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diff --git a/7878.txt b/7878.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85da638 --- /dev/null +++ b/7878.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21673 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From the English Notebooks, +Complete, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +#19 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Passages From the English Notebooks, Complete + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7878] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 29, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH NOTEBOOKS, COMPLETE *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + + + + +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 uutenantable, 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 Kuowsley, 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 its, 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 he 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 he 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 he +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 +charityschool-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 he 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 he 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. + + + + + + +PASSAGES FROM THE ENGLISH NOTE-BOOKS + +OF + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + +VOL. II. + + + + +PASSAGES FROM HAWTHORNE'S ENGLISH NOTE-BOOKS. + + + +LONDON.--MILTON-CLUB DINNER. + + +April 4th, 1856.--On Tuesday I went to No. 14 Ludgate Hill, to dine with +Bennoch at the Milton Club; a club recently founded for dissenters, +nonconformists, and people whose ideas, religious or political, are not +precisely in train with the establishment in church and state. I was +shown into a large reading-room, well provided with periodicals and +newspapers, and found two or three persons there; but Bennoch had not yet +arrived. In a few moments, a tall gentleman with white hair came in,--a +fine and intelligent-looking man, whom I guessed to be one of those who +were to meet me. He walked about, glancing at the periodicals; and soon +entered Mr. Tupper, and, without seeing me, exchanged warm greetings with +the white-haired gentleman. "I suppose," began Mr. Tupper, "you have +come to meet--" Now, conscious that my name was going to be spoken, and +not knowing but the excellent Mr. Tupper might say something which he +would not, quite like me to overhear, I advanced at once, with +outstretched hand, and saluted him. He expressed great joy at the +recognition, and immediately introduced me to Mr. Hall. + +The dining-room was pretty large and lofty, and there were sixteen guests +at table, most of them authors, or people connected with the press; so +that the party represented a great deal of the working intellect of +London at this present day and moment,--the men whose plays, whose songs, +whose articles, are just now in vogue. Mr. Tom Taylor was one of the +very few whose writings I had known anything about. He is a tall, +slender, dark young man, not English-looking, and wearing colored +spectacles, so that I should readily have taken him for an American +literary man. I did not have much opportunity of talking with him, nor +with anybody else, except Dr. ------, who seemed a shrewd, sensible man, +with a certain slight acerbity of thought. Mr. Herbert Ingram, recently +elected member of Parliament, was likewise present, and sat on Bennoch's +left. + +It was a very good dinner, with an abundance of wine, which Bennoch sent +round faster than was for the next day's comfort of his guests. It is +singular that I should thus far have quite forgotten W------ H--------, +whose books I know better than those of any other person there. He is a +white-headed, stout, firm-looking, and rather wrinkled-faced old +gentleman, whose temper, I should imagine, was not the very sweetest in +the world. There is all abruptness, a kind of sub-acidity, if not +bitterness, in his address; he seemed not to be, in short, so genial as I +should have anticipated from his books. + +As soon as the cloth was removed, Bennoch, without rising from his chair, +made a speech in honor of his eminent and distinguished guest, which +illustrious person happened to be sitting in the selfsame chair that I +myself occupied. I have no recollection of what he said, nor of what I +said in reply, but I remember that both of us were cheered and applauded +much more than the occasion deserved. Then followed about fifty other +speeches; for every single individual at table was called up (as Tupper +said, "toasted and roasted"), and, for my part, I was done entirely brown +(to continue T-----'s figure). Everybody said something kind, not a word +or idea of which can I find in my memory. Certainly, if I never get any +more praise in my life, I have had enough of it for once. I made another +little bit of a speech, too, in response to something that was said in +reference to the present difficulties between England and America, and +ended, as a proof that I deemed war impossible, with drinking success to +the British army, and calling on Lieutenant Shaw, of the Aldershott Camp, +to reply. I am afraid I must have said something very wrong, for the +applause was vociferous, and I could hear the gentlemen whispering about +the table, "Good!" "Good!" "Yes, he is a fine fellow,"--and other such +ill-earned praises; and I took shame to myself, and held my tongue +(publicly) the rest of the evening. But in such cases something must be +allowed to the excitement of the moment, and to the effect of kindness +and goodwill, so broadly and warmly displayed; and even a sincere man +must not be held to speak as if he were under oath. + +We separated, in a blessed state of contentment with one another, at +about eleven; and (lest I should starve before morning) I went with Mr. +D------ to take supper at his house in Park Lane. Mr. D------ is a pale +young gentleman, of American aspect, being a West-Indian by birth. He is +one of the principal writers of editorials for the Times. We were +accompanied in the carriage by another gentleman, Mr. M------, who is +connected with the management of the same paper. He wrote the letters +from Scutari, which drew so much attention to the state of the hospitals. +Mr. D------ is the husband of the former Miss ------, the actress, and +when we reached his house, we found that she had just come home from the +theatre, and was taking off her stage-dress. Anon she came down to the +drawing-room,--a seemingly good, simple, and intelligent lady, not at all +pretty, and, I should think, older than her husband. She was very kind +to me, and told me that she had read one of my books--The House of the +Seven Gables--thirteen years ago; which I thought remarkable, because I +did not write it till eight or nine years afterwards. + +The principal talk during supper (which consisted of Welsh-rabbit and +biscuits, with champagne and sodawater) was about the Times, and the two +contributors expressed vast admiration of Mr. ------, who has the chief +editorial management of the paper. It is odd to find how little we +outsiders know of men who really exercise a vast influence on affairs, +for this Mr. ------ is certainly of far more importance in the world than +a minister of state. He writes nothing himself; but the character of the +Times seems to depend upon his intuitive, unerring judgment; and if ever +he is absent from his post, even for a day or two, they say that the +paper immediately shows it. In reply to my questions, they appeared to +acknowledge that he was a man of expediency, but of a very high +expediency, and that he gave the public the very best principles which it +was capable of receiving. Perhaps it may be so: the Times's articles are +certainly not written in so high a moral vein as might be wished; but +what they lack in height they gain in breadth. Every sensible man in +England finds his own best common-sense there; and, in effect, I think +its influence is wholesome. + +Apropos of public speaking, Dr. ------ said that Sir Lytton Bulwer asked +him (I think the anecdote was personal to himself) whether he felt his +heart beat when he was going to speak. "Yes." "Does your voice frighten +you?" "Yes." "Do all your ideas forsake you?" "Yes." "Do you wish the +floor to open and swallow you?" "Yes." "Why, then, you'll make an +orator!" Dr. ------ told of Canning, too, how once, before rising to +speak in the House of Commons, he bade his friend feel his pulse, which +was throbbing terrifically. "I know I shall make one of my best +speeches," said Canning, "because I'm in such an awful funk!" President +Pierce, who has a great deal of oratorical power, is subject to a similar +horror and reluctance. + + + +REFORM-CLUB DINNER. + + +April 5th.--On Thursday, at eight o'clock, I went to the Reform Club, to +dine with Dr. ------. The waiter admitted me into a great basement hall, +with a tessellated or mosaic or somehow figured floor of stone, and +lighted from a dome of lofty height. In a few minutes Dr. ------ +appeared, and showed me about the edifice, which is very noble and of a +substantial magnificence that was most satisfactory to behold,--no +wood-work imitating better materials, but pillars and balustrades of +marble, and everything what it purports to be. The reading-room is very +large, and luxuriously comfortable, and contains an admirable library: +there are rooms and conveniences for every possible purpose; and whatever +material for enjoyment a bachelor may need, or ought to have, he can +surely find it here, and on such reasonable terms that a small income +will do as much for him as a far greater one on any other system. + +In a colonnade, on the first floor, surrounding the great basement hall, +there are portraits of distinguished reformers, and black niches for +others yet to come. Joseph Hume, I believe, is destined to fill one of +these blanks; but I remarked that the larger part of the portraits, +already hung up, are of men of high rank,--the Duke of Sussex, for +instance; Lord Durham, Lord Grey; and, indeed, I remember no commoner. +In one room, I saw on the wall the fac-simile, so common in the United +States, of our Declaration of Independence. + +Descending again to the basement hall, an elderly gentleman came in, and +was warmly welcomed by Dr. ------. He was a very short man, but with +breadth enough, and a back excessively bent,--bowed almost to deformity; +very gray hair, and a face and expression of remarkable briskness and +intelligence. His profile came out pretty boldly, and his eyes had the +prominence that indicates, I believe, volubility of speech, nor did he +fail to talk from the instant of his appearance; and in the tone of his +voice, and in his glance, and in the whole man, there was something +racy,--a flavor of the humorist. His step was that of an aged man, and +he put his stick down very decidedly at every footfall; though as he +afterwards told me that he was only fifty-two, he need not yet have been +infirm. But perhaps he has had the gout; his feet, however, are by no +means swollen, but unusually small. Dr. ------ introduced him as Mr. +Douglas Jerrold, and we went into the coffee-room to dine. + +The coffee-room occupies one whole side of the edifice, and is provided +with a great many tables, calculated for three or four persons to dine +at; and we sat down at one of these, and Dr. ------ ordered some +mulligatawny soup, and a bottle of white French wine. The waiters in the +coffee-room are very numerous, and most of them dressed in the livery of +the Club, comprising plush breeches and white-silk stockings; for these +English Reformers do not seem to include Republican simplicity of manners +in their system. Neither, perhaps, is it anywise essential. + +After the soup, we had turbot, and by and by a bottle of Chateau Margaux, +very delectable; and then some lambs' feet, delicately done, and some +cutlets of I know not what peculiar type; and finally a ptarmigan, which +is of the same race of birds as the grouse, but feeds high up towards the +summits of the Scotch mountains. Then some cheese, and a bottle of +Chambertin. It was a very pleasant dinner, and my companions were both +very agreeable men; both taking a shrewd, satirical, yet not ill-natured, +view of life and people, and as for Mr. Douglas Jerrold, he often +reminded me of E---- C------, in the richer veins of the latter, both by +his face and expression, and by a tincture of something at once wise and +humorously absurd in what he said. But I think he has a kinder, more +genial, wholesomer nature than E----, and under a very thin crust of +outward acerbity I grew sensible of a very warm heart, and even of much +simplicity of character in this man, born in London, and accustomed +always to London life. + +I wish I had any faculty whatever of remembering what people say; but, +though I appreciate anything good at the moment, it never stays in my +memory; nor do I think, in fact, that anything definite, rounded, +pointed, separable, and transferable from the general lump of +conversation was said by anybody. I recollect that they laughed at +Mr. ------, and at his shedding a tear into a Scottish river, on occasion +of some literary festival. . . . . They spoke approvingly of Bulwer, as +valuing his literary position, and holding himself one of the brotherhood +of authors; and not so approvingly of Charles Dickens, who, born a +plebeian, aspires to aristocratic society. But I said that it was easy +to condescend, and that Bulwer knew he could not put off his rank, and +that he would have all the advantages of it in spite of his authorship. +We talked about the position of men of letters in England, and they said +that the aristocracy hated and despised and feared them; and I asked why +it was that literary men, having really so much power in their hands, +were content to live unrecognized in the State. + +Douglas Jerrold talked of Thackeray and his success in America, and said +that he himself purposed going and had been invited thither to lecture. +I asked him whether it was pleasant to a writer of plays to see them +performed; and he said it was intolerable, the presentation of the +author's idea being so imperfect; and Dr. ------ observed that it was +excruciating to hear one of his own songs sung. Jerrold spoke of the +Duke of Devonshire with great warmth, as a true, honest, simple, most +kind-hearted man, from whom he himself had received great courtesies and +kindnesses (not, as I understood, in the way of patronage or essential +favors); and I (Heaven forgive me!) queried within myself whether this +English reforming author would have been quite so sensible of the Duke's +excellence if his Grace had not been a duke. But indeed, a nobleman, who +is at the same time a true and whole-hearted man, feeling his brotherhood +with men, does really deserve some credit for it. + +In the course of the evening, Jerrold spoke with high appreciation of +Emerson; and of Longfellow, whose Hiawatha he considered a wonderful +performance; and of Lowell, whose Fable for Critics he especially +admired. I mentioned Thoreau, and proposed to send his works to Dr. +------, who, being connected with the Illustrated News, and otherwise a +writer, might be inclined to draw attention to then. Douglas Jerrold +asked why he should not have them too. I hesitated a little, but as he +pressed me, and would have an answer, I said that I did not feel quite so +sure of his kindly judgment on Thoreau's books; and it so chanced that I +used the word "acrid" for lack of a better, in endeavoring to express my +idea of Jerrold's way of looking at men and books. It was not quite what +I meant; but, in fact, he often is acrid, and has written pages and +volumes of acridity, though, no doubt, with an honest purpose, and from a +manly disgust at the cant and humbug of the world. Jerrold said no more, +and I went on talking with Dr. ------; but, in a minute or two, I became +aware that something had gone wrong, and, looking at Douglas Jerrold, +there was an expression of pain and emotion on his face. By this time a +second bottle of Burgundy had been opened (Clos Vougeot, the best the +Club could produce, and far richer than the Chambertin), and that warm +and potent wine may have had something to do with the depth and vivacity +of Mr. Jerrold's feelings. But he was indeed greatly hurt by that little +word "acrid." "He knew," he said, "that the world considered him a sour, +bitter, ill-natured man; but that such a man as I should have the sane +opinion was almost more than he could bear." As he spoke, he threw out +his arms, sank back in his seat, and I was really a little apprehensive +of his actual dissolution into tears. Hereupon I spoke, as was good +need, and though, as usual, I have forgotten everything I said, I am +quite sure it was to the purpose, and went to this good fellow's heart, +as it came warmly from my own. I do remember saying that I felt him to +be as genial as the glass of Burgundy which I held in my hand; and I +think that touched the very right spot; for he smiled, and said he was +afraid the Burgundy was better than he, but yet he was comforted. Dr. +------ said that he likewise had a reputation for bitterness; and I +assured him, if I might venture to join myself to the brotherhood of two +such men, that I was considered a very ill-natured person by many people +in my own country. Douglas Jerrold said he was glad of it. + +We were now in sweetest harmony, and Jerrold spoke more than it would +become me to repeat in praise of my own books, which he said he admired, +and he found the man more admirable than his books! I hope so, +certainly. + +We now went to the Haymarket Theatre, where Douglas Jerrold is on the +free list; and after seeing a ballet by some Spanish dancers, we +separated, and betook ourselves to our several homes. I like Douglas +Jerrold very much. + + +April 8th.--On Saturday evening, at ten o'clock, I went to a supper-party +at Mr. D------'s, and there met five or six people,--Mr. Faed, a young +and distinguished artist; Dr. Eliotson, a dark, sombre, taciturn, +powerful-looking man, with coal-black hair, and a beard as black, +fringing round his face; Mr. Charles Reade, author of Christie Johnstone +and other novels, and many plays,--a tall man, more than thirty, +fair-haired, and of agreeable talk and demeanor. + +On April 6th, I went to the Waterloo station, and there meeting Bennoch +and Dr. ------, took the rail for Woking, where we found Mr. Hall's +carriage waiting to convey us to Addlestone, about five miles off. On +arriving we found that Mr. and Mrs. Hall had not yet returned from +church. Their place is an exceedingly pretty one, and arranged in very +good taste. The house is not large; but is filled, in every room, with +fine engravings, statuettes, ingenious prettinesses or beautifulnesses in +the way of flower-stands, cabinets, and things that seem to have bloomed +naturally out of the characters of its occupants. There is a +conservatory connected with the drawing-room, and enriched with lovely +plants, one of which has a certain interest as being the plant on which +Coleridge's eyes were fixed when he died. This conservatory is likewise +beautified with several very fine casts of statues by modern sculptors, +among which was the Greek Slave of Powers, which my English friends +criticised as being too thin and meagre; but I defended it as in +accordance with American ideas of feminine beauty. From the conservatory +we passed into the garden, but did not minutely examine it, knowing that +Mr. Hall would wish to lead us through it in person. So, in the mean +time, we took a walk in the neighborhood, over stiles and along by-paths, +for two or three miles, till we reached the old village of Chertsey. In +one of its streets stands an ancient house, gabled, and with the second +story projecting over the first, and bearing an inscription to the +purport that the poet Cowley had once resided, and, I think, died there. +Thence we passed on till we reached a bridge over the Thames, which at +this point, about twenty-five miles from London, is a narrow river, but +looks clean and pure, and unconscious what abominations the city sewers +will pour into it anon. We were caught in two or three showers in the +course of our walk; but got back to Firfield without being very much +wetted. + +Our host and hostess had by this time returned from church, and Mrs. Hall +came frankly and heartily to the door to greet us, scolding us (kindly) +for having got wet. . . . . I liked her simple, easy, gentle, quiet +manners, and I liked her husband too. + +He has a wide and quick sympathy, and expresses it freely. . . . . The +world is the better for him. + +The shower being now over, we went out upon the beautiful lawn before his +house, where there were a good many trees of various kinds, many of which +have been set out by persons of great or small distinction, and are +labelled with their names. Thomas Moore's name was appended to one; +Maria Edgeworth's to another; likewise Fredrika Bremer's, Jenny Lind's; +also Grace Greenwood's, and I know not whose besides. This is really a +pleasant method of enriching one's grounds with memorials of friends, nor +is there any harm in making a shrubbery of celebrities. Three holes were +already dug, and three new trees lay ready to be planted, and for me +there was a sumach to plant,--a tree I never liked; but Mr. Hall said +that they had tried to dig up a hawthorn, but found it clung too fast to +the soil. So, since better might not be, and telling Mr. Hall that I +supposed I should have a right to hang myself on this tree whenever I +chose, I seized a spade, and speedily shovelled in a great deal of dirt; +and there stands my sumach, an object of interest to posterity! Bennoch +also and Dr. ------ set out their trees, and indeed, it was in some sense +a joint affair, for the rest of the party held up each tree, while its +godfather shovelled in the earth; but, after all, the gardener had more +to do with it than we. After this important business was over, Mr. Hall +led us about his rounds, which are very nicely planned and ordered; and +all this he has bought, and built, and laid out, from the profits of his +own and his wife's literary exertions. + +We dined early, and had a very pleasant dinner, and, after the cloth was +removed, Mr. Hall was graciously pleased to drink my health, following it +with a long tribute to my genius. I answered briefly; and one half of my +short speech was in all probability very foolish. . . . . + +After the ladies (there were three, one being a girl of seventeen, with +rich auburn hair, the adopted daughter of the Halls) had retired, Dr. +------ having been toasted himself, proposed Mrs. Hall's health. + +I did not have a great deal of conversation with Mrs. Hall; but enough to +make me think her a genuine and good woman, unspoilt by a literary +career, and retaining more sentiment than even most girls keep beyond +seventeen. She told me that it had been the dream of her life to see +Longfellow and myself! . . . . Her dream is half accomplished now, and, +as they say Longfellow is coming over this summer, the remainder may soon +be rounded out. On taking leave, our kind hosts presented me with some +beautiful flowers, and with three volumes of a work, by themselves, on +Ireland; and Dr. ------ was favored also with some flowers, and a plant +in a pot, and Bennoch too had his hands full, . . . . and we went on our +way rejoicing. + +[Here follows an account of the Lord Mayor's dinner, taken mostly for Our +Old Home; but I think I will copy this more exact description of the lady +mentioned in "Civic Banquets."--ED.] + +. . . . My eyes were mostly drawn to a young lady, who sat nearly +opposite me, across the table. She was, I suppose, dark, and yet not +dark, but rather seemed to be of pure white marble, yet not white; but +the purest and finest complexion, without a shade of color in it, yet +anything but sallow or sickly. Her hair was a wonderful deep +raven-black, black as night, black as death; not raven-black, for that +has a shiny gloss, and hers had not, but it was hair never to be painted +nor described,--wonderful hair, Jewish hair. Her nose had a beautiful +outline, though I could see that it was Jewish too; and that, and all her +features, were so fine that sculpture seemed a despicable art beside her, +and certainly my pen is good for nothing. If any likeness could be +given, however; it must be by sculpture, not painting. She was slender +and youthful, and yet had a stately and cold, though soft and womanly +grace; and, looking at her, I saw what were the wives of the old +patriarchs in their maiden or early-married days,--what Judith was, for, +womanly as she looked, I doubt, not she could have slain a man in a just +cause,--what Bathsheba was, only she seemed to have no sin in her,-- +perhaps what Eve was, though one could hardly think her weak enough to +eat the apple. . . . . Whether owing to distinctness of race, my sense +that she was a Jewess, or whatever else, I felt a sort of repugnance, +simultaneously with my perception that she was an admirable creature. + + + +THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + +At ten o'clock the next day [after the Lord Mayor's dinner] I went to +lunch with Bennoch, and afterwards accompanied him to one of the +government offices in Downing Street. He went thither, not on official +business, but on a matter connected with a monument to Miss Mitford, in +which Mr. Harness, a clergyman and some sort of a government clerk, is +interested. I gathered from this conversation that there is no great +enthusiasm about the monumental affair among the British public. It +surprised me to hear allusions indicating that Miss Mitford was not the +invariably amiable person that her writings would suggest; but the whole +drift of what they said tended, nevertheless, towards the idea that she +was an excellent and generous person, loved most by those who knew her +best. + +From Downing Street we crossed over and entered Westminster Hall, and +passed through it, and up the flight of steps at its farthest end, and +along the avenue of statues, into the vestibule of the House of Commons. +It was now somewhat past five, and we stood at the inner entrance of the +House, to see the members pass in, Bennoch pointing out to me the +distinguished ones. I was not much impressed with the appearance of the +members generally; they seemed to me rather shabbier than English +gentlemen usually, and I saw or fancied in many of them a certain +self-importance, as they passed into the interior, betokening them to be +very full of their dignity. Some of them looked more American--more like +American politicians--than most Englishmen do. There was now and then a +gray-headed country gentleman, the very type of stupidity; and two or +three city members came up and spoke to Bennoch, and showed themselves +quite as dull, in their aldermanic way, as the country squires. . . . . +Bennoch pointed out Lord John Russell, a small, very short, elderly +gentleman, in a brown coat, and so large a hat--not large of brim, but +large like a peck-measure--that I saw really no face beneath it. By and +by came a rather tall, slender person, in a black frock-coat, buttoned +up, and black pantaloons, taking long steps, but I thought rather feebly +or listlessly. His shoulders were round, or else he had a habitual stoop +in them. He had a prominent nose, a thin face, and a sallow, very sallow +complexion; . . . . and had I seen him in America I should have taken him +for a hard-worked editor of a newspaper, weary and worn with night-labor +and want of exercise,--aged before his time. It was Disraeli, and I +never saw any other Englishman look in the least like him; though, in +America, his appearance would not attract notice as being unusual. I do +not remember any other noteworthy person whom we saw enter; in fact, the +House had already been some time in session, and most of the members were +in their places. + +We were to dine at the Refectory of the House with the new member for +Boston; and, meanwhile, Bennoch obtained admittance for us into the +Speaker's gallery, where we had a view of the members, and could hear +what was going on. A Mr. Muntz was speaking on the Income Tax, and he +was followed by Sir George Cornewall Lewis and others; but it was all +very uninteresting, without the slightest animation or attempt at +oratory,--which, indeed, would have been quite out of place. We saw Lord +Palmerston; but at too great a distance to distinguish anything but a +gray head. The House had daylight in it when we entered, and for some +time afterwards; but, by and by, the roof, which I had taken to be a +solid and opaque ceiling, suddenly brightened, and showed itself to be +transparent; a vast expanse of tinted and figured glass, through which +came down a great, mild radiance on the members below. + +The character of the debate, however, did not grow more luminous or +vivacious; so we went down into the vestibule, and there waited for +Mr. ------, who soon came and led us into the Refectory. It was very +much like the coffee-room of a club. The strict rule forbids the +entrance of any but members of Parliament; but it seems to be winked at, +although there is another room, opening beyond this, where the law of +seclusion is strictly enforced. + +The dinner was good, not remarkably so, but good enough,--a soup, some +turbot or salmon, cutlets, and I know not what else, and claret, sherry, +and port; for, as Mr. ------ said, "he did not wish to be stingy." +Mr. ------ is a self-made man, and a strong instance of the difference +between the Englishman and the American, when self-made, and without +early education. He is no more a gentleman now than when he began life, +--not a whit more refined, either outwardly or inwardly; while the +American would have been, after the same experience, not distinguishable +outwardly, and perhaps as refined within, as nine tenths of the gentlemen +born, in the House of Commons. And, besides, an American comes naturally +to any distinctions to which success in life may bring him; he takes them +as if they were his proper inheritance, and in no wise to be wondered at. +Mr. ------, on the other hand, took evidently a childish delight in his +position, and felt a childish wonder in having arrived at it; nor did it +seem real to him, after all. . . . . + +We again saw Disraeli, who has risen from the people by modes perhaps +somewhat like those of Mr. ------. He came and stood near our table, +looking at the bill of fare, and then sat down on the opposite side of +the room with another gentleman, and ate his dinner. The story of his +marriage does him much credit; and indeed I am inclined to like Disraeli, +as a man who has made his own place good among a hostile aristocracy, and +leads instead of following them. + +From the House of Commons we went to Albert Smith's exhibition, or +lecture, of the ascent of Mont Blanc, to which Bennoch had orders. It +was very amusing, and in some degree instructive. We remained in the +saloon at the conclusion of the lecture; and when the audience had +dispersed, Mr. Albert Smith made his appearance. . . . . + +Nothing of moment happened the next day, at least, not till two o'clock, +when I went with Mr. Bowman to Birch's eating-house (it is not Birch's +now, but this was the name of the original founder, who became an +alderman, and has long been dead) for a basin of turtle-soup. It was +very rich, very good, better than we had at the Lord Mayor's, and the +best I ever ate. + +In the evening, Mr. J. B. Davis, formerly our Secretary of Legation, +called to take us to dine at Mr. ------'s in Camden Town. Mr. ------ +calls his residence Vermont House; but it hardly has a claim to any +separate title, being one of the centre houses of a block. I forget +whether I mentioned his calling on me. He is a Vermonter, a graduate of +Yale College, who has been here several years, and has established a sort +of book brokerage, buying libraries for those who want them, and rare +works and editions for American collectors. His business naturally +brings him into relations with literary people; and he is himself a +kindly and pleasant man. On our arrival we found Mr. D------ and one of +his sisters already there; and soon came a Mr. Peabody, who, if I mistake +not, is one of the Salem Peabodys, and has some connection with the +present eminent London Mr. Peabody. At any rate, he is a very sensible, +well-instructed, and widely and long travelled man. Mr. Tom Taylor was +also expected; but, owing to some accident or mistake, he did not come +for above an hour, all which time our host waited. . . . . But Mr. Tom +Taylor, a wit, a satirist, and a famous diner out, is too formidable and +too valuable a personage to be treated cavalierly. + +In the interim Mr. ------ showed us some rare old books, which he has in +his private collection, a black-letter edition of Chaucer, and other +specimens of the early English printers; and I was impressed, as I have +often been, with the idea that we have made few, if any, improvements in +the art of printing, though we have greatly facilitated the modes of it. +He showed us Dryden's translation of Virgil, with Dr. Johnson's autograph +in it and a large collection of Bibles, of all dates,--church Bibles, +family Bibles of the common translation, and older ones. He says he has +written or is writing a history of the Bible (as a printed work, I +presume). Many of these Bibles had, no doubt, been in actual and daily +use from generation to generation; but they were now all splendidly +bound, and were likewise very clean and smooth,--in fact, every leaf had +been cleansed by a delicate process, a part of which consisted in soaking +the whole book in a tub of water, during several days. Mr. ------ is +likewise rich in manuscripts, having a Spanish document with the +signature of the son of Columbus; a whole little volume in Franklin's +handwriting, being the first specimen of it; and the original manuscripts +of many of the songs of Burns. Among these I saw "Auld Lang Syne," and +"Bruce's Address to his Army." We amused ourselves with these matters as +long as we could; but at last, as there was to be a party in the evening, +dinner could no longer be put off; so we took our seats at table, and +immediately afterwards Mr. Taylor made his appearance with his wife and +another lady. + +Mr. Taylor is reckoned a brilliant conversationist; but I suppose he +requires somebody to draw him out and assist him; for I could hear +nothing that I thought very remarkable on this occasion. He is not a +kind of man whom I can talk with, or greatly help to talk; so, though I +sat next to him, nothing came of it. He told me some stories of his life +in the Temple,--little funny incidents, that he afterwards wrought into +his dramas; in short, a sensible, active-minded, clearly perceptive man, +with a humorous way of showing up men and matters. . . . . I wish I could +know exactly what the English style good conversation. Probably it is +something like plum-pudding,--as heavy, but seldom so rich. + +After dinner Mr. Tom Taylor and Mr. D------, with their respective +ladies, took their leave; but when we returned to the drawing-room, we +found it thronged with a good many people. Mr. S. C. Hall was there with +his wife, whom I was glad to see again, for this was the third time of +meeting her, and, in this whirl of new acquaintances, I felt quite as if +she were an old friend. Mr. William Howitt was also there, and +introduced me to his wife,--a very natural, kind, and pleasant lady; and +she presented me to one or two daughters. Mr. Marston, the dramatist, +was also introduced to me; and Mr. Helps, a thin, scholarly, cold sort of +a man. Dr. Mackay and his wife were there, too; and a certain Mr. Jones, +a sculptor,--a jolly, large, elderly person, with a twinkle in his eye. +Also a Mr. Godwin, who impressed me as quite a superior person, +gentlemanly, cultivated, a man of sensibility; but it is quite impossible +to take a clear imprint from any one character, where so many are stamped +upon one's notice at once. This Mr. Godwin, as we were discussing +Thackeray, said that he is most beautifully tender and devoted to his +wife, whenever she can be sensible of his attentions. He says that +Thackeray, in his real self, is a sweet, sad man. I grew weary of so +many people, especially of the ladies, who were rather superfluous in +their oblations, quite stifling me, indeed, with the incense that they +burnt under my nose. So far as I could judge, they had all been invited +there to see me. It is ungracious, even hoggish, not to be gratified +with the interest they expressed in me; but then it is really a bore, and +one does not know what to do or say. I felt like the hippopotamus, or-- +to use a more modest illustration--like some strange insect imprisoned +under a tumbler, with a dozen eyes watching whatever I did. By and by, +Mr. Jones, the sculptor, relieved me by standing up against the +mantel-piece, and telling an Irish story, not to two or three auditors, +but to the whole drawing-room, all attentive as to a set exhibition. It +was very funny. + +The next day after this I went with Mr. Bowman to call on our minister, +and found that he, and four of the ladies of his family, with his son, +had gone to the Queen's Drawing-room. We lunched at the Wellington; and +spent an hour or more in looking out of the window of that establishment +at the carriages, with their pompous coachmen and footmen, driving to and +from the Palace of St. James, and at the Horse Guards, with their bright +cuirasses, stationed along the street. . . . . Then I took the rail for +Liverpool. . . . . While I was still at breakfast at the Waterloo, J----- +came in, ruddy-cheeked, smiling, very glad to see me, and looking, I +thought, a good deal taller than when I left him. And so ended my London +excursion, which has certainly been rich in incident and character, +though my account of it be but meagre. + + + +SCOTLAND.--GLASGOW. + + +May 10th.--Last Friday, May 2d, I took the rail, with Mr. Bowman, from +the Lime Street station, for Glasgow. There was nothing of much interest +along the road, except that, when we got beyond Penrith, we saw snow on +the tops of some of the hills. Twilight came on as we were entering +Scotland; and I have only a recollection of bleak and bare hills and +villages dimly seen, until, nearing Glasgow, we saw the red blaze of +furnace-lights at frequent iron-founderies. We put up at the Queen's +Hotel, where we arrived about ten o'clock; a better hotel than I have +anywhere found in England,--new, well arranged, and with brisk +attendance. + +In the morning I rambled largely about Glasgow, and found it to be +chiefly a modern-built city, with streets mostly wide and regular, and +handsome houses and public edifices of a dark gray stone. In front of +our hotel, in an enclosed green space, stands a tall column surmounted by +a statue of Sir Walter Scott,--a good statue, I should think, as +conveying the air and personal aspect of the man. There is a bronze +equestrian statue of the Queen in one of the streets, and one or two more +equestrian or other statues of eminent persons. I passed through the +Trongate and the Gallow-Gate, and visited the Salt-Market, and saw the +steeple of the Tolbooth, all of which Scott has made interesting; and I +went through the gate of the University, and penetrated into its enclosed +courts, round which the College edifices are built. They are not Gothic, +but of the age, I suppose, of James I.,--with odd-looking, conical-roofed +towers, and here and there the bust of a benefactor in niches round the +courts, and heavy stone staircases ascending from the pavement, outside +the buildings, all of dark gray granite, cold, hard, and venerable. The +University stands in High Street, in a dense part of the town, and a very +old and shabby part, too. I think the poorer classes of Glasgow excel +even those in Liverpool in the bad eminence of filth, uncombed and +unwashed children, drunkenness, disorderly deportment, evil smell, and +all that makes city poverty disgusting. In my opinion, however, they are +a better-looking people than the English (and this is true of all +classes), more intelligent of aspect, with more regular features. I +looked for the high cheek-bones, which have been attributed, as a +characteristic feature, to the Scotch, but could not find them. What +most distinguishes them front the English is the regularity of the nose, +which is straight, or sometimes a little curved inward; whereas the +English nose has no law whatever, but disports itself in all manner of +irregularity. I very soon learned to recognize the Scotch face, and when +not too Scotch, it is a handsome one. + +In another part of the High Street, up a pretty steep slope, and on one +side of a public green, near an edifice which I think is a medical +college, stands St. Mungo's Cathedral. It is hardly of cathedral +dimensions, though a large and fine old church. The price of a ticket of +admittance is twopence; so small that it might be as well to make the +entrance free. The interior is in excellent repair, with the nave and +side aisles, and clustered pillars, and intersecting arches, that belong +to all these old churches; and a few monuments along the walls. I was +going away without seeing any more than this; but the verger, a friendly +old gentleman, with a hearty Scotch way of speaking, told me that the +crypts were what chiefly interested strangers; and so he guided me down +into the foundation-story of the church, where there is an intricacy and +entanglement of immensely massive and heavy arches, supporting the +structure above. The view through these arches, among the great shafts +of the columns, was very striking. In the central part is a monument; a +recumbent figure, if I remember rightly, but it is not known whom it +commemorates. There is also a monument to a Scotch prelate, which seems +to have been purposely defaced, probably in Covenant times. These +intricate arches were the locality of one of the scenes in "Rob Roy," +when Rob gives Frank Osbaldistone some message or warning, and then +escapes from him into the obscurity behind. In one corner is St. Mungo's +well, secured with a wooden cover; but I should not care to drink water +that comes from among so many old graves. + +After viewing the cathedral, I got back to the hotel just in time to go +from thence to the steamer wharf, and take passage up the Clyde. There +was nothing very interesting in this little voyage. We passed many +small iron steamers, and some large ones; and green fields along the +river-shores, villas, villages, and all such suburban objects; neither am +I quite sure of the name of the place we landed at, though I think it was +Bowling. Here we took the railway for Balloch; and the only place or +thing I remember during this transit was a huge bluff or crag, rising +abruptly from a river-side, and looking, in connection with its vicinity +to the Highlands, just such a site as would be taken for the foundation +of a castle. On inquiry it turned out that this abrupt and double-headed +hill (for it has two summits, with a cleft between) is the site of +Dumbarton Castle, for ages one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, +and still kept up as a garrisoned place. At the distance and point of +view at which we passed it, the castle made no show. + +Arriving at Balloch, we found it a small village, with no marked +features, and a hotel, where we got some lunch, and then we took a stroll +over the bridge across the Levers, while waiting for the steamer to take +us up Loch Lomond. It was a beautiful afternoon, warm and sunny; and +after walking about a mile, we had a fine view of Loch Lomond, and of the +mountains around and beyond it,--Ben Lomond among the rest. It is vain, +at a week's distance, to try to remember the shapes of mountains; so I +shall attempt no description of them, and content myself with saying that +they did not quite come up to my anticipations. In due time we returned +to our hotel, and found in the coffee-room a tall, white-haired, +venerable gentleman, and a pleasant-looking young lady, his daughter. +They had been eating lunch, and the young lady helped her father on with +his outside garment, and his comforter, and gave him his stick, just as +any other daughter might do,--all of which I mention because he was a +nobleman; and, moreover, had engaged all the post-horses at the inn, so +that we could not continue our travels by land, along the side of Loch +Lomond, as we had first intended. At four o'clock the railway train +arrived again, with a very moderate number of passengers, who (and we +among them) immediately embarked on board a neat little steamer which was +waiting for us. + +The day was bright and cloudless; but there was a strong, cold breeze +blowing down the lake, so that it was impossible, without vast +discomfort, to stand in the bow of the steamer and look at the scenery. +I looked at it, indeed, along the sides, as we passed, and on our track +behind; and no doubt it was very fine; but from all the experience I have +had, I do not think scenery can be well seen from the water. At any +rate, the shores of Loch Lomond have faded completely out of my memory; +nor can I conceive that they really were very striking. At a year's +interval, I can recollect the cluster of hills around the head of Lake +Windermere; at twenty years' interval, I remember the shores of Lake +Champlain; but of the shores of this Scottish lake I remember nothing +except some oddly shaped rocks, called "The Cobbler and his Daughter," on +a mountain-top, just before we landed. But, indeed, we had very +imperfect glimpses of the hills along the latter part of the course, +because the wind had grown so very cold that we took shelter below, and +merely peeped at Loch Lomond's sublimities from the cabin-windows. + +The whole voyage up Loch Lomond is, I think, about thirty-two miles; but +we landed at a place called Tarbet, much short of the ultimate point. +There is here a large hotel; but we passed it, and walked onward a mile +or two to Arroquhar, a secluded glen among the hills, where is a new +hotel, built in the old manor-house style, and occupying the site of what +was once a castle of the chief of the MacFarlanes. Over the portal is a +stone taken from the former house, bearing the date 1697. There is a +little lake near the house, and the hills shut in the whole visible scene +so closely that there appears no outlet nor communication with the +external world; but in reality this little lake is connected with Loch +Long, and Loch Long is an arm of the sea; so that there is water +communication between Arroquhar and Glasgow. We found this a very +beautiful place; and being quite sheltered from all winds that blew, we +strolled about late into the prolonged twilight, and admired the outlines +of the surrounding hills, and fancied resemblances to various objects in +the shapes of the crags against the evening sky. The sun had not set +till nearly, if not quite, eight o'clock; and before the daylight had +quite gone, the northern lights streamed out, and I do not think that +there was much darkness over the glen of Arroquhar that night. At all +events, before the darkness came, we withdrew into the coffee-room. + +We had excellent beds and sleeping-rooms in this new hotel, and I +remember nothing more till morning, when we were astir betimes, and had +some chops for breakfast. Then our host, Mr. Macregor, who is also the +host of our hotel at Glasgow, and has many of the characteristics of an +American landlord, claiming to be a gentleman and the equal of his +guests, took us in a drosky, and drove us to the shore of Loch Lomond, at +a point about four miles from Arroquhar. The lake is here a mile and a +half wide, and it was our object to cross to Inversnaid, on the opposite +shore; so first we waved a handkerchief, and then kindled some straw on +the beach, in order to attract the notice of the ferryman at Inversnaid. +It was half an hour before our signals and shoutings resulted in the +putting off of a boat, with two oarsmen, who made the transit pretty +speedily; and thus we got across Loch Lomond. At Inversnaid there is a +small hotel, and over the rock on which it stands a little waterfall +tumbles into the lake,--a very little one, though I believe it is +reckoned among the other picturesque features of the scene. + +We were now in Rob Roy's country, and at the distance of a mile or so, +along the shore of the lake, is Rob Roy's cave, where he and his +followers are supposed to have made their abode in troublous times. +While lunch was getting ready, we again took the boat, and went thither. +Landing beneath a precipitous, though not very lofty crag, we clambered +up a rude pathway, and came to the mouth of the cave, which is nothing +but a fissure or fissures among some great rocks that have tumbled +confusedly together. There is hardly anywhere space enough for half a +dozen persons to crowd themselves together, nor room to stand upright. +On the whole, it is no cave at all, but only a crevice; and, in the +deepest and darkest part, you can look up and see the sky. It may have +sheltered Rob Roy for a night, and might partially shelter any Christian +during a shower. + +Returning to the hotel, we started in a drosky (I do not know whether +this is the right name of the vehicle, or whether it has a right name, +but it is a carriage in which four persons sit back to back, two before +and two behind) for Aberfoyle. The mountain-side ascends very steeply +from the inn door, and, not to damp the horse's courage in the outset, we +went up on foot. The guide-book says that the prospect from the summit +of the ascent is very fine; but I really believe we forgot to turn round +and look at it. All through our drive, however, we had mountain views in +plenty, especially of great Ben Lomond, with his snow-covered head, round +which, since our entrance into the Highlands, we had been making a +circuit. Nothing can possibly be drearier than the mountains at this +season; bare, barren, and bleak, with black patches of withered heath +variegating the dead brown of the herbage on their sides; and as regards +trees the hills are perfectly naked. There were no frightful precipices, +no boldly picturesque features, along our road; but high, weary slopes, +showing miles and miles of heavy solitude, with here and there a highland +hut, built of stone and thatched; and, in one place, an old gray, ruinous +fortress, a station of the English troops after the rebellion of 1715; +and once or twice a village of hills, the inhabitants of which, old and +young, ran to their doors to stare at us. For several miles after we +left Inversnaid, the mountain-stream which makes the waterfall brawled +along the roadside. All the hills are sheep-pastures, and I never saw +such wild, rough, ragged-looking creatures as the sheep, with their black +faces and tattered wool. The little lambs were very numerous, poor +things, coming so early in the season into this inclement region; and it +was laughable to see how invariably, when startled by our approach, they +scampered to their mothers, and immediately began to suck. It would seem +as if they sought a draught from the maternal udder, wherewith to fortify +and encourage their poor little hearts; but I suppose their instinct +merely drove them close to their dams, and, being there, they took +advantage of their opportunity. These sheep must lead a hard life during +the winter; for they are never fed nor sheltered. + +The day was sunless, and very uncomfortably cold; and we were not sorry +to walk whenever the steepness of the road gave us cause. I do not +remember what o'clock it was, but not far into the afternoon, when we +reached the Baillie Nicol-Jarvie Inn at Aberfoyle; a scene which is much +more interesting in the pages of Rob Roy than we found it in reality. +Here we got into a sort of cart, and set out, over another hill-path, as +dreary as or drearier than the last, for the Trosachs. On our way, we +saw Ben Venue, and a good many other famous Bens, and two or three lochs; +and when we reached the Trosachs, we should probably have been very much +enraptured if our eyes had not already been weary with other mountain +shapes. But, in truth, I doubt if anybody ever does really see a +mountain, who goes for the set and sole purpose of seeing it. Nature +will not let herself be seen in such cases. You must patiently bide her +time; and by and by, at some unforeseen moment, she will quietly and +suddenly unveil herself, and for a brief space allow you to look right +into the heart of her mystery. But if you call out to her peremptorily, +"Nature! unveil yourself this very moment!" she only draws her veil the +closer; and you may look with all your eyes, and imagine that you see all +that she can show, and yet see nothing. Thus, I saw a wild and confused +assemblage of heights, crags, precipices, which they call the Trosachs, +but I saw them calmly and coldly, and was glad when the drosky was ready +to take us on to Callender. The hotel at the Trosachs, by the by, is a +very splendid one, in the form of an old feudal castle, with towers and +turrets. All among these wild hills there is set preparation for +enraptured visitants; and it seems strange that the savage features do +not subside of their own accord, and that there should still be cold +winds and snow on the top of Ben Lomond, and rocks and heather, and +ragged sheep, now that there are so many avenues by which the commonplace +world is sluiced in among the Highlands. I think that this fashion of +the picturesque will pass away. + +We drove along the shore of Lake Vennachar, and onward to Callender, +which I believe is either the first point in the Lowlands or the last in +the Highlands. It is a large village on the river Teith. We stopped +here to dine, and were some time in getting any warmth into our benumbed +bodies; for, as I said before, it was a very cold day. Looking from the +window of the hotel, I saw a young man in Highland dress, with bare +thighs, marching through the village street towards the Lowlands, with a +martial and elastic step, as if he were going forth to conquer and occupy +the world. I suppose he was a soldier who had been absent on leave, +returning to the garrison at Stirling. I pitied his poor thighs, though +he certainly did not look uncomfortable. + +After dinner, as dusk was coming on and we had still a long drive before +us (eighteen miles, I believe), we took a close carriage and two horses, +and set off for Stirling. The twilight was too obscure to show many +things along the road, and by the time we drove into Stirling we could +but dimly see the houses in the long street in which stood our hotel. +There was a good fire in the coffee-room, which looked like a +drawing-room in a large old-fashioned mansion, and was hung round with +engravings of the portraits of the county members, and a master of +fox-hounds, and other pictures. We made ourselves comfortable with some +tea, and retired early. + +In the morning we were stirring betimes, and found Stirling to be a +pretty large town, of rather ancient aspect, with many gray stone houses, +the gables of which are notched on either side, like a flight of stairs. +The town stands on the slope of a hill, at the summit of which, crowning +a long ascent, up which the paved street reaches all the way to its gate, +is Stirling Castle. Of course we went thither, and found free entrance, +although the castle is garrisoned by five or six hundred men, among whom +are barelegged Highlanders (I must say that this costume is very fine and +becoming, though their thighs did look blue and frost-bitten) and also +some soldiers of other Scotch regiments, with tartan trousers. Almost +immediately on passing the gate, we found an old artillery-man, who +undertook to show us round the castle. Only a small portion of it seems +to be of great antiquity. The principal edifice within the castle wall +is a palace, that was either built or renewed by James VI.; and it is +ornamented with strange old statues, one of which is his own. The old +Scottish Parliament House is also here. The most ancient part of the +castle is the tower, where one of the Earls of Douglas was stabbed by a +king, and afterwards thrown out of the window. In reading this story, +one imagines a lofty turret, and the dead man tumbling headlong from a +great height; but, in reality, the window is not more than fifteen or +twenty feet from the garden into which he fell. This part of the castle +was burned last autumn; but is now under repair, and the wall of the +tower is still stanch and strong. We went up into the chamber where the +murder took place, and looked through the historic window. + +Then we mounted the castle wall, where it broods over a precipice of many +hundred feet perpendicular, looking down upon a level plain below, and +forth upon a landscape, every foot of which is richly studded with +historic events. There is a small peep-hole in the wall, which Queen +Mary is said to have been in the habit of looking through. It is a most +splendid view; in the distance, the blue Highlands, with a variety of +mountain outlines that I could have studied unweariably; and in another +direction, beginning almost at the foot of the Castle Hill, were the +Links of Forth, where, over a plain of miles in extent the river +meandered, and circled about, and returned upon itself again and again +and again, as if knotted into a silver chain, which it was difficult to +imagine to be all one stream. The history of Scotland might be read from +this castle wall, as on a book of mighty page; for here, within the +compass of a few miles, we see the field where Wallace won the battle of +Stirling, and likewise the battle-field of Bannockburn, and that of +Falkirk, and Sheriffmuir, and I know not how many besides. + +Around the Castle Hill there is a walk, with seats for old and infirm +persons, at points sheltered from the wind. We followed it downward, and +I think we passed over the site where the games used to be held, and +where, this morning, some of the soldiers of the garrison were going +through their exercises. I ought to have mentioned, that, passing +through the inner gateway of the castle, we saw the round tower, and +glanced into the dungeon, where the Roderic Dhu of Scott's poem was left +to die. It is one of the two round towers, between which the portcullis +rose and fell. + + + +EDINBURGH.--THE PALACE OF HOLYROOD. + + +At eleven o'clock we took the rail for Edinburgh, and I remember nothing +more, except that the cultivation and verdure of the country were very +agreeable, after our experience of Highland barrenness and desolation, +until we found the train passing close at the base of the rugged crag of +Edinburgh Castle. We established ourselves at Queen's Hotel, in Prince's +Street, and then went out to view the city. The monument to Sir Walter +Scott--a rather fantastic and not very impressive affair, I thought-- +stands almost directly in front of a hotel. We went along Prince's +Street, and thence, by what turns I know not, to the Palace of Holyrood, +which stands on a low and sheltered site, and is a venerable edifice. +Arthur's Seat rises behind it,--a high hill, with a plain between. As we +drew near the Palace, Mr. Bowman, who has been here before, pointed out +the windows of Queen Mary's apartments, in a circular tower on the left +of the gateway. On entering the enclosed quadrangle, we bought tickets +for sixpence each, admitting us to all parts of the Palace that are shown +to visitors; and first we went into a noble hall or gallery, a long and +stately room, hung with pictures of ancient Scottish kings; and though +the pictures were none of them authentic, they, at least, answer an +excellent purpose in the way of upholstery. It was here that the young +Pretender gave the ball which makes one of the scenes in Waverley. + +Thence we passed into the old historic rooms of the Palace,--Darnley's +and Queen Mary's apartments, which everybody has seen and described. +They are very dreary and shabby-looking rooms, with bare floors, and here +and there a piece of tapestry, faded into a neutral tint; and carved and +ornamented ceilings, looking shabbier than plain whitewash. We saw Queen +Mary's old bedstead, low, with four tall posts,--and her looking-glass, +which she brought with her from France, and which has often reflected the +beauty that set everybody mad,--and some needlework and other womanly +matters of hers; and we went into the little closet where she was having +such a cosey supper-party with two or three friends, when the +conspirators broke in, and stabbed Rizzio before her face. We saw, too, +the blood-stain at the threshold of the door in the next room, opening +upon the stairs. The body of Rizzio was flung down here, and the +attendant told us that it lay in that spot all night. The blood-stain +covers a large space,--much larger than I supposed,--and it gives the +impression that there must have been a great pool and sop of blood on all +the spot covered by Rizzio's body, staining the floor deeply enough never +to be washed out. It is now of a dark brown hue; and I do not see why it +may not be the genuine, veritable stain. The floor, thereabouts, appears +not to have been scrubbed much; for I touched it with my finger, and +found it slightly rough; but it is strange that the many footsteps should +not have smoothed it, in three hundred years. + +One of the articles shown us in Queen Mary's apartments was the +breastplate supposed to have been worn by Lord Ruthven at the murder, a +heavy plate of iron, and doubtless a very uncomfortable waistcoat. + + + +HOLYROOD ABBEY. + + +From the Palace, we passed into the contiguous ruin of Holyrood Abbey; +which is roofless, although the front, and some broken columns along the +nave, and fragments of architecture here and there, afford hints of a +magnificent Gothic church in bygone times. It deserved to be +magnificent; for here have been stately ceremonials, marriages of kings, +coronations, investitures, before the high altar, which has now been +overthrown or crumbled away; and the floor--so far as there is any floor +--consists of tombstones of the old Scottish nobility. There are +likewise monuments, bearing the names of illustrious Scotch families; and +inscriptions, in the Scotch dialect, on the walls. + +In one of the front towers,--the only remaining one, indeed,--we saw the +marble tomb of a nobleman, Lord Belhaven, who is represented reclining on +the top,--with a bruised nose, of course. Except in Westminster Abbey, I +do not remember ever to have seen an old monumental statue with the nose +entire. In all political or religious outbreaks, the mob's first impulse +is to hit the illustrious dead on their noses. + +At the other end of the Abbey, near the high altar, is the vault where +the old Scottish kings used to be buried; but, looking in through the +window, I saw only a vacant space,--no skull, nor bone, nor the least +fragment of a coffin. In fact, I believe the royal dead were turned out +of their last home, on occasion of the Revolutionary movements, at the +accession of William III. + + + +HIGH STREET AND THE GRASS-MARKET. + + +Quitting the Abbey and the Palace, we turned into the Canongate, and +passed thence into High Street, which, I think, is a continuation of the +Canongate; and being now in the old town of Edinburgh, we saw those +immensely tall houses, seven stories high, where the people live in +tiers, all the way from earth to middle air. They were not so quaint and +strange looking as I expected; but there were some houses of very antique +individuality, and among them that of John Knox, which looks still in +good repair. One thing did not in the least fall short of my +expectations,--the evil odor, for which Edinburgh has an immemorial +renown,--nor the dirt of the inhabitants, old and young. The town, to +say the truth, when you are in the midst of it, has a very sordid, grimy, +shabby, upswept, unwashen aspect, grievously at variance with all poetic +and romantic associations. + +From the High Street we turned aside into the Grass-Market, the scene of +the Porteous Mob; and we found in the pavement a cross on the site where +the execution of Porteous is supposed to have taken place. + + + +THE CASTLE. + + +Returning thence to the High Street, we followed it up to the Castle, +which is nearer the town, and of more easy access from it, than I had +supposed. There is a large court or parade before the castle gate, with +a parapet on the abrupt side of the hill, looking towards Arthur's Seat +and Salisbury Crags, mud overhanging a portion of the old town. As we +leaned over this parapet, my nose was conscious of the bad odor of +Edinburgh, although the streets, whence it must have come, were hundreds +of feet below. I have had some experience of this ugly smell in the poor +streets of Liverpool; but I think I never perceived it before crossing +the Atlantic. It is the odor of an old system of life; the scent of the +pine forests is still too recent with us for it to be known in America. + +The Castle of Edinburgh is free (as appears to be the case with all +garrisoned places in Great Britain) to the entrance of any peaceable +person. So we went in, and found a large space enclosed within the +walls, and dwellings for officers, and accommodation for soldiers, who +were being drilled, or loitering about; and as the hill still ascends +within the external wall of the castle, we climbed to the summit, and +there found an old soldier whom we engaged to be our guide. He showed us +Mons Meg, a great old cannon, broken at the breech, but still aimed +threateningly from the highest ramparts; and then he admitted us into an +old chapel, said to have been built by a Queen of Scotland, the sister of +Harold, King of England, and occupying the very highest part of the hill. +It is the smallest place of worship I ever saw, but of venerable +architecture, and of very solid construction. The old soldier had not +much more to show us; but he pointed out the window whence one of the +kings of Scotland is said, when a baby, to have been lowered down, the +whole height of the castle, to the bottom of the precipice on which it +stands,--a distance of seven hundred feet. + +After the soldier had shown us to the extent of his jurisdiction, we went +into a suite of rooms, in one of which I saw a portrait of Queen Mary, +which gave me, for the first time, an idea that she was really a very +beautiful woman. In this picture she is wonderfully so,--a tender +womanly grace, which was none the less tender and graceful for being +equally imbued with queenly dignity and spirit. It was too lovely a head +to be cut off. I should be glad to know the authenticity of this +picture. + +I do not know that we did anything else worthy of note, before leaving +Edinburgh. There is matter enough, in and about the town, to interest +the visitor for a very long time; but when the visit is calculated on +such brevity as ours was, we get weary of the place, before even these +few hours come to an end. Thus, for my part, I was not sorry when, in +the course of the afternoon, we took the rail for Melrose, where we duly +arrived, and put up at the George Inn. + + + +MELROSE. + + +Melrose is a village of rather antique aspect, situated on the slope and +at the bottom of the Eildon Hills, which, from this point of view, appear +like one hill, with a double summit. The village, as I said, has an old +look, though many of the houses have at least been refronted at some +recent date; but others are as ancient, I suppose, as the days when the +Abbey was in its splendor,--a rustic and peasant-like antiquity, however, +low-roofed, and straw-thatched. There is an aged cross of stone in the +centre of the town. + +Our first object, of course, was to see the Abbey, which stands just on +the outskirts of the village, and is attainable only by applying at a +neighboring house, the inhabitant of which probably supports himself, and +most comfortably, too, as a showman of the ruin. He unlocked the wooden +gate, and admitted us into what is left of the Abbey, comprising only the +ruins of the church, although the refectory, the dormitories, and the +other parts of the establishment, formerly covered the space now occupied +by a dozen village houses. Melrose Abbey is a very satisfactory ruin, +all carpeted along its nave and transepts with green grass; and there are +some well-grown trees within the walls. We saw the window, now empty, +through which the tints of the painted glass fell on the tombstone of +Michael Scott, and the tombstone itself, broken in three pieces, but with +a cross engraven along its whole length. It must have been the monument +of an old monk or abbot, rather than a wizard. There, too, is still the +"marble stone" on which the monk and warrior sat them down, and which is +supposed to mark the resting-place of Alexander of Scotland. There are +remains, both without and within the Abbey, of most curious and +wonderfully minute old sculpture,--foliage, in places where it is almost +impossible to see them, and where the sculptor could not have supposed +that they would be seen, but which yet are finished faithfully, to the +very veins of each leaf, in stone; and there is a continual variety of +this accurate toil. On the exterior of the edifice there is equal +minuteness of finish, and a great many niches for statues; all of which, +I believe, are now gone, although there are carved faces at some points +and angles. The graveyard around the Abbey is still the only one which +the village has, and is crowded with gravestones, among which I read the +inscription of one erected by Sir Walter Scott to the memory of Thomas +Pardy, one of his servants. Some sable birds--either rooks or jackdaws-- +were flitting about the ruins, inside and out. + +Mr. Bowman and I talked about revisiting Melrose by moonlight; but, +luckily, there was to be no moon that evening. I do not myself think +that daylight and sunshine make a ruin less effective than twilight or +moonshine. In reference to Scott's description, I think he deplorably +diminishes the impressiveness of the scene by saying that the alternate +buttresses, seen by moonlight, look as if made of ebon and ivory. It +suggests a small and very pretty piece of cabinet-work; not these gray, +rough walls, which Time has gnawed upon for a thousand years, without +eating them away. + +Leaving the Abbey, we took a path or a road which led us to the river +Tweed, perhaps a quarter of a mile off; and we crossed it by a +foot-bridge,--a pretty wide stream, a dimpling breadth of transparent +water flowing between low banks, with a margin of pebbles. We then +returned to our inn, and had tea, and passed a quiet evening by the +fireside. This is a good, unpretentious inn; and its visitors' book +indicates that it affords general satisfaction to those who come here. + +In the morning we breakfasted on broiled salmon, taken, no doubt, in the +neighboring Tweed. There was a very coarse-looking man at table with us, +who informed us that he owned the best horse anywhere round the Eildon +Hills, and could make the best cast for a salmon, and catch a bigger fish +than anybody,--with other self-laudation of the same kind. The waiter +afterwards told us that he was the son of an Admiral in the neighborhood; +and soon, his horse being brought to the door, we saw him mount and ride +away. He sat on horseback with ease and grace, though I rather suspect, +early as it was, that he was already in his cups. The Scotch seem to me +to get drunk at very unseasonable hours. I have seen more drunken +people here than during all my residence in England, and, generally, +early in the day. Their liquor, so far as I have observed, makes them +good-natured and sociable, imparting a perhaps needed geniality to their +cold natures. + +After breakfast we took a drosky, or whatever these fore-and-aft-seated +vehicles are called, and set out for + + + +DRYBURGH ABBEY, + + +three miles distant. It was a cold though rather bright morning, with a +most shrewd and bitter wind, which blew directly in my face as I sat +beside the driver. An English wind is bad enough, but methinks a Scotch +one, is rather worse; at any rate, I was half frozen, and wished Dryburgh +Abbey in Tophet, where it would have been warmer work to go and see it. +Some of the border hills were striking, especially the Cowden Knowe, +which ascends into a prominent and lofty peak. Such villages as we +passed did not greatly differ from English villages. By and by we came +to the banks of the Tweed, at a point where there is a ferry. A carriage +was on the river-bank, the driver waiting beside it; for the people who +came in it had already been ferried across to see the Abbey. + +The ferryman here is a young girl; and, stepping into the boat, she +shoved off, and so skilfully took advantage of the eddies of the stream, +which is here deep and rapid, that we were soon on the other side. She +was by no means an uncomely maiden, with pleasant Scotch features, and a +quiet intelligence of aspect, gleaming into a smile when spoken to; much +tanned with all kinds of weather, and, though slender, yet so agile and +muscular that it was no shame for a man to let himself be rowed by her. + +From the ferry we had a walk of half a mile, more or less, to a cottage, +where we found another young girl, whose business it is to show the +Abbey. She was of another mould than the ferry-maiden,--a queer, shy, +plaintive sort of a body,--and answered all our questions in a low, +wailing tone. Passing through an apple-orchard, we were not long in +reaching the Abbey, the ruins of which are much more extensive and more +picturesque than those of Melrose, being overrun with bushes and +shrubbery, and twined about with ivy, and all such vegetation as belongs, +naturally, to old walls. There are the remains of the refectory, and +other domestic parts of the Abbey, as well as the church, and all in +delightful state of decay,--not so far gone but that we had bits of its +former grandeur in the columns and broken arches, and in some portions of +the edifice that still retain a roof. + +In the chapter-house we saw a marble statue of Newton, wofully maltreated +by damps and weather; and though it had no sort of business there, it +fitted into the ruins picturesquely enough. There is another statue, +equally unauthorized; both having been placed here by a former Earl of +Buchan, who seems to have been a little astray in his wits. + +On one side of the church, within an arched recess, are the monuments of +Sir Walter Scott and his family,--three ponderous tombstones of Aberdeen +granite, polished, but already dimmed and dulled by the weather. The +whole floor of the recess is covered by these monuments, that of Sir +Walter being the middle one, with Lady (or, as the inscription calls her, +Dame) Scott beyond him, next to the church wall, and some one of his sons +or daughters on the hither side. The effect of his being buried here is +to make the whole of Dryburgh Abbey his monument. There is another +arched recess, twin to the Scott burial-place, and contiguous to it, in +which are buried a Pringle family; it being their ancient place of +sepulture. The spectator almost inevitably feels as if they were +intruders, although their rights here are of far older date than those of +Scott. + +Dryburgh Abbey must be a most beautiful spot of a summer afternoon; and +it was beautiful even on this not very genial morning, especially when +the sun blinked out upon the ivy, and upon the shrubberied paths that +wound about the ruins. I think I recollect the birds chirruping in this +neighborhood of it. After viewing it sufficiently,--sufficiently for +this one time,--we went back to the ferry, and, being set across by the +same Undine, we drove back to Melrose. No longer riding against the +wind, I found it not nearly so cold as before. I now noticed that the +Eildon Hills, seen from this direction, rise from one base into three +distinct summits, ranged in a line. According to "The Lay of the Last +Minstrel," they were cleft into this shape by the magic of Michael Scott. +Reaching Melrose . . . . without alighting, we set off for + + + +ABBOTSFORD, + + +three miles off. The neighborhood of Melrose, leading to Abbotsford, has +many handsome residences of modern build and very recent date,--suburban +villas, each with its little lawn and garden ground, such as we see in +the vicinity of Liverpool. I noticed, too, one castellated house, of no +great size, but old, and looking as if its tower were built, not for +show, but for actual defence in the old border warfare. + +We were not long in reaching Abbotsford. The house, which is more +compact, and of considerably less extent than I anticipated, stands in +full view from the road, and at only a short distance from it, lower down +towards the river. Its aspect disappointed me; but so does everything. +It is but a villa, after all; no castle, nor even a large manor-house, +and very unsatisfactory when you consider it in that light. Indeed, it +impressed me, not as a real house, intended for the home of human +beings,--a house to die in or to be born in,--but as a plaything,-- +something in the same category as Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. The +present owner seems to have found it insufficient for the actual purposes +of life; for he is adding a wing, which promises to be as extensive as +the original structure. + +We rang at the front door (the family being now absent), and were +speedily admitted by a middle-aged or somewhat elderly man,--the butler, +I suppose, or some upper servant,--who at once acceded to our request to +be permitted to see the house. We stepped from the porch immediately +into the entrance-hall; and having the great Hall of Battle Abbey in my +memory, and the ideal of a baronial hall in my mind, I was quite taken +aback at the smallness and narrowness and lowness of this; which, +however, is a very fine one, on its own little scale. In truth, it is +not much more than a vestibule. The ceiling is carved; and every inch of +the walls is covered with claymores, targets, and other weapons and +armor, or old-time curiosities, tastefully arranged, many of which, no +doubt, have a history attached to them,--or had, in Sir Walter's own +mind. Our attendant was a very intelligent person, and pointed out much +that was interesting; but in such a multitudinous variety it was almost +impossible to fix the eye upon any one thing. Probably the apartment +looked smaller than it really was, on account of being so wainscoted and +festooned with curiosities. I remember nothing particularly, unless it +be the coal-grate in the fireplace, which was one formerly used by +Archbishop Sharpe, the prelate whom Balfour of Burley murdered. Either +in this room or the next one, there was a glass case containing the suit +of clothes last worn by Scott,--a short green coat, somewhat worn, with +silvered buttons, a pair of gray tartan trousers, and a white hat. It +was in the hall that we saw these things; for there too, I recollect, +were a good many walking-sticks that had been used by Scott, and the +hatchet with which he was in the habit of lopping branches from his +trees, as he walked among them. + +From the hall we passed into the study;--a small room, lined with the +books which Sir Walter, no doubt, was most frequently accustomed to refer +to; and our guide pointed out some volumes of the Moniteur, which he used +while writing the history of Napoleon. Probably these were the driest +and dullest volumes in his whole library. About mid-height of the walls +of the study there is a gallery, with a short flight of steps for the +convenience of getting at the upper books. A study-table occupied the +centre of the room, and at one end of the table stands an easy-chair, +covered with morocco, and with ample space to fling one's self back. The +servant told me that I might sit down in this chair, for that Sir Walter +sat there while writing his romances, "and perhaps," quoth the man, +smiling, "you may catch some inspiration." What a bitter word this would +have been if he had known me to be a romance-writer! "No, I never shall +be inspired to write romances!" I answered, as if such an idea had never +occurred to me. I sat down, however. This study quite satisfied me, +being planned on principles of common-sense, and made to work in, and +without any fantastic adaptation of old forms to modern uses. + +Next to the study is the library, an apartment of respectable size, and +containing as many books as it can hold, all protected by wire-work. I +did not observe what or whose works were here; but the attendant showed +us one whole compartment full of volumes having reference to ghosts, +witchcraft, and the supernatural generally. It is remarkable that Scott +should have felt interested in such subjects, being such a worldly and +earthly man as he was; but then, indeed, almost all forms of popular +superstition do clothe the ethereal with earthly attributes, and so make +it grossly perceptible. + +The library, like the study, suited me well,--merely the fashion of the +apartment, I mean,--and I doubt not it contains as many curious volumes +as are anywhere to be met with within a similar space. The drawing-room +adjoins it; and here we saw a beautiful ebony cabinet, which was +presented to Sir Walter by George IV.; and some pictures of much +interest,--one of Scott himself at thirty-five, rather portly, with a +heavy face, but shrewd eyes, which seem to observe you closely. There is +a full-length of his eldest son, an officer of dragoons, leaning on his +charger; and a portrait of Lady Scott,--a brunette, with black hair and +eyes, very pretty, warm, vivacious, and un-English in her aspect. I am +not quite sure whether I saw all these pictures in the drawing-room, or +some of them in the dining-room; but the one that struck me most--and +very much indeed--was the head of Mary, Queen of Scots, literally the +head cut off and lying on a dish. It is said to have been painted by an +Italian or French artist, two days after her death. The hair curls or +flows all about it; the face is of a death-like hue, but has an +expression of quiet, after much pain and trouble,--very beautiful, very +sweet and sad; and it affected me strongly with the horror and +strangeness of such a head being severed from its body. Methinks I +should not like to have it always in the room with me. I thought of the +lovely picture of Mary that I had seen at Edinburgh Castle, and reflected +what a symbol it would be,--how expressive of a human being having her +destiny in her own hands,--if that beautiful young Queen were painted as +carrying this dish, containing her own woful head, and perhaps casting a +curious and pitiful glance down upon it, as if it were not her own. + +Also, in the drawing-room, there was a plaster cast of Sir Walter's face, +taken after death; the only one in existence, as our guide assured us. +It is not often that one sees a homelier set of features than this; no +elevation, no dignity, whether bestowed by nature or thrown over them by +age or death; sunken cheeks, the bridge of the nose depressed, and the +end turned up; the mouth puckered, and no chin whatever, or hardly any. +The expression was not calm and happy; but rather as if he were in a +perturbed slumber, perhaps nothing short of nightmare. I wonder that the +family allow this cast to be shown,--the last record that there is of +Scott's personal reality, and conveying such a wretched and unworthy idea +of it. + +Adjoining the drawing-room is the dining-room, in one corner of which, +between two windows, Scott died. It was now a quarter of a century since +his death; but it seemed to me that we spoke with a sort of hush in our +voices, as if he were still dying here, or had but just departed. I +remember nothing else in this room. The next one is the armory, which is +the smallest of all that we had passed through; but its walls gleam with +the steel blades of swords, and the barrels of pistols, matchlocks, +firelocks, and all manner of deadly weapons, whether European or +Oriental; for there are many trophies here of East Indian warfare. I saw +Rob Roy's gun, rifled and of very large bore; and a beautiful pistol, +formerly Claverhouse's; and the sword of Montrose, given him by King +Charles, the silver hilt of which I grasped. There was also a superb +claymore, in an elaborately wrought silver sheath, made for Sir Walter +Scott, and presented to him by the Highland Society, for his services in +marshalling the clans when George IV. came to Scotland. There were a +thousand other things, which I knew must be most curious, yet did not ask +nor care about them, because so many curiosities drive one crazy, and +fret one's heart to death. On the whole, there is no simple and great +impression left by Abbotsford; and I felt angry and dissatisfied with +myself for not feeling something which I did not and could not feel. But +it is just like going to a museum, if you look into particulars; and one +learns from it, too, that Scott could not have been really a wise man, +nor an earnest one, nor one that grasped the truth of life; he did but +play, and the play grew very sad toward its close. In a certain way, +however, I understand his romances the better for having seen his house; +and his house the better for having read his romances. They throw light +on one another. + +We had now gone through all the show-rooms; and the next door admitted us +again into the entrance-hall, where we recorded our names in the +visitors' book. It contains more names of Americans, I should judge, +from casting my eyes back over last year's record, than of all other +people in the world, including Great Britain. + +Bidding farewell to Abbotsford, I cannot but confess a sentiment of +remorse for having visited the dwelling-place--as just before I visited +the grave of the mighty minstrel and romancer with so cold a heart and in +so critical a mood,--his dwelling-place and his grave whom I had so +admired and loved, and who had done so much for my happiness when I was +young. But I, and the world generally, now look at him from a different +point of view; and, besides, these visits to the actual haunts of famous +people, though long dead, have the effect of making us sensible, in some +degree, of their human imperfections, as if we actually saw them alive. +I felt this effect, to a certain extent, even with respect to +Shakespeare, when I visited Stratford-on-Avon. As for Scott, I still +cherish him in a warm place, and I do not know that I have any pleasanter +anticipation, as regards books, than that of reading all his novels over +again after we get back to the Wayside. + +[This Mr. Hawthorne did, aloud to his family, the year following his +return to America.