
+perfection, instead of expressing by them the individual character and
+habits of the man.  The statue in the market-place at Lichfield has more
+of the homely truth of Johnson's actual personality than this.
+
+St. Paul's, as yet, is by no means crowded with monuments; there is,
+indeed, plenty of room for a mob of the illustrious, yet to come.  But it
+seems to me that the character of the edifice would be injured by
+allowing the monuments to be clustered together so closely as at
+Westminster, by incrusting the walls with them, or letting the statues
+throng about the pedestals of columns.  There must be no confusion in
+such a cathedral as this, and I question whether the effect will ever be
+better than it is now, when each monument has its distinct place, and as
+your eye wanders around, you are not distracted from noting each marble
+man, in his niche against the wall, or at the base of a marble pillar.
+Space, distance, light, regularity, are to be preserved, even if the
+result should be a degree of nakedness.
+
+I saw Mr. Appleton of the Legation, and Dr. Brown, on the floor of the
+cathedral.  They were about to go over the whole edifice, and had engaged
+a guide for that purpose; but, as I intend to go thither again with
+S-----, I did not accompany them, but went away the quicker that one of
+the gentlemen put on his hat, and I was ashamed of being seen in company
+with a man who could wear his hat in a cathedral.  Not that he meant any
+irreverence; but simply felt that he was in a great public building,--as
+big, nearly, as all out of doors,--and so forgot that it was a
+consecrated place of worship.  The sky is the dome of a greater cathedral
+than St. Paul's, and built by a greater architect than Sir Christopher
+Wren, and yet we wear our hats unscrupulously beneath it.
+
+I remember no other event of importance, except that I penetrated into a
+narrow lane or court, either in the Strand or Fleet Street, where was a
+tavern, calling itself the "Old Thatched House," and purporting to have
+been Nell Gwyn's dairy.  I met with a great many alleys and obscure
+archways, in the course of the day's wanderings.
+
+
+September 14th.--Yesterday, in the earlier part of the day, it poured
+with rain, and I did not go out till five o'clock in the afternoon; nor
+did I then meet with anything interesting.  I walked through Albemarle
+Street, for the purpose of looking at Murray's shop, but missed it
+entirely, at my first inquisition.  The street is one of hotels,
+principally, with only a few tradesmen's shops, and has a quiet,
+aristocratic aspect.  On my return, down the other sidewalk, I did
+discover the famous publisher's locality; but merely by the name
+"Mr. Murray," engraved on a rather large brass plate, such as doctors
+use, on the door.  There was no sign of a book, nor of its being a place
+of trade in any way; and I should have taken the house to be, if not a
+private mansion, then a lawyer's office.
+
+At seven o'clock S-----, U----, and I went to dine with Mr. R---- S------
+in Portland Place. . . . Mr. S------'s house is a very fine one, and he
+gave us a very quiet, elegant, and enjoyable dinner, in much better taste
+and with less fuss than some others we have attended elsewhere.  Mr.
+S------ is a friend of Thackeray, and, speaking of the last number
+of The Newcomes,--so touching that nobody can read it aloud without
+breaking down,--he mentioned that Thackeray himself had read it to James
+Russell Lowell and William Story in a cider-cellar!  I read all the
+preceding numbers of The Newcomes to my wife, but happened not to have
+an opportunity to read this last, and was glad of it,--knowing that my
+eyes would fill, and my voice quiver.  Mr. S------ likes Thackeray, and
+thinks him a good fellow.  Mr. S------ has a--or I don't know but I ought
+better to say the--beautiful full-length picture of Washington by Stuart,
+and I was proud to see that noblest face and figure here in England.  The
+picture of a man beside whom, considered physically, any English nobleman
+whom I have seen would look like common clay.
+
+Speaking of Thackeray, I cannot but wonder at his coolness in respect to
+his own pathos, and compare it with my emotions, when I read the last
+scene of The Scarlet Letter to my wife, just after writing it,--tried to
+read it rather, for my voice swelled and heaved, as if I were tossed up
+and down on an ocean as it subsides after a storm.  But I was in a very
+nervous state then, having gone through a great diversity of emotion,
+while writing it, for many months.  I think I have never overcome my own
+adamant in any other instance.
+
+Tumblers, hand-organists, puppet-showmen, bagpipers, and all such vagrant
+mirth-makers, are very numerous in the streets of London.  The other day,
+passing through Fleet Street, I saw a crowd filling up a narrow court,
+and high above their heads a tumbler, standing on his head, on the top of
+a pole, that reached as high as the third story of the neighboring
+Houses.  Sliding down the pole head foremost, he disappeared out of my
+sight.  A multitude of Punches go the mounds continually.  Two have
+passed through Hanover Street, where we reside, this morning.  The first
+asked two shillings for his performance; so we sent him away.  The second
+demanded, in the first place, half a crown; but finally consented to take
+a shilling, and gave us the show at that price, though much maimed in its
+proportions.  Besides the spectators in our windows, he had a little
+crowd on the sidewalk, to whom he went round for contributions, but I did
+not observe that anybody gave him so much as a halfpenny.  It is strange
+to see how many people are aiming at the small change in your pocket.  In
+every square a beggar-woman meets you, and turns back to follow your steps
+with her miserable murmur.  At the street-crossings there are old men or
+little girls with their brooms; urchins propose to brush your boots; and
+if you get into a cab, a man runs to open the door for you, and touches
+his hat for a fee, as he closes it again.
+
+
+September 15th.--It was raining yesterday, and I kept within doors till
+after four o'clock, when J----- and I took a walk into the city.  Seeing
+the entrance to Clement's Inn, we went through it, and saw the garden,
+with a kneeling bronze figure in it; and when just in the midst of the
+Inn, I remembered that Justice Shallow was of old a student there.  I do
+not well understand these Inns of Court, or how they differ from other
+places.  Anybody seems to be free to reside in them, and a residence does
+not seem to involve any obligation to study law, or to have any
+connection therewith.  Clement's Inn consists of large brick houses,
+accessible by narrow lanes and passages, but, by some peculiar privilege
+or enchantment, enjoying a certain quiet and repose, though in close
+vicinity to the noisiest part of the city.  I got bewildered in the
+neighborhood of St. Paul's, and, try how I might to escape from it, its
+huge dusky dome kept showing itself before me, through one street and
+another.  In my endeavors to escape it, I at one time found myself in St.
+John's Street, and was in hopes to have seen the old St. John's gate, so
+familiar for above a century on the cover of the Gentleman's Magazine.
+But I suppose it is taken down, for we went through the entire street, I
+think, and saw no trace of it.  Either afterwards or before this we came
+upon Smithfield, a large irregular square, filled up with pens for
+cattle, of which, however, there were none in the market at that time.  I
+leaned upon a post, at the western end of the square, and told J----- how
+the martyrs had been burnt at Smithfield in Bloody Mary's days.  Again we
+drifted back to St. Paul's; and, at last, in despair of ever getting out
+of this enchanted region, I took a Hansom cab to Charing Cross, whence we
+easily made our way home.
+
+
+
+LIVERPOOL.
+
+
+September 16th.--I took the ten-o'clock train yesterday morning from the
+Euston station, and arrived at Liverpool at about five, passing through
+the valley of Trent, without touching at Birmingham.  English scenery, on
+the tracks, is the tamest of the tame, hardly a noticeable hill breaking
+the ordinary gentle undulation of the landscape, but still the verdure
+and finish of the fields and parks make it worth while to throw out a
+glance now and then, as you rush by.  Few separate houses are seen, as in
+America; but sometimes a village, with the square, gray, battlemented
+tower of its Norman church, and rows of thatched cottages, reminding one
+of the clustered mud-nests of swallows, under the eaves of a barn; here
+and there a lazy little river, like the Trent; perhaps, if you look
+sharply where the guide-book indicates, the turrets of an old castle in
+the distance; perhaps the great steeple and spires of a cathedral;
+perhaps the tall chimney of a manufactory; but, on the whole, the
+traveller comes to his journey's end unburdened with a single new idea.
+I observe that the harvest is not all gathered in as yet, and this
+rainy weather must look very gloomy to the farmer.  I saw gleaners,
+yesterday, in the stubble-fields.  There were two gentlemen in the same
+railway-carriage with me, and we did not exchange half a dozen words the
+whole day.
+
+I am here, established at Mrs. Blodgett's boarding-house, which I find
+quite full; insomuch that she had to send one of her sea-captains to
+sleep in another house, in order to make room for me.  It is exclusively
+American society: four shipmasters, and a doctor from Pennsylvania, who
+has been travelling a year on the Continent, and who seems to be a man of
+very active intelligence, interested in everything, and especially in
+agriculture. . . . He asserted that we are fifty years ahead of England
+in agricultural science, and that he could cultivate English soil to far
+better advantage than English farmers do, and at vastly less expense.
+Their tendency to cling to old ideas, which retards them in everything
+else, keeps them behindhand in this matter too.  Really, I do not know
+any other place in England where a man can be made so sensible that he
+lives in a progressive world as here in Mrs. Blodgett's boarding-house.
+
+The captains talk together about their voyages, and how they manage with
+their unruly mates and crews; and how freights are in America, and the
+prospects of business; and of equinoctial gales, and the qualities of
+different ships, and their commanders, and how crews, mates, and masters
+have all deteriorated since their remembrance. . . . But these men are
+alive, and talk of real matters, and of matters which they know.  The
+shipmasters who come to Mrs. Blodgett's are favorable specimens of their
+class; being all respectable men, in the employ of good houses, and
+raised by their capacity to the command of first-rate ships.  In my
+official intercourse with them, I do not generally see their best side;
+as they are seldom before me except as complainants, or when summoned to
+answer to some complaint made by a seaman.  But hearing their daily talk,
+and listening to what is in their minds, and their reminiscences of what
+they have gone through, one becomes sensible that they are men of energy
+and ability, fit to be trusted, and retaining a hardy sense of honor, and
+a loyalty to their own country, the stronger because they have compared
+it with many others.  Most of them are gentlemen, too, to a certain
+extent,--some more than others, perhaps; and none to a very exquisite
+point, or, if so, it is none the better for them as sailors or as men.
+
+
+September 17th.--It is singular to feel a sense of my own country
+returning upon me with the intercourse of the people whom I find
+here. . . .
+
+The doctor is much the most talkative of our company, and sometimes bores
+me thereby; though he seldom says anything that is not either instructive
+or amusing.  He tells a curious story of Prince Albert, and how he avails
+himself of American sharp-shooting.  During the doctor's tour in
+Scotland, which he has just finished, he became acquainted with one of
+the Prince's attaches, who invited him very earnestly to join his Royal
+highness's party, promising him a good gun, and a keeper to load it for
+him, two good dogs, besides as many cigars as he could smoke and as much
+wine as he could drink, on the condition that whatever game he shot
+should be the Prince's.  "The Prince," said the attache, "is very fond of
+having Americans in his shooting-parties, on  account of their being such
+excellent shots; and there was one with him last year who shot so
+admirably that his Royal Highness himself left off shooting in utter
+astonishment."  The attache offered to introduce the doctor to the
+Prince, who would be certain to receive him very graciously. . . .
+
+I think, perhaps, we talk of kings and queens more at our table than
+people do at other tables in England; not, of course, that we like them
+better, or admire them more, but that they are curiosities.  Yet I would
+not say that the doctor may not be susceptible on the point of royal
+attentions; for he told us with great complacency how emphatically, on
+two or three occasions, Louis Napoleon had returned his bow, and the last
+time had turned and made some remark (evidently about the doctor) to the
+Empress. . . .
+
+I ought not to omit mentioning that he has been told in France that he
+personally resembles the Emperor, and I suspect he is trying to heighten
+the resemblance by training his mustache on the pattern of that which
+adorns the imperial upper lip.  He is a genuine American character,
+though modified by a good deal of travel; a very intelligent man, full of
+various ability, with eyes all over him for any object of interest,--a
+little of the bore, sometimes,--quick to appreciate character, with a
+good deal of tact, gentlemanly in his manners, but yet lacking a deep and
+delicate refinement.  Not but that Americans are as capable of this last
+quality as other people are; but what with the circumstances amid which
+we grow up, and the peculiar activity of our minds, we certainly do often
+miss it.  By the by, he advanced a singular proposition the other
+evening, namely, that the English people do not so well understand
+comfort, or attain it so perfectly in their domestic arrangements, as we
+do.  I thought he hardly supported this opinion so satisfactorily as some
+of his other new ideas.
+
+I saw in an American paper yesterday, that an opera, still unfinished,
+had been written on the story of The Scarlet Letter, and that several
+scenes of it had been performed successfully in New York.  I should think
+it might possibly succeed as an opera, though it would certainly fail as
+a play.
+
+
+
+LONDON.
+
+
+September 24th.--On Saturday, at half past three o'clock, I left
+Liverpool by the London and Northwest Railway for London.  Mrs.
+Blodgett's table had been thinned by several departures during the
+week. . . . My mind had been considerably enlivened, and my sense of
+American superiority renewed, by intercourse with these people; and there
+is no danger of one's intellect becoming a standing pool in such society.
+I think better of American shipmasters, too, than I did from merely
+meeting them in my office.  They keep up a continual discussion of
+professional matters, and of all things having any reference to their
+profession; the laws of insurance, the rights of vessels in foreign
+ports, the authority and customs of vessels of war with regard to
+merchantmen, etc.,--with stories and casual anecdotes of their
+sea-adventures, gales, shipwrecks, icebergs, and collisions of vessels,
+and hair-breadth escapes.  Their talk runs very much on the sea, and on
+the land as connected with the sea; and their interest does not seem to
+extend very far beyond the wide field of their professional concerns.
+
+Nothing remarkable occurred on the journey to London.  The greater part
+of the way there were only two gentlemen in the same compartment with me;
+and we occupied each our corner, with little other conversation than in
+comparing watches at the various stations.  I got out of the carriage
+only once, at Rugby, I think, and for the last seventy or eighty miles
+the train did not stop.  There was a clear moon the latter part of the
+journey, and the mist lay along the ground, looking very much like a
+surface of water.  We reached London at about ten, and I found S-----
+expecting me.
+
+Yesterday the children went with Fanny to the Zoological Gardens; and,
+after sending them off, S----- and I walked to Piccadilly, and there took
+a cab for Kensington Gardens.  It was a delightful day,--the best of all
+weather, the real English good weather,--more like an Indian summer than
+anything else within my experience; a mellow sunshine, with great warmth
+in it,--a soft, balmy air, with a slight haze through it.  If the sun
+made us a little too warm, we had but to go into the shade to be
+immediately refreshed.  The light of these days is very exquisite, so
+gently bright, without any glare,--a veiled glow.  In short, it is the
+kindliest mood of Nature, and almost enough to compensate for chill and
+dreary months.  Moreover, there is more of such weather here than the
+English climate has ever had credit for.
+
+Kensington Gardens form an eminently beautiful piece of artificial
+woodland and park scenery.  The old palace of Kensington, now inhabited
+by the Duchess of Inverness, stands at one extremity; an edifice of no
+great mark, built of brick, covering much ground, and low in proportion
+to its extent.  In front of it, at a considerable distance, there is a
+sheet of water; and in all directions there are vistas of wide paths
+among noble trees, standing in groves, or scattered in clumps; everything
+being laid out with free and generous spaces, so that you can see long
+streams of sunshine among the trees, and there is a pervading influence
+of quiet and remoteness.  Tree does not interfere with tree; the art of
+man is seen conspiring with Nature, as if they had consulted together how
+to make a beautiful scene, and had taken ages of quiet thought and tender
+care to accomplish it.  We strolled slowly along these paths, and
+sometimes deviated from them, to walk beneath the trees, many of the
+leaves of which lay beneath our feet, yellow and brown, and with a
+pleasant smell of vegetable decay.  These were the leaves of
+chestnut-trees; the other trees (unless elms) have yet, hardly begun to
+shed their foliage, although you can discern a sober change of line in
+the woodland masses; and the trees individualize themselves by assuming
+each its own tint, though in a very modest way.  If they could have
+undergone the change of an American autumn, it would have been like
+putting on a regal robe.  Autumn often puts one on in America, but it is
+apt to be very ragged.
+
+There were a good many well-dressed people scattered through the
+grounds,--young men and girls, husbands with their wives and children,
+nursery-maids and little babes playing about in the grass.  Anybody might
+have entered the gardens, I suppose; but only well-dressed people were
+there not, of the upper classes, but shop-keepers, clerks, apprentices,
+and respectability of that sort.  It is pleasant to think that the people
+have the freedom, and therefore the property, of parks like this, more
+beautiful and stately than a nobleman can keep to himself.  The extent of
+Kensington Gardens, when reckoned together with Hyde Park, from which it
+is separated only by a fence of iron rods, is very great, comprising
+miles of greensward and woodland.  The large artificial sheet of water,
+called the Serpentine River, lies chiefly in Hyde Park, but comes
+partly within the precincts of the gardens.  It is entitled to
+honorable mention among the English lakes, being larger than some that
+are world-celebrated,--several miles long, and perhaps a stone's-throw
+across in the widest part.  It forms the paradise of a great many ducks
+of various breeds, which are accustomed to be fed by visitors, and come
+flying from afar, touching the water with their wings, and quacking
+loudly when bread or cake is thrown to them.  I bought a bun of a little
+hunchbacked man, who kept a refreshment-stall near the Serpentine, and
+bestowed it pied-meal on these ducks, as we loitered along the bank.  We
+left the park by another gate, and walked homeward, till we came to
+Tyburnia, and saw the iron memorial which marks where the gallows used to
+stand.  Thence we turned into Park Lane, then into Upper Grosvenor
+Street, and reached Hanover Square sooner than we expected.
+
+In the evening I walked forth to Charing Cross, and thence along the
+Strand and Fleet Street, where I made no new discoveries, unless it were
+the Mitre Tavern.  I mean to go into it some day.  The streets were much
+thronged, and there seemed to be a good many young people,--lovers, it is
+to be hoped,--who had spent the day together, and were going innocently
+home.  Perhaps so,--perhaps not.
+
+
+September 25th.--Yesterday forenoon J----- and I walked out, with no very
+definite purpose; but, seeing a narrow passageway from the Strand down to
+the river, we went through it, and gained access to a steamboat, plying
+thence to London Bridge.  The fare was a halfpenny apiece, and the boat
+almost too much crowded for standing-room.  This part of the river
+presents the water-side of London in a rather pleasanter aspect than
+below London Bridge,--the Temple, with its garden, Somerset House,--and
+generally, a less tumble-down and neglected look about the buildings;
+although, after all, the metropolis does not see a very stately face in
+its mirror.  I saw Alsatia betwixt the Temple and Blackfriar's Bridge.
+Its precincts looked very narrow, and not particularly distinguishable,
+at this day, from the portions of the city on either side of it.  At
+London Bridge we got aboard of a Woolwich steamer, and went farther down
+the river, passing the Custom-House and the Tower, the only prominent
+objects rising out of the dreary range of shabbiness which stretches
+along close to the water's edge.
+
+From this remote part of London we walked towards the heart of the city;
+and, as we went, matters seemed to civilize themselves by degrees, and
+the streets grew crowded with cabs, omnibuses, drays, and carts.  We
+passed, I think, through Whitechapel, and, reaching St. Paul's, got into
+an omnibus, and drove to Regent Street, whence it was but a step or two
+home.
+
+In the afternoon, at four o'clock, S----- and I went to call on the
+American Ambassador and Miss L------.  The lady was not at home, but we
+went in to see Mr. ------ and were shown into a stately drawing-room, the
+furniture of which was sufficiently splendid, but rather the worse for
+wear,--being hired furniture, no doubt.  The ambassador shortly appeared,
+looking venerable, as usual,--or rather more so than usual,--benign, and
+very pale.  His deportment towards ladies is highly agreeable and
+prepossessing, and he paid very kind attention to S-----, thereby quite
+confirming her previous good feeling towards him.  She thinks that he is
+much changed since she saw him last, at dinner, at our house,--more
+infirm, more aged, and with a singular depression in his manner.  I, too,
+think that age has latterly come upon him with great rapidity.  He said
+that Miss L------ was going home on the 6th of October, and that he
+himself had long purposed going, but had received despatches which
+obliged him to put off his departure.  The President, he said, had just
+written, requesting him to remain till April, but this he was determined
+not to do.  I rather think that he does really wish to return, and not
+for any ambitious views concerning the Presidency, but from an old man's
+natural desire to be at home, and among his own people.
