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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8090-h.zip b/8090-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87b7c3e --- /dev/null +++ b/8090-h.zip diff --git a/8090-h/8090-h.htm b/8090-h/8090-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dae20ad --- /dev/null +++ b/8090-h/8090-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11108 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Our Old Home, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Old Home, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Old Home + A Series of English Sketches + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8090] +This file was first posted on June 13, 2003 +Last Updated: April 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OLD HOME *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + OUR OLD HOME + </h1> + <h3> + A Series of English Sketches + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Nathaniel Hawthorne + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + To Franklin Pierce, + </p> + <p> + As a Slight Memorial of a College Friendship, prolonged through Manhood, + and retaining all its Vitality in our Autumnal Years, + </p> + <p> + This Volume is inscribed by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + </p> + <h3> + TO A FRIEND. + </h3> + </blockquote> + <p> + I have not asked your consent, my dear General, to the foregoing + inscription, because it would have been no inconsiderable disappointment + to me had you withheld it; for I have long desired to connect your name + with some book of mine, in commemoration of an early friendship that has + grown old between two individuals of widely dissimilar pursuits and + fortunes. I only wish that the offering were a worthier one than this + volume of sketches, which certainly are not of a kind likely to prove + interesting to a statesman in retirement, inasmuch as they meddle with no + matters of policy or government, and have very little to say about the + deeper traits of national character. In their humble way, they belong + entirely to aesthetic literature, and can achieve no higher success than + to represent to the American reader a few of the external aspects of + English scenery and life, especially those that are touched with the + antique charm to which our countrymen are more susceptible than are the + people among whom it is of native growth. + </p> + <p> + I once hoped, indeed, that so slight a volume would not be all that I + might write. These and other sketches, with which, in a somewhat rougher + form than I have given them here, my journal was copiously filled, were + intended for the side-scenes and backgrounds and exterior adornment of a + work of fiction of which the plan had imperfectly developed itself in my + mind, and into which I ambitiously proposed to convey more of various + modes of truth than I could have grasped by a direct effort. Of course, I + should not mention this abortive project, only that it has been utterly + thrown aside and will never now be accomplished. The Present, the + Immediate, the Actual, has proved too potent for me. It takes away not + only my scanty faculty, but even my desire for imaginative composition, + and leaves me sadly content to scatter a thousand peaceful fantasies upon + the hurricane that is sweeping us all along with it, possibly, into a + Limbo where our nation and its polity may be as literally the fragments of + a shattered dream as my unwritten Romance. But I have far better hopes for + our dear country; and for my individual share of the catastrophe, I + afflict myself little, or not at all, and shall easily find room for the + abortive work on a certain ideal shelf, where are reposited many other + shadowy volumes of mine, more in number, and very much superior in + quality, to those which I have succeeded in rendering actual. + </p> + <p> + To return to these poor Sketches; some of my friends have told me that + they evince an asperity of sentiment towards the English people which I + ought not to feel, and which it is highly inexpedient to express. The + charge surprises me, because, if it be true, I have written from a + shallower mood than I supposed. I seldom came into personal relations with + an Englishman without beginning to like him, and feeling my favorable + impression wax stronger with the progress of the acquaintance. I never + stood in an English crowd without being conscious of hereditary + sympathies. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that an American is continually + thrown upon his national antagonism by some acrid quality in the moral + atmosphere of England. These people think so loftily of themselves, and so + contemptuously of everybody else, that it requires more generosity than I + possess to keep always in perfectly good-humor with them. Jotting down the + little acrimonies of the moment in my journal, and transferring them + thence (when they happened to be tolerably well expressed) to these pages, + it is very possible that I may have said things which a profound observer + of national character would hesitate to sanction, though never any, I + verily believe, that had not more or less of truth. If they be true, there + is no reason in the world why they should not be said. Not an Englishman + of them all ever spared America for courtesy's sake or kindness; nor, in + my opinion, would it contribute in the least to our mutual advantage and + comfort if we were to besmear one another all over with butter and honey. + At any rate, we must not judge of an Englishman's susceptibilities by our + own, which, likewise, I trust, are of a far less sensitive texture than + formerly. + </p> + <p> + And now farewell, my dear friend; and excuse (if you think it needs any + excuse) the freedom with which I thus publicly assert a personal + friendship between a private individual and a statesman who has filled + what was then the most august position in the world. But I dedicate my + book to the Friend, and shall defer a colloquy with the Statesman till + some calmer and sunnier hour. Only this let me say, that, with the record + of your life in my memory, and with a sense of your character in my deeper + consciousness as among the few things that time has left as it found them, + I need no assurance that you continue faithful forever to that grand idea + of an irrevocable Union, which, as you once told me, was the earliest that + your brave father taught you. For other men there may be a choice of + paths,—for you, but one; and it rests among my certainties that no + man's loyalty is more steadfast, no man's hopes or apprehensions on behalf + of our national existence more deeply heartfelt, or more closely + intertwined with his possibilities of personal happiness, than those of + FRANKLIN PIERCE. + </p> + <p> + THE WAYSIDE, July 2, 1863. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>OUR OLD HOME.</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> CONSULAR EXPERIENCES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> LEAMINGTON SPA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> ABOUT WARWICK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> RECOLLECTIONS OF A GIFTED WOMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> LICHFIELD AND UTTOXETER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> PILGRIMAGE TO OLD BOSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> NEAR OXFORD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> SOME OF THE HAUNTS OF BURNS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> A LONDON SUBURB. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> UP THE THAMES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> OUTSIDE GLIMPSES OF ENGLISH POVERTY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> CIVIC BANQUETS. </a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OUR OLD HOME. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONSULAR EXPERIENCES. + </h2> + <p> + The Consulate of the United States, in my day, was located in Washington + Buildings (a shabby and smoke-stained edifice of four stories high, thus + illustriously named in honor of our national establishment), at the lower + corner of Brunswick Street, contiguous to the Gorec Arcade, and in the + neighborhood of scone of the oldest docks. This was by no means a polite + or elegant portion of England's great commercial city, nor were the + apartments of the American official so splendid as to indicate the + assumption of much consular pomp on his part. A narrow and ill-lighted + staircase gave access to an equally narrow and ill-lighted passageway on + the first floor, at the extremity of which, surmounting a door-frame, + appeared an exceedingly stiff pictorial representation of the Goose and + Gridiron, according to the English idea of those ever-to-be-honored + symbols. The staircase and passageway were often thronged, of a morning, + with a set of beggarly and piratical-looking scoundrels (I do no wrong to + our own countrymen in styling them so, for not one in twenty was a genuine + American), purporting to belong to our mercantile marine, and chiefly + composed of Liverpool Blackballers and the scum of every maritime nation + on earth; such being the seamen by whose assistance we then disputed the + navigation of the world with England. These specimens of a most + unfortunate class of people were shipwrecked crews in quest of bed, board, + and clothing, invalids asking permits for the hospital, bruised and bloody + wretches complaining of ill-treatment by their officers, drunkards, + desperadoes, vagabonds, and cheats, perplexingly intermingled with an + uncertain proportion of reasonably honest men. All of them (save here and + there a poor devil of a kidnapped landsman in his shore-going rags) wore + red flannel shirts, in which they had sweltered or shivered throughout the + voyage, and all required consular assistance in one form or another. + </p> + <p> + Any respectable visitor, if he could make up his mind to elbow a passage + among these sea-monsters, was admitted into an outer office, where he + found more of the same species, explaining their respective wants or + grievances to the Vice-Consul and clerks, while their shipmates awaited + their turn outside the door. Passing through this exterior court, the + stranger was ushered into an inner privacy, where sat the Consul himself, + ready to give personal attention to such peculiarly difficult and more + important cases as might demand the exercise of (what we will courteously + suppose to be) his own higher judicial or administrative sagacity. + </p> + <p> + It was an apartment of very moderate size, painted in imitation of oak, + and duskily lighted by two windows looking across a by-street at the rough + brick-side of an immense cotton warehouse, a plainer and uglier structure + than ever was built in America. On the walls of the room hung a large map + of the United States (as they were, twenty years ago, but seem little + likely to be, twenty years hence), and a similar one of Great Britain, + with its territory so provokingly compact, that we may expect it to sink + sooner than sunder. Farther adornments were some rude engravings of our + naval victories in the War of 1812, together with the Tennessee State + House, and a Hudson River steamer, and a colored, life-size lithograph of + General Taylor, with an honest hideousness of aspect, occupying the place + of honor above the mantel-piece. On the top of a bookcase stood a fierce + and terrible bust of General Jackson, pilloried in a military collar which + rose above his ears, and frowning forth immitigably at any Englishman who + might happen to cross the threshold. I am afraid, however, that the + truculence of the old General's expression was utterly thrown away on this + stolid and obdurate race of men; for, when they occasionally inquired whom + this work of art represented, I was mortified to find that the younger + ones had never heard of the battle of New Orleans, and that their elders + had either forgotten it altogether, or contrived to misremember, and twist + it wrong end foremost into something like an English victory. They have + caught from the old Romans (whom they resemble in so many other + characteristics) this excellent method of keeping the national glory + intact by sweeping all defeats and humiliations clean out of their memory. + Nevertheless, my patriotism forbade me to take down either the bust, or + the pictures, both because it seemed no more than right that an American + Consulate (being a little patch of our nationality imbedded into the soil + and institutions of England) should fairly represent the American taste in + the fine arts, and because these decorations reminded me so delightfully + of an old-fashioned American barber's shop. + </p> + <p> + One truly English object was a barometer hanging on the wall, generally + indicating one or another degree of disagreeable weather, and so seldom + pointing to Fair, that I began to consider that portion of its circle as + made superfluously. The deep chimney, with its grate of bituminous coal, + was English too, as was also the chill temperature that sometimes called + for a fire at midsummer, and the foggy or smoky atmosphere which often, + between November and March, compelled me to set the gas aflame at noonday. + I am not aware of omitting anything important in the above descriptive + inventory, unless it be