--ED.] + +It was now one or two o'clock, and time for us to take the rail across +the borders. Many a mile behind us, as we rushed onward, we could see +the threefold Eildon Hill, and probably every pant of the engine carried +us over some spot of ground which Scott has made fertile with poetry. +For Scotland--cold, cloudy, barren little bit of earth that it is--owes +all the interest that the world feels in it to him. Few men have done so +much for their country as he. However, having no guide-book, we were +none the wiser for what we saw out of the window of the rail-carriage; +but, now and then, a castle appeared, on a commanding height, visible for +miles round, and seemingly in good repair,--now, in some low and +sheltered spot, the gray walls of an abbey; now, on a little eminence, +the ruin of a border fortress, and near it the modern residence of the +laird, with its trim lawn and shrubbery. We were not long in coming to + + +BERWICK, + + +a town which seems to belong both to England and Scotland, or perhaps is +a kingdom by itself, for it stands on both sides of the boundary river, +the Tweed, where it empties into the German Ocean. From the railway +bridge we had a good view over the town, which looks ancient, with red +roofs on all the gabled houses; and it being a sunny afternoon, though +bleak and chill, the sea-view was very fine. The Tweed is here broad, +and looks deep, flowing far beneath the bridge, between high banks. This +is all that I can say of Berwick (pronounced Berrick), for though we +spent above an hour at the station waiting for the train, we were so long +in getting our dinner, that we had not time for anything else. I +remember, however, some gray walls, that looked like the last remains of +an old castle, near the railway station. We next took the train for + + + +NEWCASTLE, + + +the way to which, for a considerable distance, lies within sight of the +sea; and in close vicinity to the shore we saw Holy Isle, on which are +the ruins of an abbey. Norham Castle must be somewhere in this +neighborhood, on the English shore of the Tweed. It was pretty late in +the afternoon--almost nightfall--when we reached Newcastle, over the +roofs of which, as over those of Berwick, we had a view from the railway, +and like Berwick, it was a congregation of mostly red roofs; but, unlike +Berwick (the atmosphere over which was clear and transparent), there came +a gush of smoke from every chimney, which made it the dimmest and +smokiest place I ever saw. This is partly owing to the iron founderies +and furnaces; but each domestic chimney, too, was smoking on its own +account,--coal being so plentiful there, no doubt, that the fire is +always kept freshly heaped with it, reason or none. Out of this +smoke-cloud rose tall steeples; and it was discernible that the town +stretched widely over an uneven surface, on the banks of the Tyne, which +is navigable up hither ten miles from the sea for pretty large vessels. + +We established ourselves at the Station Hotel, and then walked out to see +something of the town; but I remember only a few streets of duskiness and +dinginess, with a glimpse of the turrets of a castle to which we could +not find our way. So, as it was getting twilightish and very cold, we +went back to the hotel, which is a very good one, better than any one I +have seen in the South of England, and almost or quite as good as those +of Scotland. The coffee-room is a spacious and handsome apartment, +adorned with a full-length portrait of Wellington, and other pictures, +and in the whole establishment there was a well-ordered alacrity and +liberal provision for the comfort of guests that one seldom sees in +English inns. There are a good many American guests in Newcastle, and +through all the North. + +An old Newcastle gentleman and his friend came into the smoking-room, and +drank three glasses of hot whiskey-toddy apiece, and were still going on +to drink more when we left them. These respectable persons probably went +away drunk that night, yet thought none the worse of themselves or of one +another for it. It is like returning to times twenty years gone by for a +New-Englander to witness such simplicity of manners. + +The next morning, May 8th, I rose and breakfasted early, and took the +rail soon after eight o'clock, leaving Mr. Bowman behind; for he had +business in Newcastle, and would not follow till some hours afterwards. +There is no use in trying to make a narrative of anything that one sees +along an English railway. All I remember of this tract of country is +that one of the stations at which we stopped for an instant is called +"Washington," and this is, no doubt, the old family place, where the De +Wessyngtons, afterwards the Washingtons, were first settled in England. +Before reaching York, first one old lady and then another (Quaker) lady +got into the carriage along with me; and they seemed to be going to York, +on occasion of some fair or celebration. This was all the company I had, +and their advent the only incident. It was about eleven o'clock when I +beheld York Cathedral rising huge above the old city, which stands on the +river Ouse, separated by it from the railway station, but communicating +by a ferry (or two) and a bridge. I wandered forth, and found my way +over the latter into the ancient and irregular streets of + + + +YORK, + + +crooked, narrow, or of unequal width, puzzling, and many of them bearing +the name of the particular gate in the old walls of the city to which +they lead. There were no such fine, ancient, stately houses as some of +those in Shrewsbury were, nor such an aspect of antiquity as in Chester; +but still York is a quaint old place, and what looks most modern is +probably only something old, hiding itself behind a new front, as +elsewhere in England. + +I found my way by a sort of instinct, as directly as possible, to + + + +YORK MINSTER. + + +It stands in the midst of a small open space,--or a space that looks +small in comparison with the vast bulk of the cathedral. I was not so +much impressed by its exterior as I have usually been by Gothic +buildings; because it is rectangular in its general outline and in its +towers, and seems to lack the complexity and mysterious plan which +perplexes and wonder-strikes me in most cathedrals. Doubtless, however, +if I had known better how to admire it, I should have found it wholly +admirable. At all events, it has a satisfactory hugeness. Seeking my +way in, I at first intruded upon the Registry of Deeds, which occupies a +building patched up against the mighty side of the cathedral, and hardly +discernible, so small the one and so large the other. I finally hit upon +the right door, and I felt no disappointment in my first glance around at +the immensity of enclosed space;--I see now in my mind's eye a dim length +of nave, a breadth in the transepts like a great plain, and such an airy +height beneath the central tower that a worshipper could certainly get a +good way towards heaven without rising above it. I only wish that the +screen, or whatever they call it, between the choir and nave, could be +thrown down, so as to give us leave to take in the whole vastitude at +once. I never could understand why, after building a great church, they +choose to sunder it in halves by this mid-partition. But let me be +thankful for what I got, and especially for the height and massiveness of +the clustered pillars that support the arches on which rests the central +tower. I remember at Furness Abbey I saw two tall pillars supporting a +broken arch, and thought it, the most majestic fragment of architecture +that could possibly be. But these pillars have a nobler height, and +these arches a greater sweep. What nonsense to try to write about a +cathedral! + +There is a great, cold bareness and bleakness about the interior; for +there are very few monuments, and those seem chiefly to be of +ecclesiastical people. I saw no armed knights, asleep on the tops of +their tombs; but there was a curious representation of a skeleton, at +full length, under the table-slab of one of the monuments. The walls are +of a grayish hue, not so agreeable as the rich dark tint of the inside of +Westminster Abbey; but a great many of the windows are still filled with +ancient painted glass, the very small squares and pieces of which are +composed into splendid designs of saints and angels, and scenes from +Scripture. + +There were a few watery blinks of sunshine out of doors, and whenever +these came through the old painted windows, some of the more vivid colors +were faintly thrown upon the pavement of the cathedral,--very faintly, it +is true; for, in the first place, the sunshine was not brilliant; and +painted glass, too, fades in the course of the ages, perhaps, like all +man's other works. There were two or three windows of modern +manufacture, and far more magnificent, as to brightness of color and +material beauty, than the ancient ones; but yet they looked vulgar, +glaring, and impertinent in comparison, because such revivals or +imitations of a long-disused art cannot have the good faith and +earnestness of the originals. Indeed, in the very coloring, I felt the +same difference as between heart's blood and a scarlet dye. It is a +pity, however, that the old windows cannot be washed, both inside and +out, for now they have the dust of centuries upon them. + +The screen or curtain between the nave and choir has eleven carved +figures, at full length, which appeared to represent kings, some of them +wearing crowns, and bearing sceptres or swords. They were in wood, and +wrought by some Gothic hand. These carvings, and the painted windows, +and the few monuments, are all the details that the mind can catch hold +of in the immensity of this cathedral; and I must say that it was a +dreary place on that cold, cloudy day. I doubt whether a cathedral is a +sort of edifice suited to the English climate. The first buildings of +the kind were probably erected by people who had bright and constant +sunshine, and who desired a shadowy awfulness--like that of a forest, +with its arched wood-paths--into which to retire in their religious +moments. + +In America, on a hot summer's day, how delightful its cool and solemn +depths would be! The painted windows, too, were evidently contrived, in +the first instance, by persons who saw how effective they would prove +when a vivid sun shone through them. But in England, the interior of a +cathedral, nine days out of ten, is a vast sullenness, and as chill as +death and the tomb. At any rate, it was so to-day, and so thought one of +the old vergers, who kept walking as briskly as he could along the width +of the transepts. There were several of these old men when I first came +in, but they went off, all but this one, before I departed. None of them +said a word to me, nor I to them; and admission to the Minster seems to +be entirely free. + +After emerging from this great gloom, I wandered to and fro about York, +and contrived to go astray within no very wide space. If its history be +authentic, it is an exceedingly old city, having been founded about a +thousand years before the Christian era. There used to be a palace of +the Roman emperors here, and the Emperor Severus died here, as did some +of his successors; and Constantine the Great was born here. I know not +what, if any, relics of those earlier times there may be; but York is +still partly surrounded with a wall, and has several gates, which the +city authorities take pains to keep in repair. I grow weary in my +endeavor to find my way back to the railway, and inquired it of one of +the good people of York,--a respectable, courteous, gentlemanly person,-- +and he told me to walk along the walls. Then he went on a considerable +distance; but seemed to repent of not doing more for me; so he waited +till I came up, and, walking along by my side, pointed out the castle, +now the jail, and the place of execution, and directed me to the +principal gateway of the city, and instructed me how to reach the ferry. +The path along the wall leads, in one place, through a room over the arch +of a gateway,--a low, thick-walled, stone apartment, where doubtless the +gatekeeper used to lodge, and to parley with those who desired entrance. + +I found my way to the ferry over the Ouse, according to this kind +Yorkist's instructions. The ferryman told me that the fee for crossing +was a halfpenny, which seemed so ridiculously small that I offered him +more; but this unparalleled Englishman declined taking anything beyond +his rightful halfpenny. This seems so wonderful to me that I can hardly +trust my own memory. + +Reaching the station, I got some dinner, and at four o'clock, just as I +was starting, came Mr. Bowman, my very agreeable and sensible travelling +companion. Our journeying together was ended here; for he was to keep on +to London, and I to return to Liverpool. So we parted, and I took the +rail westward across England, through a very beautiful, and in some +degree picturesque, tract of country, diversified with hills, through the +valleys and vistas of which goes the railroad, with dells diverging from +it on either hand, and streams and arched bridges, and old villages, and +a hundred pleasant English sights. After passing Rochdale, however, the +dreary monotony of Lancashire succeeded this variety. Between nine and +ten o'clock I reached the Tithebarn station in Liverpool. Ever since +until now, May 17th, I have employed my leisure moments in scribbling off +the journal of my tour; but it has greatly lost by not having been +written daily, as the scenes and occurrences were fresh. The most +picturesque points can be seized in no other way, and the hues of the +affair fade as quickly as those of a dying dolphin; or as, according to +Audubon, the plumage of a dead bird. + +One thing that struck me as much as anything else in the Highlands I had +forgotten to put down. In our walk at Balloch, along the road within +view of Loch Lomond and the neighboring hills, it was a brilliant +sunshiny afternoon, and I never saw any atmosphere so beautiful as that +among the mountains. It was a clear, transparent, ethereal blue, as +distinct as a vapor, and yet by no means vaporous, but a pure, +crystalline medium. I have witnessed nothing like this among the +Berkshire hills nor elsewhere. + +York is full of old churches, some of them very antique in appearance, +the stones weather-worn, their edges rounded by time, blackened, and with +all the tokens of sturdy and age-long decay; and in some of them I +noticed windows quite full of old painted glass, a dreary kind of minute +patchwork, all of one dark and dusty hue, when seen from the outside. +Yet had I seen them from the interior of the church, there doubtless +would have been rich and varied apparitions of saints, with their glories +round their heads, and bright-winged angels, and perhaps even the +Almighty Father himself, so far as conceivable and representable by human +powers. It requires light from heaven to make them visible. If the +church were merely illuminated from the inside,--that is, by what light a +man can get from his own understanding,--the pictures would be invisible, +or wear at best but a miserable aspect. + + + +LIVERPOOL. + + +May 24th.--Day before yesterday I had a call at the Consulate from one of +the Potentates of the Earth,--a woolly-haired negro, rather thin and +spare, between forty and fifty years of age, plainly dressed; at the +first glimpse of whom, I could readily have mistaken him for some ship's +steward, seeking to enter a complaint of his captain. However, this was +President Roberts, of Liberia, introduced by a note from Mrs. O'Sullivan, +whom he has recently met in Madeira. I was rather favorably impressed +with him; for his deportment was very simple, and without any of the +flourish and embroidery which a negro might be likely to assume on +finding himself elevated from slavery to power. He is rather shy, +reserved, at least, and undemonstrative, yet not harshly so,--in fine, +with manners that offer no prominent points for notice or criticism; +although I felt, or thought I felt, that his color was continually before +his mind, and that he walks cautiously among men, as conscious that every +new introduction is a new experiment. He is not in the slightest degree +an interesting man (so far as I discovered in a very brief interview), +apart from his position and history; his face is not striking, nor so +agreeable as if it were jet black; but there may be miles and miles of +depth in him which I know nothing of. Our conversation was of the most +unimportant character; for he had called merely to deliver the note, and +sat only a few minutes, during which he merely responded to my +observations, and originated no remarks. Intelligence, discretion, +tact,-- these are probably his traits; not force of character and +independence. + +The same day I took the rail from the Little Street station for + + + +MANCHESTER, + + +to meet Bennoch, who had asked me thither to dine with him. I had never +visited Manchester before, though now so long resident within twenty +miles of it; neither is it particularly worth visiting, unless for the +sake of its factories, which I did not go to see. It is a dingy and +heavy town, with very much the aspect of Liverpool, being, like the +latter, built almost entirely within the present century. I stopped at +the Albion Hotel, and, as Bennoch was out, I walked forth to view the +city, and made only such observations as are recorded above. Opposite +the hotel stands the Infirmary,--a very large edifice, which, when +erected, was on the outskirts, or perhaps in the rural suburbs, of the +town, but it is now almost in its centre. In the enclosed space before +it stands the statue of Peel, and sits a statue of Dr. Dalton, the +celebrated chemist, who was a native of Manchester. + +Returning to the hotel, I sat down in the room where we were to dine, and +in due time Bennoch made his appearance, with the same glow and friendly +warmth in his face that I had left burning there when we parted in +London. If this man has not a heart, then no man ever had. I like him +inexpressibly for his heart and for his intellect, and for his flesh and +blood; and if he has faults, I do not know them, nor care to know them, +nor value him the less if I did know them. He went to his room to dress; +and in the mean time a middle-aged, dark man, of pleasant aspect, with +black hair, black eyebrows, and bright, dark eyes came in, limping a +little, but not much. He seemed not quite a man of the world, a little +shy in manner, yet he addressed me kindly and sociably. I guessed him to +be Mr. Charles Swain, the poet, whom Mr. Bennoch had invited to dinner. +Soon came another guest whom Mr. Swain introduced to me as Mr. ------, +editor of the Manchester Examiner. Then came Bennoch, who made us all +regularly acquainted, or took for granted that we were so; and lastly +appeared a Mr. W------, a merchant in Manchester, and a very intelligent +man; and the party was then complete. Mr. Swain, the poet, is not a man +of fluent conversation; he said, indeed, very little, but gave me the +impression of amiability and simplicity of character, with much feeling. + +Mr. W------ is a very sensible man. He has spent two or three years in +America, and seems to have formed juster conclusions about us than most +of his countrymen do. He is the only Englishman, I think, whom I have +met, who fairly acknowledges that the English do cherish doubt, jealousy, +suspicion, in short, an unfriendly feeling, towards the Americans. It is +wonderful how every American, whatever class of the English he mingles +with, is conscious of this feeling, and how no Englishman, except this +sole Mr. W------, will confess it. He expressed some very good ideas, +too, about the English and American press, and the reasons why the Times +may fairly be taken as the exponent of British feeling towards us, while +the New York Herald, immense as its circulation is, can be considered, in +no similar degree or kind, the American exponent. + +We sat late at table, and after the other guests had retired, Bennoch and +I had some very friendly talk, and he proposed that on my wife's return +we should take up our residence in his house at Blackheath, while Mrs. +Bennoch and himself were absent for two months on a trip to Germany. If +his wife and mine ratify the idea, we will do so. + +The next morning we went out to see the Exchange, and whatever was +noticeable about the town. Time being brief, I did not visit the +cathedral, which, I believe, is a thousand years old. There are many +handsome shops in Manchester; and we went into one establishment, devoted +to pictures, engravings, and decorative art generally, which is most +perfect and extensive. The firm, if I remember, is that of the Messrs. +Agnew, and, though originating here, they have now a house in London. +Here I saw some interesting objects, purchased by them at the recent sale +of the Rogers collection; among other things, a slight pencil and +water-color sketch by Raphael. An unfinished affair, done in a moment, +as this must have been, seems to bring us closer to the hand that did it +than the most elaborately painted picture can. Were I to see the +Transfiguration, Raphael would still be at the distance of centuries. +Seeing this little sketch, I had him very near me. I know not why,-- +perhaps it might be fancied that he had only laid down the pencil for an +instant, and would take it up again in a moment more. I likewise saw a +copy of a handsome, illustrated edition of Childe Harold, presented by +old John Murray to Mr. Rogers, with an inscription on the fly-leaf, +purporting that it was a token of gratitude from the publisher, because, +when everybody else thought him imprudent in giving four hundred guineas +for the poem, Mr. Rogers told him it would turn out the best bargain he +ever made. + +There was a new picture by Millais, the distinguished Pre-Raphaelite +artist, representing a melancholy parting between two lovers. The lady's +face had a great deal of sad and ominous expression; but an old brick +wall, overrun with foliage, was so exquisitely and elaborately wrought +that it was hardly possible to look at the personages of the picture. +Every separate leaf of the climbing and clustering shrubbery was +painfully made out; and the wall was reality itself, with the +weather-stains, and the moss, and the crumbling lime between the bricks. +It is not well to be so perfect in the inanimate, unless the artist can +likewise make man and woman as lifelike, and to as great a depth, too, as +the Creator does. + +Bennoch left town for some place in Yorkshire, and I for Liverpool. I +asked him to come and dine with me at the Adelphi, meaning to ask two or +three people to meet him; but he had other engagements, and could not +spare a day at present, though he promises to come before long. + +Dining at Mr. Rathbone's one evening last week (May 21st), it was +mentioned that + + + +BORROW, + + +author of the Bible in Spain, is supposed to be of gypsy descent by the +mother's side. Hereupon Mr. Martineau mentioned that he had been a +schoolfellow of Borrow, and though he had never heard of his gypsy blood, +he thought it probable, from Borrow's traits of character. He said that, +Borrow had once run away from school, and carried with him a party of +other boys, meaning to lead a wandering life. + +If an Englishman were individually acquainted with all our twenty-five +millions of Americans, and liked every one of them, and believed that +each man of those millions was a Christian, honest, upright, and kind, he +would doubt, despise, and hate them in the aggregate, however he might +love and honor the individuals. + +Captain ------ and his wife Oakum; they spent all evening at Mrs. +B------'s. The Captain is a Marblehead man by birth, not far from sixty +years old; very talkative and anecdotic in regard to his adventures; +funny, good-humored, and full of various nautical experience. Oakum (it +is a nickname which he gives his wife) is an inconceivably tall woman,-- +taller than he,--six feet, at least, and with a well-proportioned +largeness in all respects, but looks kind and good, gentle, smiling,--and +almost any other woman might sit like a baby on her lap. She does not +look at all awful and belligerent, like the massive English women one +often sees. You at once feel her to be a benevolent giantess, and +apprehend no harm from her. She is a lady, and perfectly well mannered, +but with a sort of naturalness and simplicity that becomes her; for any +the slightest affectation would be so magnified in her vast personality +that it would be absolutely the height of the ridiculous. This wedded +pair have no children, and Oakum has so long accompanied her husband on +his voyages that I suppose by this time she could command a ship as well +as he. They sat till pretty late, diffusing cheerfulness all about them, +and then, "Come, Oakum," cried the Captain, "we must hoist sail!" and up +rose Oakum to the ceiling, and moved tower-like to the door, looking down +with a benignant smile on the poor little pygmy women about her. "Six +feet," did I say? Why, she must he seven, eight, nine; and, whatever be +her size, she is as good as she is big. + + +June 11th.--Monday night (9th), just as I was retiring, I received a +telegraphic message announcing my wife's arrival at + + + +SOUTHAMPTON. + + +So, the next day, I arranged the consular business for an absence of ten +days, and set forth with J-----, and reached Birmingham, between eight +and nine, evening. We put up at the Queen's Hotel, a very large +establishment, contiguous to the railway. Next morning we left +Birmingham, and made our first stage to Leamington, where we had to wait +nearly an hour, which we spent in wandering through some of the streets +that had been familiar to us last year. Leamington is certainly a +beautiful town, new, bright, clean, and as unlike as possible to the +business towns of England. However, the sun was burning hot, and I could +almost have fancied myself in America. From Leamington we took tickets +for Oxford, where we were obliged to make another stop of two hours; and +these we employed to what advantage we could, driving up into town, and +straying hither and thither, till J-----'s weariness weighed upon me, and +I adjourned with him to a hotel. Oxford is an ugly old town, of crooked +and irregular streets, gabled houses, mostly plastered of a buff or +yellow hue; some new fronts; and as for the buildings of the University, +they seem to be scattered at random, without any reference to one +another. I passed through an old gateway of Christ Church, and looked at +its enclosed square, and that is, in truth, pretty much all I then saw of +the University of Oxford. From Christ Church we rambled along a street +that led us to a bridge across the Isis; and we saw many row-boats lying +in the river,--the lightest craft imaginable, unless it were an Indian +canoe. The Isis is but a narrow stream, and with a sluggish current. I +believe the students of Oxford are famous for their skill in rowing. + +To me as well as to J----- the hot streets were terribly oppressive; so +we went into the Roebuck Hotel, where we found a cool and pleasant +coffee-room. The entrance to this hotel is through an arch, opening from +High Street, and giving admission into a paved court, the buildings all +around being part of the establishment,--old edifices with pointed gables +and old-fashioned projecting windows, but all in fine repair, and wearing +a most quiet, retired, and comfortable aspect. The court was set all +round with flowers, growing in pots or large pedestalled vases; on one +side was the coffee-room, and all the other public apartments, and the +other side seemed to be taken up by the sleeping-chambers and parlors of +the guests. This arrangement of an inn, I presume, is very ancient, and +it resembles what I have seen in the hospitals, free schools, and other +charitable establishments in the old English towns; and, indeed, all +large houses were arranged on somewhat the same principle. + +By and by two or three young men came in, in wide-awake hats, and loose, +blouse-like, summerish garments; and from their talk I found them to be +students of the University, although their topics of conversation were +almost entirely horses and boats. One of them sat down to cold beef and +a tankard of ale; the other two drank a tankard of ale together, and went +away without paying for it,--rather to the waiter's discontent. Students +are very much alike, all the world over, and, I suppose, in all time; but +I doubt whether many of my fellows at college would have gone off without +paying for their beer. + +We reached Southampton between seven and eight o'clock. I cannot write +to-day. + + +June 15th.--The first day after we reached Southampton was sunny and +pleasant; but we made little use of the fine weather, except that S----- +and I walked once along the High Street, and J----- and I took a little +ramble about town in the afternoon. The next day there was a high and +disagreeable wind, and I did not once stir out of the house. The third +day, too, I kept entirely within doors, it being a storm of wind and +rain. The Castle Hotel stands within fifty yards of the water-side; so +that this gusty day showed itself to the utmost advantage,--the vessels +pitching and tossing at their moorings, the waves breaking white out of a +tumultuous gray surface, the opposite shore glooming mistily at the +distance of a mile or two; and on the hither side boatmen and seafaring +people scudding about the pier in waterproof clothes; and in the street, +before the hotel door, a cabman or two, standing drearily beside his +horse. But we were sunny within doors. + +Yesterday it was breezy, sunny, shadowy, showery; and we ordered a cab to +take us to Clifton Villa, to call on Mrs. ------, a friend of B------'s, +who called on us the day after our arrival. Just, as we were ready to +start, Mrs. ------ again called, and accompanied us back to her house. +It is in Shirley, about two miles from Southampton pier, and is a +pleasant suburban villa, with a pretty ornamented lawn and shrubbery +about it. Mrs. ------ is an instructress of young ladies; and at +B------'s suggestion, she is willing to receive us for two or three +weeks, during the vacation, until we are ready to go to London. She +seems to be a pleasant and sensible woman, and to-morrow we shall decide +whether to go there. There was nothing very remarkable in this drive; +and, indeed, my stay hereabouts thus far has been very barren of sights +and incidents externally interesting, though the inner life has been +rich. + +Southampton is a very pretty town, and has not the dinginess to which I +have been accustomed in many English towns. The High Street reminds me +very much of American streets in its general effect; the houses being +mostly stuccoed white or light, and cheerful in aspect, though doubtless +they are centuries old at heart. The old gateway, which I presume I have +mentioned in describing my former visit to Southampton, stands across +High Street, about in the centre of the town, and is almost the only +token of antiquity that presents itself to the eye. + + +June 17th.--Yesterday morning, June 16th, S-----, Mrs. ------, and I took +the rail for Salisbury, where we duly arrived without any accident or +anything noticeable, except the usual verdure and richness of an English +summer landscape. From the railway station we walked up into Salisbury, +with the tall spire (four hundred feet high) of the cathedral before our +eyes. Salisbury is an antique city, but with streets more regular than I +have seen in most old towns, and the houses have a more picturesque +aspect than those of Oxford, for instance, where almost all are +mean-looking alike,--though I could hardly judge of Oxford on that hot, +weary day. Through one or more of the streets there runs a swift, clear +little stream, which, being close to the pavement, and bordered with +stone, may be called, I suppose, a kennel, though possessing the +transparent purity of a rustic rivulet. It is a brook in city garb. We +passed under the pointed arch of a gateway, which stands in one of the +principal streets, and soon came in front of + + + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +I do not remember any cathedral with so fine a site as this, rising up +out of the centre of a beautiful green, extensive enough to show its full +proportions, relieved and insulated from all other patchwork and +impertinence of rusty edifices. It is of gray stone, and looks as +perfect as when just finished, and with the perfection, too, that could +not have come in less than six centuries of venerableness, with a view to +which these edifices seem to have been built. A new cathedral would lack +the last touch to its beauty and grandeur. It needs to be mellowed and +ripened, like some pictures; although I suppose this awfulness of +antiquity was supplied, in the minds of the generation that built +cathedrals, by the sanctity which they attributed to them. Salisbury +Cathedral is far more beautiful than that of York, the exterior of which +was really disagreeable to my eye; but this mighty spire and these +multitudinous gray pinnacles and towers ascend towards heaven with a kind +of natural beauty, not as if man had contrived them. They might be +fancied to have grown up, just as the spires of a tuft of grass do, at +the same time that they have a law of propriety and regularity among +themselves. The tall spire is of such admirable proportion that it does +not seem gigantic; and indeed the effect of the whole edifice is of +beauty rather than weight and massiveness. Perhaps the bright, balmy +sunshine in which we saw it contributed to give it a tender glory, and to +soften a little its majesty. + +When we went in, we heard the organ, the forenoon service being near +conclusion. If I had never seen the interior of York Cathedral, I should +have been quite satisfied, no doubt, with the spaciousness of this nave +and these side aisles, and the height of their arches, and the girth of +these pillars; but with that recollection in my mind they fell a little +short of grandeur. The interior is seen to disadvantage, and in a way +the builder never meant it to be seen; because there is little or no +painted glass, nor any such mystery as it makes, but only a colorless, +common daylight, revealing everything without remorse. There is a +general light hue, moreover, like that of whitewash, over the whole of +the roof and walls of the interior, pillars, monuments, and all; whereas, +originally, every pillar was polished, and the ceiling was ornamented in +brilliant colors, and the light came, many-hued, through the windows, on +all this elaborate beauty, in lieu of which there is nothing now but +space. + +Between the pillars that separate the nave from the side aisles, there +are ancient tombs, most of which have recumbent statues on them. One of +these is Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, son of Fair Rosamond, in chain +mail; and there are many other warriors and bishops, and one cross-legged +Crusader, and on one tombstone a recumbent skeleton, which I have +likewise seen in two or three other cathedrals. The pavement of the +aisles and nave is laid in great part with flat tombstones, the +inscriptions on which are half obliterated, and on the walls, especially +in the transepts, there are tablets, among which I saw one to the poet +Bowles, who was a canon of this cathedral. The ecclesiastical +dignitaries bury themselves and monument themselves to the exclusion of +almost everybody else, in these latter times; though still, as of old, +the warrior has his place. A young officer, slain in the Indian wars, +was memorialized by a tablet, and may be remembered by it, six hundred +years hence, as we now remember the old Knights and Crusaders. It +deserves to be mentioned that I saw one or two noses still unbroken among +these recumbent figures. Most of the antique statues, on close +examination, proved to be almost, entirely covered with names and +initials, scratched over the once polished surface. The cathedral and +its relics must have been far less carefully watched, at some former +period, than now. + +Between the nave and the choir, as usual, there is a screen that half +destroys the majesty of the building, by abridging the spectator of the +long vista which he might otherwise have of the whole interior at a +glance. We peeped through the barrier, and saw some elaborate monuments +in the chancel beyond; but the doors of the screen are kept locked, so +that the vergers may raise a revenue by showing strangers through the +richest part of the cathedral. By and by one of these vergers came +through the screen, with a gentleman and lady whom he was taking round, +and we joined ourselves to the party. He showed us into the cloisters, +which had long been neglected and ruinous, until the time of Bishop +Dennison, the last prelate, who has been but a few years dead. This +Bishop has repaired and restored the cloisters in faithful adherence to +the original plan; and they now form a most delightful walk about a +pleasant and verdant enclosure, in the centre of which sleeps good Bishop +Dennison, with a wife on either side of him, all three beneath broad flat +stones. Most cloisters are darksome and grim; but these have a broad +paved walk beneath the vista of arches, and are light, airy, and +cheerful; and from one corner you can get the best possible view of the +whole height and beautiful proportion of the cathedral spire. One side +of this cloistered walk seems to be the length of the nave of the +cathedral. There is a square of four such sides; and of places for +meditation, grave, yet not too sombre, it seemed to me one of the best. +While we stayed there, a jackdaw was walking to and fro across the grassy +enclosure, and haunting around the good Bishop's grave. He was clad in +black, and looked like a feathered ecclesiastic; but I know not whether +it were Bishop Dennison's ghost, or that of some old monk. + +On one side of the cloisters, and contiguous to the main body of the +cathedral, stands the chapter-house. Bishop Dennison had it much at +heart to repair this part of the holy edifice; and, if I mistake not, did +begin the work; for it had been long ruinous, and in Cromwell's time his +dragoons stationed their horses there. Little progress, however, had +been made in the repairs when the Bishop died; and it was decided to +restore the building in his honor, and by way of monument to him. The +repairs are now nearly completed; and the interior of this chapter-house +gave me the first idea, anywise adequate, of the splendor of these Gothic +church edifices. The roof is sustained by one great central pillar of +polished marble,--small pillars clustered about a great central column, +which rises to the ceiling, and there gushes out with various beauty, +that overflows all the walls; as if the fluid idea had sprung out of that +fountain, and grown solid in what we see. The pavement is elaborately +ornamented; the ceiling is to be brilliantly gilded and painted, as it +was of yore, and the tracery and sculptures around the walls are to be +faithfully renewed from what remains of the original patterns. + +After viewing the chapter-house, the verger--an elderly man of grave, +benign manner, clad in black and talking of the cathedral and the +monuments as if he loved them--led us again into the nave of the +cathedral, and thence within the screen of the choir. The screen is as +poor as possible,--mere barren wood-work, without the least attempt at +beauty. In the chancel there are some meagre patches of old glass, and +some of modern date, not very well worth looking at. We saw several +interesting monuments in this part of the cathedral,--one belonging to +the ducal family of Somerset, and erected in the reign of James I.; it is +of marble, and extremely splendid and elaborate, with kneeling figures +and all manner of magnificence,--more than I have seen in any monument +except that of Mary of Scotland in Westminster Abbey. The more ancient +tombs are also very numerous, and among them that of the Bishop who +founded the cathedral. Within the screen, against the wall, is erected a +monument, by Chantrey, to the Earl of Malmesbury; a full-length statue of +the Earl in a half-recumbent position, holding an open volume and looking +upward,--a noble work,--a calm, wise, thoughtful, firm, and not +unbenignant face. Beholding its expression, it really was impossible not +to have faith in the high character of the individual thus represented; +and I have seldom felt this effect from any monumental bust or statue, +though I presume it is always aimed at. + +I am weary of trying to describe cathedrals. It is utterly useless; +there is no possibility of giving the general effect, or any shadow of +it, and it is miserable to put down a few items of tombstones, and a bit +of glass from a painted window, as if the gloom and glory of the edifice +were thus to be reproduced. Cathedrals are almost the only things (if +even those) that have quite filled out my ideal here in this old world; +and cathedrals often make me miserable from my inadequacy to take them +wholly in; and, above all, I despise myself when I sit down to describe +them. + +We now walked around the Close, which is surrounded by some of the +quaintest and comfortablest ecclesiastical residences that can be +imagined. These are the dwelling-houses of the Dean and the canons, and +whatever other high officers compose the Bishop's staff; and there was +one large brick mansion, old, but not so ancient as the rest, which we +took to be the Bishop's palace. I never beheld anything--I must say +again so cosey, so indicative of domestic comfort for whole centuries +together,--houses so fit to live in or to die in, and where it would be +so pleasant to lead a young wife beneath the antique portal, and dwell +with her till husband and wife were patriarchal,--as these delectable old +houses. They belong naturally to the cathedral, and have a necessary +relation to it, and its sanctity is somehow thrown over them all, so that +they do not quite belong to this world, though they look full to +overflowing of whatever earthly things are good for man. These are +places, however, in which mankind makes no progress; the rushing tumult +of human life here subsides into a deep, quiet pool, with perhaps a +gentle circular eddy, but no onward movement. The same identical +thought, I suppose, goes round in a slow whirl from one generation to +another, as I have seen a withered leaf do in the vortex of a brook. In +the front of the cathedral there is a most stately and beautiful tree, +which flings its verdure upward to a very lofty height; but far above it +rises the tall spire, dwarfing the great tree by comparison. + +When the cathedral had sufficiently oppressed us with its beauty, we +returned to sublunary matters, and went wandering about Salisbury in +search of a luncheon, which we finally took in a confectioner's shop. +Then we inquired hither and thither, at various livery-stables, for a +conveyance to Stonehenge, and at last took a fly from the Lamb Hotel. +The drive was over a turnpike for the first seven miles, over a bare, +ridgy country, showing little to interest us. We passed a party of seven +or eight men, in a coarse uniform dress, resembling that worn by convicts +and apparently under the guardianship of a stout, authoritative, yet +rather kindly-looking man with a cane. Our driver said that they were +lunatics from a neighboring asylum, out for a walk. + +Seven miles from Salisbury, we turned aside from the turnpike, and drove +two miles across Salisbury Plain, which is an apparently boundless extent +of unenclosed land, treeless and houseless. It is not exactly a plain, +but a green sea of long and gentle swells and subsidences, affording +views of miles upon miles to a very far horizon. We passed large flocks +of sheep, with the shepherds watching them; but the dogs seemed to take +most of the care of the flocks upon their own shoulders, and would +scamper to turn the sheep when they inclined to stray whither they should +not; and then arose a thousand-fold bleating, not unpleasant to the ear; +for it did not apparently indicate any fear or discomfort on the part of +the flock. The sheep and lambs are all black-faced, and have a very +funny expression. As we drove over the plain (my seat was beside the +driver), I saw at a distance a cluster of large gray stones, mostly +standing upright, and some of them slightly inclined towards each other, +--very irregular, and so far off forming no very picturesque or +noteworthy spectacle. Of course I knew at once that this was + + + +STONEHENGE, + + +and also knew that the reality was going to dwindle wofully within my +ideal, as almost everything else does. When we reached the spot, we +found a picnic-party just finishing their dinner, on one of the +overthrown stones of the druidical temple; and within the sacred circle +an artist was painting a wretched daub of the scene, and an old shepherd +--the very Shepherd of Salisbury Plain sat erect in the centre of the +ruin. + +There never was a ruder thing than Stonehenge made by mortal hands. It +is so very rude that it seems as if Nature and man had worked upon it +with one consent, and so it is all the stranger and more impressive from +its rudeness. The spectator wonders to see art and contrivance, and a +regular and even somewhat intricate plan, beneath all the uncouth +simplicity of this arrangement of rough stones; and certainly, whatever +was the intellectual and scientific advancement of the people who built +Stonehenge, no succeeding architects will ever have a right to triumph +over them; for nobody's work in after times is likely to endure till it +becomes a mystery as to who built it, and how, and for what purpose. +Apart from the moral considerations suggested by it, Stonehenge is not +very well worth seeing. Materially, it is one of the poorest of +spectacles, and when complete, it must have been even less picturesque +than now,--a few huge, rough stones, very imperfectly squared, standing +on end, and each group of two supporting a third large stone on their +tops; other stones of the same pattern overthrown and tumbled one upon +another; and the whole comprised within a circuit of about a hundred feet +diameter; the short, sheep-cropped grass of Salisbury Plain growing among +all these uncouth bowlders. I am not sure that a misty, lowering day +would not have better suited Stonehenge, as the dreary midpoint of the +great, desolate, trackless plain; not literally trackless, however, for +the London and Exeter Road passes within fifty yards of the ruins, and +another road intersects it. + +After we had been there about an hour, there came a horseman within the +Druid's circle,--evidently a clerical personage by his white neckcloth, +though his loose gray riding pantaloons were not quite in keeping. He +looked at us rather earnestly, and at last addressed Mrs. ------, and +announced himself as Mr. Hinchman,--a clergyman whom she had been trying +to find in Salisbury, in order to avail herself of him as a cicerone; and +he had now ridden hither to meet us. He told us that the artist whom we +found here could give us more information than anybody about Stonehenge; +for it seems he has spent a great many years here, painting and selling +his poor sketches to visitors, and also selling a book which his father +wrote about the remains. This man showed, indeed, a pretty accurate, +acquaintance with these old stones, and pointed out, what is thought to +be the altar-stone, and told us of some relation between this stone and +two other stones, and the rising of the sun at midsummer, which might +indicate that Stonehenge was a temple of solar worship. He pointed out, +too, to how little depth the stones were planted in the earth, insomuch +that I have no doubt the American frosts would overthrow Stonehenge in a +single winter; and it is wonderful that it should have stood so long, +even in England. I have forgotten what else he said; but I bought one of +his books, and find it a very unsatisfactory performance, being chiefly +taken up with an attempt to prove these remains to be an antediluvian +work, constructed, I think the author says, under the superintendence of +Father Adam himself! Before our departure we were requested to write our +names in the album which the artist keeps for the purpose; and he pointed +out Ex-President Fillmore's autograph, and those of one or two other +Americans who have been here within a short time. It is a very curious +life that this artist leads, in this great solitude, and haunting +Stonehenge like the ghost of a Druid; but he is a brisk little man, and +very communicative on his one subject. + +Mr. Hinchman rode with us over the plain, and pointed out Salisbury +spire, visible close to Stonehenge. Under his guidance we returned by a +different road from that which brought us thither,--and a much more +delightful one. I think I never saw such continued sylvan beauty as this +road showed us, passing through a good deal of woodland scenery,--fine +old trees, standing each within its own space, and thus having full +liberty to outspread itself, and wax strong and broad for ages, instead +of being crowded, and thus stifled and emaciated, as human beings are +here, and forest-trees are in America. Hedges, too, and the rich, rich +verdure of England; and villages full of picturesque old houses, +thatched, and ivied, or perhaps overrun with roses,--and a stately +mansion in the Elizabethan style; and a quiet stream, gliding onward +without a ripple from its own motion, but rippled by a large fish darting +across it; and over all this scene a gentle, friendly sunshine, not +ardent enough to crisp a single leaf or blade of grass. Nor must the +village church be forgotten, with its square, battlemented tower, dating +back to the epoch of the Normans. We called at a house where one of Mrs. +------'s pupils was residing with her aunt,--a thatched house of two +stories high, built in what was originally a sand-pit, but which, in the +course of a good many years, has been transformed into the most +delightful and homelike little nook almost that can be found in England. +A thatched cottage suggests a very rude dwelling indeed; but this had a +pleasant parlor and drawing-room, and chambers with lattice-windows, +opening close beneath the thatched roof; and the thatch itself gives an +air to the place as if it were a bird's nest, or some such simple and +natural habitation. The occupants are an elderly clergyman, retired from +professional duty, and his sister; and having nothing else to do, and +sufficient means, they employ themselves in beautifying this sweet little +retreat,-- planting new shrubbery, laying out new walks around it, and +helping Nature to add continually another charm; and Nature is certainly +a more genial playfellow in England than in my own country. She is +always ready to lend her aid to any beautifying purpose. + +Leaving these good people, who were very hospitable, giving tea and +offering wine, we reached Salisbury in time to take the train for +Southampton. + + +June 18th.--Yesterday we left the Castle Hotel, after paying a bill of +twenty pounds for a little more than a week's board. In America we could +not very well have lived so simply, but we might have lived luxuriously +for half the money. This Castle Hotel was once an old Roman castle, the +landlord says, and the circular sweep of the tower is still seen towards +the street, although, being painted white, and built up with modern +additions, it would not be taken for an ancient structure. There is a +dungeon beneath it, in which the landlord keeps his wine. + +J----- and I, quitting the hotel, walked towards Shinley along the +water-side, leaving the rest of the family to follow in a fly. There are +many traces, along the shore, of the fortifications by which Southampton +was formerly defended towards the water, and very probably their +foundations may be as ancient as Roman times. Our hotel was no doubt +connected with this chain of defences, which seems to have consisted of a +succession of round towers, with a wall extending from one to another. +We saw two or three of these towers still standing, and likely to stand, +though ivy-grown and ruinous at the summit, and intermixed and even +amalgamated with pot-houses and mean dwellings; and often, through an +antique arch, there was a narrow doorway, giving access to the house of +some sailor or laborer or artisan, and his wife gossiping at it with her +neighbor, or his children playing about it. + +After getting beyond the precincts of Southampton our walk was not very +interesting, except to J-----, who kept running down to the verge of the +water, looking for shells and sea-insects. + + +June 29th.--Yesterday, 28th, I left Liverpool from the Lime Street +station; an exceedingly hot day for England, insomuch that the rail +carriages were really uncomfortable. I have now passed over the London +and Northwestern Railway so often that the northern part of it is very +wearisome, especially as it has few features of interest even to a new +observer. At Stafford--no, at Wolverhampton--we diverged to a track +which I have passed over only once before. We stopped an hour and a +quarter at Wolverhampton, and I walked up into the town, which is large +and old,--old, at least, in its plan, or lack of plan,--the streets being +irregular, and straggling over an uneven surface. Like many of the +English towns, it reminds me of Boston, though dingier. The sun was so +hot that I actually sought the shady sides of the streets; and this, of +itself, is one long step towards establishing a resemblance between an +English town and an American one. + +English railway carriages seem to me more tiresome than any other; and I +suppose it is owing to the greater motion, arising from their more +elastic springs. A slow train, too, like that which I was now in, is +more tiresome than a quick one, at least to the spirits, whatever it may +be to the body. We loitered along through afternoon and evening, +stopping at every little station, and nowhere getting to the top of our +speed, till at last, in the late dusk, we reached + + + +GLOUCESTER, + + +and I put up at the Wellington Hotel, which is but a little way from the +station. I took tea and a slice or two of ham in the coffee-room, and +had a little talk with two people there; one of whom, on learning that I +was an American, said, "But I suppose you have now been in England some +time?" He meant, finding me not absolutely a savage, that I must have +been caught a good while ago. . . . . + +The next morning I went into the city, the hotel being on its outskirts, +and rambled along in search of the cathedral. Some church-bells were +chiming and clashing for a wedding or other festal occasion, and I +followed the sound, supposing that it might proceed from the cathedral, +but this was not the case. It was not till I had got to a bridge over +the Severn, quite out of the town, that I saw again its tower, and knew +how to shape my course towards it. + +I did not see much that was strange or interesting in Gloucester. It is +old, with a good many of those antique Elizabethan houses with two or +three peaked gables on a line together; several old churches, which +always cluster about a cathedral, like chickens round a hen; a hospital +for decayed tradesmen; another for bluecoat boys; a great many butcher's +shops, scattered in all parts of the town, open in front, with a counter +or dresser on which to display the meat, just in the old fashion of +Shakespeare's house. It is a large town, and has a good deal of +liveliness and bustle, in a provincial way. In short, judging by the +sheep, cattle, and horses, and the people of agricultural aspect that I +saw about the streets, I should think it must have been market-day. I +looked here and there for the old Bell Inn, because, unless I +misremember, Fielding brings Tom Jones to this inn, while he and +Partridge were travelling together. It is still extant; for, on my +arrival the night before, a runner from it had asked me to go thither; +but I forgot its celebrity at the moment. I saw nothing of it in my +rambles about Gloucester, but at last I found + + + +THE CATHEDRAL, + + +though I found no point from which a good view of the exterior can be +seen. + +It has a very beautiful and rich outside, however, and a lofty tower, +very large and ponderous, but so finished off, and adorned with +pinnacles, and all manner of architectural devices,--wherewith these old +builders knew how to alleviate their massive structures,--that it seems +to sit lightly in the air. The porch was open, and some workmen were +trundling barrows into the nave; so I followed, and found two young women +sitting just within the porch, one of whom offered to show me round the +cathedral. There was a great dust in the nave, arising from the +operations of the workmen. They had been laying a new pavement, and +scraping away the plaster, which had heretofore been laid over the +pillars and walls. The pillars come out from the process as good as +new,--great, round, massive columns, not clustered like those of most +cathedrals; they are twenty-one feet in circumference, and support +semicircular arches. I think there are seven of these columns, on each +side of the nave, which did not impress me as very spacious; and the dust +and racket of the work-people quite destroyed the effect which should +have been produced by the aisles and arches; so that I hardly stopped to +glance at this part, though I saw some mural monuments and recumbent +statues along the walls. + +The choir is separated from the nave by the usual screen, and now by a +sail-cloth or something of that kind, drawn across, in order to keep out +the dust, while the repairs are going on. When the young woman conducted +me hither, I was at once struck by the magnificent eastern window, the +largest in England, which fills, or looks vast enough to fill, all that +end of the cathedral,--a most splendid window, full of old painted glass, +which looked as bright as sunshine, though the sun was not really shining +through it. The roof of the choir is of oak and very fine, and as much +as ninety feet high. There are chapels opening from the choir, and +within them the monuments of the eminent people who built them, and of +benefactors or prelates, or of those otherwise illustrious in their day. +My recollection of what I saw here is very dim and confused; more so than +I anticipated. I remember somewhere within the choir the tomb of Edward +II. with his effigy upon the top of it, in a long robe, with a crown on +his head, and a ball and sceptre in his hand; likewise, a statue of +Robert, son of the Conqueror, carved in Irish oak and painted. He lolls +in an easy posture on his tomb, with one leg crossed lightly over the +other, to denote that he was a Crusader. There are several monuments of +mitred abbots who formerly presided over the cathedral. A Cavalier and +his wife, with the dress of the period elaborately represented, lie side +by side in excellent preservation; and it is remarkable that though their +noses are very prominent, they have come down from the past without any +wear and tear. The date of the Cavalier's death is 1637, and I think his +statue could not have been sculptured until after the Restoration, else +he and his dame would hardly have come through Cromwell's time unscathed. +Here, as in all the other churches in England, Cromwell is said to have +stabled his horses, and broken the windows, and belabored the old +monuments. + +There is one large and beautiful chapel, styled the Lady's Chapel, which +is, indeed, a church by itself, being ninety feet long, and comprising +everything that appertains to a place of worship. Here, too, there are +monuments, and on the floor are many old bricks and tiles, with +inscriptions on them, or Gothic devices, and flat tombstones, with coats +of arms sculptured on them; as, indeed, there are everywhere else, except +in the nave, where the new pavement has obliterated them. After viewing +the choir and the chapels, the young woman led me down into the crypts +below, where the dead persons who are commemorated in the upper regions +were buried. The low ponderous pillars and arches of these crypts are +supposed to be older than the upper portions of the building. They are +about as perfect, I suppose, as when new, but very damp, dreary, and +darksome; and the arches intersect one another so intricately, that, if +the girl had deserted me, I might easily have got lost there. These are +chapels where masses used to be said for the souls of the deceased; and +my guide said that a great many skulls and bones had been dug up here. +No doubt a vast population has been deposited in the course of a thousand +years. I saw two white skulls, in a niche, grinning as skulls always do, +though it is impossible to see the joke. These crypts, or crypts like +these, are doubtless what Congreve calls the "aisles and monumental caves +of Death," in that passage which Dr. Johnson admired so much. They are +very singular,--something like a dark shadow or dismal repetition of the +upper church below ground. + +Ascending from the crypts, we went next to the cloisters, which are in a +very perfect state, and form an unbroken square about the green +grass-plot, enclosed within. Here also it is said Cromwell stabled his +horses; but if so, they were remarkably quiet beasts, for tombstones, +which form the pavement, are not broken, nor cracked, nor bear any +hoof-marks. All around the cloisters, too, the stone tracery that shuts +them in like a closed curtain, carefully drawn, remains as it was in the +days of the monks, insomuch that it is not easy to get a glimpse of the +green enclosure. Probably there used to be painted glass in the larger +apertures of this stone-work; otherwise it is perfect. These cloisters +are very different from the free, open, and airy ones of Salisbury; but +they are more in accordance with our notions of monkish habits; and even +at this day, if I were a canon of Gloucester, I would put that dim +ambulatory to a good use. The library is adjacent to the cloisters, and +I saw some rows of folios and quartos. I have nothing else to record +about the cathedral, though if I were to stay there a month, I suppose it +might then begin to be understood. It is wicked to look at these solemn +old churches in a hurry. By the by, it was not built in a hurry; but in +full three hundred years, having been begun in 1188 and only finished in +1498, not a great many years before Papistry began to go out of vogue in +England. + +From Gloucester I took the rail for Basingstoke before noon. The first +part of the journey was through an uncommonly beautiful tract of country, +hilly, but not wild; a tender and graceful picturesqueness,--fine, single +trees and clumps of trees, and sometimes wide woods, scattered over the +landscape, and filling the nooks of the hills with luxuriant foliage. +Old villages scattered frequently along our track, looking very peaceful, +with the peace of past ages lingering about them; and a rich, rural +verdure of antique cultivation everywhere. Old country-seats--specimens +of the old English hall or manor-house--appeared on the hillsides, with +park-scenery surrounding the mansions; and the gray churches rose in the +midst of all the little towns. The beauty of English scenery makes me +desperate, it is so impossible to describe it, or in any way to record +its impression, and such a pity to leave it undescribed; and, moreover, I +always feel that I do not get from it a hundredth or a millionth part of +the enjoyment that there really is in it, hurrying past it thus. I was +really glad when we rumbled into a tunnel, piercing for a long distance +through a hill; and, emerging on the other side, we found ourselves in a +comparatively level and uninteresting tract of country, which lasted till +we reached Southampton. English scenery, to be appreciated and to be +reproduced with pen and pencil, requires to be dwelt upon long, and to be +wrought out with the nicest touches. A coarse and hasty brush is not the +instrument for such work. + + +July 6th.--Monday, June 30th, was a warm and beautiful day, and my wife +and I took a cab from Southampton and drove to + + + +NETLEY ABBEY, + + +about three or four miles. The remains of the Abbey stand in a sheltered +place, but within view of Southampton Water; and it is a most picturesque +and perfect ruin, all ivy-grown, of course, and with great trees where +the pillars of the nave used to stand, and also in the refectory and the +cloister court; and so much soil on the summit of the broken walls, that +weeds flourish abundantly there, and grass too; and there was a wild +rosebush, in full bloom, as much as thirty or forty feet from the ground. +S----- and I ascended a winding stair, leading up within a round tower, +the steps much foot-worn; and, reaching the top, we came forth at the +height where a gallery had formerly run round the church, in the +thickness of the wall. The upper portions of the edifice were now +chiefly thrown down; but I followed a foot-path, on the top of the +remaining wall, quite to the western entrance of the church. Since the +time when the Abbey was taken from the monks, it has been private +property; and the possessor, in Henry VIII.'s days, or subsequently, +built a residence for himself within its precincts out of the old +materials. This has now entirely disappeared, all but some unsightly old +masonry, patched into the original walls. Large portions of the ruin +have been removed, likewise, to be used as building-materials elsewhere; +and this is the Abbey mentioned, I think, by Dr. Watts, concerning which +a Mr. William Taylor had a dream while he was contemplating pulling it +down. He dreamed that a part of it fell upon his head; and, sure enough, +a piece of the wall did come down and crush him. In the nave I saw a +large mass of conglomerated stone that had fallen from the wall between +the nave and cloisters, and thought that perhaps this was the very mass +that killed poor Mr. Taylor. + +The ruins are extensive and very interesting; but I have put off +describing them too long, and cannot make a distinct picture of them now. +Moreover, except to a spectator skilled in architecture, all ruined +abbeys are pretty much alike. As we came away, we noticed some women +making baskets at the entrance, and one of them urged us to buy some of +her handiwork; for that she was the gypsy of Netley Abbey, and had lived +among the ruins these thirty years. So I bought one for a shilling. She +was a woman with a prominent nose, and weather-tanned, but not very +picturesque or striking. + + + +TO BLACKHEATH. + + +On the 6th July, we left the Villa, with our enormous luggage, and took +our departure from Southampton by the noon train. The main street of +Southampton, though it looks pretty fresh and bright, must be really +antique, there being a great many projecting windows, in the old-time +style, and these make the vista of the street very picturesque. I have +no doubt that I missed seeing many things more interesting than the few +that I saw. Our journey to London was without any remarkable incident, +and at the Waterloo station we found one of Mr. Bennoch's clerks, under +whose guidance we took two cabs for the East Kent station at London +Bridge, and there railed to Blackheath, where we arrived in the +afternoon. + +On Thursday I went into London by one of the morning trains, and wandered +about all day,--visiting the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, and +Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, the two latter of which I have already +written about in former journals. On Friday, S-----, J-----, and I +walked over the heath, and through the Park to Greenwich, and spent some +hours in the Hospital. The painted hall struck me much more than at my +first view of it; it is very beautiful indeed, and the effect of its +frescoed ceiling most rich and magnificent, the assemblage of glowing +hues producing a general result of splendor. . . . . + +In the evening I went with Mr. and Mrs. ------ to a conversazione at Mrs. +Newton Crosland's, who lives on Blackheath. . . . . I met with one person +who interested me,--Mr. Bailey, the author of Festus; and I was surprised +to find myself already acquainted with him. It is the same Mr. Bailey +whom I met a few months ago, when I first dined at Mr. -----'s,--a dark, +handsome, rather picturesque-looking man, with a gray beard, and dark +hair, a little dimmed with gray. He is of quiet and very agreeable +deportment, and I liked him and believed in him. . . . . There is sadness +glooming out of him, but no unkindness nor asperity. Mrs. Crosland's +conversazione was enriched with a supper, and terminated with a dance, in +which Mr. ------ joined with heart and soul, but Mrs. ------ went to +sleep in her chair, and I would gladly have followed her example if I +could have found a chair to sit upon. In the course of the evening I had +some talk with a pale, nervous young lady, who has been a noted spiritual +medium. + +Yesterday I went into town by the steamboat from Greenwich to London +Bridge, with a nephew of Mr. ------'s, and, calling at his place of +business, he procured us an order from his wine-merchants, by means of +which we were admitted into + + + +THE WINE-VAULTS OF THE LONDON DOCKS. + + +We there found parties, with an acquaintance, who was going, with two +French gentlemen, into the vaults. It is a good deal like going down +into a mine, each visitor being provided with a lamp at the end of a +stick; and following the guide along dismal passages, running beneath the +streets, and extending away interminably,--roughly arched overhead with +stone, from which depend festoons of a sort of black fungus, caused by +the exhalations of the wine. Nothing was ever uglier than this fungus. +It is strange that the most ethereal effervescence of rich wine can +produce nothing better. + +The first series of vaults which we entered were filled with port-wine, +and occupied a space variously estimated at from eleven to sixteen +acres,--which I suppose would hold more port-wine than ever was made. At +any rate, the pipes and butts were so thickly piled that in some places +we could hardly squeeze past them. We drank from two or three vintages; +but I was not impressed with any especial excellence in the wine. We +were not the only visitors, for, far in the depths of the vault, we +passed a gentleman and two young ladies, wandering about like the ghosts +of defunct wine-bibhers, in a Tophet specially prepared for then. People +employed here sometimes go astray, and, their lamps being extinguished, +they remain long in this everlasting gloom. We went likewise to the +vaults of sherry-wine, which have the same characteristics as those just +described, but are less extensive. + +It is no guaranty for the excellence or even for the purity of the wine, +that it is kept in these cellars, under the lock and key of the +government; for the merchants are allowed to mix different vintages, +according to their own pleasure, and to adulterate it as they like. Very +little of the wine probably comes out as it goes in, or is exactly what +it pretends to be. I went back to Mr. ------'s office, and we drove +together to make some calls jointly and separately. I went alone to Mrs. +Heywood's; afterwards with Mr. ------ to the American minister's, whom we +found at home; and I requested of him, on the part of the Americans at +Liverpool, to tell me the facts about the American gentleman being +refused admittance to the Levee. The ambassador did not seem to me to +make his point good for having withdrawn with the rejected guest. + + +July 9th. (Our wedding-day.)--We were invited yesterday evening to Mrs. +S. C. Hall's, where Jenny Lind was to sing; so we left Blackheath at +about eight o'clock in a brougham, and reached Ashley Place, as the dusk +was gathering, after nine. The Halls reside in a handsome suite of +apartments, arranged on the new system of flats, each story constituting +a separate tenement, and the various families having an entrance-hall in +common. The plan is borrowed from the Continent, and seems rather alien +to the traditionary habits of the English; though, no doubt, a good +degree of seclusion is compatible with it. Mr. Hall received us with the +greatest cordiality before we entered the drawing-room. Mrs. Hall, too, +greeted us with most kindly warmth. Jenny Lind had not yet arrived; but +I found Dr. Mackay there, and I was introduced to Miss Catherine +Sinclair, who is a literary lady, though none of her works happen to be +known to me. Soon the servant announced Madam Goldschmidt, and this +famous lady made her appearance, looking quite different from what I +expected. Mrs. Hall established her in the inner drawing-room, where was +a piano and a harp; and shortly after, our hostess came to me, and said +that Madam Goldschmidt wished to be introduced to me. There was a gentle +peremptoriness in the summons, that made it something like being +commanded into the presence of a princess; a great favor, no doubt, but +yet a little humbling to the recipient. However, I acquiesced with due +gratitude, and was presented accordingly. She made room for me on the +sofa, and I sat down, and began to talk. + +Jenny Lind is rather tall,--quite tall, for a woman,--certainly no +beauty, but with sense and self-reliance in her aspect and manners. She +was suffering under a severe cold, and seemed worn down besides, so +probably I saw her under disadvantages. Her conversation is quite +simple, and I should have great faith in her sincerity; and there is +about her the manner of a person who knows the world, and has conquered +it. She said something or other about The Scarlet Letter; and, on my +part, I paid her such compliments as a man could pay who had never heard +her sing. . . . . Her conversational voice is an agreeable one, rather +deep, and not particularly smooth. She talked about America, and of our +unwholesome modes of life, as to eating and exercise, and of the +ill-health especially of our women; but I opposed this view as far as I +could with any truth, insinuating my opinion that we are about as healthy +as other people, and affirming for a certainty that we live longer. In +good faith, so far as I have any knowledge of the matter, the women of +England are as generally out of health as those of America; always +something has gone wrong with them; and as for Jenny Lind, she looks wan +and worn enough to be an American herself. This charge of ill-health is +almost universally brought forward against us nowadays,--and, taking the +whole country together, I do not believe the statistics will bear it out. + +The rooms, which were respectably filled when we arrived, were now +getting quite full. I saw Mr. Stevens, the American man of libraries, +and had some talk with him; and Durham, the sculptor; and Mr. and Mrs. +Hall introduced me to various people, some of whom were of note,--for +instance, Sir Emerson Tennent, a man of the world, of some parliamentary +distinction, wearing a star; Mr. Samuel Lover, a most good-natured, +pleasant Irishman, with a shining and twinkling visage; Miss Jewsbury, +whom I found very conversable. She is known in literature, but not to +me. We talked about Emerson, whom she seems to have been well acquainted +with while he was in England; and she mentioned that Miss Martineau had +given him a lock of hair; it was not her own hair, but a mummy's. + +After our return, Mrs. ------ told us that Miss Jewsbury had written, +among other things, three histories, and as she asked me to introduce her +to S-----, and means to cultivate our acquaintance, it would be well to +know something of them. We were told that she is now employed in some +literary undertaking of Lady Morgan's, who, at the age of ninety, is +still circulating in society, and is as brisk in faculties as ever. I +should like to see her ladyship, that is, I should not be sorry to see +her; for distinguished people are so much on a par with others, socially, +that it would be foolish to be overjoyed at seeing anybody whomsoever. + +Leaving out the illustrious Jenny Lind, I suspect that I was myself the +greatest lion of the evening; for a good many persons sought the felicity +of knowing me, and had little or nothing to say when that honor and +happiness was conferred on them. It is surely very wrong and +ill-mannered in people to ask for an introduction unless they are +prepared to make talk; it throws too great an expense and trouble on the +wretched lion, who is compelled, on the spur of the moment, to convert a +conversable substance out of thin air, perhaps for the twentieth time +that evening. I am sure I did not say--and I think I did not hear said-- +one rememberable word in the course of this visit; though, nevertheless, +it was a rather agreeable one. In due season ices and jellies were +handed about; and some ladies and gentlemen--professional, perhaps--were +kind enough to sing songs, and play on the piano and harp, while persons +in remote corners went on with whatever conversation they had in hand. +Then came supper; but there were so many people to go into the +supper-room that we could not all crowd thither together, and, coming +late, I got nothing but some sponge-cake and a glass of champagne, +neither of which I care for. After supper, Mr. Lover sang some Irish +songs, his own in music and words, with rich, humorous effect, to which +the comicality of his face contributed almost as much as his voice and +words. The Lord Mayor looked in for a little while, and though a +hard-featured Jew enough, was the most picturesque person there. + + +July 10th.