+
+S----- spoke to him about an order from the Lord Chamberlain for
+admission to view the two Houses of Parliament; and the ambassador drew
+from his pocket a colored silk handkerchief, and made a knot in it, in
+order to remind himself to ask the Lord Chamberlain.  The homeliness of
+this little incident has a sort of propriety and keeping with much of
+Mr. ------'s manner, but I would rather not have him do so before English
+people.  He arranged to send a close carriage for us to come and see him
+socially this evening.  After leaving his house we drove round Hyde Park,
+and thence to Portland Place, where we left cards for Mrs. Russell
+Sturgis; thence into Regent's Park, thence home.  U---- and J-----
+accompanied us throughout these drives, but remained in the carriage
+during our call on Mr. ------.  In the evening I strolled out, and walked
+as far as St. Paul's,--never getting enough of the bustle of London,
+which may weary, but can never satisfy me.  By night London looks wild
+and dreamy, and fills me with a sort of pleasant dread.  It was a clear
+evening, with a bright English moon,--that is to say, what we Americans
+should call rather dim.
+
+
+September 26th.--Yesterday, at eleven, I walked towards Westminster
+Abbey, and as I drew near the Abbey bells were clamorous for joy, chiming
+merrily, musically, and, obstreperously,--the most rejoicing sound that
+can be conceived; and we ought to have a chime of bells in every American
+town and village, were it only to keep alive the celebration of the
+Fourth of July.  I conjectured that there might have been another victory
+over the Russians, that perhaps the northern side of Sebastopol had
+surrendered; but soon I saw the riddle that these merry bells were
+proclaiming.  There were a great many private carriages, and a large
+concourse of loungers and spectators, near the door of the church that
+stands close under the eaves of the Abbey.  Gentlemen and ladies, gayly
+dressed, were issuing forth, carriages driving away, and others drawing
+up to the door in their turn; and, in short, a marriage had just been
+celebrated in the church, and this was the wedding-party.  The last time
+I was there, Westminster was flinging out its great voice of joy for a
+national triumph; now, for the happy union of two lovers.  What a mighty
+sympathizer is this old Abbey!
+
+It is pleasant to recognize the mould and fashion of English features
+through the marble of many of the statues and busts in the Abbey, even
+though they may be clad in Roman robes.  I am inclined to think them, in
+many cases, faithful likenesses; and it brings them nearer to the mind,
+to see these original sculptures,--you see the man at but one remove, as
+if you caught his image in a looking-glass.  The bust of Gay seemed to me
+very good,--a thoughtful and humorous sweetness in the face.  Goldsmith
+has as good a position as any poet in the Abbey, his bust and tablet
+filling the pointed arch over a door that seems to lead towards the
+cloisters.  No doubt he would have liked to be assured of so conspicuous
+a place.  There is one monument to a native American, "Charles Wragg,
+Esq., of South Carolina,"--the only one, I suspect, in Westminster Abbey,
+and he acquired this memorial by the most un-American of qualities, his
+loyalty to his king.  He was one of the refugees leaving America in 1777,
+and being shipwrecked on his passage the monument was put up by his
+sister.  It is a small tablet with a representation of Mr. Wragg's
+shipwreck at the base.  Next to it is the large monument of Sir
+Cloudesley Shovel, which I think Addison ridicules,--the Admiral, in a
+full-bottomed wig and Roman dress, but with a broad English face,
+reclining with his head on his hand, and looking at you with great
+placidity.  I stood at either end of the nave, and endeavored to take in
+the full beauty and majesty of the edifice; but apparently was not in a
+proper state of mind, for nothing came of it.  It is singular how like an
+avenue of overarching trees are these lofty aisles of a cathedral.
+
+Leaving the Abbey about one o'clock, I walked into the city as far
+as Grace Church Street, and there called on the American Consul,
+General ------, who had been warmly introduced to me last year by a
+letter from the President.  I like the General; a kindly and honorable
+man, of simple manners and large experience of life.  Afterwards I called
+on Mr. Oakford, an American connected in business with Mr. Crosby, from
+whom I wanted some information as to the sailing of steamers from
+Southampton to Lisbon.  Mr. Crosby was not in town. . . .
+
+At eight o'clock Mr. ------ sent his carriage, according to previous
+arrangement, to take us to spend the evening socially.  Miss L------
+received us with proper cordiality, and looked quite becomingly,--more
+sweet and simple in aspect than when I have seen her in full dress.
+Shortly the ambassador appeared, and made himself highly agreeable; not
+that he is a brilliant conversationist, but his excellent sense and
+good-humor, and all that he has seen and been a part of, are sufficient
+resources to draw upon.  We talked of the Queen, whom he spoke of with
+high respect; . . . . of the late Czar, whom he knew intimately while
+minister to Russia,--and he quite confirms all that has been said about
+the awful beauty of his person.  Mr. ------'s characterization of him was
+quite favorable; he thought better of his heart than most people, and
+adduced his sports with a school of children,--twenty of whom, perhaps,
+he made to stand rigidly in a row, like so many bricks,--then, giving one
+a push, would laugh obstreperously to see the whole row tumble down.  He
+would lie on his back, and allow the little things to scramble over him.
+His Majesty admitted Mr. ------ to great closeness of intercourse, and
+informed him of a conspiracy which was then on foot for the Czar's
+murder.  On the evening, when the assassination was to take place, the
+Czar did not refrain from going to the public place where it was to be
+perpetrated, although, indeed, great precautions had been taken to
+frustrate the schemes of the conspirators.  Mr. ------ said, that, in
+case the plot had succeeded, all the foreigners, including himself, would
+likewise have been murdered, the native Russians having a bitter hatred
+against foreigners.  He observed that he had been much attached to the
+Czar, and had never joined in the English abuse of him.  His sympathies,
+however, are evidently rather English than Russian, in this war.
+Speaking of the present emperor, he said that Lord Heytebury, formerly
+English ambassador in Russia, lately told him that he complimented the
+Czar Nicholas on the good qualities of his son, saying that he was
+acknowledged by all to be one of the most amiable youths in the world.
+"Too amiable, I fear, for his position," answered the Czar.  "He has too
+much of his mother in him."
+
+
+September 27th.--Yesterday, much earlier than English people ever do such
+things, General ------ made us a call on his way to the Consulate, and
+sat talking a stricken hour or thereabouts.  Scarcely had he gone when
+Mrs. Oakford and her daughter came.  After sitting a long while, they
+took U---- to their house, near St. John's Wood, to spend the night.  I
+had been writing my journal and official correspondence during such
+intervals as these calls left me; and now, concluding these businesses,
+S-----, J-----, and I went out and took a cab for the terminus of the
+Crystal Palace Railway, whither we proceeded over Waterloo Bridge, and
+reached the palace not far from three o'clock.  It was a beautifully
+bright day, such as we have in wonderful succession this month.  The
+Crystal Palace gleamed in the sunshine; but I do not think a very
+impressive edifice can be built of glass,--light and airy, to be sure,
+but still it will be no other than an overgrown conservatory.  It is
+unlike anything else in England; uncongenial with the English character,
+without privacy, destitute of mass, weight, and shadow, unsusceptible of
+ivy, lichens, or any mellowness from age.
+
+The train of carriages stops within the domain of the palace, where there
+is a long ascending corridor up into the edifice.  There was a very
+pleasant odor of heliotrope diffused through the air; and, indeed, the
+whole atmosphere of the Crystal Palace is sweet with various
+flower-scents, and mild and balmy, though sufficiently fresh and cool.
+It would be a delightful climate for invalids to spend the winter in; and
+if all England could be roofed over with glass, it would be a great
+improvement on its present condition.
+
+The first thing we did, before fairly getting into the palace, was to sit
+down in a large ante-hall, and get some bread and butter and a pint of
+Bass's pale ale, together with a cup of coffee for S-----.  This was the
+best refreshment we could find at that spot; but farther within we found
+abundance of refreshment-rooms, and John Bull and his wife and family at
+fifty little round tables, busily engaged with cold fowl, cold beef, ham,
+tongue, and bottles of ale and stout, and half-pint decanters of sherry.
+The English probably eat with more simple enjoyment than any other
+people; not ravenously, as we often do, and not exquisitely and
+artificially, like the French, but deliberately and vigorously, and with
+due absorption in the business, so that nothing good is lost upon
+them. . . . It is remarkable how large a feature the refreshment-rooms
+make in the arrangements of the Crystal Palace.
+
+The Crystal Palace is a gigantic toy for the English people to play with.
+The design seems to be to reproduce all past ages, by representing the
+features of their interior architecture, costume, religion, domestic
+life, and everything that can be expressed by paint and plaster; and,
+likewise, to bring all climates and regions of the earth within these
+enchanted precincts, with their inhabitants and animals in living
+semblance, and their vegetable productions, as far as possible, alive and
+real.  Some part of the design is already accomplished to a wonderful
+degree.  The Indian, the Egyptian, and especially the Arabian, courts are
+admirably executed.  I never saw or conceived anything so gorgeous as the
+Alhambra.  There are Byzantine and mediaeval representations, too,--
+reproductions of ancient apartments, decorations, statues from tombs,
+monuments, religious and funereal,--that gave me new ideas of what
+antiquity has been.  It takes down one's overweening opinion of the
+present time, to see how many kinds of beauty and magnificence have
+heretofore existed, and are now quite passed away and forgotten; and to
+find that we, who suppose that, in all matters of taste, our age is the
+very flower-season of the time,--that we are poor and meagre as to many
+things in which they were rich.  There is nothing gorgeous now.  We live
+a very naked life.  This was the only reflection I remember making, as we
+passed from century to century, through the succession of classic,
+Oriental, and mediaeval courts, adown the lapse of time,--seeing all
+these ages in as brief a space as the Wandering Jew might glance along
+them in his memory.  I suppose a Pompeian house with its courts and
+interior apartments was as faithfully shown as it was possible to do it.
+I doubt whether I ever should feel at home in such a house.
+
+In the pool of a fountain, of which there are several beautiful ones
+within the palace, besides larger ones in the garden before it, we saw
+tropical plants growing,--large water-lilies of various colors, some
+white, like our Concord pond-lily, only larger, and more numerously
+leafed.  There were great circular green leaves, lying flat on the water,
+with a circumference equal to that of a centre-table.  Tropical trees,
+too, varieties of palm and others, grew in immense pots or tubs, but
+seemed not to enjoy themselves much.  The atmosphere must, after all, be
+far too cool to bring out their native luxuriance; and this difficulty
+can never be got over at a less expense than that of absolutely stewing
+the visitors and attendants.  Otherwise, it would be very practicable to
+have all the vegetable world, at least, within these precincts.
+
+The palace is very large, and our time was short, it being desirable to
+get home early; so, after a stay of little more than two hours, we took
+the rail back again, and reached Hanover Square at about six.  After tea
+I wandered forth, with some thought of going to the theatre, and, passing
+the entrance of one, in the Strand, I went in, and found a farce in
+progress.  It was one of the minor theatres, very minor indeed; but the
+pieces, so far as I saw them, were sufficiently laughable.  There were
+some Spanish dances, too, very graceful and pretty.  Between the plays a
+girl from the neighboring saloon came to the doors of the boxes, offering
+lemonade and ginger-beer to the occupants.  A person in my box took a
+glass of lemonade, and shared it with a young lady by his side, both
+sipping out of the same glass.  The audience seemed rather heavy,--not
+briskly responsive to the efforts of the performers, but good-natured,
+and willing to be pleased, especially with some patriotic dances, in
+which much waving and intermingling of the French and English flags was
+introduced.  Theatrical performances soon weary me of late years; and I
+came away before the curtain rose on the concluding piece.
+
+
+September 28th.--8---- and I walked to Charing Cross yesterday forenoon,
+and there took a Hansom cab to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It had been a
+thick, foggy morning, but had warmed and brightened into one of the
+balmiest and sunniest of noons.  As we entered the cathedral, the long
+bars of sunshine were falling from its upper windows through the great
+interior atmosphere, and were made visible by the dust, or mist, floating
+about in it.  It is a grand edifice, and I liked it quite as much as on
+my first view of it, although a sense of coldness and nakedness is felt
+when we compare it with Gothic churches.  It is more an external work
+than the Gothic churches are, and is not so made out of the dim, awful,
+mysterious, grotesque, intricate nature of man.  But it is beautiful and
+grand.  I love its remote distances, and wide, clear spaces, its airy
+massiveness; its noble arches, its sky-like dome, which, I think, should
+be all over light, with ground-glass, instead of being dark, with only
+diminutive windows.
+
+We walked round, looking at the monuments, which are so arranged, at the
+bases of columns and in niches, as to coincide with the regularity of the
+cathedral, and be each an additional ornament to the whole, however
+defective individually as works of art.  We thought that many of these
+monuments were striking and impressive, though there was a pervading
+sameness of idea,--a great many Victorys and Valors and Britannias, and a
+great expenditure of wreaths, which must have cost Victory a considerable
+sum at any florist's whom she patronizes.  A very great majority of the
+memorials are to naval and military men, slain in Bonaparte's wars; men
+in whom one feels little or no interest (except Picton, Abercrombie,
+Moore, Nelson, of course, and a few others really historic), they having
+done nothing remarkable, save having been shot, nor shown any more brains
+than the cannonballs that killed them.  All the statues have the dust of
+years upon then, strewn thickly in the folds of their marble garments,
+and on any limb stretched horizontally, and on their noses, so that the
+expression is much obscured.  I think the nation might employ people to
+brush away the dust from the statues of its heroes.  But, on the whole,
+it is very fine to look through the broad arches of the cathedral, and
+see, at the foot of some distant pillar, a group of sculptured figures,
+commemorating some man and deed that (whether worth remembering or not)
+the nation is so happy as to reverence.  In Westminster Abbey, the
+monuments are so crowded, and so oddly patched together upon the walls,
+that they are ornamental only in a mural point of view; and, moreover,
+the quaint and grotesque taste of many of them might well make the
+spectator laugh,--an effect not likely to be produced by the monuments in
+St. Paul's.  But, after all, a man might read the walls of the Abbey day
+after day with ever-fresh interest, whereas the cold propriety of the
+cathedral would weary him in due time.
+
+We did not ascend to the galleries and other points of interest aloft,
+nor go down into the vaults, where Nelson's sarcophagus is shown, and
+many monuments of the old Gothic cathedral, which stood on this site,
+before the great fire.  They say that these lower regions are comfortably
+warm and dry; but as we walked round in front, within the iron railing of
+the churchyard, we passed an open door, giving access to the crypt, and
+it breathed out a chill like death upon us.
+
+It is pleasant to stand in the centre of the cathedral, and hear the
+noise of London, loudest all round this spot,--how it is calmed into a
+sound as proper to be heard through the aisles as the tones of its own
+organ.  If St. Paul's were to be burnt again (having already been bunt
+and risen three or four times since the sixth century), I wonder whether
+it would ever be rebuilt in the same spot!  I doubt whether the city and
+the nation are so religious as to consecrate their midmost heart for the
+site of a church, where land would be so valuable by the square inch.
+
+Coming from the cathedral, we went through Paternoster Row, and saw Ave
+Mary Lane; all this locality appearing to have got its nomenclature from
+monkish personages.  We now took a cab for the British Museum, but found
+this to be one of the days on which strangers are not admitted; so we
+slowly walked into Oxford Street, and then strolled homeward, till,
+coming to a sort of bazaar, we went in and found a gallery of pictures.
+This bazaar proved to be the Pantheon, and the first picture we saw in
+the gallery was Haydon's Resurrection of Lazarus,--a great height and
+breadth of canvas, right before you as you ascend the stairs.  The face
+of Lazarus is very awful, and not to be forgotten; it is as true as if
+the painter had seen it, or had been himself the resurrected man and felt
+it; but the rest of the picture signified nothing, and is vulgar and
+disagreeable besides.  There are several other pictures by Haydon in this
+collection,--the Banishment of Aristides, Nero with his Harp, and the
+Conflagration of Rome; but the last is perfectly ridiculous, and all of
+them are exceedingly unpleasant.  I should be sorry to live in a house
+that contained one of them.  The best thing of Haydon was a hasty dash of
+a sketch for a small, full-length portrait of Wordsworth, sitting on the
+crag of a mountain.  I doubt whether Wordsworth's likeness has ever been
+so poetically brought out.  This gallery is altogether of modern
+painters, and it seems to be a receptacle for pictures by artists who can
+obtain places nowhere else,--at least, I never heard of their names
+before.  They were very uninteresting, almost without exception, and yet
+some of the pictures were done cleverly enough.  There is very little
+talent in this world, and what there is, it seems to me, is pretty well
+known and acknowledged.  We don't often stumble upon geniuses in obscure
+corners.
+
+Leaving the gallery, we wandered through the rest of the bazaar, which is
+devoted to the sale of ladies' finery, jewels, perfumes, children's toys,
+and all manner of small and pretty rubbish. . . . In the evening I
+again sallied forth, and lost myself for an hour or two; at last
+recognizing my whereabouts in Tottenham Court Road.  In such quarters of
+London it seems to be the habit of people to take their suppers in the
+open air.  You see old women at the corners, with kettles of hot water
+for tea or coffee; and as I passed a butcher's open shop, he was just
+taking out large quantities of boiled beef, smoking hot.  Butchers'
+stands are remarkable for their profuse expenditure of gas; it belches
+forth from the pipes in great flaring jets of flame, uncovered by any
+glass, and broadly illuminating the neighborhood.  I have not observed
+that London ever goes to bed.
+
+
+September 29th.--Yesterday we walked to the British Museum.  A sentinel
+or two kept guard before the gateway of this extensive edifice in Great
+Russell Street, and there was a porter at the lodge, and one or two
+policemen lounging about, but entrance was free, and we walked in without
+question.  Officials and policemen were likewise scattered about the
+great entrance-hall, none of whom, however, interfered with us; so we
+took whatever way we chose, and wandered about at will.  It is a
+hopeless, and to me, generally, a depressing business to go through an
+immense multifarious show like this, glancing at a thousand things, and
+conscious of some little titillation of mind from them, but really taking
+in nothing, and getting no good from anything.  One need not go beyond
+the limits of the British Museum to be profoundly accomplished in all
+branches of science, art, and literature; only it would take a lifetime
+to exhaust it in any one department; but to see it as we did, and with no
+prospect of ever seeing it more at leisure, only impressed me with the
+truth of the old apothegm, "Life is short, and Art is long."  The fact
+is, the world is accumulating too many materials for knowledge.  We do
+not recognize for rubbish what is really rubbish; and under this head
+might be reckoned very many things one sees in the British Museum; and,
+as each generation leaves its fragments and potsherds behind it, such
+will finally be the desperate conclusion of the learned.
+
+We went first among some antique marbles,--busts, statues, terminal gods,
+with several of the Roman emperors among them.  We saw here the bust
+whence Haydon took his ugly and ridiculous likeness of Nero,--a foolish
+thing to do.  Julius Caesar was there, too, looking more like a modern
+old man than any other bust in the series.  Perhaps there may be a
+universality in his face, that gives it this independence of race and
+epoch.  We glimpsed along among the old marbles,--Elgin and others, which
+are esteemed such treasures of art;--the oddest fragments, many of them
+smashed by their fall from high places, or by being pounded to pieces by
+barbarians, or gnawed away by time; the surface roughened by being rained
+upon for thousands of years; almost always a nose knocked off; sometimes
+a headless form; a great deficiency of feet and hands,--poor, maimed
+veterans in this hospital of incurables.  The beauty of the most perfect
+of them must be rather guessed at, and seen by faith, than with the
+bodily eye; to look at the corroded faces and forms is like trying to see
+angels through mist and cloud.  I suppose nine tenths of those who seem
+to be in raptures about these fragments do not really care about them;
+neither do I.  And if I were actually moved, I should doubt whether it
+were by the statues or by my own fancy.