some book-shelves filled with octavo volumes of + the American Statutes, and a good many pigeon-holes stuffed with dusty + communications from former Secretaries of State, and other official + documents of similar value, constituting part of the archives of the + Consulate, which I might have done my successor a favor by flinging into + the coal-grate. Yes; there was one other article demanding prominent + notice: the consular copy of the New Testament, bound in black morocco, + and greasy, I fear, with a daily succession of perjured kisses; at least, + I can hardly hope that all the ten thousand oaths, administered by me + between two breaths, to all sorts of people and on all manner of worldly + business, were reckoned by the swearer as if taken at his soul's peril. + </p> + <p> + Such, in short, was the dusky and stifled chamber in which I spent wearily + a considerable portion of more than four good years of my existence. At + first, to be quite frank with the reader, I looked upon it as not + altogether fit to be tenanted by the commercial representative of so great + and prosperous a country as the United States then were; and I should + speedily have transferred my headquarters to airier and loftier + apartments, except for the prudent consideration that my government would + have left me thus to support its dignity at my own personal expense. + Besides, a long line of distinguished predecessors, of whom the latest is + now a gallant general under the Union banner, had found the locality good + enough for them; it might certainly be tolerated, therefore, by an + individual so little ambitious of external magnificence as myself. So I + settled quietly down, striking some of my roots into such soil as I could + find, adapting myself to circumstances, and with so much success, that, + though from first to last I hated the very sight of the little room, I + should yet have felt a singular kind of reluctance in changing it for a + better. + </p> + <p> + Hither, in the course of my incumbency, came a great variety of visitors, + principally Americans, but including almost every other nationality on + earth, especially the distressed and downfallen ones like those of Poland + and Hungary. Italian bandits (for so they looked), proscribed conspirators + from Old Spain, Spanish-Americans, Cubans who processed to have stood by + Lopez and narrowly escaped his fate, scarred French soldiers of the Second + Republic,—in a word, all sufferers, or pretended ones, in the cause + of Liberty, all people homeless in the widest sense, those who never had a + country or had lost it, those whom their native land had impatiently flung + off for planning a better system of things than they were born to,—a + multitude of these and, doubtless, an equal number of jail-birds, + outwardly of the same feather, sought the American Consulate, in hopes of + at least a bit of bread, and, perhaps, to beg a passage to the blessed + shores of Freedom. In most cases there was nothing, and in any case + distressingly little, to be done for them; neither was I of a proselyting + disposition, nor desired to make my Consulate a nucleus for the vagrant + discontents of other lands. And yet it was a proud thought, a forcible + appeal to the sympathies of an American, that these unfortunates claimed + the privileges of citizenship in our Republic on the strength of the very + same noble misdemeanors that had rendered them outlaws to their native + despotisms. So I gave them what small help I could. Methinks the true + patriots and martyr-spirits of the whole world should have been conscious + of a pang near the heart, when a deadly blow was aimed at the vitality of + a country which they have felt to be their own in the last resort. + </p> + <p> + As for my countrymen, I grew better acquainted with many of our national + characteristics during those four years than in all my preceding life. + Whether brought more strikingly out by the contrast with English manners, + or that my Yankee friends assumed an extra peculiarity from a sense of + defiant patriotism, so it was that their tones, sentiments, and behavior, + even their figures and cast of countenance, all seemed chiselled in + sharper angles than ever I had imagined them to be at home. It impressed + me with an odd idea of having somehow lost the property of my own person, + when I occasionally heard one of them speaking of me as "my Consul"! They + often came to the Consulate in parties of half a dozen or more, on no + business whatever, but merely to subject their public servant to a rigid + examination, and see how he was getting on with his duties. These + interviews were rather formidable, being characterized by a certain + stiffness which I felt to be sufficiently irksome at the moment, though it + looks laughable enough in the retrospect. It is my firm belief that these + fellow-citizens, possessing a native tendency to organization, generally + halted outside of the door to elect a speaker, chairman, or moderator, and + thus approached me with all the formalities of a deputation from the + American people. After salutations on both sides,— abrupt, awful, + and severe on their part, and deprecatory on mine,—and the national + ceremony of shaking hands being duly gone through with, the interview + proceeded by a series of calm and well-considered questions or remarks + from the spokesman (no other of the guests vouchsafing to utter a word), + and diplomatic responses from the Consul, who sometimes found the + investigation a little more searching than he liked. I flatter myself, + however, that, by much practice, I attained considerable skill in this + kind of intercourse, the art of which lies in passing off commonplaces for + new and valuable truths, and talking trash and emptiness in such a way + that a pretty acute auditor might mistake it for something solid. If there + be any better method of dealing with such junctures,—when talk is to + be created out of nothing, and within the scope of several minds at once, + so that you cannot apply yourself to your interlocutor's individuality,—I + have not learned it. + </p> + <p> + Sitting, as it were, in the gateway between the Old World and the New, + where the steamers and packets landed the greater part of our wandering + countrymen, and received them again when their wanderings were done, I saw + that no people on earth have such vagabond habits as ourselves. The + Continental races never travel at all if they can help it; nor does an + Englishman ever think of stirring abroad, unless he has the money to + spare, or proposes to himself some definite advantage from the journey; + but it seemed to me that nothing was more common than for a young American + deliberately to spend all his resources in an aesthetic peregrination + about Europe, returning with pockets nearly empty to begin the world in + earnest. It happened, indeed, much oftener than was at all agreeable to + myself, that their funds held out just long enough to bring them to the + door of my Consulate, where they entered as if with an undeniable right to + its shelter and protection, and required at my hands to be sent home + again. In my first simplicity,—finding them gentlemanly in manners, + passably educated, and only tempted a little beyond their means by a + laudable desire of improving and refining themselves, or, perhaps for the + sake of getting better artistic instruction in music, painting, or + sculpture than our country could supply,—I sometimes took charge of + them on my private responsibility, since our government gives itself no + trouble about its stray children, except the seafaring class. But, after a + few such experiments, discovering that none of these estimable and + ingenuous young men, however trustworthy they might appear, ever dreamed + of reimbursing the Consul, I deemed it expedient to take another course + with them. Applying myself to some friendly shipmaster, I engaged homeward + passages on their behalf, with the understanding that they were to make + themselves serviceable on shipboard; and I remember several very pathetic + appeals from painters and musicians, touching the damage which their + artistic fingers were likely to incur from handling the ropes. But my + observation of so many heavier troubles left me very little tenderness for + their finger-ends. In time I grew to be reasonably hard-hearted, though it + never was quite possible to leave a countryman with no shelter save an + English poorhouse, when, as he invariably averred, he had only to set foot + on his native soil to be possessed of ample funds. It was my ultimate + conclusion, however, that American ingenuity may be pretty safely left to + itself, and that, one way or another, a Yankee vagabond is certain to turn + up at his own threshold, if he has any, without help of a Consul, and + perhaps be taught a lesson of foresight that may profit him hereafter. + </p> + <p> + Among these stray Americans, I met with no other case so remarkable as + that of an old man, who was in the habit of visiting me once in a few + months, and soberly affirmed that he had been wandering about England more + than a quarter of a century (precisely twenty-seven years, I think), and + all the while doing his utmost to get home again. Herman Melville, in his + excellent novel or biography of "Israel Potter," has an idea somewhat + similar to this. The individual now in question was a mild and patient, + but very ragged and pitiable old fellow, shabby beyond description, lean + and hungry-looking, but with a large and somewhat red nose. He made no + complaint of his ill-fortune, but only repeated in a quiet voice, with a + pathos of which he was himself evidently unconscious, "I want to get home + to Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia." He described himself as a printer + by trade, and said that he had come over when he was a younger man, in the + hope of bettering himself, and for the sake of seeing the Old Country, but + had never since been rich enough to pay his homeward passage. His manner + and accent did not quite convince me that he was an American, and I told + him so; but he steadfastly affirmed, "Sir, I was born and have lived in + Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia," and then went on to describe some + public edifices and other local objects with which he used to be familiar, + adding, with a simplicity that touched me very closely, "Sir, I had rather + be there than here!" Though I still manifested a lingering doubt, he took + no offence, replying with the same mild depression as at first, and + insisting again and again on Ninety-second Street. Up to the time when I + saw him, he still got a little occasional job-work at his trade, but + subsisted mainly on such charity as he met with in his wanderings, + shifting from place to place continually, and asking assistance to convey + him to his native land. Possibly he was an impostor, one of the + multitudinous shapes of English vagabondism, and told his falsehood with + such powerful simplicity, because, by many repetitions, he had convinced + himself of its truth. But if, as I believe, the tale was fact, how very + strange and sad was this old man's fate! Homeless on a foreign shore, + looking always towards his country, coming again and again to the point + whence so many were setting sail for it,—so many who would soon + tread in Ninety-second Street,— losing, in this long series of + years, some of the distinctive characteristics of an American, and at last + dying and surrendering his clay to be a portion of the soil whence he + could not escape in his lifetime. + </p> + <p> + He appeared to see that he had moved me, but did not attempt to press his + advantage with any new argument, or any varied form of entreaty. He had + but scanty and scattered thoughts in his gray head, and in the intervals + of those, like the refrain of an old ballad, came in the monotonous burden + of his appeal, "If I could only find myself in Ninety-second Street, + Philadelphia!" But even his desire of getting home had ceased to be an + ardent one (if, indeed, it had not always partaken of the dreamy + sluggishness of his character), although it remained his only locomotive + impulse, and perhaps the sole principle of life that kept his blood from + actual torpor. + </p> + <p> + The poor old fellow's story seemed to me almost as worthy of being chanted + in immortal song as that of Odysseus or Evangeline. I took his case into + deep consideration, but dared not incur the moral responsibility of + sending him across the sea, at his age, after so many years of exile, when + the very tradition of him had passed away, to find his friends dead, or + forgetful, or irretrievably vanished, and the whole country become more + truly a foreign land to him than England was now,— and even + Ninety-second Street, in the weedlike decay and growth of our localities, + made over anew and grown unrecognizable by his old eyes. That street, so + patiently longed for, had transferred itself to the New Jerusalem, and he + must seek it there, contenting his slow heart, meanwhile, with the + smoke-begrimed thoroughfares of English towns, or the green country lanes + and by-paths with which his wanderings had made him familiar; for + doubtless he had a beaten track and was the "long-remembered beggar" now, + with food and a roughly hospitable greeting ready for him at many a + farm-house door, and his choice of lodging under a