--Mrs. Heywood had invited me to dinner last evening. . . . . +Her house is very finely situated, overlooking Hyde Park, and not a great +way from where Tyburn tree used to stand. When I arrived, there were no +guests but Mr. and Mrs. D------; but by and by came Mr. Monckton Milnes +and lady, the Bishop of Lichfield, Mr. Tom Taylor, Mr. Ewart, M. P., Sir +Somebody Somerville, Mr. and Mrs. Musgrave, and others. Mr. Milnes, whom +I had not seen for more than a year, greeted me very cordially, and so +did Mr. Taylor. I took Mrs. Musgrave in to dinner. She is an Irish +lady, and Mrs. Heywood had recommended her to me as being very +conversable; but I had a good deal more talk with Mrs. M------, with whom +I was already acquainted, than with her. Mrs. M------ is of noble blood, +and therefore not snobbish,--quite unaffected, gentle, sweet, and easy to +get on with, reminding me of the best-mannered American women. But how +can anything characteristic be said or done among a dozen people sitting +at table in full dress? Speaking of full dress, the Bishop wore +small-clothes and silk stockings, and entered the drawing-room with a +three-cornered hat, which he kept flattened out under his arm. He asked +the briefest blessing possible, and, sitting at the ultra end of the +table, I heard nothing further from him till he officiated as briefly +before the cloth was withdrawn. Mrs. M------ talked about Tennyson, with +whom her husband was at the University, and whom he continues to know +intimately. She says that he considers Maud his best poem. He now lives +in the Isle of Wight, spending all the year round there, and has recently +bought the place on which he resides. She was of opinion that he would +have been gratified by my calling on him, which I had wished to do, while +we were at Southampton; but this is a liberty which I should hardly +venture upon with a shy man like Tennyson,--more especially as he might +perhaps suspect me of doing it on the score of my own literary character. + +But I should like much to see him Mr. Tom Taylor, during dinner, made +some fun for the benefit of the ladies on either side of him. I liked +him very well this evening. + +When the ladies had not long withdrawn, and after the wine had once gone +round, I asked Mr. Heywood to make my apologies to Mrs. Heywood, and took +leave; all London lying betwixt me and the London Bridge station, where I +was to take the rail homeward. At the station I found Mr. Bennoch, who +had been dining with the Lord Mayor to meet Sir William Williams, and we +railed to Greenwich, and reached home by midnight. Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch +have set out on their Continental journey to-day,--leaving us, for a +little space, in possession of what will be more like a home than +anything that we shall hereafter find in England. + +This afternoon I had taken up the fourth volume of Jerdan's +Autobiography,--wretched twaddle, though it records such constant and +apparently intimate intercourse with distinguished people,--and was +reading it, between asleep and awake, on the sofa, when Mr. Jerdan +himself was announced. I saw him, in company with Mr. Bennoch, nearly +three years ago, at Rock Park, and wondered then what there was in so +uncouth an individual to get him so freely into polished society. He now +looks rougher than ever,--time-worn, but not reverend; a thatch of gray +hair on his head; an imperfect set of false teeth; a careless apparel, +checked trousers, and a stick, for he had walked a mile or two from his +own dwelling. + +I suspect--and long practice at the Consulate has made me keen-sighted-- +that Mr. Jerdan contemplated some benefit from my purse; and, to the +extent of a sovereign or so, I would not mind contributing to his +comfort. He spoke of a secret purpose of Mr. ------ and himself to +obtain me a degree or diploma in some Literary Institution,--what one I +know not, and did not ask; but the honor cannot be a high one, if this +poor old fellow can do aught towards it. I am afraid he is a very +disreputable senior, but certainly not the less to be pitied on that +account; and there was something very touching in his stiff and infirm +movement, as he resumed his stick and took leave, waving me a courteous +farewell, and turning upon me a smile, grim with age, as he went down the +steps. In that gesture and smile I fancied some trace of the polished +man of society, such as he may have once been; though time and hard +weather have roughened him, as they have the once polished marble pillars +which I saw so rude in aspect at Netley Abbey. + +Speaking of Dickens last evening, Mr. ------ mentioned his domestic +tastes,--how he preferred home enjoyments to all others, and did not +willingly go much into society. Mrs. ------, too, the other day told us +of his taking on himself all possible trouble as regards his domestic +affairs. . . . . There is a great variety of testimony, various and +varied, as to the character of Dickens. I must see him before I finally +leave England. + + +July 13th.--On Friday morning (11th), at nine o'clock, I took the rail +into town to breakfast with Mr. Milnes. As he had named a little after +ten as the hour, I could not immediately proceed to his house, and so +walked moderately over London Bridge and into the city, meaning to take a +cab from Charing Cross, or thereabouts. Passing through some street or +other, contiguous to Cheapside, I saw in a court-yard the entrance to the +Guildhall, and stepped in to look at it. It is a spacious hall, about +one hundred and fifty feet long, and perhaps half as broad, paved with +flagstones which look worn and some of them cracked across; the roof is +very lofty and was once vaulted, but has been shaped anew in modern +times. There is a vast window partly filled with painted glass, +extending quite along each end of the hall, and a row of arched windows +on either side, throwing their light from far above downward upon the +pavement. This fashion of high windows, not reaching within twenty or +thirty feet of the floor, serves to give great effect to the large +enclosed space of an antique hall. Against the walls are several marble +monuments; one to the Earl of Chatham, a statue of white marble, with +various allegorical contrivances, fronting an obelisk or pyramid of dark +marble; and another to his son, William Pitt, of somewhat similar design +and of equal size; each of them occupying the whole space, I believe, +between pavement and ceiling. There is likewise a statue of Beckford, a +famous Lord Mayor,--the most famous except Whittington, and that one who +killed Wat Tyler; and like those two, his fame is perhaps somewhat +mythological, though he lived and bustled within less than a century. He +is said to have made a bold speech to the King; but this I will not +believe of any Englishman--at least, of any plebeian Englishman--until I +hear it. But there stands his statue in the Guildhall in the act of +making his speech, as if the monstrous attempt had petrified him. + +Lord Nelson, too, has a monument, and so, I think, has some other modern +worthy. At one end of the hall, under one of the great painted windows, +stand three or four old statues of mediaeval kings, whose identities I +forget; and in the two corners of the opposite end are two gigantic +absurdities of painted wood, with grotesque visages, whom I quickly +recognized as Gog and Magog. They stand each on a pillar, and seem to be +about fifteen feet high, and look like enormous playthings for the +children of giants; and it is strange to see them in this solemn old +hall, among the memorials of dead heroes and statesmen. There is an +annual banquet in the Guildhall, given by the Lord Mayor and sheriffs, +and I believe it is the very acme of civic feasting. + +After viewing the hall, as it still lacked something of ten, I continued +my walk through that entanglement of city streets, and quickly found +myself getting beyond my reckoning. I cannot tell whither I went, but I +passed through a very dirty region, and I remember a long, narrow, +evil-odored street, cluttered up with stalls, in which were vegetables +and little bits of meat for sale; and there was a frowzy multitude of +buyers and sellers. Still I blundered on, and was getting out of the +density of the city into broader streets, but still shabby ones, when, +looking at my watch, I found it to be past ten, and no cab-stand within +sight. It was a quarter past when I finally got into one; and the driver +told me that it would take half an hour to go from thence to Upper Brook +Street; so that I was likely to exceed the license implied in Mr. +Milnes's invitation. Whether I was quite beyond rule I cannot say; but +it did not lack more than ten minutes of eleven when I was ushered up +stairs, and I found all the company assembled. However, it is of little +consequence, except that if I had come early, I should have been +introduced to many of the guests, whom now I could only know across the +table. Mrs. Milnes greeted me very kindly, and Mr. Milnes came towards +me with an elderly gentleman in a blue coat and gray pantaloons,--with a +long, rather thin, homely visage, exceedingly shaggy eyebrows, though no +great weight of brow, and thin gray hair, and introduced me to the +Marquis of Lansdowne. The Marquis had his right hand wrapped up in a +black-silk handkerchief; so he gave me his left, and, from some +awkwardness in meeting it, when I expected the right, I gave him only +three of my fingers,--a thing I never did before to any person, and it is +droll that I should have done it to a Marquis. He addressed me with +great simplicity and natural kindness, complimenting me on my works, and +speaking about the society of Liverpool in former days. Lord Lansdowne +was the friend of Moore, and has about him the aroma communicated by the +memories of many illustrious people with whom he has associated. + +Mr. Ticknor, the Historian of Spanish Literature, now greeted me. Mr. +Milnes introduced me to Mrs. Browning, and assigned her to me to conduct +into the breakfast-room. She is a small, delicate woman, with ringlets +of dark hair, a pleasant, intelligent, and sensitive face, and a low, +agreeable voice. She looks youthful and comely, and is very gentle and +lady-like. And so we proceeded to the breakfast-room, which is hung +round with pictures; and in the middle of it stood a large round table, +worthy to have been King Arthur's, and here we seated ourselves without +any question of precedence or ceremony. On one side of me was an elderly +lady, with a very fine countenance, and in the course of breakfast I +discovered her to be the mother of Florence Nightingale. One of her +daughters (not Florence) was likewise present. Mrs. Milnes, Mrs. +Browning, Mrs. Nightingale, and her daughter were the only ladies at +table; and I think there were as many as eight or ten gentlemen, whose +names--as I came so late--I was left to find out for myself, or to leave +unknown. + +It was a pleasant and sociable meal, and, thanks to my cold beef and +coffee at home, I had no occasion to trouble myself much about the fare; +so I just ate some delicate chicken, and a very small cutlet, and a slice +of dry toast, and thereupon surceased from my labors. Mrs. Browning and +I talked a good deal during breakfast, for she is of that quickly +appreciative and responsive order of women with whom I can talk more +freely than with any man; and she has, besides, her own originality, +wherewith to help on conversation, though, I should say, not of a +loquacious tendency. She introduced the subject of spiritualism, which, +she says, interests her very much; indeed, she seems to be a believer. +Mr. Browning, she told me, utterly rejects the subject, and will not +believe even in the outward manifestations, of which there is such +overwhelming evidence. We also talked of Miss Bacon; and I developed +something of that lady's theory respecting Shakespeare, greatly to the +horror of Mrs. Browning, and that of her next neighbor,--a nobleman, +whose name I did not hear. On the whole, I like her the better for +loving the man Shakespeare with a personal love. We talked, too, of +Margaret Fuller, who spent her last night in Italy with the Brownings; +and of William Story, with whom they have been intimate, and who, Mrs. +Browning says, is much stirred about spiritualism. Really, I cannot help +wondering that so fine a spirit as hers should not reject the matter, +till, at least, it is forced upon her. I like her very much. + +Mrs. Nightingale had been talking at first with Lord Lansdowne, who sat +next her, but by and by she turned to nee, and began to speak of London +smoke Then, there being a discussion about Lord Byron on the other side +of the table, she spoke to me about Lady Byron, whom she knows +intimately, characterizing her as a most excellent and exemplary person, +high-principled, unselfish, and now devoting herself to the care of her +two grandchildren,--their mother, Byron's daughter, being dead. Lady +Byron, she says, writes beautiful verses. Somehow or other, all this +praise, and more of the same kind, gave me an idea of an intolerably +irreproachable person; and I asked Mrs. Nightingale if Lady Byron were +warm-hearted. With some hesitation, or mental reservation,--at all +events, not quite outspokenly,--she answered that she was. + +I was too much engaged with these personal talks to attend much to what +was going on elsewhere; but all through breakfast I had been more and +more impressed by the aspect of one of the guests, sitting next to +Milnes. He was a man of large presence,--a portly personage, +gray-haired, but scarcely as yet aged; and his face had a remarkable +intelligence, not vivid nor sparkling, but conjoined with great +quietude,--and if it gleamed or brightened at one time more than another, +it was like the sheen over a broad surface of sea. There was a somewhat +careless self-possession, large and broad enough to be called dignity; +and the more I looked at him, the more I knew that he was a distinguished +person, and wondered who. He might have been a minister of state; only +there is not one of them who has any right to such a face and presence. +At last,--I do not know how the conviction came,--but I became aware that +it was Macaulay, and began to see some slight resemblance to his +portraits. But I have never seen any that is not wretchedly unworthy of +the original. As soon as I knew him, I began to listen to his +conversation, but he did not talk a great deal, contrary to his usual +custom; for I am told he is apt to engross all the talk to himself. +Probably he may have been restrained by the presence of Ticknor, and Mr. +Palfrey, who were among his auditors and interlocutors; and as the +conversation seemed to turn much on American subjects, he could not well +have assumed to talk them down. I am glad to have seen him,--a face fit +for a scholar, a man of the world, a cultivated intelligence. + +After we left the table, and went into the library, Mr. Browning +introduced himself to me,--a younger man than I expected to see, +handsome, with brown hair. He is very simple and agreeable in manner, +gently impulsive, talking as if his heart were uppermost. He spoke of +his pleasure in meeting me, and his appreciation of my books; and--which +has not often happened to me--mentioned that The Blithedale Romance was +the one he admired most. I wonder why. I hope I showed as much pleasure +at his praise as he did at mine; for I was glad to see how pleasantly it +moved him. After this, I talked with Ticknor and Miles, and with Mr. +Palfrey, to whom I had been introduced very long ago by George Hillard, +and had never seen him since. We looked at some autographs, of which Mr. +Milnes has two or three large volumes. I recollect a leaf from Swift's +Journal to Stella; a letter from Addison; one from Chatterton, in a most +neat and legible hand; and a characteristic sentence or two and signature +of Oliver Cromwell, written in a religious book. There were many curious +volumes in the library, but I had not time to look at them. + +I liked greatly the manners of almost all,--yes, as far as I observed,-- +all the people at this breakfast, and it was doubtless owing to their +being all people either of high rank or remarkable intellect, or both. +An Englishman can hardly be a gentleman, unless he enjoy one or other of +these advantages; and perhaps the surest way to give him good manners is +to make a lord of him, or rather of his grandfather or great-grandfather. +In the third generation, scarcely sooner, he will be polished into +simplicity and elegance, and his deportment will be all the better for +the homely material out of which it is wrought and refined. The Marquis +of Lansdowne, for instance, would have been a very commonplace man in the +common ranks of life; but it has done him good to be a nobleman. Not +that his tact is quite perfect. In going up to breakfast, he made me +precede him; in returning to the library, he did the same, although I +drew back, till he impelled me up the first stair, with gentle +persistence. By insisting upon it, he showed his sense of condescension +much more than if, when he saw me unwilling to take precedence, he had +passed forward, as if the point were not worth either asserting or +yielding. Heaven knows, it was in no humility that I would have trodden +behind him. But he is a kind old man; and I am willing to believe of the +English aristocracy generally that they are kind, and of beautiful +deportment; for certainly there never can have been mortals in a position +more advantageous for becoming so. I hope there will come a time when we +shall be so; and I already know a few Americans, whose noble and delicate +manners may compare well with any I have seen. + +I left the house with Mr. Palfrey. He has cone to England to make some +researches in the State Paper Office, for the purposes of a work which he +has in hand. He mentioned to me a letter which he had seen, written from +New England in the time of Charles II. and referring to the order sent by +the minister of that day for the appearance of Governor Bellingham and my +ancestor on this side of the water. The signature of this letter is an +anagram of my ancestor's name. The letter itself is a very bold and able +one, controverting the propriety of the measure above indicated; and Mr. +Palfrey feels certain that it was written by my aforesaid ancestor. I +mentioned my wish to ascertain the place in England whence the family +emigrated; and Mr. Palfrey took me to the Record Office, and introduced +me to Mr. Joseph Hunter,--a venerable and courteous gentleman, of +antiquarian pursuits. The office was odorous of musty parchments, +hundreds of years old. Mr. Hunter received me with great kindness, and +gave me various old records and rolls of parchment, in which to seek for +my family name; but I was perplexed with the crabbed characters, and soon +grew weary and gave up the quest. He says that it is very seldom that an +American family, springing from the early settlers, can be satisfactorily +traced back to their English ancestry. + + +July 16th.--Monday morning I took the rail from Blackheath to London. It +is a very pleasant place, Blackheath, and far more rural than one would +expect, within five or six miles of London,--a great many trees, making +quite a mass of foliage in the distance; green enclosures; pretty villas, +with their nicely kept lawns, and gardens, with grass-plots and flower +borders; and village streets, set along the sidewalks with ornamental +trees; and the houses standing a little back, and separated one from +another,--all this within what is called the Park, which has its +gateways, and the sort of semi-privacy with which I first became +acquainted at Rock Park. + +From the London Bridge station I took a cab for Paddington, and then had +to wait above two hours before a train started for Birkenhead. Meanwhile +I walked a little about the neighborhood, which is very dull and +uninteresting; made up of crescents and terraces, and rows of houses that +have no individuality, and second-rate shops,--in short, the outskirts of +the vast city, when it begins to have a kind of village character but no +rurality or sylvan aspect, as at Blackheath. My journey, when at last we +started, was quite unmarked by incident, and extremely tedious; it being +a slow train, which plods on without haste and without rest. At about +ten o'clock we reached Birkenhead, and there crossed the familiar and +detestable Mersey, which, as usual, had a cloudy sky brooding over it. +Mrs. Blodgett received me most hospitably, but was impelled, by an +overflow of guests, to put me into a little back room, looking into +the court, and formerly occupied by my predecessor, General +Armstrong. . . . . She expressed a hope that I might not see his +ghost,--nor have I, as yet. + +Speaking of ghosts, Mr. H. A. B------ told me a singular story to-day of +an apparition that haunts the Times Office, in Printing-House Square. A +Mr. W------ is the engineer of the establishment, and has his residence +in the edifice, which is built, I believe, on the site of Merchant +Taylor's school,--an old house that was no longer occupied for its +original purpose, and, being supposed haunted, was left untenanted. The +father-in-law of Mr. W------, an old sea-captain, came on a visit to him +and his wife, and was put into their guest-chamber, where he passed the +night. The next morning, assigning no very satisfactory reason, he cut +his visit short and went away. Shortly afterwards, a young lady came to +visit the W------'s; but she too went away the next morning,--going first +to make a call, as she said, to a friend, and sending thence for her +trunks. Mrs. W------ wrote to this young lady, asking an explanation. +The young lady replied, and gave a singular account of an apparition,-- +how she was awakened in the night by a bright light shining through the +window, which was parallel to the bed; then, if I remember rightly, her +curtains were withdrawn, and a shape looked in upon her,--a woman's +shape, she called it; but it was a skeleton, with lambent flames playing +about its bones, and in and out among the ribs. Other persons have since +slept in this chamber, and some have seen the shape, others not. Mr. +W------ has slept there himself without seeing anything. He has had +investigations by scientific people, apparently under the idea that the +phenomenon might have been caused by some of the Times's work-people, +playing tricks on the magic-lantern principle; but nothing satisfactory +has thus far been elucidated. Mr. B------ had this story from Mrs. +Gaskell. . . . . Supposing it a ghost, nothing else is so remarkable as +its choosing to haunt the precincts of the Times newspaper. + + +July 29th.--On Saturday, 26th, I took the rail from the Lime Street +station for London, via the Trent Valley, and reached Blackheath in the +evening. . . . . + +Sunday morning my wife and I, with J-----, railed into London, and drove +to the Essex Street Chapel, where Mr. Channing was to preach. The Chapel +is the same where Priestley and Belsham used to preach,--one of the +plainest houses of worship I was ever in, as simple and undecorated as +the faith there inculcated. They retain, however, all the form and +ceremonial of the English Established Church, though so modified as to +meet the doctrinal views of the Unitarians. There may be good sense in +this, inasmuch as it greatly lessens the ministerial labor to have a +stated form of prayer, instead of a necessity for extempore outpourings; +but it must be, I should think, excessively tedious to the congregation, +especially as, having made alterations in these prayers, they cannot +attach much idea of sanctity to them. + +[Here follows a long record of Mr. Hawthorne's visit to Miss Bacon,-- +condensed in Our Old Hone, in the paper called "Recollections of a Gifted +Woman."] + + +August 2d.--On Wednesday (30th July) we went to Marlborough House to see +the Vernon gallery of pictures. They are the works, almost entirely of +English artists of the last and present century, and comprise many famous +paintings; and I must acknowledge that I had more enjoyment of them than +of those portions of the National Gallery which I had before seen,-- +including specimens of the grand old masters. My comprehension has not +reached their height. I think nothing pleased me more than a picture by +Sir David Wilkie,--The Parish Beadle, with a vagrant boy and a monkey in +custody; it is exceedingly good and true throughout, and especially the +monkey's face is a wonderful production of genius, condensing within +itself the whole moral and pathos of the picture. + +Marlborough House was the residence of the Great Duke, and is to be that +of the Prince of Wales, when another place is found for the pictures. It +adjoins St. James's Palace. In its present state it is not a very +splendid mansion, the rooms being small, though handsomely shaped, with +vaulted ceilings, and carved white-marble fireplaces. I left S----- here +after an hour or two, and walked forth into the hot and busy city with +J-----. . . . . I called at Routledge's bookshop, in hopes to make an +arrangement with him about Miss Bacon's business. But Routledge himself +is making a journey in the north, and neither of the partners was there, +so that I shall have to go thither some other day. Then we stepped into +St. Paul's Cathedral to cool ourselves, and it was delightful so to +escape from the sunny, sultry turmoil of Fleet Street and Ludgate, and +find ourselves at once in this remote, solemn, shadowy seclusion, +marble-cool. O that we had cathedrals in America, were it only for the +sensuous luxury! We strolled round the cathedral, and I delighted +J----- much by pointing out the monuments of three British generals, who +were slain in America in the last war,--the naughty and bloodthirsty +little man! We then went to Guildhall, where I thought J----- would like +to see Gog and Magog; but he had never heard of those illustrious +personages, and took no interest in them. . . . . But truly I am grateful +to the piety of former times for raising this vast, cool canopy of marble +[St. Paul's] in the midst of the feverish city. I wandered quite round +it, and saw, in a remote corner, a monument to the officers of the +Coldstream Guards, slain in the Crimea. It was a mural tablet, with the +names of the officers on an escutcheon; and two privates of the Guards, +in marble bas-relief, were mourning over them. Over the tablet hung two +silken banners, new and glossy, with the battles in which the regiment +has been engaged inscribed on them,--not merely Crimean but Peninsular +battles. These banners will bang there till they drop away in tatters. + +After thus refreshing myself in the cathedral, I went again to +Routledge's in Farrington Street, and saw one of the firm. He expressed +great pleasure at seeing me, as indeed he might, having published and +sold, without any profit on my part, uncounted thousands of my books. I +introduced the subject of Miss Bacon's work; and he expressed the utmost +willingness to do everything in his power towards bringing it before the +world, but thought that his firm--it being their business to publish for +the largest circle of readers--was not the most eligible for the +publication of such a book. Very likely this may be so. At all events, +however, I am to send him the manuscript, and he will at least give me +his advice and assistance in finding a publisher. He was good enough to +express great regret that I had no work of my own to give him for +publication; and, truly, I regret it too, since, being a resident in +England, I could now have all the publishing privileges of a native +author. He presented me with a copy of an illustrated edition of +Longfellow's Poems, and I took my leave. + +Thence I went to the Picture Gallery at the British Institution, where +there are three rooms full of paintings by the first masters, the +property of private persons. Every one of them, no doubt, was worth +studying for a long, long time; and I suppose I may have given, on an +average, a minute to each. What an absurdity it would seem, to pretend +to read two or three hundred poems, of all degrees between an epic and a +ballad, in an hour or two! And a picture is a poem, only requiring the +greater study to be felt and comprehended; because the spectator must +necessarily do much for himself towards that end. I saw many beautiful +things,--among them some landscapes by Claude, which to the eye were like +the flavor of a rich, ripe melon to the palate. + + +August 7th.--Yesterday we took the rail for London, it being a fine, +sunny day, though not so very warm as many of the preceding days have +been. . . . . We went along Piccadilly as far as the Egyptian Hall. It +is quite remarkable how comparatively quiet the town has become, now that +the season is over. One can see the difference in all the region west of +Temple Bar; and, indeed, either the hot weather or some other cause seems +to have operated in assuaging the turmoil in the city itself. I never +saw London Bridge so little thronged as yesterday. At the Egyptian Hall, +or in the same edifice, there is a gallery of pictures, the property of +Lord Ward, who allows the public to see them, five days of the week, +without any trouble or restriction,--a great kindness on his Lordship's +part, it must be owned. It is a very valuable collection, I presume, +containing specimens of many famous old masters; some of the early and +hard pictures by Raphael and his master and fellow-pupils,--very curious, +and nowise beautiful; a perfect, sunny glimpse of Venice, by Canaletto; +and saints, and Scriptural, allegorical, and mythological people, by +Titian, Guido, Correggio, and many more names than I can remember. There +is likewise a dead Magdalen by Canova, and a Venus by the same, very +pretty, and with a vivid light of joyous expression in her face; . . . . +also Powers's Greek Slave, in which I see little beauty or merit; and two +or three other statues. + +We then drove to Ashley Place, to call on Mrs. S. C. Hall, whom we found +at home. In fact, Wednesday is her reception-day; although, as now +everybody is out of town, we were the only callers. She is an agreeable +and kindly woman. She told us that her husband and herself propose going +to America next year, and I heartily wish they may meet with a warm and +friendly reception. I have been seldom more assured of the existence of +a heart than in her; also a good deal of sentiment. She had been +visiting Bessie, the widow of Moore, at Sloperton, and gave S----- a rose +from his cottage. Such things are very true and unaffected in her. The +only wonder is that she has not lost such girlish freshness of feeling as +prompts them. We did not see Mr. Hall, he having gone to the Crystal +Palace. + +Taking our leave, we returned along Victoria Street--a new street, +penetrating through what was recently one of the worst parts of the town, +and now bordered with large blocks of buildings, in a dreary, +half-finished state, and left so for want of funds--till we came to +Westminster Abbey. We went in and spent an hour there, wandering all +round the nave and aisles, admiring the grand old edifice itself, but +finding more to smile at than to admire in the monuments. . . . . The +interior view of the Abbey is better than can be described; the heart +aches, as one gazes at it, for lack of power and breadth enough to take +its beauty and grandeur in. The effect was heightened by the sun shining +through the painted window in the western end, and by the bright sunshine +that came through the open portal, and lay on the pavement,--that space +so bright, the rest of the vast floor so solemn and sombre. At the +western end, in a corner from which spectators are barred out, there is a +statue of Wordsworth, which I do not recollect seeing at any former +visit. Its only companion in the same nook is Pope's friend, Secretary +Craggs. + +Downing Street, that famous official precinct, took its name from Sir +George Downing, who was proprietor or lessee of property there. He was a +native of my own old native town, and his descendants still reside +there,--collateral descendants, I suppose,--and follow the drygoods +business (drapers). + + +August 10th.--I journeyed to Liverpool via Chester. . . . . One sees a +variety of climate, temperature, and season in a ride of two hundred +miles, north and south, through England. Near London, for instance, the +grain was reaped, and stood in sheaves in the stubble-fields, over which +girls and children might be seen gleaning; farther north, the golden, or +greenish-golden, crops were waving in the wind. In one part of our way +the atmosphere was hot and dry; at another point it had been cooled and +refreshed by a heavy thunder-shower, the pools of which still lay +along our track. It seems to me that local varieties of weather are +more common in this island, and within narrower precincts, than in +America. . . . . I never saw England of such a dusky and dusty green +before,--almost sunbrowned, indeed. Sometimes the green hedges formed a +marked framework to a broad sheet of golden grain-field. As we drew near +Oxford, just before reaching the station I had a good view of its domes, +towers, and spires,--better, I think, than when J----- and I rambled +through the town a month or two ago. + +Mr. Frank Scott Haydon, of the Record Office, London, writes me that he +has found a "Henry Atte Hawthorne" on a roll which he is transcribing, of +the first Edward III. He belonged to the Parish of Aldremeston, in the +hundred of Blakenhurste, Worcester County. + + +August 21st.--Yesterday, at twelve o'clock, I took the steamer for +Runcorn, from the pier-head. In the streets, I had noticed that it was a +breezy day; but on the river there was a very stiff breeze from the +northeast, right ahead, blowing directly in our face the whole way; and +truly this river Mersey is never without a breeze, and generally in the +direction of its course,--an evil-tempered, unkindly, blustering wind, +that you cannot meet without being exasperated by it. As it came +straight against us, it was impossible to find a shelter anywhere on +deck, except it were behind the stove-pipe; and, besides, the day was +overcast and threatening rain. + +I have undergone very miserable hours on the Mersey, where, in the space +of two years, I voyaged thousands of miles,--and this trip to Runcorn +reminded me of them, though it was less disagreeable after more than a +twelvemonth's respite. We had a good many passengers on board, most of +whom were of the second class, and congregated on the forward deck; more +women than men, I think, and some of them with their husbands and +children. Several produced lunch and bottles, and refreshed themselves +very soon after we started. By and by the wind became so disagreeable +that I went below, and sat in the cabin, only occasionally looking out, +to get a peep at the shores of the river, which I had never before seen +above Eastham. However, they are not worth looking at; level and +monotonous, without trees or beauty of any kind,--here and there a +village, and a modern church, on the low ridge behind; perhaps, a +windmill, which the gusty day had set busily to work. The river +continues very wide--no river indeed, but an estuary--during almost the +whole distance to Runcorn; and nearly at the end of our voyage we +approached some abrupt and prominent hills, which, many a time, I have +seen on my passages to Rock Ferry, looking blue and dim, and serving for +prophets of the weather; for when they can be distinctly seen adown the +river, it is a token of coming rain. We met many vessels, and passed +many which were beating up against the wind, and which keeled over, so +that their decks must have dipped,--schooners and vessels that come from +the Bridgewater Canal. We shipped a sea ourselves, which gave the +fore-deck passengers a wetting. + +Before reaching Runcorn, we stopped to land some passengers at another +little port, where there was a pier and a lighthouse, and a church within +a few yards of the river-side,--a good many of the river-craft, too, in +dock, forming quite a crowd of masts. About ten minutes' further +steaming brought us to Runcorn, where were two or three tall +manufacturing chimneys, with a pennant of black smoke from each; two +vessels of considerable size on the stocks; a church or two; and a +meagre, uninteresting, shabby, brick-built town, rising from the edge of +the river, with irregular streets,--not village-like, but paved, and +looking like a dwarfed, stunted city. I wandered through it till I came +to a tall, high-pedestalled windmill on the outer verge, the vans of +which were going briskly round. Thence retracing my steps, I stopped at +a poor hotel, and took lunch, and, finding that I was in time to take the +steamer back, I hurried on board, and we set sail (or steam) before +three. I have heard of an old castle at Runcorn, but could discover +nothing of it. It was well that I returned so promptly, for we had +hardly left the pier before it began to rain, and there was a heavy +downfall throughout the voyage homeward. Runcorn is fourteen miles from +Liverpool, and is the farthest point to which a steamer runs. I had +intended to come home by rail,--a circuitous route,--but the advice of +the landlady of the hotel, and the aspect of the weather, and a feeling +of general discouragement prevented me. + +An incident in S. C. Hall's Ireland, of a stone cross, buried in +Cromwell's time, to prevent its destruction by his soldiers. It was +forgotten, and became a mere doubtful tradition, but one old man had been +told by his father, and he by his father, etc., that it was buried near a +certain spot; and at last, two hundred years after the cross was buried, +the vicar of the parish dug in that spot and found it. In my (English) +romance, an American might bring the tradition from over the sea, and so +discover the cross, which had been altogether forgotten. + + +August 24th.--Day before yesterday I took the rail for Southport,--a +cool, generally overcast day, with glimmers of faint sunshine. The ride +is through a most uninteresting tract of country, at first, glimpses of +the river, with the thousands of masts in the docks; the dismal outskirts +of a great town, still spreading onward, with beginnings of streets, and +insulated brick buildings and blocks; farther on, a wide monotony of +level plain, and here and there a village and a church; almost always a +windmill in sight, there being plenty of breeze to turn its vans on this +windy coast. The railway skirts along the sea the whole distance, but is +shut out from the sight of it by the low sand-hills, which seem to have +been heaped up by the waves. There are one or two lighthouses on the +shore. I have not seen a drearier landscape, even in Lancashire. + +Reaching Southport at three, I rambled about, with a view to discover +whether it be a suitable residence for my family during September. It is +a large village, or rather more than a village, which seems to be almost +entirely made up of lodging-houses, and, at any rate, has been built up +by the influx of summer visitors,--a sandy soil, level, and laid out with +well-paved streets, the principal of which are enlivened with bazaars, +markets, shops, hotels of various degrees, and a showy vivacity of +aspect. There are a great many donkey-carriages,--large vehicles, drawn +by a pair of donkeys; bath-chairs, with invalid ladies; refreshment-rooms +in great numbers,--a place where everybody seems to be a transitory +guest, nobody at home. The main street leads directly down to the +sea-shore, along which there is an elevated embankment, with a promenade +on the top, and seats, and the toll of a penny. The shore itself, the +tide being then low, stretched out interminably seaward, a wide waste of +glistering sands; and on the dry border, people were riding on donkeys, +with the drivers whipping behind; and children were digging with their +little wooden spades; and there were donkey-carriages far out on the +sands,--a pleasant and breezy drive. A whole city of bathing-machines +was stationed near the shore, and I saw others in the seaward distance. +The sea-air was refreshing and exhilarating, and if S----- needs a +seaside residence, I should think this might do as well as any other. + +I saw a large brick edifice, enclosed within a wall, and with somewhat +the look of an almshouse or hospital; and it proved to be an Infirmary, +charitably established for the reception of poor invalids, who need +sea-air and cannot afford to pay for it. Two or three of such persons +were sitting under its windows. I do not think that the visitors of +Southport are generally of a very opulent class, but of the middle +rank, from Manchester and other parts of this northern region. The +lodging-houses, however, are of sufficiently handsome style and +arrangement. + + + +OXFORD. + + +[Mr. Hawthorne extracted from his recorded Oxford experiences his +excursion to Blenheim, but left his observations of the town itself +untouched,--and these I now transcribe.--ED.] + + +August 31st.--. . . . Yesterday we took the rail for London, and drove +across the city to the Paddington station, where we met Bennoch, and set +out with him for Oxford. I do not quite understand the matter, but it +appears that we were expected guests of Mr. Spiers, a very hospitable +gentleman, and Ex-Mayor of Oxford, and a friend of Bennoch and of the +Halls. Mr. S. C. Hall met us at the Oxford station, and under his +guidance we drove to a quiet, comfortable house in St. Giles Street, +where rooms had been taken for us. Durham, the sculptor, is likewise of +the party. + +After establishing ourselves at these lodgings, we walked forth to take a +preliminary glimpse of the city, and Mr. Hall, being familiar with the +localities, served admirably as a guide. If I remember aright, I spoke +very slightingly of the exterior aspect of Oxford, as I saw it with +J----- during an hour or two's stay here, on my way to Southampton (to +meet S----- on her return from Lisbon). I am bound to say that my +impressions are now very different; and that I find Oxford exceedingly +picturesque and rich in beauty and grandeur and in antique stateliness. +I do not remember very particularly what we saw,--time-worn fronts of +famous colleges and halls of learning everywhere about the streets, and +arched entrances; passing through which, we saw bits of sculpture from +monkish hands,--the most grotesque and ludicrous faces, as if the +slightest whim of these old carvers took shape in stone, the material +being so soft and manageable by them; an ancient stone pulpit in the +quadrangle of Maudlin College (Magdalen), one of only three now extant in +England; a splendid--no, not splendid, but dimly magnificent--chapel, +belonging to the same College, with painted windows of rare beauty, not +brilliant with diversified hues, but of a sombre tint. In this chapel +there is an alabaster monument,--a recumbent figure of the founder's +father, as large as life,--which, though several centuries old, is as +well preserved as if fresh from the chisel. + +In the High Street, which, I suppose, is the noblest old street in +England, Mr. Hall pointed out, the Crown Inn, where Shakespeare used to +spend the night, and was most hospitably welcomed by the pretty hostess +(the mother of Sir William Davenant) on his passage between Stratford and +London. It is a three-story house, with other houses contiguous,--an old +timber mansion, though now plastered and painted of a yellowish line. +The ground-floor is occupied as a shoe-shop; but the rest of the house is +still kept as a tavern. . . . . + +It is not now term time, and Oxford loses one of its most characteristic +features by the absence of the gownsmen; but still there is a good deal +of liveliness in the streets. We walked as far as a bridge beyond +Maudlin College, and then drove homeward. + +At six we went to dine with the hospitable Ex-Mayor, across the wide, +tree-bordered street; for his house is nearly opposite our lodgings. He +is an intelligent and gentlemanly person, and was Mayor two years ago, +and has done a great deal to make peace between the University and +the town, heretofore bitterly inimical. His house is adorned with +pictures and drawings, and he has an especial taste for art. . . . . The +dinner-table was decorated with pieces of plate, vases, and other things, +which were presented to him as tokens of public or friendly regard and +approbation of his action in the Mayoralty. After dinner, too, he +produced a large silver snuff-box, which had been given him on the same +account; in fact, the inscription affirmed that it was one of five pieces +of plate so presented. The vases are really splendid,--one of them two +feet high, and richly ornamented. It will hold five or six bottles of +wine, and he said that it had been filled, and, I believe, sent round as +a loving-cup at some of his entertainments. He cordially enjoys these +things, and his genuine benevolence produces all this excellent +hospitality. . . . . But Bennoch proposed a walk, and we set forth. We +rambled pretty extensively about the streets, sometimes seeing the shapes +of old edifices dimly and doubtfully, it being an overcast night; or +catching a partial view of a gray wall, or a pillar, or a Gothic archway, +by lamplight. . . . . The clock had some time ago struck eleven, when we +were passing under a long extent of antique wall and towers, which were +those of Baliol College. Mr. D------ led us into the middle of the +street, and showed us a cross, which was paved into it, on a level with +the rest of the road. This was the spot where Latimer and Ridley and +another Bishop were martyred in Bloody Mary's time. There is a memorial +to them in another street; but this, where I set my foot at nearly +midnight, was the very spot where their flesh burned to ashes, and their +bones whitened. It has been a most beautiful morning, and I have seen +few pleasanter scenes than this street in which we lodge, with its +spacious breadth, its two rows of fine old trees, with sidewalks as wide +as the whole width of some streets; and, on the opposite side, the row of +houses, some of them ancient with picturesque gables, partially disclosed +through the intervening foliage. . . . . From our window we have a +slantwise glimpse, to the right, of the walls of St. John's College, and +the general aspect of St. Giles. It is of an antiquity not to shame +those mediaeval halls. Our own lodgings are in a house that seems +to be very old, with panelled walls, and beams across the ceilings, +lattice-windows in the chambers, and a musty odor such as old houses +inevitably have. Nevertheless, everything is extremely neat, clean, and +comfortable; and in term time our apartments are occupied by a Mr. +Stebbing, whose father is known in literature by some critical writings, +and who is a graduate and an admirable scholar. There is a bookcase of +five shelves, containing his books, mostly standard works, and indicating +a safe and solid taste. + +After lunch to-day we (that is, Mrs. Hall, her adopted daughter, S-----, +and I, with the Ex-Mayor) set forth, in an open barouche, to see the +remarkables of Oxford, while the rest of the guests went on foot. We +first drew up at New College (a strange name for such an old place, but +it was new some time since the Conquest), and went through its quiet and +sunny quadrangles, and into its sunny and shadowy gardens. I am in +despair about the architecture and old edifices of these Oxford colleges, +it is so impossible to express them in words. They are themselves--as +the architect left them, and as Time has modified and improved them--the +expression of an idea which does not admit of being otherwise expressed, +or translated into anything else. Those old battlemented walls around +the quadrangles; many gables; the windows with stone pavilions, so very +antique, yet some of them adorned with fresh flowers in pots,--a very +sweet contrast; the ivy mantling the gray stone; and the infinite repose, +both in sunshine and shadow,--it is as if half a dozen bygone centuries +had set up their rest here, and as if nothing of the present time ever +passed through the deeply recessed archway that shuts in the College from +the street. Not but what people have very free admittance; and many +parties of young men and girls and children came into the gardens while +we were there. + +These gardens of New College are indescribably beautiful,--not gardens in +an American sense, but lawns of the richest green and softest velvet +grass, shadowed over by ancient trees, that have lived a quiet life here +for centuries, and have been nursed and tended with such care, and so +sheltered from rude winds, that certainly they must have been the +happiest of all trees. Such a sweet, quiet, sacred, stately seclusion-- +so age-long as this has been, and, I hope, will continue to be--cannot +exist anywhere else. One side of the garden wall is formed by the +ancient wall of the city, which Cromwell's artillery battered, and which +still retains its pristine height and strength. At intervals, there are +round towers that formed the bastions; that is to say, on the exterior +they are round towers, but within, in the garden of the College, they are +semicircular recesses, with iron garden-seats arranged round them. The +loop-holes through which the archers and musketeers used to shoot still +pierce through deep recesses in the wall, which is here about six feet +thick. I wish I could put into one sentence the whole impression of this +garden, but it could not be done in many pages. + +We looked also at the outside of the wall, and Mr. Parker, deeply skilled +in the antiquities of the spot, showed us a weed growing,--here in little +sprigs, there in large and heavy festoons,--hanging plentifully downward +from a shallow root. It is called the Oxford plant, being found only +here, and not easily, if at all, introduced anywhere else. It bears a +small and pretty blue flower, not altogether unlike the forget-me-not, +and we took some of it away with us for a memorial. We went into the +chapel of New College, which is in such fresh condition that I think it +must be modern; and yet this cannot be, since there are old brasses +inlaid into tombstones in the pavement, representing mediaeval +ecclesiastics and college dignitaries; and busts against the walls, in +antique garb; and old painted windows, unmistakable in their antiquity. +But there is likewise a window, lamentable to look at, which was painted +by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and exhibits strikingly the difference between +the work of a man who performed it merely as a matter of taste and +business, and what was done religiously and with the whole heart; at +least, it shows that the artists and public of the last age had no +sympathy with Gothic art. In the chancel of this church there are more +painted windows, which I take to be modern, too, though they are in much +better taste, and have an infinitely better effect, than Sir Joshua's. +At any rate, with the sunshine through them, they looked very beautiful, +and tinted the high altar and the pavement with brilliant lines. + +The sacristan opened a tall and narrow little recess in the wall of the +chancel, and showed it entirely filled with the crosier of William of +Wickham. It appears to be made of silver gilt, and is a most rich and +elaborate relic, at least six feet high. Modern art cannot, or does not, +equal the chasing and carving of this splendid crosier, which is enriched +with figures of saints and, apostles, and various Gothic devices,--very +minute, but all executed as faithfully as if the artist's salvation had +depended upon every notch he made in the silver. . . . . + +Leaving New College, Bennoch and I, under Mr. Parker's guidance, walked +round Christ Church meadows, part of our way lying along the banks of the +Cherwell, which unites with the Isis to form the Thames, I believe. The +Cherwell is a narrow and remarkably sluggish stream; but is deep in +spots, and capriciously so,--so that a person may easily step from +knee-deep to fifteen feet in depth. A gentleman present used a queer +expression in reference to the drowning of two college men; he said "it +was an awkward affair." I think this is equal to Longfellow's story of +the Frenchman who avowed himself very much "displeased" at the news of +his father's death. At the confluence of the Cherwell and Isis we saw a +good many boats, belonging to the students of the various colleges; some +of them being very large and handsome barges, capable of accommodating a +numerous party, with room on board for dancing and merry-making. Some of +them are calculated to be drawn by horses, in the manner of canal-boats; +others are propellable by oars. It is practicable to perform the voyage +between Oxford and London--a distance of about one hundred and thirty +miles--in three days. The students of Oxford are famous boatmen; there +is a constant rivalship, on this score, among the different colleges; and +annually, I believe, there is a match between Oxford and Cambridge. The +Cambridge men beat the Oxonians in this year's trial. + +On our return into the city, we passed through Christ Church, which, as +regards the number of students, is the most considerable college of the +University. It has a stately dome; but my memory is confused with +battlements, towers, and gables, and Gothic staircases and cloisters. If +there had been nothing else in Oxford but this one establishment, my +anticipations would not have been disappointed. The bell was tolling for +worship in the chapel; and Mr. Parker told us that Dr. Pusey is a canon, +or in some sort of dignity, in Christ Church, and would soon probably +make his appearance in the quadrangle, on his way to chapel; so we walked +to and fro, waiting an opportunity to see him. A gouty old dignitary, in +a white surplice, came hobbling along from one extremity of the court; +and by and by, from the opposite corner, appeared Dr. Pusey, also in a +white surplice, and with a lady by his side. We met him, and I stared +pretty fixedly at him, as I well might; for he looked on the ground, as +if conscious that he would be stared at. He is a man past middle life, +of sufficient breadth and massiveness, with a pale, intellectual, manly +face. He was talking with the lady, and smiled, but not jollily. Mr. +Parker, who knows him, says that he is a man of kind and gentle +affections. The lady was his niece. + +Thence we went through High Street and Broad Street, and passing by +Baliol College,--a most satisfactory pile and range of old towered and +gabled edifices,--we came to the cross on the pavement, which is supposed +to mark the spot where the bishops were martyred. But Mr. Parker told us +the mortifying fact, that he had ascertained that this could not possibly +have been the genuine spot of martyrdom, which must have taken place at a +point within view, but considerably too far off to be moistened by any +tears that may be shed here. It is too bad. We concluded the rambles of +the day by visiting the gardens of St. John's College; and I desire, if +possible, to say even more in admiration of them than of those of New +College,--such beautiful lawns, with tall, ancient trees, and heavy +clouds of foliage, and sunny glimpses through archways of leafy branches, +where, to-day, we could see parties of girls, making cheerful contrast +with the sombre walls and solemn shade. The world, surely, has not +another place like Oxford; it is a despair to see such a place and ever +to leave it, for it would take a lifetime and more than one, to +comprehend and enjoy it satisfactorily. + +At dinner, to-day, the golden vases were all ranged on the table, the +largest and central one containing a most magnificent bouquet of dahlias +and other bright-hued flowers. + +On Tuesday, our first visit was to Christ Church, where we saw the large +and stately hall, above a hundred feet long by forty wide, and fifty to +the top of its carved oaken roof, which is ornamented with festoons, as +it were, and pendants of solid timber. The walls are panelled with oak, +perhaps half-way upward, and above are the rows of arched windows on each +side; but, near the upper end, two great windows come nearly to the +floor. There is a dais, where the great men of the College and the +distinguished guests sit at table, and the tables of the students are +arranged along the length of the hall. All around, looking down upon +those who sit at meat, are the portraits of a multitude of illustrious +personages who were members of the learned fraternity in times past; not +a portrait being admitted there (unless it he a king, and I remember only +Henry VIII.) save those who were actually students on the foundation, +receiving the eleemosynary aid of the College. Most of them were +divines; but there are likewise many statesmen, eminent during the last +three hundred years, and, among many earlier ones, the Marquis of +Wellesley and Canning. It is an excellent idea, for their own glory, and +as examples to the rising generations, to have this multitude of men, who +have done good and great things, before the eyes of those who ought to do +as well as they, in their own time. Archbishops, Prime Ministers, poets, +deep scholars,--but, doubtless, an outward success has generally been +their claim to this position, and Christ Church may have forgotten a +better man than the best of them. It is not, I think, the tendency of +English life, nor of the education of their colleges, to lead young men +to high moral excellence, but to aim at illustrating themselves in the +sight of mankind. + +Thence we went into the kitchen, which is arranged very much as it was +three centuries ago, with two immense fireplaces. There was likewise a +gridiron, which, without any exaggeration, was large enough to have +served for the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. The college dinners are good, +but plain, and cost the students one shilling and eleven pence each, +being rather cheaper than a similar one could be had at an inn. There is +no provision for breakfast or supper in commons; but they can have these +meals sent to their rooms from the buttery, at a charge proportioned to +the dishes they order. There seems to be no necessity for a great +expenditure on the part of Oxford students. + +From the kitchen we went to the chapel, which is the cathedral of Oxford, +and well worth seeing, if there had not been so many other things to see. +It is now under repair, and there was a great heap of old wood-work and +panelling lying in one of the aisles, which had been stripped away from +some of the ancient pillars, leaving them as good as new. There is a +shrine of a saint, with a wooden canopy over it; and some painted glass, +old and new; and a statue of Cyril Jackson, with a face of shrewdness and +insight; and busts, as mural monuments. + +Our next visit was to + + + +MERTON COLLEGE, + + +which, though not one of the great colleges, is as old as any of them, +and looks exceedingly venerable. We were here received by a friend of +Mr. Spiers, in his academic cap, but without his gown, which is not worn, +except in term time. He is a very civil gentleman, and showed us some +antique points of architecture,--such as a Norman archway, with a passage +over it, through which the Queen of Charles I. used to go to chapel; and +an edifice of the thirteenth century, with a stone roof, which is +considered to be very curious. + +How ancient is the aspect of these college quadrangles! so gnawed by time +as they are, so crumbly, so blackened, and so gray where they are not +black,--so quaintly shaped, too, with here a line of battlement and there +a row of gables; and here a turret, with probably a winding stair inside; +and lattice-windows, with stone mullions, and little panes of glass set +in lead; and the cloisters, with a long arcade, looking upon the green or +pebbled enclosure. The quality of the stone has a great deal to do with +the apparent antiquity. It is a stone found in the neighborhood of +Oxford, and very soon begins to crumble and decay superficially, when +exposed to the weather; so that twenty years do the work of a hundred, so +far as appearances go. If you strike one of the old walls with a stick, +a portion of it comes powdering down. The effect of this decay is very +picturesque, and is especially striking, I think, on edifices of classic +architecture, such as some of the Oxford colleges are, greatly enriching +the Grecian columns, which look so cold when the outlines are hard and +distinct. The Oxford people, however, are tired of this crumbly stone, +and when repairs are necessary, they use a more durable material, which +does not well assort with the antiquity into which it is intruded. + +Mr. E------ showed us the library of Merton College. It occupies two +sides of an old building, and has a very delightful fragrance of ancient +books. The halls containing it are vaulted, and roofed with oak, not +carved and ornamented, but laid flat, so that they look very like a grand +and spacious old garret. All along, there is a row of alcoves on each +side, with rude benches and reading-desks, in the simplest style, and +nobody knows how old. The books look as old as the building. The more +valuable were formerly chained to the bookcases; and a few of them have +not yet broken their chains. It was a good emblem of the dark and +monkish ages, when learning was imprisoned in their cloisters, and +chained in their libraries, in the days when the schoolmaster had not yet +gone abroad. Mr. E------ showed us a very old copy of the Bible; and a +vellum manuscript, most beautifully written in black-letter and +illuminated, of the works of Duns Scotus, who was a scholar of Merton +College. + +He then showed us the chapel, a large part of which has been renewed and +ornamented with pictured windows and other ecclesiastical splendor, and +paved with encaustic tiles, according to the Puseyite taste of the day; +for Merton has adopted the Puseyite doctrines, and is one of their chief +strongholds in Oxford. If they do no other good, they at least do much +for the preservation and characteristic restoration of the old English +churches; but perhaps, even here, there is as much antiquity spoiled as +retained. In the portion of the chapel not yet restored, we saw the rude +old pavement, inlaid with gravestones, in some of which were brasses, +with the figures of the college dignitaries, whose dust slumbered +beneath; and I think it was here that I saw the tombstone of +Anthony-a-Wood, the gossiping biographer of the learned men of Oxford. + +From the chapel we went into the college gardens, which are very +pleasant, and possess the advantage of looking out on the broad verdure +of Christ Church meadows and the river beyond. We loitered here awhile, +and then went to Mr. ------'s rooms, to which the entrance is by a fine +old staircase. They had a very comfortable, aspect,--a wainscoted parlor +and bedroom, as nice and cosey as a bachelor could desire, with a good +collection of theological books; and on a peg hung his gown, with a red +border about it, denoting him to be a proproctor. He was kind enough to +order a lunch, consisting of bread and cheese, college ale, and a certain +liquor called "Archdeacon." . . . . We ate and drank, . . . . and, +bidding farewell to good Mr. E------, we pursued our way to the + + + +RATCLIFFE LIBRARY. + + +This is a very handsome edifice, of a circular shape; the lower story +consisting altogether of arches, open on all sides, as if to admit +anybody to the learning here stored up. I always see great beauty and +lightsomeness in these classic and Grecian edifices, though they seem +cold and intellectual, and not to have had their mortar moistened with +human life-blood, nor to have the mystery of human life in them, as +Gothic structures do. The library is in a large and beautiful room, in +the story above the basement, and, as far as I saw, consisted chiefly or +altogether of scientific works. I saw Silliman's Journal on one of the +desks, being the only trace of American science, or American learning or +ability in any department, which I discovered in the University of +Oxford. After seeing the library, we went to the top of the building, +where we had an excellent view of Oxford and the surrounding country. +Then we went to the Convocation Hall, and afterwards to the theatre, +where S----- sat down in the Chancellor's chair, which is very broad, and +ponderously wrought of oak. I remember little here, except the +amphitheatre of benches, and the roof, which seems to be supported by +golden ropes, and on the wall, opposite the door, some full-length +portraits, among which one of that ridiculous coxcomb, George IV., was +the most prominent. These kings thrust themselves impertinently forward +by bust, statue, and picture, on all occasions, and it is not wise in +them to show their shallow foreheads among men of mind. + + + +THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. + + +Mr. Spiers tried to get us admittance to the Bodleian Library; but this +is just the moment when it is closed for the purpose of being cleaned; so +we missed seeing the principal halls of this library, and were only +admitted into what was called the Picture Gallery. This, however, +satisfied all my desires, so far as the backs of books are concerned, for +they extend through a gallery, running round three sides of a quadrangle, +making an aggregate length of more than four hundred feet,--a solid array +of bookcases, full of books, within a protection of open iron-work. Up +and down the gallery there are models of classic temples; and about +midway in its extent stands a brass statue of Earl Pembroke, who was +Chancellor of the University in James I's time; not in scholarly garb, +however, but in plate and mail, looking indeed like a thunderbolt of war. +I rapped him with my knuckles, and he seemed to be solid metal, though, I +should imagine, hollow at heart. A thing which interested me very much +was the lantern of Guy Fawkes. It was once tinned, no doubt, but is now +nothing but rusty iron, partly broken. As this is called the Picture +Gallery, I must not forget the pictures, which are ranged in long +succession over the bookcases, and include almost all Englishmen whom the +world has ever heard of, whether in statesmanship or literature, I saw a +canvas on which had once been a lovely and unique portrait of Mary of +Scotland; but it was consigned to a picture-cleaner to be cleansed, and, +discovering that it was painted over another picture, he had the +curiosity to clean poor Mary quite away, thus revealing a wishy-washy +woman's face, which now hangs in the gallery. I am so tired of seeing +notable things that I almost wish that whatever else is remarkable in +Oxford could he obliterated in some similar manner. + +From the Bodleian we went to + + + +THE TAYLOR INSTITUTE, + + +which was likewise closed; but the woman who had it in charge had +formerly been a servant of Mr. Spiers, and he so overpersuaded her that +she finally smiled and admitted us. It would truly have been a pity to +miss it; for here, on the basement floor, are the original models of +Chantrey's busts and statues, great and small; and in the rooms above are +a far richer treasure,--a large collection of original drawings by +Raphael and Michael Angelo. These are far better for my purpose than +their finished pictures,--that is to say, they bring me much closer to +the hands that drew them and the minds that imagined them. It is like +looking into their brains, and seeing the first conception before it took +shape outwardly (I have somewhere else said about the same thing of such +sketches). I noticed one of Raphael's drawings, representing the effect +of eloquence; it was a man speaking in the centre of a group, between +whose ears and the orator's mouth connecting lines were drawn. Raphael's +idea must have been to compose his picture in such a way that their +auricular organs should not fail to be in a proper relation with the +eloquent voice; and though this relation would not have been individually +traceable in the finished picture, yet the general effect--that of deep +and entranced attention--would have been produced. + +In another room there are some copies of Raphael's cartoons, and some +queer mediaeval pictures, as stiff and ugly as can well be conceived, yet +successful in telling their own story. We looked a little while at +these, and then, thank Heaven! went home and dressed for dinner. I can +write no more to-day. Indeed, what a mockery it is to write at all! + +[Here follows the drive to Cumnor Place, Stanton Harcourt, Nuneham +Courtney, Godstowe, etc.,--already published in Our Old Home.--ED.] + + +September 9th.--The morning after our excursion on the Thames was as +bright and beautiful as many preceding ones had been. After breakfast +S----- and I walked a little about the town, and bought Thomas a Kempis, +in both French and English, for U----. . . . . Mr. De la Motte, the +photographer, had breakfasted with us, and Mr. Spiers wished him to take +a photograph of our whole party. So, in the first place, before the rest +were assembled, he made an experimental group of such as were there; and +I did not like my own aspect very much. Afterwards, when we were all +come, he arranged us under a tree in the garden,--Mr. and Mrs. Spiers, +with their eldest son, Mr. and Mrs. Hall and Fanny, Mr. Addison, my wife +and me,--and stained the glass with our figures and faces in the +twinkling of an eye; not S-----'s face, however, for she turned it away, +and left only a portion of her bonnet and dress,--and Mrs. Hall, too, +refused to countenance the proceeding. But all the rest of us were +caught to the life, and I was really a little startled at recognizing +myself so apart from myself, and done so quickly too. + +This was the last important incident of our visit to Oxford, except that +Mr. Spiers was again most hospitable at lunch. Never did anybody attend +more faithfully to the comfort of his friends than does this good +gentleman. But he has shown himself most kind in every possible way, and +I shall always feel truly grateful. No better way of showing our sense +of his hospitality, and all the trouble he has taken for us (and our +memory of him), has occurred to us, than to present him with a set of my +Tales and Romances; so, by the next steamer, I shall write to Ticknor and +Fields to send them, elegantly bound, and S----- will emblazon his coat +of arms in each volume. He accompanied us and Mr. and Mrs. Hall to the +railway station, and we left Oxford at two o'clock. + +It had been a very pleasant visit, and all the persons whom we met were +kind and agreeable, and disposed to look at one another in a sunny +aspect. I saw a good deal of Mr. Hall. He is a thoroughly genuine man, +of kind heart and true affections, a gentleman of taste and refinement, +and full of humor. + +On the Saturday after our return to Blackheath, we went to + + + +HAMPTON COURT, + + +about which, as I have already recorded a visit to it, I need say little +here. But I was again impressed with the stately grandeur of Wolsey's +great Hall, with its great window at each end, and one side window, +descending almost to the floor, and a row of windows on each side, high +towards the roof, and throwing down their many-colored light on the stone +pavement, and on the Gobelin tapestry, which must have been gorgeously +rich when the walls were first clothed with it. I fancied, then, that no +modern architect could produce so fine a room; but oddly enough, in the +great entrance-hall of the Euston station, yesterday, I could not see how +this last fell very much short of Wolsey's Hall in grandeur. We were +quite wearied in passing through the endless suites of rooms in Hampton +Court, and gazing at the thousands of pictures; it is too much for one +day,--almost enough for one life, in such measure as life can be bestowed +on pictures. It would have refreshed us had we spent half the time in +wandering about the grounds, which, as we glimpsed at them from the +windows of the Palace, seemed very beautiful, though laid out with an +antique formality of straight lines and broad gravelled paths. Before +the central window there is a beautiful sheet of water, and a fountain +upshooting itself and plashing into it, with a continuous and pleasant +sound. How beautifully the royal robe of a monarchy is embroidered! +Palaces, pictures, parks! They do enrich life; and kings and +aristocracies cannot keep these things to themselves, they merely take +care of them for others. Even a king, with all the glory that can be +shed around him, is but the liveried and bedizened footman of his people, +and the toy of their delight. I am very glad that I came to this country +while the English are still playing with such a toy. + +Yesterday J----- and I left Blackheath, and reached Liverpool last night. +The rest of my family will follow in a few days; and so finishes our +residence in Bennoch's house, where I, for my part, have spent some of +the happiest hours that I have known since we left our American home. +It is a strange, vagabond, gypsy sort of life,--this that we are leading; +and I know not whether we shall finally be spoiled for any other, or +shall enjoy our quiet Wayside, as we never did before, when once we reach +it again. + +The evening set in misty and obscure; and it was dark almost when J----- +and I arrived at the landing stage on our return. I was struck with the +picturesque effect of the high tower and tall spire of St. Nicholas, +rising upward, with dim outline, into the duskiness; while midway of its +height the dial-plates of an illuminated clock blazed out, like two great +eyes of a giant. + + +September 13th.--On Saturday my wife, with all her train, arrived at Mrs. +B------'s; and on Tuesday--vagabonds as we are--we again struck our tent, +and set out for + + + +SOUTHPORT. + + +I do not know what sort of character it will form in the children,--this +unsettled, shifting, vagrant life, with no central home to turn to, +except what we carry in ourselves. It was a windy day, and, judging by +the look of the trees, on the way to Southport, it must be almost always +windy, and with the blast in one prevailing direction; for invariably +their branches, and the whole contour and attitude of the tree, turn from +seaward, with a strangely forlorn aspect. Reaching Southport, we took an +omnibus, and under the driver's guidance came to our tall stone house, +fronting on the sands, and styled "Brunswick Terrace." . . . . + +The English system of lodging-houses has its good points; but it is, +nevertheless, a contrivance for bearing the domestic cares of home about +with you whithersoever you go; and immediately you have to set about +producing your own bread and cheese. However, Fanny took most of this +trouble off our hands, though there was inevitably the stiffness and +discomfort of a new housekeeping on the first day of our arrival; besides +that, it was cool, and the wind whistled and grumbled and eddied into the +chinks of the house. + +Meanwhile, in all my experience of Southport, I have never yet seen the +sea, but only an interminable breadth of sands, looking pooly or plashy +in some places, and barred across with drier reaches of sand, but no +expanse of water. It must be miles and miles, at low water, to the +veritable sea-shore. We are about twenty miles north of Liverpool, on +the border of the Irish Sea; and Ireland and, I suppose, the Isle of Man +intervene betwixt us and the ocean, not much to our benefit; for the air +of the English coast, under ocean influences, is said to be milder than +when it comes across the land,--milder, therefore, above or below +Ireland, because then the Gulf Stream ameliorates it. + +Betimes, the forenoon after our arrival, I had to take the rail to +Liverpool, but returned, a little after five, in the midst of a rain,-- +still low water and interminable sands; still a dreary, howling blast. +We had a cheerful fireside, however, and should have had a pleasant +evening, only that the wind on the sea made us excessively drowsy. This +morning we awoke to hear the wind still blustering, and blowing up +clouds, with fitful little showers, and soon blowing them away again, and +letting the brightest of sunshine fall over the plashy waste of sand. We +have already walked forth on the shore with J----- and R-----, who pick +up shells, and dig wells in the sand with their little wooden spades; +but soon we saw a rainbow on the western sky, and then a shower came +spattering down upon us in good earnest. We first took refuge under the +bridge that stretches between the two portions of the promenade; but as +there was a chill draught there, we made the best of our way home. The +sun has now again come out brightly, though the wind is still tumbling a +great many clouds about the sky. + + +Evening.--Later, I walked out with U----, and, looking seaward, we saw +the foam and spray of the advancing tide, tossed about on the verge of +the horizon,--a long line, like the crests and gleaming helmets of an +army. In about half an hour we found almost the whole waste of sand +covered with water, and white waves breaking out all over it; but, the +bottom being so nearly level, and the water so shallow, there was little +of the spirit and exultation of the sea in a strong breeze. Of the long +line of bathing-machines, one after another was hitched to a horse, and +trundled forth into the water, where, at a long distance from shore, the +bathers found themselves hardly middle deep. + + +September 19th.--The wind grumbled and made itself miserable all last +night, and this morning it is still howling as ill-naturedly as ever, and +roaring and rumbling in the chimneys. The tide is far out, but, from an +upper window, I fancied, at intervals, that I could see the plash of the +surf-wave on the distant limit of the sand; perhaps, however, it was only +a gleam on the sky. Constantly there have been sharp spatters of rain, +hissing and rattling against the windows, while a little before or after, +or perhaps simultaneously, a rainbow, somewhat watery of texture, paints +itself on the western clouds. Gray, sullen clouds hang about the sky, or +sometimes cover it with a uniform dulness; at other times, the portions +towards the sun gleam almost lightsomely; now, there may be an airy +glimpse of clear blue sky in a fissure of the clouds; now, the very +brightest of sunshine comes out all of a sudden, and gladdens everything. +The breadth of sands has a various aspect, according as there are pools, +or moisture enough to glisten, or a drier tract; and where the light +gleams along a yellow ridge or bar, it is like sunshine itself. +Certainly the temper of the day shifts; but the smiles come far the +seldomest, and its frowns and angry tears are most reliable. By seven +o'clock pedestrians began to walk along the promenade, close buttoned +against the blast; later, a single bathing-machine got under way, by +means of a horse, and travelled forth seaward; but within what distance +it finds the invisible margin I cannot say,--at all events, it looks like +a dreary journey. Just now I saw a sea-gull, wheeling on the blast, +close in towards the promenade. + + +September 21st.