+
+We passed, too, through Assyrian saloons and Egyptian saloons,--all full
+of monstrosities and horrible uglinesses, especially the Egyptian, and
+all the innumerable relics that I saw of them in these saloons, and among
+the mummies, instead of bringing me closer to them, removed me farther
+and farther; there being no common ground of sympathy between them and
+us.  Their gigantic statues are certainly very curious.  I saw a hand and
+arm up to the shoulder fifteen feet in length, and made of some stone
+that seemed harder and heavier than granite, not having lost its polish
+in all the rough usage that it has undergone.  There was a fist on a
+still larger scale, almost as big as a hogshead.  Hideous, blubber-lipped
+faces of giants, and human shapes with beasts' heads on them.  The
+Egyptian controverted Nature in all things, only using it as a groundwork
+to depict, the unnatural upon.  Their mummifying process is a result of
+this tendency.  We saw one very perfect mummy,--a priestess, with
+apparently only one more fold of linen betwixt us and her antique flesh,
+and this fitting closely to her person from head to foot, so that we
+could see the lineaments of her face and the shape of her limbs as
+perfectly as if quite bare.  I judge that she may have been very
+beautiful in her day,--whenever that was.  One or two of the poor thing's
+toes (her feet were wonderfully small and delicate) protruded from the
+linen, and, perhaps, not having been so perfectly embalmed, the flesh had
+fallen away, leaving only some little bones.  I don't think this young
+woman has gained much by not turning to dust in the time of the Pharaohs.
+We also saw some bones of a king that had been taken out of a pyramid; a
+very fragmentary skeleton.  Among the classic marbles I peeped into an
+urn that once contained the ashes of dead people, and the bottom still
+had an ashy hue.  I like this mode of disposing of dead bodies; but it
+would be still better to burn them and scatter the ashes, instead of
+hoarding them up,--to scatter them over wheat-fields or flowerbeds.
+
+Besides these antique halls, we wandered through saloons of antediluvian
+animals, some set up in skeletons, others imprisoned in solid stone; also
+specimens of still extant animals, birds, reptiles, shells, minerals,--
+the whole circle of human knowledge and guess-work,--till I wished that
+the whole Past might be swept away, and each generation compelled to bury
+and destroy whatever it had produced, before being permitted to leave the
+stage.  When we quit a house, we are expected to make it clean for the
+next occupant; why ought we not to leave a clean world for the next
+generation?  We did not see the library of above half a million of
+volumes; else I suppose I should have found full occasion to wish that
+burnt and buried likewise.  In truth, a greater part of it is as good as
+buried, so far as any readers are concerned.  Leaving the Museum, we
+sauntered home.  After a little rest, I set out for St. John's Wood, and
+arrived thither by dint of repeated inquiries.  It is a pretty suburb,
+inhabited by people of the middling class.  U---- met me joyfully, but
+seemed to have had a good time with Mrs. Oakford and her daughter; and,
+being pressed to stay to tea, I could not well help it.  Before tea I sat
+talking with Mrs. Oakford and a friend of hers, Miss Clinch, about the
+Americans and the English, especially dwelling on the defects of the
+latter,--among which we reckoned a wretched meanness in money
+transactions, a lack of any embroidery of honor and liberality in their
+dealings, so that they require close watching, or they will be sure to
+take you at advantage.  I hear this character of them from Americans on
+all hands, and my own experience confirms it as far as it goes, not
+merely among tradespeople, but among persons who call themselves
+gentlefolks.  The cause, no doubt, or one cause, lies in the fewer
+chances of getting money here, the closer and sharper regulation of all
+the modes of life; nothing being left to liberal and gentlemanly
+feelings, except fees to servants.  They are not gamblers in England, as
+we to some extent are; and getting their money painfully, or living
+within an accurately known income, they are disinclined to give up so
+much as a sixpence that they can possibly get.  But the result is, they
+are mean in petty things.
+
+By and by Mr. Oakford came in, well soaked with the heaviest shower that
+I ever knew in England, which had been rattling on the roof of the little
+side room where we sat, and had caught him on the outside of the omnibus.
+At a little before eight o'clock I came home with U---- in a cab,--the
+gaslight glittering on the wet streets through which we drove, though the
+sky was clear overhead.
+
+
+September 30th.--Yesterday, a little before twelve, we took a cab, and
+went to the two Houses of Parliament,--the most immense building,
+methinks, that ever was built; and not yet finished, though it has now
+been occupied for years.  Its exterior lies hugely along the ground, and
+its great unfinished tower is still climbing towards the sky; but the
+result (unless it be the riverfront, which I have not yet seen) seems not
+very impressive.  The interior is much more successful.  Nothing can be
+more magnificent and gravely gorgeous than the Chamber of Peers,--a large
+oblong hall, panelled with oak, elaborately carved, to the height of
+perhaps twenty feet.  Then the balustrade of the gallery runs around the
+hall, and above the gallery are six arched windows on each side, richly
+painted with historic subjects.  The roof is ornamented and gilded, and
+everywhere throughout there is embellishment of color and carving on the
+broadest scale, and, at the same time, most minute and elaborate; statues
+of full size in niches aloft; small heads of kings, no bigger than a
+doll; and the oak is carved in all parts of the panelling as faithfully
+as they used to do it in Henry VII's time,--as faithfully and with as
+good workmanship, but with nothing like the variety and invention which I
+saw in the dining-room of Smithell's Hall.  There the artist wrought with
+his heart and head; but much of this work, I suppose, was done by
+machinery.  Be that as it may, it is a most noble and splendid apartment,
+and, though so fine, there is not a touch of finery; it glistens and
+glows with even a sombre magnificence, owing to the rich, deep lines, and
+the dim light, bedimmed with rich colors by coming through the painted
+windows.  In arched recesses, that serve as frames, at each end of the
+hall, there are three pictures by modern artists from English history;
+and though it was not possible to see them well as pictures, they adorned
+and enriched the walls marvellously as architectural embellishments.  The
+Peers' seats are four rows of long sofas on each side, covered with red
+morocco; comfortable seats enough, but not adapted to any other than a
+decorously exact position.  The woolsack is between these two divisions
+of sofas, in the middle passage of the floor,--a great square seat,
+covered with scarlet, and with a scarlet cushion set up perpendicularly
+for the Chancellor to lean against.  In front of the woolsack there is
+another still larger ottoman, on which he might be at full length,--for
+what purpose intended, I know not.  I should take the woolsack to be not
+a very comfortable seat, though I suppose it was originally designed to
+be the most comfortable one that could be contrived, in view of the
+Chancellor's much sitting.
+
+The throne is the first object you see on entering the hall, being close
+to the door; a chair of antique form, with a high, peaked back, and a
+square canopy above, the whole richly carved and quite covered with
+burnished gilding, besides being adorned with rows of rock crystals,--
+which seemed to me of rather questionable taste.
+
+It is less elevated above the floor than one imagines it ought to be.
+While we were looking at it, I saw two Americans,--Western men, I should
+judge,--one of them with a true American slouch, talking to the policeman
+in attendance, and describing our Senate Chamber in contrast with the
+House of Lords.  The policeman smiled and ah-ed, and seemed to make as
+courteous and liberal responses as he could.  There was quite a mixed
+company of spectators, and, I think, other Americans present besides the
+above two and ourselves.  The Lord Chamberlain's tickets appear to be
+distributed with great impartiality.  There were two or three women of
+the lower middle class, with children or babies in arms, one of whom
+lifted up its voice loudly in the House of Peers.
+
+We next, after long contemplating this rich hall, proceeded through
+passages and corridors to a great central room, very beautiful, which
+seems to be used for purposes of refreshment, and for electric
+telegraphs; though I should not suppose this could be its primitive and
+ultimate design.  Thence we went into the House of Commons, which is
+larger than the Chamber of Peers, and much less richly ornamented, though
+it would have appeared splendid had it come first in order.  The
+speaker's chair, if I remember rightly, is loftier and statelier than the
+throne itself.  Both in this hall and in that of the Lords, we were at
+first surprised by the narrow limits within which the great ideas of the
+Lords and Commons of England are physically realized; they would seem to
+require a vaster space.  When we hear of members rising on opposite sides
+of the House, we think of them as but dimly discernible to their
+opponents, and uplifting their voices, so as to be heard afar; whereas
+they sit closely enough to feel each other's spheres, to note all
+expression of face, and to give the debate the character of a
+conversation.  In this view a debate seems a much more earnest and real
+thing than as we read it in a newspaper.  Think of the debaters meeting
+each other's eyes, their faces flushing, their looks interpreting their
+words, their speech growing into eloquence, without losing the
+genuineness of talk!  Yet, in fact, the Chamber of Peers is ninety feet
+long and half as broad, and high, and the Chamber of Commons is still
+larger.
+
+Thence we went to Westminster Hall, through a gallery with statues on
+each side,--beautiful statues too, I thought; seven of them, of which
+four were from the times of the civil wars,--Clarendon, Falkland,
+Hampden, Selden, Somers, Mansfield, and Walpole.  There is room for more
+in this corridor, and there are niches for hundreds of their marble
+brotherhood throughout the edifice; but I suppose future ages will have
+to fill the greater part of them.  Yet I cannot help imagining that this
+rich and noble edifice has more to do with the past than with the future;
+that it is the glory of a declining empire; and that the perfect bloom of
+this great stone flower, growing out of the institutions of England,
+forbodes that they have nearly lived out their life.  It sums up all.
+Its beauty and magnificence are made out of ideas that are gone by.
+
+We entered Westminster Hall (which is incorporated into this new edifice,
+and forms an integral part of it) through a lofty archway, whence a
+double flight of broad steps descends to the stone pavement.  After the
+elaborate ornament of the rooms we had just been viewing, this venerable
+hall looks extremely simple and bare,--a gray stone floor, gray and naked
+stone walls, but a roof sufficiently elaborate, its vault being filled
+with carved beams and rafters of chestnut, very much admired and wondered
+at for the design and arrangement.  I think it would have pleased me more
+to have seen a clear vaulted roof, instead of this intricacy of wooden
+points, by which so much skylight space is lost.  They make (be it not
+irreverently said) the vast and lofty apartment look like the ideal of an
+immense barn.  But it is a noble space, and all without the support of a
+single pillar.  It is about eighty of my paces from the foot of the steps
+to the opposite end of the hall, and twenty-seven from side to side; very
+high, too, though not quite proportionately to its other dimensions.  I
+love it for its simplicity and antique nakedness, and deem it worthy to
+have been the haunt and home of History through the six centuries since
+it was built.  I wonder it does not occur to modern ingenuity to make a
+scenic representation, in this very hall, of the ancient trials for life
+or death, pomps, feasts, coronations, and every great historic incident
+in the lives of kings, Parliaments, Protectors, and all illustrious men,
+that have occurred here.  The whole world cannot show another hall such
+as this, so tapestried with recollections of whatever is most striking in
+human annals.
+
+Westminster Abbey being just across the street, we went thither from the
+hall, and sought out the cloisters, which we had not yet visited.  They
+are in excellent preservation,--broad walks, canopied with intermingled
+arches of gray stone, on which some sort of lichen, or other growth of
+ages (which seems, however, to have little or nothing vegetable in it),
+has grown.  The pavement is entirely made of flat tombstones, inscribed
+with half-effaced names of the dead people beneath; and the wall all
+round bears the marble tablets which give a fuller record of their
+virtues.  I think it was from a meditation in these cloisters that
+Addison wrote one of his most beautiful pieces in the Spectator.  It is a
+pity that this old fashion of a cloistered walk is not retained in our
+modern edifices; it was so excellent for shelter and for shade during a
+thoughtful hour,--this sombre corridor beneath an arched stone roof, with
+the central space of richest grass, on which the sun might shine or the
+shower fall, while the monk or student paced through the prolonged
+archway of his meditations.
+
+As we came out from the cloisters, and walked along by the churchyard of
+the Abbey, a woman came begging behind us very earnestly.  "A bit of
+bread," she said, "and I will give you a thousand blessings!  Hunger is
+hard to bear.  O kind gentleman and kind lady, a penny for a bit of
+bread!  It is a hard thing that gentlemen and ladies should see poor
+people wanting bread, and make no difference whether they are good or
+bad."  And so she followed us almost all round the Abbey, assailing our
+hearts in most plaintive terms, but with no success; for she did it far
+too well to be anything but an impostor, and no doubt she had breakfasted
+better, and was likely to have a better dinner, than ourselves.  And yet
+the natural man cries out against the philosophy that rejects beggars.
+It is a thousand to one that they are impostors, but yet we do ourselves
+a wrong by hardening our hearts against them.  At last, without turning
+round, I told her that I should give her nothing,--with some asperity,
+doubtless, for the effort to refuse creates a bitterer repulse than is
+necessary.  She still followed us a little farther, but at last gave it
+up, with a deep groan.  I could not have performed this act of heroism on
+my first arrival from America.
+
+Whether the beggar-woman had invoked curses on us, and Heaven saw fit to
+grant some slight response, I know not, but it now began to rain on my
+wife's velvet; so I put her and J----- into a cab, and hastened to
+ensconce myself in Westminster Abbey while the shower should last.
+Poets' Corner has never seemed like a strange place to me; it has been
+familiar from the very first; at all events, I cannot now recollect the
+previous conception, of which the reality has taken the place.  I seem
+always to have known that somewhat dim corner, with the bare brown
+stone-work of the old edifice aloft, and a window shedding down its light
+on the marble busts and tablets, yellow with time, that cover the three
+walls of the nook up to a height of about twenty feet.  Prior's is the
+largest and richest monument.  It is observable that the bust and
+monument of Congreve are in a distant part of the Abbey.  His duchess
+probably thought it a degradation to bring a gentleman among the beggarly
+poets.
+
+I walked round the aisles, and paced the nave, and came to the conclusion
+that Westminster Abbey, both in itself and for the variety and interest
+of its monuments, is a thousand times preferable to St. Paul's.  There is
+as much difference as between a snow-bank and a chimney-corner in their
+relation to the human heart.  By the by, the monuments and statues in the
+Abbey seem all to be carefully dusted.
+
+The shower being over, I walked down into the city, where I called on Mr.
+B------ and left S-----'s watch to be examined and put in order.  He told
+me that he and his brother had lately been laying out and letting a piece
+of land at Blackheath, that had been left them by their father, and that
+the ground-rent would bring them in two thousand pounds per annum.  With
+such an independent income, I doubt whether any American would consent to
+be anything but a gentleman,--certainly not an operative watchmaker.  How
+sensible these Englishmen are in some things!
+
+Thence I went at a venture, and lost myself, of course.  At one part of
+my walk I came upon St. Luke's Hospital, whence I returned to St. Paul's,
+and thence along Fleet Street and the Strand.  Contiguous to the latter
+is Holywell Street,--a narrow lane, filled up with little bookshops and
+bookstalls, at some of which I saw sermons and other works of divinity,
+old editions of classics, and all such serious matters, while at stalls
+and windows close beside them (and, possibly, at the same stalls) there
+were books with title-pages displayed, indicating them to be of the most
+indecent kind.
+
+
+October 2d.--Yesterday forenoon I went with J----- into the city to 67
+Grace Church Street, to get a bank post-note cashed by Mr. Oakford, and
+afterwards to the offices of two lines of steamers, in Moorgate Street
+and Leadenhall Street.  The city was very much thronged.  It is a marvel
+what sets so many people a going at all hours of the day.  Then it is to
+be considered that these are but a small portion of those who are doing
+the business of the city; much the larger part being occupied in offices
+at desks, in discussions of plans of enterprise, out of sight of the
+public, while these earnest hurriers are merely the froth in the pot.
+
+After seeing the steam-officials, we went to London Bridge, which always
+swarms with more passengers than any of the streets.  Descending the
+steps that lead to the level of the Thames, we took passage in a boat
+bound up the river to Chelsea, of which there is one starting every ten
+minutes, the voyage being of forty minutes' duration.  It began to
+sprinkle a little just as we started; but after a slight showeriness,
+lasting till we had passed Westminster Bridge, the day grew rather
+pleasant.
+
+At Westminster Bridge we had a good view of the river-front of the two
+Houses of Parliament, which look very noble from this point,--a long and
+massive extent, with a delightful promenade for the legislative people
+exactly above the margin of the river.  This is certainly a magnificent
+edifice, and yet I doubt whether it is so impressive as it might and
+ought to have been made, considering its immensity.  It makes no more
+impression than you can well account to yourself for, and you rather
+wonder that it does not make more.  The reason must be that the architect
+has not "builded better than he knew."  He felt no power higher and wiser
+than himself, making him its instrument.  He reckoned upon and contrived
+all his effects with malice aforethought, and therefore missed the
+crowning glory,--that being a happiness which God, out of his pure grace,
+mixes up with only the simple-hearted, best efforts of men.
+
+
+October 3d.--I again went into the city yesterday forenoon, to settle
+about the passages to Lisbon, taking J----- with me.  From Hungerford
+Bridge we took the steamer to London Bridge, that being an easy and
+speedy mode of accomplishing distances that take many footsteps through
+the crowded thoroughfares.  After leaving the steamer-office, we went
+back through the Strand, and, crossing Waterloo Bridge, walked a good way
+on to the Surrey side of the river; a coarse, dingy, disagreeable suburb,
+with shops apparently for country produce, for old clothes, second-hand
+furniture, for ironware, and other things bulky and inelegant.  How many
+scenes and sorts of life are comprehended within London!  There was much
+in the aspect of these streets that reminded me of a busy country village
+in America on an immensely magnified scale.
+
+Growing rather weary anon, we got into an omnibus, which took us as far
+as the Surrey Zoological Gardens, which J----- wished very much to see.
+They proved to be a rather poor place of suburban amusement; poor, at
+least, by daylight, their chief attraction for the public consisting in
+out-of-door representations of battles and sieges.  The storming of
+Sebastopol (as likewise at the Cremorne Gardens) was advertised for the
+evening, and we saw the scenery of Sebastopol, painted on a vast scale,
+in the open air, and really looking like miles and miles of hill and
+water; with a space for the actual manoeuvring of ships on a sheet of
+real water in front of the scene, on which some ducks were now swimming
+about, in place of men-of-war.  The climate of England must often
+interfere with this sort of performance; and I can conceive of nothing
+drearier for spectators or performers than a drizzly evening.  Convenient
+to this central spot of entertainment there were liquor and refreshment
+rooms, with pies and cakes.  The menagerie, though the ostensible staple
+of the gardens, is rather poor and scanty; pretty well provided with
+lions and lionesses, also one or two giraffes, some camels, a polar
+bear,--who plunged into a pool of water for bits of cake,--and two black
+bears, who sat on their haunches or climbed poles; besides a wilderness
+of monkeys, some parrots and macaws, an ostrich, various ducks, and other
+animal and ornithological trumpery; some skins of snakes so well stuffed
+that I took them for living serpents till J----- discovered the
+deception, and an aquarium, with a good many common fishes swimming among
+sea-weed.
+
+The garden is shaded with trees, and set out with greensward and
+gravel-walks, from which the people were sweeping the withered autumnal
+leaves, which now fall every day.  Plaster statues stand here and there,
+one of them without a head, thus disclosing the hollowness of the trunk;
+there were one or two little drizzly fountains, with the water dripping
+over the rock-work, of which the English are so fond; and the buildings
+for the animals and other purposes had a flimsy, pasteboard aspect of
+pretension.  The garden was in its undress; few visitors, I suppose,
+coming hither at this time of day,--only here and there a lady and
+children, a young man and girl, or a couple of citizens, loitering about.
+I take pains to remember these small items, because they suggest the
+day-life or torpidity of what may look very brilliant at night.  These
+corked-up fountains, slovenly greensward, cracked casts of statues,
+pasteboard castles, and duck-pond Bay of Balaclava then shining out in
+magic splendor, and the shabby attendants whom we saw sweeping and
+shovelling probably transformed into the heroes of Sebastopol.