score of haystacks. In + America, nothing awaited him but that worst form of disappointment which + comes under the guise of a long-cherished and late-accomplished purpose, + and then a year or two of dry and barren sojourn in an almshouse, and + death among strangers at last, where he had imagined a circle of familiar + faces. So I contented myself with giving him alms, which he thankfully + accepted, and went away with bent shoulders and an aspect of gentle + forlornness; returning upon his orbit, however, after a few months, to + tell the same sad and quiet story of his abode in England for more than + twenty-seven years, in all which time he had been endeavoring, and still + endeavored as patiently as ever, to find his way home to Ninety-second + Street, Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + I recollect another case, of a more ridiculous order, but still with a + foolish kind of pathos entangled in it, which impresses me now more + forcibly than it did at the moment. One day, a queer, stupid, + good-natured, fat-faced individual came into my private room, dressed in a + sky-blue, cut-away coat and mixed trousers, both garments worn and shabby, + and rather too small for his overgrown bulk. After a little preliminary + talk, he turned out to be a country shopkeeper (from Connecticut, I + think), who had left a flourishing business, and come over to England + purposely and solely to have an interview with the Queen. Some years + before he had named his two children, one for her Majesty and the other + for Prince Albert, and had transmitted photographs of the little people, + as well as of his wife and himself, to the illustrious godmother. The + Queen had gratefully acknowledged the favor in a letter under the hand of + her private secretary. Now, the shopkeeper, like a great many other + Americans, had long cherished a fantastic notion that he was one of the + rightful heirs of a rich English estate; and on the strength of her + Majesty's letter and the hopes of royal patronage which it inspired, he + had shut up his little country-store and come over to claim his + inheritance. On the voyage, a German fellow-passenger had relieved him of + his money on pretence of getting it favorably exchanged, and had + disappeared immediately on the ship's arrival; so that the poor fellow was + compelled to pawn all his clothes, except the remarkably shabby ones in + which I beheld him, and in which (as he himself hinted, with a melancholy, + yet good-natured smile) he did not look altogether fit to see the Queen. I + agreed with him that the bobtailed coat and mixed trousers constituted a + very odd-looking court-dress, and suggested that it was doubtless his + present purpose to get back to Connecticut as fast as possible. But no! + The resolve to see the Queen was as strong in him as ever; and it was + marvellous the pertinacity with which he clung to it amid raggedness and + starvation, and the earnestness of his supplication that I would supply + him with funds for a suitable appearance at Windsor Castle. + </p> + <p> + I never had so satisfactory a perception of a complete booby before in my + life; and it caused me to feel kindly towards him, and yet impatient and + exasperated on behalf of common-sense, which could not possibly tolerate + that such an unimaginable donkey should exist. I laid his absurdity before + him in the very plainest terms, but without either exciting his anger or + shaking his resolution. "O my dear man," quoth he, with good-natured, + placid, simple, and tearful stubbornness, "if you could but enter into my + feelings and see the matter from beginning to end as I see it!" To confess + the truth, I have since felt that I was hard-hearted to the poor + simpleton, and that there was more weight in his remonstrance than I chose + to be sensible of, at the time; for, like many men who have been in the + habit of making playthings or tools of their imagination and sensibility, + I was too rigidly tenacious of what was reasonable in the affairs of real + life. And even absurdity has its rights, when, as in this case, it has + absorbed a human being's entire nature and purposes. I ought to have + transmitted him to Mr. Buchanan, in London, who, being a good-natured old + gentleman, and anxious, just then, to gratify the universal Yankee nation, + might, for the joke's sake, have got him admittance to the Queen, who had + fairly laid herself open to his visit, and has received hundreds of our + countrymen on infinitely slighter grounds. But I was inexorable, being + turned to flint by the insufferable proximity of a fool, and refused to + interfere with his business in any way except to procure him a passage + home. I can see his face of mild, ridiculous despair, at this moment, and + appreciate, better than I could then, how awfully cruel he must have felt + my obduracy to be. For years and years, the idea of an interview with + Queen Victoria had haunted his poor foolish mind; and now, when he really + stood on English ground, and the palace-door was hanging ajar for him, he + was expected to turn brick, a penniless and bamboozled simpleton, merely + because an iron-hearted consul refused to lend him thirty shillings (so + low had his demand ultimately sunk) to buy a second-class ticket on the + rail for London! + </p> + <p> + He visited the Consulate several times afterwards, subsisting on a + pittance that I allowed him in the hope of gradually starving him back to + Connecticut, assailing me with the old petition at every opportunity, + looking shabbier at every visit, but still thoroughly good-tempered, + mildly stubborn, and smiling through his tears, not without a perception + of the ludicrousness of his own position. Finally, he disappeared + altogether, and whither he had wandered, and whether he ever saw the + Queen, or wasted quite away in the endeavor, I never knew; but I remember + unfolding the "Times," about that period, with a daily dread of reading an + account of a ragged Yankee's attempt to steal into Buckingham Palace, and + how he smiled tearfully at his captors and besought them to introduce him + to her Majesty. I submit to Mr. Secretary Seward that he ought to make + diplomatic remonstrances to the British Ministry, and require them to take + such order that the Queen shall not any longer bewilder the wits of our + poor compatriots by responding to their epistles and thanking them for + their photographs. + </p> + <p> + One circumstance in the foregoing incident—I mean the unhappy + storekeeper's notion of establishing his claim to an English estate—was + common to a great many other applications, personal or by letter, with + which I was favored by my countrymen. The cause of this peculiar insanity + lies deep in the Anglo-American heart. After all these bloody wars and + vindictive animosities, we have still an unspeakable yearning towards + England. When our forefathers left the old home, they pulled up many of + their roots, but trailed along with them others, which were never snapt + asunder by the tug of such a lengthening distance, nor have been torn out + of the original soil by the violence of subsequent struggles, nor severed + by the edge of the sword. Even so late as these days, they remain + entangled with our heart-strings, and might often have influenced our + national cause like the tiller-ropes of a ship, if the rough gripe of + England had been capable of managing so sensitive a kind of machinery. It + has required nothing less than the boorishness, the stolidity, the + self-sufficiency, the contemptuous jealousy, the half-sagacity, invariably + blind of one eye and often distorted of the other, that characterize this + strange people, to compel us to be a great nation in our own right, + instead of continuing virtually, if not in name, a province of their small + island. What pains did they take to shake us off, and have ever since + taken to keep us wide apart from them! It might seem their folly, but was + really their fate, or, rather, the Providence of God, who has doubtless a + work for us to do, in which the massive materiality of the English + character would have been too ponderous a dead-weight upon our progress. + And, besides, if England had been wise enough to twine our new vigor round + about her ancient strength, her power would have been too firmly + established ever to yield, in its due season, to the otherwise immutable + law of imperial vicissitude. The earth might then have beheld the + intolerable spectacle of a sovereignty and institutions, imperfect, but + indestructible. + </p> + <p> + Nationally, there has ceased to be any peril of so inauspicious and yet + outwardly attractive an amalgamation. But as an individual, the American + is often conscious of the deep-rooted sympathies that belong more fitly to + times gone by, and feels a blind pathetic tendency to wander back again, + which makes itself evident in such wild dreams as I have alluded to above, + about English inheritances. A mere coincidence of names (the Yankee one, + perhaps, having been assumed by legislative permission), a supposititious + pedigree, a silver mug on which an anciently engraved coat-of-arms has + been half scrubbed out, a seal with an uncertain crest, an old yellow + letter or document in faded ink, the more scantily legible the better,—rubbish + of this kind, found in a neglected drawer, has been potent enough to turn + the brain of many an honest Republican, especially if assisted by an + advertisement for lost heirs, cut out of a British newspaper. There is no + estimating or believing, till we come into a position to know it, what + foolery lurks latent in the breasts of very sensible people. Remembering + such sober extravagances, I should not be at all surprised to find that I + am myself guilty of some unsuspected absurdity, that may appear to me the + most substantial trait in my character. + </p> + <p> + I might fill many pages with instances of this diseased American appetite + for English soil. A respectable-looking woman, well advanced in life, of + sour aspect, exceedingly homely, but decidedly New-Englandish in figure + and manners, came to my office with a great bundle of documents, at the + very first glimpse of which I apprehended something terrible. Nor was I + mistaken. The bundle contained evidences of her indubitable claim to the + site on which Castle Street, the Town Hall, the Exchange, and all the + principal business part of Liverpool have long been situated; and with + considerable peremptoriness, the good lady signified her expectation that + I should take charge of her suit, and prosecute it to judgment; not, + however, on the equitable condition of receiving half the value of the + property recovered (which, in case of complete success, would have made + both of us ten or twenty fold millionaires), but without recompense or + reimbursement of legal expenses, solely as an incident of my official + duty. Another time came two ladies, bearing a letter of emphatic + introduction from his Excellency the Governor of their native State, who + testified in most satisfactory terms to their social respectability. They + were claimants of a great estate in Cheshire, and announced themselves as + blood-relatives of Queen Victoria,—a point, however, which they + deemed it expedient to keep in the background until their territorial + rights should be established, apprehending that the Lord High Chancellor + might otherwise be less likely to come to a fair decision in respect to + them, from a probable disinclination to admit new members into the royal + kin. Upon my honor, I imagine that they had an eye to the possibility of + the eventual succession of one or both of them to the crown of Great + Britain through superiority of title over the Brunswick line; although, + being maiden ladies, like their predecessor Elizabeth, they could hardly + have hoped to establish a lasting dynasty upon the throne. It proves, I + trust, a certain disinterestedness on my part, that, encountering them + thus in the dawn of their fortunes, I forbore to put in a plea for a + future dukedom. + </p> + <p> + Another visitor of the same class was a gentleman of refined manners, + handsome figure, and remarkably intellectual aspect. Like many men of an + adventurous cast, he had so quiet a deportment, and such an apparent + disinclination to general sociability, that you would have fancied him + moving always along some peaceful and secluded walk of life. Yet, + literally from his first hour, he had been tossed upon the surges of a + most varied and tumultuous existence, having been born at sea, of American + parentage, but on board of a Spanish vessel, and spending many of the + subsequent years in voyages, travels, and outlandish incidents and + vicissitudes, which, methought, had hardly been paralleled since the days + of Gulliver or De Foe. When his dignified reserve was overcome, he had the + faculty of narrating these adventures with wonderful eloquence, working up + his descriptive sketches with such intuitive perception of the picturesque + points that the whole was thrown forward with a positively illusive + effect, like matters of your own visual experience. In fact, they were so + admirably done that I could never more than half believe them, because the + genuine affairs of life are not apt to transact themselves so + artistically. Many of his scenes were laid in the East, and among those + seldom-visited archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean, so that there was an + Oriental fragrance breathing through his talk and an odor of the Spice + Islands still lingering in his garments. He had much to say of the + delightful qualities of the Malay pirates, who, indeed, carry on a + predatory warfare against the ships of all civilized nations, and cut + every Christian throat among their prisoners; but (except for deeds of + that character, which are the rule and habit of their life, and matter of + religion and conscience with them) they are a gentle-natured people, of + primitive innocence and integrity. + </p> + <p> + But his best story was about a race of men (if men they were) who seemed + so fully to realize Swift's wicked fable of the Yahoos, that my friend was + much exercised with psychological speculations whether or no they had any + souls. They dwelt in the wilds of Ceylon, like other savage beasts, hairy, + and spotted with tufts of fur, filthy, shameless, weaponless (though + warlike in their individual bent), tool-less, houseless, language-less, + except for a few guttural sounds, hideously dissonant, whereby they held + some rudest kind of communication among themselves. They lacked both + memory and foresight, and were wholly destitute of government, social + institutions, or law or rulership of any description, except the immediate + tyranny of the strongest; radically untamable, moreover, save that the + people of the country managed to subject a few of the less ferocious and + stupid ones to outdoor servitude among their other cattle. They were + beastly in almost all their attributes, and that to such a degree that the + observer, losing sight of any link betwixt them and manhood, could + generally witness their brutalities without greater horror than at those + of some disagreeable quadruped in a menagerie. And yet, at times, + comparing what were the lowest general traits in his own race with what + was highest in these abominable monsters, he found a ghastly similitude + that half compelled him to recognize them as human brethren. + </p> + <p> + After these Gulliverian researches, my agreeable acquaintance had fallen + under the ban of the Dutch government, and had suffered (this, at least, + being matter of fact) nearly two years' imprisonment, with confiscation of + a large amount of property, for which Mr. Belmont, our minister at the + Hague, had just made a peremptory demand of reimbursement and damages. + Meanwhile, since arriving in England on his way to the United States, he + had been providentially led to inquire into the circumstances of his birth + on shipboard, and had discovered that not himself alone, but another baby, + had come into the world during the same voyage of the prolific vessel, and + that there were almost irrefragable reasons for believing that these two + children had been assigned to the wrong mothers. Many reminiscences of his + early days confirmed him in the idea that his nominal parents were aware + of the exchange. The family to which he felt authorized to attribute his + lineage was that of a nobleman, in the picture-gallery of whose + country-seat (whence, if I mistake not, our adventurous friend had just + returned) he had discovered a portrait bearing a striking resemblance to + himself. As soon as he should have reported the outrageous action of the + Dutch government to President Pierce and the Secretary of State, and + recovered the confiscated property, he purposed to return to England and + establish his claim to the nobleman's title and estate. + </p> + <p> + I had accepted his Oriental fantasies (which, indeed, to do him justice, + have been recorded by scientific societies among the genuine phenomena of + natural history), not as matters of indubitable credence, but as allowable + specimens of an imaginative traveller's vivid coloring and rich embroidery + on the coarse texture and dull neutral tints of truth. The English romance + was among the latest communications that he intrusted to my private ear; + and as soon as I heard the first chapter,—so wonderfully akin to + what I might have wrought out of my own head, not unpractised in such + figments,—I began to repent having made myself responsible for the + future nobleman's passage homeward in the next Collins steamer. + Nevertheless, should his English rent-roll fall a little behindhand, his + Dutch claim for a hundred thousand dollars was certainly in the hands of + our government, and might at least be valuable to the extent of thirty + pounds, which I had engaged to pay on his behalf. But I have reason to + fear that his Dutch riches turned out to be Dutch gilt, or fairy gold, and + his English country-seat a mere castle in the air,—which I + exceedingly regret, for he was a delightful companion and a very + gentlemanly man. + </p> + <p> + A Consul, in his position of universal responsibility, the general adviser + and helper, sometimes finds himself compelled to assume the guardianship + of personages who, in their own sphere, are supposed capable of + superintending the highest interests of whole communities. An elderly + Irishman, a naturalized citizen, once put the desire and expectation of + all our penniless vagabonds into a very suitable phrase, by pathetically + entreating me to be a "father to him"; and, simple as I sit scribbling + here, I have acted a father's part, not only by scores of such unthrifty + old children as himself, but by a progeny of far loftier pretensions. It + may be well for persons who are conscious of any radical weakness in their + character, any besetting sin, any unlawful propensity, any unhallowed + impulse, which (while surrounded with the manifold restraints that protect + a man from that treacherous and lifelong enemy, his lower self, in the + circle of society where he is at home) they may have succeeded in keeping + under the lock and key of strictest propriety,—it may be well for + them, before seeking the perilous freedom of a distant land, released from + the watchful eyes of neighborhoods and coteries, lightened of that + wearisome burden, an immaculate name, and blissfully obscure after years + of local prominence,—it may be well for such individuals to know + that when they set foot on a foreign shore, the long-imprisoned Evil, + scenting a wild license in the unaccustomed atmosphere, is apt to grow + riotous in its iron cage. It rattles the rusty barriers with gigantic + turbulence, and if there be an infirm joint anywhere in the framework, it + breaks madly forth, compressing the mischief of a lifetime into a little + space. + </p> + <p> + A parcel of letters had been accumulating at the Consulate for two or + three weeks, directed to a certain Doctor of Divinity, who had left + America by a sailing-packet and was still upon the sea. In due time, the + vessel arrived, and the reverend Doctor paid me a visit. He was a + fine-looking middle-aged gentleman, a perfect model of clerical propriety, + scholar-like, yet with the air of a man of the world rather than a + student, though overspread with the graceful sanctity of a popular + metropolitan divine, a part of whose duty it might be to exemplify the + natural accordance between Christianity and good-breeding. He seemed a + little excited, as an American is apt to be on first arriving in England, + but conversed with intelligence as well as animation, making himself so + agreeable that his visit stood out in considerable relief from the + monotony of my daily commonplace. As I learned from authentic sources, he + was somewhat distinguished in his own region for fervor and eloquence in + the pulpit, but was now compelled to relinquish it temporarily for the + purpose of renovating his impaired health by an extensive tour in Europe. + Promising to dine with me, he took up his bundle of letters and went away. + </p> + <p> + The Doctor, however, failed to make his appearance at dinner-time, or to + apologize the next day for his absence; and in the course of a day or two + more, I forgot all about him, concluding that he must have set forth on + his Continental travels, the plan of which he had sketched out at our + interview. But, by and by, I received a call from the master of the vessel + in which he had arrived. He was in some alarm about his passenger, whose + luggage remained on shipboard, but of whom nothing had been heard or seen + since the moment of his departure from the Consulate. We conferred + together, the captain and I, about the expediency of setting the police on + the traces (if any were to be found) of our vanished friend; but it struck + me that the good captain was singularly reticent, and that there was + something a little mysterious in a few points that he hinted at rather + than expressed; so that, scrutinizing the affair carefully, I surmised + that the intimacy of life on shipboard might have taught him more about + the reverend gentleman than, for some reason or other, he deemed it + prudent to reveal. At home, in our native country, I would have looked to + the Doctor's personal safety and left his reputation to take care of + itself, knowing that the good fame of a thousand saintly clergymen would + amply dazzle out any lamentable spot on a single brother's character. But + in scornful and invidious England, on the idea that the credit of the + sacred office was measurably intrusted to my discretion, I could not + endure, for the sake of American Doctors of Divinity generally, that this + particular Doctor should cut an ignoble figure in the police reports of + the English newspapers, except at the last necessity. The clerical body, I + flatter myself, will acknowledge that I acted on their own principle. + Besides, it was now too late; the mischief and violence, if any had been + impending, were not of a kind which it requires the better part of a week + to perpetrate; and to sum up the entire matter, I felt certain, from a + good deal of somewhat similar experience, that, if the missing Doctor + still breathed this vital air, he would turn up at the Consulate as soon + as his money should be stolen or spent. + </p> + <p> + Precisely a week after this reverend person's disappearance, there came to + my office a tall, middle-aged gentleman in a blue military surtout, + braided at the seams, but out at elbows, and as shabby as if the wearer + had been bivouacking in it throughout a Crimean campaign. It was buttoned + up to the very chin, except where three or four of the buttons were lost; + nor was there any glimpse of a white shirt-collar illuminating the rusty + black cravat. A grisly mustache was just beginning to roughen the + stranger's upper lip. He looked disreputable to the last degree, but still + had a ruined air of good society glimmering about him, like a few specks + of polish on a sword-blade that has lain corroding in a mud-puddle. I took + him to be some American marine officer, of dissipated habits, or perhaps a + cashiered British major, stumbling into the wrong quarters through the + unrectified bewilderment of last night's debauch. He greeted me, however, + with polite familiarity, as though we had been previously acquainted; + whereupon I drew coldly back (as sensible people naturally do, whether + from strangers or former friends, when too evidently at odds with fortune) + and requested to know who my visitor might be, and what was his business + at the Consulate. "Am I then so changed?" he exclaimed with a vast depth + of tragic intonation; and after a little blind and bewildered talk, + behold! the truth flashed upon me. It was the Doctor of Divinity! If I had + meditated a scene or a coup de theatre, I could not have contrived a more + effectual one than by this simple and genuine difficulty of recognition. + The poor Divine must have felt that he had lost his personal identity + through the misadventures of one little week. And, to say the truth, he + did look as if, like Job, on account of his especial sanctity, he had been + delivered over to the direst temptations of Satan, and proving weaker than + the man of Uz, the Arch Enemy had been empowered to drag him through + Tophet, transforming him, in the process, from the most decorous of + metropolitan clergymen into the rowdiest and dirtiest of disbanded + officers. I never fathomed the mystery of his military costume, but + conjectured that a lurking sense of fitness had induced him to exchange + his clerical garments for this habit of a sinner; nor can I tell precisely + into what pitfall, not more of vice than terrible calamity, he had + precipitated himself,—being more than satisfied to know that the + outcasts of society can sink no lower than this poor, desecrated wretch + had sunk. + </p> + <p> + The opportunity, I presume, does not often happen to a layman, of + administering moral and religious reproof to a Doctor of Divinity; but + finding the occasion thrust upon me, and the hereditary Puritan waxing + strong in my breast, I deemed it a matter of conscience not to let it pass + entirely unimproved. The truth is, I was unspeakably shocked and + disgusted. Not, however, that I was then to learn that clergymen are made + of the same flesh and blood as other people, and perhaps lack one small + safeguard which the rest of us possess, because they are aware of their + own peccability, and therefore cannot look up to the clerical class for + the proof of the possibility of a pure life on earth, with such + reverential confidence as we are prone to do. But I remembered the + innocent faith of my boyhood, and the good old silver-headed clergyman, + who seemed to me as much a saint then on earth as he is now in heaven, and + partly for whose sake, through all these darkening years, I retain a + devout, though not intact nor unwavering respect for the entire + fraternity. What a hideous wrong, therefore, had the backslider inflicted + on his brethren, and still more on me, who much needed whatever fragments + of broken reverence (broken, not as concerned religion, but its earthly + institutions and professors) it might yet be possible to patch into a + sacred image! Should all pulpits and communion-tables have thenceforth a + stain upon them, and the guilty one go unrebuked for it? So I spoke to the + unhappy man as I never thought myself warranted in speaking to any other + mortal, hitting him hard, doing my utmost to find out his vulnerable part, + and prick him into the depths of it. And not without more effect than I + had dreamed of, or desired! + </p> + <p> + No doubt, the novelty of the Doctor's reversed position, thus standing up + to receive such a fulmination as the clergy have heretofore arrogated the + exclusive right of inflicting, might give additional weight and sting to + the words which I found utterance for. But there was another reason + (which, had I in the least suspected it, would have closed my lips at + once) for his feeling morbidly sensitive to the cruel rebuke that I + administered. The unfortunate man had come to me, laboring under one of + the consequences of his riotous outbreak, in the shape of delirium + tremens; he bore a hell within the compass of his own breast, all the + torments of which blazed up with tenfold inveteracy when I thus took upon + myself the Devil's office of stirring up the red-hot embers. His emotions, + as well as the external movement and expression of them by voice, + countenance, and gesture, were terribly exaggerated by the tremendous + vibration of nerves resulting from the disease. It was the deepest tragedy + I ever witnessed. I know sufficiently, from that one experience, how a + condemned soul would manifest its agonies; and for the future, if I have + anything to do with sinners, I mean to operate upon them through sympathy, + and not rebuke. What had I to do with rebuking him? The disease, long + latent in his heart, had shown itself in a frightful eruption on the + surface of his life. That was all! Is it a thing to scold the sufferer + for? + </p> + <p> + To conclude this wretched story, the poor Doctor of Divinity, having been + robbed of all his money in this little airing beyond the limits of + propriety, was easily persuaded to give up the intended tour and return to + his bereaved flock, who, very probably, were thereafter conscious of an + increased unction in his soul-stirring eloquence, without suspecting the + awful depths into which their pastor had dived in quest of it. His voice + is now silent. I leave it to members of his own profession to decide + whether it was better for him thus to sin outright, and so to be let into + the miserable secret what manner of man he was, or to have gone through + life outwardly unspotted, making the first discovery of his latent evil at + the judgment-seat. It has occurred to me that his dire calamity, as both + he and I regarded it, might have been the only method by which precisely + such a man as himself, and so situated, could be redeemed. He has learned, + ere now, how that matter stood. + </p> + <p> + For a man, with a natural tendency to meddle with other people's business, + there could not possibly be a more congenial sphere than the Liverpool + Consulate. For myself, I had never been in the habit of feeling that I + could sufficiently comprehend any particular conjunction of circumstances + with human character, to justify me in thrusting in my awkward agency + among the intricate and unintelligible machinery of Providence. I have + always hated to give advice, especially when there is a prospect of its + being taken. It is only one-eyed people who love to advise, or have any + spontaneous promptitude of action. When a man opens both his eyes, he + generally sees about as many reasons for acting in any one way as in any + other, and quite as many for acting in neither; and is therefore likely to + leave his friends to regulate their own conduct, and also to remain quiet + as regards his especial affairs till necessity shall prick him onward. + Nevertheless, the world and individuals flourish upon a constant + succession of blunders. The secret of English practical success lies in + their characteristic faculty of shutting one eye, whereby they get so + distinct and decided a view of what immediately concerns them that they go + stumbling towards it over a hundred insurmountable obstacles, and achieve + a magnificent triumph without ever being aware of half its difficulties. + If General McClellan could but have shut his left eye, the right one would + long ago have guided us into Richmond. Meanwhile, I have strayed far away + from the Consulate, where, as I was about to say, I was compelled, in + spite of my disinclination, to impart both advice and assistance in + multifarious affairs that did not personally concern me, and presume that + I effected about as little mischief as other men in similar contingencies. + The duties of the office carried me to prisons, police-courts, hospitals, + lunatic asylums, coroner's inquests, death-beds, funerals, and brought me + in contact with insane people, criminals, ruined speculators, wild + adventurers, diplomatists, brother-consuls, and all manner of simpletons + and unfortunates, in greater number and variety than I had ever dreamed of + as pertaining to America; in addition to whom there was an equivalent + multitude of English rogues, dexterously counterfeiting the genuine Yankee + article. It required great discrimination not to be taken in by these + last-mentioned scoundrels; for they knew how to imitate our national + traits, had been at great pains to instruct themselves as regarded + American localities, and were not readily to be caught by a + cross-examination as to the topographical features, public institutions, + or prominent inhabitants of the places where they pretended to belong. The + best shibboleth I ever hit upon lay in the pronunciation of the word + "been," which the English invariably make to rhyme with "green," and we + Northerners, at least (in accordance, I think, with the custom of + Shakespeare's time), universally pronounce "bin." + </p> + <p> + All the matters that I have been treating of, however, were merely + incidental, and quite distinct from the real business of the office. A + great part of the wear and tear of mind and temper resulted from the bad + relations between the seamen and officers of American ships. Scarcely a + morning passed, but that some sailor came to show the marks of his + ill-usage on shipboard. Often, it was a whole crew of them, each with his + broken head or livid bruise, and all testifying with one voice to a + constant series of savage outrages during the voyage; or, it might be, + they laid an accusation of actual murder, perpetrated by the first or + second officers with many blows of steel-knuckles, a rope's end, or a + marline-spike, or by the captain, in the twinkling of an eye, with a shot + of his pistol. Taking the seamen's view of the case, you would suppose + that the gibbet was hungry for the murderers. Listening to the captain's + defence, you would seem to discover that he and his officers were the + humanest of mortals, but were driven to a wholesome severity by the + mutinous conduct of the crew, who, moreover, had themselves slain their + comrade in the drunken riot and confusion of the first day or two after + they were shipped. Looked at judicially, there appeared to be no right + side to the matter, nor any right side possible in so thoroughly vicious a + system as that of the American mercantile marine. The Consul could do + little, except to take depositions, hold forth the greasy Testament to be + profaned anew with perjured kisses, and, in a few instances of murder or + manslaughter, carry the case before an English magistrate, who generally + decided that the evidence was too contradictory to authorize the + transmission of the accused for trial in America. The newspapers all over + England contained paragraphs, inveighing against the cruelties of American + shipmasters. The British Parliament took up the matter (for nobody is so + humane as John Bull, when his benevolent propensities are to be gratified + by finding fault with his neighbor), and caused Lord John Russell to + remonstrate with our government on the outrages for which it was + responsible before the world, and which it failed to prevent or punish. + The American Secretary of State, old General Cass, responded, with + perfectly astounding ignorance of the subject, to the effect that the + statements of outrages had probably been exaggerated, that the present + laws of the United States were quite adequate to deal with them, and that + the interference of the British Minister was uncalled for. + </p> + <p> + The truth is, that the state of affairs was really very horrible, and + could be met by no laws at that time (or I presume now) in existence. I + once thought of writing a pamphlet on the subject, but quitted the + Consulate before finding time to effect my purpose; and all that phase of + my life immediately assumed so dreamlike a consistency that I despaired of + making it seem solid or tangible to the public. And now it looks distant + and dim, like troubles of a century ago. The origin of the evil lay in the + character of the seamen, scarcely any of whom were American, but the + offscourings and refuse of all the seaports of the world, such stuff as + piracy is made of, together with a considerable intermixture of returning + emigrants, and a sprinkling of absolutely kidnapped American citizens. + Even with such material, the ships were very inadequately manned. The + shipmaster found himself upon the deep, with a vast responsibility of + property and human life upon his hands, and no means of salvation except + by compelling his inefficient and demoralized crew to heavier exertions + than could reasonably be required of the same number of able seamen. By + law he had been intrusted with no discretion of judicious punishment, he + therefore habitually left the whole matter of discipline to his + irresponsible mates, men often of scarcely a superior quality to the crew. + Hence ensued a great mass of petty outrages, unjustifiable assaults, + shameful indignities, and nameless cruelty, demoralizing alike to the + perpetrators and the sufferers; these enormities fell into the ocean + between the two countries, and could be punished in neither. Many + miserable stories come back upon my memory as I write; wrongs that were + immense, but for which nobody could be held responsible, and which, + indeed, the closer you looked into them, the more they lost the aspect of + wilful misdoing and assumed that of an inevitable calamity. It was the + fault of a system, the misfortune of an individual. Be that as it may, + however, there will be no possibility of dealing effectually with these + troubles as long as we deem it inconsistent with our national dignity or + interests to allow the English courts, under such restrictions as may seem + fit, a jurisdiction over offences perpetrated on board our vessels in + mid-ocean. + </p> + <p> + In such a life as this, the American shipmaster develops himself into a + man of iron energies, dauntless courage, and inexhaustible resource, at + the expense, it must be acknowledged, of some of the higher and gentler + traits which might do him excellent service in maintaining his authority. + The class has deteriorated of late years on account of the narrower field + of selection, owing chiefly to the diminution of that excellent body of + respectably educated New England seamen, from the flower of whom the + officers used to be recruited. Yet I found them, in many cases, very + agreeable and intelligent companions, with less nonsense about them than + landsmen usually have, eschewers of fine-spun theories, delighting in + square and tangible ideas, but occasionally infested with prejudices that + stuck to their brains like barnacles to a ship's bottom. I never could + flatter myself that I was a general favorite with them. One or two, + perhaps, even now, would scarcely meet me on amicable terms. Endowed + universally with a great pertinacity of will, they especially disliked the + interference of a consul with their management on shipboard; + notwithstanding which I thrust in my very limited authority at every + available opening, and did the utmost that lay in my power, though with + lamentably small effect, towards enforcing a better kind of discipline. + They thought, no doubt (and on plausible grounds enough, but scarcely + appreciating just that one little grain of hard New England sense, oddly + thrown in among the flimsier composition of the Consul's character), that + he, a landsman, a bookman, and, as people said of him, a fanciful recluse, + could not possibly understand anything of the difficulties or the + necessities of a shipmaster's position. But their cold regards were rather + acceptable than otherwise, for it is exceedingly awkward to assume a + judicial austerity in the morning towards a man with whom you