--Yesterday morning was bright, sunny and windy, and cool +and exhilarating. I went to Liverpool at eleven, and, returning at five, +found the weather still bright and cool. The temperature, methinks, must +soon diminish the population of Southport, which, judging from +appearances, must be mainly made up of temporary visitors. There is a +newspaper, The Southport Visitor, published weekly, and containing a +register of all the visitants in the various hotels and lodging-houses. +It covers more than two sides of the paper, to the amount of some +hundreds. The guests come chiefly from Liverpool, Manchester, and the +neighboring country-towns, and belong to the middle classes. It is not a +fashionable watering-place. Only one nobleman's name, and those of two +or three baronets, now adorn the list. The people whom we see loitering +along the beach and the promenade have, at best, a well-to-do, +tradesmanlike air. I do not find that there are any public amusements; +nothing but strolling on the sands, donkey-riding, or drives in +donkey-carts; and solitary visitors must find it a dreary place. Yet one +or two of the streets are brisk and lively, and, being well thronged, +have a holiday aspect. There are no carriages in town save donkey-carts; +some of which are drawn by three donkeys abreast, and are large enough to +hold a whole family. These conveyances will take you far out on the +sands through wet and dry. The beach is haunted by The Flying Dutchman, +--a sort of boat on wheels, schooner-rigged with sails, and which +sometimes makes pretty good speed, with a fair wind. + +This morning we have been walking with J----- and R----- out over the +"ribbed sea sands," a good distance from shore. Throughout the week, the +tides will be so low as not to cover the shallow basin of this bay, if a +bay it be. The weather was sullen, with now and then a faint gleam of +sunshine, lazily tracing our shadows on the sand; the wind rather quieter +than on preceding days. . . . . In the sunshine the sands seem to be +frequented by great numbers of gulls, who begin to find the northern +climate too wintry. You see their white wings in the sunlight, but they +become almost or quite invisible in the shade. We shall soon have an +opportunity of seeing how a watering-place looks when the season is quite +over; for we have concluded to remain here till December, and everybody +else will take flight in a week or two. + +A short time ago, in the evening, in a street of Liverpool, I saw a +decent man, of the lower orders, taken much aback by being roughly +brushed against by a rowdy fellow. He looked after him, and exclaimed +indignantly, "Is that a Yankee?" It shows the kind of character we have +here. + + +October 7th.--On Saturday evening, I gave a dinner to Bennoch, at the +Adelphi Hotel. The chief point or characteristic of English customs was, +that Mr. Radley, our landlord, himself attended at table, and officiated +as chief waiter. He has a fortune of 100,000 pounds,--half a million of +dollars,--and is an elderly man of good address and appearance. In +America, such a man would very probably be in Congress; at any rate, he +would never conceive the possibility of changing plates, or passing round +the table with hock and champagne. Some of his hock was a most rich and +imperial wine, such as can hardly be had on the Rhine itself. There were +eight gentlemen besides Bennoch. + +A donkey, the other day, stubbornly refusing to come out of a boat which +had brought him across the Mersey; at last, after many kicks had been +applied, and other persecutions of that kind, a man stepped forward, +addressing him affectionately, "Come along, brother,"--and the donkey +obeyed at once. + + +October 26th.--On Thursday, instead of taking the rail for Liverpool, I +set out, about eleven, for a long walk. It was an overcast morning, such +as in New England would have boded rain; but English clouds are not +nearly so portentous as American in that respect. Accordingly, the sun +soon began to peep through crevices, and I had not gone more than a mile +or two when it shone a little too warmly for comfort, yet not more than I +liked. It was very much like our pleasant October days at home; indeed, +the climates of the two countries more nearly coincide during the present +month than at any other season of the year. The air was almost perfectly +still; but once in a while it stirred, and breathed coolly in my face; it +is very delightful, this latent freshness, in a warm atmosphere. + +The country about Southport has as few charms as it is possible for any +region to have. In the close neighborhood of the shore, it is nothing +but sand-hillocks, covered with coarse grass; and this is the original +nature of the whole site on which the town stands, although it is now +paved, and has been covered with soil enough to make gardens, and to +nourish here and there a few trees. A little farther inland the surface +seems to have been marshy, but has been drained by ditches across the +fields and along the roadside; and the fields are embanked on all sides +with parapets of earth which appear as if intended to keep out +inundations. In fact, Holland itself cannot be more completely on a +level with the sea. The only dwellings are the old, whitewashed stone +cottages, with thatched roofs, on the brown straw of which grow various +weeds and mosses, brightening it with green patches, and sprouting along +the ridgepole,--the homeliest hovels that ever mortals lived in, and +which they share with pigs and cows at one end. Hens, too, run in and +out of the door. One or two of these hovels bore signs, "Licensed to +sell beer, ale, and tobacco," and generally there were an old woman and +some children visible. In all cases there was a ditch, full of water, +close at hand, stagnant, and often quite covered with a growth of +water-weeds,--very unwholesome, one would think, in the neighborhood of a +dwelling; and, in truth, the children and grown people did look pale. + +In the fields, along the roadside, men and women were harvesting their +carrots and other root-crops, especially digging potatoes,--the +pleasantest of all farm labor, in my opinion, there being such a +continual interest in opening the treasures of each hill. As I went on, +the country began to get almost imperceptibly less flat, and there was +some little appearance of trees. I had determined to go to Ormskirk, but +soon got out of the way, and came to a little hamlet that looked antique +and picturesque, with its small houses of stone and brick, built, with +the one material and repaired with the other perhaps ages afterward. +Here I inquired my way of a woman, who told me, in broad Lancashire +dialect, "that I main go back, and turn to my left, till I came to a +finger-post"; and so I did, and found another little hamlet, the +principal object in which was a public-house, with a large sign, +representing a dance round a Maypole. It was now about one o'clock; so I +entered, and, being ushered into what, I suppose, they called the +coffee-room, I asked for some cold neat and ale. There was a jolly, +round, rather comely woman for a hostess, with a free, hospitable, yet +rather careless manner. + +The coffee-room smelt rather disagreeably of bad tobacco-smoke, and was +shabbily furnished with an old sofa and flag-bottomed chairs, and adorned +with a print of "Old Billy," a horse famous for a longevity of about +sixty years; and also with colored engravings of old-fashioned +hunting-scenes, conspicuous with scarlet coats. There was a very small +bust of Milton on the mantel-piece. By and by the remains of an immense +round of beef, three quarters cut away, were put on the table; then some +smoking-hot potatoes; and finally the hostess told me that their own +dinner was just ready, and so she had brought me in some hot chops, +thinking I might prefer them to the cold meat. I did prefer them; and +they were stewed or fried chops, instead of broiled, and were very +savory. There was household bread too, and rich cheese, and a pint of +ale, home brewed, not very mighty, but good to quench thirst, and, by way +of condiment, some pickled cabbage; so, instead of a lunch, I made quite +a comfortable dinner. Moreover, there was a cold pudding on the table, +and I called for a clean plate, and helped myself to some of it. It was +of rice, and was strewn over, rather than intermixed, with some kinds of +berries, the nature of which I could not exactly make out. + +I then set forth again. It was still sunny and warm, and I walked more +slowly than before dinner; in fact, I did little more than lounge along, +sitting down, at last, on the stone parapet of a bridge. + +The country grew more pleasant, more sylvan, and, though still of a level +character, not so drearily flat. Soon appeared the first symptom that I +had seen of a gentleman's residence,--a lodge at a park gate, then a long +stretch of wall, with a green lawn, and afterwards an extent of wooded +land; then another gateway, with a neat lodge on each side of it, and, +lastly, another extent of wood. The Hall or Mansion-house, however, was +nowhere apparent, being, doubtless, secluded deep and far within its +grounds. I inquired of a boy who was the owner of the estate, and he +answered, "Mr. Scarisbrick"; and no doubt it is a family of local +eminence. + +Along the road,--an old inn; some aged stone houses, built for merely +respectable occupants; a canal, with two canal-boats, heaped up with a +cargo of potatoes; two little girls, who were watching lest some cows +should go astray, and had their two little chairs by the roadside, and +their dolls and other playthings, and so followed the footsteps of the +cows all day long. I met two boys, coming from Ormskirk, mounted on +donkeys, with empty panniers, on which they had carried vegetables to +market. Finally, between two and three o'clock, I saw the great tower of +Ormskirk Church, with its spire, not rising out of the tower, but +sprouting up close beside it; and, entering the town, I directed my steps +first to this old church. + + + +ORMSKIRK CHURCH. + + +It stands on a gentle eminence, sufficient to give it a good site, and +has a pavement of flat gravestones in front. It is doubtless, as regards +its foundation, a very ancient church, but has not exactly a venerable +aspect, being in too good repair, and much restored in various parts; not +ivy-grown, either, though green with moss here and there. The tower is +square and immensely massive, and might have supported a very lofty +spire; so that it is the more strange that what spire it has should be so +oddly stuck beside it, springing out of the church wall. I should have +liked well enough to enter the church, as it is the burial-place of the +Earls of Derby, and perhaps may contain some interesting monuments; but +as it was all shut up, and even the iron gates of the churchyard closed +and locked, I merely looked at the outside. + +From the church, a street leads to the market-place, in which I found a +throng of men and women, it being market-day; wares of various kinds, +tin, earthen, and cloth, set out on the pavements; droves of pigs; ducks +and fowls; baskets of eggs; and a man selling quack medicines, +recommending his nostrums as well as he could. The aspect of the crowd +was very English,--portly and ruddy women; yeomen with small-clothes and +broad-brimmed hats, all very quiet and heavy and good-humored. Their +dialect was so provincial that I could not readily understand more than +here and there a word. + +But, after all, there were few traits that could be made a note of. I +soon grew weary of the scene, and so I went to the railway station, and +waited there nearly an hour for the train to take me to Southport. +Ormskirk is famous for its gingerbread, which women sell to the railway +passengers at a sixpence for a rouleau of a dozen little cakes. + + +November 30th.--A week ago last Monday, Herman Melville came to see me at +the Consulate, looking much as he used to do, and with his characteristic +gravity and reserve of manner. . . . . We soon found ourselves on pretty +much our former terms of sociability and confidence. . . . . He is thus +far on his way to Constantinople. I do not wonder that he found it +necessary to take an airing through the world, after so many years of +toilsome pen-labor, following upon so wild and adventurous a youth as his +was. I invited him to come and stay with us at Southport, as long as he +might remain in this vicinity, and accordingly he did come the next day. +. . . . On Wednesday we took a pretty long walk together, and sat down in +a hollow among the sand-hills, sheltering ourselves from the high cool +wind. Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and +futurity, and of everything else that lies beyond human ken. . . . . He +has a very high and noble nature, and is better worth immortality than +the most of us. . . . . On Saturday we went to Chester together. I love +to take every opportunity of going to Chester; it being the one only +place, within easy reach of Liverpool, which possesses any old English +interest. + +We went to + + + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +Its gray nave impressed me more than at any former visit. Passing into +the cloisters, an attendant took possession of us, and showed us about. + +Within the choir there is a profusion of very rich oaken carving, both on +the screen that separates it from the nave, and on the seats and walls; +very curious and most elaborate, and lavished (one would say) most +wastefully, where nobody would think of looking for it,--where, indeed, +amid the dimness of the cathedral, the exquisite detail of the +elaboration could not possibly be seen. Our guide lighted some of the +gas-burners, of which there are many hundreds, to help us see them; but +it required close scrutiny, even then. It must have been out of the +question, when the whole means of illumination were only a few smoky +torches or candles. There was a row of niches, where the monks used to +stand, for four hours together, in the performance of some of their +services; and to relieve them a little, they were allowed partially to +sit on a projection of the seats, which were turned up in the niche for +that purpose; but if they grew drowsy, so as to fail to balance +themselves, the seat was so contrived as to slip down, thus bringing the +monk to the floor. These projections on the seats are each and all of +them carved with curious devices, no two alike. The guide showed us one, +representing, apparently, the first quarrel of a new-married couple, +wrought with wonderful expression. Indeed, the artist never failed to +bring out his idea in the most striking manner,--as, for instance, Satan, +under the guise of a lion, devouring a sinner bodily; and again in the +figure of a dragon, with a man halfway down his gullet, the legs hanging +out. The carver may not have seen anything grotesque in this, nor +intended it at all by way of joke; but certainly there would appear to be +a grim mirthfulness in some of the designs. One does not see why such +fantasies should be strewn about the holy interior of a cathedral, unless +it were intended to contain everything that belongs to the heart of man, +both upward and downward. + +In a side aisle of the choir, we saw a tomb, said to be that of the +Emperor Henry IV. of Germany, though on very indistinct authority. This +is an oblong tomb, carved, and, on one side, painted with bright colors +and gilded. During a very long period it was built and plastered into +the wall, and the exterior side was whitewashed; but, on being removed, +the inner side was found to have been ornamented with gold and color, in +the manner in which we now see it. If this were customary with tombs, it +must have added vastly to the gorgeous magnificence, to which the painted +windows and polished pillars and ornamented ceilings contributed so much. +In fact, a cathedral in its fresh estate seems to have been like a +pavilion of the sunset, all purple and gold; whereas now it more +resembles deepest and grayest twilight. + +Afterwards, we were shown into the ancient refectory, now used as the +city grammar-school, and furnished with the usual desks and seats for the +boys. In one corner of this large room was the sort of pulpit or +elevated seat, with a broken staircase of stone ascending to it, where +one of the monks used to read to his brethren, while sitting at their +meals. The desks were cut and carved with the scholars' knives, just as +they used to be in the school-rooms where I was a scholar. Thence we +passed into the chapter-house, but, before that, we went through a small +room, in which Melville opened a cupboard, and discovered a dozen or two +of wine-bottles; but our guide told us that they were now empty, and +never were meant for jollity, having held only sacramental wine. In the +chapter-house, we saw the library, some of the volumes of which were +antique folios. There were two dusty and tattered banners hanging on the +wall, and the attendant promised to make us laugh by something that he +would tell us about them. The joke was that these two banners had been +in the battle of Bunker Hill; and our countrymen, he said, always +smiled on hearing this. He had discovered us to be Americans by the +notice we took of a mural tablet in the choir, to the memory of a +Lieutenant-Governor Clarke, of New York, who died in Chester before the +Revolution. From the chapter-house he ushered us back into the nave, +ever and anon pointing out some portion of the edifice more ancient than +the rest, and when I asked him how he knew this, he said that he had +learnt it from the archaeologists, who could read off such things like a +book. This guide was a lively, quick-witted man, who did his business +less by rote, and more with a vivacious interest, than any guide I ever +met. + +After leaving the cathedral we sought out the Yacht Inn, near the +water-gate. This was, for a long period of time, the principal inn of +Chester, and was the house at which Swift once put up, on his way to +Holyhead, and where he invited the clergy to come and sup with him. We +sat down in a small snuggery, conversing with the landlord. The Chester +people, according to my experience, are very affable, and fond of talking +with strangers about the antiquities and picturesque characteristics of +their town. It partly lives, the landlord told us, by its visitors, and +many people spend the summer here on account of the antiquities and the +good air. He showed us a broad, balustraded staircase, leading into a +large, comfortable, old-fashioned parlor, with windows looking on the +street and on the Custom House that stood opposite. This was the room +where Swift expected to receive the clergy of Chester; and on one of the +window-panes were two acrid lines, written with the diamond of his ring, +satirizing those venerable gentlemen, in revenge for their refusing his +invitation. The first line begins rather indistinctly; but the writing +grows fully legible, as it proceeds. + +The Yacht Tavern is a very old house, in the gabled style. The timbers +and framework are still perfectly sound. In the same street is the +Bishop's house (so called as having been the residence of a prelate long +ago), which is covered with curious sculpture, representing Scriptural +scenes. And in the same neighborhood is the county court, accessible by +an archway, through which we penetrated, and found ourselves in a +passage, very ancient and dusky, overlooked from the upper story by a +gallery, to which an antique staircase ascended, with balustrades and +square landing-places. A printer saw us here, and asked us into his +printing-office, and talked very affably; indeed, he could have hardly +been more civil, if he had known that both Melville and I have given a +good deal of employment to the brethren of his craft. + + +December 15th.--An old gentleman has recently paid me a good many +visits,--a Kentucky man, who has been a good deal in England and Europe +generally without losing the freshness and unconventionality of his +earlier life. He was a boatman, and afterwards captain of a steamer on +the Ohio and Mississippi; but has gained property, and is now the owner +of mines of coal and iron, which he is endeavoring to dispose of here in +England. A plain, respectable, well-to-do-looking personage, of more +than seventy years; very free of conversation, and beginning to talk with +everybody as a matter of course; tall, stalwart, a dark face, with white +curly hair and keen eyes; and an expression shrewd, yet kindly and +benign. He fought through the whole War of 1812, beginning with General +Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, which he described to me. He says +that at the beginning of the battle, and for a considerable time, he +heard Tecumseh's voice, loudly giving orders. There was a man named +Wheatley in the American camp, a strange, incommunicative person,--a +volunteer, making war entirely on his own book, and seeking revenge for +some relatives of his, who had been killed by the Indians. In the midst +of the battle this Wheatley ran at a slow trot past R------ (my +informant), trailing his rifle, and making towards the point where +Tecumseh's voice was heard. The fight drifted around, and R------ along +with it; and by and by he reached a spot where Wheatley lay dead, with +his head on Tecumseh's breast. Tecumseh had been shot with a rifle, but, +before expiring, appeared to have shot Wheatley with a pistol, which he +still held in his hand. R------ affirms that Tecumseh was flayed by the +Kentucky men on the spot, and his skin converted into razor-straps. I +have left out the most striking point of the narrative, after all, as +R------ told it, viz. that soon after Wheatley passed him, he suddenly +ceased to hear Tecumseh's voice ringing through the forest, as he gave +his orders. He was at the battle of New Orleans, and gave me the story +of it from beginning to end; but I remember only a few particulars in +which he was personally concerned. He confesses that his hair bristled +upright--every hair in his head--when he heard the shouts of the British +soldiers before advancing to the attack. His uncomfortable sensations +lasted till he began to fire, after which he felt no more of them. It +was in the dusk of the morning, or a little before sunrise, when the +assault was made; and the fight lasted about two hours and a half, during +which R------ fired twenty-four times; and said he, "I saw my object +distinctly each time, and I was a good rifle-shot." He was raising his +rifle to fire the twenty-fifth time, when an American officer, General +Carroll, pressed it down, and bade him fire no more. "Enough is enough," +quoth the General. For there needed no more slaughter, the British being +in utter rout and confusion. In this retreat many of the enemy would +drop down among the dead, then rise, run a considerable distance, and +drop again, thus confusing the riflemen's aim. One fellow had thus got +about four hundred and fifty yards from the American line, and, thinking +himself secure, he made a derisive gesture. "I'll have a shot at him +anyhow," cried a rifleman; so he fired, and the poor devil dropped. + +R------ himself, with one of his twenty-four shots, hit a British +officer, who fell forward on his face, about thirty paces from our line, +and as the enemy were then retreating (they advanced and were repelled +two or three times) he ran out, and turned him over on his back. The +officer was a man about thirty-eight, tall and fine-looking; his eyes +were wide open, clear and bright, and were fixed full on R------ with a +somewhat stern glance, but there was the sweetest and happiest smile over +his face that could be conceived. He seemed to be dead;--at least, +R------ thinks that he did not really see him, fixedly as he appeared to +gaze. The officer held his sword in his hand, and R------ tried in vain +to wrest it from him, until suddenly the clutch relaxed. R------ still +keeps the sword hung up over his mantel-piece. I asked him how the dead +man's aspect affected him. He replied that he felt nothing at the time; +but that ever since, in all trouble, in uneasy sleep, and whenever he is +out of tune, or waking early, or lying awake at night, he sees this +officer's face, with the clear bright eyes and the pleasant smile, just +as distinctly as if he were bending over him. His wound was in the +breast, exactly on the spot that R------ had aimed at, and bled +profusely. The enemy advanced in such masses, he says, that it was +impossible not to hit them unless by purposely firing over their heads. + +After the battle, R------ leaped over the rampart, and took a prisoner +who was standing unarmed in the midst of the slain, having probably +dropped down during the heat of the action, to avoid the hail-storm of +rifle-shots. As he led him in, the prisoner paused, and pointed to an +officer who was lying dead beside his dead horse, with his foot still in +the stirrup. "There lies our General," said he. The horse had been +killed by a grape-shot, and Pakenham himself, apparently, by a +six-pounder ball, which had first struck the earth, covering him from +head to foot with mud and clay, and had then entered his side, and gone +upward through his breast. His face was all besmirched with the moist +earth. R------ took the slain General's foot out of the stirrup, and +then went to report his death. + +Much more he told me, being an exceedingly talkative old man, and seldom, +I suppose, finding so good a listener as myself. I like the man,--a +good-tempered, upright, bold and free old fellow; of a rough breeding, +but sufficiently smoothed by society to be of pleasant intercourse. He +is as dogmatic as possible, having formed his own opinions, often on very +disputable grounds, and hardened in them; taking queer views of matters +and things, and giving shrewd and not ridiculous reasons for them; but +with a keen, strong sense at the bottom of his character. + +A little while ago I met an Englishman in a railway carriage, who +suggests himself as a kind of contrast to this warlike and +vicissitudinous backwoodsman. He was about the same age as R------, but +had spent, apparently, his whole life in Liverpool, and has long occupied +the post of Inspector of Nuisances,--a rather puffy and consequential +man; gracious, however, and affable, even to casual strangers like +myself. The great contrast betwixt him and the American lies in the +narrower circuit of his ideas; the latter talking about matters of +history of his own country and the world,--glancing over the whole field +of politics, propounding opinions and theories of his own, and showing +evidence that his mind had operated for better or worse on almost all +conceivable matters; while the Englishman was odorous of his office, +strongly flavored with that, and otherwise most insipid. He began his +talk by telling me of a dead body which he had lately discovered in a +house in Liverpool, where it had been kept about a fortnight by the +relatives, partly from want of funds for the burial, and partly in +expectation of the arrival of some friends from Glasgow. There was a +plate of glass in the coffin-lid, through which the Inspector of +Nuisances, as he told me, had looked and seen the dead man's face in an +ugly state of decay, which he minutely described. However, his +conversation was not altogether of this quality; for he spoke about +larks, and how abundant they are just now, and what a good pie they make, +only they must be skinned, else they will have a bitter taste. We have +since had a lark-pie ourselves, and I believe it was very good in itself; +only the recollection of the Nuisance-man's talk was not a very agreeable +flavor. A very racy and peculiarly English character might be made out +of a man like this, having his life-concern wholly with the disagreeables +of a great city. He seemed to be a good and kindly person, too, but +earthy,--even as if his frame had been moulded of clay impregnated with +the draining of slaughter-houses. + + +December 21st.--On Thursday evening I dined for the first time with the +new Mayor at the Town Hall. I wish to preserve all the characteristic +traits of such banquets, because, being peculiar to England, these +municipal feasts may do well to picture in a novel. There was a big old +silver tobacco-box, nearly or quite as large round as an ordinary plate, +out of which the dignitaries of Liverpool used to fill their pipes, while +sitting in council or after their dinners. The date "1690" was on the +lid. It is now used as a snuff-box, and wends its way, from guest to +guest, round the table. We had turtle, and, among other good things, +American canvasback ducks. . . . . These dinners are certainly a good +institution, and likely to be promotive of good feeling; the Mayor giving +them often, and inviting, in their turn, all the respectable and eminent +citizens of whatever political bias. About fifty gentlemen were present +that evening. I had the post of honor at the Mayor's right hand; and +France, Turkey, and Austria were toasted before the Republic, for, as the +Mayor whispered me, he must first get his allies out of the way. The +Turkish Consul and the Austrian both made better English speeches than +any Englishman, during the evening; for it is inconceivable what +shapeless and ragged utterances Englishmen are content to put forth, +without attempting anything like a wholeness; but inserting a patch here +and a patch there, and finally getting out what they wish to say, indeed, +but in most disorganized guise. . . . . I can conceive of very high +enjoyment in making a speech; one is in such a curious sympathy with his +audience, feeling instantly how every sentence affects them, and +wonderfully excited and encouraged by the sense that it has gone to the +right spot. Then, too, the imminent emergency, when a man is overboard, +and must sink or swim, sharpens, concentrates, and invigorates the mind, +and causes matters of thought and sentiment to assume shape and +expression, though, perhaps, it seemed hopeless to express them, just +before you rose to speak. Yet I question much whether public speaking +tends to elevate the orator, intellectually or morally; the effort, of +course, being to say what is immediately received by the audience, and to +produce an effect on the instant. I don't quite see how an honest man +can be a good and successful orator; but I shall hardly undertake to +decide the question on my merely post-prandial experience. + +The Mayor toasted his guests by their professions,--the merchants, for +instance, the bankers, the solicitors,--and while one of the number +responded, his brethren also stood up, each in his place, thus giving +their assent to what he said. I think the very worst orator was a major +of Artillery, who spoke in a meek, little, nervous voice, and seemed a +good deal more discomposed than probably he would have been in the face +of the enemy. The first toast was "The Ladies," to which an old bachelor +responded. + + +December 31st.--Thus far we have come through the winter, on this bleak +and blasty shore of the Irish Sea, where, perhaps, the drowned body of +Milton's friend Lycidas might have been washed ashore more than two +centuries ago. This would not be very likely, however, so wide a tract +of sands, never deeply covered by the tide, intervening betwixt us and +the sea. But it is an excessively windy place, especially here on the +Promenade; always a whistle and a howl,--always an eddying gust through +the corridors and chambers,--often a patter of hail or rain or snow +against the windows; and in the long evenings the sounds outside are very +much as if we were on shipboard in mid-ocean, with the waves dashing +against the vessel's sides. I go to town almost daily, starting at about +eleven, and reaching Southport again at a little past live; by which time +it is quite dark, and continues so till nearly eight in the morning. + +Christmas time has been marked by few characteristics. For a week or two +previous to Christmas day, the newspapers contained rich details +respecting market-stalls and butchers' shops,--what magnificent carcasses +of prize oxen and sheep they displayed. . . . . + +The Christmas Waits came to us on Christmas eve, and on the day itself, +in the shape of little parties of boys or girls, singing wretched +doggerel rhymes, and going away well pleased with the guerdon of a penny +or two. Last evening came two or three older choristers at pretty near +bedtime, and sang some carols at our door. They were psalm tunes, +however. Everybody with whom we have had to do, in any manner of +service, expects a Christmas-box; but, in most cases, a shilling is quite +a satisfactory amount. We have had holly and mistletoe stuck up on the +gas-fixtures and elsewhere about the house. + +On the mantel-piece in the coroner's court the other day, I saw corked +and labelled phials, which it may be presumed contained samples of +poisons that have brought some poor wretches to their deaths, either by +murder or suicide. This court might be wrought into a very good and +pregnant description, with its grimy gloom illuminated by a conical +skylight, constructed to throw daylight down on corpses; its greasy +Testament covered over with millions of perjured kisses; the coroner +himself, whose life is fed on all kinds of unnatural death; its +subordinate officials, who go about scenting murder, and might be +supposed to have caught the scent in their own garments; its stupid, +brutish juries, settling round corpses like flies; its criminals, whose +guilt is brought face to face with them here, in closer contact than at +the subsequent trial. + +O---- P------, the famous Mormonite, called on me a little while ago,--a +short, black-haired, dark-complexioned man; a shrewd, intelligent, but +unrefined countenance, excessively unprepossessing; an uncouth gait and +deportment; the aspect of a person in comfortable circumstances, and +decently behaved, but of a vulgar nature and destitute of early culture. +I think I should have taken him for a shoemaker, accustomed to reflect in +a rude, strong, evil-disposed way on matters of this world and the next, +as he sat on his bench. He said he had been residing in Liverpool about +six months; and his business with me was to ask for a letter of +introduction that should gain him admittance to the British Museum, he +intending a visit to London. He offered to refer me to respectable +people for his character; but I advised him to apply to Mr. Dallas, as +the proper person for his purpose. + + +March 1st, 1857.--On the night of last Wednesday week, our house was +broken into by robbers. They entered by the back window of the +breakfast-room, which is the children's school-room, breaking or cutting +a pane of glass, so as to undo the fastening. I have a dim idea of +having heard a noise through my sleep; but if so, it did not more than +slightly disturb me. U---- heard it, she being at watch with R-----; and +J-----, having a cold, was also wakeful, and thought the noise was of +servants moving about below. Neither did the idea of robbers occur to +U----. J-----, however, hearing U---- at her mother's door, asking for +medicine for R-----, called out for medicine for his cold, and the thieves +probably thought we were bestirring ourselves, and so took flight. In +the morning the servants found the hall door and the breakfast-room +window open; some silver cups and some other trifles of plate were gone +from the sideboard, and there were tokens that the whole lower part of +the house had been ransacked; but the thieves had evidently gone off in a +hurry, leaving some articles which they would have taken, had they been +more at leisure. + +We gave information to the police, and an inspector and constable soon +came to make investigations, taking a list of the missing articles, and +informing themselves as to all particulars that could be known. I did +not much expect ever to hear any more of the stolen property; but on +Sunday a constable came to request my presence at the police-office to +identify the lost things. The thieves had been caught in Liverpool, +and some of the property found upon them, and some of it at a +pawnbroker's where they had pledged it. The police-office is a small +dark room, in the basement story of the Town Hall of Southport; and over +the mantel-piece, hanging one upon another, there are innumerable +advertisements of robberies in houses, and on the highway,--murders, too, +and garrotings; and offences of all sorts, not only in this district, but +wide away, and forwarded from other police-stations. Bring thus +aggregated together, one realizes that there are a great many more +offences than the public generally takes note of. Most of these +advertisements were in pen and ink, with minute lists of the articles +stolen; but the more important were in print; and there, too, I saw the +printed advertisement of our own robbery, not for public circulation, but +to be handed about privately, among police-officers and pawnbrokers. A +rogue has a very poor chance in England, the police being so numerous, +and their system so well organized. + +In a corner of the police-office stood a contrivance for precisely +measuring the heights of prisoners; and I took occasion to measure +J-----, and found him four feet seven inches and a half high. A set of +rules for the self-government of police-officers was nailed on the door, +between twenty and thirty in number, and composing a system of +constabulary ethics. The rules would be good for men in almost any walk +of life; and I rather think the police-officers conform to them with +tolerable strictness. They appear to be subordinated to one another on +the military plan. The ordinary constable does not sit down in the +presence of his inspector, and this latter seems to be half a gentleman; +at least, such is the bearing of our Southport inspector, who wears a +handsome uniform of green and silver, and salutes the principal +inhabitants, when meeting them in the street, with an air of something +like equality. Then again there is a superintendent, who certainly +claims the rank of a gentleman, and has perhaps been an officer in the +army. The superintendent of this district was present on this occasion. + +The thieves were brought down from Liverpool on Tuesday, and examined in +the Town Hall. I had been notified to be present, but, as a matter of +courtesy, the police-officers refrained from calling me as a witness, the +evidence of the servants being sufficient to identify the property. The +thieves were two young men, not much over twenty,--James and John +Macdonald, terribly shabby, dirty, jail-bird like, yet intelligent of +aspect, and one of them handsome. The police knew them already, and they +seemed not much abashed by their position. There were half a dozen +magistrates on the bench,--idle old gentlemen of Southport and the +vicinity, who lounged into the court, more as a matter of amusement than +anything else, and lounged out again at their own pleasure; for these +magisterial duties are a part of the pastime of the country gentlemen of +England. They wore their hats on the bench. There were one or two of +them more active than their fellows; but the real duty was done by the +Clerk of the Court. The seats within the bar were occupied by the +witnesses, and around the great table sat some of the more respectable +people of Southport; and without the bar were the commonalty in great +numbers; for this is said to be the first burglary that has occurred here +within the memory of man, and so it has caused a great stir. + +There seems to be a strong case against the prisoners. A boy attached to +the railway testified to having seen them at Birchdale on Wednesday +afternoon, and directed them on their way to Southport; Peter Pickup +recognized them as having applied to him for lodgings in the course of +that evening; a pawnbroker swore to one of them as having offered my +top-coat for sale or pledge in Liverpool; and my boots were found on the +feet of one of them,--all this in addition to other circumstances of +pregnant suspicion. So they were committed for trial at the Liverpool +assizes, to be holden some time in the present month. I rather wished +them to escape. + + +February 27th.--Coming along the promenade, a little before sunset, I saw +the mountains of the Welsh coast shadowed very distinctly against the +horizon. Mr. Channing told me that he had seen these mountains once or +twice during his stay at Southport; but, though constantly looking for +them, they have never before greeted my eyes in all the months that we +have spent here. It is said that the Isle of Man is likewise discernible +occasionally; but as the distance must be between sixty and seventy +miles, I should doubt it. How misty is England! I have spent four years +in a gray gloom. And yet it suits me pretty well. + + + +TO YORK. + + +April 10th.--At Skipton. My wife, J-----, and I left Southport to-day +for a short tour to York and its neighborhood. The weather has been +exceedingly disagreeable for weeks past, but yesterday and to-day have +been pleasant, and we take advantage of the first glimpses of spring-like +weather. We came by Preston, along a road that grew rather more +interesting as we proceeded to this place, which is about sixty miles +from Southport, and where we arrived between five and six o'clock. First +of all, we got some tea; and then, as it was a pleasant sunset, we set +forth from our old-fashioned inn to take a walk. + +Skipton is an ancient town, and has an ancient though well-repaired +aspect, the houses being built of gray stone, but in no picturesque +shapes; the streets well paved; the site irregular and rising gradually +towards Skipton Castle, which overlooks the town, as an old lordly castle +ought to overlook the feudal village which it protects. The castle was +built shortly after the Conquest by Robert de Romeli, and was afterwards +the property and residence of the famous Cliffords. We met an honest +man, as we approached the gateway, who kindly encouraged us to apply for +admittance, notwithstanding it was Good Friday; telling us how to find +the housekeeper, who would probably show us over the castle. So we +passed through the gate, between two embattled towers; and in the castle +court we met a flock of young damsels, who had been rambling about the +precincts. They likewise directed us in our search for the housekeeper, +and S-----, being bolder than I in such assaults on feudal castles, led +the way down a dark archway, and up an exterior stairway, and, knocking +at a door, immediately brought the housekeeper to a parley. + +She proved to be a nowise awful personage, but a homely, neat, kindly, +intelligent, and middle-aged body. She seemed to be all alone in this +great old castle, and at once consented to show us about,--being, no +doubt, glad to see any Christian visitors. The castle is now the +property of Sir R. Tufton; but the present family do not make it their +permanent residence, and have only occasionally visited it. Indeed, it +could not well be made an eligible or comfortable residence, according to +modern ideas; the rooms occupying the several stories of large round +towers, and looking gloomy and sombre, if not dreary,--not the less so +for what has been done to modernize them; for instance, modern +paper-hangings, and, in some of the rooms, marble fireplaces. They need +a great deal more light and higher ceilings; and I rather imagine that +the warm, rich effect of glowing tapestry is essential to keep one's +spirit cheerful in these ancient rooms. Modern paper-hangings are too +superficial and wishy-washy for the purpose. Tapestry, it is true, there +is now, completely covering the walls of several of the rooms, but all +faded into ghastliness; nor could some of it have been otherwise than +ghastly, even in its newness, for it represented persons suffering +various kinds of torture, with crowds of monks and nuns looking on. In +another room there was the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and +other subjects not to be readily distinguished in the twilight that was +gathering in these antique chambers. We saw, too, some very old +portraits of the Cliffords and the Thanets, in black frames, and the +pictures themselves sadly faded and neglected. The famous Countess Anne +of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery was represented on one of the leaves +of a pair of folding doors, and one of her husbands, I believe, on the +other leaf. There was the picture of a little idiot lordling, who had +choked himself to death; and a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, who battered +this old castle, together with almost every other English or Welsh castle +that I ever saw or heard of. The housekeeper pointed out the grove of +trees where his cannon were planted during the siege. There was but +little furniture in the rooms; amongst other articles, an antique chair, +in which Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have rested. + +The housekeeper next took us into the part of the castle which has never +been modernized since it was repaired, after the siege of Cromwell. This +is a dismal series of cellars above ground, with immensely thick walls, +letting in but scanty light, and dim staircases of stone; and a large +hall, with a vast fireplace, where every particle of heat must needs have +gone up chimney,--a chill and heart-breaking place enough. Quite in the +midst of this part of the castle is the court-yard,--a space of some +thirty or forty feet in length and breadth, open to the sky, but shut +completely in on every side by the buildings of the castle, and paved +over with flat stones. Out of this pavement, however, grows a yew-tree, +ascending to the tops of the towers, and completely filling, with its +branches and foliage, the whole open space between them. Some small +birds--quite a flock of them--were twittering and fluttering among the +upper branches. We went upward, through two or three stories of dismal +rooms,--among others, through the ancient guard-room,--till we came out +on the roof of one of the towers, and had a very fine view of an +amphitheatre of ridgy hills which shut in and seclude the castle and the +town. The upper foliage was within our reach, close to the parapet of +the tower; so we gathered a few twigs as memorials. The housekeeper told +us that the yew-tree is supposed to be eight hundred years old, and, +comparing it with other yews that I have seen, I should judge that it +must measure its antiquity by centuries, at all events. It still seems +to be in its prime. + +Along the base of the castle, on the opposite side to the entrance, flows +a stream, sending up a pleasant murmur from among the trees. The +housekeeper said it was not a stream, but only a "wash," whatever that +may be; and I conjecture that it creates the motive-power of some +factory-looking edifices, which we saw on our first arrival at Skipton. + +We now took our leave of the housekeeper, and came homeward to our inn, +where I have written the foregoing pages by a bright fire; but I think I +write better descriptions after letting the subject lie in my mind a day +or two. It is too new to be properly dealt with immediately after coming +from the scene. + +The castle is not at all crumbly, but in excellent repair, though so +venerable. There are rooks cawing about the shapeless patches of their +nests, in the tops of the trees. In the castle wall, as well as in the +round towers of the gateway, there seem to be little tenements, perhaps +inhabited by the servants and dependants of the family. They looked in +very good order, with tokens of present domesticity about them. The +whole of this old castle, indeed, was as neat as a new, small dwelling, +in spite of an inevitable musty odor of antiquity. + + +April 11th.--This morning we took a carriage and two horses, and set out +for + + + +BOLTON PRIORY, + + +a distance of about six miles. The morning was cool, with breezy clouds, +intermingled with sunshine, and, on the whole, as good as are nine tenths +of English mornings. J----- sat beside the driver, and S----- and I in +the carriage, all closed but one window. As we drove through Skipton, +the little town had a livelier aspect than yesterday when it wore its +Good Friday's solemnity; but now its market-place was thronged, +principally with butchers, displaying their meat under little movable +pent-houses, and their customers. The English people really like to +think and talk of butcher's meat, and gaze at it with delight; and they +crowd through the avenues of the market-houses and stand enraptured round +a dead ox. + +We passed along by the castle wall, and noticed the escutcheon of the +Cliffords or the Thanets carved in stone over the portal, with the motto +Desormais, the application of which I do not well see; these ancestral +devices usually referring more to the past, than to the future. There is +a large old church, just at the extremity of the village, and just below +the castle, on the slope of the hill. The gray wall of the castle +extends along the road a considerable distance, in good repair, with here +and there a buttress, and the semicircular bulge of a tower. + +The scenery along the road was not particularly striking,--long slopes, +descending from ridges; a generally hard outline of country, with not +many trees, and those, as yet, destitute of foliage. It needs to be +softened with a good deal of wood. There were stone farm-houses, looking +ancient, and able to last till twice as old. Instead of the hedges, so +universal in other parts of England, there were stone fences of good +height and painful construction, made of small stones, which I suppose +have been picked up out of the fields through hundreds of years. They +reminded me of old Massachusetts, though very unlike our rude stone +walls, which, nevertheless, last longer than anything else we build. +Another New England feature was the little brooks, which here and there +flowed across our road, rippling over the pebbles, clear and bright. I +fancied, too, an intelligence and keenness in some of the Yorkshire +physiognomies, akin to those characteristics in my countrymen's faces. + +We passed an ancient, many-gabled inn, large, low, and comfortable, +bearing the name of the Devonshire House, as does our own hotel, for the +Duke of Devonshire is a great proprietor in these parts. A mile or so +beyond, we came to a gateway, broken through what, I believe, was an old +wall of the Priory grounds; and here we alighted, leaving our driver to +take the carriage to the inn. Passing through this hole in the wall, we +saw the ruins of the Priory at the bottom of the beautiful valley about a +quarter of a mile off; and, well as the monks knew how to choose the +sites of their establishments, I think they never chose a better site +than this,--in the green lap of protecting hills, beside a stream, and +with peace and fertility looking down upon it on every side. The view +down the valley is very fine, and, for my part, I am glad that some +peaceable and comfort-loving people possessed these precincts for many +hundred years, when nobody else knew how to appreciate peace and comfort. + +The old gateway tower, beneath which was formerly the arched entrance +into the domain of the Priory, is now the central part of a hunting-seat +of the Duke of Devonshire, and the edifice is completed by a wing of +recent date on each side. A few hundred yards from this hunting-box are +the remains of the Priory, consisting of the nave of the old church, +which is still in good repair, and used as the worshipping-place of the +neighborhood (being a perpetual curacy of the parish of Skipton), and the +old ruined choir, roofless, with broken arches, ivy-grown, but not so +rich and rare a ruin as either Melrose, Netley, or Furness. Its +situation makes its charm. It stands near the river Wharfe,--a broad and +rapid stream, which hurries along between high banks, with a sound which +the monks must have found congenial to their slumberous moods. It is a +good river for trout, too; and I saw two or three anglers, with their +rods and baskets, passing through the ruins towards its shore. It was in +this river Wharfe that the boy of Egremont was drowned, at the Strid, a +mile or two higher up the stream. + +In the first place, we rambled round the exterior of the ruins; but, as I +have said, they are rather bare and meagre in comparison with other +abbeys, and I am not sure that the especial care and neatness with which +they are preserved does not lessen their effect on the beholder. +Neglect, wildness, crumbling walls, the climbing and conquering ivy; +masses of stone lying where they fell; trees of old date, growing where +the pillars of the aisles used to stand,--these are the best points of +ruined abbeys. But, everything here is kept with such trimness that it +gives you the idea of a petrifaction. Decay is no longer triumphant; the +Duke of Devonshire has got the better of it. The grounds around the +church and the ruins are still used for burial, and there are several +flat tombstones and altar tombs, with crosiers engraved or carved upon +them, which at first I took to be the memorials of bishops or abbots, and +wondered that the sculpture should still be so distinct. On one, +however, I read the date 1850 and the name of a layman; for the +tombstones were all modern, the humid English atmosphere giving them +their mossy look of antiquity, and the crosier had been assumed only as a +pretty device. + +Close beside the ruins there is a large, old stone farm-house, which must +have been built on the site of a part of the Priory,--the cells, +dormitories, refectory, and other portions pertaining to the monks' daily +life, I suppose, and built, no doubt, with the sacred stones. I should +imagine it would be a haunted house, swarming with cowled spectres. We +wished to see the interior of the church, and procured a guide from this +farm-house,--the sexton, probably,--a gray-haired, ruddy, cheery, and +intelligent man, of familiar though respectful address. The entrance of +the church was undergoing improvement, under the last of the abbots, when +the Reformation occurred; and it has ever remained in an unfinished +state, till now it is mossy with age, and has a beautiful tuft of +wall-flowers growing on a ledge over the Gothic arch of the doorway. The +body of the church is of much anterior date, though the oaken roof is +supposed to have been renewed in Henry VIII's time. This, as I said +before, was the nave of the old Abbey church, and has a one-sided and +unbalanced aspect, there being only a single aisle, with its row of +sturdy pillars. The pavement is covered with pews of old oak, very +homely and unornamental; on the side opposite the aisle there are two or +three windows of modern stained glass, somewhat gaudy and impertinent; +there are likewise some hatchments and escutcheons over the altar and +elsewhere. On the whole, it is not an impressive interior; but, at any +rate, it had the true musty odor which I never conceived of till I came +to England,--the odor of dead men's decay, garnered up and shut in, and +kept from generation to generation; not disgusting nor sickening, because +it is so old, and of the past. + +On one side of the altar there was a small square chapel,--or what had +once been a chapel, separated from the chancel by a partition about a +man's height, if I remember aright. Our guide led us into it, and +observed that some years ago the pavement had been taken up in this spot, +for burial purposes; but it was found that it had already been used in +that way, and that the corpses had been buried upright. Inquiring +further, I found that it was the Clapham family, and another that was +called Morley, that were so buried; and then it occurred to me that this +was the vault Wordsworth refers to in one of his poems,--the burial-place +of the Claphams and Mauleverers, whose skeletons, for aught I know, were +even then standing upright under our feet. It is but a narrow place, +perhaps a square of ten feet. We saw little or nothing else that was +memorable, unless it were the signature of Queen Adelaide in a visitors' +book. + +On our way back to Skipton it rained and hailed, but the sun again shone +out before we arrived. We took the train for Leeds at half past ten, and +arrived there in the afternoon, passing the ruined Abbey of Kirkstall on +our way. The ruins looked more interesting than those of Bolton, though +not so delightfully situated, and now in the close vicinity of +manufactories, and only two or three miles from Leeds. We took a dish of +soup, and spent a miserable hour in and about the railway station of +Leeds; whence we departed at four, and reached + + + +YORK + + +in an hour or two. We put up at the Black Swan, and before tea went out, +on the cool bright edge of evening, to get a glimpse of the cathedral, +which impressed me more grandly than when I first saw it, nearly a year +ago. Indeed, almost any object gains upon me at the second sight. I +have spent the evening in writing up my journal,--an act of real virtue. + +After walking round the cathedral, we went up a narrow and crooked +street, very old and shabby, but with an antique house projecting as much +as a yard over the pavement on one side,--a timber house it seemed to be, +plastered over and stained yellow or buff. There was no external door, +affording entrance into this edifice; but about midway of its front we +came to a low, Gothic, stone archway, passing right through the house; +and as it looked much time-worn, and was sculptured with untraceable +devices, we went through. There was an exceedingly antique, battered, +and shattered pair of oaken leaves, which used doubtless to shut up the +passage in former times, and keep it secure; but for the last centuries, +probably, there has been free ingress and egress. Indeed, the portal +arch may never have been closed since the Reformation. Within, we found +a quadrangle, of which the house upon the street formed one side, the +others being composed of ancient houses, with gables in a row, all +looking upon the paved quadrangle, through quaint windows of various +fashion. An elderly, neat, pleasant-looking woman now came in beneath +the arch, and as she had a look of being acquainted here, we asked her +what the place was; and she told us, that in the old Popish times the +prebends of the cathedral used to live here, to keep them from doing +mischief in the town. The establishment, she said, was now called "The +College," and was let in rooms and small tenements to poor people. On +consulting the York Guide, I find that her account was pretty correct; +the house having been founded in Henry VI.'s time, and called St. +William's College, the statue of the patron saint being sculptured over +the arch. It was intended for the residence of the parsons and priests +of the cathedral, who had formerly caused troubles and scandals by living +in the town. + +We returned to the front of the cathedral on our way homeward, and an old +man stopped us, to inquire if we had ever seen the Fiddler of York. We +answered in the negative, and said that we had not time to see him now; +but the old gentleman pointed up to the highest pinnacle of the southern +front, where stood the Fiddler of York, one of those Gothic quaintnesses +which blotch the grandeur and solemnity of this and other cathedrals. + + +April 12th.--This morning was bleak and most ungenial; a chilly sunshine, +a piercing wind, a prevalence of watery cloud,--April weather, without +the tenderness that ought to be half revealed in it. This is + + + +EASTER SUNDAY, + + +and service at the cathedral commenced at half past ten; so we set out +betimes and found admittance into the vast nave, and thence into the +choir. An attendant ushered S----- and J----- to a seat at a distance +from me, and then gave me a place in one of the stalls where the monks +used to sit or kneel while chanting the services. I think these stalls +are now appropriated to the prebends. They are of carved oaken wood, +much less elaborate and wonderfully wrought than those of Chester +Cathedral, where all was done with head and heart, each a separate +device, instead of cut, by machinery like this. The whole effect of this +carved work, however, lining the choir with its light tracery and +pinnacles, is very fine. The whole choir, from the roof downward, except +the old stones of the outer walls, is of modern renovation, it being but +a few years since this part of the cathedral was destroyed by fire. The +arches and pillars and lofty roof, however, have been well restored; and +there was a vast east window, full of painted glass, which, if it be +modern, is wonderfully chaste and Gothic-like. All the other windows +have painted glass, which does not flare and glare as if newly painted. +But the light, whitewashed aspect of the general interior of the choir +has a cold and dreary effect. There is an enormous organ, all clad in +rich oaken carving, of similar pattern to that of the stalls. It was +communion day, and near the high altar, within a screen, I saw the +glistening of the gold vessels wherewith the services were to be +performed. + +The choir was respectably filled with a pretty numerous congregation, +among whom I saw some officers in full dress, with their swords by their +sides, and one, old white-bearded warrior, who sat near me, seemed very +devout at his religious exercises. In front of me and on the +corresponding benches, on the other side of the choir, sat two rows of +white-robed choristers, twenty in all, and these, with some women; +performed the vocal part of the music. It is not good to see musicians, +for they are sometimes coarse and vulgar people, and so the auditor loses +faith in any fine and spiritual tones that they may breathe forth. + +The services of Easter Sunday comprehend more than the ordinary quantity +of singing and chanting; at all events, nearly an hour and a half were +thus employed, with some intermixture of prayers and reading of +Scriptures; and, being almost congealed with cold, I thought it would +never come to an end. The spirit of my Puritan ancestors was mighty +within me, and I did not wonder at their being out of patience with all +this mummery, which seemed to me worse than papistry because it was a +corruption of it. At last a canon gave out the text, and preached a +sermon about twenty minutes long,--the coldest, driest, most superficial +rubbish; for this gorgeous setting of the magnificent cathedral, the +elaborate music, and the rich ceremonies seem inevitably to take the life +out of the sermon, which, to be anything, must be all. The Puritans +showed their strength of mind and heart by preferring a sermon an hour +and a half long, into which the preacher put his whole soul, and lopping +away all these externals, into which religious life had first leafed and +flowered, and then petrified. + +After the service, while waiting for my wife in the nave, I was accosted +by a young gentleman who seemed to be an American, and whom I have +certainly seen before, but whose name I could not recollect. This, he +said, was his first visit to York, and he was evidently inclined to join +me in viewing the curiosities of the place, but, not knowing his name, I +could not introduce him to my wife, and so made a parting salute. + +After dinner, we set forth and took a promenade along the wall, +and a ramble through some of the crooked streets, noting the old, +jutting-storied houses, story above story, and the old churches, gnawed +like a bone by the tooth of Time, till we came suddenly to the Black Swan +before we expected it. . . . . I rather fancy that I must have observed +most of the external peculiarities at my former visit, and therefore need +not make another record of them in this journal. + +In the course of our walk we saw a procession of about fifty +charity-school boys, in flat caps, each with bands under his chin, and a +green collar to his coat; all looking unjoyous, and as if they had no +home nor parents' love. They turned into a gateway, which closed behind +them; and as the adjoining edifice seemed to be a public institution,--at +least, not private,--we asked what it was, and found it to be a hospital +or residence for Old Maiden ladies, founded by a gentlewoman of York; I +know not whether she herself is of the sisterhood. It must be a very +singular institution, and worthy of intimate study, if it were possible +to make one's way within the portal. + +After writing the above, J----- and I went out for another ramble before +tea; and, taking a new course, we came to a grated iron fence and +gateway, through which we could see the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey. They +are very extensive, and situated quite in the midst of the city, and the +wall and then a tower of the Abbey seem to border more than one of the +streets. Our walk was interesting, as it brought us unexpectedly upon +several relics of antiquity,--a loop-holed and battlemented gateway; and +at various points fragments of the old Gothic stone-work, built in among +more recent edifices, which themselves were old; grimness intermixed with +quaintness and grotesqueness; old fragments of religious or warlike +architecture mingled with queer domestic structures,--the general effect +sombre, sordid, and grimy; but yet with a fascination that makes us fain +to linger about such scenes, and come to them again. + +We passed round the cathedral, and saw jackdaws fluttering round the +pinnacles, while the bells chimed the quarters, and little children +played on the steps under the grand arch of the entrance. It is very +stately, very beautiful, this minster; and doubtless would be very +satisfactory, could I only know it long and well enough,--so rich as its +front is, even with almost all the niches empty of their statues; not +stern in its effect, which I suppose must be owing to the elaborate +detail with which its great surface is wrought all over, like the chasing +of a lady's jewel-box, and yet so grand! There is a dwelling-house on +one side, gray with antiquity, which has apparently grown out of it like +an excrescence; and though a good-sized edifice, yet the cathedral is so +large that its vastness is not in the least deformed by it. If it be a +dwelling-house, I suppose it is inhabited by the person who takes care of +the cathedral. This morning, while listening to the tedious chanting and +lukewarm sermon, I depreciated the whole affair, cathedral and all; but +now I do more justice, at least to the latter, and am only sorry that its +noble echoes must follow at every syllable, and re-reverberate at the +commas and semicolons, such poor discourses as the canon's. But, after +all, it was the Puritans who made the sermon of such importance in +religious worship as we New-Englanders now consider it; and we are absurd +in considering this magnificent church and all those embroidered +ceremonies only in reference to it. + +Before going back to the hotel, I went again up the narrow and twisted +passage of College Street, to take another glance at St. William's +College. I underestimated the projection of the front over the street; +it is considerably more than three feet, and is about eight or nine feet +above the pavement. The little statue of St. William is an alto-relievo +over the arched entrance, and has an escutcheon of arms on each side, all +much defaced. In the interior of the quadrangle, the houses have not +gables nor peaked fronts, but have peaked windows on the red-tiled roofs. +The doorway, opposite the entrance-arch, is rather stately; and on one +side is a large, projecting window, which is said to belong to the room +where the printing-press of Charles I. was established in the days of the +Parliament. + + + +THE MINSTER. + + +Monday, April 13th.--This morning was chill, and, worse, it was showery, +so that our purposes to see York were much thwarted. At about ten +o'clock, however, we took a cab, and drove to the cathedral, where we +arrived while service was going on in the choir, and ropes were put up as +barriers between us and the nave; so that we were limited to the south +transept, and a part of one of the aisles of the choir. It was dismally +cold. We crept cheerlessly about within our narrow precincts (narrow, +that is to say, in proportion to the vast length and breadth of the +cathedral), gazing up into the hollow height of the central tower, and +looking at a monumental brass, fastened against one of the pillars, +representing a beruffed lady of the Tudor times, and at the canopied tomb +of Archbishop de Grey, who ruled over the diocese in the thirteenth +century. Then we went into the side aisle of the choir, where there were +one or two modern monuments; and I was appalled to find that a sermon was +being preached by the ecclesiastic of the day, nor were there any signs +of an imminent termination. I am not aware that there was much pith in +the discourse, but there was certainly a good deal of labor and +earnestness in the preacher's mode of delivery; although, when he came to +a close, it appeared that the audience was not more than half a dozen +people. + +The barriers being now withdrawn, we walked adown the length of the nave, +which did not seem to me so dim and vast as the recollection which I have +had of it since my visit of a year ago. But my pre-imaginations and my +memories are both apt to play me false with all admirable things, and so +create disappointments for me, while perhaps the thing itself is really +far better than I imagine or remember it. We engaged an old man, one of +the attendants pertaining to the cathedral, to be our guide, and he +showed us first the stone screen in front of the choir, with its +sculptured kings of England; and then the tombs in the north transept,-- +one of a modern archbishop, and one of an ancient one, behind which the +insane person who set fire to the church a few years ago hid himself at +nightfall. Then our guide unlocked a side door, and led us into the +chapter-house,--an octagonal hall, with a vaulted roof, a tessellated +floor, and seven arched windows of old painted glass, the richest that I +ever saw or imagined, each looking like an inestimable treasury of +precious stories, with a gleam and glow even in the sullen light of this +gray morning. What would they be with the sun shining through them! +With all their brilliancy, moreover, they were as soft as rose-leaves. +I never saw any piece of human architecture so beautiful as this +chapter-house; at least, I thought so while I was looking at it, and +think so still; and it owed its beauty in very great measure to the +painted windows: I remember looking at these windows from the outside +yesterday, and seeing nothing but an opaque old crust of conglomerated +panes of glass; but now that gloomy mystery was radiantly solved. + +Returning into the body of the cathedral, we next entered the choir, +where, instead of the crimson cushions and draperies which we had seen +yesterday, we found everything folded in black. It was a token of +mourning for one of the canons, who died on Saturday night. The great +east window, seventy-five feet high, and full of old painted glass in +many exquisitely wrought and imagined Scriptural designs, is considered +the most splendid object in the Minster. It is a pity that it is +partially hidden from view, even in the choir, by a screen before the +high altar; but indeed, the Gothic architects seem first to imagine +beautiful and noble things, and then to consider how they may best be +partially screened from sight. A certain secrecy and twilight effect +belong to their plan. + +We next went round the side aisles of the choir, which contain many +interesting monuments of prelates, and a specimen of the very common +Elizabethan design of an old gentleman in a double ruff and trunk +breeches, with one of his two wives on either side of him, all kneeling +in prayer; and their conjoint children, in two rows, kneeling in the +lower compartments of the tomb. We saw, too, a rich marble monument of +one of the Strafford family, and the tombstone of the famous Earl +himself,--a flat tombstone in the pavement of the aisle, covering the +vault where he was buried, and with four iron rings fastened into the +four corners of the stone whereby to lift it. + +And now the guide led us into the vestry, where there was a good fire +burning in the grate, and it really thawed my heart, which was congealed +with the dismal chill of the cathedral. Here we saw a good many curious +things,--for instance, two wooden figures in knightly armor, which had +stood sentinels beside the ancient clock before it was replaced by a +modern one; and, opening a closet, the guide produced an old iron helmet, +which had been found in a tomb where a knight had been buried in his +armor; and three gold rings and one brass one, taken out of the graves, +and off the finger-bones of mediaeval archbishops,--one of them with a +ruby set in it; and two silver-gilt chalices, also treasures of the +tombs; and a wooden head, carved in human likeness, and painted to the +life, likewise taken from a grave where an archbishop was supposed to +have been buried. They found no veritable skull nor bones, but only this +block-head, as if Death had betrayed the secret of what the poor prelate +really was. We saw, too, a canopy of cloth, wrought with gold threads, +which had been borne over the head of King James I., when he came to +York, on his way to receive the English Crown. There were also some old +brass dishes, In which pence used to be collected in monkish times. Over +the door of this vestry were hung two banners of a Yorkshire regiment, +tattered in the Peninsular wars, and inscribed with the names of the +battles through which they had been borne triumphantly; and Waterloo was +among them. The vestry, I think, occupies that excrescential edifice +which I noticed yesterday as having grown out of the cathedral. + +After looking at these things, we went down into the crypts, under the +choir. These were very interesting, as far as we could see them; being +more antique than anything above ground, but as dark as any cellar. +There is here, in the midst of these sepulchral crypts, a spring of +water, said to be very pure and delicious, owing to the limestone through +which the rain that feeds its source is filtered. Near it is a stone +trough, in which the monks used to wash their hands. + +I do not remember anything more that we saw at the cathedral, and at noon +we returned to the Black Swan. The rain still continued, so that S----- +could not share in any more of my rambles, but J----- and I went out +again, and discovered the Guildhall. It is a very ancient edifice of +Richard II.'s time, and has a statue over the entrance which looks +time-gnawed enough to be of coeval antiquity, although in reality it is +only a representation of George II. in his royal robes. We went in, and +found ourselves in a large and lofty hall, with an oaken roof and a stone +pavement, and the farther end was partitioned off as a court of justice. +In that portion of the hall the Judge was on the bench, and a trial was +going forward; but in the hither portion a mob of people, with their hats +on, were lounging and talking, and enjoying the warmth of the stoves. +The window over the judgment-seat had painted glass in it, and so, I +think, had some of the hall windows. At the end of the hall hung a great +picture of Paul defending himself before Agrippa, where the Apostle +looked like an athlete, and had a remarkably bushy black beard. Between +two of the windows hung an Indian bell from Burmah, ponderously thick and +massive. Both the picture and the bell had been presented to the city as +tokens of affectionate remembrance by its children; and it is pleasant to +think that such failings exist in these old stable communities, and that +there are permanent localities where such gifts can be kept from +generation to generation. + +At four o'clock we left the city of York, still in a pouring rain. The +Black Swan, where we had been staying, is a good specimen of the old +English inn, sombre, quiet, with dark staircases, dingy rooms, curtained +beds,--all the possibilities of a comfortable life and good English fare, +in a fashion which cannot have been much altered for half a century. It +is very homelike when one has one's family about him, but must be +prodigiously stupid for a solitary man. + +We took the train for Manchester, over pretty much the same route that I +travelled last year. Many of the higher hills in Yorkshire were white +with snow, which, in our lower region, softened into rain; but as we +approached Manchester, the western sky reddened, and gave promise of +better weather. We arrived at nearly eight o'clock, and put up at the +Palatine Hotel. In the evening I scrawled away at my journal till past +ten o'clock; for I have really made it a matter of conscience to keep a +tolerably full record of my travels, though conscious that everything +good escapes in the process. In the morning we went out and visited the + + + +MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, + + +a particularly black and grimy edifice, containing some genuine old wood +carvings within the choir. We stayed a good while, in order to see some +people married. One couple, with their groomsman and bride's-maid, were +sitting within the choir; but when the clergyman was robed and ready, +there entered five other couples, each attended by groomsman and +bride's-maid. They all were of the lower orders; one or two respectably +dressed, but most of them poverty-stricken,--the men in their ordinary +loafer's or laborer's attire, the women with their poor, shabby shawls +drawn closely about them; faded untimely, wrinkled with penury and care; +nothing fresh, virgin-like, or hopeful about them; joining themselves to +their mates with the idea of making their own misery less intolerable by +adding another's to it. All the six couple stood up in a row before the +altar, with the groomsmen and bride's-maids in a row behind them; and +the clergyman proceeded to marry them in such a way that it almost +seemed to make every man and woman the husband and wife of every other. +However, there were some small portions of the service directed towards +each separate couple; and they appeared to assort themselves in their +own fashion afterwards, each one saluting his bride with a kiss. The +clergyman, the sexton, and the clerk all seemed to find something funny +in this affair; and the woman who admitted us into the church smiled too, +when she told us that a wedding-party was waiting to be married. But I +think it was the saddest thing we have seen since leaving home; though +funny enough if one likes to look at it from a ludicrous point of view. +This mob of poor marriages was caused by the fact that no marriage fee is +paid during Easter. + +This ended the memorable things of our tour; for my wife and J----- left +Manchester for Southport, and I for Liverpool, before noon. + + +April 19th.