+
+J----- thought it a delightful place; but I soon grew very weary, and
+came away about four o'clock, and, getting into a city omnibus, we
+alighted on the hither side of Blackfriar's Bridge.  Turning into Fleet
+Street, I looked about for a place to dine at, and chose the Mitre
+Tavern, in memory of Johnson and Boswell.  It stands behind a front of
+modern shops, through which is an archway, giving admittance into a
+narrow court-yard, which, I suppose, was formerly open to Fleet Street.
+The house is of dark brick, and, comparing it with other London edifices,
+I should take it to have been at least refronted since Johnson's time;
+but within, the low, sombre coffee-room which we entered might well
+enough have been of that era or earlier.  It seems to be a good, plain,
+respectable inn; and the waiter gave us each a plate of boiled beef, and,
+for dessert, a damson tart, which made up a comfortable dinner.  After
+dinner, we zigzagged homeward through Clifford's link passage, Holborn,
+Drury Lane, the Strand, Charing Cross, Pall Mall, and Regent Street; but
+I remember only an ancient brick gateway as particularly remarkable.  I
+think it was the entrance to Lincoln's Inn.  We reached home at about
+six.
+
+There is a woman who has several times passed through this Hanover
+Street, in which we live, stopping occasionally to sing songs under the
+windows; and last evening, between nine and ten o'clock, she came and
+sang "Kathleen O'Moore" richly and sweetly.  Her voice rose up out of the
+dim, chill street, and made our hearts throb in unison with it as we sat
+in our comfortable drawing-room.  I never heard a voice that touched me
+more deeply.  Somebody told her to go away, and she stopped like a
+nightingale suddenly shot; but, finding that S----- wished to know
+something about her, Fanny and one of the maids ran after her, and
+brought her into the hall.  It seems she was educated to sing at the
+opera, and married an Italian opera-singer, who is now dead; lodging in a
+model lodging-house at threepence a night, and being a penny short
+to-night, she tried this method, in hope of getting this penny.  She
+takes in plain sewing when she can get any, and picks up a trifle about
+the street by means of her voice, which, she says, was once sweet, but
+has now been injured by the poorness of her living.  She is a pale woman,
+with black eyes, Fanny says, and may have been pretty once, but is not so
+now.  It seems very strange, that with such a gift of Heaven, so
+cultivated, too, as her voice is, making even an unsusceptible heart
+vibrate like a harp-string, she should not have had an engagement among
+the hundred theatres and singing-rooms of London; that she should throw
+away her melody in the streets for the mere chance of a penury, when
+sounds not a hundredth part so sweet are worth from other lips purses of
+gold.
+
+
+October 5th.--It rained almost all day on Wednesday, so that I did not go
+out till late in the afternoon, and then only took a stroll along Oxford
+Street and Holborn, and back through Fleet Street and the Strand.
+Yesterday, at a little after ten, I went to the ambassador's to get my
+wife's passport for Lisbon.  While I was talking with the clerk,
+Mr. ------ made his appearance in a dressing-gown, with a morning
+cheerfulness and alacrity in his manner.  He was going to Liverpool with
+his niece, who returns to America by the steamer of Saturday.  She has
+had a good deal of success in society here; being pretty enough to be
+remarked among English women, and with cool, self-possessed, frank, and
+quiet manners, which look very like the highest breeding.
+
+I next went to Westminster Abbey, where I had long promised myself
+another quiet visit; for I think I never could be weary of it; and when I
+finally leave England, it will be this spot which I shall feel most
+unwilling to quit forever.  I found a party going through the seven
+chapels (or whatever their number may be), and again saw those stately
+and quaint old tombs,--ladies and knights stretched out on marble slabs,
+or beneath arches and canopies of stone, let into the walls of the Abbey,
+reclining on their elbows, in ruff and farthingale or riveted armor, or
+in robes of state, once painted in rich colors, of which only a few
+patches of scarlet now remain; bearded faces of noble knights, whose
+noses, in many cases, had been smitten off; and Mary, Queen of Scots, had
+lost two fingers of her beautiful hands, which she is clasping in prayer.
+There must formerly have been very free access to these tombs; for I
+observed that all the statues (so far as I examined them) were scratched
+with the initials of visitors, some of the names being dated above a
+century ago.  The old coronation-chair, too, is quite covered, over the
+back and seat, with initials cut into it with pocket-knives, just as
+Yankees would do it; only it is not whittled away, as would have been its
+fate in our hands.  Edward the Confessor's shrine, which is chiefly of
+wood, likewise abounds in these inscriptions, although this was esteemed
+the holiest shrine in England, so that pilgrims still come to kneel and
+kiss it.  Our guide, a rubicund verger of cheerful demeanor, said that
+this was true in a few instances.
+
+There is a beautiful statue in memory of Horace Walpole's mother; and I
+took it to be really a likeness, till the verger said that it was a copy
+of a statue which her son had admired in Italy, and so had transferred it
+to his mother's grave.  There is something characteristic in this mode of
+filial duty and honor.  In all these chapels, full of the tombs and
+effigies of kings, dukes, arch-prelates, and whatever is proud and
+pompous in mortality, there is nothing that strikes me more than the
+colossal statue of plain Mr. Watt, sitting quietly in a chair, in St.
+Paul's Chapel, and reading some papers.  He dwarfs the warriors and
+statesmen; and as to the kings, we smile at them.  Telford is in another
+of the chapels.  This visit to the chapels was much more satisfactory
+than my former one; although I in vain strove to feel it adequately, and
+to make myself sensible how rich and venerable was what I saw.  This
+realization must come at its own time, like the other happinesses of
+life.  It is unaccountable that I could not now find the seat of Sir
+George Downing's squire, though I examined particularly every seat on
+that side of Henry VII's Chapel, where I before found it.  I must try
+again. . . .
+
+
+October 6th.--Yesterday was not an eventful day.  I took J----- with me
+to the city, called on Mr. Sturgis at the Barings' House, and got his
+checks for a bank post-note.  The house is at 8 Bishopsgate Street,
+Within.  It has no sign of any kind, but stands back from the street,
+behind an iron-grated fence.  The firm appears to occupy the whole
+edifice, which is spacious, and fit for princely merchants.  Thence I
+went and paid for the passages to Lisbon (32 pounds) at the Peninsular
+Steam Company's office, and thence to call on General ------.  I forgot
+to mention, that, first of all, I went to Mr. B------'s, whom I found
+kind and vivacious as usual.  It now rained heavily, and, being still
+showery when we came to Cheapside again, we first stood under an archway
+(a usual resort for passengers through London streets), and then betook
+ourselves to sanctuary, taking refuge in St. Paul's Cathedral.  The
+afternoon service was about to begin, so, after looking at a few of the
+monuments, we sat down in the choir, the richest and most ornamented part
+of the cathedral, with screens or partitions of oak, cunningly carved.
+Small white-robed choristers were flitting noiselessly about, making
+preparations for the service, which by and by began.  It is a beautiful
+idea, that, several times in the course of the day, a man can slip out of
+the thickest throng and bustle of London into this religious atmosphere,
+and hear the organ, and the music of young, pure voices; but, after all,
+the rites are lifeless in our day.  We found, on emerging, that we had
+escaped a very heavy shower, and it still sprinkled and misted as we went
+homeward through Holborn and Oxford Street.
+
+
+
+SOUTHAMPTON
+
+
+October 11th.--We all left London on Sunday morning, between ten and
+eleven, from the Waterloo station, and arrived in Southampton about two,
+without meeting with anything very remarkable on the way.  We put up at
+Chapple's Castle Hotel, which is one of the class styled "commercial,"
+and, though respectable, not such a one as the nobility and gentry
+usually frequent.  I saw little difference in the accommodation, except
+that young women attended us instead of men,--a pleasant change.  It was
+a showery day, but J----- and I walked out to see the shore and the town
+and the docks, and, if possible, the ship in which S----- was to sail.
+The most noteworthy object was the remains of an old castle, near the
+water-side; the square, gray, weed grown, weird keep of which shows some
+modern chimney-pots above its battlements, while remaining portions of
+the fortress are made to seem as one of the walls for coal-depots, and
+perhaps for small dwellings.  The English characteristically patch new
+things into old things in this manner, materially, legally,
+constitutionally, and morally.  Walking along the pier, we observed some
+pieces of ordnance, one of which was a large brass cannon of Henry
+VIII.'s time, about twelve feet long, and very finely made.  The bay of
+Southampton presents a pleasant prospect, and I believe it is the great
+rendezvous of the yacht-club.  Old and young seafaring people were
+strolling about, and lounging at corners, just as they do on Sunday
+afternoons in the minor seaports of America.
+
+From the shore we went up into the town, which is handsome, and of a
+cheerful aspect, with streets generally wide and well paved,--a cleanly
+town, not smoke-begrimed.  The houses, if not modern, are, at least with
+few exceptions, new fronted.  We saw one relic of antiquity,--a fine
+mediaeval gateway across the principal street, much more elevated than
+the gates of Chester, with battlements at the top, and a spacious
+apartment over the great arch for the passage of carriages, and the
+smaller one on each side for foot-passengers.  There were two statues in
+armor or antique costume on the hither side of the gateway, and two old
+paintings on the other.  This, so far as I know, is the only remnant of
+the old wall of Southampton.
+
+On Monday the morning was bright, alternating with a little showeriness.
+U----, J-----, and I went into the town to do some shopping before the
+steamer should sail; and a little after twelve we drove down to the dock.
+The Madeira is a pleasant-looking ship enough, not very large, but
+accommodating, I believe, about seventy passengers.  We looked at my
+wife's little stateroom, with its three berths for herself and the two
+children; and then sat down in the saloon, and afterwards on deck, to
+spend the irksome and dreary hour or two before parting.  Many of the
+passengers seemed to be Portuguese, undersized, dark, mustachioed people,
+smoking cigars.  John Bull was fairly represented too. . . . U---- was
+cheerful, and R----- seemed anxious to get off.  Poor Fanny was
+altogether cast down, and shed tears, either from regret at leaving her
+native land, or dread of sea-sickness, or general despondency, being a
+person of no spring of spirits.  I waited till the captain came on board,
+--a middle-aged or rather elderly man, with a sensible expression, but,
+methought, with a hard, cold eye, to whom I introduced my wife,
+recommending her to his especial care, as she was unattended by any
+gentleman; and then we thought it best to cut short the parting scene.
+So we bade one another farewell; and, leaving them on the deck of the
+vessel, J----- and I returned to the hotel, and, after dining at the
+table d'hote, drove down to the railway.  This is the first great
+parting that we have ever had.
+
+It was three o'clock when we left Southampton.  In order to get to
+Worcester, where we were to spend the night, we strode, as it were, from
+one line of railway to another, two or three times, and did not arrive at
+our journey's end till long after dark.
+
+At Worcester we put ourselves into the hands of a cabman, who drove us to
+the Crown Hotel,--one of the old-fashioned hotels, with an entrance
+through an arched passage, by which vehicles were admitted into the
+inn-yard, which has also an exit, I believe, into another street.  On one
+side of the arch was the coffee-room, where, after looking at our
+sleeping-chambers on the other side of the arch, we had some cold
+pigeon-pie for supper, and for myself a pint of ale.
+
+It should be mentioned, that, in the morning, before embarking S----- and
+the children on board the steamer, I saw a fragment of a rainbow among
+the clouds, and remembered the old adage bidding "sailors take warning."
+In the afternoon, as J----- and I were railing from Southampton, we saw
+another fragmentary rainbow, which, by the same adage, should be the
+"sailor's delight."  The weather has rather tended to confirm the first
+omen, but the sea-captains tell me that the steamer must have gone beyond
+the scope of these winds.
+
+
+
+WORCESTER.
+
+
+October 14th.---In the morning of Tuesday, after breakfast in the
+coffee-room, J----- and I walked about to see the remarkables of
+Worcester.  It is not a particularly interesting city, compared with
+other old English cities; the general material of the houses being red
+brick, and almost all modernized externally, whatever may be the age of
+their original framework.  We saw a large brick jail in castellated
+style, with battlements,--a very barren and dreary-looking edifice;
+likewise, in the more central part of the town, a Guildhall with a
+handsome front, ornamented with a statue of Queen Anne above the
+entrance, and statues of Charles I. and Charles II. on either side of the
+door, with the motto, "Floreat semper civitas fidelis."  Worcester seems
+to pride itself upon its loyalty.  We entered the building, and in the
+large interior hall saw some old armor hanging on the wall at one end,--
+corselets, helmets, greaves, and a pair of breeches of chain mail.  An
+inscription told us that these suits of armor had been left by Charles I.
+after the battle of Worcester, and presented to the city at a much later
+date by a gentleman of the neighborhood.  On the stone floor of the hall,
+under the armor, were two brass cannon, one of which had been taken from
+the French in a naval battle within the present century; the other was a
+beautiful piece, bearing, I think, the date of 1632, and manufactured in
+Brussels for the Count de Burgh, as a Latin inscription testified.  This
+likewise was a relic of the battle of Worcester, where it had been lost
+by Charles.  Many gentlemen--connected with the city government, I
+suppose--were passing through the hall; and, looking through its interior
+doors, we saw stately staircases and council-rooms panelled with oak or
+other dark wood.  There seems to be a good deal of state in the
+government of these old towns.
+
+Worcester Cathedral would have impressed me much had I seen it earlier;
+though its aspect is less venerable than that of Chester or Lichfield,
+having been faithfully renewed and repaired, and stone-cutters and masons
+were even now at work on the exterior.  At our first visit, we found no
+entrance; but coming again at ten o'clock, when the service was to begin,
+we found the door open, and the chorister-boys, in their white robes,
+standing in the nave and aisles, with elder people in the same garb, and
+a few black-robed ecclesiastics and an old verger.  The interior of the
+cathedral has been covered with a light-colored paint at some recent
+period.  There is, as I remember, very little stained glass to enrich and
+bedim the light; and the effect produced is a naked, daylight aspect,
+unlike what I have seen in any other Gothic cathedral.  The plan of the
+edifice, too, is simple; a nave and side aisles, with great clustered
+pillars, from which spring the intersecting arches; and, somehow or
+other, the venerable mystery which I have found in Westminster Abbey and
+elsewhere does not lurk in these arches and behind these pillars.  The
+choir, no doubt, is richer and more beautiful; but we did not enter it.
+I remember two tombs, with recumbent figures on there, between the
+pillars that divide the nave from the side aisles, and there were also
+mural monuments,--one, well executed, to an officer slain in the
+Peninsular war, representing him falling from his horse; another by a
+young widow to her husband, with an inscription of passionate grief, and
+a record of her purpose finally to sleep beside him.  He died in 1803.  I
+did not see on the monument any record of the consummation of her
+purpose; and so perhaps she sleeps beside a second husband.  There are
+more antique memorials than these two on the wall, and I should have been
+interested to examine them; but the service was now about to begin in the
+choir, and at the far-off end of the nave the old verger waved his hand
+to banish us from the cathedral.  At the same time he moved towards us,
+probably to say that he would show it to us after service; but having
+little time, and being so moderately impressed with what I had already
+seen, I took my departure, and so disappointed the old man of his
+expected shilling or half-crown.  The tomb of King John is somewhere in
+this cathedral.
+
+We renewed our rambles through the town, and, passing the Museum of the
+Worcester Natural History Society, I yielded to J-----'s wish to go in.
+There are three days in the week, I believe, on which it is open to the
+public; but this being one of the close days, we were admitted on payment
+of a shilling.  It seemed a very good and well-arranged collection in
+most departments of Natural History, and J-----, who takes more interest
+in these matters than I do, was much delighted.  We were left to examine
+the hall and galleries quite at our leisure.  Besides the specimens of
+beasts, birds, shells, fishes, minerals, fossils, insects, and all other
+natural things before the flood and since, there was a stone bearing a
+Roman inscription, and various antiquities, coins, and medals, and
+likewise portraits, some of which were old and curious.
+
+Leaving the museum, we walked down to the stone bridge over the Severn,
+which is here the largest river I have seen in England, except, of
+course, the Mersey and the Thames.  A flight of steps leads from the
+bridge down to a walk along the river-side, and this we followed till we
+reached the spot where an angler was catching chubs and dace, under the
+walls of the bishop's palace, which here faces the river.  It seems to be
+an old building, but with modern repairs and improvements.  The angler
+had pretty good success while we were looking at him, drawing out two or
+three silvery fish, and depositing them in his basket, which was already
+more than half full.  The Severn is not a transparent stream, and looks
+sluggish, but has really movement enough to carry the angler's float
+along pretty fast.  There were two vessels of considerable size (that is,
+as large as small schooners) lying at the bridge.  We now passed under an
+old stone archway, through a lane that led us from the river-side up past
+the cathedral, whence a gentleman and lady were just emerging, and the
+verger was closing the door behind them.
+
+We returned to our hotel, and ordered luncheon,--some cold chicken, cold
+ham, and ale, and after paying the bill (about fifteen shillings, to
+which I added five shillings for attendance) we took our departure in a
+fly for the railway.  The waiter (a young woman), chambermaid, and boots,
+all favored us with the most benign and deferential looks at parting,
+whence it was easy to see that I had given them more than they had any
+claim to receive.  Nevertheless, this English system of fees has its good
+side, and I never travel without finding the advantage of it, especially
+on railways, where the officials are strictly forbidden to take fees, and
+where, in consequence, a fee secures twice as much good service as
+anywhere else.  Be it recorded, that I never knew an Englishman to refuse
+a shilling,--or, for that matter, a halfpenny.
+
+From Worcester we took tickets to Wolverhampton, and thence to
+Birkenhead.  It grew dark before we reached Chester, and began to rain;
+and when we got to Birkenhead it was a pitiless, pelting storm, under
+which, on the deck of the steamboat, we crossed the detestable Mersey,
+two years' trial of which has made me detest it every day more and more.
+It being the night of rejoicing for the taking of Sebastopol and the
+visit of the Duke of Cambridge, we found it very difficult to get a cab
+on the Liverpool side; but after much waiting in the rain, and afterwards
+in one of the refreshment-rooms, on the landing stage, we took a Hansom
+and drove off.  The cloudy sky reflected the illuminations, and we saw
+some gas-lighted stars and other devices, as we passed, very pretty, but
+much marred by the wind and rain.  So we finally arrived at Mrs.
+Blodgett's, and made a good supper of ham and cold chicken, like our
+luncheon, after which, wet as we were, and drizzling as the weather was,
+and though it was two hours beyond his bedtime, I took J----- out to see
+the illuminations.  I wonder what his mother would have said.  But the
+boy must now begin to see life and to feel it.
+
+There was a crowd of people in the street; such a crowd that we could
+hardly make a passage through them, and so many cabs and omnibuses that
+it was difficult to cross the ways.  Some of the illuminations were very
+brilliant; but there was a woful lack of variety and invention in the
+devices.  The star of the garter, which kept flashing out from the
+continual extinguishment of the wind and rain,--V and A, in capital
+letters of light,--were repeated a hundred times; as were loyal and
+patriotic mottoes,--crowns formed by colored lamps.  In some instances a
+sensible tradesman had illuminated his own sign, thereby at once
+advertising his loyalty and his business.  Innumerable flags were
+suspended before the houses and across the streets, and the crowd plodded
+on, silent, heavy, and without any demonstration of joy, unless by the
+discharge of pistols close at one's ear.  The rain, to be sure, was quite
+sufficient to damp any joyous ebullition of feeling; but the next day,
+when the rain had ceased, and when the streets were still thronged with
+people, there was the same heavy, purposeless strolling from place to
+place, with no more alacrity of spirit than while it rained.  The English
+do not know how to rejoice; and, in their present circumstances, to say
+the truth, have not much to rejoice for.  We soon came home; but I
+believe it was nearly, if not quite, eleven.
+
+At Mrs. Blodgett's, Mr. Archer (surgeon to some prison or house of
+correction here in Liverpool) spoke of an attorney who many years ago
+committed forgery, and, being apprehended, took a dose of prussic acid.