have been + hobnobbing over night. + </p> + <p> + With the technical details of the business of that great Consulate (for + great it then was, though now, I fear, wofully fallen off, and perhaps + never to be revived in anything like its former extent), I did not much + interfere. They could safely be left to the treatment of two as faithful, + upright, and competent subordinates, both Englishmen, as ever a man was + fortunate enough to meet with, in a line of life altogether new and + strange to him. I had come over with instructions to supply both their + places with Americans, but, possessing a happy faculty of knowing my own + interest and the public's, I quietly kept hold of them, being little + inclined to open the consular doors to a spy of the State Department or an + intriguer for my own office. The venerable Vice-Consul, Mr. Pearce, had + witnessed the successive arrivals of a score of newly appointed Consuls, + shadowy and short-lived dignitaries, and carried his reminiscences back to + the epoch of Consul Maury, who was appointed by Washington, and has + acquired almost the grandeur of a mythical personage in the annals of the + Consulate. The principal clerk, Mr. Wilding, who has since succeeded to + the Vice-Consulship, was a man of English integrity,—not that the + English are more honest than ourselves, but only there is a certain sturdy + reliableness common among them, which we do not quite so invariably + manifest in just these subordinate positions,—of English integrity, + combined with American acuteness of intellect, quick-wittedness, and + diversity of talent. It seemed an immense pity that he should wear out his + life at a desk, without a step in advance from year's end to year's end, + when, had it been his luck to be born on our side of the water, his bright + faculties and clear probity would have insured him eminent success in + whatever path he night adopt. Meanwhile, it would have been a sore + mischance to me, had any better fortune on his part deprived me of Mr. + Wilding's services. + </p> + <p> + A fair amount of common-sense, some acquaintance with the United States + Statutes, an insight into character, a tact of management, a general + knowledge of the world, and a reasonable but not too inveterately decided + preference for his own will and judgment over those of interested people,—these + natural attributes and moderate acquirements will enable a consul to + perform many of his duties respectably, but not to dispense with a great + variety of other qualifications, only attainable by long experience. Yet, + I think, few consuls are so well accomplished. An appointment of whatever + grade, in the diplomatic or consular service of America, is too often what + the English call a "job"; that is to say, it is made on private and + personal grounds, without a paramount eye to the public good or the + gentleman's especial fitness for the position. It is not too much to say + (of course allowing for a brilliant exception here and there), that an + American never is thoroughly qualified for a foreign post, nor has time to + make himself so, before the revolution of the political wheel discards him + from his office. Our country wrongs itself by permitting such a system of + unsuitable appointments, and, still more, of removals for no cause, just + when the incumbent might be beginning to ripen into usefulness. Mere + ignorance of official detail is of comparatively small moment; though it + is considered indispensable, I presume, that a man in any private capacity + shall be thoroughly acquainted with the machinery and operation of his + business, and shall not necessarily lose his position on having attained + such knowledge. But there are so many more important things to be thought + of, in the qualifications of a foreign resident, that his technical + dexterity or clumsiness is hardly worth mentioning. + </p> + <p> + One great part of a consul's duty, for example, should consist in building + up for himself a recognized position in the society where he resides, so + that his local influence might be felt in behalf of his own country, and, + so far as they are compatible (as they generally are to the utmost + extent), for the interests of both nations. The foreign city should know + that it has a permanent inhabitant and a hearty well-wisher in him. There + are many conjunctures (and one of them is now upon us) where a + long-established, honored, and trusted American citizen, holding a public + position under our government in such a town as Liverpool, might go far + towards swaying and directing the sympathies of the inhabitants. He might + throw his own weight into the balance against mischief makers; he might + have set his foot on the first little spark of malignant purpose, which + the next wind may blow into a national war. But we wilfully give up all + advantages of this kind. The position is totally beyond the attainment of + an American; there to-day, bristling all over with the porcupine quills of + our Republic, and gone to-morrow, just as he is becoming sensible of the + broader and more generous patriotism which might almost amalgamate with + that of England, without losing an atom of its native force and flavor. In + the changes that appear to await us, and some of which, at least, can + hardly fail to be for good, let us hope for a reform in this matter. + </p> + <p> + For myself, as the gentle reader would spare me the trouble of saying, I + was not at all the kind of man to grow into such an ideal Consul as I have + here suggested. I never in my life desired to be burdened with public + influence. I disliked my office from the first, and never came into any + good accordance with it. Its dignity, so far as it had any, was an + encumbrance; the attentions it drew upon me (such as invitations to + Mayor's banquets and public celebrations of all kinds, where, to my + horror, I found myself expected to stand up and speak) were—as I may + say without incivility or ingratitude, because there is nothing personal + in that sort of hospitality—a bore. The official business was + irksome, and often painful. There was nothing pleasant about the whole + affair, except the emoluments; and even those, never too bountifully + reaped, were diminished by more than half in the second or third year of + my incumbency. All this being true, I was quite prepared, in advance of + the inauguration of Mr. Buchanan, to send in my resignation. When my + successor arrived, I drew the long, delightful breath which first made me + thoroughly sensible what an unnatural life I had been leading, and + compelled me to admire myself for having battled with it so sturdily. The + newcomer proved to be a very genial and agreeable gentleman, an F. F. V., + and, as he pleasantly acknowledged, a Southern Fire Eater, —an + announcement to which I responded, with similar good-humor and + self-complacency, by parading my descent from an ancient line of + Massachusetts Puritans. Since our brief acquaintanceship, my fire-eating + friend has had ample opportunities to banquet on his favorite diet, hot + and hot, in the Confederate service. For myself, as soon as I was out of + office, the retrospect began to look unreal. I could scarcely believe that + it was I,—that figure whom they called a Consul,—but a sort of + Double Ganger, who had been permitted to assume my aspect, under which he + went through his shadowy duties with a tolerable show of efficiency, while + my real self had lain, as regarded my proper mode of being and acting, in + a state of suspended animation. + </p> + <p> + The same sense of illusion still pursues me. There is some mistake in this + matter. I have been writing about another man's consular experiences, with + which, through some mysterious medium of transmitted ideas, I find myself + intimately acquainted, but in which I cannot possibly have had a personal + interest. Is it not a dream altogether? The figure of that poor Doctor of + Divinity looks wonderfully lifelike; so do those of the Oriental + adventurer with the visionary coronet above his brow, and the moonstruck + visitor of the Queen, and the poor old wanderer, seeking his native + country through English highways and by-ways for almost thirty years; and + so would a hundred others that I might summon up with similar + distinctness. But were they more than shadows? Surely, I think not. Nor + are these present pages a bit of intrusive autobiography. Let not the + reader wrong me by supposing it. I never should have written with half + such unreserve, had it been a portion of this life congenial with my + nature, which I am living now, instead of a series of incidents and + characters entirely apart from my own concerns, and on which the qualities + personally proper to me could have had no bearing. Almost the only real + incidents, as I see them now, were the visits of a young English friend, a + scholar and a literary amateur, between whom and myself there sprung up an + affectionate, and, I trust, not transitory regard. He used to come and sit + or stand by my fireside, talking vivaciously and eloquently with me about + literature and life, his own national characteristics and mine, with such + kindly endurance of the many rough republicanisms wherewith I assailed + him, and such frank and amiable assertion of all sorts of English + prejudices and mistakes, that I understood his countrymen infinitely the + better for him, and was almost prepared to love the intensest Englishman + of them all, for his sake. It would gratify my cherished remembrance of + this dear friend, if I could manage, without offending him, or letting the + public know it, to introduce his name upon my page. Bright was the + illumination of my dusky little apartment, as often as he made his + appearance there! + </p> + <p> + The English sketches which I have been offering to the public comprise a + few of the more external and therefore more readily manageable things that + I took note of, in many escapes from the imprisonment of my consular + servitude. Liverpool, though not very delightful as a place of residence, + is a most convenient and admirable point to get away from. London is only + five hours off by the fast train. Chester, the most curious town in + England, with its encompassing wall, its ancient rows, and its venerable + cathedral, is close at hand. North Wales, with all its hills and ponds, + its noble sea-scenery, its multitude of gray castles and strange old + villages, may be glanced at in a summer day or two. The lakes and + mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland may be reached before + dinner-time. The haunted and legendary Isle of Man, a little kingdom by + itself, lies within the scope of an afternoon's voyage. Edinburgh or + Glasgow are attainable over night, and Loch Lomond betimes in the morning. + Visiting these famous localities, and a great many others, I hope that I + do not compromise my American patriotism by acknowledging that I was often + conscious of a fervent hereditary attachment to the native soil of our + forefathers, and felt it to be our own Old Home. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LEAMINGTON SPA. + </h2> + <p> + In the course of several visits and stays of considerable length we + acquired a homelike feeling towards Leamington, and came back thither + again and again, chiefly because we had been there before. Wandering and + wayside people, such as we had long since become, retain a few of the + instincts that belong to a more settled way of life, and often prefer + familiar and commonplace objects (for the very reason that they are so) to + the dreary strangeness of scenes that might be thought much better worth + the seeing. There is a small nest of a place in Leamington—at No. + 10, Lansdowne Circus—upon which, to this day, my reminiscences are + apt to settle as one of the coziest nooks in England or in the world; not + that it had any special charm of its own, but only that we stayed long + enough to know it well, and even to grow a little tired of it. In my + opinion, the very tediousness of home and friends makes a part of what we + love them for; if it be not mixed in sufficiently with the other elements + of life, there may be mad enjoyment, but no happiness. + </p> + <p> + The modest abode to which I have alluded forms one of a circular range of + pretty, moderate-sized, two-story houses, all built on nearly the same + plan, and each provided with its little grass-plot, its flowers, its tufts + of box trimmed into globes and other fantastic shapes, and its verdant + hedges shutting the house in from the common drive and dividing it from + its equally cosey neighbors. Coming out of the door, and taking a turn + round the circle of sister-dwellings, it is difficult to find your way + back by any distinguishing individuality of your own habitation. In the + centre of the Circus is a space fenced in with iron railing, a small + play-place and sylvan retreat for the children of the precinct, permeated + by brief paths through the fresh English grass, and shadowed by various + shrubbery; amid which, if you like, you may fancy yourself in a deep + seclusion, though probably the mark of eye-shot from the windows of all + the surrounding houses. But, in truth, with regard to the rest of the town + and the world at large, all abode here is a genuine seclusion; for the + ordinary stream of life does not run through this little, quiet pool, and + few or none of the inhabitants seem to be troubled with any business or + outside activities. I used to set them down as half-pay officers, dowagers + of narrow income, elderly maiden ladies, and other people of + respectability, but small account, such as hang on the world's skirts + rather than actually belong to it. The quiet of the place was seldom + disturbed, except by the grocer and butcher, who came to receive orders, + or by the cabs, hackney-coaches, and Bath-chairs, in which the ladies took + an infrequent airing, or the livery-steed which the retired captain + sometimes bestrode for a morning ride, or by the red-coated postman who + went his rounds twice a day to deliver letters, and again in the evening, + ringing a hand-bell, to take letters for the mail. In merely mentioning + these slight interruptions of its sluggish stillness, I seem to myself to + disturb too much the atmosphere of quiet that brooded over the spot; + whereas its impression upon me was, that the world had never found the way + hither, or had forgotten it, and that the fortunate inhabitants were the + only ones who possessed the spell-word of admittance. Nothing could have + suited me better, at the time; for I had been holding a position of public + servitude, which imposed upon me (among a great many lighter duties) the + ponderous necessity of being universally civil and sociable. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, if a man were seeking the bustle of society, he might find + it more readily in Leamington than in most other English towns. It is a + permanent watering-place, a sort of institution to which I do not know any + close parallel in American life: for such places as Saratoga bloom only + for the summer-season, and offer a thousand dissimilitudes even then; + while Leamington seems to be always in flower, and serves as a home to the + homeless all the year round. Its original nucleus, the plausible excuse + for the town's coming into prosperous existence, lies in the fiction of a + chalybeate well, which, indeed, is so far a reality that out of its + magical depths have gushed streets, groves, gardens, mansions, shops, and + churches, and spread themselves along the banks of the little river Leam. + This miracle accomplished, the beneficent fountain has retired beneath a + pump-room, and appears to have given up all pretensions to the remedial + virtues formerly attributed to it. I know not whether its waters are ever + tasted nowadays; but not the less does Leamington—in pleasant + Warwickshire, at the very midmost point of England, in a good hunting + neighborhood, and surrounded by country-seats and castles— continue + to be a resort of transient visitors, and the more permanent abode of a + class of genteel, unoccupied, well-to-do, but not very wealthy people, + such as are hardly known among ourselves. Persons who have no + country-houses, and whose fortunes are inadequate to a London expenditure, + find here, I suppose, a sort of town and country life in one. + </p> + <p> + In its present aspect the town is of no great age. In contrast with the + antiquity of many places in its neighborhood, it has a bright, new face, + and seems almost to smile even amid the sombreness of an English autumn. + Nevertheless, it is hundreds upon hundreds of years old, if we reckon up + that sleepy lapse of time during which it existed as a small village of + thatched houses, clustered round a priory; and it would still have been + precisely such a rural village, but for a certain Dr. Jephson, who lived + within the memory of man, and who found out the magic well, and foresaw + what fairy wealth might be made to flow from it. A public garden has been + laid out along the margin of the Leam, and called the Jephson Garden, in + honor of him who created the prosperity of his native spot. A little way + within the garden-gate there is a circular temple of Grecian architecture, + beneath the dome of which stands a marble statue of the good Doctor, very + well executed, and representing him with a face of fussy activity and + benevolence: just the kind of man, if luck favored him, to build up the + fortunes of those about him, or, quite as probably, to blight his whole + neighborhood by some disastrous speculation. + </p> + <p> + The Jephson Garden is very beautiful, like most other English + pleasure-grounds; for, aided by their moist climate and not too fervid + sun, the landscape-gardeners excel in converting flat or tame surfaces + into attractive scenery, chiefly through the skilful arrangement of trees + and shrubbery. An Englishman aims at this effect even in the little + patches under the windows of a suburban villa, and achieves it on a larger + scale in a tract of many acres. The Garden is shadowed with trees of a + fine growth, standing alone, or in dusky groves and dense entanglements, + pervaded by woodland paths; and emerging from these pleasant glooms, we + come upon a breadth of sunshine, where the greensward—so vividly + green that it has a kind of lustre in it—is spotted with beds of + gemlike flowers. Rustic chairs and benches are scattered about, some of + them ponderously fashioned out of the stumps of obtruncated trees, and + others more artfully made with intertwining branches, or perhaps an + imitation of such frail handiwork in iron. In a central part of the Garden + is an archery-ground, where laughing maidens practise at the butts, + generally missing their ostensible mark, but, by the mere grace of their + action, sending an unseen shaft into some young man's heart. There is + space, moreover, within these precincts, for an artificial lake, with a + little green island in the midst of it; both lake and island being the + haunt of swans, whose aspect and movement in the water are most beautiful + and stately,—most infirm, disjointed, and decrepit, when, + unadvisedly, they see fit to emerge, and try to walk upon dry land. In the + latter case, they look like a breed of uncommonly ill-contrived geese; and + I record the matter here for the sake of the moral,—that we should + never pass judgment on the merits of any person or thing, unless we behold + them in the sphere and circumstances to which they are specially adapted. + In still another part of the Garden there is a labyrinthine maze, formed + of an intricacy of hedge-bordered walks, involving himself in which, a man + might wander for hours inextricably within a circuit of only a few yards. + It seemed to me a sad emblem of the mental and moral perplexities in which + we sometimes go astray, petty in scope, yet large enough to entangle a + lifetime, and bewilder us with a weary movement, but no genuine progress. + </p> + <p> + The Leam,—the "high complectioned Leam," as Drayton calls it,—after + drowsing across the principal street of the town beneath a handsome + bridge, skirts along the margin of the Garden without any perceptible + flow. Heretofore I had fancied the Concord the laziest river in the world, + but now assign that amiable distinction to the little English stream. Its + water is by no means transparent, but has a greenish, goose-puddly hue, + which, however, accords well with the other coloring and characteristics + of the scene, and is disagreeable neither to sight nor smell. Certainly, + this river is a perfect feature of that gentle picturesqueness in which + England is so rich, sleeping, as it does, beneath a margin of willows that + droop into its bosom, and other trees, of deeper verdure than our own + country can boast, inclining lovingly over it. On the Garden-side it is + bordered by a shadowy, secluded grove, with winding paths among its + boskiness, affording many a peep at the river's imperceptible lapse and + tranquil gleam; and on the opposite shore stands the priory-church, with + its churchyard full of shrubbery and tombstones. + </p> + <p> + The business portion of the town clusters about the banks of the Leam, and + is naturally densest around the well to which the modern settlement owes + its existence. Here are the commercial inns, the post-office, the + furniture-dealers, the iron-mongers, and all the heavy and homely + establishments that connect themselves even with the airiest modes of + human life; while upward from the river, by a long and gentle ascent, + rises the principal street, which is very bright and cheerful in its + physiognomy, and adorned with shop-fronts almost as splendid as those of + London, though on a diminutive scale. There are likewise side-streets and + cross-streets, many of which are bordered with the beautiful Warwickshire + elm, a most unusual kind of adornment for an English town; and spacious + avenues, wide enough to afford room for stately groves, with foot-paths + running beneath the lofty shade, and rooks cawing and chattering so high + in the tree-tops that their voices get musical before reaching the earth. + The houses are mostly built in blocks and ranges, in which every separate + tenement is a repetition of its fellow, though the architecture of the + different ranges is sufficiently various. Some of them are almost palatial + in size and sumptuousness of arrangement. Then, on the outskirts of the + town, there are detached villas, enclosed within that separate domain of + high stone fence and embowered shrubbery which an Englishman so loves to + build and plant around his abode, presenting to the public only an iron + gate, with a gravelled carriage-drive winding away towards the half-hidden + mansion. Whether in street or suburb, Leamington may fairly be called + beautiful, and, at some points, magnificent; but by and by you become + doubtfully suspicious of a somewhat unreal finery: it is pretentious, + though not glaringly so; it has been built with malice aforethought, as a + place of gentility and enjoyment. Moreover, splendid as the houses look, + and comfortable as they often are, there is a nameless something about + them, betokening that they have not grown out of human hearts, but are the + creations of a skilfully applied human intellect: no man has reared any + one of them, whether stately or humble, to be his lifelong residence, + wherein to bring up his children, who are to inherit it as a home. They + are nicely contrived lodging-houses, one and all,—the best as well + as the shabbiest of them, —and therefore inevitably lack some + nameless property that a home should have. This was the case with our own + little snuggery in Lansdowne Circus, as with all the rest; it had not + grown out of anybody's individual need, but was built to let or sell, and + was therefore like a ready-made garment,—a tolerable fit, but only + tolerable. + </p> + <p> + All these blocks, ranges, and detached villas are adorned with the finest + and most aristocratic manes that I have found anywhere in England, except, + perhaps, in Bath, which is the great metropolis of that second-class + gentility with which watering-places are chiefly populated. Lansdowne + Crescent, Lansdowne Circus, Lansdowne Terrace, Regent Street, Warwick + Street, Clarendon Street, the Upper and Lower Parade: such are a few of + the designations. Parade, indeed, is a well-chosen name for the principal + street, along which the population of the idle town draws itself out for + daily review and display. I only wish that my descriptive powers would + enable me to throw off a picture of the scene at a sunny noontide, + individualizing each character with a touch the great people alighting + from their carriages at the principal shop-doors; the elderly ladies and + infirm Indian officers drawn along in Bath-chairs; the comely, rather than + pretty, English girls, with their deep, healthy bloom, which an American + taste is apt to deem fitter for a milkmaid than for a lady; the mustached + gentlemen with frogged surtouts and a military air; the nursemaids and + chubby children, but no chubbier than our own, and scampering on slenderer + legs; the sturdy figure of John Bull in all varieties and of all ages, but + ever with the stamp of authenticity somewhere about him. + </p> + <p> + To say the truth, I have been holding the pen over my paper, purposing to + write a descriptive paragraph or two about the throng on the principal + Parade of Leamington, so arranging it as to present a sketch of the + British out-of-door aspect on a morning walk of gentility; but I find no + personages quite sufficiently distinct and individual in my memory to + supply the materials of such a panorama. + </p> + <p> + Oddly enough, the only figure that comes fairly forth to my mind's eye is + that of a dowager, one of hundreds whom I used to marvel at, all over + England, but who have scarcely a representative among our own ladies of + autumnal life, so thin, careworn, and frail, as age usually makes the + latter. + </p> + <p> + I have heard a good deal of the tenacity with which English ladies retain + their personal beauty to a late period of life; but (not to suggest that + an American eye needs use and cultivation before it can quite appreciate + the charm of English beauty at any age) it strikes me that an English lady + of fifty is apt to become a creature less refined and delicate, so far as + her physique goes, than anything that we Western people class under the + name of woman. She has an awful ponderosity of frame, not pulpy, like the + looser development of our few fat women, but massive with solid beef and + streaky tallow; so that (though struggling manfully against the idea) you + inevitably think of her as