--On the 15th, having been invited to attend at the laying of +the corner-stone of + + + +MR. BROWNE'S FREE LIBRARY, + + +I went to the Town Hall, according to the programme, at eleven o'clock. +There was already a large number of people (invited guests, members of +the Historical Society, and other local associations) assembled in the +great hall-room, and one of these was delivering an address to Mr. Browne +as I entered. Approaching the outer edge of the circle, I was met and +cordially greeted by Monckton Milnes, whom I like, and who always reminds +me of Longfellow, though his physical man is more massive. While we were +talking together, a young man approached him with a pretty little +expression of surprise and pleasure at seeing him there. He had a +slightly affected or made-up manner, and was rather a comely person. Mr. +Milnes introduced him to me as Lord ------. Hereupon, of course, I +observed him more closely; and I must say that I was not long in +discovering a gentle dignity and half-imperceptible reserve in his +manner; but still my first impression was quite as real as my second one. +He occupies, I suppose, the foremost position among the young men of +England, and has the fairest prospects of a high course before him; +nevertheless, he did not impress me as possessing the native qualities +that could entitle him to a high public career. He has adopted public +life as his hereditary profession, and makes the very utmost of all his +abilities, cultivating himself to a determined end, knowing that he shall +have every advantage towards attaining his object. His natural +disadvantages must have been, in some respects, unusually great; his +voice, for instance, is not strong, and appeared to me to have a more +positive defect than mere weakness. Doubtless he has struggled manfully +against this defect; and it made me feel a certain sympathy, and, indeed, +a friendliness, for which he would not at all have thanked me, had he +known it. I felt, in his person, what a burden it is upon human +shoulders, the necessity of keeping up the fame and historical importance +of an illustrious house; at least, when the heir to its honors has +sufficient intellect and sensibility to feel the claim that his country +and his ancestors and his posterity all have upon him. Lord ------ is +fully capable of feeling these claims; but I would not care, methinks, to +take his position, unless I could have considerably more than his +strength. + +In a little while we formed ourselves into a procession, four in a row, +and set forth from the Town Hall, through James Street, Lord Street, Lime +Street, all the way through a line of policemen and a throng of people; +and all the windows were alive with heads, and I never before was so +conscious of a great mass of humanity, though perhaps I may often have +seen as great a crowd. But a procession is the best point of view from +which to see the crowd that collects together. The day, too, was very +fine, even sunshiny, and the streets dry,--a blessing which cannot be +overestimated; for we should have been in a strange trim for the banquet, +had we been compelled to wade through the ordinary mud of Liverpool. The +procession itself could not have been a very striking object. In +America, it would have had a hundred picturesque and perhaps ludicrous +features,--the symbols of the different trades, banners with strange +devices, flower-shows, children, volunteer soldiers, cavalcades, and +every suitable and unsuitable contrivance; but we were merely a trail of +ordinary-looking individuals, in great-coats, and with precautionary +umbrellas. The only characteristic or professional costume, as far as I +noticed, was that of the Bishop of Chester, in his flat cap and +black-silk gown; and that of Sir Henry Smith, the General of the +District, in full uniform, with a star and half a dozen medals on his +breast. Mr. Browne himself, the hero of the day, was the plainest and +simplest man of all,--an exceedingly unpretending gentleman in black; +small, white-haired, pale, quiet, and respectable. I rather wondered why +he chose to be the centre of all this ceremony; for he did not seem +either particularly to enjoy it, or to be at all incommoded by it, as a +more nervous and susceptible man might have been. + +The site of the projected edifice is on one of the streets bordering on +St. George's Hall; and when we came within the enclosure, the +corner-stone, a large square of red freestone, was already suspended +over its destined place. It has a brass plate let into it, with an +inscription, which will perhaps not be seen again till the present +English type has grown as antique as black-letter is now. Two or three +photographs were now taken of the site, the corner-stone, Mr. Browne, the +distinguished guests, and the crowd at large; then ensued a prayer from +the Bishop of Chester, and speeches from Mr. Holme, Mr. Browne, Lord +------, Sir John Pakington, Sir Henry Smith, and as many others as there +was time for. Lord ------ acquitted himself very creditably, though +brought out unexpectedly, and with evident reluctance. I am convinced +that men, liable to be called on to address the public, keep a constant +supply of commonplaces in their minds, which, with little variation, can +be adapted to one subject about as well as to another; and thus they are +always ready to do well enough, though seldom to do particularly well. + +From the scene of the corner-stone, we went to St. George's Hall, where a +drawing-room and dressing-room had been prepared for the principal +guests. Before the banquet, I had some conversation with Sir James Kay +Shuttleworth, who had known Miss Bronte very intimately, and bore +testimony to the wonderful fidelity of Mrs. Gaskell's life of her. He +seemed to have had an affectionate regard for her, and said that her +marriage promised to have been productive of great happiness; her husband +being not a remarkable man, but with the merit of an exceeding love for +her. + +Mr. Browne now took me up into the gallery, which by this time was full +of ladies; and thence we had a fine view of the noble hall, with the +tables laid, in readiness for the banquet. I cannot conceive of anything +finer than this hall: it needs nothing but painted windows to make it +perfect, and those I hope it may have one day or another. + +At two o'clock we sat down to the banquet, which hardly justified that +name, being only a cold collation, though sufficiently splendid in its +way. In truth, it would have been impossible to provide a hot dinner for +nine hundred people in a place remote from kitchens. The principal table +extended lengthwise of the hall, and was a little elevated above the +other tables, which stretched across, about twenty in all. Before each +guest, besides the bill of fare, was laid a programme of the expected +toasts, among which appeared my own name, to be proposed by Mr. Monckton +Milnes. These things do not trouble me quite as much as they used, +though still it sufficed to prevent much of the enjoyment which I might +have had if I could have felt myself merely a spectator. My left-hand +neighbor was Colonel Campbell of the Artillery; my right-hand one was Mr. +Picton, of the Library Committee; and I found them both companionable +men, especially the Colonel, who had served in China and in the Crimea, +and owned that he hated the French. We did not make a very long business +of the eatables, and then came the usual toasts of ceremony, and +afterwards those more peculiar to the occasion, one of the first of which +was "The House of Stanley," to which Lord ------ responded. It was a +noble subject, giving scope for as much eloquence as any man could have +brought to bear upon it, and capable of being so wrought out as to +develop and illustrate any sort of conservative or liberal tendencies +which the speaker might entertain. There could not be a richer +opportunity for reconciling and making friends betwixt the old system of +society and the new; but Lord ------ did not seem to make anything of it. +I remember nothing that he said excepting his statement that the family +had been five hundred years connected with the town of Liverpool. I wish +I could have responded to "The House of Stanley," and his Lordship could +have spoken in my behalf. None of the speeches were remarkably good; the +Bishop of Chester's perhaps the best, though he is but a little man in +aspect, not at all filling up one's idea of a bishop, and the rest were +on an indistinguishable level, though, being all practised speakers, they +were less hum-y and ha-y than English orators ordinarily are. + +I was really tired to death before my own turn came, sitting all that +time, as it were, on the scaffold, with the rope round my neck. At last +Monckton Milnes was called up and made a speech, of which, to my dismay, +I could hardly hear a single word, owing to his being at a considerable +distance, on the other side of the chairman, and flinging his voice, +which is a bass one, across the hall, instead of adown it, in my +direction. I could not distinguish one word of any allusions to my +works, nor even when he came to the toast, did I hear the terms in which +he put it, nor whether I was toasted on my own basis, or as representing +American literature, or as Consul of the United States. At all events, +there was a vast deal of clamor; and uprose peers and bishop, general, +mayor, knights and gentlemen, everybody in the hall greeting me with all +the honors. I had uprisen, too, to commence my speech; but had to sit +down again till matters grew more quiet, and then I got up, and proceeded +to deliver myself with as much composure as I ever felt at my own +fireside. It is very strange, this self-possession and clear-sightedness +which I have experienced when standing before an audience, showing me my +way through all the difficulties resulting from my not having heard +Monckton Milnes's speech; and on since reading the latter, I do not see +how I could have answered it better. My speech certainly was better +cheered than any other; especially one passage, where I made a colossus +of Mr. Browne, at which the audience grew so tumultuous in their applause +that they drowned my figure of speech before it was half out of my mouth. + +After rising from table, Lord ------ and I talked about our respective +oratorical performances; and he appeared to have a perception that he is +not naturally gifted in this respect. I like Lord ------, and wish that +it were possible that we might know one another better. If a nobleman +has any true friend out of his own class, it ought to be a republican. +Nothing further of interest happened at the banquet, and the next morning +came out the newspapers with the reports of my speech, attributing to me +a variety of forms of ragged nonsense, which, poor speaker as I am, I was +quite incapable of uttering. + + +May 10th.--The winter is over, but as yet we scarcely have what ought to +be called spring; nothing but cold east-winds, accompanied with sunshine, +however, as east-winds generally are in this country. All milder winds +seem to bring rain. The grass has been green for a month,--indeed, it +has never been entirely brown,--and now the trees and hedges are +beginning to be in foliage. Weeks ago the daisies bloomed, even in the +sandy grass-plot bordering on the promenade beneath our front windows; +and in the progress of the daisy, and towards its consummation, I saw the +propriety of Burns's epithet, "wee, modest, crimson-nipped flower,"--its +little white petals in the bud being fringed all round with crimson, +which fades into pure white when the flower blooms. At the beginning of +this month I saw fruit-trees in blossom, stretched out flat against stone +walls, reminding me of a dead bird nailed against the side of a barn. +But it has been a backward and dreary spring; and I think Southport, in +the course of it, has lost its advantage over the rest of the Liverpool +neighborhood in point of milder atmosphere. The east-wind feels even +rawer here than in the city. + +Nevertheless, the columns, of the Southport Visitor begin to be well +replenished with the names of guests, and the town is assuming its aspect +of summer life. To say the truth, except where cultivation has done its +utmost, there is very little difference between winter and summer in the +mere material aspect of Southport; there being nothing but a waste of +sand intermixed with plashy pools to seaward, and a desert of +sand-hillocks on the land side. But now the brown, weather-hardened +donkey-women haunt people that stray along the reaches, and delicate +persons face the cold, rasping, ill-tempered blast on the promenade, and +children dig in the sands; and, for want of something better, it seems to +be determined that this shall be considered spring. + +Southport is as stupid a place as I ever lived in; and I cannot but +bewail our ill fortune to have been compelled to spend so many months on +these barren sands, when almost every other square yard of England +contains something that would have been historically or poetically +interesting. Our life here has been a blank. There was, indeed, a +shipwreck, a month or two ago, when a large ship came ashore within a +mile from our windows; the larger portion of the crew landing safely on +the hither sands, while six or seven betook themselves to the boat, and +were lost in attempting to gain the shore, on the other side of the +Ribble. After a lapse of several weeks, two or three of their drowned +bodies were found floating in this vicinity, and brought to Southport for +burial; so that it really is not at all improbable that Milton's Lycidas +floated hereabouts, in the rise and lapse of the tides, and that his +bones may still be whitening among the sands. + +In the same gale that wrecked the above-mentioned vessel, a portion of a +ship's mast was driven ashore, after evidently having been a very long +time in and under water; for it was covered with great barnacles, and +torn sea-weed, insomuch that there was scarcely a bare place along its +whole length; clusters of sea-anemones were sticking to it, and I know +not what strange marine productions besides. J----- at once recognized +the sea-anemones, knowing them by his much reading of Gosse's Aquarium; +and though they must now have been two or three days high and dry out of +water, he made an extempore aquarium out of a bowl, and put in above a +dozen of these strange creatures. In a little while they bloomed out +wonderfully, and even seemed to produce young anemones; but, from some +fault in his management, they afterwards grew sickly and died. S----- +thinks that the old storm-shattered mast, so studded with the growth of +the ocean depths, is a relic of the Spanish Armada which strewed its +wrecks along all the shores of England; but I hardly think it would have +taken three hundred years to produce this crop of barnacles and +sea-anemones. A single summer might probably have done it. + +Yesterday we all of us except R----- went to Liverpool to see the +performances of an American circus company. I had previously been, a day +or two before, with J-----, and had been happy to perceive that the fact +of its being an American establishment really induced some slight +swelling of the heart within me. It is ridiculous enough, to be sure, +but I like to find myself not wholly destitute of this noble weakness, +patriotism. As for the circus, I never was fond of that species of +entertainment, nor do I find in this one the flash and glitter and whirl +which I remember in other American exhibitions. + +[Here follow the visits to Lincoln and Boston, printed in Our Old Home. +--ED.] + + +May 27th.--We left Boston by railway at noon, and arrived in PETERBOROUGH +in about an hour and a quarter, and have put up at the Railway Hotel. +After dinner we walked into the town to see + + + +THE CATHEDRAL, + + +of the towers and arches of which we had already had a glimpse from our +parlor window. + +Our journey from Boston hitherward was through a perfectly level +country,--the fens of Lincolnshire,--green, green, and nothing else, with +old villages and farm-houses and old church-towers; very pleasant and +rather wearisomely monotonous. To return to Peterborough. It is a town +of ancient aspect; and we passed, on our way towards the market-place, a +very ancient-looking church, with a very far projecting porch, opening in +front and on each side through arches of broad sweep. The street by +which we approached from our hotel led us into the market-place, which +had what looked like an old Guildhall on one side. On the opposite side, +above the houses, appeared the towers of the cathedral, and a street +leads from the market-place to its front, through an arched gateway, +which used to be the external entrance to the abbey, I suppose, of which +the cathedral was formerly the church. The front of the cathedral is +very striking, and unlike any other that I have seen; being formed by +three lofty and majestic arches in a row, with three gable peaks above +them, forming a sort of colonnade, within which is the western entrance +of the nave. The towers are massive, but low in proportion to their +bulk. There are no spires, but pinnacles and statues, and all the rich +detail of Gothic architecture, the whole of a venerable gray line. It is +in perfect repair, and has not suffered externally, except by the loss of +multitudes of statues, gargoyles, and miscellaneous eccentricities of +sculpture, which used to smile, frown, laugh, and weep over the faces of +these old fabrics. + +We entered through a side portal, and sat down on a bench in the nave, +and kept ourselves quiet; for the organ was sounding, and the choristers +were chanting in the choir. The nave and transepts are very noble, with +clustered pillars and Norman arches, and a great height under the central +tower; the whole, however, being covered with plaster and whitewash, +except the roof, which is of painted oak. This latter adornment has the +merit, I believe, of being veritably ancient; but certainly I should +prefer the oak of its native hue, for the effect of the paint is to make +it appear as if the ceiling were covered with imitation mosaic-work or an +oil-cloth carpet. + +After sitting awhile, we were invited by a verger, who came from within +the screen, to enter the choir and hear the rest of the service. We +found the choristers there in their white garments, and an audience of +half a dozen people, and had time to look at the interior of the choir. +All the carved wood-work of the tabernacle, the Bishop's throne, the +prebends' stalls, and whatever else, is modern; for this cathedral seems +to have suffered wofully from Cromwell's soldiers, who hacked at the old +oak, and hammered and pounded upon the marble tombs, till nothing of the +first and very few of the latter remain. It is wonderful how suddenly +the English people lost their sense of the sanctity of all manner of +externals in religion, without losing their religion too. The French, in +their Revolution, underwent as sudden a change; but they became pagans +and atheists, and threw away the substance with the shadow. + +I suspect that the interior arrangement of the choir and the chancel has +been greatly modernized; for it is quite unlike anything that I have seen +elsewhere. Instead of one vast eastern window, there are rows of windows +lighting the Lady Chapel, and seen through rows of arches in the screen +of the chancel; the effect being, whoever is to have the credit of it, +very rich and beautiful. There is, I think, no stained glass in the +windows of the nave, though in the windows of the chancel there is some +of recent date, and from fragments of veritable antique. The effect of +the whole interior is grand, expansive, and both ponderous and airy; not +dim, mysterious, and involved, as Gothic interiors often are, the +roundness and openness of the arches being opposed to this latter effect. + +When the chanting came to a close, one verger took his stand at the +entrance of the choir, and another stood farther up the aisle, and then +the door of a stall opened, and forth came a clerical dignity of much +breadth and substance, aged and infirm, and was ushered out of the choir +with a great deal of ceremony. We took him for the bishop, but he proved +to be only a canon. We now engaged an attendant to show us through the +Lady Chapel and the other penetralia, which it did not take him long to +accomplish. One of the first things he showed us was the tombstone, in +the pavement of the southern aisle, beneath which Mary, Queen of Scots, +had been originally buried, and where she lay for a quarter of a century, +till borne to her present resting-place in Westminster Abbey. It is a +plain marble slab, with no inscription. Near this, there was a Saxon +monument of the date 870, with sculpture in relief upon it,--the memorial +of an Abbot Hedda, who was killed by the Danes when they destroyed the +monastery that preceded the abbey and church. I remember, likewise, the +recumbent figure of the prelate, whose face has been quite obliterated by +Puritanic violence; and I think that there is not a single tomb older +than the parliamentary wars, which has not been in like manner battered +and shattered, except the Saxon abbot's just mentioned. The most +pretentious monument remaining is that of a Mr. Deacon, a gentleman of +George I.'s time, in wig and breeches, leaning on his elbow, and resting +one hand upon a skull. In the north aisle, precisely opposite to that of +Queen Mary, the attendant pointed out to us the slab beneath which lie +the ashes of Catharine of Aragon, the divorced queen of Henry VIII. + +In the nave there was an ancient font, a venerable and beautiful relic, +which has been repaired not long ago, but in such a way as not to lessen +its individuality. This sacred vessel suffered especial indignity from +Cromwell's soldiers; insomuch that if anything could possibly destroy its +sanctity, they would have effected that bad end. On the eastern wall of +the nave, and near the entrance, hangs the picture of old Scarlet, the +sexton who buried both Mary of Scotland and Catharine of Aragon, and not +only these two queens, but everybody else in Peterborough, twice over. I +think one feels a sort of enmity and spite against these grave-diggers, +who live so long, and seem to contract a kindred and partnership with +Death, being boon companions with him, and taking his part against +mankind. + +In a chapel or some side apartment, there were two pieces of tapestry +wretchedly faded, the handiwork of two nuns, and copied from two of +Raphael's cartoons. + +We now emerged from the cathedral, and walked round its exterior, +admiring it to our utmost capacity, and all the more because we had not +heard of it beforehand, and expected to see nothing so huge, majestic, +grand, and gray. And of all the lovely closes that I ever beheld, that +of Peterborough Cathedral is to me the most delightful; so quiet it is, +so solemnly and nobly cheerful, so verdant, so sweetly shadowed, and so +presided over by the stately minster, and surrounded by ancient and +comely habitations of Christian men. The most enchanting place, the most +enviable as a residence in all this world, seemed to me that of the +Bishop's secretary, standing in the rear of the cathedral, and bordering +on the churchyard; so that you pass through hallowed precincts in order +to come at it, and find it a Paradise, the holier and sweeter for the +dead men who sleep so near. We looked through the gateway into the lawn, +which really seemed hardly to belong to this world, so bright and soft +the sunshine was, so fresh the grass, so lovely the trees, so trained and +refined and mellowed down was the whole nature of the spot, and so shut +in and guarded from all intrusion. It is in vain to write about it; +nowhere but in England can there be such a spot, nor anywhere but in the +close of Peterborough Cathedral. + + +May 28th.--I walked up into the town this morning, and again visited the +cathedral. On the way, I observed the Falcon Inn, a very old-fashioned +hostelry, with a thatched roof, and what looked like the barn door or +stable door in a side front. Very likely it may have been an inn ever +since Queen Elizabeth's time. The Guildhall, as I supposed it to be, in +the market-place, has a basement story entirely open on all sides, but +from its upper story it communicates with a large old house in the rear. +I have not seen an older-looking town than Peterborough; but there is +little that is picturesque about it, except within the domain of the +cathedral. It was very fortunate for the beauty and antiquity of these +precincts, that Henry VIII. did not suffer the monkish edifices of the +abbey to be overthrown and utterly destroyed, as was the case with so +many abbeys, at the Reformation; but, converting the abbey church into a +cathedral, he preserved much of the other arrangement of the buildings +connected with it. And so it happens that to this day we have the +massive and stately gateway, with its great pointed arch, still keeping +out the world from those who have inherited the habitations of the old +monks; for though the gate is never closed, one feels himself in a sacred +seclusion the instant he passes under the archway. And everywhere there +are old houses that appear to have been adapted from the monkish +residences, or from their spacious offices, and made into convenient +dwellings for ecclesiastics, or vergers, or great or small people +connected with the cathedral; and with all modern comfort they still +retain much of the quaintness of the olden time,--arches, even rows of +arcades, pillars, walls, beautified with patches of Gothic sculpture, not +wilfully put on by modern taste, but lingering from a long past; deep +niches, let into the fronts of houses, and occupied by images of saints; +a growth of ivy, overspreading walls, and just allowing the windows to +peep through,--so that no novelty, nor anything of our hard, ugly, and +actual life comes into these limits, through the defences of the gateway, +without being mollified and modified. Except in some of the old colleges +of Oxford, I have not seen any other place that impressed me in this way; +and the grounds of Peterborough Cathedral have the advantage over even +the Oxford colleges, insomuch that the life is here domestic,--that of +the family, that of the affections,--a natural life, which one deludes +himself with imagining may be made into something sweeter and purer in +this beautiful spot than anywhere else. Doubtless the inhabitants find +it a stupid and tiresome place enough, and get morbid and sulky, and +heavy and obtuse of head and heart, with the monotony of their life. But +still I must needs believe that a man with a full mind, and objects to +employ his affection, ought to be very happy here. And perhaps the forms +and appliances of human life are never fit to make people happy until +they cease to be used for the purposes for which they were directly +intended, and are taken, as it were, in a sidelong application. I mean +that the monks, probably, never enjoyed their own edifices while they +were a part of the actual life of the day, so much as these present +inhabitants now enjoy them when a new use has grown up apart from the +original one. + +Towards noon we all walked into the town again, and on our way went into +the old church with the projecting portal, which I mentioned yesterday. +A woman came hastening with the keys when she saw us looking up at the +door. The interior had an exceeding musty odor, and was very ancient, +with side aisles opening by a row of pointed arches into the nave, and a +gallery of wood on each side, and built across the two rows of arches. +It was paved with tombstones, and I suppose the dead people contributed +to the musty odor. Very naked and unadorned it was, except with a few +mural monuments of no great interest. We stayed but a little while, and +amply rewarded the poor woman with a sixpence. Thence we proceeded to +the cathedral, pausing by the way to look at the old Guildhall, which is +no longer a Guildhall, but a butter-market; and then we bought some +prints of exterior and interior views of the Minster, of which there are +a great variety on note-paper, letter-sheets, large engravings, and +lithographs. It is very beautiful; there seems to be nothing better than +to say this over again. We found the doors most hospitably open, and +every part entirely free to us,--a kindness and liberality which we have +nowhere else experienced in England, whether as regards cathedrals or any +other public buildings. My wife sat down to draw the font, and I walked +through the Lady Chapel meanwhile, pausing over the empty bed of Queen +Mary, and the grave of Queen Catharine, and looking at the rich and +sumptuous roof, where a fountain, as it were, of groins of arches spouts +from numberless pilasters, intersecting one another in glorious +intricacy. Under the central tower, opening to either transept, to the +nave, and to the choir, are four majestic arches, which I think must +equal in height those of which I saw the ruins, and one, all but perfect, +at Furness Abbey. They are about eighty feet high. + +I may as well give up Peterborough here, though I hate to leave it +undescribed even to the tufts of yellow flowers, which grow on the +projections high out of reach, where the winds have sown their seeds in +soil made by the aged decay of the edifice. I could write a page, too, +about the rooks or jackdaws that flit and clamor about the pinnacles, and +dart in and out of the eyelet-holes, the piercings,--whatever they are +called,--in the turrets and buttresses. On our way back to the hotel, +J----- saw an advertisement of some knights in armor that were to tilt +to-day; so he and I waited, and by and by a procession appeared, passing +through the antique market-place, and in front of the abbey gateway, +which might have befitted the same spot three hundred years ago. They +were about twenty men-at-arms on horseback, with lances and banners. We +were a little too near for the full enjoyment of the spectacle; for, +though some of the armor was real, I could not help observing that other +suits were made of silver paper or gold tinsel. A policeman (a queer +anomaly in reference to such a mediaeval spectacle) told us that they +were going to joust and run at the ring, in a field a little beyond the +bridge. + + + +TO NOTTINGHAM. + + +May 28th.--We left Peterborough this afternoon, and, however reluctant to +leave the cathedral, we were glad to get away from the hotel; for, though +outwardly pretentious, it is a wretched and uncomfortable place, with +scanty table, poor attendance, and enormous charges. The first stage of +our journey to-day was to Grantham, through a country the greater part of +which was as level as the Lincolnshire landscapes have been, throughout +our experience of them. We saw several old villages, gathered round +their several churches; and one of these little communities, "Little +Byforth," had a very primitive appearance,--a group of twenty or thirty +dwellings of stone and thatch, without a house among them that could be +so modern as a hundred years. It is a little wearisome to think of +people living from century to century in the same spot, going in and out +of the same doors, cultivating the same fields, meeting the same faces, +and marrying one another over and over again; and going to the same +church, and lying down in the same churchyard,--to appear again, and go +through the same monotonous round in the next generation. + +At Grantham, our route branches off from the main line; and there was a +delay of about an hour, during which we walked up into the town, to take +a nearer view of a tall gray steeple which we saw from the railway +station. The streets that led from the station were poor and +commonplace; and, indeed, a railway seems to have the effect of making +its own vicinity mean. We noticed nothing remarkable until we got to the +marketplace, in the centre of which there is a cross, doubtless of great +antiquity, though it is in too good condition not to have been recently +repaired. It consists of an upright pillar, with a pedestal of half a +dozen stone steps, which are worn hollow by the many feet that have +scraped their hobnailed shoes upon them. Among these feet, it is highly +probable, may have been those of Sir Isaac Newton, who was a scholar of +the free school of this town; and when J----- scampered up the steps, we +told him so. Visible from the market-place also stands the Angel Inn, +which seems to be a wonderfully old inn, being adorned with gargoyles and +other antique sculpture, with projecting windows, and an arched entrance, +and presenting altogether a frontispiece of so much venerable state that +I feel curious to know its history. Had I been aware that the chief +hotel of Grantham were such a time-honored establishment, I should have +arranged to pass the night there, especially as there were interesting +objects enough in the town to occupy us pleasantly. The church--the +steeple of which is seen over the market-place, but is removed from it by +a street or two--is very fine; the tower and spire being adorned with +arches, canopies, and niches,--twelve of the latter for the twelve +Apostles, all of whom have now vanished,--and with fragments of other +Gothic ornaments. The jackdaws have taken up their abodes in the +crevices and crannies of the upper half of the steeple. + +We left Grantham at nearly seven, and reached + + + +NOTTINGHAM + + +just before eight. The castle, situated on a high and precipitous rock, +directly over the edge of which look the walls, was visible, as we drove +from the station to our hotel. We followed the advice of a railway +attendant in going first to the May Pole, which proved to be a commercial +inn, with the air of a drinking-shop, in a by-alley; and, furthermore, +they could not take us in. So we drove to the George the Fourth, which +seems to be an excellent house; and here I have remained quiet, the size +of the town discouraging me from going out in the twilight which was fast +coming on after tea. These are glorious long days for travel; daylight +fairly between four in the morning and nine at night, and a margin of +twilight on either side. + + +May 29th.--After breakfast, this morning, I wandered out and lost myself; +but at last found the post-office, and a letter from Mr. Wilding, with +some perplexing intelligence. Nottingham is an unlovely and +uninteresting town. The castle I did not see; but, I happened upon a +large and stately old church, almost cathedralic in its dimensions. On +returning to the hotel, we deliberated on the mode of getting to Newstead +Abbey, and we finally decided upon taking a fly, in which conveyance, +accordingly, we set out before twelve. It was a slightly overcast day, +about half intermixed of shade and sunshine, and rather cool, but not so +cool that we could exactly wish it warmer. Our drive to Newstead lay +through what was once a portion of Sherwood Forest, though all of it, I +believe, has now become private property, and is converted into fertile +fields, except where the owners of estates have set out plantations. We +have now passed out of the fen-country, and the land rises and falls in +gentle swells, presenting a pleasant, but not striking, character of +scenery. I remember no remarkable object on the road,--here and there an +old inn, a gentleman's seat of moderate pretension, a great deal of tall +and continued hedge, a quiet English greenness and rurality, till, +drawing near + + + +NEWSTEAD ABBEY, + + +we began to see copious plantations, principally of firs, larches, and +trees of that order, looking very sombre, though with some intermingling +of lighter foliage. It was after one when we reached "The Hut,"--a +small, modern wayside inn, almost directly across the road from the +entrance-gate of Newstead. The post-boy calls the distance ten miles +from Nottingham. He also averred that it was forbidden to drive visitors +within the gates; so we left the fly at the inn, and set out to walk from +the entrance to the house. There is no porter's lodge; and the grounds, +in this outlying region, had not the appearance of being very primly +kept, but were well wooded with evergreens, and much overgrown with +ferns, serving for cover for hares, which scampered in and out of their +hiding-places. The road went winding gently along, and, at the distance +of nearly a mile, brought us to a second gate, through which we likewise +passed, and walked onward a good way farther, seeing much wood, but as +yet nothing of the Abbey. At last, through the trees, we caught a +glimpse of its battlements, and saw, too, the gleam of water, and then +appeared the Abbey's venerable front. It comprises the western wall of +the church, which is all that remains of that fabric,--a great, central +window, entirely empty, without tracery or mullions; the ivy clambering +up on the inside of the wall, and hanging over in front. The front of +the inhabited part of the house extends along on a line with this church +wall, rather low, with battlements along its top, and all in good keeping +with the ruinous remnant. We met a servant, who replied civilly to our +inquiries about the mode of gaining admittance, and bade us ring a bell +at the corner of the principal porch. We rang accordingly, and were +forthwith admitted into a low, vaulted basement, ponderously wrought with +intersecting arches, dark and rather chilly, just like what I remember to +have seen at Battle Abbey; and, after waiting here a little while, a +respectable elderly gentlewoman appeared, of whom we requested to be +shown round the Abbey. She courteously acceded, first presenting us to a +book in which to inscribe our names. + +I suppose ten thousand people, three fourths of them Americans, have +written descriptions of Newstead Abbey; and none of them, so far as I +have read, give any true idea of the place; neither will my description, +if I write one. In fact, I forget very much that I saw, and especially +in what order the objects came. In the basement was Byron's bath,--a +dark and cold and cellarlike hole, which it must have required good +courage to plunge into; in this region, too, or near it, was the chapel, +which Colonel Wildman has decorously fitted up, and where service is now +regularly performed, but which was used as a dog's kennel in Byron's +time. + +After seeing this, we were led to Byron's own bedchamber, which remains +just as when he slept in it,--the furniture and all the other +arrangements being religiously preserved. It was in the plainest +possible style, homely, indeed, and almost mean,--an ordinary +paper-hanging, and everything so commonplace that it was only the deep +embrasure of the window that made it look unlike a bedchamber in a +middling-class lodging-house. It would have seemed difficult, +beforehand, to fit up a room in that picturesque old edifice so that it +should be utterly void of picturesqueness; but it was effected in this +apartment, and I suppose it is a specimen of the way in which old +mansions used to be robbed of their antique character, and adapted to +modern tastes, before mediaeval antiquities came into fashion. Some +prints of the Cambridge colleges, and other pictures indicating Byron's +predilections at the time, and which he himself had hung there, were on +the walls. This, the housekeeper told us, had been the Abbot's chamber, +in the monastic time. Adjoining it is the haunted room, where the +ghostly monk, whom Byron introduces into Don Juan, is said to have his +lurking-place. It is fitted up in the same style as Byron's, and used to +be occupied by his valet or page. No doubt in his Lordship's day, these +were the only comfortable bedrooms in the Abbey; and by the housekeeper's +account of what Colonel Wildman has done, it is to be inferred that the +place must have been in a most wild, shaggy, tumble-down condition, +inside and out, when he bought it. + +It is very different now. After showing us these two apartments of Byron +and his servant, the housekeeper led us from one to another and another +magnificent chamber fitted up in antique style, with oak panelling, and +heavily carved bedsteads, of Queen Elizabeth's time, or of the Stuarts, +hung with rich tapestry curtains of similar date, and with beautiful old +cabinets of carved wood, sculptured in relief, or tortoise-shell and +ivory. The very pictures and realities, these rooms were, of stately +comfort; and they were called by the name of kings,--King Edward's, King +Charles II's, King Henry VII's chamber; and they were hung with beautiful +pictures, many of them portraits of these kings. The chimney-pieces were +carved and emblazoned; and all, so far as I could judge, was in perfect +keeping, so that if a prince or noble of three centuries ago were to come +to lodge at Newstead Abbey, he would hardly know that he had strayed out +of his own century. And yet he might have known by some token, for there +are volumes of poetry and light literature on the tables in these royal +bedchambers, and in that of Henry VII. I saw The House of the Seven +Gables and The Scarlet Letter in Routledge's edition. + +Certainly the house is admirably fitted up; and there must have been +something very excellent and comprehensive in the domestic arrangements +of the monks, since they adapt themselves so well to a state of society +entirely different from that in which they originated. The library is a +very comfortable room, and provocative of studious ideas, though lounging +and luxurious. It is long, and rather low, furnished with soft couches, +and, on the whole, though a man might dream of study, I think he would be +most likely to read nothing but novels there. I know not what the room +was in monkish times, but it was waste and ruinous in Lord Byron's. +Here, I think, the housekeeper unlocked a beautiful cabinet, and took out +the famous skull which Lord Byron transformed into a drinking-goblet. It +has a silver rim and stand, but still the ugly skull is bare and evident, +and the naked inner bone receives the wine. I should think it would hold +at least a quart,--enough to overpower any living head into which this +death's-head should transfer its contents; and a man must be either very +drunk or very thirsty, before he would taste wine out of such a goblet. +I think Byron's freak was outdone by that of a cousin of my own, who once +solemnly assured me that he had a spittoon made out of the skull of his +enemy. The ancient coffin in which the goblet-skull was found was shown +us in the basement of the Abbey. + +There was much more to see in the house than I had any previous notion +of; but except the two chambers already noticed, nothing remained the +least as Byron left it. Yes, another place there was,--his own small +dining-room, with a table of moderate size, where, no doubt, the +skull-goblet has often gone its rounds. Colonel Wildman's dining-room +was once Byron's shooting-gallery, and the original refectory of the +monks. It is now magnificently arranged, with a vaulted roof, a +music-gallery at one end, suits of armor and weapons on the walls, and +mailed arms extended, holding candelabras. There are one or two painted +windows, commemorative of the Peninsular war, and the battles in which +the Colonel and his two brothers fought,--for these Wildmen seem to +have been mighty troopers, and Colonel Wildman is represented as a +fierce-looking mustachioed hussar at two different ages. The housekeeper +spoke of him affectionately, but says that he is now getting into years, +and that they fancy him failing. He has no children. He appears to have +been on good terms with Byron, and had the latter ever returned to +England, he was under promise to make his first visit to his old home, +and it was in such an expectation that Colonel Wildman had kept Byron's +private apartments in the same condition in which he found them. Byron +was informed of all the Colonel's fittings up and restorations, and when +he introduces the Abbey in Don Juan, the poet describes it, not as he +himself left it, but as Colonel Wildman has restored it. There is a +beautiful drawing-room, and all these apartments are adorned with +pictures, the collection being especially rich in portraits by Sir Peter +Lely,--that of Nell Gwynn being one, who is one of the few beautiful +women whom I have seen on canvas. + +We parted with the housekeeper, and I with a good many shillings, at the +door by which we entered; and our next business was to see the private +grounds and gardens. A little boy attended us through the first part of +our progress, but soon appeared the veritable gardener,--a shrewd and +sensible old man, who has been very many years on the place. There was +nothing of special interest as concerning Byron until we entered the +original old monkish garden, which is still laid out in the same fashion +as the monks left it, with a large, oblong piece of water in the centre, +and terraced banks rising at two or three different stages with perfect +regularity around it; so that the sheet of water looks like the plate of +an immense looking-glass, of which the terraces form the frame. It seems +as if, were there any giant large enough, he might raise up this mirror +and set it on end. In the monks' garden, there is a marble statue of +Pan, which, the gardener told us, was brought by the "Wicked Lord" +(great-uncle of Byron) from Italy, and was supposed by the country people +to represent the Devil, and to be the object of his worship,--a natural +idea enough, in view of his horns and cloven feet and tail, though this +indicates, at all events, a very jolly devil. There is also a female +statue, beautiful from the waist upward, but shaggy and cloven-footed +below, and holding a little cloven-footed child by the hand. This, the +old gardener assured us, was Pandora, wife of the above-mentioned Pan, +with her son. Not far from this spot, we came to the tree on which Byron +carved his own name and that of his sister Augusta. It is a tree of twin +stems,--a birch-tree, I think,--growing up side by side. One of the +stems still lives and flourishes, but that on which he carved the two +names is quite dead, as if there had been something fatal in the +inscription that has made it forever famous. The names are still very +legible, although the letters had been closed up by the growth of the +bark before the tree died. They must have been deeply cut at first. + +There are old yew-trees of unknown antiquity in this garden, and many +other interesting things; and among them may be reckoned a fountain of +very pure water, called the "Holy Well," of which we drank. There are +several fountains, besides the large mirror in the centre of the garden; +and these are mostly inhabited by carp, the genuine descendants of those +which peopled the fish-ponds in the days of the monks. Coming in front +of the Abbey, the gardener showed us the oak that Byron planted, now a +vigorous young tree; and the monument which he erected to his +Newfoundland dog, and which is larger than most Christians get, being +composed of a marble, altar-shaped tomb, surrounded by a circular area of +steps, as much as twenty feet in diameter. The gardener said, however, +that Byron intended this, not merely as the burial-place of his dog, but +for himself too, and his sister. I know not how this may have been, but +this inconvenience would have attended his being buried there, that, on +transfer of the estate, his mortal remains would have become the property +of some other man. + +We had now come to the empty space,--a smooth green lawn, where had once +been the Abbey church. The length had been sixty-four yards, the +gardener said, and within his remembrance there had been many remains of +it, but now they are quite removed, with the exception of the one +ivy-grown western wall, which, as I mentioned, forms a picturesque part +of the present front of the Abbey. Through a door in this wall the +gardener now let us out. . . . . + +In the evening our landlady, who seems to be a very intelligent woman, of +a superior class to most landladies, came into our parlor, while I was +out, and talked about the present race of Byrons and Lovelaces, who have +often been at this house. There seems to be a taint in the Byron blood +which makes those who inherit it wicked, mad, and miserable. Even +Colonel Wildman comes in for a share of this ill luck, for he has almost +ruined himself by his expenditure on the estate, and by his lavish +hospitality, especially to the Duke of Sussex, who liked the Colonel, and +used often to visit him during his lifetime, and his Royal Highness's +gentlemen ate and drank Colonel Wildman almost up. So says our good +landlady. At any rate, looking at this miserable race of Byrons, who +held the estate so long, and at Colonel Wildman, whom it has ruined in +forty years, we might see grounds for believing in the evil fate which is +supposed to attend confiscated church property. Nevertheless, I would +accept the estate, were it offered me. + +. . . . Glancing back, I see that I have omitted some items that were +curious in describing the house; for instance, one of the cabinets had +been the personal property of Queen Elizabeth. It seems to me that the +fashion of modern furniture has nothing to equal these old cabinets for +beauty and convenience. In the state apartments, the floors were so +highly waxed and polished that we slid on them as if on ice, and could +only make sure of our footing by treading on strips of carpeting that +were laid down. + + +June 7th.--We left Nottingham a week ago, and made our first stage to +Derby, where we had to wait an hour or two at a great, bustling, +pell-mell, crowded railway station. It was much thronged with second and +third class passengers, coming and departing in continual trains; for +these were the Whitsuntide holidays, which set all the lower orders of +English people astir. This time of festival was evidently the origin of +the old "Election" holidays in Massachusetts; the latter occurring at the +same period of the year, and being celebrated (so long as they could be +so) in very much the same way, with games, idleness, merriment of set +purpose, and drunkenness. After a weary while we took the train for + + + +MATLOCK, + + +via Ambergate, and arrived of the former place late in the afternoon. +The village of Matlock is situated on the banks of the Derwent, in a +delightful little nook among the hills, which rise above it in steeps, +and in precipitous crags, and shut out the world so effectually that I +wonder how the railway ever found it out. Indeed, it does make its +approach to this region through a long tunnel. It was a beautiful, sunny +afternoon when we arrived, and my present impressions are, that I have +never seen anywhere else such exquisite scenery as that which surrounds +the village. The street itself, to be sure, is commonplace enough, and +hot, dusty, and disagreeable; but if you look above it, or on either +side, there are green hills descending abruptly down, and softened with +woods, amid which are seen villas, cottages, castles; and beyond the +river is a line of crags, perhaps three hundred feet high, clothed with +shrubbery in some parts from top to bottom, but in other places +presenting a sheer precipice of rock, over which tumbles, as it were, a +cascade of ivy and creeping plants. It is very beautiful, and, I might +almost say, very wild; but it has those characteristics of finish, and of +being redeemed from nature, and converted into a portion of the adornment +of a great garden, which I find in all English scenery. Not that I +complain of this; on the contrary, there is nothing that delights an +American more, in contrast with the roughness and ruggedness of his +native scenes,--to which, also, he might be glad to return after a while. + +We put up at the old Bath Hotel,--an immense house, with passages of such +extent that at first it seemed almost a day's journey from parlor to +bedroom. The house stands on a declivity, and after ascending one pair +of stairs, we came, in travelling along the passageway, to a door that +opened upon a beautifully arranged garden, with arbors and grottos, and +the hillside rising steep above. During all the time of our stay at +Matlock there was brilliant sunshine, and, the grass and foliage being in +their freshest and most luxuriant phase, the place has left as bright a +picture as I have anywhere in my memory. + +The morning after our arrival we took a walk, and, following the sound of +a church-bell, entered what appeared to be a park, and, passing along a +road at the base of a line of crags, soon came in sight of a beautiful +church. I rather imagine it to be the place of worship of the Arkwright +family, whose seat is in this vicinity,--the descendants of the famous +Arkwright who contributed so much towards turning England into a cotton +manufactory. We did not enter the church, but passed beyond it, and over +a bridge, and along a road that ascended among the hills and finally +brought us out by a circuit to the other end of Matlock village, after a +walk of three or four miles. In the afternoon we took a boat across the +Derwent,--a passage which half a dozen strokes of the oars accomplished, +--and reached a very pleasant seclusion called "The Lovers' Walk." A +ferriage of twopence pays for the transit across the river, and gives the +freedom of these grounds, which are threaded with paths that meander and +zigzag to the top of the precipitous ridge, amid trees and shrubbery, and +the occasional ease of rustic seats. It is a sweet walk for lovers, and +was so for us; although J-----, with his scramblings and disappearances, +and shouts from above, and headlong scamperings down the precipitous +paths, occasionally frightened his mother. After gaining the heights, +the path skirts along the precipice, allowing us to see down into the +village street, and, nearer, the Derwent winding through the valley so +close beneath us that we might have flung a stone into it. These crags +would be very rude and harsh if left to themselves, but they are quite +softened and made sweet and tender by the great deal of foliage that +clothes their sides, and creeps and clambers over them, only letting a +stern face of rock be seen here and there, and with a smile rather than a +frown. + +The next day, Monday, we went to see the grand cavern. The entrance is +high up on the hillside, whither we were led by a guide, of whom there +are many, and they all pay tribute to the proprietor of the cavern. +There is a small shed by the side of the cavern mouth, where the guide +provided himself and us with tallow candles, and then led us into the +darksome and ugly pit, the entrance of which is not very imposing, for it +has a door of rough pine boards, and is kept under lock and key. This is +the disagreeable phase-one of the disagreeable phases--of man's conquest +over nature in England,--cavern mouths shut up with cellar doors, +cataracts under lock and key, precipitous crags compelled to figure in +ornamented gardens,--and all accessible at a fixed amount of shillings or +pence. It is not possible to draw a full free breath under such +circumstances. When you think of it, it makes the wildest scenery look +like the artificial rock-work which Englishmen are so fond of displaying +in the little bit of grass-plot under their suburban parlor windows. +However, the cavern was dreary enough and wild enough, though in a mean +sort of way; for it is but a long series of passages and crevices, +generally so narrow that you scrape your elbows, and so low that you hit +your head. It has nowhere a lofty height, though sometimes it broadens +out into ample space, but not into grandeur, the roof being always within +reach, and in most places smoky with the tallow candles that have been +held up to it. A very dirty, sordid, disagreeable burrow, more like a +cellar gone mad than anything else; but it served to show us how the +crust of the earth is moulded. This cavern was known to the Romans, and +used to be worked by them as a lead-mine. Derbyshire spar is now taken +from it; and in some of its crevices the gleam of the tallow candles is +faintly reflected from the crystallizations; but, on the whole, I felt +like a mole, as I went creeping along, and was glad when we came into the +sunshine again. I rather think my idea of a cavern is taken from the one +in the Forty Thieves, or in Gil Blas,--a vast, hollow womb, roofed and +curtained with obscurity. This reality is very mean. + +Leaving the cavern, we went to the guide's cottage, situated high above +the village, where he showed us specimens of ornaments and toys +manufactured by himself from Derbyshire spar and other materials. There +was very pretty mosaic work, flowers of spar, and leaves of malachite, +and miniature copies of Cleopatra's Needle, and other Egyptian monuments, +and vases of graceful pattern, brooches, too, and many other things. The +most valuable spar is called Blue John, and is only to be found in one +spot, where, also, the supply is said to be growing scant. We bought a +number of articles, and then came homeward, still with our guide, who +showed us, on the way, the Romantic Rocks. These are some crags which +have been rent away and stand insulated from the hillside, affording a +pathway between it and then; while the places can yet be seen where the +sundered rocks would fit into the craggy hill if there were but a Titan +strong enough to adjust them again. It is a very picturesque spot, and +the price for seeing it is twopence; though in our case it was included +in the four shillings which we had paid for seeing the cavern. The +representative men of England are the showmen and the policemen; both +very good people in their way. + +Returning to the hotel, J----- and his mother went through the village to +the river, near the railway, where J----- set himself to fishing, and +caught three minnows. I followed, after a while, to fetch them back, and +we called into one or two of the many shops in the village, which have +articles manufactured of the spar for sale. Some of these are nothing +short of magnificent. There was an inlaid table, valued at sixty +guineas, and a splendid ornament for any drawing-room; another, inlaid +with the squares of a chess-board. We heard of a table in the possession +of the Marquis of Westminster, the value of which is three hundred +guineas. It would be easy and pleasant to spend a great deal of money in +such things as we saw there; but all our purchases in Matlock did not +amount to more than twenty shillings, invested in brooches, shawl-pins, +little vases and toys, which will be valuable to us as memorials on the +other side of the water. After this, we visited a petrifying cave, of +which there are several hereabouts. The process of petrifaction requires +some months, or perhaps a year or two, varying with the size of the +article to be operated upon. The articles are placed in the cave, under +the drippings from the roof, and a hard deposit is formed upon them, and +sometimes, as in the case of a bird's-nest, causes a curious result,-- +every straw and hair being immortalized and stiffened into stone. A +horse's head was in process of petrifaction; and J----- bought a broken +eggshell for a penny, though larger articles are expensive. The process +would appear to be entirely superficial,--a mere crust on the outside of +things,--but we saw some specimens of petrified oak, where the stony +substance seemed to be intimately incorporated with the wood, and to have +really changed it into stone. These specimens were immensely ponderous, +and capable of a high polish, which brought out beautiful streaks and +shades. + +One might spend a very pleasant summer in Matlock, and I think there can +be no more beautiful place in the world; but we left it that afternoon, +and railed to Manchester, where we arrived between ten and eleven at +night. The next day I left S----- to go to the Art Exhibition, and took +J----- with me to Liverpool, where I had an engagement that admitted of +no delay. Thus ended our tour, in which we had seen but a little bit of +England, yet rich with variety and interest. What a wonderful land! It +is our forefathers' land; our land, for I will not give up such a +precious inheritance. We are now back again in flat and sandy Southport, +which, during the past week, has been thronged with Whitsuntide people, +who crowd the streets, and pass to and fro along the promenade, with a +universal and monotonous air of nothing to do, and very little enjoyment. +It is a pity that poor folks cannot employ their little hour of leisure +to better advantage, in a country where the soil is so veined with gold. + +These are delightfully long days. Last night, at half past nine, I could +read with perfect ease in parts of the room remote from the window; and +at nearly half past eleven there was a broad sheet of daylight in the +west, gleaming brightly over the plashy sands. I question whether there +be any total night at this season. + + +June 21st.--Southport, I presume, is now in its most vivid aspect; there +being a multitude of visitors here, principally of the middling classes, +and a frequent crowd, whom I take to be working-people from Manchester +and other factory towns. It is the strangest place to come to for the +pleasures of the sea, of which we scarcely have a glimpse from month's +end to mouth's end, nor any fresh, exhilarating breath from it, but a +lazy, languid atmosphere, brooding over the waste of sands; or even if +there be a sulky and bitter wind blowing along the promenade, it still +brings no salt elixir. I never was more weary of a place in all my life, +and never felt such a disinterested pity as for the people who come here +for pleasure. Nevertheless, the town has its amusements; in the first +place, the daylong and perennial one of donkey-riding along the sands, +large parties of men and girls pottering along together; the Flying +Dutchman trundles hither and thither when there is breeze enough; an arch +cry-man sets up his targets on the beach; the bathing-houses stand by +scores and fifties along the shore, and likewise on the banks of the +Ribble, a mile seaward; the hotels have their billiard-rooms; there is a +theatre every evening; from morning till night comes a succession of +organ-grinders, playing interminably under your window; and a man with a +bassoon and a monkey, who takes your pennies and pulls off his cap in +acknowledgment; and wandering minstrels, with guitar and voice; and a +Highland bagpipe, squealing out a tangled skein of discord, together with +a Highland maid, who dances a hornpipe; and Punch and Judy,--in a word, +we have specimens of all manner of vagrancy that infests England. In +these long days, and long and pleasant ones, the promenade is at its +liveliest about nine o'clock, which is but just after sundown; and our +little R----- finds it difficult to go to sleep amid so much music as +comes to her ears from bassoon, bagpipe, organ, guitar, and now and then +a military band. One feature of the place is the sick and infirm people, +whom we see dragged along in bath-chairs, or dragging their own limbs +languidly; or sitting on benches; or meeting in the streets, and making +acquaintance on the strength of mutual maladies,--pale men leaning on +their ruddy wives; cripples, three or four together in a ring, and +planting their crutches in the centre. I don't remember whether I have +ever mentioned among the notabilities of Southport the Town Crier,--a +meek-looking old man, who sings out his messages in a most doleful tone, +as if he took his title in a literal sense, and were really going to cry, +or crying in the world's behalf; one other stroller, a foreigner with a +dog, shaggy round the head and shoulders, and closely shaven behind. The +poor little beast jumped through hoops, ran about on two legs of one +side, danced on its hind legs, or on its fore paws, with its hind ones +straight up in the air,--all the time keeping a watch on his master's +eye, and evidently mindful of many a beating. + + +June 25th.--The war-steamer Niagara came up the Mersey a few days since, +and day before yesterday Captain Hudson called at my office,--a somewhat +meagre, elderly gentleman, of simple and hearty manners and address, +having his purser, Mr. Eldredge, with him, who, I think, rather prides +himself upon having a Napoleonic profile. The captain is an old +acquaintance of Mrs. Blodgett, and has cone ashore principally with a +view to calling on her; so, after we had left our cards for the Mayor, I +showed these naval gentlemen the way to her house. Mrs. Blodgett and +Miss W------ were prodigiously glad to see him and they all three began +to talk of old times and old acquaintances; for when Mrs. Blodgett was a +rich lady at Gibraltar, she used to have the whole navy-list at her +table,--young midshipmen and lieutenants then perhaps, but old, gouty, +paralytic commodores now, if still even partly alive. It was arranged +that Mrs. Blodgett, with as many of the ladies of her family as she chose +to bring, should accompany me on my official visit to the ship the next +day; and yesterday we went accordingly, Mrs. Blodgett, Miss W------, and +six or seven American captains' wives, their husbands following in +another boat. I know too little of ships to describe one, or even to +feel any great interest in the details of this or of any other ship; but +the nautical people seemed to see much to admire. She lay in the Sloyne, +in the midst of a broad basin of the Mersey, with a pleasant landscape of +green England, now warm with summer sunshine, on either side, with +churches and villa residences, and suburban and rural beauty. The +officers of the ship are gentlemanly men, externally very well mannered, +although not polished and refined to any considerable extent. At least, +I have not found naval men so, in general; but still it is pleasant to +see Americans who are not stirred by such motives as usually interest our +countrymen,--no hope nor desire of growing rich, but planting their +claims to respectability on other grounds, and therefore acquiring a +certain nobleness, whether it be inherent in their nature or no. It +always seems to me they look down upon civilians with quiet and not +ill-natured scorn, which one has the choice of smiling or being provoked +at. It is not a true life which they lead, but shallow and aimless; and +unsatisfactory it must be to the better minds among them; nor do they +appear to profit by what would seem the advantages presented to them in +their world-wide, though not world-deep experience. They get to be very +clannish too. + +After seeing the ship, we landed, all of us, ladies and captain, and went +to the gardens of the Rock Ferry Hotel, where J----- and I stayed behind +the rest. + + + +TO SCOTLAND. + + +June 28th.--On the 26th my wife, J-----, and I left Southport, taking the +train for Preston, and as we had to stop an hour or two before starting +for Carlisle, I walked up into the town. The street through which most +of my walk lay was brick-built, lively, bustling, and not particularly +noteworthy; but, turning a little way down another street, the town had a +more ancient aspect. The day was intensely hot, the sun lying bright and +broad as ever I remember it in an American city; so that I was glad to +get back again to the shade and shelter of the station. The heat and +dust, moreover, made our journey to Carlisle very uncomfortable. It was +through very pretty, and sometimes picturesque scenery, being on the +confines of the hill-country, which we could see on our left, dim and +blue; and likewise we had a refreshing breath from the sea in passing +along the verge of Morecambe Bay. We reached Carlisle at about five +o'clock, and, after taking tea at the Bush Hotel, set forth to look at +the town. + +The notable objects were a castle and a cathedral; and we first found our +way to the castle, which stands on elevated ground, on the side of the +city towards Scotland. A broad, well-constructed path winds round the +castle at the base of the wall, on the verge of a steep descent to the +plain beneath, through which winds the river Eden. Along this path we +walked quite round the castle, a circuit of perhaps half a mile,-- +pleasant, being shaded by the castle's height and by the foliage of +trees. The walls have been so much rebuilt and restored that it is only +here and there that we see an old buttress, or a few time-worn stones +intermixed with the new facing with which the aged substance is overlaid. +The material is red freestone, which seems to be very abundant in this +part of the country. We found no entrance to the castle till the path +had led us from the free and airy country into a very mean part of the +town, where the wretched old houses thrust themselves between us and the +castle wall, and then, passing through a narrow street, we walked up what +appeared like a by-lane, and the portal of the castle was before us. +There was a sentry-box just within the gate, and a sentinel was on guard, +for Carlisle Castle is a national fortress, and has usually been a depot +for arms and ammunition. The sergeant, or corporal of the guard, sat +reading within the gateway, and, on my request for admittance, he civilly +appointed one of the soldiers to conduct us to the castle. As I +recollect, the chief gateway of the castle, with the guard-room in the +thickness of the wall, is situated some twenty yards behind the first +entrance where we met the sentinel. + +It was an intelligent young soldier who showed as round the castle, and +very civil, as I always find soldiers to be. He had not anything +particularly interesting to show, nor very much to say about it; and what +be did say, so far as it referred to the history of the castle, was +probably apocryphal. + +The castle has an inner and outer ward on the descent of the hill; and +included within the circuit of the exterior wall. Having been always +occupied by soldiers, it has not been permitted to assume the picturesque +aspect of a ruin, but the buildings of the interior have either been +constantly repaired, as they required it, or have been taken down when +past repair. We saw a small part of the tower where Mary, Queen of +Scots, was confined on her first coming to England; these remains consist +only of a portion of a winding stone staircase, at which we glanced +through a window. The keep is very large and massive, and, no doubt, old +in its inner substance. We ascended to the castle walls, and looked out +over the river towards the Scottish hills, which are visible in the +distance,--the Scottish border being not more than eight or nine miles +off. Carlisle Castle has stood many sieges, and witnessed many battles +under its walls. There are now, on its ramparts, only some half a dozen +old-fashioned guns, which our soldier told us had gone quite out of use +in these days. They were long iron twelve-pounders, with one or two +carronades. The soldier was of an artillery regiment, and wore the +Crimean medal. He said the garrison now here consists only of about +twenty men, all of whom had served in the Crimea, like himself. They +seem to lead a very dull and monotonous life, as indeed it must be, +without object or much hope, or any great employment of the present, like +prisoners, as indeed they are. Our guide showed us on the rampart a +place where the soldiers had been accustomed to drop themselves down at +night, hanging by their hands from the top of the wall, and alighting on +their feet close beside the path on the outside. The height seemed at +least that of an ordinary house, but the soldier said that nine times out +of ten the fall might be ventured without harm; and he spoke from +experience, having himself got out of the castle in this manner. The +place is now boarded up, so as to make egress difficult or impossible. + +The castle, after all, was not particularly worth seeing. The soldier's +most romantic story was of a daughter of Lord Scroope, a former governor +of the castle, when Mary of Scotland was confined here. She attempted to +assist the Queen in escaping, but was shot dead in the gateway by the +warder; and the soldier pointed out the very spot where the poor young +lady fell and died;--all which would be very interesting were there a +word of truth in the story. But we liked our guide for his intelligence, +simplicity, and for the pleasure which he seemed to take, as an episode +of his dull daily life, in talking to strangers. He observed that the +castle walls were solid, and, indeed, there was breadth enough to drive a +coach and four along the top; but the artillery of the Crimea would have +shelled them into ruins in a very few hours. When we got back to the +guard-house, he took us inside, and showed the dismal and comfortless +rooms where soldiers are confined for drunkenness, and other offences +against military laws, telling us that he himself had been confined +there, and almost perished with cold. I should not much wonder if he +were to get into durance again, through misuse of the fee which I put +into his hand at parting. + +The cathedral is at no great distance from the castle; and though the +streets are mean and sordid in the vicinity, the close has the antique +repose and shadowy peace, at once domestic and religious, which seem +peculiar and universal in cathedral closes. The foundation of this +cathedral church is very ancient, it having been the church portion of an +old abbey, the refectory and other remains of which are still seen around +the close. But the whole exterior of the building, except here and +there a buttress, and one old patch of gray stones, seems to have been +renewed within a very few years with red freestone; and, really, I think +it is all the more beautiful for being new,--the ornamental parts being +so sharply cut, and the stone, moreover, showing various shadings, which +will disappear when it gets weatherworn. There is a very large and fine +east window, of recent construction, wrought with delicate stone tracery. +The door of the south transept stood open, though barred by an iron +grate. We looked in, and saw a few monuments on the wall, but found +nobody to give us admittance. The portal of this entrance is very lovely +with wreaths of stone foliage and flowers round the arch, recently +carved; yet not so recently but that the swallows have given their +sanction to it, as if it were a thousand years old, and have built their +nests in the deeply carved recesses. While we were looking, a little +bird flew into the small opening between two of these petrified flowers, +behind which was his nest, quite out of sight. After some attempts to +find the verger, we went back to the hotel. . . . . + +In the morning my wife and J----- went back to see the interior of the +cathedral, while I strayed at large about the town, again passing round +the castle site, and thence round the city, where I found some +inconsiderable portions of the wall which once girt it about. It was +market-day in Carlisle, and the principal streets were much thronged with +human life and business on that account; and in as busy a street as any +stands a marble statue, in robes of antique state, fitter for a niche in +Westminster Abbey than for the thronged street of a town. It is a statue +of the Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland, who died about +twenty years ago. + +[Here follows the record of the visits to the "Haunts of Burns," already +published in Our Old Home.--ED.] + + + +GLASGOW. + + +July 1st.--Immediately after our arrival yesterday, we went out and +inquired our way to the cathedral, which we reached through a good deal +of Scotch dirt, and a rabble of Scotch people of all sexes and ages. The +women of Scotland have a faculty of looking exceedingly ugly as they grow +old. The cathedral I have already noticed in the record of my former +visit to Scotland. I did it no justice then, nor shall do it any better +justice now; but it is a fine old church, although it makes a colder and +severer impression than most of the Gothic architecture which I have +elsewhere seen. I do not know why this should be so; for portions of it +are wonderfully rich, and everywhere there are arches opening beyond +arches, and clustered pillars and groined roofs, and vistas, lengthening +along the aisles. The person who shows it is an elderly man of jolly +aspect and demeanor; he is enthusiastic about the edifice, and makes it +the thought and object of his life; and being such a merry sort of man, +always saying something mirthfully, and yet, in all his thoughts, words, +and actions, having reference to this solemn cathedral, he has the effect +of one of the corbels or gargoyles,--those ludicrous, strange sculptures +which the Gothic architects appended to their arches. + +The upper portion of the minster, though very stately and beautiful, is +not nearly so extraordinary as the crypts. Here the intricacy of the +arches, and the profound system on which they are arranged, is +inconceivable, even when you see them,--a whole company of arches uniting +in one keystone; arches uniting to form a glorious canopy over the shrine +or tomb of a prelate; arches opening through and beyond one another, +whichever way you look,-- all amidst a shadowy gloom, yet not one detail +wrought out the less beautifully and delicately because it could scarcely +be seen. The wreaths of flowers that festoon one of the arches are cut +in such relief that they do but just adhere to the stone on which they +grow. The pillars are massive, and the arches very low, the effect being +a twilight, which at first leads the spectator to imagine himself +underground; but by and by I saw that the sunshine came in through the +narrow windows, though it scarcely looked like sunshine then. For many +years these crypts were used as burial-ground, and earth was brought in, +for the purpose of making graves; so that the noble columns were half +buried, and the beauty of the architecture quite lost and forgotten. Now +the dead men's bones and the earth that covered them have all been +removed, leaving the original pavement of the crypt, or a new one in its +stead, with only the old relics of saints, martyrs, and heroes +underneath, where they have lain so long that they have become a part of +the spot. . . . . I was quite chilled through, and the old verger +regretted that we had not come during the late hot weather, when the +everlasting damp and chill of the spot would have made us entirely +comfortable. These crypts originated in the necessity of keeping the +floor of the upper cathedral on one level, the edifice being built on a +declivity, and the height of the crypt being measured by the descent of +the site. + +After writing the above, we walked out and saw something of the newer +portion of Glasgow; and, really, I am inclined to think it the stateliest +of cities. The Exchange and other public buildings, and the shops in +Buchanan Street, are very magnificent; the latter, especially, excelling +those of London. There is, however, a pervading sternness and grimness +resulting from the dark gray granite, which is the universal +building-material both of the old and new edifices. Later in the +forenoon we again walked out, and went along Argyle Street, and through +the Trongate and the Salt-Market. The two latter were formerly the +principal business streets, and together with High Street, the abode of +the rich merchants and other great people of the town. High Street, and, +still more, the Salt-Market, now swarm with the lower orders to a degree +which I never witnessed elsewhere; so that it is difficult to make one's +way among the sullen and unclean crowd, and not at all pleasant to +breathe in the noisomeness of the atmosphere. The children seem to have +been unwashed from birth. Some of the gray houses appear to have once +been stately and handsome, and have their high gable ends notched at the +edges, like a flight of stairs. We saw the Tron steeple, and the +statue of King William III., and searched for the Old Tolbooth. . . . . +Wandering up the High Street, we turned once more into the quadrangle of +the University, and mounted a broad stone staircase which ascends square, +and with right-angular turns on one corner, on the outside of the +edifices. It is very striking in appearance, being ornamented with a +balustrade, on which are large globes of stone, and a great lion and +unicorn curiously sculptured on the opposite side. While we waited here, +staring about us, a man approached, and offered to show us the interior. +He seemed to be in charge of the College buildings. We accepted his +offer, and were led first up this stone staircase, and into a large and +stately hall, panelled high towards the ceiling with dark oak, and +adorned with elaborately carved cornices, and other wood-work. There was +a long reading-table towards one end of the hall, on which were laid +pamphlets and periodicals; and a venerable old gentleman, with white head +and bowed shoulders, sat there reading a newspaper. This was the +Principal of the University, and as he looked towards us graciously, yet +as if expecting some explanation of our entrance, I approached and +apologized for intruding on the plea of our being strangers and anxious +to see the College. He made a courteous response, though in exceedingly +decayed and broken accents, being now eighty-six years old, and gave us +free leave to inspect everything that was to be seen. This hall was +erected two years after the Restoration of Charles II., and has been the +scene, doubtless, of many ceremonials and high banquetings since that +period; and, among other illustrious personages, Queen Victoria has +honored it with her presence. Thence we went into several recitation or +lecture rooms in various parts of the buildings; but they were all of an +extreme plainness, very unlike the rich old Gothic libraries and chapels +and halls which we saw in Oxford. Indeed, the contrast between this +Scotch severity and that noble luxuriance, and antique majesty, and rich +and sweet repose of Oxford, is very remarkable, both within the edifices +and without. But we saw one or two curious things,--for instance, a +chair of mahogany, elaborately carved with the arms of Scotland and other +devices, and having a piece of the kingly stone of Scone inlaid in its +seat. This chair is used by the Principal on certain high occasions, and +we ourselves, of course, sat down in it. Our guide assigned to it a date +preposterously earlier than could have been the true one, judging either +by the character of the carving or by the fact that mahogany has not been +known or used much more than a century and a half. + +Afterwards he led us into the Divinity Hall, where, he said, there were +some old portraits of historic people, and among them an original picture +of Mary, Queen of Scots. There was, indeed, a row of old portraits at +each end of the apartment,--for instance, Zachariah Boyd, who wrote the +rhyming version of the Bible, which is still kept, safe from any critical +eye, in the library of the University to which he presented this, besides +other more valuable benefactions,--for which they have placed his bust in +a niche in the principal quadrangle; also, John Knox makes one of the row +of portraits; and a dozen or two more of Scotch worthies, all very dark +and dingy. As to the picture of Mary of Scotland, it proved to be not +hers at all, but a picture of Queen Mary, the consort of William III., +whose portrait, together with that of her sister, Queen Anne, hangs in +the same row. We told our guide this, but he seemed unwilling to accept +it as a fact. There is a museum belonging to the University; but this, +for some reason or other, could not be shown to us just at this time, and +there was little else to show. We just looked at the gardens, but, +though of large extent, they are so meagre and bare--so unlike that +lovely shade of the Oxford gardens--that we did not care to make further +acquaintance with them. + +Then we went back to our hotel, and if there were not already more than +enough of description, both past and to come, I should describe George's +Square, on one side of which the hotel is situated. A tall column rises +in the grassy centre of it, lifting far into the upper air a fine statue +of Sir Walter Scott, which we saw to great advantage last night, relieved +against the sunset sky; and there are statues of Sir John Moore, a native +of Glasgow, and of James Watt, at corners of the square. Glasgow is +certainly a noble city. + +After lunch we embarked on board the steamer, and came up the Clyde. Ben +Lomond, and other Highland hills, soon appeared on the horizon; we passed +Douglas Castle on a point of land projecting into the river; and, passing +under the precipitous height of Dumbarton Castle, which we had long +before seen, came to our voyage's end at this village, where we have put +up at the Elephant Hotel. + + +July 2d.