+Mr. Archer came with the stomach-pump, and asked the patient how much
+prussic acid he had taken.  "Sir," he replied, attorney-like, "I decline
+answering that question!"  He recovered, and afterwards arrived at great
+wealth in New South Wales.
+
+
+November 14th.--At dinner at Mr. Bright's, a week or two ago, Mr.
+Robertson Gladstone spoke of a magistrate of Liverpool, many years since,
+Sir John ------.  Of a morning, sitting on the bench in the police court,
+he would take five shillings out of his pocket and say, "Here, Mr. Clerk,
+so much for my fine.  I was drunk last night!"  Mr. Gladstone witnessed
+this personally.
+
+
+November 16th.--I went to the North Hospital yesterday, to take the
+deposition of a dying man as to his ill treatment by the second and third
+mates of the ship Assyria, on the voyage from New Orleans.  This hospital
+is a very gloomy place, with its wide bleak entries and staircases, which
+may be very good for summer weather, but which are most congenial at this
+bleak November season.  I found the physicians of the house laughing and
+talking very cheerfully with Mr. Wilding, who had preceded me.  We went
+forthwith, up two or three pairs of stairs, to the ward where the sick
+man lay, and where there were six or eight other beds, in almost each of
+which was a patient,--narrow beds, shabbily furnished.  The man whom I
+came to see was the only one who was not perfectly quiet; neither was he
+very restless.  The doctor, informing him of my presence, intimated that
+his disease might be lethal, and that I was come to hear what he had to
+say as to the causes of his death.  Afterwards, a Testament was sought
+for, in order to swear him, and I administered the oath, and made him
+kiss the book.  He then (in response to Mr. Wilding's questions) told how
+he had been beaten and ill-treated, hanged and thwacked, from the moment
+he came on board, to which usage he ascribed his death.  Sometimes his
+senses seemed to sink away, so that I almost thought him dead; but by and
+by the questions would appear to reach him, and bring him back, and he
+went on with his evidence, interspersing it, however, with dying groans,
+and almost death rattles.  In the midst of whatever he was saying, he
+often recurred to a sum of four dollars and a half, which he said he had
+put into the hands of the porter of the hospital, and which he wanted to
+get back.  Several times he expressed his wish to return to America (of
+which he was not a native), and, on the whole, I do not think he had any
+real sense of his precarious condition, notwithstanding that he assented
+to the doctor's hint to that effect.  He sank away so much at one time,
+that they brought him wine in a tin cup, with a spout to drink out of,
+and he mustered strength to raise himself in his bed and drink; then
+hemmed, with rather a disappointed air, as if it did not stimulate and
+refresh him, as drink ought to do.  When he had finished his evidence
+(which Mr. Wilding took down in writing from his mouth), he marked his
+cross at the foot of the paper, and we ceased to torment him with further
+question.  His deposition will probably do no good, so far as the
+punishment of the persons implicated is concerned; for he appears to have
+come on board in a sickly state, and never to have been well during the
+passage.  On a pallet, close by his bed, lay another seaman of the same
+ship, who had likewise been abused by the same men, and bore more
+ostensible marks of ill usage than this man did, about the head and face.
+There is a most dreadful state of things aboard our ships.  Hell itself
+can be no worse than some of them, and I do pray that some New-Englander
+with the rage of reform in him may turn his thoughts this way.  The
+first step towards better things--the best practicable step for the
+present--is to legalize flogging on shipboard; thereby doing away with
+the miscellaneous assaults and batteries, kickings, fisticuffings,
+ropes'-endings, marline-spikings, which the inferior officers continually
+perpetrate, as the only mode of keeping up anything like discipline.  As
+in many other instances, philanthropy has overshot itself by the
+prohibition of flogging, causing the captain to avoid the responsibility
+of solemn punishment, and leave his mates to make devils of themselves,
+by habitual and hardly avoidable ill treatment of the seamen.
+
+After I left the dying sailor, his features seemed to contract and grow
+sharp.  Some young medical students stood about the bed, watching death
+creep upon him, and anticipating, perhaps, that in a day or two they
+would have the poor fellow's body on the dissecting-table.  Dead
+patients, I believe, undergo this fate, unless somebody chooses to pay
+their funeral expenses; but the captain of the Assyria (who seems to be
+respectable and kind-hearted, though master of a floating hell) tells me
+that he means to bury the man at his own cost.  This morning there is a
+note from the surgeon of the hospital, announcing his death, and likewise
+the dangerous state of his shipmate whom I saw on the pallet beside him.
+
+Sea-captains call a dress-coat a "claw-hammer."
+
+
+November 22d.--I went on board the ship William Lapscott, lying in the
+river, yesterday, to take depositions in reference to a homicide
+committed in New York.  I sat on a sofa in the cabin, and Mr. Wilding at
+a table, with his writing-materials before him, and the crew were
+summoned, one by one,--rough, piratical-looking fellows, contrasting
+strongly with the gewgaw cabin in which I received them.  There is no
+such finery on land as in the cabin of one of these ships in the
+Liverpool trade, finished off with a complete panelling of rosewood,
+mahogany, and bird's-eye maple, polished and varnished, and gilded along
+the cornices and the edges of the panels.  It is all a piece of elaborate
+cabinet-work; and one does not altogether see why it should be given to
+the gales, and the salt-sea atmosphere, to be tossed upon the waves, and
+occupied by a rude shipmaster in his dreadnaught clothes, when the
+fairest lady in the land has no such boudoir.  A telltale compass hung
+beneath the skylight, and a clock was fastened near it, and ticked
+loudly.  A stewardess, with the aspect of a woman at home, went in and
+out of the cabin, about her domestic calls.  Through the cabin door (it
+being a house on deck) I could see the arrangement of the ship.
+
+The first sailor that I examined was a black-haired, powerful fellow, in
+an oil-skin jacket, with a good face enough, though he, too, might have
+been taken for a pirate.  In the affray in which the homicide occurred,
+he had received a cut across the forehead, and another slantwise across
+his nose, which had quite cut it in two, on a level with the face, and
+had thence gone downward to his lower jaw.  But neither he nor any one
+else could give any testimony elucidating the matter into which I had
+come to inquire.  A seaman had been stabbed just before the vessel left
+New York, and had been sent on shore and died there.  Most of these men
+were in the affray, and all of then were within a few yards of the spot
+where it occurred; but those actually present all pleaded that they were
+so drunk that the whole thing was now like a dream, with no distinct
+images; and, if any had been sober, they took care to know nothing that
+could inculpate any individual.  Perhaps they spoke truth; they certainly
+had a free and honest-like way of giving their evidence, as if their only
+object was to tell all the truth they knew.  But I rather think, in the
+forecastle, and during the night-watches, they have whispered to one
+another a great deal more than they told me, and have come to a pretty
+accurate conclusion as to the man who gave the stab.
+
+While the examination proceeded, there was a drawing of corks in a side
+closet; and, at its conclusion, the captain asked us to stay to dinner,
+but we excused ourselves, and drank only a glass of wine.  The captain
+apologized for not joining us, inasmuch as he had drunk no wine for the
+last seventeen years.  He appears to be a particularly good and
+trustworthy man, and is the only shipmaster whom I have met with, who
+says that a crew can best be governed by kindness.  In the inner closet
+there was a cage containing two land-birds, who had come aboard him,
+tired almost to death, three or four hundred miles from shore; and he had
+fed them and been tender of them, from a sense of what was due to
+hospitality.  He means to give them to J-----.
+
+
+November 28th.--I have grown wofully aristocratic in my tastes, I fear,
+since coming to England; at all events, I am conscious of a certain
+disgust at going to dine in a house with a small entrance-hall and a
+narrow staircase, parlor with chintz curtains, and all other arrangements
+on a similar scale.  This is pitiable.  However, I really do not think I
+should mind these things, were it not for the bustle, the affectation,
+the intensity, of the mistress of the house.  It is certain that a woman
+in England is either decidedly a lady or decidedly not a lady.  There
+seems to be no respectable medium.  Bill of fare: broiled soles, half of
+a roast pig, a haricot of mutton, stewed oysters, a tart, pears, figs,
+with sherry and port wine, both good, and the port particularly so.  I
+ate some pig, and could hardly resist the lady's importunities to eat
+more; though to my fancy it tasted of swill,--had a flavor of the pigsty.
+On the parlor table were some poor editions of popular books,
+Longfellow's poems and others.  The lady affects a literary taste, and
+bothered me about my own productions.
+
+A beautiful subject for a romance, or for a sermon, would be the
+subsequent life of the young man whom Jesus bade to sell all he had and
+give to the poor; and he went away sorrowful, and is not recorded to have
+done what he was bid.
+
+
+December 11th.--This has been a foggy morning and forenoon, snowing a
+little now and then, and disagreeably cold.  The sky is of an
+inexpressibly dreary, dun color.  It is so dark at times that I have to
+hold my book close to my eyes, and then again it lightens up a little.
+On the whole, disgustingly gloomy; and thus it has been for a long while
+past, although the disagreeableness seems to be very near the earth, and
+just above the steeples and house-tops very probably there may be a
+bright, sunshiny day.  At about twelve there is a faint glow of sunlight,
+like the gleaming reflection from a not highly polished copper kettle.
+
+
+December 26th.--On Christmas eve and yesterday, there were little
+branches of mistletoe hanging in several parts of the house, in the
+kitchen, the entries, the parlor, and the smoking-room,--suspended from
+the gas-fittings.  The maids of the house did their utmost to entrap the
+gentlemen boarders, old and young; under the privileged places, and there
+to kiss them, after which they were expected to pay a shilling.  It is
+very queer, being customarily so respectful, that they should assume this
+license now, absolutely trying to pull the gentlemen into the kitchen by
+main force, and kissing the harder and more abundantly the more they were
+resisted.  A little rosy-checked Scotch lass--at other times very modest
+--was the most active in this business.  I doubt whether any gentleman
+but myself escaped.  I heard old Mr. S------ parleying with the maids
+last evening, and pleading his age; but he seems to have met with no
+mercy, for there was a sound of prodigious smacking immediately
+afterwards.  J----- was assaulted, and fought, most vigorously; but was
+outrageously kissed,--receiving some scratches, moreover, in the
+conflict.  The mistletoe has white, wax-looking berries, and dull green
+leaves, with a parasitical stem.
+
+Early in the morning of Christmas day, long before daylight, I heard
+music in the street, and a woman's voice, powerful and melodious, singing
+a Christmas hymn.  Before bedtime I presume one half of England, at a
+moderate calculation, was the worse for liquor.
+
+The market-houses, at this season, show the national taste for heavy
+feeding,--carcasses of prize oxen, immensely fat, and bulky; fat sheep,
+with their woolly heads and tails still on, and stars and other devices
+ingeniously wrought on the quarters; fat pigs, adorned with flowers, like
+corpses of virgins; hares, wild-fowl, geese, ducks, turkeys; and green
+boughs and banners suspended about the stalls,--and a great deal of dirt
+and griminess on the stone floor of the market-house, and on the persons
+of the crowd.
+
+There are some Englishmen whom I like,--one or two for whom I might say I
+have an affection; but still there is not the same union between us as if
+they were Americans.  A cold, thin medium intervenes betwixt our most
+intimate approaches.  It puts me in mind of Alnaschar and his princess,
+with the cold steel blade of his scimitar between them.  Perhaps if I
+were at home I might feel differently; but in a foreign land I can never
+forget the distinction between English and American.
+
+
+January 1st, 1856.--Last night, at Mrs. Blodgett's, we sat up till twelve
+o'clock to open the front door, and let the New Year in.  After the
+coming guest was fairly in the house, the back door was to be opened, to
+let the Old Year out; but I was tired, and did not wait for the latter
+ceremony.  When the New Year made its entrance, there was a general
+shaking of hands, and one of the shipmasters said that it was customary
+to kiss the ladies all round; but to my great satisfaction, we did not
+proceed to such extremity.  There was singing in the streets, and many
+voices of people passing, and when twelve had struck, all the bells of
+the town, I believe, rang out together.  I went up stairs, sad and
+lonely, and, stepping into J-----'s little room, wished him a Happy New
+Year, as he slept, and many of them.
+
+To a cool observer, a country does not show to best advantage during a
+time of war.  All its self-conceit is doubly visible, and, indeed, is
+sedulously kept uppermost by direct appeals to it.  The country must be
+humbugged, in order to keep its courage up.
+
+Sentiment seems to me more abundant in middle-aged ladies in England than
+in the United States.  I don't know how it may be with young ladies.
+
+The shipmasters bear testimony to the singular delicacy of common sailors
+in their behavior in the presence of women; and they say that this good
+trait is still strongly observable even in the present race of seamen,
+greatly deteriorated as it is.  On shipboard, there is never an
+indecorous word or unseemly act said or done by sailors when a woman can
+be cognizant of it; and their deportment in this respect differs greatly
+from that of landsmen of similar position in society.  This is
+remarkable, considering that a sailor's female acquaintances are usually
+and exclusively of the worst kind, and that his intercourse with them has
+no relation whatever to morality or decency.  For this very reason, I
+suppose, he regards a modest woman as a creature divine and to be
+reverenced.
+
+
+January 16th.---I have suffered wofully from low spirits for some time
+past; and this has not often been the case since I grew to be a man, even
+in the least auspicious periods of my life.  My desolate bachelor
+condition, I suppose, is the cause.  Really, I have no pleasure in
+anything, and I feel my tread to be heavier, and my physical movement
+more sluggish, than in happier times.  A weight is always upon me.  My
+appetite is not good.  I sleep ill, lying awake till late at night, to
+think sad thoughts and to imagine sombre things, and awaking before light
+with the same thoughts and fancies still in my mind.  My heart sinks
+always as I ascend the stairs to my office, from a dim augury of ill news
+from Lisbon that I may perhaps hear,--of black-sealed letters, or some
+such horrors.  Nothing gives me any joy.  I have learned what the
+bitterness of exile is, in these days; and I never should have known it
+but for the absence of "Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,"--I can
+perfectly appreciate that line of Goldsmith; for it well expresses my own
+torpid, unenterprising, joyless state of mind and heart.  I am like an
+uprooted plant, wilted and drooping.  Life seems so purposeless as not to
+be worth the trouble of carrying it on any further.
+
+I was at a dinner, the other evening, at Mr. B------'s, where the
+entertainment was almost entirely American,--New York oysters, raw,
+stewed, and fried; soup of American partridges, particularly good; also
+terrapin soup, rich, but not to my taste; American pork and beans, baked
+in Yankee style; a noble American turkey, weighing thirty-one pounds;
+and, at the other end of the table, an American round of beef, which the
+Englishmen present allowed to be delicious, and worth a guinea an ounce.
+I forget the other American dishes, if there were any more,--O yes!
+canvas-back ducks, coming on with the sweets, in the usual English
+fashion.  We ought to have had Catawba wine; but this was wanting,
+although there was plenty of hock, champagne, sherry, madeira, port, and
+claret.  Our host is a very jolly man, and the dinner was a merrier and
+noisier one than any English dinner within my experience.
+
+
+February 8th.--I read to-day, in the little office-Bible (greasy with
+perjuries) St. Luke's account of the agony, the trial, the crucifixion,
+and the resurrection; and how Christ appeared to the two disciples, on
+their way to Emmaus, and afterwards to a company of disciples.  On both
+these latter occasions he expounded the Scriptures to them, and showed
+the application of the old prophecies to himself; and it is to be
+supposed that he made them fully, or at least sufficiently, aware what
+his character was,--whether God, or man, or both, or something between,
+together with all other essential points of doctrine.  But none of this
+doctrine or of these expositions is recorded, the mere facts being most
+simply stated, and the conclusion to which he led them, that, whether God
+himself, or the Son of God, or merely the Son of man, he was, at all
+events, the Christ foretold in the Jewish Scriptures.  This last,
+therefore, must have been the one essential point.
+
+
+February 18th.--On Saturday there called on me an elderly Robinson-Crusoe
+sort of man, Mr. H------, shipwright, I believe, of Boston, who has
+lately been travelling in the East.  About a year ago he was here, after
+being shipwrecked on the Dutch coast, and I assisted him to get home.
+Again, I have supplied him with five pounds, and my credit for an outside
+garment.  He is a spare man, with closely cropped gray, or rather white
+hair, close-cropped whiskers fringing round his chin, and a close-cropped
+white mustache, with his under lip and a portion of his chin bare
+beneath,--sunburnt and weather-worn.  He has been in Syria and Jerusalem,
+through the Desert, and at Sebastopol; and says he means to get Ticknor
+to publish his travels, and the story of his whole adventurous life, on
+his return home.  A free-spoken, confiding, hardy, religious, unpolished,
+simple, yet world-experienced man; very talkative, and boring me with
+longer visits than I like.  He has brought home, among other curiosities,
+"a lady's arm," as he calls it, two thousand years old,--a piece of a
+mummy, of course; also some coins, one of which, a gold coin of
+Vespasian, he showed me, and said he bought it of an Arab of the desert.
+The Bedouins possess a good many of these coins, handed down immemorially
+from father to son, and never sell them unless compelled by want.  He had
+likewise a Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Ruth, on a parchment roll,
+which was put into his care to be given to Lord Haddo.
+
+He was at Sebastopol during the siege, and nearly got his head knocked
+off by a cannon-ball.  His strangest statement is one in reference to
+Lord Raglan.  He says that an English officer told him that his Lordship
+shut himself up, desiring not to be disturbed, as he needed sleep.  When
+fifteen hours had gone by, his attendants thought it time to break open
+the door; and Lord Raglan was found dead, with a bottle of strychnine by
+the bedside.  The affair, so far as the circumstances indicated suicide,
+was hushed up, and his death represented as a natural one.  The English
+officer seems to have been an unscrupulous fellow, jesting thus with the
+fresh memory of his dead commander; for it is impossible to believe a
+word of the story.  Even if Lord Raglan had wished for death, he would
+hardly have taken strychnine, when there were so many chances of being
+honorably shot.  In Wood's Narrative of the Campaign, it is stated that
+he died surrounded by the members of his staff, after having been for
+some time ill.  It appears, however, by the same statement, that no
+serious apprehensions had been entertained, until, one afternoon, he shut
+himself in, desiring not to be disturbed till evening.  After two or
+three hours he called Lord Burghersh,--"Frank, Frank!" and was found to
+be almost in a state of collapse, and died that evening.  Mr. H------'s
+story might very well have been a camp rumor.
+
+It seems to me that the British Ministry, in its notion of a
+life-peerage, shows an entire misunderstanding of what makes people
+desire the peerage.  It is not for the immediate personal distinction;
+but because it removes the peer and his consanguinity from the common
+rank of men, and makes a separate order of them, as if they should grow
+angelic.  A life-peer is but a mortal amid the angelic throng.
+
+
+February 28th.--I went yesterday with Mrs. ------ and another lady, and
+Mr. M------, to the West Derby Workhouse. . . .
+
+[Here comes in the visit to the West Derby Workhouse, which was made the
+subject of a paper in Our Old Home, called "Outside Glimpses of English
+Poverty."  As the purpose in publishing these passages from the private
+note-books is to give to those who ask for a memoir of Mr. Hawthorne
+every possible incident recorded by himself which shows his character and
+nature, the editor thinks it proper to disclose the fact that Mr.
+Hawthorne was himself the gentleman of that party who took up in his arms
+the little child, so fearfully repulsive in its condition.  And it seems
+better to quote his own words in reference to it, than merely to say it
+was he.
+
+Under date February 28, 1856.
+
+"After this, we went to the ward where the children were kept, and, on
+entering this, we saw, in the first place, two or three unlovely and
+unwholesome little imps, who were lazily playing together.  One of them
+(a child about six years old, but I know not whether girl or boy)
+immediately took the strangest fancy for me.  It was a wretched, pale,
+half-torpid little thing, with a humor in its eyes which the Governor
+said was the scurvy.  I never saw, till a few moments afterwards, a child
+that I should feel less inclined to fondle.
+
+"But this little, sickly, humor-eaten fright prowled around me, taking
+hold of my skirts, following at my heels, and at last held up its hands,
+smiled in my face, and, standing directly before me, insisted on my
+taking it up!  Not that it said a word, for I rather think it was
+underwitted, and could not talk; but its face expressed such perfect
+confidence that it was going to be taken up and made much of, that it was
+impossible not to do it.  It was as if God had promised the child this
+favor on my behalf, and that I must needs fulfil the contract.  I held my
+undesirable burden a little while; and, after setting the child down, it
+still followed me, holding two of my fingers and playing with them, just
+as if it were a child of my own.  It was a foundling, and out of all
+human kind it chose me to be its father!  We went up stairs into another
+ward; and, on coming down again, there was this same child waiting for
+me, with a sickly smile round its defaced mouth, and in its dim red
+eyes. . . . I never should have forgiven myself if I had repelled its
+advances."--ED.]
+
+After leaving the workhouse, we drove to Norris Green; and Mrs. ------
+showed me round the grounds, which are very good and nicely kept.  O
+these English homes, what delightful places they are!  I wonder how many
+people live and die in the workhouse, having no other home, because other
+people have a great deal more home than enough. . . . We had a very
+pleasant dinner, and Mr. M------ and I walked back, four miles and a
+half, to Liverpool, where we arrived just before midnight.
+
+Why did Christ curse the fig-tree?  It was not in the least to blame; and
+it seems most unreasonable to have expected it to bear figs out of
+season.  Instead of withering it away, it would have been as great a
+miracle, and far more beautiful, and, one would think, of more beneficent
+influence, to have made it suddenly rich with ripe fruit.  Then, to be
+sure, it might have died joyfully, having answered so good a purpose.  I
+have been reminded of this miracle by the story of a man in Heywood, a
+town in Lancashire, who used such horribly profane language that a
+plane-tree in front of his cottage is said to have withered away from
+that hour.  I can draw no moral from the incident of the fig-tree, unless
+it be that all things perish from the instant when they cease to answer
+some divine purpose.
+
+
+March 6th.--Yesterday I lunched on board Captain Russell's ship, the
+Princeton.  These daily lunches on shipboard might answer very well the
+purposes of a dinner; being, in fact, noontide dinners, with soup, roast
+mutton, mutton-chops, and a macaroni pudding,--brandy, port and sherry
+wines.  There were three elderly Englishmen at table, with white heads,
+which, I think, is oftener the predicament of elderly heads here than in
+America.  One of these was a retired Custom-House officer, and the other
+two were connected with shipping in some way.  There is a satisfaction in
+seeing Englishmen eat and drink, they do it so heartily, and, on the
+whole, so wisely,--trusting so entirely that there is no harm in good
+beef and mutton, and a reasonable quantity of good liquor; and these
+three hale old men, who had acted on this wholesome faith for so long,
+were proofs that it is well on earth to live like earthly creatures.  In
+America, what squeamishness, what delicacy, what stomachic apprehension,
+would there not be among three stomachs of sixty or seventy years'
+experience!  I think this failure of American stomachs is partly owing to
+our ill usage of our digestive powers, and partly to our want of faith in
+them.
+
+After lunch, we all got into an omnibus, and went to the Mersey Iron
+Foundry, to see the biggest piece of ordnance in the world, which is
+almost finished.  The overseer of the works received us, and escorted us
+courteously throughout the establishment; which is very extensive, giving
+employment to a thousand men, what with night-work and day-work.  The big
+gun is still on the axle, or turning-machine, by means of which it has
+been bored.  It is made entirely of wrought and welded iron, fifty tons
+of which were originally used; and the gun, in its present state, bored
+out and smoothed away, weighs nearly twenty-three tons.  It has, as yet,
+no trunnions, and does not look much like a cannon, but only a huge iron
+cylinder, immensely solid, and with a bore so large that a young man of
+nineteen shoved himself into it, the whole length, with a light, in order
+to see whether it is duly smooth and regular.  I suppose it will have a
+better effect, as to the impression of size, when it is finished,
+polished, mounted, aid fully equipped, after the fashion of ordinary
+cannon.  It is to throw a ball of three hundred pounds' weight five
+miles, and woe be to whatever ship or battlement shall bear the brunt!
+
+After inspecting the gun we went through other portions of the
+establishment, and saw iron in various stages of manufacture.  I am not
+usually interested in manufacturing processes, being quite unable to
+understand them, at least in cotton-machinery and the like; but here
+there were such exhibitions of mighty strength, both of men and machines,
+that I had a satisfaction in looking on.  We saw lumps of iron, intensely
+white-hot, and in all but a melting state, passed through rollers of
+various size and pressure, and speedily converted into long bars, which
+came curling and waving out of the rollers like great red ribbons, or
+like fiery serpents wriggling out of Tophet; and finally, being
+straightened out, they were laid to cool in heaps.  Trip-hammers are very
+pleasant things to look at, working so massively as they do, and yet so
+accurately; chewing up the hot iron, as it were, and fashioning it into
+shape, with a sort of mighty and gigantic gentleness in their mode of
+action.  What great things man has contrived, and is continually
+performing!  What a noble brute he is!
+
+Also, I found much delight in looking at the molten iron, boiling and
+bubbling in the furnace, and sometimes slopping over, when stirred by the
+attendant.  There were numberless fires on all sides, blinding us with
+their intense glow; and continually the pounding strokes of huge hammers,
+some wielded by machinery and others by human arms.  I had a respect for
+these stalwart workmen, who seemed to be near kindred of the machines
+amid which they wrought,--mighty men, smiting stoutly, and looking into
+the fierce eyes of the furnace fearlessly, and handling the iron at a
+temperature which would have taken the skin off from ordinary fingers.
+They looked strong, indeed, but pale; for the hot atmosphere in which
+they live cannot but be deleterious, and I suppose their very strength
+wears them quickly out.  But I would rather live ten years as an
+iron-smith than fifty as a tailor.
+
+So much heat can be concentrated into a mass of iron, that a lump a foot
+square heats all the atmosphere about it, and burns the face at a
+considerable distance.  As the trip-hammer strikes the lump, it seems
+still more to intensify the heat by squeezing it together, and the fluid
+iron oozes out like sap or juice.
+
+"He was ready for the newest fashions!"--this expression was used by Mrs.
+Blodgett in reference to Mr. ------ on his first arrival in England, and
+it is a very tender way of signifying that a person is rather poorly off
+as to apparel.
+
+
+March 15th.--Mr. ------, our new ambassador, arrived on Thursday
+afternoon by the Atlantic, and I called at the Adelphi Hotel, after
+dinner, to pay him my respects.  I found him and his family at
+supper. . . . They seem to be plain, affable people. . . . The
+ambassador is a venerable old gentleman, with a full head of perfectly
+white hair, looking not unlike an old-fashioned wig; and this, together
+with his collarless white neckcloth and his brown coat, gave him
+precisely such an aspect as one would expect in a respectable person of
+pre-revolutionary days.  There was a formal simplicity, too, in his
+manners, that might have belonged to the same era.  He must have been a
+very handsome man in his youthful days, and is now comely, very erect,
+moderately tall, not overburdened with flesh; of benign and agreeable
+address, with a pleasant smile; but his eyes, which are not very large,
+impressed me as sharp and cold.  He did not at all stamp himself upon me
+as a man of much intellectual or characteristic vigor.  I found no such
+matter in his conversation, nor did I feel it in the indefinable way by
+which strength always makes itself acknowledged.  B------, though,
+somehow, plain and uncouth, yet vindicates himself as a large man of the
+world, able, experienced, fit to handle difficult circumstances of life;
+dignified, too, and able to hold his own in any society.  Mr. ------ has
+a kind of venerable dignity; but yet, if a person could so little respect
+himself as to insult him, I should say that there was no innate force in
+Mr. ------ to prevent it.  It is very strange that he should have made so
+considerable a figure in public life, filling offices that the strongest
+men would have thought worthy of their highest ambition.  There must be
+something shrewd and sly under his apparent simplicity; narrow, cold,
+selfish, perhaps.  I fancied these things in his eyes.  He has risen in
+life by the lack of too powerful qualities, and by a certain tact, which
+enables him to take advantage of circumstances and opportunities, and
+avail himself of his unobjectionableness, just at the proper time.  I
+suppose he must be pronounced a humbug, yet almost or quite an innocent
+one.  Yet he is a queer representative to be sent from brawling and
+boisterous America at such a critical period.  It will be funny if
+England sends him back again, on hearing the news of ------'s dismissal.
+Mr. ------ gives me the impression of being a very amiable man in his own
+family.  He has brought his son with him, as Secretary of Legation,--a
+small young man, with a little mustache.  It will be a feeble embassy.
+
+I called again the next morning, and introduced Mrs. ------, who, I
+believe, accompanied the ladies about town.  This simplicity in
+Mr. ------'s manner puzzles and teases me; for, in spite of it, there was
+a sort of self-consciousness, as if he were being looked at,--as if he
+were having his portrait taken.
+
+
+
+LONDON.
+
+
+March 22d.--Yesterday,--no, day before yesterday,--I left Liverpool for
+London by rail, from the Lime Street station.  The journey was a dull and
+monotonous one, as usual.  Three passengers were in the same carriage
+with me at starting; but they dropped off; and from Rugby I was alone.
+We reached London after ten o'clock; and I took a cab for St. James's
+Place, No.  32, where I found Mr. B------ expecting me.  He had secured a
+bedroom for me at this lodging-house, and I am to be free of his
+drawing-room during my stay.  We breakfasted at nine, and then walked
+down to his counting-room, in Old Broad Street, in the city.  It being a
+dim, dingy morning, London looked very dull, the more so as it was Good
+Friday, and therefore the streets were comparatively thin of people and
+vehicles, and had on their Sunday aspect.  If it were not for the human
+life and bustle of London, it would be a very stupid place, with a heavy
+and dreary-monotony of unpicturesque streets.  We went up Bolt Court,
+where Dr. Johnson used to live; and this was the only interesting site we
+saw.  After spending some time in the counting-room, while Mr. ------
+read his letters, we went to London Bridge, and took the steamer for
+Waterloo Bridge, with partly an intent to go to Richmond, but the day was
+so damp and dusky that we concluded otherwise.  So we came home,
+visiting, on our way, the site of Covent Garden Theatre, lately burnt
+down.  The exterior walls still remain perfect, and look quite solid
+enough to admit of the interior being renewed, but I believe it is
+determined to take them down.
+
+After a slight lunch and a glass of wine, we walked out, along
+Piccadilly, and to Hyde Park, which already looks very green, and where
+there were a good many people walking and driving, and rosy-faced
+children at play.  Somehow or other the shine and charm are gone from
+London, since my last visit; and I did not very much admire, nor feel
+much interested in anything.  We returned (and I, for my part, was much
+wearied) in time for dinner at five.  The evening was spent at home in
+various talk, and I find Mr. ------ a very agreeable companion, and a
+young man of thought and information, with a self-respecting character,
+and I think him a safe person to live with.
+
+This St. James's Place is in close vicinity to St. James's Palace, the
+gateway and not very splendid front of which we can see from the corner.
+The club-houses and the best life of the town are near at hand.  Addison,
+before his marriage, used to live in St. James's Place, and the house
+where Mr. Rogers recently died is up the court, not that this latter
+residence excites much interest in my mind.  I remember nothing else very
+noteworthy in this first day's experience, except that on Sir Watkins
+Williams Wynn's door, not far from this house, I saw a gold knocker,
+which is said to be unscrewed every night lest it should be stolen.  I
+don't know whether it be really gold; for it did not look so bright as
+the generality of brass ones.  I received a very good letter from J-----
+this morning.  He was to go to Mr. Bright's at Sandhays yesterday, and
+remain till Monday.
+
+After writing the above, I walked along the Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate
+Hill and Cheapside to Wood Street,--a very narrow street, insomuch that
+one has to press close against the wall to escape being grazed when a
+cart is passing.  At No. 77 I found the place of business of Mr. Bennoch,
+who came to see me at Rock Ferry with Mr. Jerdan, not long after my
+arrival in England.  I found him in his office; but he did not at first
+recognize me, so much stouter have I grown during my residence in
+England,--a new man, as he says.  Mr. Bennoch is a kindly, frank, very
+good man, and was bounteous in his plans for making my time pass
+pleasantly.  We talked of ------, from whom he has just received a
+letter, and who says he will fight for England in case of a war.  I let
+Bennoch know that I, at least, should take the other side.
+
+After arranging to go to Greenwich Fair, and afterwards to dine with
+Bennoch, I left him and went to Mr. ------'s office, and afterwards
+strayed forth again, and crossed London Bridge.  Thence I rambled rather
+drearily along through several shabby and uninteresting streets on the
+other side of the Thames; and the dull streets in London are really the
+dullest and most disheartening in the world.  By and by I found my way to
+Southwark Bridge, and so crossed to Upper Thames Street, which was
+likewise very stupid, though I believe Clenman's paternal house in
+"Little Dorrit" stands thereabouts. . . . Next, I got into Ludgate
+Hill, near St. Paul's, and being quite foot-weary, I took a Paddington
+omnibus, and rode up into Regent Street, whence I came home.
+
+
+March 24th.--Yesterday being a clear day for England, we determined upon
+an expedition to Hampton Court; so walked out betimes towards the
+Waterloo station; but first crossed the Thames by Westminster Bridge, and
+went to Lambeth Palace.  It stands immediately on the bank of the river,
+not far above the bridge.  We merely walked round it, and saw only an old
+stone tower or two, partially renewed with brick, and a high connecting
+wall, within which appeared gables and other portions of the palace, all
+of an ancient plan and venerable aspect, though evidently much patched up
+and restored in the course of the many ages since its foundation.  There
+is likewise a church, part of which looks old, connected with the palace.
+The streets surrounding it have many gabled houses, and a general look of
+antiquity, more than some other parts of London.
+
+We then walked to the Waterloo station, on the same side of the river;
+and at twenty minutes past one took the rail for Hampton Court, distant
+some twelve or fifteen miles.  On arriving at the terminus, we beheld
+Hampton Palace, on the other side of the Thames,--an extensive structure,
+with a front of red brick, long and comparatively low, with the great
+Hall which Wolsey built rising high above the rest.  We crossed the river
+(which is here but a narrow stream) by a stone bridge.  The entrance to
+the palace is about half a quarter of a mile from the railway, through
+arched gates, which give a long perspective into the several quadrangles.
+These quadrangles, one beyond another, are paved with stone, and
+surrounded by the brick walls of the palace, the many windows of which
+look in upon them.  Soldiers were standing sentinel at the exterior
+gateways, and at the various doors of the palace; but they admitted
+everybody without question and without fee.  Policemen, or other
+attendants, were in most of the rooms, but interfered with no one; so
+that, in this respect, it was one of the pleasantest places to visit that
+I have found in England.  A good many people, of all classes, were
+strolling through the apartments.
+
+We first went into Wolsey's great Hall, up a most spacious staircase, the
+walls and ceiling of which were covered with an allegorical fresco by
+Verrio, wonderfully bright and well preserved; and without caring about
+the design or execution, I greatly liked the brilliancy of the colors.
+The great Hall is a most noble and beautiful room, above a hundred feet
+long and sixty high and broad.  Most of the windows are of stained or
+painted glass, with elaborate designs, whether modern or ancient I know
+not, but certainly brilliant in effect.  The walls, from the floor to
+perhaps half their height, are covered with antique tapestry, which,
+though a good deal faded, still retains color enough to be a very
+effective adornment, and to give an idea of how rich a mode of decking a
+noble apartment this must have been.  The subjects represented were from
+Scripture, and the figures seemed colossal.  On looking closely at this
+tapestry, you could see that it was thickly interwoven with threads of
+gold, still glistening.  The windows, except one or two that are long, do
+not descend below the top of this tapestry, and are therefore twenty or
+thirty feet above the floor; and this manner of lighting a great room
+seems to add much to the impressiveness of the enclosed space.  The roof
+is very magnificent, of carved oak, intricately and elaborately arched,
+and still as perfect to all appearance as when it was first made.  There
+are banners, so fresh in their hues, and so untattered, that I think they
+must be modern, suspended along beneath the cornice of the hall, and
+exhibiting Wolsey's arms and badges.  On the whole, this is a perfect
+sight, in its way.
+
+Next to the hall there is a withdrawing-room, more than seventy feet
+long, and twenty-five feet high.  The walls of this apartment, too, are
+covered with ancient tapestry, of allegorical design, but more faded than
+that of the hall.  There is also a stained-glass window; and a marble
+statue of Venus on a couch, very lean and not very beautiful; and some
+cartoons of Carlo Cignani, which have left no impression on  my memory;
+likewise, a large model of a splendid palace of some East Indian nabob.
+
+I am not sure, after all, that Verrio's frescoed grand staircase was not
+in another part of the palace; for I remember that we went from it
+through an immensely long suite of apartments, beginning with the
+Guard-chamber.  All these rooms are wainscoted with oak, which looks new,
+being, I believe, of the date of King William's reign.  Over many of the
+doorways, or around the panels, there are carvings in wood by Gibbons,
+representing wreaths of flowers, fruit, and foliage, the most perfectly
+beautiful that can be conceived; and the wood being of a light hue
+(lime-wood, I believe), it has a fine effect on the dark oak panelling.
+The apartments open one beyond another, in long, long, long succession,--
+rooms of state, and kings' and queens' bedchambers, and royal closets
+bigger than ordinary drawing-rooms, so that the whole suite must be half
+a mile, or it may be a mile, in extent.  From the windows you get views
+of the palace-grounds, broad and stately walks, and groves of trees, and
+lawns, and fountains, and the Thames and adjacent country beyond.  The
+walls of all these rooms are absolutely covered with pictures, including
+works of all the great masters, which would require long study before a
+new eye could enjoy them; and, seeing so many of them at once, and having
+such a nothing of time to look at them all, I did not even try to see any
+merit in them.  Vandyke's picture of Charles I., on a white horse beneath
+an arched gateway, made more impression on me than any other, and as I
+recall it now, it seems as if I could see the king's noble, melancholy
+face, and armed form, remembered not in picture, but in reality.  All Sir
+Peter Lely's lewd women, and Kneller's too, were in these rooms; and the
+jolly old stupidity of George III. and his family, many times repeated;
+and pictures by Titian, Rubens, and other famous hands, intermixed with
+many by West, which provokingly drew the eye away from their betters.  It
+seems to me that a picture, of all other things, should be by itself;
+whereas people always congregate them in galleries.  To endeavor really
+to see them, so arranged, is like trying to read a hundred poems at
+once,--a most absurd attempt.  Of all these pictures, I hardly recollect
+any so well as a ridiculous old travesty of the Resurrection and Last
+Judgment, where the dead people are represented as coming to life at the
+sound of the trumpet,--the flesh re-establishing itself on the bones, one
+man picking up his skull, and putting it on his shoulders,--and all
+appearing greatly startled, only half awake, and at a loss what to do
+next.  Some devils are dragging away the damned by the heels and on
+sledges, and above sits the Redeemer and some angelic and sainted people,
+looking complacently down upon the scene!
+
+We saw, in one of the rooms, the funeral canopy beneath which the Duke of
+Wellington lay in state,--very gorgeous, of black velvet embroidered with
+silver and adorned with escutcheons; also, the state bed of Queen Anne,
+broad, and of comfortable appearance, though it was a queen's,--the
+materials of the curtains, quilt, and furniture, red velvet, still
+brilliant in hue; also King William's bed and his queen Mary's, with
+enormously tall posts, and a good deal the worse for time and wear.
+
+The last apartment we entered was the gallery containing Raphael's
+cartoons, which I shall not pretend to admire nor to understand.  I can
+conceive, indeed, that there is a great deal of expression in them, and
+very probably they may, in every respect, deserve all their fame; but on
+this point I can give no testimony.  To my perception they were a series
+of very much faded pictures, dimly seen (for this part of the palace was
+now in shadow), and representing figures neither graceful nor beautiful,
+nor, as far as I could discern, particularly grand.  But I came to them
+with a wearied mind and eye; and also I had a previous distaste to them
+through the medium of engravings.