--After tea, not far from seven o'clock, it being a beautiful +decline of day, we set out to walk to + + + +DUMBARTON CASTLE, + + +which stands apart from the town, and is said to have been once +surrounded by the waters of the Clyde. The rocky height on which the +castle stands is a very striking object, bulging up out of the Clyde, +with abrupt decision, to the elevation of five hundred feet. The summit +is cloven in twain, the cleft reaching nearly to the bottom on the side +towards the river, but not coming down so deeply on the landward side. +It is precipitous all around; and wherever the steepness admits, or does +not make assault impossible, there are gray ramparts round the hill, with +cannon threatening the lower world. Our path led its beneath one of +these precipices several hundred feet sheer down, and with an ivied +fragment of ruined wall at the top. A soldier who sat by the wayside +told us that this was called the "Lover's Leap," because a young girl, in +some love-exigency, had once jumped down from it, and came safely to the +bottom. We reached the castle gate, which is near the shore of the +Clyde, and there found another artillery soldier, who guided us through +the fortress. He said that there were now but about a dozen soldiers +stationed in the castle, and no officer. + +The lowest battery looks towards the river, and consists of a few +twelve-pound cannon; but probably the chief danger of attack was from the +land, and the chief pains have been taken to render the castle defensible +in that quarter. There are flights of stone stairs ascending up through +the natural avenue, in the cleft of the double-summited rock; and about +midway there is an arched doorway, beneath which there used to be a +portcullis,--so that if an enemy had won the lower part of the fortress, +the upper portion was still inaccessible. Where the cleft of the rock +widens into a gorge, there are several buildings, old, but not +appertaining to the ancient castle, which has almost entirely +disappeared. We ascended both summits, and, reaching the loftiest point +on the right, stood upon the foundation of a tower that dates back to the +fifth century, whence we had a glorious prospect of Highlands and +Lowlands; the chief object being Ben Lomond, with its great dome, among a +hundred other blue and misty hills, with the sun going down over them; +and, in another direction, the Clyde, winding far downward through the +plain, with the headland of Dumbeck close at hand, and Douglas Castle at +no great distance. On the ramparts beneath us the soldier pointed out +the spot where Wallace scaled the wall, climbing an apparently +inaccessible precipice, and taking the castle. The principal parts of +the ancient castle appear to have been on the other and lower summit of +the hill, and thither we now went, and traced the outline of its wall, +although none of it is now remaining. Here is the magazine, still +containing some powder, and here is a battery of eighteen-pound guns, +with pyramids of balls, all in readiness against an assault; which, +however, hardly any turn of human affairs can hereafter bring about. The +appearance of a fortress is kept up merely for ceremony's sake; and these +cannon have grown antiquated. Moreover, as the soldier told us, they are +seldom or never fired, even for purposes of rejoicing or salute, because +their thunder produces the singular effect of depriving the garrison of +water. There is a large tank, and the concussion causes the rifts of the +stone to open, and thus lets the water out. Above this battery, and +elsewhere about the fortress, there are warders' turrets of stone, +resembling great pepper-boxes. When Dr. Johnson visited the castle, he +introduced his bulky person into one of these narrow receptacles, and +found it difficult to get out again. A gentleman who accompanied him was +just stepping forward to offer his assistance, but Boswell whispered him +to take no notice, lest Johnson should be offended; so they left him to +get out as he could. He did finally extricate himself, else we might +have seen his skeleton in the turret. Boswell does not tell this story, +which seems to have been handed down by local tradition. + +The less abrupt declivities of the rock are covered with grass, and +afford food for a few sheep, who scamper about the heights, and seem to +have attained the dexterity of goats in clambering. I never knew a purer +air than this seems to be, nor a lovelier golden sunset. + +Descending into the gorge again, we went into the armory, which is in one +of the buildings occupying the space between the two hill-tops. It +formerly contained a large collection of arms; but these have been +removed to the Tower of London, and there are now only some tattered +banners, of which I do not know the history, and some festoons of +pistols, and grenades, shells, and grape and canister shot, kept merely +as curiosities; and, far more interesting than the above, a few +battle-axes, daggers, and spear-heads from the field of Bannockburn; and, +more interesting still, the sword of William Wallace. It is a +formidable-looking weapon, made for being swayed with both hands, and, +with its hilt on the floor, reached about to my chin; but the young girl +who showed us the armory said that about nine inches had been broken off +the point. The blade was not massive, but somewhat thin, compared with +its great length; and I found that I could blandish it, using both hands, +with perfect ease. It is two-edged, without any gaps, and is quite brown +and lustreless with old rust, from point to hilt. + +These were all the memorables of our visit to Dumbarton Castle, which is +a most interesting spot, and connected with a long series of historical +events. It was first besieged by the Danes, and had a prominent share in +all the warfare of Scotland, so long as the old warlike times and manners +lasted. Our soldier was very intelligent and courteous, but, as usual +with these guides, was somewhat apocryphal in his narrative; telling us +that Mary, Queen of Scots, was confined here before being taken to +England, and that the cells in which she then lived are still extant, +under one of the ramparts. The fact is, she was brought here when a +child of six years old, before going to France, and doubtless scrambled +up and down these heights as freely and merrily as the sheep we saw. + +We now returned to our hotel, a very nice one, and found the street of +Dumbarton all alive in the summer evening with the sports of children and +the gossip of grown people. There was almost no night, for at twelve +o'clock there was still a golden daylight, and Yesterday, before it died, +must have met the Morrow. + +In the lower part of the fortress there is a large sun-dial of stone, +which was made by a French officer imprisoned here during the Peninsular +war. It still numbers faithfully the hours that are sunny, and it is a +lasting memorial of him, in the stronghold of his enemies. + + + +INVERANNAN. + + +Evening.--After breakfast at Dumbarton, I went out to look at the town, +which is of considerable size, and possesses both commerce and +manufactures. There was a screw-steamship at the pier, and many +sailor-looking people were seen about the streets. There are very few +old houses, though still the town retains an air of antiquity which one +does not well see how to account for, when everywhere there is a modern +front, and all the characteristics of a street built to-day. Turning +from the main thoroughfare I crossed a bridge over the Clyde, and gained +from it the best view of the cloven crag of Dumbarton Castle that I had +yet found. The two summits are wider apart, more fully relieved from +each other, than when seen from other points; and the highest ascends +into a perfect pyramid, the lower one being obtusely rounded. There seem +to be iron-works, or some kind of manufactory, on the farther side of the +bridge; and I noticed a quaint, chateau-like mansion, with hanging +turrets standing apart from the street, probably built by some person +enriched by business. + +We left Dumbarton at noon, taking the rail to Balloch, and the steamer to +the head of Loch Lomond. + +Wild mountain scenery is not very good to describe, nor do I think any +distinct impressions are ever conveyed by such attempts; so I mean to be +brief in what I saw about this part of our tour, especially as I suspect +that I have said whatever I knew how to say in the record of my former +visit to the Highlands. As for Loch Lomond, it lies amidst very striking +scenery, being poured in among the gorges of steep and lofty mountains, +which nowhere stand aside to give it room, but, on the contrary, do their +best to shut it in. It is everywhere narrow, compared with its length of +thirty miles; but it is the beauty of a lake to be of no greater width +than to allow of the scenery of one of its shores being perfectly enjoyed +from the other. The scenery of the Highlands, so far as I have seen it, +cannot properly be called rich, but stern and impressive, with very hard +outlines, which are unsoftened, mostly, by any foliage, though at this +season they are green to their summits. They have hardly flesh enough to +cover their bones,--hardly earth enough to lie over their rocky +substance,--as may be seen by the minute variety,--the notched and jagged +appearance of the profile of their sides and tops; this being caused by +the scarcely covered rocks wherewith these great hills are heaped +together. + +Our little steamer stopped at half a dozen places on its voyage up the +lake, most of them being stations where hotels have been established. +Morally, the Highlands must have been more completely sophisticated by +the invention of railways and steamboats than almost any other part of +the world; but physically it can have wrought no great change. These +mountains, in their general aspect, must be very much the same as they +were thousands of years ago; for their sides never were capable of +cultivation, nor even with such a soil and so bleak an atmosphere could +they have been much more richly wooded than we see them now. They seem +to me to be among the unchangeable things of nature, like the sea and +sky; but there is no saying what use human ingenuity may hereafter put +them to. At all events, I have no doubt in the world that they will go +out of fashion in due time; for the taste for mountains and wild scenery +is, with most people, an acquired taste, and it was easy to see to-day +that nine people in ten care nothing about them. One group of gentlemen +and ladies--at least, men and women--spent the whole time in listening to +a trial for murder, which was read aloud by one of their number from a +newspaper. I rather imagine that a taste for trim gardens is the most +natural and universal taste as regards landscape. But perhaps it is +necessary for the health of the human mind and heart that there should be +a possibility of taking refuge in what is wild and uncontaminated by any +meddling of man's hand, and so it has been ordained that science shall +never alter the aspect of the sky, whether stern, angry, or beneficent,-- +nor of the awful sea, either in calm or tempest,--nor of these rude +Highlands. But they will go out of general fashion, as I have said, and +perhaps the next fashionable taste will be for cloud land,--that is, +looking skyward, and observing the wonderful variety of scenery, that now +constantly passes unnoticed, among the clouds. + +At the head of the lake, we found that there was only a horse-cart to +convey our luggage to the hotel at Inverannan, and that we ourselves must +walk, the distance being two miles. It had sprinkled occasionally during +our voyage, but was now sunshiny, and not excessively warm; so we set +forth contentedly enough, and had an agreeable walk along an almost +perfectly level road; for it is one of the beauties of these hills, that +they descend abruptly down, instead of undulating away forever. There +were lofty heights on each side of us, but not so lofty as to have won a +distinctive name; and adown their sides we could see the rocky pathways +of cascades, which, at this season, are either quite dry, or mere +trickles of a rill. The hills and valleys abound in streams, sparkling +through pebbly beds, and forming here and there a dark pool; and they +would be populous with trout if all England, with one fell purpose, did +not come hither to fish them. A fisherman must find it difficult to +gratify his propensities in these days; for even the lakes and streams in +Norway are now preserved. J-----, by the way, threatens ominously to be +a fisherman. He rode the latter portion of the way to the hotel on the +luggage-cart; and when we arrived, we found that he had already gone off +to catch fish, or to attempt it (for there is as much chance of his +catching a whale as a trout), in a mountain stream near the house. I +went in search of him, but without success, and was somewhat startled at +the depth and blackness of some of the pools into which the stream +settled itself and slept. Finally, he came in while we were at dinner. +We afterwards walked out with him, to let him play at fishing again, and +discovered on the bank of the stream a wonderful oak, with as many as a +dozen holes springing either from close to the ground or within a foot or +two of it, and looking like twelve separate trees, at least, instead of +one. + + + +INVERSNAID. + + +July 3d.--Last night seemed to close in clear, and even at midnight it +was still light enough to read; but this morning rose on us misty and +chill, with spattering showers of rain. Clouds momentarily settled and +shifted on the hill-tops, shutting us in even more completely than these +steep and rugged green walls would be sure to do, even in the clearest +weather. Often these clouds came down and enveloped us in a drizzle, or +rather a shower, of such minute drops that they had not weight enough to +fall. This, I suppose, was a genuine Scotch mist; and as such it is well +enough to have experienced it, though I would willingly never see it +again. Such being the state of the weather, my wife did not go out at +all, but I strolled about the premises, in the intervals of rain-drops, +gazing up at the hillsides, and recognizing that there is a vast variety +of shape, of light and shadow, and incidental circumstance, even in what +looks so monotonous at first as the green slope of a hill. The little +rills that come down from the summits were rather more distinguishable +than yesterday, having been refreshed by the night's rain; but still they +were very much out of proportion with the wide pathways of bare rock +adown which they ran. These little rivulets, no doubt, often lead +through the wildest scenery that is to be found in the Highlands, or +anywhere else, and to the formation and wildness of which they have +greatly contributed by sawing away for countless ages, and thus deepening +the ravines. + +I suspect the American clouds are more picturesque than those of Great +Britain, whatever our mountains may be; at least, I remember the +Berkshire hills looking grander, under the influence of mist and cloud, +than the Highlands did to-day. Our clouds seem to be denser and heavier, +and more decided, and form greater contrasts of light and shade. I have +remarked in England that the cloudy firmament, even on a day of settled +rain, always appears thinner than those I had been accustomed to at home, +so as to deceive me with constant expectations of better weather. It has +been the same to-day. + +Whenever I looked upward, I thought it might be going to clear up; but, +instead of that, it began to rain more in earnest after midday, and at +half past two we left Inverannan in a smart shower. At the head of the +lake, we took the steamer, with the rain pouring more heavily than ever, +and landed at Inversnaid under the same dismal auspices. We left a very +good hotel behind us, and have come to another that seems also good. We +are more picturesquely situated at this spot than at Inverannan, our +hotel being within a short distance of the lake shore, with a glen just +across the water, which will doubtless be worth looking at when the mist +permits us to see it. A good many tourists were standing about the door +when we arrived, and looked at us with the curiosity of idle and +weather-bound people. The lake is here narrow, but a hundred fathoms +deep; so that a great part of the height of the mountains which beset it +round is hidden beneath its surface. + + +July 4th.--This morning opened still misty, but with a more hopeful +promise than yesterday, and when I went out, after breakfast, there were +gleams of sunshine here and there on the hillsides, falling, one did not +exactly see how, through the volumes of cloud. Close beside the hotel of +Inversnaid is the waterfall; all night, my room being on that side of the +house, I had heard its voice, and now I ascended beside it to a point +where it is crossed by a wooden bridge. There is thence a view, upward +and downward, of the most striking descents of the river, as I believe +they call it, though it is but a mountain-stream, which tumbles down an +irregular and broken staircase in its headlong haste to reach the lake. +It is very picturesque, however, with its ribbons of white foam over the +precipitous steps, and its deep black pools, overhung by black rocks, +which reverberate the rumble of the falling water. J----- and I ascended +a little distance along the cascade, and then turned aside; he going up +the hill, and I taking a path along its side which gave me a view across +the lake. I rather think this particular stretch of Loch Lomond, in +front of Inversnaid, is the most beautiful lake and mountain view that I +have ever seen. It is so shut in that you can see nothing beyond, nor +would suspect anything more to exist than this watery vale among the +hills; except that, directly opposite, there is the beautiful glen of +Invernglass, which winds away among the feet of Ben Crook, Ben Ein, Ben +Vain, and Ben Voirlich, standing mist-inwreathed together. The mists, +this morning, had a very soft and beautiful effect, and made the +mountains tenderer than I have hitherto felt them to be; and they +lingered about their heads like morning-dreams, flitting and retiring, +and letting the sunshine in, and snatching it away again. My wife came +up, and we enjoyed it together, till the steamer came smoking its pipe +along the loch, stopped to land some passengers, and steamed away again. +While we stood there, a Highlander passed by us, with a very dark tartan, +and bare shanks, most enormously calved. I presume he wears the dress +for the sole purpose of displaying those stalwart legs; for he proves to +be no genuine Gael, but a manufacturer, who has a shooting-box, or a +share in one, on the hill above the hotel. + +We now engaged a boat, and were rowed to Rob Roy's cave, which is perhaps +half a mile distant up the lake. The shores look much more striking from +a rowboat, creeping along near the margin, than from a steamer in the +middle of the loch; and the ridge, beneath which Rob's cave lies, is +precipitous with gray rocks, and clothed, too, with thick foliage. Over +the cave itself there is a huge ledge of rock, from which immense +fragments have tumbled down, ages and ages ago, and fallen together in +such a way as to leave a large irregular crevice in Rob Roy's cave. We +scrambled up to its mouth by some natural stairs, and scrambled down into +its depths by the aid of a ladder. I suppose I have already described +this hole in the record of my former visit. Certainly, Rob Roy, and +Robert Bruce, who is said to have inhabited it before him, were not to be +envied their accommodations; yet these were not so very intolerable when +compared with a Highland cabin, or with cottages such as Burns lived in. + +J----- had chosen to remain to fish. On our return from the cave, we +found that he had caught nothing; but just as we stepped into the boat, a +fish drew his float far under water, and J------ tugging at one end of +the line, and the fish at the other, the latter escaped, with the hook in +his month. J------ avers that he saw the fish, and gives its measurement +as about eighteen inches; but the fishes that escape us are always of +tremendous size. The boatman thought, however, that it might have been a +pike. + + + +THE TROSACHS' HOTEL.--ARDCHEANOCHROCHAN. + + +July 5th.--Not being able to get a post-chaise, we took places in the +omnibus for the bead of Loch Katrine. Going up to pay a parting visit to +the waterfall before starting, I met with Miss C------, as she lately +was, who is now on her wedding tour as Mrs. B------. She was painting +the falls in oil, with good prospect of a successful picture. She came +down to the hotel to see my wife, and soon afterwards J----- and I set +out to ascend the steep hill that comes down upon the lake of Inversnaid, +leaving the omnibus to follow at leisure. The Highlander who took us to +Rob Roy's cave had foreboded rain, from the way in which the white clouds +hung about the mountain-tops; nor was his augury at fault, for just at +three o'clock, the time he foretold, there were a few rain-drops, and a +more defined shower during the afternoon, while we were on Loch Katrine. +The few drops, however, did not disturb us; and, reaching the top of the +hill, J----- and I turned aside to examine the old stone fortress which +was erected in this mountain pass to bridle the Highlanders after the +rebellion of 1745. It stands in a very desolate and dismal situation, at +the foot of long bare slopes, on mossy ground, in the midst of a +disheartening loneliness, only picturesque because it is so exceedingly +ungenial and unlovely. The chief interest of this spot in the fact that +Wolfe, in his earlier military career, was stationed here. The fortress +was a very plain structure, built of rough stones, in the form of a +parallelogram, one side of which I paced, and found it between thirty and +forty of my paces long. The two ends have fallen down; the two sides +that remain are about twenty feet high, and have little port-holes for +defence, but no openings of the size of windows. The roof is gone, and +the interior space overgrown with grass. Two little girls were at play +in one corner, and, going round to the rear of the ruin, I saw that a +small Highland cabin had been built against the wall. A dog sat in the +doorway, and gave notice of my approach, and some hens kept up their +peculiarly domestic converse about the door. + +We kept on our way, often looking back towards Loch Lomond, and wondering +at the grandeur which Ben Vain and Ben Voirlich, and the rest of the Ben +fraternity, had suddenly put on. The mists which had hung about them all +day had now descended lower, and lay among the depths and gorges of the +hills, where also the sun shone softly down among them, and filled those +deep mountain laps, as it were, with a dimmer sunshine. Ben Vain, too, +and his brethren, had a veil of mist all about them, which seemed to +render them really transparent; and they had unaccountably grown higher, +vastly higher, than when we viewed them from the shore of the lake. It +was as if we were looking at them through the medium of a poet's +imagination. All along the road, since we left Inversnaid, there had +been the stream, which there formed the waterfall, and which here was +brawling down little declivities, and sleeping in black pools, which we +disturbed by flinging stones into them from the roadside. We passed a +drunken old gentleman, who civilly bade me "good day"; and a man and +woman at work in a field, the former of whom shouted to inquire the hour; +and we had come in sight of little Loch Arklet before the omnibus came up +with us. It was about five o'clock when we reached the head of + + + +LOCH KATRINE, + + +and went on board the steamer Rob Roy; and, setting forth on our voyage, +a Highland piper made music for us the better part of the way. + +We did not see Loch Katrine, perhaps, under its best presentment; for the +surface was roughened with a little wind, and darkened even to inky +blackness by the clouds that overhung it. The hill-tops, too, wore a +very dark frown. A lake of this size cannot be terrific, and is +therefore seen to best advantage when it is beautiful. The scenery of +its shores is not altogether so rich and lovely as I had preimagined; not +equal, indeed, to the best parts of Loch Lomond,--the hills being lower +and of a more ridgy shape, and exceedingly bare, at least towards the +lower end. But they turn the lake aside with headland after headland, +and shut it in closely, and open one vista after another, so that the eye +is never weary, and, least of all, as we approach the end. The length of +the loch is ten miles, and at its termination it meets the pass of the +Trosachs, between Ben An and Ben Venue, which are the rudest and +shaggiest of hills. The steamer passes Ellen's Isle, but to the right, +which is the side opposite to that on which Fitz-James must be supposed +to have approached it. It is a very small island, situated where the +loch narrows, and is perhaps less than a quarter of a mile distant from +either shore. It looks like a lump of rock, with just soil enough to +support a crowd of dwarf oaks, birches, and firs, which do not grow so +high as to be shadowy trees. Our voyage being over, we landed, and found +two omnibuses, one of which took us through the famous pass of the +Trosachs, a distance of a mile and a quarter, to a hotel, erected in +castellated guise by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. We were put into a parlor +within one of the round towers, panelled all round, and with four narrow +windows, opening through deep embrasures. No play-castle was ever more +like the reality, and it is a very good hotel, like all that we have had +experience of in the Highlands. After tea we walked out, and visited a +little kirk that stands near the shore of Loch Achray, at a good point of +view for seeing the hills round about. + +This morning opened cloudily; but after breakfast I set out alone, and +walked through the pass of the Trosachs, and thence by a path along the +right shore of the lake. It is a very picturesque and beautiful path, +following the windings of the lake,--now along the beach, now over an +impending bank, until it comes opposite to Ellen's Isle, which on this +side looks more worthy to be the island of the poem than as we first saw +it. Its shore is craggy and precipitous, but there was a point where it +seemed possible to land, nor was it too much to fancy that there might be +a rustic habitation among the shrubbery of this rugged spot. It is +foolish to look into these matters too strictly. Scott evidently used as +much freedom with his natural scenery as he did with his historic +incidents; and he could have made nothing of either one or the other if +he had been more scrupulous in his arrangement and adornment of them. In +his description of the Trosachs, he has produced something very +beautiful, and as true as possible, though certainly its beauty has a +little of the scene-painter's gloss on it. Nature is better, no doubt, +but Nature cannot be exactly reproduced on canvas or in print; and the +artist's only resource is to substitute something that may stand instead +of and suggest the truth. + +The path still kept onward, after passing Ellen's Isle, and I followed +it, finding it wilder, more shadowy with overhanging foliage of trees, +old and young,--more like a mountain-path in Berkshire or New Hampshire, +yet still with an Old World restraint and cultivation about it,--the +farther I went. At last I came upon some bars, and though the track was +still seen beyond, I took this as a hint to stop, especially as I was now +two or three miles from the hotel, and it just then began to rain. My +umbrella was a poor one at best, and had been tattered and turned inside +out, a day or two ago, by a gust on Loch Lomond; but I spread it to the +shower, and, furthermore, took shelter under the thickest umbrage I could +find. The rain came straight down, and bubbled in the loch; the little +rills gathered force, and plashed merrily over the stones; the leaves of +the trees condensed the shower into large drops, and shed them down upon +me where I stood. Still I was comfortable enough in a thick Skye Tweed, +and waited patiently till the rain abated; then took my way homeward, and +admired the pass of the Trosachs more than when I first traversed it. If +it has a fault, it is one that few scenes in Great Britain share with +it,--that is, the trees and shrubbery, with which the precipices are +shagged, conceal them a little too much. A crag, streaked with black and +white, here and there shows its head aloft, or its whole height from base +to summit, and suggests that more of such sublimity is bidden than +revealed. I think, however, that it is this unusual shagginess which +made the scene a favorite with Scott, and with the people on this side of +the ocean generally. There are many scenes as good in America, needing +only the poet. + + +July 6th.--We dined yesterday at the table d'hote, at the suggestion of +the butler, in order to give less trouble to the servants of the hotel, +and afford them an opportunity to go to kirk. The dining-room is in +accordance with the rest of the architecture and fittings up of the +house, and is a very good reproduction of an old baronial hall, with high +panellings and a roof of dark, polished wood. There were about twenty +guests at table; and if they and the waiters had been dressed in +mediaeval costume, we might have imagined ourselves banqueting in the +Middle Ages. + +After dinner we all took a walk through the Trosachs' pass again, and by +the right-hand path along the lake as far as Ellen's Isle. It was very +pleasant, there being gleams of calm evening sunshine gilding the +mountain-sides, and putting a golden crown occasionally on the Tread of +Ben Venue. It is wonderful how many aspects a mountain has,--how many +mountains there are in every single mountain!---how they vary too, in +apparent attitude and bulk. When we reached the lake its surface was +almost unruffled, except by now and then the narrow pathway of a breeze, +as if the wing of an unseen spirit had just grazed it in flitting across. +The scene was very beautiful, and, on the whole, I do not know that +Walter Scott has overcharged his description, although he has symbolized +the reality by types and images which it might not precisely suggest to +other minds. We were reluctant to quit the spot, and cherish still a +hope of seeing it again, though the hope does not seem very likely to be +gratified. + +This was a lowering and sullen morning, but soon after breakfast I took a +walk in the opposite direction to Loch Katrine, and reached the Brig of +Turk, a little beyond which is the new Trosachs' Hotel, and the little +rude village of Duncraggan, consisting of a few hovels of stone, at the +foot of a bleak and dreary hill. To the left, stretching up between this +and other hills, is the valley of Glenfinlas,--a very awful region in +Scott's poetry and in Highland tradition, as the haunt of spirits and +enchantments. It presented a very desolate prospect. The walk back to +the Trosachs showed me Ben Venue and Ben An under new aspects,--the bare +summit of the latter rising in a perfect pyramid, whereas from other +points of view it looks like quite a different mountain. Sometimes a +gleam of sunshine came out upon the rugged side of Ben Venue, but his +prevailing mood, like that of the rest of the landscape, was stern and +gloomy. I wish I could give an idea of the variety of surface upon one +of these hillsides,--so bulging out and hollowed in, so bare where the +rock breaks through, so shaggy in other places with heath, and then, +perhaps, a thick umbrage of birch, oak, and ash ascending from the base +high upward. When I think I have described them, I remember quite a +different aspect, and find it equally true, and yet lacking something to +make it the whole or an adequate truth. + +J----- had gone with me part of the way, but stopped to fish with a +pin-hook in Loch Achray, which bordered along our path. When I returned, +I found him much elated at having caught a fish, which, however, had got +away, carrying his pin-hook along with it. Then he had amused himself +with taking some lizards by the tail, and had collected several in a +small hollow of the rocks. We now walked home together, and at half past +three we took our seats in a genuine old-fashioned stage-coach, of which +there are few specimens now to be met with. The coachman was smartly +dressed in the Queen's scarlet, and was a very pleasant and affable +personage, conducting himself towards the passengers with courteous +authority. Inside we were four, including J-----, but on the top there +were at least a dozen, and I would willingly have been there too, but had +taken an inside seat, under apprehension of rain, and was not allowed to +change it. Our drive was not marked by much describable incident. On +changing horses at Callender, we alighted, and saw Ben Ledi behind us, +making a picturesque background to the little town, which seems to be the +meeting-point of the Highlands and Lowlands. We again changed horses at +Doune, an old town, which would doubtless have been well worth seeing, +had time permitted. Thence we kept on till the coach drew up at a +spacious hotel, where we alighted, fancying that we had reached Stirling, +which was to have been our journey's end; but, after fairly establishing +ourselves, we found that it was the + + + +BRIG OF ALLAN. + + +The place is three miles short of Stirling. Nevertheless, we did not +much regret the mistake, finding that the Brig of Allan is the principal +Spa of Scotland, and a very pleasant spot, to all outward appearance. +After tea we walked out, both up and down the village street, and across +the bridge, and up a gentle eminence beyond it, whence we had a fine view +of a glorious plain, out of which rose several insulated headlands. One +of these was the height on which stands Stirling Castle, and which +reclines on the plain like a hound or a lion or a sphinx, holding the +castle on the highest part, where its head should be. A mile or two +distant from this picturesque hill rises another, still more striking, +called the Abbey Craig, on which is a ruin, and where is to be built the +monument to William Wallace. I cannot conceive a nobler or more fitting +pedestal. The sullenness of the day had vanished, the air was cool but +invigorating, and the cloud scenery was as fine as that below it. . . . . +Though it was nearly ten o'clock, the boys of the village were in full +shout and play, for these long and late summer evenings keep the children +out of bed interminably. + + + +STIRLING. + + +July 7th.--We bestirred ourselves early this morning, . . . . and took +the rail for Stirling before eight. It is but a few minutes' ride, so +that doubtless we were earlier on the field than if we had slept at +Stirling. After our arrival our first call was at the post-office, where +I found a large package containing letters from America, but none from +U----. We then went to a bookseller's shop, and bought some views of +Stirling and the neighborhood; and it is surprising what a quantity and +variety of engravings there are of every noted place that we have +visited. You seldom find two sets alike. It is rather nauseating to +find that what you came to see has already been looked at in all its +lights, over and over again, with thousand-fold repetition; and, beyond +question, its depictment in words has been attempted still oftener than +with the pencil. It will be worth while to go back to America, were it +only for the chance of finding a still virgin scene. + +We climbed the steep slope of the Castle Hill, sometimes passing an +antique-looking house, with a high, notched gable, perhaps with an +ornamented front, until we came to the sculptures and battlemented +wall, with an archway, that stands just below the castle. . . . . A +shabby-looking man now accosted us, and could hardly be shaken off. I +have met with several such boors in my experience of sight-seeing. He +kept along with us, in spite of all hints to the contrary, and insisted +on pointing out objects of interest. He showed us a house in Broad +Street, below the castle and cathedral, which he said had once been +inhabited by Henry Darnley, Queen Mary's husband. There was little or +nothing peculiar in its appearance; a large, gray, gabled house standing +lengthwise to the street, with three windows in the roof, and connected +with other houses on each side. Almost directly across the street, he +pointed to an archway, through the side of a house, and, peeping through +it, we found a soldier on guard in a court-yard, the sides of which were +occupied by an old mansion of the Argyle family, having towers at the +corners, with conical tops, like those reproduced in the hotel at the +Trosachs. It is now occupied as a military hospital. Shaking off our +self-inflicted guide, we now made our way to the castle parade, and to +the gateway, where a soldier with a tremendously red nose and two medals +at once took charge of us. + +Beyond all doubt, I have written quite as good a description of the +castle and Carse of Stirling in a former portion of my journal as I can +now write. We passed through the outer rampart of Queen Anne; through +the old round gate-tower of an earlier day, and beneath the vacant arch +where the portcullis used to fall, thus reaching the inner region, where +stands the old palace on one side, and the old Parliament House on the +other. The former looks aged, ragged, and rusty, but makes a good +appearance enough pictorially, being adorned all round about with +statues, which may have been white marble once, but are as gray as +weather-beaten granite now, and look down from between the windows above +the basement story. A photograph would give the idea of very rich +antiquity, but as it really stands, looking on a gravelled court-yard, +and with "CANTEEN" painted on one of its doors, the spectator does not +find it very impressive. The great hall of this palace is now +partitioned off into two or three rooms, and the whole edifice is +arranged to serve as barracks. Of course, no trace of ancient +magnificence, if anywise destructible, can be left in the interior. We +were not shown into this palace, nor into the Parliament House, nor into +the tower, where King James stabbed the Earl of Douglas. When I was here +a year ago, I went up the old staircase and into the room where the +murder was committed, although it had recently been the scene of a fire, +which consumed as much of it as was inflammable. The window whence the +Earl's body was thrown then remained; but now the whole tower seems to +have been renewed, leaving only the mullions of the historic window. + +We merely looked up at the new, light-colored freestone of the restored +tower in passing, and ascended to the ramparts, where we found one of the +most splendid views, morally and materially, that this world can show. +Indeed, I think there cannot be such a landscape as the Carse of +Stirling, set in such a frame as it is,--the Highlands, comprehending our +friends, Ben Lomond, Ben Venue, Ben An, and the whole Ben brotherhood, +with the Grampians surrounding it to the westward and northward, and in +other directions some range of prominent objects to shut it in; and the +plain itself, so worthy of the richest setting, so fertile, so beautiful, +so written over and over again with histories. The silver Links of Forth +are as sweet and gently picturesque an object as a man sees in a +lifetime. I do not wonder that Providence caused great things to happen +on this plain; it was like choosing a good piece of canvas to paint a +great picture upon. The battle of Bannockburn (which we saw beneath us, +with the Gillie's Hill on the right) could not have been fought upon a +meaner plain, nor Wallace's victory gained; and if any other great +historic act still remains to be done in this country, I should imagine +the Carse of Stirling to be the future scene of it. Scott seems to me +hardly to have done justice--to this landscape, or to have bestowed pains +enough to put it in strong relief before the world; although it is from +the light shed on it, and so much other Scottish scenery, by his mind, +that we chiefly see it, and take an interest in it. . . . . + +I do not remember seeing the hill of execution before,--a mound on the +same level as the castle's base, looking towards the Highlands. A +solitary cow was now feeding upon it. I should imagine that no person +could ever have been unjustly executed there; the spot is too much in the +sight of heaven and earth to countenance injustice. + +Descending from the ramparts, we went into the Armory, which I did not +see on my former visit. The superintendent of this department is an old +soldier of very great intelligence and vast communicativeness, and quite +absorbed in thinking of and handling weapons; for he is a practical +armorer. He had few things to show us that were very interesting,--a +helmet or two, a bomb and grenade from the Crimea; also some muskets from +the same quarter, one of which, with a sword at the end, he spoke of +admiringly, as the best weapon in the collection, its only fault being +its extreme weight. He showed us, too, some Minie rifles, and whole +ranges of the old-fashioned Brown Bess, which had helped to win +Wellington's victories; also the halberts of sergeants now laid aside, +and some swords that had been used at the battle of Sheriffmuir. These +latter were very short, not reaching to the floor, when I held one of +them, point downward, in my hand. The shortness of the blade and +consequent closeness of the encounter must have given the weapon a most +dagger-like murderousness. Ranging in the hall of arms, there were two +tattered banners that had gone through the Peninsular battles, one of +them belonging to the gallant 42d Regiment. The armorer gave my wife a +rag from each of these banners, consecrated by so much battle-smoke; also +a piece of old oak, half burned to charcoal, which had been rescued from +the panelling of the Douglas Tower. We saw better things, moreover, than +all these rusty weapons and ragged flags; namely, the pulpit and +communion-table of John Knox. The frame of the former, if I remember +aright, is complete; but one or two of the panels are knocked out and +lost, and, on the whole, it looks as if it had been shaken to pieces by +the thunder of his holdings forth,--much worm-eaten, too, is the old oak +wood, as well it may be, for the letters MD (1500) are carved on its +front. The communion-table is polished, and in much better preservation. + +Then the armorer showed us a Damascus blade, of the kind that will cut a +delicate silk handkerchief while floating in the air; and some inlaid +matchlock guns. A child's little toy-gun was lying on a workbench among +all this array of weapons; and when I took it up and smiled, he said that +it was his son's. So he called in a little fellow four years old, who +was playing in the castle yard, and made him go through the musket +exercise, which he did with great good-will. This small Son of a Gun, +the father assured us, cares for nothing but arms, and has attained +all his skill with the musket merely by looking at the soldiers on +parade. . . . . + +Our soldier, who had resigned the care of us to the armorer, met us again +at the door, and led us round the remainder of the ramparts, dismissing +us finally at the gate by which we entered. All the time we were in the +castle there had been a great discordance of drums and fifes, caused by +the musicians who were practising just under the walls; likewise the +sergeants were drilling their squads of men, and putting them through +strange gymnastic motions. Most, if not all, of the garrison belongs to +a Highland regiment, and those whom we saw on duty, in full costume, +looked very martial and gallant. Emerging from the castle, we took the +broad and pleasant footpath, which circles it about midway on the grassy +steep which descends from the rocky precipice on which the walls are +built. This is a very beautiful walk, and affords a most striking view +of the castle, right above our heads, the height of its wall forming one +line with the precipice. The grassy hillside is almost as precipitous as +the dark gray rock that rises out of it, to form the foundations of the +castle; but wild rose-bushes, both of a white and red variety, are +abundant here, and all in bloom; nor are these the only flowers. There +is also shrubbery in some spots, tossing up green waves against the +precipice; and broad sheets of ivy here and there mantle the headlong +rock, which also has a growth of weeds in its crevices. The castle walls +above, however, are quite bare of any such growth. Thus, looking up at +the old storied fortress, and looking down over the wide, historic plain, +we wandered half-way round the castle, and then, retracing our steps, +entered the town close by an old hospital. + +A hospital it was, or had been intended for; but the authorities of the +town had made some convenient arrangement with those entitled to its +charity, and had appropriated the ancient edifice to themselves. So said +a boy who showed us into the Guildhall,--an apartment with a vaulted +oaken roof, and otherwise of antique aspect and furniture; all of which, +however, were modern restorations. We then went into an old church or +cathedral, which was divided into two parts; one of them, in which I saw +the royal arms, being probably for the Church-of-England service, and the +other for the Kirk of Scotland. I remember little or nothing of this +edifice, except that the Covenanters had uplifted it with pews and a +gallery, and whitewash; though I doubt not it was a stately Gothic +church, with innumerable enrichments and incrustations of beauty, when it +passed from popish hands into theirs. Thence we wandered downward, +through a back street, amid very shabby houses, some of which bore tokens +of having once been the abodes of courtly and noble personages. We +paused before one that displayed, I think, the sign of a spirit-retailer, +and looked as disreputable as a house could, yet was built of stalwart +stone, and had two circular towers in front, once, doubtless, crowned +with conical tops. We asked an elderly man whether he knew anything of +the history of this house; and he said that he had been acquainted with +it for almost fifty years, but never knew anything noteworthy about it. +Reaching the foot of the hill, along whose back the streets of Stirling +run, and which blooms out into the Castle Craig, we returned to the +railway, and at noon took leave of Stirling. + +I forgot to tell of the things that awakened rather more sympathy in us +than any other objects in the castle armory. These were some rude +weapons--pikes, very roughly made; and old rusty muskets, broken and +otherwise out of order; and swords, by no means with Damascus blades-- +that had been taken from some poor weavers and other handicraft men who +rose against the government in 1820. I pitied the poor fellows much, +seeing how wretched were their means of standing up against the cannon, +bayonets, swords, shot, shell, and all manner of murderous facilities +possessed by their oppressors. Afterwards, our guide showed, in a gloomy +quadrangle of the castle, the low windows of the dungeons where two of +the leaders of the insurrectionists had been confined before their +execution. I have not the least shadow of doubt that these men had a +good cause to fight for; but what availed it with such weapons! and so +few even of those! + +. . . . I believe I cannot go on to recount any further this evening the +experiences of to-day. It has been a very rich day; only that I have +seen more than my sluggish powers of reception can well take in at once. +After quitting Stirling, we came in somewhat less than an hour to + + + +LINLITHGOW, + + +and, alighting, took up our quarters at the Star and Garter Hotel, which, +like almost all the Scottish caravan-saries of which we have had +experience, turns out a comfortable one. . . . . We stayed within doors +for an hour or two, and I busied myself with writing up my journal. At +about three, however, the sky brightened a little, and we set forth +through the ancient, rusty, and queer-looking town of Linlithgow, towards +the palace and the ancient church, which latter was one of St. David's +edifices, and both of which stand close together, a little removed from +the long street of the village. But I can never describe them worthily, +and shall make nothing of the description if I attempt it now. + + +July 8th.--At about three o'clock yesterday, as I said, we walked +forth through the ancient street of Linlithgow, and, coming to the +market-place, stopped to look at an elaborate and heavy stone fountain, +which we found by an inscription to be the fac-simile of an old one that +used to stand on the same site. Turning to the right, the outer entrance +to the palace fronts on this market-place, if such it be; and close to +it, a little on one side, is the church. A young woman, with a key in +her hand, offered to admit us into the latter; so we went in, and found +it divided by a wall across the middle into two parts. The hither +portion, being the nave, was whitewashed, and looked as bare and +uninteresting as an old Gothic church of St. David's epoch possibly could +do. The interior portion, being the former choir, is covered with pews +over the whole floor, and further defaced by galleries, that unmercifully +cut midway across the stately and beautiful arches. It is likewise +whitewashed. There were, I believe, some mural monuments of Bailies and +other such people stuck up about the walls, but nothing that much +interested me, except an ancient oaken chair, which the girl said was the +chair of St. Crispin, and it was fastened to the wall, in the holiest +part of the church. I know not why it was there; but as it had been the +chair of so distinguished a personage, we all sat down in it. It was in +this church that the apparition of St. James appeared to King James IV., +to warn him against engaging in that war which resulted in the battle of +Flodden, where he and the flower of his nobility were slain. The young +woman showed us the spot where the apparition spake to him,--a side +chapel, with a groined roof, at the end of the choir next the nave. The +Covenanters seem to have shown some respect to this one chapel, by +refraining from drawing the gallery across its height; so that, except +for the whitewash, and the loss of the painted glass in the window, and +probably of a good deal of rich architectural detail, it looks as it did +when the ghostly saint entered beneath its arch, while the king was +kneeling there. + +We stayed but a little while in the church, and then proceeded to the +palace, which, as I said, is close at hand. On entering the outer +enclosure through an ancient gateway, we were surprised to find how +entire the walls seemed to be; but the reason is, I suppose, that the +ruins have not been used as a stone-quarry, as has almost always been the +case with old abbeys and castles. The palace took fire and was consumed, +so far as consumable, in 1745, while occupied by the soldiers of General +Hawley; but even yet the walls appear so stalwart that I should imagine +it quite possible to rebuild and restore the stately rooms on their +original plan. It was a noble palace, one hundred and seventy-five feet +in length by one hundred and sixty-five in breadth, and though destitute +of much architectural beauty externally, yet its aspect from the +quadrangle which the four sides enclose is venerable and sadly beautiful. +At each of the interior angles there is a circular tower, up the whole +height of the edifice and overtopping it, and another in the centre of +one of the sides, all containing winding staircases. The walls facing +upon the enclosed quadrangle are pierced with many windows, and have been +ornamented with sculpture, rich traces of which still remain over the +arched entrance-ways; and in the grassy centre of the court there is the +ruin and broken fragments of a fountain, which once used to play for the +delight of the king and queen, and lords and ladies, who looked down upon +it from hall and chamber. Many old carvings that belonged to it are +heaped together there; but the water has disappeared, though, had it been +a natural spring, it would have outlasted all the heavy stone-work. + +As far as we were able, and could find our way, we went through every +room of the palace, all round the four sides. From the first floor +upwards it is entirely roofless. In some of the chambers there is an +accumulation of soil, and a goodly crop of grass; in others there is +still a flooring of flags or brick tiles, though damp and moss-grown, and +with weeds sprouting between the crevices. Grass and weeds, indeed, have +found soil enough to flourish in, even on the highest ranges of the +walls, though at a dizzy height above the ground; and it was like an old +and trite touch of romance, to see how the weeds sprouted on the many +hearth-stones and aspired under the chimney-flues, as if in emulation of +the long-extinguished flame. It was very mournful, very beautiful, very +delightful, too, to see how Nature takes back the palace, now that kings +have done with it, and adopts it as a part of her great garden. + +On one side of the quadrangle we found the roofless chamber where Mary, +Queen of Scots, was born, and in the same range the bedchamber that was +occupied by several of the Scottish Jameses; and in one corner of the +latter apartment there is a narrow, winding staircase, down which I +groped, expecting to find a door, either into the enclosed quadrangle or +to the outside of the palace. But it ends in nothing, unless it be a +dungeon; and one does not well see why the bedchamber of the king should +be so convenient to a dungeon. It is said that King James III. once +escaped down this secret stair, and lay concealed from some conspirators +who had entered his chamber to murder him. This range of apartments is +terminated, like the other sides of the palace, by a circular tower +enclosing a staircase, up which we mounted, winding round and round, and +emerging at various heights, until at last we found ourselves at the very +topmost point of the edifice; and here there is a small pepper-box of a +turret, almost as entire as when the stones were first laid. It is +called Queen Margaret's bower, and looks forth on a lovely prospect of +mountain and plain, and on the old red roofs of Linlithgow town, and on +the little loch that lies within the palace grounds. The cold north-wind +blew chill upon us through the empty window-frames, which very likely +were never glazed; but it must be a delightful nook in a calmer and +warmer summer evening. + +Descending from this high perch, we walked along ledges and through +arched corridors, and stood, contemplative, in the dampness of the +banqueting-hall, and sat down on the seats that still occupy the +embrasures of the deep windows. In one of the rooms, the sculpture of a +huge fireplace has recently been imitated and restored, so as to give an +idea of what the richness of the adornments must have been when the +building was perfect. We burrowed down, too, a little way, in the +direction of the cells, where prisoners used to be confined; but these +were too ugly and too impenetrably dark to tempt us far. One vault, +exactly beneath a queen's very bedchamber, was designated as a prison. I +should think bad dreams would have winged up, and made her pillow an +uncomfortable one. + +There seems to be no certain record as respects the date of this palace, +except that the most recent part was built by James I., of England, and +bears the figures 1620 on its central tower. In this part were the +kitchens and other domestic offices. In Robert Bruce's time there was a +castle here, instead of a palace, and an ancestor of our friend Bennoch +was the means of taking it from the English by a stratagem in which valor +went halves. Four centuries afterwards, it was a royal residence, and +might still have been nominally so, had not Hawley's dragoons lighted +their fires on the floors of the magnificent rooms; but, on the whole, I +think it more valuable as a ruin than if it were still perfect. +Scotland, and the world, needs only one Holyrood; and Linlithgow, were it +still a perfect palace, must have been second in interest to that, from +its lack of association with historic events so grand and striking. + +After tea we took another walk, and this time went along the High Street, +in quest of the house whence Bothwellhaugh fired the shot that killed the +Regent Murray. It has been taken down, however; or, if any part of it +remain, it has been built into and incorporated with a small house of +dark stone, which forms one range with two others that stand a few feet +back from the general line of the street. It is as mean-looking and +commonplace an edifice as is anywhere to be seen, and is now occupied by +one Steele, a tailor. We went under a square arch (if an arch can be +square), that goes quite through the house, and found ourselves in a +little court; but it was not easy to identify anything as connected with +the historic event, so we did but glance about us, and returned into the +street. It is here narrow, and as Bothwellhaugh stood in a projecting +gallery, the Regent must have been within a few yards of the muzzle of +his carbine. The street looks as old as any that I have seen, except, +perhaps, a vista here and there in Chester,--the houses all of stone, +many of them tall, with notched gables, and with stone staircases going +up outside, the steps much worn by feet now dust; a pervading ugliness, +which yet does not fail to be picturesque; a general filth and evil odor +of gutters and people, suggesting sorrowful ideas of what the inner +houses must be, when the outside looks and smells so badly; and, finally, +a great rabble of the inhabitants, talking, idling, sporting, staring +about their own thresholds and those of dram-shops, the town being most +alive in the long twilight of the summer evening. There was nothing +uncivil in the deportment of these dirty people, old or young; but they +did stare at us most unmercifully. + +We walked very late, entering, after all that we had seen, into the +palace grounds, and skirting along Linlithgow Loch, which would be very +beautiful if its banks were made shadowy with trees, instead of being +almost bare. We viewed the palace on the outside, too, and saw what had +once been the principal entrance, but now looked like an arched window, +pretty high in the wall; for it had not been accessible except by a +drawbridge. I might write pages in telling how venerable the ruin, +looked, as the twilight fell deeper and deeper around it; but we have had +enough of Linlithgow, especially as there have been so many old palaces +and old towns to write about, and there will still be more. We left +Linlithgow early this morning, and reached Edinburgh in half an hour. +To-morrow I suppose I shall try to set down what I see; at least, some +points of it. + + +July 9th.--Arriving at + + + +EDINBURGH, + + +and acting under advice of the cabman, we drove to Addison's Alma Hotel, +which we find to be in Prince's Street, having Scott's monument a few +hundred yards below, and the Castle Hill about as much above. + +The Edinburgh people seem to be accustomed to climb mountains within +their own houses; so we had to mount several staircases before we reached +our parlor, which is a very good one, and commands a beautiful view of +Prince's Street, and of the picturesque old town, and the valley between, +and of the castle on its hill. + +Our first visit was to the castle, which we reached by going across the +causeway that bridges the valley, and has some edifices of Grecian +architecture on it, contrasting strangely with the nondescript ugliness +of the old town, into which we immediately pass. As this is my second +visit to Edinburgh, I surely need not dwell upon describing it at such +length as if I had never been here before. After climbing up through +various wards of the castle to the topmost battery, where Mons Meg holds +her station, looking like an uncouth dragon,--with a pile of huge stone +balls beside her for eggs,--we found that we could not be admitted to +Queen Mary's apartments, nor to the crown-room, till twelve o'clock; +moreover, that there was no admittance to the crown-room without tickets +from the crown-office, in Parliament Square. There being no help for it, +I left my wife and J----- to wander through the fortress, and came down +through High Street in quest of Parliament Square, which I found after +many inquiries of policemen, and after first going to the Justiciary +Court, where there was a great throng endeavoring to get in; for the +trial of Miss Smith for the murder of her lover is causing great +excitement just now. There was no difficulty made about the tickets, +and, returning, found S----- and J-----; but J----- grew tired of +waiting, and set out to return to our hotel, through the great strange +city, all by himself. Through means of an attendant, we were admitted +into Queen Margaret's little chapel, on the top of the rock; and then we +sat down, in such shelter as there was, to avoid the keen wind, blowing +through the embrasures of the ramparts, and waited as patiently as we +could. + +Twelve o'clock came, and we went into the crown-room, with a throng of +other visitors,--so many that they could only be admitted in separate +groups. The Regalia of Scotland lie on a circular table within an iron +railing, round and round which the visitors pass, gazing with all their +eyes. The room was dark, however, except for the dim twinkle of a candle +or gaslight; and the regalia did not show to any advantage, though there +are some rich jewels, set in their ancient gold. The articles consist of +a two-handed sword, with a hilt and scabbard of gold, ornamented with +gems, and a mace, with a silver handle, all very beautifully made; +besides the golden collar and jewelled badge of the Garter, and something +else which I forget. Why they keep this room so dark I cannot tell; but +it is a poor show, and gives the spectator an idea of the poverty of +Scotland, and the minuteness of her sovereignty, which I had not gathered +from her royal palaces. + +Thence we went into Queen Mary's room, and saw that beautiful portrait-- +that very queen and very woman--with which I was so much impressed at my +last visit. It is wonderful that this picture does not drive all the +other portraits of Mary out of the field, whatever may be the comparative +proofs of their authenticity. I do not know the history of this one, +except that it is a copy by Sir William Gordon of a picture by an +Italian, preserved at Dunrobin Castle. + +After seeing what the castle had to show, which is but little except +itself, its rocks, and its old dwellings of princes and prisoners, we +came down through the High Street, inquiring for John Knox's house. It +is a strange-looking edifice, with gables on high, projecting far, and +some sculpture, and inscriptions referring to Knox. There is a +tobacconist's shop in the basement story, where I learned that the house +used to be shown to visitors till within three months, but it is now +closed, for some reason or other. Thence we crossed a bridge into the +new town, and came back through Prince's Street to the hotel, and had a +good dinner, as preparatory to fresh wearinesses; for there is no other +weariness at all to be compared to that of sight-seeing. + +In mid afternoon we took a cab and drove to Holyrood Palace, which I have +already described, as well as the chapel, and do not mean to meddle with +either of them again. We looked at our faces in the old mirrors that +Queen Mary brought from France with her, and which had often reflected +her own lovely face and figure; and I went up the winding stair through +which the conspirators ascended. This, I think, was not accessible at my +former visit. Before leaving the palace, one of the attendants advised +us to see some pictures in the apartments occupied by the Marquis of +Breadalbane during the queen's residence here. We found some fine old +portraits and other paintings by Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey +Kneller, and a strange head by Rubens, amid all which I walked wearily, +wishing that there were nothing worth looking at in the whole world. My +wife differs altogether from me in this matter; . . . . but we agreed, on +this occasion, in being tired to death. Just as we got through with the +pictures, I became convinced of what I had been dimly suspecting all the +while, namely, that at my last visit to the palace I had seen these +selfsame pictures, and listened to the selfsame woman's civil answers, in +just the selfsame miserable weariness of mood. + +We left the palace, and toiled up through the dirty Canongate, looking +vainly for a fly, and employing our time, as well as we could, in looking +at the squalid mob of Edinburgh, and peeping down the horrible vistas of +the closes, which were swarming with dirty life, as some mouldy and +half-decayed substance might swarm with insects,--vistas down alleys +where sin, sorrow, poverty, drunkenness, all manner of sombre and sordid +earthly circumstances, had imbued the stone, brick, and wood of the +habitations for hundreds of years. And such a multitude of children too; +that was a most striking feature. + +After tea I went down into the valley between the old town and the new, +which is now laid out as an ornamental garden, with grass, shrubbery, +flowers, gravelled walks, and frequent seats. Here the sun was setting, +and gilded the old town with its parting rays, making it absolutely the +most picturesque scene possible to be seen. The mass of tall, ancient +houses, heaped densely together, looked like a Gothic dream; for there +seemed to be towers and all sorts of stately architecture, and spires +ascended out of the mass; and above the whole was the castle, with a +diadem of gold on its topmost turret. It wanted less than a quarter of +nine when the last gleam faded from the windows of the old town, and left +the crowd of buildings dim and indistinguishable, to reappear on the +morrow in squalor, lifting their meanness skyward, the home of layer upon +layer of unfortunate humanity. The change symbolized the difference +between a poet's imagination of life in the past--or in a state which he +looks at through a colored and illuminated medium--and the sad reality. + +This morning we took a cab, and set forth between ten and eleven to see +Edinburgh and its environs; driving past the University, and other +noticeable objects in the old town, and thence out to Arthur's Seat. +Salisbury Crags are a very singular feature of the outskirts. From the +heights, beneath Arthur's Seat, we had a fine prospect of the sea, with +Leith and Portobello in the distance, and of a fertile plain at the foot +of the hill. In the course of our drive our cabman pointed out +Dumbiedikes' house; also the cottage of Jeanie Deans,--at least, the spot +where it formerly stood; and Muschat's Cairn, of which a small heap of +stones is yet remaining. Near this latter object are the ruins of St. +Anthony's Chapel, a roofless gable, and other remains, standing on the +abrupt hillside. We drove homeward past a parade-ground on which a body +of cavalry was exercising, and we met a company of infantry on their +route thither. Then we drove near Calton Hill, which seems to be not a +burial-ground, although the site of stately monuments. In fine, we +passed through the Grass-Market, where we saw the cross in the pavement +in the street, marking the spot, as I recorded before, where Porteous was +executed. Thence we passed through the Cowgate, all the latter part of +our drive being amongst the tall, quaint edifices of the old town, alike +venerable and squalid. From the Grass-Market the rock of the castle +looks more precipitous than as we had hitherto seen it, and its prisons, +palaces, and barracks approach close to its headlong verge, and form one +steep line with its descent. We drove quite round the Castle Hill, and +returned down Prince's Street to our hotel. There can be no other city +in the world that affords more splendid scenery, both natural and +architectural, than Edinburgh. + +Then we went to St. Giles's Cathedral, which I shall not describe, it +having been kirkified into three interior divisions by the Covenanters; +and I left my wife to take drawings, while J----- and I went to +Short's Observatory, near the entrance of the castle. Here we saw a +camera-obscura, which brought before us, without our stirring a step, +almost all the striking objects which we had been wandering to and fro to +see. We also saw the mites in cheese, gigantically magnified by a solar +microscope; likewise some dioramic views, with all which I was mightily +pleased, and for myself, being tired to death of sights, I would as lief +see them as anything else. We found, on calling for mamma at St. +Giles's, that she had gone away; but she rejoined us between four and +five o'clock at our hotel, where the next thing we did was to dine. +Again after dinner we walked out, looking at the shop-windows of +jewellers, where ornaments made of cairngorm pebbles are the most +peculiar attraction. As it was our wedding-day, . . . . I gave S----- a +golden and amethyst-bodied cairngorm beetle with a ruby head; and after +sitting awhile in Prince's Street Gardens, we came home. + + +July 10th.--Last evening I walked round the castle rock, and through the +Grass-Market, where I stood on the inlaid cross in the pavement, thence +down the High Street beyond John Knox's house. The throng in that part +of the town was very great. There is a strange fascination in these old +streets, and in the peeps down the closes; but it doubtless would be a +great blessing were a fire to sweep through the whole of ancient +Edinburgh. This system of living on flats, up to I know not what story, +must be most unfavorable to cleanliness, since they have to fetch their +water all that distance towards heaven, and how they get rid of their +rubbish is best known to themselves. + +My wife has gone to Roslin this morning, and since her departure it has +been drizzly, so that J----- and I, after a walk through the new part of +the town, are imprisoned in our parlor with little resource except to +look across the valley to the castle, where Mons Meg is plainly visible +on the upper platform, and the lower ramparts, zigzagging about the edge +of the precipice, which nearly in front of us is concealed or softened by +a great deal of shrubbery, but farther off descends steeply down to the +grass below. Somewhere on this side of the rock was the point where +Claverhouse, on quitting Edinburgh before the battle of Killiecrankie, +clambered up to hold an interview with the Duke of Gordon. What an +excellent thing it is to have such striking and indestructible landmarks +and time-marks that they serve to affix historical incidents to, and +thus, as it were, nail down the Past for the benefit of all future ages! + +The old town of Edinburgh appears to be situated, in its densest part, on +the broad back of a ridge, which rises gradually to its termination in +the precipitous rock, on which stands the castle. Between the old town +and the new is the valley, which runs along at the base of this ridge, +and which, in its natural state, was probably rough and broken, like any +mountain gorge. The lower part of the valley, adjacent to the Canongate, +is now a broad hollow space, fitted up with dwellings, shops, or +manufactories; the next portion, between two bridges, is converted into +an ornamental garden free to the public, and contains Scott's beautiful +monument,--a canopy of Gothic arches and a fantastic spire, beneath which +he sits, thoughtful and observant of what passes in the contiguous +street; the third portion of the valley, above the last bridge, is +another ornamental garden, open only to those who have pass-keys. It is +an admirable garden, with a great variety of surface, and extends far +round the castle rock, with paths that lead up to its very base, among +leafy depths of shrubbery, and winds beneath the sheer, black precipice. +J----- and I walked there this forenoon, and took refuge from a shower +beneath an overhanging jut of the rock, where a bench had been placed, +and where a curtain of hanging ivy helped to shelter us. On our return +to the hotel, we found mamma just alighting from a cab. She had had very +bad fortune in her excursion to Roslin, having had to walk a long +distance to the chapel, and being caught in the rain; and, after all, she +could only spend seven minutes in viewing the beautiful Roslin +architecture. + + + +MELROSE. + + +July 11th.--We left Edinburgh, where we had found at Addison's, 87 +Prince's Street, the most comfortable hotel in Great Britain, and went to +Melrose, where we put up at the George. This is all travelled ground +with me, so that I need not much perplex myself with further description, +especially as it is impossible, by any repetition of attempts, to +describe Melrose Abbey. We went thither immediately after tea, and were +shown over the ruins by a very delectable old Scotchman, incomparably the +best guide I ever met with. I think he must take pains to speak the +Scotch dialect, he does it with such pungent felicity and effect, and it +gives a flavor to everything he says, like the mustard and vinegar in a +salad. This is not the man I saw when here before. The Scotch dialect +is still, in a greater or less degree, universally prevalent in Scotland, +insomuch that we generally find it difficult to comprehend the answers to +our questions, though more, I think, from the unusual intonation than +either from strange words or pronunciation. But this old man, though he +spoke the most unmitigated Scotch, was perfectly intelligible,--perhaps +because his speech so well accorded with the classic standard of the +Waverley Novels. Moreover, he is thoroughly acquainted with the Abbey, +stone by stone; and it was curious to see him, as we walked among its +aisles, and over the grass beneath its roofless portions, pick up the +withered leaves that had fallen there, and do other such little things, +as a good housewife might do to a parlor. I have met with two or three +instances where the guardian of an old edifice seemed really to love it, +and this was one, although the old man evidently had a Scotch +Covenanter's contempt and dislike of the faith that founded the Abbey. +He repeated King David's dictum that King David the First was "a sair +saint for the crown," as bestowing so much wealth on religious edifices; +but really, unless it be Walter Scott, I know not any Scotchman who has +done so much for his country as this same St. David. As the founder of +Melrose and many other beautiful churches and abbeys, he left magnificent +specimens of the only kind of poetry which the age knew how to produce; +and the world is the better for him to this day,--which is more, I +believe, than can be said of any hero or statesman in Scottish annals. + +We went all over the ruins, of course, and saw the marble stone of King +Alexander, and the spot where Bruce's heart is said to be buried, and the +slab of Michael Scott, with the cross engraved upon it; also the +exquisitely sculptured kail-leaves, and other foliage and flowers, with +which the Gothic artists inwreathed this edifice, bestowing more minute +and faithful labor than an artist of these days would do on the most +delicate piece of cabinet-work. We came away sooner than we wished, but +we hoped to return thither this morning; and, for my part, I cherish a +presentiment that this will not be our last visit to Scotland and +Melrose. . . . . J----- and I then walked to the Tweed, where we saw two +or three people angling, with naked legs, or trousers turned up, and +wading among the rude stones that make something like a dam over the wide +and brawling stream. I did not observe that they caught any fish, but +J----- was so fascinated with the spectacle that he pulled out his poor +little fishing-line, and wished to try his chance forthwith. I never +saw the angler's instinct stronger in anybody. We walked across the +foot-bridge that here spans the Tweed; and J----- observed that he did +not see how William of Deloraine could have found so much difficulty in +swimming his horse across so shallow a river. Neither do I. It now +began to sprinkle, and we hastened back to the hotel. + +It was not a pleasant morning; but we started immediately after breakfast +for + + + +ABBOTSFORD, + + +which is but about three miles distant. The country between Melrose and +that place is not in the least beautiful, nor very noteworthy,--one or +two old irregular villages; one tower that looks principally domestic, +yet partly warlike, and seems to be of some antiquity; and an undulation, +or rounded hilly surface of the landscape, sometimes affording wide +vistas between the slopes. These hills, which, I suppose, are some of +them on the Abbotsford estate, are partly covered with woods, but of +Scotch fir, or some tree of that species, which creates no softened +undulation, but overspreads the hill like a tightly fitting wig. It is a +cold, dreary, disheartening neighborhood, that of Abbotsford; at least, +it has appeared so to me at both of my visits,--one of which was on a +bleak and windy May morning, and this one on a chill, showery morning of +midsummer. + +The entrance-way to the house is somewhat altered since my last visit; +and we now, following the direction of a painted finger on the wall, went +round to a side door in the basement story, where we found an elderly man +waiting as if in expectation of visitors. He asked us to write our names +in a book, and told us that the desk on the leaf of which it lay was the +one in which Sir Walter found the forgotten manuscript of Waverley, while +looking for some fishing-tackle. There was another desk in the room, +which had belonged to the Colonel Gardiner who appears in Waverley. The +first apartment into which our guide showed us was Sir Walter's study, +where I again saw his clothes, and remarked how the sleeve of his old +green coat was worn at the cuff,--a minute circumstance that seemed to +bring Sir Walter very near me. Thence into the library; thence into the +drawing-room, whence, methinks, we should have entered the dining-room, +the most interesting of all, as being the room where he died. But this +room seems not to be shown now. We saw the armory, with the gun of Rob +Roy, into the muzzle of which I put my finger, and found the bore very +large; the beautifully wrought pistol of Claverhouse, and a pair of +pistols that belonged to Napoleon; the sword of Montrose, which I +grasped, and drew half out of the scabbard; and Queen Mary's iron +jewel-box, six or eight inches long, and two or three high, with a lid +rounded like that of a trunk, and much corroded with rust. There is no +use in making a catalogue of these curiosities. The feeling in visiting +Abbotsford is not that of awe; it is little more than going to a museum. +I do abhor this mode of making pilgrimages to the shrines of departed +great men. There is certainly something wrong in it, for it seldom or +never produces (in me, at least) the right feeling. It is an odd truth, +too, that a house is forever after spoiled and ruined as a home, by +having been the abode of a great man. His spirit haunts it, as it were, +with a malevolent effect, and takes hearth and hall away from the nominal +possessors, giving all the world the right to enter there because he had +such intimate relations with all the world. + +We had intended to go to Dryburgh Abbey; but as the weather more than +threatened rain, . . . . we gave up the idea, and so took the rail for +Berwick, after one o'clock. On our road we passed several ruins in +Scotland, and some in England,--one old castle in particular, beautifully +situated beside a deep-banked stream. The road lies for many miles along +the coast, affording a fine view of the German Ocean, which was now blue, +sunny, and breezy, the day having risen out of its morning sulks. We +waited an hour or more at Berwick, and J----- and I took a hasty walk +into the town. It is a rough and rude assemblage of rather mean houses, +some of which are thatched. There seems to have been a wall about the +town at a former period, and we passed through one of the gates. The +view of the river Tweed here is very fine, both above and below the +railway bridge, and especially where it flows, a broad tide, and between +high banks, into the sea. Thence we went onward along the coast, as I +have said, pausing a few moments in smoky Newcastle, and reaching Durham +about eight o'clock. + + + +DURHAM. + + +I wandered out in the dusk of the evening,--for the dusk comes on +comparatively early as we draw southward,--and found a beautiful and +shadowy path along the river-side, skirting its high banks, up and adown +which grow noble elms. I could not well see, in that obscurity of +twilight boughs, whither I was going, or what was around me; but I judged +that the castle or cathedral, or both, crowned the highest line of the +shore, and that I was walking at the base of their walls. There was a +pair of lovers in front of me, and I passed two or three other tender +couples. The walk appeared to go on interminably by the river-side, +through the same sweet shadow; but I turned and found my way into the +cathedral close, beneath an ancient archway, whence, issuing again, I +inquired my way to the Waterloo Hotel, where we had put up. + + +ITEMS.