+
+But what a noble palace, nobly enriched, is this Hampton Court!  The
+English government does well to keep it up, and to admit the people
+freely into it, for it is impossible for even a Republican not to feel
+something like awe--at least a profound respect--for all this state, and
+for the institutions which are here represented, the sovereigns whose
+moral magnificence demands such a residence; and its permanence, too,
+enduring from age to age, and each royal generation adding new splendors
+to those accumulated by their predecessors.  If one views the matter in
+another way, to be sure, we may feel indignant that such dolt-heads,
+rowdies, and every way mean people, as many of the English sovereigns
+have been, should inhabit these stately halls, contrasting its splendors
+with their littleness; but, on the whole, I readily consented within
+myself to be impressed for a moment with the feeling that royalty has its
+glorious side.  By no possibility can we ever have such a place in
+America.
+
+Leaving Hampton Court at about four o'clock, we walked through Bushy
+Park,--a beautiful tract of ground, well wooded with fine old trees,
+green with moss, all up their twisted trunks,--through several villages,
+Twickenham among the rest, to Richmond.  Before entering Twickenham, we
+passed a lath-and-plaster castellated edifice, much time-worn, and with
+the plaster peeling off from the laths, which I fancied might be Horace
+Walpole's toy-castle.  Not that it really could have been; but it was
+like the image, wretchedly mean and shabby, which one forms of such a
+place, in its decay.  From Hampton Court to the Star and Garter, on
+Richmond Hill, is about six miles.  After glancing cursorily at the
+prospect, which is famous, and doubtless very extensive and beautiful if
+the English mistiness would only let it be seen, we took a good dinner in
+the large and handsome coffee-room of the hotel, and then wended our way
+to the rail-station, and reached home between eight and nine o'clock.  We
+must have walked not far from fifteen miles in the course of the day.
+
+
+March 25th.--Yesterday, at one o'clock, I called by appointment on Mr.
+Bennoch, and lunched with him and his partners and clerks.  This lunch
+seems to be a legitimate continuation of the old London custom of the
+master living at the same table with his apprentices.  The meal was a
+dinner for the latter class.  The table was set in an upper room of the
+establishment; and the dinner was a large joint of roast mutton, to which
+ten people sat down, including a German silk-merchant as a guest besides
+myself.  Mr. Bennoch was at the head of the table, and one of his
+partners at the foot.  For the apprentices there was porter to drink, and
+for the partners and guests some sparkling Moselle, and we had a
+sufficient dinner with agreeable conversation.  Bennoch said that
+G. G------ used to be very fond of these lunches while in England.
+
+After lunch, Mr. Bennoch took me round the establishment, which is quite
+extensive, occupying, I think, two or three adjacent houses, and
+requiring more.  He showed me innumerable packages of ribbons, and other
+silk manufactures, and all sorts of silks, from the raw thread to the
+finest fabrics.  He then offered to show me some of the curiosities of
+old London, and took me first to Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in Monkwell
+Street.  It was at this place that the first anatomical studies were
+instituted in England.  At the time of its foundation, the Barbers and
+Surgeons were one company; but the latter, I believe, are now the
+exclusive possessors of the Hall.  The edifice was built by Inigo Jones,
+and the principal room is a fine one, with finely carved wood-work on the
+ceiling and walls.  There is a skylight in the roof, letting down a
+sufficient radiance on the long table beneath, where, no doubt, dead
+people have been dissected, and where, for many generations, it has been
+the custom of the society to hold its stated feasts.  In this room hangs
+the most valuable picture by Holbein now in existence, representing the
+company of Barber-Surgeons kneeling before Henry VIII., and receiving
+their charter from his hands.  The picture is about six feet square.  The
+king is dressed in scarlet, and quite fulfils one's idea of his aspect.
+The Barber-Surgeons, all portraits, are an assemblage of grave-looking
+personages, in dark costumes.  The company has refused five thousand
+pounds for this unique picture; and the keeper of the Hall told me that
+Sir Robert Peel had offered a thousand pounds for liberty to take out
+only one of the heads, that of a person named Pen, he conditioning to
+have a perfect fac-simile painted in.  I did not see any merit in this
+head over the others.
+
+Beside this great picture hung a most exquisite portrait by Vandyke; an
+elderly, bearded man, of noble and refined countenance, in a rich, grave
+dress.  There are many other pictures of distinguished men of the
+company, in long past times, and of some of the kings and great people of
+England, all darkened with age, and producing a rich and sombre effect,
+in this stately old hall.  Nothing is more curious in London than these
+ancient localities and customs of the City Companies,--each trade and
+profession having its own hall, and its own institutions.  The keeper
+next showed us the plate which is used at the banquets.
+
+I should like to be present at one of these feasts.  I saw also an old
+vellum manuscript, in black-letter, which appeared to be a record of the
+proceedings of the company; and at the end there were many pages ruled
+for further entries, but none had been made in the volume for the last
+three or four hundred years.
+
+I think it was in the neighborhood of Barber-Surgeons' Hall, which stands
+amid an intricacy of old streets, where I should never have thought of
+going, that I saw a row of ancient almshouses, of Elizabethan structure.
+They looked wofully dilapidated.  In front of one of them was an
+inscription, setting forth that some worthy alderman had founded this
+establishment for the support of six poor men; and these six, or their
+successors, are still supported, but no larger number, although the value
+of the property left for that purpose would now suffice for a much larger
+number.
+
+Then Mr. Bennoch took me to Cripplegate, and, entering the door of a
+house, which proved to be a sexton's residence, we passed by a side
+entrance into the church-porch of St. Giles, of which the sexton's house
+seems to be an indivisible contiguity.  This is a very ancient church,
+that escaped the great fire of London.  The galleries are supported by
+arches, the pillars of which are cased high upwards with oak; but all
+this oaken work and the oaken pews are comparatively modern, though so
+solid and dark that they agree well enough with the general effect of the
+church.  Proceeding to the high altar, we found it surrounded with many
+very curious old monuments and memorials, some in carved oak, some in
+marble; grim old worthies, mostly in the costume of Queen Elizabeth's
+time.  Here was the bust of Speed, the historian; here was the monument
+of Fox, author of The Book of Martyrs.  High up on the wall, beside the
+altar, there was a black wooden coffin, and a lady sitting upright within
+it, with her hands clasped in prayer, it being her awakening moment at
+the Resurrection.  Thence we passed down the centre aisle, and about
+midway we stopped before a marble bust, fixed against one of the pillars.
+And this was the bust of Milton!  Yes, and Milton's bones lay beneath our
+feet; for he was buried under the pew over the door of which I was
+leaning.  The bust, I believe, is the original of the one in Westminster
+Abbey.
+
+Treading over the tombstones of the old citizens of London, both in the
+aisles and the porch, and within doors and without, we went into the
+churchyard, one side of which is fenced in by a portion of London Wall,
+very solid, and still high, though the accumulation of human dust has
+covered much of its base.  This is the most considerable portion now
+remaining of the ancient wall of London.  The sexton now asked us to go
+into the tower of the church, that he might show us the oldest part of
+the structure, and we did so, and, looking down from the organ gallery, I
+saw a woman sitting alone in the church, waiting for the rector, whose
+ghostly consolation, I suppose, she needed.
+
+This old church-tower was formerly lighted by three large windows,--one
+of them of very great size; but the thrifty church-wardens of a
+generation or two ago had built them up with brick, to the great
+disfigurement of the church.  The sexton called my attention to the
+organ-pipe, which is of sufficient size, I believe, to admit three men.
+
+From Cripplegate we went to Milton Street (as it is now called), through
+which we walked for a very excellent reason; for this is the veritable
+Grub Street, where my literary kindred of former times used to
+congregate.  It is still a shabby-looking street, with old-fashioned
+houses, and inhabited chiefly by people of the poorer classes, though not
+by authors.  Next we went to Old Broad Street, and, being joined by
+Mr. B------, we set off for London Bridge, turning out of our direct
+course to see London stone in Watling Street.  This famous stone appears
+now to be built into the wall of St. Swithin's Church, and is so encased
+that you can only see and touch the top of it through a circular hole.
+There are one or two long cuts or indentations in the top, which are said
+to have been made by Jack Cade's sword when he struck it against the
+stone.  If so, his sword was of a redoubtable temper.  Judging by what I
+saw, London stone was a rudely shaped and unhewn post.
+
+At the London Bridge station, we took the rail for Greenwich, and, it
+being only about five miles off, we were not long in reaching the town.
+It was Easter Monday; and during the first three days of Easter, from
+time immemorial, a fair has been held at Greenwich, and this was what we
+had come to see.
+
+[This fair is described in Our Old Home, in "A Loudon Suburb."]
+
+Reaching Mr. Bennoch's house, we found it a pretty and comfortable one,
+and adorned with many works of art; for he seems to be a patron of art
+and literature, and a warm-hearted man, of active benevolence and vivid
+sympathies in many directions.  His face shows this.  I have never seen
+eyes of a warmer glow than his.  On the walls of one room there were a
+good many sketches by Haydon, and several artists' proofs of fine
+engravings, presented by persons to whom he had been kind.  In the
+drawing-room there was a marble bust of Mrs. ------, and one, I think, of
+himself, and one of the Queen, which Mr. Bennoch said was very good, and
+it is unlike any other I have seen.  It is intended as a gift, from a
+number of subscribers, to Miss Nightingale.  Likewise a crayon sketch of
+------, looking rather morbid and unwholesome, as the poor lady really
+is.  Also, a small picture of Mr. Bennoch in a military dress, as an
+officer, probably of city-horse.  By and by came in a young gentleman,
+son of Haydon, the painter of high art, and one or two ladies staying in
+the house, and anon Mrs. ------.  And so we went in to dinner.
+
+Bennoch is an admirable host, and warms his guests like a household fire
+by the influence of his kindly face and glowing eyes, and by such
+hospitable demeanor as best suits this aspect.  After the cloth was
+removed, came in Mr. Newton Crosland, a young man who once called on me
+in Liverpool,--the husband of a literary lady, formerly Camilla Toulmin.
+The lady herself was coming to spend the evening.  The husband (and I
+presume the wife) is a decided believer in spiritual manifestations.  We
+talked of politics and spiritualism and literature; and before we rose
+from table, Mr. Bennoch drank the health of the ladies, and especially of
+Mrs. ------, in terms very kind towards her and me.  I responded in her
+behalf as well as I could, and left it to Mr. Bowman, as a bachelor, to
+respond for the ladies generally,--which he did briefly, toasting
+Mrs. B------.
+
+We had heard the sound of the piano in the drawing-room for some time,
+and now adjourning thither, I had the pleasure to be introduced to Mrs.
+Newton Crosland,--a rather tall, thin, pale, and lady-like person,
+looking, I thought, of a sensitive character.  She expressed in a low
+tone and quiet way great delight at seeing my distinguished self! for she
+is a vast admirer of The Scarlet Letter, and especially of the character
+of Hester; indeed, I remember seeing a most favorable criticism of the
+book from her pen, in one of the London magazines. . . .
+
+At eleven o'clock Mrs. Crosland entered the tiniest pony-carriage, and
+set forth for her own residence, with a lad walking at the pony's head,
+and carrying a lantern. . . .
+
+
+March 26th.--Yesterday was not a very eventful day.  After writing in my
+journal I went out at twelve, and visited, for the first time, the
+National Gallery.  It is of no use for me to criticise pictures, or to
+try to describe them, but I have an idea that I might acquire a taste,
+with a little attention to the subject, for I find I already begin to
+prefer some pictures to others.  This is encouraging.  Of those that I
+saw yesterday, I think I liked several by Murillo best.  There were a
+great many people in the gallery, almost entirely of the middle, with a
+few of the lower classes; and I should think that the effect of the
+exhibition must at least tend towards refinement.  Nevertheless, the only
+emotion that I saw displayed was in broad grins on the faces of a man and
+two women, at sight of a small picture of Venus, with a Satyr peeping at
+her with an expression of gross animal delight and merriment.  Without
+being aware of it, this man and the two women were of that same Satyr
+breed.
+
+If I lived in London, I would endeavor to educate myself in this and
+other galleries of art; but as the case stands, it would be of no use.  I
+saw two of Turner's landscapes; but did not see so much beauty in them as
+in some of Claude's.  A view of the grand canal in Venice, by Canaletto,
+seemed to me wonderful,--absolutely perfect,--a better reality, for I
+could see the water of the canal moving and dimpling; and the palaces and
+buildings on each side were quite as good in their way.
+
+Leaving the gallery, I walked down into the city, and passed through
+Smithfield, where I glanced at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. . . . Then I
+went into St. Paul's, and walked all round the great cathedral, looking,
+I believe, at every monument on the floor.  There is certainly nothing
+very wonderful in any of them, and I do wish it would not so generally
+happen that English warriors go into battle almost nude; at least, we
+must suppose so, from their invariably receiving their death-wounds in
+that condition.  I will not believe that a sculptor or a painter is a man
+of genius unless he can wake the nobleness of his subject, illuminate and
+transfigure any given pattern of coat and breeches.  Nevertheless, I
+never go into St. Paul's without being impressed anew with the grandeur
+of the edifice, and the general effect of these same groups of statuary
+ranged in their niches and at the bases of the pillars as adornments of
+the cathedral.
+
+Coming homeward, I went into the enclosure of the Temple, and near the
+entrance saw "Dr. Johnson's staircase" printed over a doorway; so I not
+only looked in, but went up the first flight, of some broad, well-worn
+stairs, passing my hand over a heavy, ancient, broken balustrade, on
+which, no doubt, Johnson's hand had often rested.  It was here that
+Boswell used to visit him, in their early acquaintance.  Before my lunch,
+I had gone into Bolt Court, where he died.
+
+This morning there have been letters from Mr. Wilding, enclosing an
+invitation to me to be one of the stewards of the anniversary dinner of
+the Literary Fund.
+
+No, I thank you, gentlemen!
+
+
+March 27th.--Yesterday I went out at about twelve, and visited the
+British Museum; an exceedingly tiresome affair.  It quite crushes a
+person to see so much at once, and I wandered from hall to hall with a
+weary and heavy heart, wishing (Heaven forgive me!) that the Elgin
+marbles and the frieze of the Parthenon were all burnt into lime,
+and that the granite Egyptian statues were hewn and squared into
+building-stones, and that the mummies had all turned to dust two thousand
+years ago; and, in fine, that all the material relics of so many
+successive ages had disappeared with the generations that produced them.
+The present is burdened too much with the past.  We have not time, in our
+earthly existence, to appreciate what is warm with life, and immediately
+around us; yet we heap up these old shells, out of which human life has
+long emerged, casting them off forever.  I do not see how future ages are
+to stagger onward under all this dead weight, with the additions that
+will be continually made to it.
+
+After leaving the Museum, I went to see Bennoch, and arrange with him our
+expedition of to-day; and he read me a letter from Topper, very earnestly
+inviting me to come and spend a night or two with him.  Then I wandered
+about the city, and was lost in the vicinity of Holborn; so that for a
+long while I was under a spell of bewilderment, and kept returning, in
+the strangest way, to the same point in Lincoln's Inn Fields. . . .
+
+Mr. Bowman and I went to the Princess's Theatre in the evening.  Charles
+Kean performed in Louis XI. very well indeed,--a thoughtful and highly
+skilled actor,--much improved since I saw him, many years ago, in
+America.
+
+
+
+ALDERSHOTT CAMP.
+
+
+April 1st.--After my last date on Thursday, I visited the National
+Gallery.  At three o'clock, having packed a travelling-bag, I went to
+Bennoch's office, and lunched with him; and at about five we took the
+rail from the Waterloo station for Aldershott Camp.  At Tamborough we
+were cordially received by Lieutenant Shaw, of the North Cork Rifles, and
+were escorted by him, in a fly, to his quarters.  The camp is a large
+city, composed of numberless wooden barracks, arranged in regular
+streets, on a wide, bleak heath, with an extensive and dreary prospect on
+all sides.  Lieutenant Shaw assigned me one room in his hut, and Bennoch
+another, and made us as comfortable as kind hospitality could; but the
+huts are very small, and the rooms have no size at all; neither are they
+air-tight, and the sharp wind whistles in at the crevices; and, on the
+whole, of all discomfortable places, I am inclined to reckon Aldershott
+Camp the most so.  I suppose the government has placed the camp on that
+windy heath, and built such wretched huts, for the very purpose of
+rendering life as little desirable as may be to the soldiers, so that
+they should throw it away the more willingly.
+
+At seven o'clock we dined at the regimental mess, with the officers of
+the North Cork.  The mess-room is by far the most endurable place to be
+found in camp.  The hut is large, and the mess-room is capable of
+receiving between thirty and forty guests, besides the officers of the
+regiment, when a great dinner-party is given.  As I saw it, the whole
+space was divided into a dining-room and two anterooms by red curtains
+drawn across; and the second anteroom seems to be a general rendezvous
+for the officers, where they meet at all times, and talk, or look over
+the newspapers and the army-register, which constitute the chief of their
+reading.  The Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment received
+Bennoch and me with great cordiality, as did all the other officers, and
+we sat down to a splendid dinner.
+
+All the officers of the regiment are Irishmen, and all of them, I
+believe, men of fortune; and they do what they can towards alleviating
+their hardships in camp by eating and drinking of the best that can be
+obtained of all good things.  The table service and plate were as fine as
+those in any nobleman's establishment; the dishes numerous and admirably
+got up; and the wines delectable and genuine,--as they had need to be;
+for there is a great consumption of them.  I liked these Irish officers
+exceedingly;--not that it would be possible to live long among them
+without finding existence a bore; for they have no thought, no
+intellectual movement, no ideas, that I was aware of, beyond horses,
+dogs, drill, garrisons, field-days, whist, wine, cigars, and all that
+kind of thing; yet they were really gentlemen living on the best terms
+with one another,--courteous, kind, most hospitable, with a rich Irish
+humor, softened down by social refinements,--not too refined either, but
+a most happy sort of behavior, as natural as that of children, and with a
+safe freedom that made one feel entirely at my ease.  I think well of the
+Irish gentlemen, for their sakes; and I believe I might fairly attribute
+to Lieutenant-Colonel Stowell (next whom I sat) a higher and finer
+cultivation than the above description indicates.  Indeed, many of them
+may have been capable of much more intellectual intercourse than that of
+the mess-table; but I suppose it would not have been in keeping with
+their camp life, nor suggested by it.  Several of the elder officers were
+men who had been long in the army; and the Colonel--a bluff, hearty old
+soldier, with a profile like an eagle's head and beak--was a veteran of
+the Peninsula, and had a medal on his breast with clasps for three famous
+battles besides that of Waterloo.
+
+The regimental band played during dinner, and the Lieutenant-Colonel
+apologized to me for its not playing "Hail Columbia," the tune not coning
+within their musical accomplishments.  It was no great matter, however;
+for I should not have distinguished it from any other tune; but, to do me
+what honor was possible, in the way of national airs, the band was
+ordered to play a series of negro melodies, and I was entirely satisfied.
+It is really funny that the "wood-notes wild" of those poor black slaves
+should have been played in a foreign laud as an honorable compliment to
+one of their white countrymen.
+
+After dinner we played whist, and then had some broiled bones for supper,
+and finally went home to our respective huts not much earlier than four
+o'clock.  But I don't wonder these gentlemen sit up as long as they can
+keep their eyes open; for never was there anything so utterly comfortless
+as their camp-beds.  They are really worse than the bed of honor, no
+wider, no softer, no warmer, and affording not nearly so sound sleep.
+Indeed, I got hardly any sleep at all, and almost as soon as I did close
+my eyes, the bugles sounded, and the drums beat reveille, and from that
+moment the camp was all astir; so I pretty soon uprose, and went to the
+mess-room for my breakfast, feeling wonderfully fresh and well,
+considering what my night had been.
+
+Long before this, however, this whole regiment, and all the other
+regiments, marched off to take part in a general review, and Bennoch and
+I followed, as soon as we had eaten a few mutton-chops.  It was a bright,
+sunshiny day; but with a strong east-wind, as piercing and pitiless as
+ever blew; and this wide, undulating plain of Aldershott seemed just the
+place where the east-wind was at home.  Still, it acted, on the whole,
+like an invigorating cordial; and whereas in pleasanter circumstances I
+should have lain down, and gone to sleep, I now felt as if I could do
+without sleep for a month.
+
+In due time we found out the place of the North Cork Regiment in the
+general battle-array, and were greeted as old comrades by the Colonel and
+other officers.  Soon the soldiers (who, when we first reached them, were
+strolling about, or standing at ease) were called into order; and anon we
+saw a group of mounted officers riding along the lines, and among them a
+gentleman in a civilian's round hat, and plain frock and trousers, riding
+on a white horse.  This group of riders turned the front of the regiment,
+and then passed along the rear, coming close to where we stood; and as
+the plainly dressed gentleman rode by, he bent towards me, and I tried to
+raise my hat, but did not succeed very well, because the fierce wind had
+compelled me to jam it tightly upon my head.  The Duke of Cambridge (for
+this was he) is a comely-looking gentlemanly man, of bluff English face,
+with a great deal of brown beard about it.  Though a pretty tall man, he
+appears, on  horseback, broad and round in proportion to his height.  I
+looked at him with a certain sort of interest, and a feeling of kindness;
+for one does feel kindly to whatever human being is anywise marked out
+from the rest, unless it be by his disagreeable qualities.
+
+The troops, from twelve to fifteen thousand, now fell into marching
+order, and went to attack a wood, where we were to suppose the enemy to
+be stationed.  The sham-fight seemed to me rather clumsily managed, and
+without any striking incident or result.  The officers had prophesied,
+the night before, that General K------, commanding in the camp, would
+make a muddle of it; and probably he did.  After the review, the Duke of
+Cambridge with his attendant officers took their station, and all the
+regiments marched in front of him, saluting as they passed.  As each
+colonel rode by, and as the banner of each regiment was lowered, the Duke
+lifted his hat.
+
+The most splendid effect of this parade was the gleam of the sun upon the
+long line of bayonets,--the sheen of all that steel appearing like a
+wavering fringe of light upon the dark masses of troops below.  It was
+very fine.  But I was glad when all was done, and I could go back to the
+mess-room, whither I carried an excellent appetite for luncheon.  After
+this we walked about the camp,--looked at some model tents, inspected the
+arrangements and modes of living in the huts of the privates; and thus
+gained more and more adequate ideas of the vile uncomfortableness of a
+military life.  Finally, I went to the anteroom and turned over the
+regimental literature,--a peerage and baronetage,--an army and militia
+register, a number of the Sporting Magazine, and one of the United
+Service, while Bennoch took another walk.  Before dinner we both tried to
+catch a little nap by way of compensation for last night's deficiencies;
+but, for my part, the attempt was fruitless.
+
+The dinner was as splendid and as agreeable as that of the evening
+before; and I believe it was nearly two o'clock when Bennoch and I bade
+farewell to our kind entertainers.  For my part I fraternized with these
+military gentlemen in a way that augurs the very best things for the
+future peace of the two countries.  They all expressed the warmest
+sympathies towards America and it was easy to judge from their
+conversation that there is no real friendliness on the part of the
+military towards the French.  The old antipathy is just as strong as
+ever,--stronger than ever, perhaps, on account of the comparatively more
+brilliant success of the French in this Russian war.  So, with most
+Christian sentiments of peace and brotherly love, we returned to our hut,
+and lay down, each in his narrow bed.
+
+Early in the morning the drums and bugles began the usual bedevilment;
+and shortly after six I dressed, and we had breakfast at the mess-room,
+shook hands with Lieutenant Shaw (our more especial host), and drove off
+to the railway station at Ash.
+
+I know not whether I have mentioned that the villages neighboring to the
+camp have suffered terribly as regards morality from the vicinity of the
+soldiers.  Quiet old English towns, that till within a little time ago
+had kept their antique simplicity and innocence, have now no such thing
+as female virtue in them, so far as the lower classes are concerned.
+This is expressing the matter too strongly, no doubt; but there is too
+much truth in it, nevertheless; and one of the officers remarked that
+even ladies of respectability had grown much more free in manners and
+conversation than at first.  I have heard observations similar to this
+from a Nova-Scotian, in reference to the moral influence of soldiers when
+stationed in the provinces.
+
+
+
+WOOTON.
+
+
+Wooton stands in a hollow, near the summit of one of the long swells that
+here undulate over the face of the country.  There is a good deal of wood
+behind it, as should be the case with the residence of the author of the
+Sylva; but I believe few, if any, of these trees are known to have been
+planted by John Evelyn, or even to have been coeval with his time.  The
+house is of brick, partly ancient, and consists of a front and two
+projecting wings, with a porch and entrance in the centre.  It has a
+desolate, meagre aspect, and needs something to give it life and stir and
+jollity.  The present proprietor is of the old Evelyn family, and is now
+one of the two members of Parliament for Surrey; but he is a very shy and
+retiring man, unmarried, sees little company, and seems either not to
+know how to make himself comfortable or not to care about it.  A servant
+told us that Mr. ------ had just gone out, but Tupper, who is apparently
+on intimate terms with him, thought it best that we should go into the
+house, while he went in search of the master.  So the servant ushered us
+through a hall,--where were many family pictures by Lely, and, for aught
+I know, by Vandyke, and by Kneller, and other famous painters,--up a
+grand staircase, and into the library, the inner room of which contained
+the ponderous volumes which John Evelyn used to read.  Nevertheless, it
+was a room of most barren aspect, without a carpet on the floor, with
+pine bookcases, with a common whitewashed ceiling, with no luxurious
+study-chairs, and without a fire.  There was an open folio on the table,
+and a sheet of manuscript that appeared to have been recently written.  I
+took down a book from the shelves (a volume of annals, connected with
+English history), and Tupper afterwards told us that this one single
+volume, for its rarity, was worth either two or three hundred pounds.
+Against one of the windows of this library there grows a magnolia-tree,
+with a very large stem, and at least fifty years old.
+
+Mrs. Tupper and I waited a good while, and then Bennoch and Tupper came
+back, without having found Mr. ------.  Tupper wished very much to show
+the prayer-book used by King Charles at his execution, and some curious
+old manuscript volumes; but the servant said that his master always kept
+these treasures locked up, and trusted the key to nobody.  We therefore
+had to take our leave without seeing them; and I have not often entered a
+house that one feels to be more forlorn than Wooton,--although we did
+have a glimpse of a dining-room, with a table laid for three or four
+guests, and looking quite brilliant with plate and glass and snowy
+napery.  There was a fire, too, in this one room.  Mr. ------ is making
+extensive alterations in the house, or has recently done so, and this is
+perhaps one reason of its ungenial meagreness and lack of finish.
+
+Before our departure from Wooton, Tupper had asked me to leave my card
+for Mr. ------; but I had no mind to overstep any limit of formal
+courtesy in dealing with an Englishman, and therefore declined.  Tupper,
+however, on his own responsibility, wrote his name, Bennoch's, and mine
+on a piece of paper, and told the servant to show them to Mr. ------.  We
+soon had experience of the good effect of this; for we had scarcely got
+back before somebody drove up to Tupper's door, and one of the girls,
+looking out, exclaimed that there was Mr. ------ himself, and another
+gentleman.  He had set out, the instant he heard of our call, to bring
+the three precious volumes for me to see.  This surely was most kind; a
+kindness which I should never have dreamed of expecting from a shy,
+retiring man like Mr. ------.
+
+So he and his friend were ushered into the dining-room, and introduced.
+Mr. ------ is a young-looking man, dark, with a mustache, rather small,
+and though he has the manners of a man who has seen the world, it
+evidently requires an effort in him to speak to anybody; and I could see
+his whole person slightly writhing itself, as it were, while he addressed
+me.  This is strange in a man of his public position, member for the
+county, necessarily mixed up with life in many forms, the possessor of
+sixteen thousand pounds a year, and the representative of an ancient
+name.  Nevertheless, I liked him, and felt as if I could become
+intimately acquainted with him, if circumstances were favorable; but, at
+a brief interview like this, it was hopeless to break through two great
+reserves; so I talked more with his companion--a pleasant young man,
+fresh from college, I should imagine--than with Mr. ------ himself.
+
+The three books were really of very great interest.  One was an octavo
+volume of manuscript in John Evelyn's own hand, the beginning of his
+published diary, written as distinctly as print, in a small, clear
+character.  It can be read just as easily as any printed book.  Another
+was a Church of England prayer-book, which King Charles used on the
+scaffold, and which was stained with his sacred blood, and underneath are
+two or three lines in John Evelyn's hand, certifying this to be the very
+book.  It is an octavo, or small folio, and seems to have been very
+little used, scarcely opened, except in one spot; its leaves elsewhere
+retaining their original freshness and elasticity.  It opens most readily
+at the commencement of the common service; and there, on the left-hand
+page, is a discoloration, of a yellowish or brownish hue, about two
+thirds of an inch large, which, two hundred years ago and a little more,
+was doubtless red.  For on that page had fallen a drop of King Charles's
+blood.
+
+The other volume was large, and contained a great many original letters,
+written by the king during his troubles.  I had not time to examine them
+with any minuteness, and remember only one document, which Mr. ------
+pointed out, and which had a strange pathos and pitifulness in it.  It
+was a sort of due-bill, promising to pay a small sum for beer, which had
+been supplied to his Majesty, so soon as God should enable him, or the
+distracted circumstances of his kingdom make it possible,--or some
+touching and helpless expression of that kind.  Prince Hal seemed to
+consider it an unworthy matter, that a great prince should think of "that
+poor creature, small beer," at all; but that a great prince should not be
+able to pay for it is far worse.
+
+Mr. ------ expressed his regret that I was not staying longer in this
+part of the country, as he would gladly have seen me at Wooten, and he
+succeeded in saying something about my books; and I hope I partly
+succeeded in showing him that I was very sensible of his kindness in
+letting me see those relics.  I cannot say whether or no I expressed it
+sufficiently.  It is better with such a man, or, indeed, with any man, to
+say too little than too much; and, in fact, it would have been indecorous
+in me to take too much of his kindness to my own share, Bennoch being
+likewise in question.
+
+We had a cup of coffee, and then took our leave; Tupper accompanying us
+part way down the village street, and bidding us an affectionate
+farewell.
+
+
+
+BATTLE ABBEY.
+
+
+Bennoch and I recommenced our travels, and, changing from one railway to
+another, reached Tunbridge Wells at nine or ten in the evening. . . .
+The next day was spent at Tunbridge Wells, which is famous for a
+chalybeate spring, and is a watering-place of note, most healthily
+situated on a high, breezy hill, with many pleasant walks in the
+neighborhood. . . . From Tunbridge Wells we transported ourselves to
+Battle,--the village in which is Battle Abbey.  It is a large village,
+with many antique houses and some new ones; and in its principal street,
+on one side, with a wide, green space before it, you see the gray,
+embattled, outer wall, and great, square, battlemented entrance tower
+(with a turret at each corner), of the ancient Abbey.  It is the perfect
+reality of a Gothic battlement and gateway, just as solid and massive as
+when it was first built, though hoary and venerable with the many
+intervening centuries.  There are only two days in the week on which
+visitors are allowed entrance, and this was not one of them.
+Nevertheless, Bennoch was determined to get in, and he wished me to send
+Lady Webster my card with his own; but this I utterly refused, for the
+honor of America and for my own honor; because I will not do anything to
+increase the reputation we already have as a very forward people.
+Bennoch, however, called at a bookshop on the other side of the street,
+near the gateway of the castle; and making friends, as he has a
+marvellous tact in doing, with the bookseller, the latter offered to take
+in his card to the housekeeper, and see if Lady Webster would not relax
+her rule in our favor.  Meanwhile, we went into the old church of Battle,
+which was built in Norman times, though subsequently to the Abbey.  As we
+entered the church door, the bell rang for joy at the news of peace,
+which had just been announced by the London papers.
+
+The church has been whitewashed in modern times, and does not look so
+venerable as it ought, with its arches and pillared aisles.  In the
+chancel stands a marble tomb, heavy, rich, and elaborate, on the top of
+which lie the broken-nosed statues of Sir Anthony Browne and his lady,
+who were the Lord and Lady of Battle Abbey in Henry VIII.'s time.  The
+knight is in armor, and the lady in stately garb, and (save for their
+broken noses) they are in excellent preservation.  The pavement of the
+chancel and aisles is all laid with tombstones, and on two or three of
+these there were engraved brasses, representing knights in armor, and
+churchmen, with inscriptions in Latin.  Some of them are very old.  On
+the walls, too, there are various monuments, principally of dignitaries
+connected with the Abbey.  Two hatchments, in honor of persons recently
+dead, were likewise suspended in the chancel.  The best pew of the church
+is, of course, that of the Webster family.  It is curtained round,
+carpeted, furnished with chairs and footstools, and more resembles a
+parlor than a pew; especially as there is a fireplace in one of the
+pointed archways, which I suppose has been bricked up in order to form
+it.  On the opposite side of the aisle is the pew of some other magnate,
+containing a stove.  The rest of the parishioners have to keep themselves
+warm with the fervor of their own piety.  I have forgotten what else was
+interesting, except that we were shown a stone coffin, recently dug up,
+in which was hollowed a place for the head of the corpse.
+
+Returning to the bookshop, we found that Lady Webster had sent her
+compliments, and would be very happy to have us see the Abbey.  How
+thoroughly kind these English people can be when they like, and how often
+they like to be so!
+
+We lost no time in ringing the bell at the arched entrance, under the
+great tower, and were admitted by an old woman who lives, I believe, in
+the thickness of the wall.  She told us her room used to be the prison of
+the Abbey, and under the great arch she pointed to a projecting beam,
+where she said criminals used to be hanged.
+
+At two of the intersecting points of the arches, which form the roof of
+the gateway, were carved faces of stone, said to represent King Harold
+and William the Conqueror.  The exterior wall, of which this tower is the
+gateway, extends far along the village street, and encloses a very large
+space, within which stands the mansion, quite secluded from unauthorized
+visitors, or even from the sight of those without, unless it be at very
+distant eyeshot.
+
+We rang at the principal door of the edifice (it is under a deep arch, in
+the Norman style, but of modern date), and a footman let its in, and then
+delivered us over to a respectable old lady in black.  She was a
+Frenchwoman by birth, but had been very long in the service of the
+family, and spoke English almost without an accent; her French blood
+being indicated only by her thin and withered aspect, and a greater
+gentility of manner than would have been seen in an Englishwoman of
+similar station.  She ushered us first into a grand and noble hall, the
+arched and carved oaken roof of which ascended into the gable.  It was
+nearly sixty feet long, and its height equal to its length,--as stately a
+hall, I should imagine, as is anywhere to be found in a private mansion.
+It was lighted, at one end, by a great window, beneath which, occupying
+the whole breadth of the hall, hung a vast picture of the Battle of
+Hastings; and whether a good picture or no, it was a rich adornment of
+the hall.  The walls were wainscoted high upward with oak: they were
+almost covered with noble pictures of ancestry, and of kings and great
+men, and beautiful women; there were trophies of armor hung aloft; and
+two armed figures, one in brass mail, the other in bright steel, stood on
+a raised dais, underneath the great picture.  At the end of the hall,
+opposite the picture, a third of the way up towards the roof, was a
+gallery.  All these things that I have enumerated were in perfect
+condition, without rust, untouched by decay or injury of any kind; but
+yet they seemed to belong to a past age, and were mellowed, softened in
+their splendor, a little dimmed with time,--toned down into a venerable
+magnificence.  Of all domestic things that I have seen in England, it
+satisfied me most.
+
+Then the Frenchwoman showed us into various rooms and offices, most of
+which were contrived out of the old abbey-cloisters, and the vaulted
+cells and apartments in which the monks used to live.  If any house be
+haunted, I should suppose this might be.  If any church-property bring a
+curse with it, as people say, I do not see how the owners of Battle Abbey
+can escape it, taking possession of and dwelling in these holy precincts,
+as they have done, and laying their kitchen hearth with the stones of
+overthrown altars.  The Abbey was first granted, I believe, to Sir
+Anthony Browne, whom I saw asleep with his lady in the church.  It was
+his first wife.  I wish it had been his second; for she was Surrey's
+Geraldine.  The posterity of Sir Anthony kept the place till 1719, and
+then sold it to the Websters, a family of Baronets, who are still the
+owners and occupants.  The present proprietor is Sir Augustus Webster,
+whose mother is the lady that so kindly let us into the Abbey.
+
+Mr. Bennoch gave the nice old French lady half a crown, and we next went
+round among the ruined portions of the Abbey, under the gardener's
+guidance.  We saw two ivied towers, insulated from all other ruins; and
+an old refectory, open to the sky, and a vaulted crypt, supported by
+pillars; and we saw, too, the foundation and scanty remains of a chapel,
+which had been long buried out of sight of man, and only dug up within
+present memory,--about forty years ago.  There had always been a
+tradition that this was the spot where Harold had planted his standard,
+and where his body was found after the battle; and the discovery of the
+ruined chapel confirmed the tradition.
+
+I might have seen a great deal more, had there been time; and I have
+forgotten much of what I did see; but it is an exceedingly interesting
+place.  There is an avenue of old yew-trees, which meet above like a
+cloistered arch; and this is called the Monks' Walk.  I rather think they
+were ivy, though growing unsupported.
+
+As we were retiring, the gardener suddenly stopped, as if he were
+alarmed, and motioned to us to do the same, saying, "I believe it is my
+lady!"  And so it was,--a tall and stately lady in black, trimming shrubs
+in the garden.  She bowed to us very graciously,--we raised our hats, and
+thus we met and parted without more ado.  As we went through the arch of
+the entrance tower, Bennoch gave the old female warder a shilling, and
+the gardener followed us to get half a crown.
+
+
+
+HASTINGS.
+
+
+We took a fly and driver from the principal hotel of Battle, and drove
+off for Hastings, about seven miles distant.  Hastings is now a famous
+watering and sea-bathing place, and seems to be well sheltered from the
+winds, though open to the sea, which here stretches off towards France.
+We climbed a high and steep hill, terraced round its base with streets of
+modern lodging-houses, and crowned on its summit with the ruins of a
+castle, the foundation of which was anterior to the Conquest.  This
+castle has no wall towards the sea, the precipice being too high and
+sheer to admit of attack on that side.  I have quite exhausted my
+descriptive faculty for the present, so shall say nothing of this old
+castle, which indeed (the remains being somewhat scanty and scraggling)
+is chiefly picturesque and interesting from its bold position on such a
+headlong hill.
+
+Clambering down on another side from that of our ascent, we entered
+the town of Hastings, which seems entirely modern, and made up of
+lodging-houses, shops, hotels, parades, and all such makings up of
+watering-places generally.  We took a delightful warm bath, washing off
+all weariness and naughtiness, and coming out new men.  Then we walked to
+St. Leonard's,--a part of Hastings, I believe, but a mile or two from the
+castle, and there called at the lodgings of two friends of Bennoch.
+
+These were Mr. Martin, the author of Bon Gaultier's ballads, and his
+wife, the celebrated actress, Helen Faucett.  Mr. Martin is a barrister,
+a gentleman whose face and manners suited me at once; a simple, refined,
+sincere, not too demonstrative person.  His wife, too, I liked; a tall,
+dark, fine, and lady-like woman, with the simplest manners, that give no
+trouble at all, and so must be perfect.  With these two persons I felt
+myself, almost in a moment, on friendly terms, and in true accord, and so
+I talked, I think, more than I have at any time since coming to London.
+
+We took a pleasant lunch at their house; and then they walked with us to
+the railway station, and there they took leave of Bennoch affectionately
+and of me hardly less so; for, in truth, we had grown to be almost
+friends in this very little while.  And as we rattled away, I said to
+Bennoch earnestly, "What good people they are!"--and Bennoch smiled, as
+if he had known perfectly well that I should think and say so.  And thus
+we rushed onward to London; and I reached St. James's Place between nine
+and ten o'clock, after a very interesting tour, the record of which I
+wish I could have kept as we went along, writing each day's history
+before another day's adventures began.
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From the English Notebooks,
+Volume 1, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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