--We saw the Norham Castle of Marmion, at a short distance from the +station of the same name. Viewed from the railway, it has not a very +picturesque appearance,--a high, square ruin of what I suppose was the +keep.--At Abbotsford, treasured up in a glass case in the drawing-room, +were memorials of Sir Walter Scott's servants and humble friends,--for +instance, a brass snuff-box of Tom Purdie,--there, too, among precious +relics of illustrious persons.--In the armory, I grasped with some +interest the sword of Sir Adam Ferguson, which he had worn in the +Peninsular war. Our guide said, of his own knowledge, that "he was a +very funny old gentleman." He died only a year or two since. + + +July 11th.--The morning after our arrival in Durham being Sunday, we +attended service in the cathedral. . . . . We found a tolerable audience, +seated on benches, within and in front of the choir; and people +continually strayed in and out of the sunny churchyard and sat down, or +walked softly and quietly up and down the side aisle. Sometimes, too, +one of the vergers would come in with a handful of little boys, whom he +had caught playing among the tombstones. + + + +DURHAM CATHEDRAL + + +has one advantage over the others which I have seen, there being no +organ-screen, nor any sort of partition between the choir and nave; so +that we saw its entire length, nearly five hundred feet, in one vista. +The pillars of the nave are immensely thick, but hardly of proportionate +height, and they support the round Norman arch; nor is there, as far as I +remember, a single pointed arch in the cathedral. The effect is to give +the edifice an air of heavy grandeur. It seems to have been built before +the best style of church architecture had established itself; so that it +weighs upon the soul, instead of helping it to aspire. First, there are +these round arches, supported by gigantic columns; then, immediately +above, another row of round arches, behind which is the usual gallery +that runs, as it were, in the thickness of the wall, around the nave of +the cathedral; then, above all, another row of round arches, enclosing +the windows of the clere-story. The great pillars are ornamented in +various ways,--some with a great spiral groove running from bottom to +top; others with two spirals, ascending in different directions, so as to +cross over one another; some are fluted or channelled straight up and +down; some are wrought with chevrons, like those on the sleeve of a +police-inspector. There are zigzag cuttings and carvings, which I do not +know how to name scientifically, round the arches of the doors and +windows; but nothing that seems to have flowered out spontaneously, as +natural incidents of a grand and beautiful design. In the nave, between +the columns of the side aisles, I saw one or two monuments. . . . . + +The cathedral service is very long; and though the choral part of it is +pleasant enough, I thought it not best to wait for the sermon, especially +as it would have been quite unintelligible, so remotely as I sat in the +great space. So I left my seat, and after strolling up and down the +aisle a few times, sallied forth into the churchyard. On the cathedral +door there is a curious old knocker, in the form of a monstrous face, +which was placed there, centuries ago, for the benefit of fugitives from +justice, who used to be entitled to sanctuary here. The exterior of the +cathedral, being huge, is therefore grand; it has a great central tower, +and two at the western end; and reposes in vast and heavy length, without +the multitude of niches, and crumbling statues, and richness of detail, +that make the towers and fronts of some cathedrals so endlessly +interesting. One piece of sculpture I remember,--a carving of a cow, a +milk-maid, and a monk, in reference to the legend that the site of the +cathedral was, in some way, determined by a woman bidding her cow go home +to Dunholme. Cadmus was guided to the site of his destined city in some +such way as this. + +It was a very beautiful day, and though the shadow of the cathedral fell +on this side, yet, it being about noontide, it did not cover the +churchyard entirely, but left many of the graves in sunshine. There were +not a great many monuments, and these were chiefly horizontal slabs, some +of which looked aged, but on closer inspection proved to be mostly of the +present century. I observed an old stone figure, however, half worn +away, which seemed to have something like a bishop's mitre on its head, +and may perhaps have lain in the proudest chapel of the cathedral before +occupying its present bed among the grass. About fifteen paces from the +central tower, and within its shadow, I found a weather-worn slab of +marble, seven or eight feet long, the inscription on which interested me +somewhat. It was to the memory of Robert Dodsley, the bookseller, +Johnson's acquaintance, who, as his tombstone rather superciliously +avers, had made a much better figure as an author than "could have been +expected in his rank of life." But, after all, it is inevitable that a +man's tombstone should look down on him, or, at all events, comport +itself towards him "de haut en bas." I love to find the graves of men +connected with literature. They interest me more, even though of no +great eminence, than those of persons far more illustrious in other walks +of life. I know not whether this is because I happen to be one of the +literary kindred, or because all men feel themselves akin, and on terms +of intimacy, with those whom they know, or might have known, in books. I +rather believe that the latter is the case. + +My wife had stayed in the cathedral, but she came out at the end of the +sermon, and told me of two little birds, who had got into the vast +interior, and were in great trouble at not being able to find their way +out again. Thus, two winged souls may often have been imprisoned within +a faith of heavy ceremonials. + +We went round the edifice, and, passing into the close, penetrated +through an arched passage into the crypt, which, methought, was in a +better style of architecture than the nave and choir. At one end stood a +crowd of venerable figures leaning against the wall, being stone images +of bearded saints, apostles, patriarchs, kings,--personages of great +dignity, at all events, who had doubtless occupied conspicuous niches in +and about the cathedral till finally imprisoned in this cellar. I looked +at every one, and found not an entire nose among them, nor quite so many +heads as they once had. + +Thence we went into the cloisters, which are entire, but not particularly +interesting. Indeed, this cathedral has not taken hold of my affections, +except in one aspect, when it was exceedingly grand and beautiful. + +After looking at the crypt and the cloisters, we returned through the +close and the churchyard, and went back to the hotel through a path by +the river-side. This is the same dim and dusky path through which I +wandered the night before, and in the sunshine it looked quite as +beautiful as I knew it must,-- a shadow of elm-trees clothing the high +bank, and overarching the paths above and below; some of the elms growing +close to the water-side, and flinging up their topmost boughs not nearly +so high as where we stood, and others climbing upward and upward, till +our way wound among their roots; while through the foliage the quiet +river loitered along, with this lovely shade on both its banks, to pass +through the centre of the town. The stately cathedral rose high above +us, and farther onward, in a line with it, the battlemented walls of the +old Norman castle, gray and warlike, though now it has become a +University. This delightful walk terminates at an old bridge in the +heart of the town; and the castle hangs immediately over its busiest +street. On this bridge, last night, in the embrasure, or just over the +pier, where there is a stone seat, I saw some old men seated, smoking +their pipes and chatting. In my judgment, a river flowing through the +centre of a town, and not too broad to make itself familiar, nor too +swift, but idling along, as if it loved better to stay there than to go, +is the pleasantest imaginable piece of scenery; so transient as it is, +and yet enduring,--just the same from life's end to life's end; and this +river Wear, with its sylvan wildness, and yet so sweet and placable, is +the best of all little rivers,--not that it is so very small, but with a +bosom broad enough to be crossed by a three-arched bridge. Just above +the cathedral there is a mill upon its shore, as ancient as the times of +the Abbey. + +We went homeward through the market-place and one or two narrow streets; +for the town has the irregularity of all ancient settlements, and, +moreover, undulates upward and downward, and is also made more +unintelligible to a stranger, in its points and bearings, by the tortuous +course of the river. + +After dinner J----- and I walked along the bank opposite to that on which +the cathedral stands, and found the paths there equally delightful with +those which I have attempted to describe. We went onward while the river +gleamed through the foliage beneath us, and passed so far beyond the +cathedral that we began to think we were getting into the country, and +that it was time to return; when all at once we saw a bridge before us, +and beyond that, on the opposite bank of the Wear, the cathedral itself! +The stream had made a circuit without our knowing it. We paused upon the +bridge, and admired and wondered at the beauty and glory of the scene, +with those vast, ancient towers rising out of the green shade, and +looking as if they were based upon it. The situation of Durham Cathedral +is certainly a noble one, finer even than that of Lincoln, though the +latter stands even at a more lordly height above the town. But as I saw +it then, it was grand, venerable, and sweet, all at once; and I never saw +so lovely and magnificent a scene, nor, being content with this, do I +care to see a better. The castle beyond came also into the view, and the +whole picture was mirrored in the tranquil stream below. And so, +crossing the bridge, the path led us back through many a bower of hollow +shade; and we then quitted the hotel, and took the rail for + + + +YORK, + + +where we arrived at about half past nine. We put up at the Black Swan, +with which we had already made acquaintance at our previous visit to +York. It is a very ancient hotel; for in the coffee-room I saw on the +wall an old printed advertisement, announcing that a stage-coach would +leave the Black Swan in London, and arrive at the Black Swan in York, +with God's permission, in four days. The date was 1706; and still, after +a hundred and fifty years, the Black Swan receives travellers in Coney +Street. It is a very good hotel, and was much thronged with guests when +we arrived, as the Sessions come on this week. We found a very smart +waiter, whose English faculties have been brightened by a residence of +several years in America. + +In the morning, before breakfast, I strolled out, and walked round the +cathedral, passing on my way the sheriff's javelin-men, in long gowns of +faded purple embroidered with gold, carrying halberds in their hands; +also a gentleman in a cocked hat, gold-lace, and breeches, who, no doubt, +had something to do with the ceremonial of the Sessions. I saw, too, a +procession of a good many old cabs and other carriages, filled with +people, and a banner flaunting above each vehicle. These were the +piano-forte makers of York, who were going out of town to have a +jollification together. + +After breakfast we all went to the cathedral, and no sooner were we +within it than we found how much our eyes had recently been educated, by +our greater power of appreciating this magnificent interior; for it +impressed us both with a joy that we never felt before. J----- felt it +too, and insisted that the cathedral must have been altered and improved +since we were last here. But it is only that we have seen much splendid +architecture since then, and so have grown in some degree fitted to enjoy +it. York Cathedral (I say it now, for it is my present feeling) is the +most wonderful work that ever came from the hands of man. Indeed, it +seems like "a house not made with hands," but rather to have come down +from above, bringing an awful majesty and sweetness with it and it is so +light and aspiring, with all its vast columns and pointed arches, that +one would hardly wonder if it should ascend back to heaven again by its +mere spirituality. Positively the pillars and arches of the choir are so +very beautiful that they give the impression of being exquisitely +polished, though such is not the fact; but their beauty throws a gleam +around them. I thank God that I saw this cathedral again, and I thank +him that he inspired the builder to make it, and that mankind has so long +enjoyed it, and will continue to enjoy it. + + +July 14th.--We left York at twelve o'clock, and were delayed an hour or +two at Leeds, waiting for a train. I strolled up into the town, and saw +a fair, with puppet-shows, booths of penny actors, merry-go-rounds, +clowns, boxers, and other such things as I saw, above a year ago, at +Greenwich fair, and likewise at Tranmere, during the Whitsuntide +holidays. + +We resumed our journey, and reached Southport in pretty good trim at +about nine o'clock. It has been a very interesting tour. We find +Southport just as we left it, with its regular streets of little and big +lodging-houses, where the visitors perambulate to and fro without any +imaginable object. The tide, too, seems not to have been up over the +waste of sands since we went away; and far seaward stands the same row of +bathing-machines, and just on the verge of the horizon a gleam of water, +--even this being not the sea, but the mouth of the river Ribble, seeking +the sea amid the sandy desert. But we shall soon say good-by to +Southport. + + + +OLD TRAFFORD, MANCHESTER. + + +July 22d.--We left Southport for good on the 20th, and have established +ourselves in this place, in lodgings that had been provided for us by Mr. +Swain; our principal object being to spend a few weeks in the proximity +of the Arts' Exhibition. We are here, about three miles from the +Victoria Railway station in Manchester on one side, and nearly a mile +from the Exhibition on the other. This is a suburb of Manchester, and +consists of a long street, called the Stratford Road, bordered with brick +houses two stories high, such as are usually the dwellings of tradesmen +or respectable mechanics, but which are now in demand for lodgings, at +high prices, on account of the Exhibition. It seems to be rather a new +precinct of the city, and the houses, though ranged along a continuous +street, are but a brick border of the green fields in the rear. +Occasionally you get a glimpse of this country aspect between two houses; +but the street itself, even with its little grass-plots and bits of +shrubbery under the front windows, is as ugly as it can be made. Some of +the houses are better than I have described; but the brick used here in +building is very unsightly in hue and surface. + +Betimes in the morning the Exhibition omnibuses begin to trundle along, +and pass at intervals of two and a half minutes through the day,--immense +vehicles constructed to carry thirty-nine passengers, and generally with +a good part of that number inside and out. The omnibuses are painted +scarlet, bordered with white, have three horses abreast, and a conductor +in a red coat. They perform the journey from this point into town in +about half an hour; and yesterday morning, being in a hurry to get to the +railway station, I found that I could outwalk them, taking into account +their frequent stoppages. + +We have taken the whole house (except some inscrutable holes, into which +the family creeps), of respectable people, who never took lodgers until +this juncture. Their furniture, however, is of the true lodging-house +pattern, sofas and chairs which have no possibility of repose in them; +rickety tables; an old piano and old music, with "Lady Helen Elizabeth" +somebody's name written on it. It is very strange how nothing but a +genuine home can ever look homelike. They appear to be good people; a +little girl of twelve, a daughter, waits on table; and there is an elder +daughter, who yesterday answered the door-bell, looking very like a young +lady, besides five or six smaller children, who make less uproar of grief +or merriment than could possibly be expected. The husband is not +apparent, though I see his hat in the hall. The house is new, and has a +trim, light-colored interior of half-gentility. I suppose the rent, in +ordinary times, might be 25 pounds per annum; but we pay at the rate of +335 pounds for the part which we occupy. This, like all the other houses +in the neighborhood, was evidently built to be sold or let; the builder +never thought of living in it himself, and so that subtile element, which +would have enabled him to create a home, was entirely left out. + +This morning, J----- and I set forth on a walk, first towards the palace +of the Arts' Exhibition, which looked small compared with my idea of it, +and seems to be of the Crystal Palace order of architecture, only with +more iron to its glass. Its front is composed of three round arches in a +row. We did not go in. . . . . Turning to the right, we walked onward +two or three miles, passing the Botanic Garden, and thence along by +suburban villas, Belgrave terraces, and other such prettinesses in the +modern Gothic or Elizabethan style, with fancifully ornamented +flower-plats before them; thence by hedgerows and fields, and through two +or three villages, with here and there an old plaster and timber-built +thatched house, among a street full of modern brick-fronts,--the +alehouse, or rural inn, being generally the most ancient house in the +village. It was a sultry, heavy day, and I walked without much enjoyment +of the air and exercise. We crossed a narrow and swift river, flowing +between deep banks. It must have been either the Mersey, still an infant +stream, and little dreaming of the thousand mighty ships that float on +its farther tide, or else the Irwell, which empties into the Mersey. We +passed through the village beyond this stream, and went to the railway +station, and then were brought back to Old Trafford, and deposited close +by the Exhibition. + +It has showered this afternoon; and I beguiled my time for half an hour +by setting down the vehicles that went past; not that they were +particularly numerous, but for the sake of knowing the character of the +travel along the road. + + +July 26th.--Day before yesterday we went to the Arts' Exhibition, of +which I do not think that I have a great deal to say. The edifice, being +built more for convenience than show, appears better in the interior than +from without,--long vaulted vistas, lighted from above, extending far +away, all hung with pictures; and, on the floor below, statues, knights +in armor, cabinets, vases, and all manner of curious and beautiful +things, in a regular arrangement. Scatter five thousand people through +the scene, and I do not know how to make a better outline sketch. I was +unquiet, from a hopelessness of being able to enjoy it fully. Nothing is +more depressing to me than the sight of a great many pictures together; +it is like having innumerable books open before you at once, and being +able to read only a sentence or two in each. They bedazzle one another +with cross lights. There never should be more than one picture in a +room, nor more than one picture to be studied in one day. Galleries of +pictures are surely the greatest absurdities that ever were contrived, +there being no excuse for them, except that it is the only way in which +pictures can be made generally available and accessible. + +We went first into the Gallery of British Painters, where there were +hundreds of pictures, every one of which would have interested me by +itself; but I could not fix nay mind on one more than another, so I +wandered about, to get a general idea of the Exhibition. Truly it is +very fine; truly, also, every great show is a kind of humbug. I doubt +whether there were half a dozen people there who got the kind of +enjoyment that it was intended to create,--very respectable people they +seemed to be, and very well behaved, but all skimming the surface, as I +did, and none of them so feeding on what was beautiful as to digest it, +and make it a part of themselves. Such a quantity of objects must be +utterly rejected before you can get any real profit from one! It seemed +like throwing away time to look twice even at whatever was most precious; +and it was dreary to think of not fully enjoying this collection, the +very flower of Time, which never bloomed before, and never, by any +possibility, can bloom again. Viewed hastily, moreover, it is somewhat +sad to think that mankind, after centuries of cultivation of the +beautiful arts, can produce no more splendid spectacle than this. It is +not so very grand, although, poor as it is, I lack capacity to take in +even the whole of it. + +What gave me most pleasure (because it required no trouble nor study to +come at the heart of it) were the individual relics of antiquity, of +which there are some very curious ones in the cases ranged along the +principal saloon or nave of the building. For example, the dagger with +which Felton killed the Duke of Buckingham,--a knife with a bone handle +and a curved blade, not more than three inches long; sharp-pointed, +murderous-looking, but of very coarse manufacture. Also, the Duke of +Alva's leading staff of iron; and the target of the Emperor Charles V., +which seemed to be made of hardened leather, with designs artistically +engraved upon it, and gilt. I saw Wolsey's portrait, and, in close +proximity to it, his veritable cardinal's hat in a richly ornamented +glass case, on which was an inscription to the effect that it had been +bought by Charles Kean at the sale of Horace Walpole's collection. It is +a felt hat with a brim about six inches wide all round, and a rather high +crown; the color was, doubtless, a bright red originally, but now it is +mottled with a grayish hue, and there are cracks in the brim, as if the +hat had seen a good deal of wear. I suppose a far greater curiosity than +this is the signet-ring of one of the Pharaohs, who reigned over Egypt +during Joseph's prime ministry,--a large ring to be worn on the thumb, if +at all,--of massive gold, seal part and all, and inscribed with some +characters that looked like Hebrew. I had seen this before in Mr. +Mayer's collection in Liverpool. The mediaeval and English relics, +however, interested me more,--such as the golden and enamelled George +worn by Sir Thomas More; or the embroidered shirt of Charles I.,--the +very one, I presume, which he wore at his execution. There are no +blood-marks on it, it being very nicely washed and folded. The texture +of the linen cloth--if linen it be--is coarser than any peasant would +wear at this day, but the needle-work is exceedingly fine and elaborate. +Another relic of the same period,--the Cavalier General Sir Jacob +Astley's buff-coat, with his belt and sword; the leather of the +buff-coat, for I took it between my fingers, is about a quarter of an +inch thick, of the same material as a wash-leather glove, and by no means +smoothly dressed, though the sleeves are covered with silver-lace. Of +old armor, there are admirable specimens; and it makes one's head ache to +look at the iron pots which men used to thrust their heads into. Indeed, +at one period they seem to have worn an inner iron cap underneath the +helmet. I doubt whether there ever was any age of chivalry. . . . . It +certainly was no chivalric sentiment that made men case themselves in +impenetrable iron, and ride about in iron prisons, fearfully peeping at +their enemies through little slits and gimlet-holes. The unprotected +breast of a private soldier must have shamed his leaders in those days. +The point of honor is very different now. + +I mean to go again and again, many times more, and will take each day +some one department, and so endeavor to get some real use and improvement +out of what I see. Much that is most valuable must be immitigably +rejected; but something, according to the measure of my poor capacity, +will really be taken into my mind. After all, it was an agreeable day, +and I think the next one will be more so. + + +July 28th.--Day before yesterday I paid a second visit to the Exhibition, +and devoted the day mainly to seeing the works of British painters, which +fill a very large space,--two or three great saloons at the right side of +the nave. Among the earliest are Hogarth's pictures, including the +Sigismunda, which I remember to have seen before, with her lover's heart +in her hand, looking like a monstrous strawberry; and the March to +Finchley, than which nothing truer to English life and character was ever +painted, nor ever can be; and a large stately portrait of Captain Coram, +and others, all excellent in proportion as they come near to ordinary +life, and are wrought out through its forms. All English painters +resemble Hogarth in this respect. They cannot paint anything high, +heroic, and ideal, and their attempts in that direction are +wearisome to look at; but they sometimes produce good effects by +means of awkward figures in ill-made coats and small-clothes, and hard, +coarse-complexioned faces, such as they might see anywhere in the street. +They are strong in homeliness and ugliness, weak in their efforts at the +beautiful. Sir Thomas Lawrence attains a sort of grace, which you feel +to be a trick, and therefore get disgusted with it. Reynolds is not +quite genuine, though certainly he has produced some noble and beautiful +heads. But Hogarth is the only English painter, except in the landscape +department; there are no others who interpret life to me at all, unless +it be some of the modern Pre-Raphaelites. Pretty village scenes of +common life,--pleasant domestic passages, with a touch of easy humor in +them,--little pathoses and fancynesses, are abundant enough; and Wilkie, +to be sure, has done more than this, though not a great deal more. His +merit lies, not in a high aim, but in accomplishing his aim so perfectly. +It is unaccountable that the English painters' achievements should be so +much inferior to those of the English poets, who have really elevated the +human mind; but, to be sure, painting has only become an English art +subsequently to the epochs of the greatest poets, and since the beginning +of the last century, during which England had no poets. I respect Haydon +more than I once did, not for his pictures, they being detestable to see, +but for his heroic rejection of whatever his countrymen and he himself +could really do, and his bitter resolve to achieve something higher,-- +failing in which, he died. + +No doubt I am doing vast injustice to a great many gifted men in what I +have here written,--as, for instance, Copley, who certainly has painted a +slain man to the life; and to a crowd of landscape-painters, who have +made wonderful reproductions of little English streams and shrubbery, and +cottage doors and country lanes. And there is a picture called "The +Evening Gun" by Danby,--a ship of war on a calm, glassy tide, at sunset, +with the cannon-smoke puffing from her porthole; it is very beautiful, +and so effective that you can even hear the report breaking upon the +stillness, with so grand a roar that it is almost like stillness too. As +for Turner, I care no more for his light-colored pictures than for so +much lacquered ware or painted gingerbread. Doubtless this is my fault, +my own deficiency; but I cannot help it,--not, at least, without +sophisticating myself by the effort. The only modern pictures that +accomplish a higher end than that of pleasing the eye--the only ones that +really take hold of my mind, and with a kind of acerbity, like unripe +fruit--are the works of Hunt, and one or two other painters of the +Pre-Raphaelite school. They seem wilfully to abjure all beauty, and to +make their pictures disagreeable out of mere malice; but at any rate, for +the thought and feeling which are ground up with the paint, they will +bear looking at, and disclose a deeper value the longer you look. Never +was anything so stiff and unnatural as they appear; although every single +thing represented seems to be taken directly out of life and reality, +and, as it were, pasted down upon the canvas. They almost paint even +separate hairs. Accomplishing so much, and so perfectly, it seems +unaccountable that the picture does not live; but Nature has an art +beyond these painters, and they leave out some medium,--some enchantment +that should intervene, and keep the object from pressing so baldly and +harshly upon the spectator's eyeballs. With the most lifelike +reproduction, there is no illusion. I think if a semi-obscurity were +thrown over the picture after finishing it to this nicety, it might bring +it nearer to nature. I remember a heap of autumn leaves, every one of +which seems to have been stiffened with gum and varnish, and then put +carefully down into the stiffly disordered heap. Perhaps these artists +may hereafter succeed in combining the truth of detail with a broader and +higher truth. Coming from such a depth as their pictures do, and having +really an idea as the seed of them, it is strange that they should look +like the most made-up things imaginable. One picture by Hunt that +greatly interested me was of some sheep that had gone astray among +heights and precipices, and I could have looked all day at these poor, +lost creatures,--so true was their meek alarm and hopeless bewilderment, +their huddling together, without the slightest confidence of mutual help; +all that the courage and wisdom of the bravest and wisest of them could +do being to bleat, and only a few having spirits enough even for this. + +After going through these modern masters, among whom were some French +painters who do not interest me at all, I did a miscellaneous business, +chiefly among the water-colors and photographs, and afterwards among the +antiquities and works of ornamental art. I have forgotten what I saw, +except the breastplate and helmet of Henry of Navarre, of steel, engraved +with designs that have been half obliterated by scrubbing. I remember, +too, a breastplate of an Elector of Saxony, with a bullet-hole through +it. He received his mortal wound through that hole, and died of it two +days afterwards, three hundred years ago. + +There was a crowd of visitors, insomuch that, it was difficult to get a +satisfactory view of the most interesting objects. They were nearly all +middling-class people; the Exhibition, I think, does not reach the lower +classed at all; in fact, it could not reach them, nor their betters +either, without a good deal of study to help it out. I shall go to-day, +and do my best to get profit out of it. + + +July 30th.--We all, with R----- and Fanny, went to the Exhibition +yesterday, and spent the day there; not J-----, however, for he went to +the Botanical Gardens. After some little skirmishing with other things, +I devoted myself to the historical portraits, which hang on both sides of +the great nave, and went through them pretty faithfully. The oldest are +pictures of Richard II. and Henry IV. and Edward IV. and Jane Shore, and +seem to have little or no merit as works of art, being cold and stiff, +the life having, perhaps, faded out of them; but these older painters +were trustworthy, inasmuch as they had no idea of making a picture, but +only of getting the face before them on canvas as accurately as they +could. All English history scarcely supplies half a dozen portraits +before the time of Henry VIII.; after that period, and through the reigns +of Elizabeth and James, there are many ugly pictures by Dutchmen and +Italians; and the collection is wonderfully rich in portraits of the time +of Charles I. and the Commonwealth. Vandyke seems to have brought +portrait-painting into fashion; and very likely the king's love of art +diffused a taste for it throughout the nation, and remotely suggested, +even to his enemies, to get their pictures painted. Elizabeth has +perpetuated her cold, thin visage on many canvases, and generally with +some fantasy of costume that makes her ridiculous to all time. There are +several of Mary of Scotland, none of which have a gleam of beauty; but +the stiff old brushes of these painters could not catch the beautiful. +Of all the older pictures, the only one that I took pleasure in looking +at was a portrait of Lord Deputy Falkland, by Vansomer, in James I.'s +time,--a very stately, full-length figure in white, looking out of the +picture as if he saw you. The catalogue says that this portrait +suggested an incident in Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto; but I do not +remember it. + +I have a haunting doubt of the value of portrait-painting; that is to +say, whether it gives you a genuine idea of the person purporting to be +represented. I do not remember ever to have recognized a man by having +previously seen his portrait. Vandyke's pictures are full of grace and +nobleness, but they do not look like Englishmen,--the burly, rough, +wine-flushed and weather-reddened faces, and sturdy flesh and blood, +which we see even at the present day, when they must naturally have +become a good deal refined from either the country gentleman or the +courtier of the Stuarts' age. There is an old, fat portrait of Gervoyse +Holles, in a buff-coat,--a coarse, hoggish, yet manly man. The painter +is unknown; but I honor him, and Gervoyse Holles too,--for one was +willing to be truly rendered, and the other dared to do it. It seems to +be the aim of portrait-painters generally, especially of those who have +been most famous, to make their pictures as beautiful and noble as can +anywise consist with retaining the very slightest resemblance to the +person sitting to them. They seldom attain even the grace and beauty +which they aim at, but only hit some temporary or individual taste. +Vandyke, however, achieved graces that rise above time and fashion, and +so did Sir Peter Lely, in his female portraits; but the doubt is, whether +the works of either are genuine history. Not more so, I suspect, than +the narrative of a historian who should seek to make poetry out of the +events which he relates, rejecting those which could not possibly be thus +idealized. + +I observe, furthermore, that a full-length portrait has seldom face +enough; not that it lacks its fair proportion by measurement, but the +artist does not often find it possible to make the face so intellectually +prominent as to subordinate the figure and drapery. Vandyke does this, +however. In his pictures of Charles I., for instance, it is the +melancholy grace of the visage that attracts the eye, and it passes to +the rest of the composition only by an effort. Earlier and later +pictures are but a few inches of face to several feet of figure and +costume, and more insignificant than the latter because seldom so well +done; and I suspect the same would generally be the case now, only that +the present simplicity of costume gives the face a chance to be seen. + +I was interrupted here, and cannot resume the thread; but considering how +much of his own conceit the artist puts into a portrait, how much +affectation the sitter puts on, and then again that no face is the same +to any two spectators; also, that these portraits are darkened and faded +with age, and can seldom be more than half seen, being hung too high, or +somehow or other inconvenient, on the whole, I question whether there is +much use in looking at them. The truest test would be, for a man well +read in English history and biography, and himself an observer of +insight, to go through the series without knowing what personages they +represented, and write beneath each the name which the portrait +vindicated for itself. + +After getting through the portrait-gallery, I went among the engravings +and photographs, and then glanced along the old masters, but without +seriously looking at anything. While I was among the Dutch painters, a +gentleman accosted me. It was Mr. J------, whom I once met at dinner +with Bennoch. He told me that "the Poet Laureate" (as he called him) was +in the Exhibition rooms; and as I expressed great interest, Mr. J------ +was kind enough to go in quest of him. Not for the purpose of +introduction, however, for he was not acquainted with Tennyson. Soon Mr. +J------ returned, and said that he had found the Poet Laureate,--and, +going into the saloon of the old masters, we saw him there, in company +with Mr. Woolner, whose bust of him is now in the Exhibition. + +Gazing at him with all my eyes, I liked him well, and rejoiced more in +him than in all the other wonders of the Exhibition. + +How strange that in these two or three pages I cannot get one single +touch that may call him up hereafter! + +I would most gladly have seen more of this one poet of our day, but +forbore to follow him; for I must own that it seemed mean to be dogging +him through the saloons, or even to look at him, since it was to be done +stealthily, if at all. + +He is as un-English as possible; indeed an Englishman of genius usually +lacks the national characteristics, and is great abnormally. Even the +great sailor, Nelson, was unlike his countrymen in the qualities that +constituted him a hero; he was not the perfection of an Englishman, but a +creature of another kind,--sensitive, nervous, excitable, and really more +like a Frenchman. + +Un-English as he was, Tennyson had not, however, an American look. I +cannot well describe the difference; but there was something more mellow +in him,--softer, sweeter, broader, more simple than we are apt to be. +Living apart from men as he does would hurt any one of us more than it +does him. I may as well leave him here, for I cannot touch the central +point. + + +August 2d.--Day before yesterday I went again to the Exhibition, and +began the day with looking at the old masters. Positively, I do begin to +receive some pleasure from looking at pictures; but as yet it has nothing +to do with any technical merit, nor do I think I shall ever get so far as +that. Some landscapes by Ruysdael, and some portraits by Murillo, +Velasquez, and Titian, were those which I was most able to appreciate; +and I see reason for allowing, contrary to my opinion, as expressed a few +pages back, that a portrait may preserve some valuable characteristics of +the person represented. The pictures in the English portrait-gallery are +mostly very bad, and that may be the reason why I saw so little in them. +I saw too, at this last visit, a Virgin and Child, which appeared to me +to have an expression more adequate to the subject than most of the +innumerable virgins and children, in which we see only repetitions of +simple maternity; indeed, any mother, with her first child, would serve +an artist for one of them. But, in this picture the Virgin had a look as +if she were loving the infant as her own child, and at the same time +rendering him an awful worship, as to her Creator. + +While I was sitting in the central saloon, listening to the music, a +young man accosted me, presuming that I was so-and-so, the American +author. He himself was a traveller for a publishing firm; and he +introduced conversation by talking of Uttoxeter, and my description of it +in an annual. He said that the account had caused a good deal of pique +among the good people of Uttoxeter, because of the ignorance which I +attribute to them as to the circumstance which connects Johnson with +their town. The spot where Johnson stood can, it appears, still be +pointed out. It is on one side of the market-place, and not in the +neighborhood of the church. I forget whether I recorded, at the time, +that an Uttoxeter newspaper was sent me, containing a proposal that a +statue or memorial should be erected on the spot. It would gratify me +exceedingly if such a result should come from my pious pilgrimage +thither. + +My new acquaintance, who was cockneyish, but very intelligent and +agreeable, went on to talk about many literary matters and characters; +among others, about Miss Bronte, whom he had seen at the Chapter +Coffee-House, when she and her sister Anne first went to London. He was +at that time connected with the house of ------ and ------, and he +described the surprise and incredulity of Mr.------, when this little, +commonplace-looking woman presented herself as the author of Jane Eyre. +His story brought out the insignificance of Charlotte Bronte's aspect, +and the bluff rejection of her by Mr. ------, much more strongly than +Mrs. Gaskell's narrative. + + +Chorlton Road, August 9th.--We have changed our lodgings since my last +date, those at Old Trafford being inconvenient, and the landlady a sharp, +peremptory housewife, better fitted to deal with her own family than to +be complaisant to guests. We are now a little farther from the +Exhibition, and not much better off as regards accommodation, but the +housekeeper is a pleasant, civil sort of a woman, auspiciously named Mrs. +Honey. The house is a specimen of the poorer middle-class dwellings as +built nowadays,--narrow staircase, thin walls, and, being constructed for +sale, very ill put together indeed,--the floors with wide cracks between +the boards, and wide crevices admitting both air and light over the +doors, so that the house is full of draughts. The outer walls, it seems +to me, are but of one brick in thickness, and the partition walls +certainly no thicker; and the movements, and sometimes the voices, of +people in the contiguous house are audible to us. The Exhibition has +temporarily so raised the value of lodgings here that we have to pay a +high price for even such a house as this. + +Mr. Wilding having gone on a tour to Scotland, I had to be at the +Consulate every day last week till yesterday; when I absented myself from +duty, and went to the Exhibition. U---- and I spent an hour together, +looking principally at the old Dutch masters, who seem to me the most +wonderful set of men that ever handled a brush. Such lifelike +representations of cabbages, onions, brass kettles, and kitchen crockery; +such blankets, with the woollen fuzz upon them; such everything I never +thought that the skill of man could produce! Even the photograph cannot +equal their miracles. The closer you look, the more minutely true the +picture is found to be, and I doubt if even the microscope could see +beyond the painter's touch. Gerard Dow seems to be the master among +these queer magicians. A straw mat, in one of his pictures, is the most +miraculous thing that human art has yet accomplished; and there is a +metal vase, with a dent in it, that is absolutely more real than reality. +These painters accomplish all they aim at,--a praise, methinks, which can +be given to no other men since the world began. They must have laid down +their brushes with perfect satisfaction, knowing that each one of their +million touches had been necessary to the effect, and that there was not +one too few nor too many. And it is strange how spiritual and suggestive +the commonest household article--an earthen pitcher, for example-- +becomes, when represented with entire accuracy. These Dutchmen got at +the soul of common things, and so made them types and interpreters of the +spiritual world. + +Afterwards I looked at many of the pictures of the old masters, and found +myself gradually getting a taste for them; at least, they give me more +and more pleasure the oftener I come to see them. Doubtless, I shall be +able to pass for a man of taste by the time I return to America. It is +an acquired taste, like that for wines; and I question whether a man is +really any truer, wiser, or better for possessing it. From the old +masters, I went among the English painters, and found myself more +favorably inclined towards some of them than at my previous visits; +seeing something wonderful even in Turner's lights and mists and yeasty +waves, although I should like him still better if his pictures looked in +the least like what they typify. The most disagreeable of English +painters is Etty, who had a diseased appetite for woman's flesh, and +spent his whole life, apparently, in painting them with enormously +developed busts. I do not mind nudity in a modest and natural way; but +Etty's women really thrust their nudity upon you with malice +aforethought, . . . . and the worst of it is they are not beautiful. + +Among the last pictures that I looked at was Hogarth's March to Finchley; +and surely nothing can be covered more thick and deep with English nature +than that piece of canvas. The face of the tall grenadier in the centre, +between two women, both of whom have claims on him, wonderfully expresses +trouble and perplexity; and every touch in the picture meant something +and expresses what it meant. + +The price of admission, after two o'clock, being sixpence, the Exhibition +was thronged with a class of people who do not usually come in such large +numbers. It was both pleasant and touching to see how earnestly some of +them sought to get instruction from what they beheld. The English are a +good and simple people, and take life in earnest. + + +August 14th.--Passing by the gateway of the Manchester Cathedral the +other morning, on my way to the station, I found a crowd collected, and, +high overhead, the bells were chiming for a wedding. These chimes of +bells are exceedingly impressive, so broadly gladsome as they are, +filling the whole air, and every nook of one's heart with sympathy. They +are good for a people to rejoice with, and good also for a marriage, +because through all their joy there is something solemn,--a tone of that +voice which we have heard so often at funerals. It is good to see how +everybody, up to this old age of the world, takes an interest in +weddings, and seems to have a faith that now, at last, a couple have come +together to make each other happy. The high, black, rough old cathedral +tower sent out its chime of bells as earnestly as for any bridegroom and +bride that came to be married five hundred years ago. I went into the +churchyard, but there was such a throng of people on its pavement of flat +tombstones, and especially such a cluster along the pathway by which the +bride was to depart, that I could only see a white dress waving along, +and really do not know whether she was a beauty or a fright. The happy +pair got into a post-chaise that was waiting at the gate, and immediately +drew some crimson curtains, and so vanished into their Paradise. There +were two other post-chaises and pairs, and all three had postilions in +scarlet. This is the same cathedral where, last May, I saw a dozen +couples married in the lump. + +In a railway carriage, two or three days ago, an old merchant made rather +a good point of one of the uncomfortable results of the electric +telegraph. He said that formerly a man was safe from bad news, such as +intelligence of failure of debtors, except at the hour of opening his +letters in the morning; and then he was in some degree prepared for it, +since, among (say) fifteen letters, he would be pretty certain to find +some "queer" one. But since the telegraph has come into play, he is +never safe, and may be hit with news of failure, shipwreck, fall of +stocks, or whatever disaster, at all hours of the day. + +I went to the Exhibition on Wednesday with U----, and looked at the +pencil sketches of the old masters; also at the pictures generally, old +and new. I particularly remember a spring landscape, by John Linnell the +younger. It is wonderfully good; so tender and fresh that the artist +seems really to have caught the evanescent April and made her permanent. +Here, at least, is eternal spring. + +I saw a little man, behind an immense beard, whom I take to be the Duke +of Newcastle; at least, there was a photograph of him in the gallery, +with just such a beard. He was at the Palace on that day. + + +August 16th.--I went again to the Exhibition day before yesterday, and +looked much at both the modern and ancient pictures, as also at the +water-colors. I am making some progress as a connoisseur, and have got +so far as to be able to distinguish the broader differences of style,-- +as, for example, between Rubens and Rembrandt. I should hesitate to +claim any more for myself thus far. In fact, however, I do begin to have +a liking for good things, and to be sure that they are good. Murillo +seems to me about the noblest and purest painter that ever lived, and his +"Good Shepherd" the loveliest picture I have seen. It is a hopeful +symptom, moreover, of improving taste, that I see more merit in the crowd +of painters than I was at first competent to acknowledge. I could see +some of their defects from the very first; but that is the earliest stage +of connoisseurship, after a formal and ignorant admiration. Mounting a +few steps higher, one sees beauties. But how much study, how many +opportunities, are requisite to form and cultivate a taste! The +Exhibition must be quite thrown away on the mass of spectators. + +Both they and I are better able to appreciate the specimens of ornamental +art contained in the Oriental Room, and in the numerous cases that are +ranged up and down the nave. The gewgaws of all Time are here, in +precious metals, glass, china, ivory, and every other material that could +be wrought into curious and beautiful shapes; great basins and dishes of +embossed gold from the Queen's sideboard, or from the beaufets of +noblemen; vessels set with precious stones; the pastoral staffs of +prelates, some of them made of silver or gold, and enriched with gems, +and what have been found in the tombs of the bishops; state swords, and +silver maces; the rich plate of colleges, elaborately wrought,--great +cups, salvers, tureens, that have been presented by loving sons to their +Alma Mater; the heirlooms of old families, treasured from generation to +generation, and hitherto only to be seen by favored friends; famous +historical jewels, some of which are painted in the portraits of the +historical men and women that hang on the walls; numerous specimens of +the beautiful old Venetian glass, some of which looks so fragile that it +is a wonder how it could bear even the weight of the wine, that used to +be poured into it, without breaking. These are the glasses that tested +poison, by being shattered into fragments at its touch. The strangest +and ugliest old crockery, pictured over with monstrosities,--the Palissy +ware, embossed with vegetables, fishes, lobsters, that look absolutely +real; the delicate Sevres china, each piece made inestimable by pictures +from a master's hand;--in short, it is a despair and misery to see so +much that is curious and beautiful, and to feel that far the greater +portion of it will slip out of the memory, and be as if we had never seen +it. But I mean to look again and again at these things. We soon +perceive that the present day does not engross all the taste and +ingenuity that has ever existed in the mind of man; that, in fact, we are +a barren age in that respect. + + +August 20th.--I went to the Exhibition on Monday, and again yesterday, +and measurably enjoyed both visits. I continue to think, however, that a +picture cannot be fully enjoyed except by long and intimate acquaintance +with it, nor can I quite understand what the enjoyment of a connoisseur +is. He is not usually, I think, a man of deep, poetic feeling, and does +not deal with the picture through his heart, nor set it in a poem, nor +comprehend it morally. If it be a landscape, he is not entitled to judge +of it by his intimacy with nature; if a picture of human action, he has +no experience nor sympathy of life's deeper passages. However, as my +acquaintance with pictures increases, I find myself recognizing more and +more the merit of the acknowledged masters of the art; but, possibly, it +is only because I adopt the wrong principles which may have been laid +down by the connoisseurs. But there can be no mistake about Murillo,-- +not that I am worthy to admire him yet, however. + +Seeing the many pictures of Holy Families, and the Virgin and Child, +which have been painted for churches and convents, the idea occurs, that +it was in this way that the poor monks and nuns gratified, as far as they +could, their natural longing for earthly happiness. It was not Mary and +her heavenly Child that they really beheld, or wished for; but an earthly +mother rejoicing over her baby, and displaying it probably to the world +as an object worthy to be admired by kings,--as Mary does, in the +Adoration of the Magi. Every mother, I suppose, feels as if her first +child deserved everybody's worship. + +I left the Exhibition at three o'clock, and went to Manchester, where I +sought out Mr. C S------- in his little office. He greeted me warmly, +and at five we took the omnibus for his house, about four miles from +town. He seems to be on pleasant terms with his neighbors, for almost +everybody that got into the omnibus exchanged kindly greetings with him, +and indeed his kindly, simple, genial nature comes out so evidently that +it would be difficult not to like him. His house stands, with others, in +a green park,--a small, pretty, semi-detached suburban residence of +brick, with a lawn and garden round it. In close vicinity, there is a +deep clough or dell, as shaggy and wild as a poet could wish, and with a +little stream running through it, as much as five miles long. + +The interior of the house is very pretty, and nicely, even handsomely and +almost sumptuously, furnished; and I was very glad to find him so +comfortable. His recognition as a poet has been hearty enough to give +him a feeling of success, for he showed me various tokens of the +estimation in which he is held,--for instance, a presentation copy of +Southey's works, in which the latter had written "Amicus amico,--poeta +poetae." He said that Southey had always been most kind to him. . . . . +There were various other testimonials from people of note, American as +well as English. In his parlor there is a good oil-painting of himself, +and in the drawing-room a very fine crayon sketch, wherein his face, +handsome and agreeable, is lighted up with all a poet's ecstasy; likewise +a large and fine engraving from the picture. The government has +recognized his poetic merit by a pension of fifty pounds,--a small sung, +it is true, but enough to mark him out as one who has deserved well of +his country. . . . . The man himself is very good and lovable. . . . . I +was able to gratify him by saying that I had recently seen many favorable +notices of his poems in the American newspapers; an edition having been +published a few months since on our side of the ocean. He was much +pleased at this, and asked me to send him the notices. . . . . + + +August 30th.--I have been two or three times to the Exhibition since my +last date, and enjoy it more as I become familiar with it. There is +supposed to be about a third of the good pictures here which England +contains; and it is said that the Tory nobility and gentry have +contributed to it much more freely and largely than the Whigs. The Duke +of Devonshire, for instance, seems to have sent nothing. Mr. Ticknor, +the Spanish historian, whom I met yesterday, observed that we should not +think quite so much of this Exhibition as the English do after we have +been to Italy, although it is a good school in which to gain a +preparatory knowledge of the different styles of art. I am glad to hear +that there are better things still to be seen. Nevertheless, I should +suppose that certain painters are better represented here than they ever +have been or will be elsewhere. Vandyke, certainly, can be seen nowhere +else so well; Rembrandt and Rubens have satisfactory specimens; and the +whole series of English pictorial achievement is shown more perfectly +than within any other walls. Perhaps it would be wise to devote myself +to the study of this latter, and leave the foreigners to be studied on +their own soil. Murillo can hardly have done better than in the pictures +by him which we see here. There is nothing of Raphael's here that is +impressive. Titian has some noble portraits, but little else that I care +to see. In all these old masters, Murillo only excepted, it is very +rare, I must say, to find any trace of natural feeling and passion; and I +am weary of naked goddesses, who never had any real life and warmth in +the painter's imagination,--or, if so, it was the impure warmth of an +unchaste woman, who sat for him. + +Last week I dined at Mr. F. Heywood's to meet Mr. Adolphus, the author of +a critical work on the Waverley Novels, published long ago, and intended +to prove, from internal evidence, that they were written by Sir Walter +Scott. . . . . His wife was likewise of the party, . . . . and also a +young Spanish lady, their niece, and daughter of a Spaniard of literary +note. She herself has literary tastes and ability, and is well known to +Prescott, whom, I believe, she has assisted in his historical researches, +and also to Professor Ticknor; and furthermore she is very handsome and +unlike an English damsel, very youthful and maiden-like; and her manners +have all ardor and enthusiasm that were pleasant to see, especially as +she spoke warmly of my writings; and yet I should wrong her if I left the +impression of her being forthputting and obtrusive, for it was not the +fact in the least. She speaks English like a native, insomuch that I +should never have suspected her to be anything else. + +My nerves recently have not been in an exactly quiet and normal state. I +begin to weary of England and need another clime. + + +September 6th.--I think I paid my last visit to the Exhibition, and feel +as if I had had enough of it, although I have got but a small part of the +profit it might have afforded me. But pictures are certainly quite other +things to me now from what they were at my first visit; it seems even as +if there were a sort of illumination within them, that makes me see them +more distinctly. Speaking of pictures, the miniature of Anne of Cleves +is here, on the faith of which Henry VIII. married her; also, the picture +of the Infanta of Spain, which Buckingham brought over to Charles I. +while Prince of Wales. This has a delicate, rosy prettiness. + +One rather interesting portion of the Exhibition is the Refreshment-room, +or rather rooms; for very much space is allowed both to the first and +second classes. I have looked most at the latter, because there John +Ball and his wife may be seen in full gulp aid guzzle, swallowing vast +quantities of cold boiled beef, thoroughly moistened with porter or +bitter ale; and very good meat and drink it is. + +At my last visit, on Friday, I met Judge Pollock of Liverpool, who +introduced me to a gentleman in a gray slouched hat as Mr. Du Val, an +artist, resident in Manchester; and Mr. Du Val invited me to dine with +him at six o'clock. So I went to Carlton Grove, his residence, and found +it a very pretty house, with its own lawn and shrubbery about it. . . . . +There was a mellow fire in the grate, which made the drawing-room very +cosey and pleasant, as the dusk came on before dinner. Mr. Du Val looked +like an artist, and like a remarkable man. . . . . We had very good talk, +chiefly about the Exhibition, and Du Val spoke generously and +intelligently of his brother-artists. He says that England might furnish +five exhibitions, each one as rich as the present. I find that the most +famous picture here is one that I have hardly looked at, "The Three +Marys," by Annibal Caracci. In the drawing-room there were several +pictures and sketches by Du Val, one of which I especially liked,--a +misty, moonlight picture of the Mersey, near Seacombe. I never saw +painted such genuine moonlight. . . . . + +I took my leave at half past ten, and found my cab at the door, and my +cabman snugly asleep inside of it; and when Mr. Du Val awoke him, he +proved to be quite drunk, insomuch that I hesitated whether to let him +clamber upon the box, or to take post myself, and drive the cabman home. +However, I propounded two questions to him: first, whether his horse +would go of his own accord; and, secondly, whether be himself was +invariably drunk at that time of night, because, if it were his normal +state, I should be safer with him drunk than sober. Being satisfied on +these points, I got in, and was driven home without accident or +adventure; except, indeed, that the cabman drew up and opened the door +for me to alight at a vacant lot on Stratford Road, just as if there had +been a house and home and cheerful lighted windows in that vacancy. On +my remonstrance he resumed the whip and reins, and reached Boston Terrace +at last; and, thanking me for an extra sixpence as well as he could +speak, he begged me to inquire for "Little John" whenever I next wanted a +cab. Cabmen are, as a body, the most ill-natured and ungenial men in the +world; but this poor little man was excellently good-humored. + +Speaking of the former rudeness of manners, now gradually refining away, +of the Manchester people, Judge ------ said that, when he first knew +Manchester, women, meeting his wife in the street, would take hold of her +dress and say, "Ah, three and sixpence a yard!" The men were very rough, +after the old Lancashire fashion. They have always, however, been a +musical people, and this may have been a germ of refinement in them. +They are still much more simple and natural than the Liverpool people, +who love the aristocracy, and whom they heartily despise. It is singular +that the great Art-Exhibition should have come to pass in the rudest +great town in England. + + + +LEAMINGTON. + + +Lansdowne Cirrus, September 10th.--We have become quite weary of our +small, mean, uncomfortable, and unbeautiful lodgings at Chorlton Road, +with poor and scanty furniture within doors, and no better prospect from +the parlor windows than a mud-puddle, larger than most English lakes, on +a vacant building-lot opposite our house. The Exhibition, too, was fast +becoming a bore; for you must really love a picture, in order to tolerate +the sight of it many times. Moreover, the smoky and sooty air of that +abominable Manchester affected my wife's throat disadvantageously; so, on +a Tuesday morning, we struck our tent and set forth again, regretting to +leave nothing except the kind disposition of Mrs. Honey, our housekeeper. +I do not remember meeting with any other lodging-house keeper who did not +grow hateful and fearful on short acquaintance; but I attribute this, not +so much to the people themselves, as, primarily, to the unfair and +ungenerous conduct of some of their English guests, who feel so sure of +being cheated that they always behave as if in an enemy's country, and +therefore they find it one. + +The rain poured down upon us as we drove away in two cabs, laden with +mountainous luggage to the London Road station; and the whole day was +grim with cloud and moist with showers. We went by way of Birmingham, +and stayed three hours at the great dreary station there, waiting for the +train to Leamington, whither Fanny had gone forward the day before to +secure lodgings for us (as she is English, and understands the matter) +We all were tired and dull by the time we reached the Leamington station, +where a note from Fanny gave us the address of our lodgings. Lansdowne +Circus is really delightful after that ugly and grimy suburb of +Manchester. Indeed, there could not possibly be a greater contrast than +between Leamington and Manchester,--the latter built only for dirty uses, +and scarcely intended as a habitation for man; the former so cleanly, so +set out with shade trees, so regular in its streets, so neatly paved, its +houses so prettily contrived and nicely stuccoed, that it does not look +like a portion of the work-a-day world. + + + +KENILWORTH. + + +September 13th.--The weather was very uncertain through the last week, +and yesterday morning, too, was misty and sunless; notwithstanding which +we took the rail for Kenilworth before eleven. The distance from +Leamington is less than five miles, and at the Kenilworth station we +found a little bit of an omnibus, into which we packed ourselves, +together with two ladies, one of whom, at least, was an American. I +begin to agree partly with the English, that we are not a people of +elegant manners. At all events there is sometimes a bare, hard, meagre +sort of deportment, especially in our women, that has not its parallel +elsewhere. But perhaps what sets off this kind of behavior, and brings +it into alto relievo, is the fact of such uncultivated persons travelling +abroad, and going to see sights that would not be interesting except to +people of some education and refinement. + +We saw but little of the village of Kenilworth, passing through it +sidelong fashion, in the omnibus; but I learn that it has between three +and four thousand inhabitants, and is of immemorial antiquity. We saw a +few old, gabled, and timber-framed houses; but generally the town was of +modern aspect, although less so in the immediate vicinity of the castle +gate, across the road from which there was an inn, with bowling-greens, +and a little bunch of houses and shops. Apart from the high road there +is a gate-house, ancient, but in excellent repair, towered, turreted, and +battlemented, and looking like a castle in itself. Until Cromwell's +time, the entrance to the castle used to be beneath an arch that passed +through this structure; but the gate-house being granted to one of the +Parliament officers, he converted it into a residence, and apparently +added on a couple of gables, which now look quite as venerable as the +rest of the edifice. Admission within the outer grounds of the castle is +now obtained through a little wicket close beside the gate-house, at +which sat one or two old men, who touched their hats to us in humble +willingness to accept a fee. One of them had guide-books for sale; and, +finding that we were not to be bothered by a cicerone, we bought one of +his books. + +The ruins are perhaps two hundred yards from the gate-house and the road, +and the space between is a pasture for sheep, which also browse in the +inner court, and shelter themselves in the dungeons and state apartments +of the castle. Goats would be fitter occupants, because they would climb +to the tops of the crumbling towers, and nibble the weeds and shrubbery +that grow there. The first part of the castle which we reach is called +Caesar's Tower, being the oldest portion of the ruins, and still very +stalwart and massive, and built of red freestone, like all the rest. +Caesar's Tower being on the right, Leicester's Buildings, erected by the +Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favorite, are on the left; and +between these two formerly stood other structures which have now as +entirely disappeared as if they had never existed; and through the wide +gap, thus opened, appears the grassy inner court, surrounded on three +sides by half-fallen towers and shattered walls. Some of these were +erected by John of Gaunt; and among these ruins is the Banqueting-Hall,-- +or rather was,--for it has now neither floor nor roof, but only the +broken stone-work of some tall, arched windows, and the beautiful, old +ivied arch of the entrance-way, now inaccessible from the ground. The +ivy is very abundant about the ruins, and hangs its green curtains quite +from top to bottom of some of the windows. There are likewise very large +and aged trees within the castle, there being no roof nor pavement +anywhere, except in some dungeon-like nooks; so that the trees having +soil and air enough, and being sheltered from unfriendly blasts, can grow +as if in a nursery. Hawthorn, however, next to ivy, is the great +ornament and comforter of these desolate ruins. I have not seen so much +nor such thriving hawthorn anywhere else,--in the court, high up on +crumbly heights, on the sod that carpets roofless rooms,--everywhere, +indeed, and now rejoicing in plentiful crops of red berries. The ivy is +even more wonderfully luxuriant; its trunks being, in some places, two or +three feet in diameter, and forming real buttresses against the walls, +which are actually supported and vastly strengthened by this parasite, +that clung to them at first only for its own convenience, and now holds +them up, lest it should be ruined by their fall. Thus an abuse has +strangely grown into a use, and I think we may sometimes see the same +fact, morally, in English matters. There is something very curious in +the close, firm grip which the ivy fixes upon the wall, closer and closer +for centuries. Neither is it at all nice as to what it clutches, in its +necessity for support. I saw in the outer court an old hawthorn-tree, to +which a plant of ivy had married itself, and the ivy trunk and the +hawthorn trunk were now absolutely incorporated, and in their close +embrace you could not tell which was which. + +At one end of the Banqueting-Hall, there are two large bay-windows, one +of which looks into the inner court, and the other affords a view of +the surrounding country. The former is called Queen Elizabeth's +Dressing-room. Beyond the Banqueting-Hall is what is called the Strong +Tower, up to the top of which we climbed principally by the aid of the +stones that have tumbled down from it. A lady sat half-way down the +crumbly descent, within the castle, on a camp-stool, and before an easel, +sketching this tower, on the summit of which we sat. She said it was Amy +Robsart's Tower; and within it, open to the day, and quite accessible, we +saw a room that we were free to imagine had been occupied by her. I do +not find that these associations of real scenes with fictitious events +greatly heighten the charm of them. + +By this time the sun had come out brightly, and with such warmth that we +were glad to sit down in the shadow. Several sight-seers were now +rambling about, and among them some school-boys, who kept scrambling up +to points whither no other animal, except a goat, would have ventured. +Their shouts and the sunshine made the old castle cheerful; and what with +the ivy and the hawthorn, and the other old trees, it was very beautiful +and picturesque. But a castle does not make nearly so interesting and +impressive a ruin as an abbey, because the latter was built for beauty, +and on a plan in which deep thought and feeling were involved; and having +once been a grand and beautiful work, it continues grand and beautiful +through all the successive stages of its decay. But a castle is rudely +piled together for strength and other material conveniences; and, having +served these ends, it has nothing left to fall back upon, but crumbles +into shapeless masses, which are often as little picturesque as a pile of +bricks. Without the ivy and the shrubbery, this huge Kenilworth would +not be a pleasant object, except for one or two window-frames, with +broken tracery, in the Banqueting-Hall. . . . . + +We stayed from eleven till two, and identified the various parts of the +castle as well as we could by the guide-book. The ruins are very +extensive, though less so than I should have imagined, considering that +seven acres were included within the castle wall. But a large part of +the structures have been taken away to build houses in Kenilworth village +and elsewhere, and much, too, to make roads with, and a good deal lies +under the green turf in the court-yards, inner and outer. As we returned +to the gate, my wife and U---- went into the gate-house to see an old +chimney-piece, and other antiquities, and J----- and I proceeded a little +way round the outer wall, and saw the remains of the moat, and Lin's +Tower,--a real and shattered fabric of John of Gaunt. + +The omnibus now drove up, and one of the old men at the gate came +hobbling up to open the door, and was rewarded with a sixpence, and we +drove down to the King's Head. . . . . We then walked out and bought +prints of the castle, and inquired our way to the church and to the ruins +of the Priory. The latter, so far as we could discover them, are very +few and uninteresting; and the church, though it has a venerable +exterior, and an aged spire, has been so modernized within, and in so +plain a fashion, as to have lost what beauty it may once have had. There +were a few brasses and mural monuments, one of which was a marble group +of a dying woman and her family by Westmacott. The sexton was a cheerful +little man, but knew very little about his church, and nothing of the +remains of the Priory. The day was spent very pleasantly amid this +beautiful green English scenery, these fine old Warwickshire trees, and +broad, gently swelling fields. + + + +LIVERPOOL. + + +September 17th.--I took the train for Rugby, and thence to Liverpool. +The most noticeable character at Mrs. Blodgett's now is Mr. T------, a +Yankee, who has seen the world, and gathered much information and +experience already, though still a young man,--a handsome man, with black +curly hair, a dark, intelligent, bright face, and rather cold blue eyes, +but a very pleasant air and address. His observing faculties are very +strongly developed in his forehead, and his reflective ones seem to be +adequate to making some, if not the deepest, use of what he sees. He has +voyaged and travelled almost all over the world, and has recently +published a book of his peregrinations, which has been well received. He +is of exceeding fluent talk, though rather too much inclined to unfold +the secret springs of action in Louis Napoleon, and other potentates, and +to tell of revolutions that are coming at some unlooked-for moment, but +soon. Still I believe in his wisdom and foresight about as much as in +any other man's. There are no such things. He is a merchant, and +meditates settling in London, and making a colossal fortune there during +the next ten or twenty years; that being the period during which London +is to hold the exchanges of the world, and to continue its metropolis. +After that, New York is to be the world's queen city. + +There is likewise here a young American, named A------, who has been at a +German University, and favors us with descriptions of his student life +there, which seems chiefly to have consisted in drinking beer and +fighting duels. He shows a cut on his nose as a trophy of these combats. +He has with him a dog of St. Bernard, who is a much more remarkable +character than himself,--an immense dog, a noble and gentle creature; and +really it touches my heart that his master is going to take him from his +native snow-mountain to a Southern plantation to die. Mr. A------ says +that there are now but five of these dogs extant at the convent; there +having, within two or three years, been a disease among them, with which +this dog also has suffered. His master has a certificate of his +genuineness, and of himself being the rightful purchaser; and he says +that as he descended the mountain, every peasant along the road stopped +him, and would have compelled him to give up the dog had he not produced +this proof of property. The neighboring mountaineers are very jealous of +the breed being taken away, considering them of such importance to their +own safety. This huge animal, the very biggest dog I ever saw, though +only eleven months old, and not so high by two or three inches as he will +be, allows Mr. ------ to play with him, and take him on his shoulders (he +weighs, at least, a hundred pounds), like any lapdog. + + + +LEAMINGTON. + + +Lansdowne Circus, October 10th.--I returned hither from Liverpool last +week, and have spent the time idly since then, reposing myself after the +four years of unnatural restraint in the Consulate. Being already pretty +well acquainted with the neighborhood of Leamington, I have little or +nothing to record about the prettiest, cheerfullest, cleanest of English +towns. + +On Saturday we took the rail for Coventry, about a half-hour's travel +distant. I had been there before, more than two years ago. . . . . No +doubt I described it on my first visit; and it is not remarkable enough +to be worth two descriptions,--a large town of crooked and irregular +streets and lanes, not looking nearly so ancient as it is, because of new +brick and stuccoed fronts which have been plastered over its antiquity; +although still there are interspersed the peaked gables of old-fashioned, +timber-built houses; or an archway of worn stone, which, if you pass +through it, shows like an avenue from the present to the past; for just +in the rear of the new-fangled aspect lurks the old arrangement of +court-yards, and rustiness, and grimness, that would not be suspected +from the exterior. + +Right across the narrow street stands St. Michael's Church with its tall, +tall tower and spire. The body of the church has been almost entirely +recased with stone since I was here before; but the tower still retains +its antiquity, and is decorated with statues that look down from their +lofty niches seemingly in good preservation. The tower and spire are +most stately and beautiful, the whole church very noble. We went in, and +found that the vulgar plaster of Cromwell's time has been scraped from +the pillars and arches, leaving them all as fresh and splendid as if just +made. + +We looked also into Trinity Church, which stands close by St. Michael's, +separated only, I think, by the churchyard. We also visited St. John's +Church, which is very venerable as regards its exterior, the stone being +worn and smoothed--if not roughened, rather--by centuries of storm and +fitful weather. This wear and tear, however, has almost ceased to be a +charm to my mind, comparatively to what it was when I first began to see +old buildings. Within, the church is spoiled by wooden galleries, built +across the beautiful pointed arches. + +We saw nothing else particularly worthy of remark except Ford's Hospital, +in Grey Friars' Street. It has an Elizabethan front of timber and +plaster, facing on the street, with two or three peaked gables in a row, +beneath which is a low, arched entrance, giving admission into a small +paved quadrangle, open to the sky above, but surrounded by the walls, +lozenge-paned windows, and gables of the Hospital. The quadrangle is but +a few paces in width, and perhaps twenty in length; and, through a +half-closed doorway, at the farther end, there was a glimpse into a +garden. Just within the entrance, through an open door, we saw the neat +and comfortable apartment of the Matron of the Hospital; and, along the +quadrangle, on each side, there were three or four doors, through which +we glanced into little rooms, each containing a fireplace, a bed, a chair +or two,--a little, homely, domestic scene, with one old woman in the +midst of it; one old woman in each room. They are destitute widows, who +have their lodging and home here,--a small room for each one to sleep, +cook, and be at home in,--and three and sixpence a week to feed and +clothe themselves with,--a cloak being the only garment bestowed on them. +When one of the sisterhood dies each old woman has to pay twopence +towards the funeral; and so they slowly starve and wither out of life, +and claim each their twopence contribution in turn. I am afraid they +have a very dismal time. + +There is an old man's hospital in another part of the town, on a similar +plan. A collection of sombre and lifelike tales might be written on the +idea of giving the experiences of these Hospitallers, male and female; +and they might be supposed to be written by the Matron of one, who had +acquired literary taste and practice as a governess,--and by the Master +of the other, a retired school-usher. + +It was market-day in Coventry, and far adown the street leading from it +there were booths and stalls, and apples, pears, toys, books, among which +I saw my Twice-Told Tales, with an awful portrait of myself as +frontispiece,--and various country produce, offered for sale by men, +women, and girls. The scene looked lively, but had not much vivacity in +it. + + +October 27th.--The autumn has advanced progressively, and is now fairly +established, though still there is much green foliage, in spite of many +brown trees, and an enormous quantity of withered leaves, too damp to +rustle, strewing the paths,--whence, however, they are continually swept +up and carried off in wheelbarrows, either for neatness or for the +agricultural worth, as manure, of even a withered leaf. The pastures +look just as green as ever,--a deep, bright verdure, that seems almost +sunshine in itself, however sombre the sky may be. The little plats of +grass and flowers, in front of our circle of houses, might still do +credit to an American midsummer; for I have seen beautiful roses here +within a day or two; and dahlias, asters, and such autumnal flowers, are +plentiful; and I have no doubt that the old year's flowers will bloom +till those of the new year appear. Really, the English winter is not so +terrible as ours. + + +October 30th.--Wednesday was one of the most beautiful of all days, and +gilded almost throughout with the precious English sunshine,--the most +delightful sunshine ever made, both for its positive fine qualities and +because we seldom get it without too great an admixture of water. We +made no use of this lovely day, except to walk to an Arboretum and +Pinetum on the outskirts of the town. U---- and Mrs. Shepard made an +excursion to Guy's Cliff. + +[Here comes in the visit to Leicester's Hospital and Redfern's Shop, and +St. Mary's Church, printed in Our Old Home.--ED.] + +From Redfern's we went back to the market-place, expecting to find J----- +at the Museum, but the keeper said he had gone away. We went into this +museum, which contains the collections in Natural History, etc., of a +county society. It is very well arranged, and is rich in specimens of +ornithology, among which was an albatross, huge beyond imagination. I do +not think that Coleridge could have known the size of the fowl when he +caused it to be hung round the neck of his Ancient Mariner. There were a +great many humming-birds from various parts of the world, and some of +their breasts actually gleamed and shone as with the brightest lustre of +sunset. Also, many strange fishes, and a huge pike taken from the river +Avon, and so long that I wonder how he could turn himself about in such a +little river as the Avon is near Warwick. A great curiosity was a bunch +of skeleton leaves and flowers, prepared by a young lady, and preserving +all the most delicate fibres of the plant, looking like inconceivably +fine lace-work, white as snow, while the substance was quite taken away. +In another room there were minerals, shells, and a splendid collection of +fossils, among which were remains of antediluvian creatures, several feet +long. In still another room, we saw some historical curiosities,--the +most interesting of which were two locks of reddish-brown hair, one from +the head and one from the beard of Edward IV. They were fastened to a +manuscript letter which authenticates the hair as having been taken from +King Edward's tomb in 1739. Near these relics was a seal of the great +Earl of Warwick, the mighty kingmaker; also a sword from Bosworth Field, +smaller and shorter than those now in use; for, indeed, swords seem to +have increased in length, weight, and formidable aspect, now that the +weapon has almost ceased to be used in actual warfare. The short Roman +sword was probably more murderous than any weapon of the same species, +except the bowie-knife. Here, too, were Parliamentary cannon-balls, +etc. . . . . + +[The visit to Whitnash intervenes here.--ED.] + + + +LONDON. + + +24 Great Russell Street, November 10th.--We have been thinking and +negotiating about taking lodgings in London lately, and this morning we +left Leamington and reached London with no other misadventure than that +of leaving the great bulk of our luggage behind us,--the van which we +hired to take it to the railway station having broken down under its +prodigious weight, in the middle of the street. On our journey we saw +nothing particularly worthy of note,--but everywhere the immortal verdure +of England, scarcely less perfect than in June, so far as the fields are +concerned, though the foliage of the trees presents pretty much the same +hues as those of our own forests, after the gayety and gorgeousness have +departed from them. + +Our lodgings are in close vicinity to the British Museum, which is the +great advantage we took them for. + +I felt restless and uncomfortable, and soon strolled forth, without any +definite object, and walked as far as Charing Cross. Very dull and +dreary the city looked, and not in the least lively, even where the +throng was thickest and most brisk. As I trudged along, my reflection +was, that never was there a dingier, uglier, less picturesque city than +London; and that it is really wonderful that so much brick and stone, for +centuries together, should have been built up with so poor a result. Yet +these old names of the city--Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, the Strand-used +to throw a glory over these homely precincts when I first saw them, and +still do so in a less degree. Where Farrington Street opens upon Fleet +Street, moreover, I had a glimpse of St. Paul's, along Ludgate Street, in +the gathering dimness, and felt as if I saw an old friend. In that +neighborhood--speaking of old friends--I met Mr. Parker of Boston, who +told me sad news of a friend whom I love as much as if I had known him +for a lifetime, though he is, indeed, but of two or three years' +standing. He said that my friend's bankruptcy is in to-day's Gazette. +Of all men on earth, I had rather this misfortune should have happened to +any other; but I hope and think he has sturdiness and buoyancy enough to +rise up beneath it. I cannot conceive of his face otherwise than with a +glow on it, like that of the sun at noonday. + +Before I reached our lodgings, the dusk settled into the streets, and a +mist bedewed and bedamped me, and I went astray, as is usual with me, and +had to inquire my way; indeed, except in the principal thoroughfares, +London is so miserably lighted that it is impossible to recognize one's +whereabouts. On my arrival I found our parlor looking cheerful with a +brisk fire; . . . . but the first day or two in new lodgings is at best +an uncomfortable time. Fanny has just come in with more unhappy news +about ------. Pray Heaven it may not be true! . . . . Troubles are a +sociable brotherhood; they love to come hand in hand, or sometimes, even, +to come side by side, with long looked-for and hoped-for good +fortune. . . . . + + +November 11th.--This morning we all went to the British Museum, always a +most wearisome and depressing task to me. I strolled through the lower +rooms with a good degree of interest, looking at the antique sculptures, +some of which were doubtless grand and beautiful in their day. . . . . +The Egyptian remains are, on the whole, the more satisfactory; for, +though inconceivably ugly, they are at least miracles of size and +ponderosity,--for example, a hand and arm of polished granite, as much as +ten feet in length. The upper rooms, containing millions of specimens of +Natural History, in all departments, really made my heart ache with a +pain and woe that I have never felt anywhere but in the British Museum, +and I hurried through them as rapidly as I could persuade J----- to +follow me. We had left the rest of the party still intent on the Grecian +sculptures; and though J----- was much interested in the vast collection +of shells, he chose to quit the Museum with me in the prospect of a +stroll about London. He seems to have my own passion for thronged +streets, and the utmost bustle of human life. + +We went first to the railway station, in quest of our luggage, which we +found. Then we made a pretty straight course down to Holborn, and +through Newgate Street, stopping a few moments to look through the iron +fence at the Christ's Hospital boys, in their long blue coats and yellow +petticoats and stockings. It was between twelve and one o'clock; and I +suppose this was their hour of play, for they were running about the +enclosed space, chasing and overthrowing one another, without their caps, +with their yellow petticoats tucked up, and all in immense activity and +enjoyment. They were eminently a healthy and handsome set of boys. + +Then we went into Cheapside, where I called at Mr. Bennett's shop, to +inquire what are the facts about ------. When I mentioned his name, Mr. +Bennett shook his head and expressed great sorrow; but, on further talk, +I found that he referred only to the failure, and had heard nothing about +the other rumor. It cannot, therefore, be true; for Bennett lives in his +neighborhood, and could not have remained ignorant of such a calamity. +There must be some mistake; none, however, in regard to the failure, it +having been announced in the Times. + +From Bennett's shop--which is so near the steeple of Bow Church that it +would tumble upon it if it fell over--we strolled still eastward, aiming +at London Bridge; but missed it, and bewildered ourselves among many +dingy and frowzy streets and lanes. I bore towards the right, however, +knowing that that course must ultimately bring me to the Thames; and at +last I saw before me ramparts, towers, circular and square, with +battlemented summits, large sweeps and curves of fortification, as well +as straight and massive walls and chimneys behind them (all a great +confusion--to my eye), of ancient and more modern structure, and four +loftier turrets rising in the midst; the whole great space surrounded by +a broad, dry moat, which now seemed to be used as an ornamental walk, +bordered partly with trees. This was the Tower; but seen from a +different and more picturesque point of view than I have heretofore +gained of it. Being so convenient for a visit, I determined to go in. +At the outer gate, which is not a part of the fortification, a sentinel +walks to and fro, besides whom there was a warder, in the rich old +costume of Henry VIII's time, looking very gorgeous indeed,--as much so +as scarlet and gold can make him. + +As J----- and I were not going to look at the Jewel-room, we loitered +about in the open space, before the White Tower, while the tall, slender, +white-haired, gentlemanly warder led the rest of the party into that +apartment. We found what one might take for a square in a town, with +gabled houses lifting their peaks on one side, and various edifices +enclosing the other sides, and the great White Tower,--now more black +than white,--rising venerable, and rather picturesque than otherwise, the +most prominent object in the scene. I have no plan nor available idea of +it whatever in my mind, but it seems really to be a town within itself, +with streets, avenues, and all that pertains to human life. There were +soldiers going through their exercise in the open space, and along at the +base of the White Tower lay a great many cannon and mortars, some of +which were of Turkish manufacture, and immensely long and ponderous. +Others, likewise of mighty size, had once belonged to the famous ship +Great Harry, and had lain for ages under the sea. Others were +East-Indian. Several were beautiful specimens of workmanship. The +mortars--some so large that a fair-sized man might easily be rammed into +them--held their great mouths slanting upward to the sky, and mostly +contained a quantity of rain-water. While we were looking at these +warlike toys,--for I suppose not one of them will ever thunder in earnest +again,--the warder reappeared with his ladies, and, leading us all to a +certain part of the open space, he struck his foot on the small stones +with which it is paved, and told us that we were standing on the spot +where Anne Boleyn and Catharine Parr were beheaded. It is not exactly in +the centre of the square, but on a line with one of the angles of the +White Tower. I forgot to mention that the middle of the open space is +occupied by a marble statue of Wellington, which appeared to me very poor +and laboriously spirited. + +Lastly, the warder led us under the Bloody Tower, and by the side of the +Wakefield Tower, and showed us the Traitor's Gate, which is now closed +up, so as to afford no access to the Thames. No; we first visited the +Beauchamp Tower, famous as the prison of many historical personages. +Some of its former occupants have left their initials or names, and +inscriptions of piety and patience, cut deep into the freestone of the +walls, together with devices--as a crucifix, for instance--neatly and +skilfully done. This room has a long, deep fireplace; it is chiefly +lighted by a large window, which I fancy must have been made in modern +times; but there are four narrow apertures, throwing in a little light +through deep alcoves in the thickness of the octagon wall. One would +expect such a room to be picturesque; but it is really not of striking +aspect, being low, with a plastered ceiling,--the beams just showing +through the plaster,--a boarded floor, and the walls being washed over +with a buff color. A warder sat within a railing, by the great window, +with sixpenny books to sell, containing transcripts of the inscriptions +on the walls. + +We now left the Tower, and made our way deviously westward, passing St. +Paul's, which looked magnificently and beautifully, so huge and dusky as +it was, with here and there a space on its vast form where the original +whiteness of the marble came out like a streak of moonshine amid the +blackness with which time has made it grander than it was in its newness. +It is a most noble edifice; and I delight, too, in the statues that crown +some of its heights, and in the wreaths of sculpture which are hung +around it. + + +November 12th.--This morning began with such fog, that at the window of +my chamber, lighted only from a small court-yard, enclosed by high, dingy +walls, I could hardly see to dress. It kept alternately darkening, and +then brightening a little, and darkening again, so much that we could but +just discern the opposite houses; but at eleven or thereabouts it grew so +much clearer that we resolved to venture out. Our plan for the day was +to go in the first place to Westminster Abbey; and to the National +Gallery, if we should find time. . . . . The fog darkened again as we +went down Regent Street, and the Duke of York's Column was but barely +visible, looming vaguely before us; nor, from Pall Mall, was Nelson's +Pillar much more distinct, though methought his statue stood aloft in a +somewhat clearer atmosphere than ours. Passing Whitehall, however, we +could scarcely see Inigo Jones's Banqueting-House, on the other side of +the street; and the towers and turrets of the new Houses of Parliament +were all but invisible, as was the Abbey itself; so that we really were +in some doubt whither we were going. We found our way to Poets' Corner, +however, and entered those holy precincts, which looked very dusky and +grim in the smoky light. . . . . I was strongly impressed with the +perception that very commonplace people compose the great bulk of society +in the home of the illustrious dead. It is wonderful how few names there +are that one cares anything about a hundred years after their departure; +but perhaps each generation acts in good faith in canonizing its own +men. . . . . But the fame of the buried person does not make the marble +live,--the marble keeps merely a cold and sad memory of a man who would +else be forgotten. No man who needs a monument ever ought to have one. + +The painted windows of the Abbey, though mostly modern, are exceedingly +rich and beautiful; and I do think that human art has invented no other +such magnificent method of adornment as this. + +Our final visit to-day was to the National Gallery, where I came to the +conclusion that Murillo's St. John was the most lovely picture I have +ever seen, and that there never was a painter who has really made the +world richer, except Murillo. + + +November 12th.--This morning we issued forth, and found the atmosphere +chill and almost frosty, tingling upon our cheeks. . . . . The gateway of +Somerset House attracted us, and we walked round its spacious quadrangle, +encountering many government clerks hurrying to their various offices. +At least, I presumed them to be so. This is certainly a handsome square +of buildings, with its Grecian facades and pillars, and its sculptured +bas-reliefs, and the group of statuary in the midst of the court. +Besides the part of the edifice that rises above ground, there appear to +be two subterranean stories below the surface. From Somerset House we +pursued our way through Temple Bar, but missed it, and therefore entered +by the passage from what was formerly Alsatia, but which now seems to be +a very respectable and humdrum part of London. We came immediately to +the Temple Gardens, which we walked quite round. The grass is still +green, but the trees are leafless, and had an aspect of not being very +robust, even at more genial seasons of the year. There were, however, +large quantities of brilliant chrysanthemums, golden, and of all hues, +blooming gorgeously all about the borders; and several gardeners were at +work, tending these flowers, and sheltering them from the weather. I +noticed no roses, nor even rose-bushes, in the spot where the factions of +York and Lancaster plucked their two hostile flowers. + +Leaving these grounds, we went to the Hall of the Middle Temple, where we +knocked at the portal, and, finding it not fastened, thrust it open. A +boy appeared within, and the porter or keeper, at a distance, along the +inner passage, called to us to enter; and, opening the door of the great +hall, left us to view it till he should be at leisure to attend to us. +Truly it is a most magnificent apartment; very lofty,--so lofty, indeed, +that the antique oak roof was quite hidden, as regarded all its details, +in the sombre gloom that brooded under its rafters. The hall was lighted +by four great windows, I think, on each of the two sides, descending +half-way from the ceiling to the floor, leaving all beneath enclosed by +oaken panelling, which, on three sides, was carved with escutcheons of +such members of the society as have held the office of reader. There is +likewise, in a large recess or transept, a great window, occupying the +full height of the hall, and splendidly emblazoned with the arms of the +Templars who have attained to the dignity of Chief Justices. The other +windows are pictured, in like manner, with coats of arms of local +dignitaries connected with the Temple; and besides all these there are +arched lights, high towards the roof, at either end full of richly and +chastely colored glass, and all the illumination that the great hall had +come through these glorious panes, and they seemed the richer for the +sombreness in which we stood. I cannot describe, or even intimate, the +effect of this transparent glory, glowing down upon us in that gloomy +depth of the hall. The screen at the lower end was of carved oak, very +dark and highly polished, and as old as Queen Elizabeth's time. The +keeper told us that the story of the Armada was said to be represented in +these carvings, but in the imperfect light we could trace nothing of it +out. Along the length of the apartment were set two oaken tables for the +students of law to dine upon; and on the dais, at the upper end, there +was a cross-table for the big-wigs of the society; the latter being +provided with comfortable chairs, and the former with oaken benches. +From a notification, posted near the door, I gathered that the cost of +dinners is two shillings to each gentleman, including, as the attendant +told me, ale and wine. I am reluctant to leave this hall without +expressing how grave, how grand, how sombre, and how magnificent I feel +it to be. As regards historical association, it was a favorite +dancing-hall of Queen Elizabeth, and Sir Christopher Hatton danced +himself into her good graces here. + +We next went to the Temple Church, and, finding the door ajar, made free +to enter beneath its Norman arches, which admitted us into a circular +vestibule, very ancient and beautiful. In the body of the church beyond +we saw a boy sitting, but nobody either forbade or invited our entrance. +On the floor of the vestibule lay about half a score of Templars,--the +representatives of the warlike priests who built this church and formerly +held these precincts,--all in chain armor, grasping their swords, and +with their shields beside them. Except two or three, they lay +cross-legged, in token that they had really fought for the Holy +Sepulchre. I think I have seen nowhere else such well-preserved +monumental knights as these. We proceeded into the interior of the +church, and were greatly impressed with its wonderful beauty,--the roof +springing, as it were, in a harmonious and accordant fountain, out of the +clustered pillars that support its groined arches; and these pillars, +immense as they are, are polished like so many gems. They are of Purbeck +marble, and, if I mistake not, had been covered with plaster for ages +until latterly redeemed and beautified anew. But the glory of the church +is its old painted windows; and, positively, those great spaces over the +chancel appeared to be set with all manner of precious stones,--or it was +as if the many-colored radiance of heaven were breaking upon us,--or as +if we saw the wings of angels, storied over with richly tinted pictures +of holy things. But it is idle to talk of this marvellous adornment; it +is to be seen and wondered at, not written about. Before we left the +church, the porter made his appearance, in time to receive his fee,-- +which somebody, indeed, is always ready to stretch out his hand for. And +so ended our visit to the Temple, which, by the by, though close to the +midmost bustle of London, is as quiet as if it were always Sunday there. + +We now went to St. Paul's. U---- and Miss Shepard ascended to the +Whispering Gallery, and we, sitting under the dome, at the base of one of +the pillars, saw them far above us, looking very indistinct, for those +misty upper-depths seemed almost to be hung with clouds. This cathedral, +I think, does not profit by gloom, but requires cheerful sunshine to show +it to the best advantage. The statues and sculptures in St. Paul's are +mostly covered with years of dust, and look thereby very grim and ugly; +but there are few memories there from which I should care to brush away +the dust, they being, in nine cases out of ten, naval and military heroes +of second or third class merit. I really remember no literary celebrity +admitted solely on that account, except Dr. Johnson. The Crimean war has +supplied two or three monuments, chiefly mural tablets; and doubtless +more of the same excrescences will yet come out upon the walls. One +thing that I newly noticed was the beautiful shape of the great, covered +marble vase that serves for a font. + +From St. Paul's we went down Cheapside, and, turning into King Street, +visited Guildhall, which we found in process of decoration for a public +ball, to take place next week. It looked rather gewgawish thus gorgeous, +being hung with flags of all nations, and adorned with military trophies; +and the scene was repeated by a range of looking-glasses at one end of +the room. The execrably painted windows really shocked us by their +vulgar glare, after those of the Temple Hall and Church; yet, a few years +ago, I might very likely have thought them beautiful. Our own national +banner, I must remember to say, was hanging in Guildhall, but with only +ten stars, and an insufficient number of stripes. + + +November 15th.--Yesterday morning we went to London Bridge and along +Lower Thames Street, and quickly found ourselves in Billingsgate Market, +--a dirty, evil-smelling, crowded precinct, thronged with people carrying +fish on their heads, and lined with fish-shops and fish-stalls, and +pervaded with a fishy odor. The footwalk was narrow,--as indeed was the +whole street,--and filthy to travel upon; and we had to elbow our way +among rough men and slatternly women, and to guard our heads from the +contact of fish-trays; very ugly, grimy, and misty, moreover, is +Billingsgate Market, and though we heard none of the foul language of +which it is supposed to be the fountain-head, yet it has its own +peculiarities of behavior. For instance, U---- tells me that one man, +staring at her and her governess as they passed, cried out, "What +beauties!"--another, looking under her veil, greeted her with, "Good +morning, my love!" We were in advance, and heard nothing of these +civilities. Struggling through this fishy purgatory, we caught sight of +the Tower, as we drew near the end of the street; and I put all my party +under charge of one of the Trump Cards, not being myself inclined to make +the rounds of the small part of the fortress that is shown, so soon after +my late visit. + +When they departed with the warder, I set out by myself to wander about +the exterior of the Tower, looking with interest at what I suppose to be +Tower Hill,--a slight elevation of the large open space into which Great +Tower Street opens; though, perhaps, what is now called Trinity Square +may have been a part of Tower Hill, and possibly the precise spot where +the executions took place. Keeping to the right, round the Tower, I +found the moat quite surrounded by a fence of iron rails, excluding me +from a pleasant gravel-path, among flowers and shrubbery, on the inside, +where I could see nursery-maids giving children their airings. Possibly +these may have been the privileged inhabitants of the Tower, which +certainly might contain the population of a large village. The aspect of +the fortress has so much that is new and modern about it that it can +hardly be called picturesque, and yet it seems unfair to withhold that +epithet from such a collection of gray ramparts. I followed the iron +fence quite round the outer grounds, till it approached the Thames, and +in this direction the moat and the pleasure-ground terminate in a narrow +graveyard, which extends beneath the walls, and looks neglected and +shaggy with long grass. It appeared to contain graves enough, but only a +few tombstones, of which I could read the inscription of but one; it +commemorated a Mr. George Gibson, a person of no note, nor apparently +connected with the place. St. Katharine's Dock lies along the Thames, in +this vicinity; and while on one side of me were the Tower, the quiet +gravel-path, and the shaggy graveyard, on the other were draymen and +their horses, dock-laborers, sailors, empty puncheons, and a +miscellaneous spectacle of life,--including organ-grinders, men roasting +chestnuts over small ovens on the sidewalk, boys and women with boards or +wheelbarrows of apples, oyster-stands, besides pedlers of small wares, +dirty children at play, and other figures and things that a Dutch painter +would seize upon. + +I went a little way into St. Katharine's Dock, and found it crowded with +great ships; then, returning, I strolled along the range of shops that +front towards this side of the Tower. They have all something to do with +ships, sailors, and commerce; being for the sale of ships' stores, +nautical instruments, arms, clothing, together with a tavern and +grog-shop at every other door; bookstalls, too, covered with cheap novels +and song-books; cigar-shops in great numbers; and everywhere were +sailors, and here and there a soldier, and children at the doorsteps, and +women showing themselves at the doors or windows of their domiciles. +These latter figures, however, pertain rather to the street up which I +walked, penetrating into the interior of this region, which, I think, is +Blackwall--no, I forget what its name is. At all events, it has an +ancient and most grimy and rough look, with its old gabled houses, each +of them the seat of some petty trade and business in its basement story. +Among these I saw one house with three or four peaks along its front,--a +second story projecting over the basement, and the whole clapboarded +over. . . . . There was a butcher's stall in the lower story, with a +front open to the street, in the ancient fashion, which seems to be +retained only by butchers' shops. This part of London having escaped the +Great Fire, I suppose there may be many relics of architectural antiquity +hereabouts. + +At the end of an hour I went back to the Refreshment-room, within the +outer gate of the Tower, where the rest of us shortly appeared. We now +returned westward by way of Great Tower Street, Eastcheap, and Cannon +Street, and, entering St. Paul's, sat down beneath the misty dome to rest +ourselves. The muffled roar of the city, as we heard it there, is very +soothing, and keeps one listening to it, somewhat as the flow of a river +keeps us looking at it. It is a grand and quiet sound; and, ever and +anon, a distant door slammed somewhere in the cathedral, and reverberated +long and heavily, like the roll of thunder or the boom of cannon. Every +noise that is loud enough to be heard in so vast an edifice melts into +the great quietude. The interior looked very sombre, and the dome hung +over us like a cloudy sky. I wish it were possible to pass directly from +St. Paul's into York Minster, or from the latter into the former; that +is, if one's mind could manage to stagger under both in the same day. +There is no other way of judging of their comparative effect. + +Under the influence of that grand lullaby,--the roar of the city,--we sat +for some time after we were sufficiently rested; but at last plunged +forth again, and went up Newgate Street, pausing to look through the iron +railings of Christ's Hospital. The boys, however, were not at play; so +we went onward, in quest of Smithfield, and on our way had a greeting +from Mr. Silsbee, a gentleman of our own native town. Parting with him, +we found Smithfield, which is still occupied with pens for cattle, though +I believe it has ceased to be a cattle-market. Except it be St. +Bartholomew's hospital on one side, there is nothing interesting in this +ugly square; though, no doubt, a few feet under the pavement there are +bones and ashes as precious as anything of the kind on earth. I wonder +when men will begin to erect monuments to human error; hitherto their +pillars and statues have only been for the sake of glorification. But, +after all, the present fashion may be the better and wholesomer. . . . . + + +November 16th.--Mr. Silsbee called yesterday, and talked about matters of +art, in which he is deeply interested, and which he has had good +opportunities of becoming acquainted with, during three years' travel on +the Continent. He is a man of great intelligence and true feeling, and +absolutely brims over with ideas,--his conversation flowing in a constant +stream, which it appears to be no trouble whatever to him to keep +up. . . . . He took his leave after a long call, and left with us a +manuscript, describing a visit to Berlin, which I read to my wife in the +evening. It was well worth reading. He made an engagement to go with us +to the Crystal Palace, and came rather for that purpose this morning. + +We drove to the London Bridge station, where we bought return tickets +that entitled us to admission to the Palace, as well as conveyance +thither, for half a crown apiece. On our arrival we entered by the +garden front, thus gaining a fine view of the ornamental grounds, with +their fountains and stately pathways, bordered with statues; and of the +edifice itself, so vast and fairy-like, looking as if it were a bubble, +and might vanish at a touch. There is as little beauty in the +architecture of the Crystal Palace, however, as was possible to be with +such gigantic use of such a material. No doubt, an architectural order +of which we have as yet little or no idea is to be developed from the use +of glass as a building-material, instead of brick and stone. It will +have its own rules and its own results; but, meanwhile, even the present +Palace is positively a very beautiful object. On entering we found the +atmosphere chill and comfortless,--more so, it seemed to me, than the +open air itself. It was not a genial day; though now and then the sun +gleamed out, and once caused fine effects in the glasswork of a crystal +fountain in one of the courts. + +We were under Mr. Silshee's guidance for the day, . . . . and first we +looked at the sculpture, which is composed chiefly of casts or copies of +the most famous statues of all ages, and likewise of those crumbs and +little fragments which have fallen from Time's jaw,--and half-picked +bones, as it were, that have been gathered up from spots where he has +feasted full,--torsos, heads and broken limbs, some of them half worn +away, as if they had been rolled over and over in the sea. I saw nothing +in the sculptural way, either modern or antique, that impressed me so +much as a statue of a nude mother by a French artist. In a sitting +posture, with one knee over the other, she was clasping her highest knee +with both hands; and in the hollow cradle thus formed by her arms lay two +sweet little babies, as snug and close to her heart as if they had not +yet been born,--two little love-blossoms,--and the mother encircling +them and pervading them with love. But an infinite pathos and strange +terror are given to this beautiful group by some faint bas-reliefs on the +pedestal, indicating that the happy mother is Eve, and Cain and Abel the +two innocent babes. + +Then we went to the Alhambra, which looks like an enchanted palace. If +it had been a sunny day, I should have enjoyed it more; but it was +miserable to shiver and shake in the Court of the Lions, and in those +chambers which were contrived as places of refuge from a fervid +temperature. Furthermore, it is not quite agreeable to see such clever +specimens of stage decoration; they are so very good that it gets to be +past a joke, without becoming actual earnest. I had not a similar +feeling in respect to the reproduction of mediaeval statues, arches, +doorways, all brilliantly colored as in the days of their first glory; +yet I do not know but that the first is as little objectionable as the +last. Certainly, in both cases, scenes and objects of a past age are +here more vividly presented to the dullest mind than without such +material facilities they could possibly be brought before the most +powerful imagination. Truly, the Crystal Palace, in all its departments, +offers wonderful means of education. I marvel what will come of it. +Among the things that I admired most was Benvenuto Cellini's statue of +Perseus holding the head of Medusa, and standing over her headless and +still writhing body, out of which, at the severed neck, gushed a vast +exuberance of snakes. Likewise, a sitting statue, by Michel Angelo, of +one of the Medici, full of dignity and grace and reposeful might. Also +the bronze gate of a baptistery in Florence, carved all over with +relieves of Scripture subjects, executed in the most lifelike and +expressive manner. The cast itself was a miracle of art. I should have +taken it for the genuine original bronze. + +We then wandered into the House of Diomed, which seemed to me a dismal +abode, affording no possibility of comfort. We sat down in one of the +rooms, on an iron bench, very cold. + +It being by this time two o'clock, we went to the Refreshment-room and +lunched; and before we had finished our repast, my wife discovered that +she had lost her sable tippet, which she had been carrying on her arm. +Mr. Silsbee most kindly and obligingly immediately went in quest of +it, . . . . but to no purpose. . . . . + +Upon entering the Tropical Saloon, we found a most welcome and delightful +change of temperature among those gigantic leaves of banyan-trees, and +the broad expanse of water-plants, floating on lakes, and spacious +aviaries, where birds of brilliant plumage sported and sang amid such +foliage as they knew at home. Howbeit, the atmosphere was a little faint +and sickish, perhaps owing to the odor of the half-tepid water. The most +remarkable object here was the trunk of a tree, huge beyond imagination, +--a pine-tree from California. It was only the stripped-off bark, +however, which had been conveyed hither in segments, and put together +again beyond the height of the palace roof; and the hollow interior +circle of the tree was large enough to contain fifty people, I should +think. We entered and sat down in all the remoteness from one another +that is attainable in a good-sized drawing-room. We then ascended the +gallery to get a view of this vast tree from a more elevated position, +and found it looked even bigger from above. Then we loitered slowly +along the gallery as far as it extended, and afterwards descended into +the nave; for it was getting dusk, and a horn had sounded, and a bell +rung a warning to such as delayed in the remote regions of the building. +Mr. Silsbee again most kindly went in quest of the sables, but still +without success. . . . . I have not much enjoyed the Crystal Palace, but +think it a great and admirable achievement. + + +November 19th.--On Tuesday evening Mr. Silsbee came to read some letters +which he has written to his friends, chiefly giving his observations on +Art, together with descriptions of Venice and other cities on the +Continent. They were very good, and indicate much sensibility and +talent. After the reading we had a little oyster-supper and wine. + +I had written a note to ------, and received an answer, indicating that +he was much weighed down by his financial misfortune. . . . . However, he +desired me to come and see him; so yesterday morning I wended my way down +into the city, and after various reluctant circumlocutions arrived at his +house. The interior looked confused and dismal. + +It seems to me nobody else runs such risks as a man of business, because +he risks everything. Every other man, into whatever depth of poverty he +may sink, has still something left, be he author, scholar, handicraftman, +or what not; the merchant has nothing. + +We parted with a long and strong grasp of the hand, and ------ promised +to come and see us soon. . . . . + +On my way home I called at Truebner's in Pater Noster Row. . . . . I +waited a few minutes, he being busy with a tall, muscular, English-built +man, who, after he had taken leave, Truebner told me was Charles Reade. +I once met him at an evening party, but should have been glad to meet him +again, now that I appreciate him so much better after reading Never too +Late to Mend. + + +December 6th.--All these days, since my last date, have been marked by +nothing very well worthy of detail and description. I have walked the +streets a great deal in the dull November days, and always take a certain +pleasure in being in the midst of human life,--as closely encompassed by +it as it is possible to be anywhere in this world; and in that way of +viewing it there is a dull and sombre enjoyment always to be had in +Holborn, Fleet Street, Cheapside, and the other busiest parts of London. +It is human life; it is this material world; it is a grim and heavy +reality. I have never had the same sense of being surrounded by +materialisms and hemmed in with the grossness of this earthly existence +anywhere else; these broad, crowded streets are so evidently the veins +and arteries of an enormous city. London is evidenced in every one of +them, just as a megatherium is in each of its separate bones, even if +they be small ones. Thus I never fail of a sort of self-congratulation +in finding myself, for instance, passing along Ludgate Hill; but, in +spite of this, it is really an ungladdened life to wander through these +huge, thronged ways, over a pavement foul with mud, ground into it by a +million of footsteps; jostling against people who do not seem to be +individuals, but all one mass, so homogeneous is the street-walking +aspect of them; the roar of vehicles pervading me,--wearisome cabs and +omnibuses; everywhere the dingy brick edifices heaving themselves up, and +shutting out all but a strip of sullen cloud, that serves London for a +sky,--in short, a general impression of grime and sordidness; and at this +season always a fog scattered along the vista of streets, sometimes so +densely as almost to spiritualize the materialism and make the scene +resemble the other world of worldly people, gross even in ghostliness. +It is strange how little splendor and brilliancy one sees in London,--in +the city almost none, though some in the shops of Regent Street. My wife +has had a season of indisposition within the last few weeks, so that my +rambles have generally been solitary, or with J----- only for a +companion. I think my only excursion with my wife was a week ago, when +we went to Lincoln's Inn Fields, which truly are almost fields right in +the heart of London, and as retired and secluded as if the surrounding +city were a forest, and its heavy roar were the wind among the branches. +We gained admission into the noble Hall, which is modern, but built in +antique style, and stately and beautiful exceedingly. I have forgotten +all but the general effect, with its lofty oaken roof, its panelled +walls, with the windows high above, and the great arched window at one +end full of painted coats of arms, which the light glorifies in passing +through them, as if each were the escutcheon of some illustrious +personage. Thence we went to the chapel of Lincoln's Inn, where, on +entering, we found a class of young choristers receiving instruction from +their music-master, while the organ accompanied their strains. These +young, clear, fresh, elastic voices are wonderfully beautiful; they are +like those of women, yet have something more birdlike and aspiring, more +like what one conceives of the singing of angels. As for the singing of +saints and blessed spirits that have once been human, it never can +resemble that of these young voices; for no duration of heavenly +enjoyments will ever quite take the mortal sadness out of it. + +In this chapel we saw some painted windows of the time of James I., a +period much subsequent, to the age when painted glass was in its glory; +but the pictures of Scriptural people in these windows were certainly +very fine,--the figures being as large as life, and the faces having much +expression. The sunshine came in through some of them, and produced a +beautiful effect, almost as if the painted forms were the glorified +spirits of those holy personages. + +After leaving Lincoln's Inn, we looked at Gray's Inn, which is a great, +quiet domain, quadrangle beyond quadrangle, close beside Holborn, and a +large space of greensward enclosed within it. It is very strange to find +so much of ancient quietude right in the monster city's very jaws, which +yet the monster shall not eat up,--right in its very belly, indeed, which +yet, in all these ages, it shall not digest and convert into the same +substance as the rest of its bustling streets. Nothing else in London is +so like the effect of a spell, as to pass under one of these archways, +and find yourself transported from the jumble, mob, tumult, uproar, as of +an age of week-days condensed into the present hour, into what seems an +eternal sabbath. Thence we went into Staple Inn, I think it was,--which +has a front upon Holborn of four or five ancient gables in a row, and a +low arch under the impending story, admitting you into a paved +quadrangle, beyond which you have the vista of another. I do not +understand that the residences and chambers in these Inns of Court are +now exclusively let to lawyers; though such inhabitants certainly seem to +preponderate there. + +Since then J----- and I walked down into the Strand, and found ourselves +unexpectedly mixed up with a crowd that grew denser as we approached +Charing Cross, and became absolutely impermeable when we attempted to +make our way to Whitehall. The wicket in the gate of Northumberland +House, by the by, was open, and gave me a glimpse of the front of the +edifice within,--a very partial glimpse, however, and that obstructed by +the solid person of a footman, who, with some women, were passing out +from within. The crowd was a real English crowd, perfectly +undemonstrative, and entirely decorous, being composed mostly of +well-dressed people, and largely of women. The cause of the assemblage +was the opening of Parliament by the Queen, but we were too late for any +chance of seeing her Majesty. However, we extricated ourselves from the +multitude, and, going along Pall Mall, got into the Park by the steps at +the foot of the Duke of York's Column, and thence went to the Whitehall +Gateway, outside of which we found the Horse Guards drawn up,--a regiment +of black horses and burnished cuirasses. On our way thither an open +carriage came through the gateway into the Park, conveying two ladies in +court dresses; and another splendid chariot pressed out through the +gateway,--the coachman in a cocked hat and scarlet and gold embroidery, +and two other scarlet and gold figures hanging behind. It was one of the +Queen's carriages, but seemed to have nobody in it. I have forgotten to +mention what, I think, produced more effect on me than anything else, +namely, the clash of the bells from the steeple of St. Martin's Church +and those of St. Margaret. Really, London seemed to cry out through +them, and bid welcome to the Queen. + + +December 7th.--This being a muddy and dismal day, I went only to the + + + +BRITISH MUSEUM, + + +which is but a short walk down the street (Great Russell Street). I have +now visited it often enough to be on more familiar terms with it than at +first, and therefore do not feel myself so weighed down by the many +things to be seen. I have ceased to expect or hope or wish to devour and +digest the whole enormous collection; so I content myself with individual +things, and succeed in getting now and then a little honey from them. +Unless I were studying some particular branch of history or science or +art, this is the best that can be done with the British Museum. + +I went first to-day into the Townley Gallery, and so along through all +the ancient sculpture, and was glad to find myself able to sympathize +more than heretofore with the forms of grace and beauty which are +preserved there,--poor, maimed immortalities as they are,--headless and +legless trunks, godlike cripples, faces beautiful and broken-nosed,-- +heroic shapes which have stood so long, or lain prostrate so long, in the +open air, that even the atmosphere of Greece has almost dissolved the +external layer of the marble; and yet, however much they may be worn +away, or battered and shattered, the grace and nobility seem as deep in +them as the very heart of the stone. It cannot be destroyed, except by +grinding them to powder. In short, I do really believe that there was an +excellence in ancient sculpture, which has yet a potency to educate and +refine the minds of those who look at it even so carelessly and casually +as I do. As regards the frieze of the Parthenon, I must remark that the +horses represented on it, though they show great spirit and lifelikeness, +are rather of the pony species than what would be considered fine horses +now. Doubtless, modern breeding has wrought a difference in the animal. +Flaxman, in his outlines, seems to have imitated these classic steeds of +the Parthenon, and thus has produced horses that always appeared to me +affected and diminutively monstrous. + +From the classic sculpture, I passed through an Assyrian room, where the +walls are lined with great slabs of marble sculptured in bas-relief with +scenes in the life of Senmacherib, I believe; very ugly, to be sure, yet +artistically done in their own style, and in wonderfully good +preservation. Indeed, if the chisel had cut its last stroke in them +yesterday, the work could not be more sharp and distinct. In glass +cases, in this room, are little relics and scraps of utensils, and a +great deal of fragmentary rubbish, dug up by Layard in his researches,-- +things that it is hard to call anything but trash, but which yet may be +of great significance as indicating the modes of life of a long-past +race. I remember nothing particularly just now, except some pieces of +broken glass, iridescent with certainly the most beautiful hues in the +world,--indescribably beautiful, and unimaginably, unless one can +conceive of the colors of the rainbow, and a thousand glorious sunsets, +and the autumnal forest-leaves of America, all condensed upon a little +fragment of a glass cup,--and that, too, without becoming in the least +glaring or flagrant, but mildly glorious, as we may fancy the shifting +lines of an angel's wing may be. I think this chaste splendor will glow +in my memory for years to come. It is the effect of time, and cannot be +imitated by any known process of art. I have seen it in specimens of old +Roman glass, which has been famous here in England; but never in anything +is there the brilliancy of these Oriental fragments. How strange that +decay, in dark places, and underground, and where there are a billion +chances to one that nobody will ever see its handiwork, should produce +these beautiful effects! The glass seems to become perfectly brittle, so +that it would vanish, like a soap-bubble, if touched. + +Ascending the stairs, I went through the halls of fossil remains,--which +I care little for, though one of them is a human skeleton in limestone,-- +and through several rooms of mineralogical specimens, including all the +gems in the world, among which is seen, not the Koh-i-noor itself, but a +fac-simile of it in crystal. I think the aerolites are as interesting as +anything in this department, and one piece of pure iron, laid against the +wall of the room, weighs about fourteen hundred pounds. Whence could it +have come? If these aerolites are bits of other planets, how happen they +to be always iron? But I know no more of this than if I were a +philosopher. + +Then I went through rooms of shells and fishes and reptiles and +tortoises, crocodiles and alligators and insects, including all manner of +butterflies, some of which had wings precisely like leaves, a little +withered and faded, even the skeleton and fibres of the leaves +represented; and immense hairy spiders, covering, with the whole +circumference of their legs, a space as big as a saucer; and centipedes +little less than a foot long; and winged insects that look like jointed +twigs of a tree. In America, I remember, when I lived in Lenox, I found +an insect of this species, and at first really mistook it for a twig. It +was smaller than these specimens in the Museum. I suppose every +creature, almost, that runs or creeps or swims or flies, is represented +in this collection of Natural History; and it puzzles me to think what +they were all made for, though it is quite as mysterious why man himself +was made. + +By and by I entered the room of Egyptian mummies, of which there are a +good many, one of which, the body of a priestess, is unrolled, except the +innermost layer of linen. The outline of her face is perfectly visible. +Mummies of cats, dogs, snakes, and children are in the wall-cases, +together with a vast many articles of Egyptian manufacture and use,--even +children's toys; bread, too, in flat cakes; grapes, that have turned to +raisins in the grave; queerest of all, methinks, a curly wig, that is +supposed to have belonged to a woman,--together with the wooden box that +held it. The hair is brown, and the wig is as perfect as if it had been +made for some now living dowager. + +From Egypt we pass into rooms containing vases and other articles of +Grecian and Roman workmanship, and funeral urns, and beads, and rings, +none of them very beautiful. I saw some splendid specimens, however, at +a former visit, when I obtained admission to a room not indiscriminately +shown to visitors. What chiefly interested me in that room was a cast +taken from the face of Cromwell after death; representing a wide-mouthed, +long-chinned, uncomely visage, with a triangular English nose in the very +centre. There were various other curiosities, which I fancied were safe +in my memory, but they do not now come uppermost. + +To return to my to-day's progress through the Museum;--next to the +classic rooms are the collections of Saxon and British and early English +antiquities, the earlier portions of which are not very interesting to +me, possessing little or no beauty in themselves, and indicating a kind +of life too remote from our own to be readily sympathized with. Who +cares for glass beads and copper brooches, and knives, spear-heads, and +swords, all so rusty that they look as much like pieces of old iron hoop +as anything else? The bed of the Thames has been a rich treasury of +antiquities, from the time of the Roman Conquest downwards; it seems to +preserve bronze in considerable perfection, but not iron. + +Among the mediaeval relics, the carvings in ivory are often very +exquisite and elaborate. There are likewise caskets and coffers, and a +thousand other Old World ornamental works; but I saw so many and such +superior specimens of them at the Manchester Exhibition, that I shall say +nothing of them here. The seal-ring of Mary, Queen of Scots, is in one +of the cases; it must have been a thumb-ring, judging from its size, and +it has a dark stone, engraved with armorial bearings. In another case is +the magic glass formerly used by Dr. Doe, and in which, if I rightly +remember, used to be seen prophetic visions or figures of persons and +scenes at a distance. It is a round ball of glass or crystal, slightly +tinged with a pinkish hue, and about as big as a small apple, or a little +bigger than an egg would be if perfectly round. This ancient humbug kept +me looking at it perhaps ten minutes; and I saw my own face dimly in it, +but no other vision. Lastly, I passed through the Ethnographical Rooms; +but I care little for the varieties of the human race,--all that is +really important and interesting being found in our own variety. Perhaps +equally in any other. This brought me to the head of one of the +staircases, descending which I entered the library. + +Here--not to speak of the noble rooms and halls--there are numberless +treasures beyond all price; too valuable in their way for me to select +any one as more curious and valuable than many others. Letters of +statesmen and warriors of all nations, and several centuries back,--among +which, long as it has taken Europe to produce them, I saw none so +illustrious as those of Washington, nor more so than Franklin's, whom +America gave to the world in her nonage; and epistles of poets and +artists, and of kings, too, whose chirography appears to have been much +better than I should have expected from fingers so often cramped in iron +gauntlets. In another case there were the original autograph copies of +several famous works,--for example, that of Pope's Homer, written on the +backs of letters, the direction and seals of which appear in the midst of +"the Tale of Troy divine," which also is much scratched and interlined +with Pope's corrections; a manuscript of one of Ben Jonson's masques; of +the Sentimental Journey, written in much more careful and formal style +than might be expected, the book pretending to be a harum-scarum; of +Walter Scott's Kenilworth, bearing such an aspect of straightforward +diligence that I shall hardly think of it again as a romance;--in short, +I may as well drop the whole matter here. + +All through the long vista of the king's library, we come to cases in +which--with their pages open beneath the glass--we see books worth their +weight in gold, either for their uniqueness or their beauty, or because +they have belonged to illustrious men, and have their autographs in them. +The copy of the English translation of Montaigne, containing the strange +scrawl of Shakespeare's autograph, is here. Bacon's name is in another +book; Queen Elizabeth's in another; and there is a little devotional +volume, with Lady Jane Grey's writing in it. She is supposed to have +taken it to the scaffold with her. Here, too, I saw a copy, which was +printed at a Venetian press at the time, of the challenge which the +Admirable Crichton caused to be posted on the church doors of Venice, +defying all the scholars of Italy to encounter him. But if I mention one +thing, I find fault with myself for not putting down fifty others just as +interesting,--and, after all, there is an official catalogue, no doubt, +of the whole. + +As I do not mean to fill any more pages with the British Museum, I will +just mention the hall of Egyptian antiquities on the ground-floor of the +edifice, though I did not pass through it to-day. They consist of things +that would be very ugly and contemptible if they were not so immensely +magnified; but it is impossible not to acknowledge a certain grandeur, +resulting from the scale on which those strange old sculptors wrought. +For instance, there is a granite fist of prodigious size, at least a yard +across, and looking as if it were doubled in the face of Time, defying +him to destroy it. All the rest of the statue to which it belonged seems +to have vanished; but this fist will certainly outlast the Museum, and +whatever else it contains, unless it be some similar Egyptian +ponderosity. There is a beetle, wrought out of immensely hard black +stone, as big as a hogshead. It is satisfactory to see a thing so big +and heavy. Then there are huge stone sarcophagi, engraved with +hieroglyphics within and without, all as good as new, though their age is +reckoned by thousands of years. These great coffins are of vast weight +and mass, insomuch that when once the accurately fitting lids were shut +down, there might have seemed little chance of their being lifted again +till the Resurrection. I positively like these coffins, they are so +faithfully made, and so black and stern,--and polished to such a nicety, +only to be buried forever; for the workmen, and the kings who were laid +to sleep within, could never have dreamed of the British Museum. + +There is a deity named Pasht, who sits in the hall, very big, very grave, +carved of black stone, and very ludicrous, wearing a dog's head. I will +just mention the Rosetta Stone, with a Greek inscription, and another in +Egyptian characters which gave the clew to a whole field of history; and +shall pretermit all further handling of this unwieldy subject. + +In all the rooms I saw people of the poorer classes, some of whom seemed +to view the objects intelligently, and to take a genuine interest in +them. A poor man in London has great opportunities of cultivating +himself if he will only make the best of them; and such an institution as +the British Museum can hardly fail to attract, as the magnet does steel, +the minds that are likeliest to be benefited by it in its various +departments. I saw many children there, and some ragged boys. + +It deserves to be noticed that some small figures of Indian Thugs, +represented as engaged in their profession and handiwork of cajoling and +strangling travellers, have been removed from the place which they +formerly occupied in the part of the Museum shown to the general public. +They are now in the more private room, and the reason of their withdrawal +is, that, according to the Chaplain of Newgate, the practice of garroting +was suggested to the English thieves by this representation of Indian +Thugs. It is edifying, after what I have written in the preceding +paragraph, to find that the only lesson known to have been inculcated +here is that of a new mode of outrage. + + +December 8th.--This morning, when it was time to rise, there was but a +glimmering of daylight, and we had candles on the breakfast-table at +nearly ten o'clock. All abroad there was a dense dim fog brooding +through the atmosphere, insomuch that we could hardly see across the +street. At eleven o'clock I went out into the midst of the fog-bank, +which for the moment seemed a little more interfused with daylight; for +there seem to be continual changes in the density of this dim medium, +which varies so much that now you can but just see your hand before you, +and a moment afterwards you can see the cabs dashing out of the duskiness +a score of yards off. It is seldom or never, moreover, an unmitigated +gloom, but appears to be mixed up with sunshine in different proportions; +sometimes only one part sun to a thousand of smoke and fog, and sometimes +sunshine enough to give the whole mass a coppery line. This would have +been a bright sunny day but for the interference of the fog; and before I +had been out long, I actually saw the sun looking red and rayless, much +like the millionth magnification of a new halfpenny. + +I was bound towards Bennoch's; for he had written a note to apologize for +not visiting us, and I had promised to call and see him to-day. + +I went to Marlborough House to look at the English pictures, which I care +more about seeing, here in England, than those of foreign artists, +because the latter will be found more numerously and better on the +Continent. I saw many pictures that pleased me; nothing that impressed +me very strongly. Pictorial talent seems to be abundant enough, up to a +certain point; pictorial genius, I should judge, is among the rarest of +gifts. To be sure, I very likely might not recognize it where it +existed; and yet it ought to have the power of making itself known even +to the uninstructed mind, as literary genius does. If it exist only for +connoisseurs, it is a very suspicious matter. I looked at all Turner's +pictures, and at many of his drawings; and must again confess myself +wholly unable to understand more than a very few of them. Even those few +are tantalizing. At a certain distance you discern what appears to be a +grand and beautiful picture, which you shall admire and enjoy infinitely +if you can get within the range of distinct vision. You come nearer, and +find only blotches of color and dabs of the brush, meaning nothing when +you look closely, and meaning a mystery at the point where the painter +intended to station you. Some landscapes there were, indeed, full of +imaginative beauty, and of the better truth etherealized out of the +prosaic truth of Nature; only it was still impossible actually to see it. +There was a mist over it; or it was like a tract of beautiful dreamland, +seen dimly through sleep, and glimmering out of sight, if looked upon +with wide-open eyes. These were the more satisfactory specimens. There +were many others which I could not comprehend in the remotest degree; not +even so far as to conjecture whether they purported to represent earth, +sea, or sky. In fact, I should not have known them to be pictures at +all, but might have supposed that the artist had been trying his brush on +the canvas, mixing up all sorts of hues, but principally white paint, and +now and then producing an agreeable harmony of color without particularly +intending it. Now that I have done my best to understand them without an +interpreter, I mean to buy Ruskin's pamphlet at my next visit, and look +at them through his eyes. But I do not think that I can be driven out of +the idea that a picture ought to have something in common with what the +spectator sees in nature. + +Marlborough House may be converted, I think, into a very handsome +residence for the young Prince of Wales. The entrance from the +court-yard is into a large, square central hall, the painted ceiling of +which is at the whole height of the edifice, and has a gallery on one +side, whence it would be pleasant to look down on a festal scene below. +The rooms are of fine proportions, with vaulted ceilings, and with +fireplaces and mantel-pieces of great beauty, adorned with pillars and +terminal figures of white and of variegated marble; and in the centre of +each mantel-piece there is a marble tablet, exquisitely sculptured with +classical designs, done in such high relief that the figures are +sometimes almost disengaged from the background. One of the subjects was +Androcles, or whatever was his name, taking the thorn out of the lion's +foot. I suppose these works are of the era of the first old Duke and +Duchess. After all, however, for some reason or other, the house does +not at first strike you as a noble and princely one, and you have to +convince yourself of it by examining it more in detail. + +On leaving Marlborough House, I stepped for a few moments into the +National Gallery, and looked, among other things, at the Turners and +Claudes that hung there side by side. These pictures, I think, are quite +the most comprehensible of Turner's productions; but I must say I prefer +the Claudes. The latter catches "the light that never was on sea or +land" without taking you quite away from nature for it. Nevertheless, I +will not be quite certain that I care for any painter except Murillo, +whose St. John I should like to own. As far as my own pleasure is +concerned, I could not say as much for any other picture; for I have +always found an infinite weariness and disgust resulting from a picture +being too frequently before my eyes. I had rather see a basilisk, for +instance, than the very best of those old, familiar pictures in the +Boston Athenaeum; and most of those in the National Gallery might soon +affect me in the same way. + +From the Gallery I almost groped my way towards the city, for the fog +seemed to grow denser and denser as I advanced; and when I reached St. +Paul's, the sunny intermixture above spoken of was at its minimum, so +that, the smoke-cloud grew really black about the dome and pinnacles, and +the statues of saints looked down dimly from their standpoints on high. +It was very grand, however, to see the pillars and porticos, and the huge +bulk of the edifice, heaving up its dome from an obscure foundation into +yet more shadowy obscurity; and by the time I reached the corner of the +churchyard nearest Cheapside, the whole vast cathedral had utterly +vanished, leaving "not a wrack behind," unless those thick, dark vapors +were the elements of which it had been composed, and into which it had +again dissolved. It is good to think, nevertheless,--and I gladly accept +the analogy and the moral,--that the cathedral was really there, and as +substantial as ever, though those earthly mists had hidden it from mortal +eyes. + +I found ------ in better spirits than when I saw him last, but his +misfortune has been too real not to affect him long and deeply. He was +cheerful, however, and his face shone with almost its old lustre. It has +still the cheeriest glow that I ever saw in any human countenance. + +I went home by way of Holborn, and the fog was denser than ever,--very +black, indeed more like a distillation of mud than anything else; the +ghost of mud,--the spiritualized medium of departed mud, through which +the dead citizens of London probably tread in the Hades whither they are +translated. So heavy was the gloom, that gas was lighted in all the +shop-windows; and the little charcoal-furnaces of the women and boys, +roasting chestnuts, threw a ruddy, misty glow around them. And yet I +liked it. This fog seems an atmosphere proper to huge, grimy London; as +proper to London as that light neither of the sun nor moon is to the New +Jerusalem. + +On reaching home, I found the same fog diffused through the drawing-room, +though how it could have got in is a mystery. Since nightfall, however, +the atmosphere is clear again. + + +December 20th.--Here we are still in London, at least a month longer than +we expected, and at the very dreariest and dullest season of the year. +Had I thought of it sooner, I might have found interesting people enough +to know, even when all London is said to be out of town; but meditating a +stay only of a week or two (on our way to Rome), it did not seem worth +while to seek acquaintances. + +I have been out only for one evening; and that was at Dr. ------'s, who +had been attending all the children in the measles. (Their illness was +what detained us.) He is a homoeopathist, and is known in scientific or +general literature; at all events, a sensible and enlightened man, with +an un-English freedom of mind on some points. For example, he is a +Swedenborgian, and a believer in modern spiritualism. He showed me +some drawings that had been made under the spiritual influence by a +miniature-painter who possesses no imaginative power of his own, and is +merely a good mechanical and literal copyist; but these drawings, +representing angels and allegorical people, were done by an influence +which directed the artist's hand, he not knowing what his next touch +would be, nor what the final result. The sketches certainly did show a +high and fine expressiveness, if examined in a trustful mood. Dr. ------ +also spoke of Mr. Harris, the American poet of spiritualism, as being the +best poet of the day; and he produced his works in several volumes, and +showed me songs, and paragraphs of longer poems, in support of his +opinion. They seemed to me to have a certain light and splendor, but not +to possess much power, either passionate or intellectual. Mr. Harris is +the medium of deceased poets, Milton and Lord Byron among the rest; and +Dr. ------ said that Lady Byron--who is a devoted admirer of her husband, +in spite of their conjugal troubles--pronounced some of these posthumous +strains to be worthy of his living genius. Then the Doctor spoke of +various strange experiences which he himself has had in these spiritual +matters; for he has witnessed the miraculous performances of Home, the +American medium, and he has seen with his own eyes, and felt with his own +touch, those ghostly hands and arms the reality of which has been +certified to me by other beholders. Dr. ------ tells me that they are +cold, and that it is a somewhat awful matter to see and feel them. I +should think so, indeed. Do I believe in these wonders? Of course; for +how is it possible to doubt either the solemn word or the sober +observation of a learned and sensible man like Dr. ------? But again, do +I really believe it? Of course not; for I cannot consent to have heaven +and earth, this world and the next, beaten up together like the white and +yolk of an egg, merely out of respect to Dr. ------'s sanity and +integrity. I would not believe my own sight, nor touch of the spiritual +hands; and it would take deeper and higher strains than those of Mr. +Harris to convince me. I think I might yield to higher poetry or +heavenlier wisdom than mortals in the flesh have ever sung or uttered. + +Meanwhile, this matter of spiritualism is surely the strangest that ever +was heard of; and yet I feel unaccountably little interest in it,--a +sluggish disgust, and repugnance to meddle with it,--insomuch that I +hardly feel as if it were worth this page or two in my not very eventful +journal. One or two of the ladies present at Dr. ------'s little party +seemed to be mediums. + +I have made several visits to the picture-galleries since my last date; +and I think it fair towards my own powers of appreciation to record that +I begin to appreciate Turner's pictures rather better than at first. Not +that I have anything to recant as respects those strange, white-grounded +performances in the chambers at the Marlborough House; but some of his +happier productions (a large landscape illustrative of Childe Harold, for +instance) seem to me to have more magic in them than any other pictures. +I admire, too, that misty, morning landscape in the National Gallery; +and, no doubt, his very monstrosities are such as only he could have +painted, and may have an infinite value for those who can appreciate the +genius in them. + +The shops in London begin to show some tokens of approaching Christmas; +especially the toy-shops, and the confectioners',--the latter ornamenting +their windows with a profusion of bonbons and all manner of pygmy figures +in sugar; the former exhibiting Christmas-trees, hung with rich and gaudy +fruit. At the butchers' shops, there is a great display of fat +carcasses, and an abundance of game at the poulterers'. We think of +going to the Crystal Palace to spend the festival day, and eat our +Christmas dinner; but, do what we may, we shall have no home feeling or +fireside enjoyment. I am weary, weary of London and of England, and can +judge now how the old Loyalists must have felt, condemned to pine out +their lives here, when the Revolution had robbed them of their native +country. And yet there is still a pleasure in being in this dingy, +smoky, midmost haunt of men; and I trudge through Fleet Street and +Ludgate Street and along Cheapside with an enjoyment as great as I ever +felt in a wood-path at home; and I have come to know these streets as +well, I believe, as I ever knew Washington Street in Boston, or even +Essex Street in my stupid old native town. For Piccadilly or for Regent +Street, though more brilliant promenades, I do not care nearly so much. + + +December 27th.--Still leading an idle life, which, however, may not be +quite thrown away, as I see some things, and think many thoughts. + +The other day we went to Westminster Abbey, and through the chapels; and +it being as sunny a day as could well be in London, and in December, we +could judge, in some small degree, what must have been the splendor of +those tombs and monuments when first erected there. + +I presume I was sufficiently minute in describing my first visit to the +chapels, so I shall only mention the stiff figure of a lady of Queen +Elizabeth's court, reclining on the point of her elbow under a mural arch +through all these dusty years; . . . . and the old coronation-chair, with +the stone of Scone beneath the seat, and the wood-work cut and scratched +all over with names and initials. . . . . + +I continue to go to the picture-galleries. I have an idea that the face +of Murillo's St. John has a certain mischievous intelligence in it. This +has impressed me almost from the first. It is a boy's face, very +beautiful and very pleasant too, but with an expression that one might +fairly suspect to be roguish if seen in the face of a living boy. + +About equestrian statues, as those of various kings at Charing Cross, and +otherwhere about London, and of the Duke of Wellington opposite Apsley +House, and in front of the Exchange, it strikes me as absurd, the idea of +putting a man on horseback on a place where one movement of the steed +forward or backward or sideways would infallibly break his own and his +rider's neck. The English sculptors generally seem to have been aware of +this absurdity, and have endeavored to lessen it by making the horse as +quiet as a cab-horse on the stand, instead of rearing rampant, like the +bronze group of Jackson at Washington. The statue of Wellington, at the +Piccadilly corner of the Park, has a stately and imposing effect, seen +from far distances, in approaching either through the Green Park, or from +the Oxford Street corner of Hyde Park. + + +January 3d, 1858.--On Thursday we had the pleasure of a call from Mr. +Coventry Patmore, to whom Dr. Wilkinson gave me a letter of introduction, +and on whom I had called twice at the British Museum without finding him. +We had read his Betrothal and Angel in the House with unusual pleasure +and sympathy, and therefore were very glad to make his personal +acquaintance. He is a man of much more youthful aspect than I had +expected, . . . . a slender person to be an Englishman, though not +remarkably so had he been an American; with an intelligent, pleasant, +and sensitive face,--a man very evidently of refined feelings and +cultivated mind. . . . . He is very simple and agreeable in his +manners; a little shy, yet perfectly frank, and easy to meet on real +grounds. . . . . He said that his wife had proposed to come with him, and +had, indeed, accompanied him to town, but was kept away. . . . . We were +very sorry for this, because Mr. Patmore seems to acknowledge her as the +real "Angel in the House," although he says she herself ignores all +connection with the poem. It is well for her to do so, and for her +husband to feel that the character is her real portrait; and both, I +suppose, are right. It is a most beautiful and original poem,--a poem +for happy married people to read together, and to understand by the light +of their own past and present life; but I doubt whether the generality of +English people are capable of appreciating it. I told Mr. Patmore that I +thought his popularity in America would be greater than at home, and he +said that it was already so; and he appeared to estimate highly his +American fame, and also our general gift of quicker and more subtle +recognition of genius than the English public. . . . . We mutually +gratified each other by expressing high admiration of one another's +works, and Mr. Patmore regretted that in the few days of our further stay +here we should not have time to visit him at his home. It would really +give me pleasure to do so. . . . . I expressed a hope of seeing him in +Italy during our residence there, and he seemed to think it possible, as +his friend, and our countryman, Thomas Buchanan Read, had asked him to +come thither and be his guest. He took his leave, shaking hands with all +of us because he saw that we were of his own people, recognizing him as a +true poet. He has since given me the new edition of his poems, with a +kind rote. + +We are now making preparations for our departure, which we expect will +take place on Tuesday; and yesterday I went to our Minister's to arrange +about the passport. The very moment I rang at his door, it swung open, +and the porter ushered me with great courtesy into the anteroom; not that +he knew me, or anything about me, except that I was an American citizen. +This is the deference which an American servant of the public finds it +expedient to show to his sovereigns. Thank Heaven, I am a sovereign +again, and no longer a servant; and really it is very singular how I look +down upon our ambassadors and dignitaries of all sorts, not excepting the +President himself. I doubt whether this is altogether a good influence +of our mode of government. + +I did not see, and, in fact, declined seeing, the Minister himself, but +only his son, the Secretary of Legation, and a Dr. P------, an American +traveller just from the Continent. He gave a fearful account of the +difficulties that beset a person landing with much luggage in Italy, and +especially at Civita Vecchia, the very port at which we intended to +debark. I have been so long in England that it seems a cold and shivery +thing to go anywhere else. + +Bennoch came to take tea with us on the 5th, it being his first visit +since we came to London, and likewise his farewell visit on our leaving +for the Continent. + +On his departure, J----- and I walked a good way down Oxford Street and +Holborn with him, and I took leave of him with the kindest wishes for his +welfare. + + +END OF VOL. II. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From the English Notebooks, +Complete, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH NOTEBOOKS, COMPLETE *** + +This file should be named 7878.txt or 7878.zip + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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