made up of steaks and sirloins. When she walks, + her advance is elephantine. When she sits down, it is on a great round + space of her Maker's footstool, where she looks as if nothing could ever + move her. She imposes awe and respect by the muchness of her personality, + to such a degree that you probably credit her with far greater moral and + intellectual force than she can fairly claim. Her visage is usually grim + and stern, seldom positively forbidding, yet calmly terrible, not merely + by its breadth and weight of feature, but because it seems to express so + much well-founded self-reliance, such acquaintance with the world, its + toils, troubles, and dangers, and such sturdy capacity for trampling down + a foe. Without anything positively salient, or actively offensive, or, + indeed, unjustly formidable to her neighbors, she has the effect of a + seventy-four gun-ship in time of peace; for, while you assure yourself + that there is no real danger, you cannot help thinking how tremendous + would be her onset, if pugnaciously inclined, and how futile the effort to + inflict any counter-injury. She certainly looks tenfold—nay, a + hundred-fold—better able to take care of herself than our + slender-framed and haggard womankind; but I have not found reason to + suppose that the English dowager of fifty has actually greater courage, + fortitude, and strength of character than our women of similar age, or + even a tougher physical endurance than they. Morally, she is strong, I + suspect, only in society, and in the common routine of social affairs, and + would be found powerless and timid in any exceptional strait that might + call for energy outside of the conventionalities amid which she has grown + up. + </p> + <p> + You can meet this figure in the street, and live, and even smile at the + recollection. But conceive of her in a ball-room, with the bare, brawny + arms that she invariably displays there, and all the other corresponding + development, such as is beautiful in the maiden blossom, but a spectacle + to howl at in such an over-blown cabbage-rose as this. + </p> + <p> + Yet, somewhere in this enormous bulk there must be hidden the modest, + slender, violet-nature of a girl, whom an alien mass of earthliness has + unkindly overgrown; for an English maiden in her teens, though very seldom + so pretty as our own damsels, possesses, to say the truth, a certain charm + of half-blossom, and delicately folded leaves, and tender womanhood + shielded by maidenly reserves, with which, somehow or other, our American + girls often fail to adorn themselves during an appreciable moment. It is a + pity that the English violet should grow into such an outrageously + developed peony as I have attempted to describe. I wonder whether a + middle-aged husband ought to be considered as legally married to all the + accretions that have overgrown the slenderness of his bride, since he led + her to the altar, and which make her so much more than he ever bargained + for! Is it not a sounder view of the case, that the matrimonial bond + cannot be held to include the three fourths of the wife that had no + existence when the ceremony was performed? And as a matter of conscience + and good morals, ought not an English married pair to insist upon the + celebration of a silver-wedding at the end of twenty-five years, in order + to legalize and mutually appropriate that corporeal growth of which both + parties have individually come into possession since they were pronounced + one flesh? + </p> + <p> + The chief enjoyment of my several visits to Leamington lay in rural walks + about the neighborhood, and in jaunts to places of note and interest, + which are particularly abundant in that region. The high-roads are made + pleasant to the traveller by a border of trees, and often afford him the + hospitality of a wayside bench beneath a comfortable shade. But a fresher + delight is to be found in the foot-paths, which go wandering away from + stile to stile, along hedges, and across broad fields, and through wooded + parks, leading you to little hamlets of thatched cottages, ancient, + solitary farm-houses, picturesque old mills, streamlets, pools, and all + those quiet, secret, unexpected, yet strangely familiar features of + English scenery that Tennyson shows us in his idyls and eclogues. These + by-paths admit the wayfarer into the very heart of rural life, and yet do + not burden him with a sense of intrusiveness. He has a right to go + whithersoever they lead him; for, with all their shaded privacy, they are + as much the property of the public as the dusty high-road itself, and even + by an older tenure. Their antiquity probably exceeds that of the Roman + ways; the footsteps of the aboriginal Britons first wore away the grass, + and the natural flow of intercourse between village and village has kept + the track bare ever since. An American farmer would plough across any such + path, and obliterate it with his hills of potatoes and Indian corn; but + here it is protected by law, and still more by the sacredness that + inevitably springs up, in this soil, along the well-defined footprints of + centuries. Old associations are sure to be fragrant herbs in English + nostrils; we pull them up as weeds. + </p> + <p> + I remember such a path, the access to which is from Lovers' Grove, a range + of tall old oaks and elms on a high hill-top, whence there is a view of + Warwick Castle, and a wide extent of landscape, beautiful, though bedimmed + with English mist. This particular foot-path, however, is not a remarkably + good specimen of its kind, since it leads into no hollows and seclusions, + and soon terminates in a high-road. It connects Leamington by a short cut + with the small neighboring village of Lillington, a place which impresses + an American observer with its many points of contrast to the rural aspects + of his own country. The village consists chiefly of one row of contiguous + dwellings, separated only by party-walls, but ill-matched among + themselves, being of different heights, and apparently of various ages, + though all are of an antiquity which we should call venerable. Some of the + windows are leaden-framed lattices, opening on hinges. These houses are + mostly built of gray stone; but others, in the same range, are of brick, + and one or two are in a very old fashion,— Elizabethan, or still + older,—having a ponderous framework of oak, painted black, and + filled in with plastered stone or bricks. Judging by the patches of + repair, the oak seems to be the more durable part of the structure. Some + of the roofs are covered with earthen tiles; others (more decayed and + poverty-stricken) with thatch, out of which sprouts a luxurious vegetation + of grass, house-leeks, and yellow flowers. What especially strikes an + American is the lack of that insulated space, the intervening gardens, + grass-plots, orchards, broad-spreading shade-trees, which occur between + our own village-houses. These English dwellings have no such separate + surroundings; they all grow together, like the cells of a honeycomb. + </p> + <p> + Beyond the first row of houses, and hidden from it by a turn of the road, + there was another row (or block, as we should call it) of small old + cottages, stuck one against another, with their thatched roofs forming a + single contiguity. These, I presume, were the habitations of the poorest + order of rustic laborers; and the narrow precincts of each cottage, as + well as the close neighborhood of the whole, gave the impression of a + stifled, unhealthy atmosphere among the occupants. It seemed impossible + that there should be a cleanly reserve, a proper self-respect among + individuals, or a wholesome unfamiliarity between families where human + life was crowded and massed into such intimate communities as these. + Nevertheless, not to look beyond the outside, I never saw a prettier rural + scene than was presented by this range of contiguous huts. For in front of + the whole row was a luxuriant and well-trimmed hawthorn hedge, and + belonging to each cottage was a little square of garden-ground, separated + from its neighbors by a line of the same verdant fence. The gardens were + chockfull, not of esculent vegetables, but of flowers, familiar ones, but + very bright-colored, and shrubs of box, some of which were trimmed into + artistic shapes; and I remember, before one door, a representation of + Warwick Castle, made of oyster-shells. The cottagers evidently loved the + little nests in which they dwelt, and did their best to make them + beautiful, and succeeded more than tolerably well,—so kindly did + nature help their humble efforts with its verdure, flowers, moss, lichens, + and the green things that grew out of the thatch. Through some of the open + doorways we saw plump children rolling about on the stone floors, and + their mothers, by no means very pretty, but as happy-looking as mothers + generally are; and while we gazed at these domestic matters, an old woman + rushed wildly out of one of the gates, upholding a shovel, on which she + clanged and clattered with a key. At first we fancied that she intended an + onslaught against ourselves, but soon discovered that a more dangerous + enemy was abroad; for the old lady's bees had swarmed, and the air was + full of them, whizzing by our heads like bullets. + </p> + <p> + Not far from these two rows of houses and cottages, a green lane, + overshadowed with trees, turned aside from the main road, and tended + towards a square, gray tower, the battlements of which were just high + enough to be visible above the foliage. Wending our way thitherward, we + found the very picture and ideal of a country church and churchyard. The + tower seemed to be of Norman architecture, low, massive, and crowned with + battlements. The body of the church was of very modest dimensions, and the + eaves so low that I could touch them with my walking-stick. We looked into + the windows and beheld the dim and quiet interior, a narrow space, but + venerable with the consecration of many centuries, and keeping its + sanctity as entire and inviolate as that of a vast cathedral. The nave was + divided from the side aisles of the church by pointed arches resting on + very sturdy pillars: it was good to see how solemnly they held themselves + to their age-long task of supporting that lowly roof. There was a small + organ, suited in size to the vaulted hollow, which it weekly filled with + religious sound. On the opposite wall of the church, between two windows, + was a mural tablet of white marble, with an inscription in black letters,—the + only such memorial that I could discern, although many dead people + doubtless lay beneath the floor, and had paved it with their ancient + tombstones, as is customary in old English churches. There were no modern + painted windows, flaring with raw colors, nor other gorgeous adornments, + such as the present taste for mediaeval restoration often patches upon the + decorous simplicity of the gray village-church. It is probably the + worshipping-place of no more distinguished a congregation than the farmers + and peasantry who inhabit the houses and cottages which I have just + described. Had the lord of the manor been one of the parishioners, there + would have been an eminent pew near the chancel, walled high about, + curtained, and softly cushioned, warmed by a fireplace of its own, and + distinguished by hereditary tablets and escutcheons on the enclosed stone + pillar. + </p> + <p> + A well-trodden path led across the churchyard, and the gate being on the + latch, we entered, and walked round among the graves and monuments. The + latter were chiefly head-stones, none of which were very old, so far as + was discoverable by the dates; some, indeed, in so ancient a cemetery, + were disagreeably new, with inscriptions glittering like sunshine in gold + letters. The ground must have been dug over and over again, innumerable + times, until the soil is made up of what was once human clay, out of which + have sprung successive crops of gravestones, that flourish their allotted + time, and disappear, like the weeds and flowers in their briefer period. + The English climate is very unfavorable to the endurance of memorials in + the open air. Twenty years of it suffice to give as much antiquity of + aspect, whether to tombstone or edifice, as a hundred years of our own + drier atmosphere,—so soon do the drizzly rains and constant moisture + corrode the surface of marble or freestone. Sculptured edges loose their + sharpness in a year or two; yellow lichens overspread a beloved name, and + obliterate it while it is yet fresh upon some survivor's heart. Time gnaws + an English gravestone with wonderful appetite; and when the inscription is + quite illegible, the sexton takes the useless slab away, and perhaps makes + a hearthstone of it, and digs up the unripe bones which it ineffectually + tried to memorialize, and gives the bed to another sleeper. In the Charter + Street burial-ground at Salem, and in the old graveyard on the hill at + Ipswich, I have seen more ancient gravestones, with legible inscriptions + on them, than in any English churchyard. + </p> + <p> + And yet this same ungenial climate, hostile as it generally is to the long + remembrance of departed people, has sometimes a lovely way of dealing with + the records on certain monuments that lie horizontally in the open air. + The rain falls into the deep incisions of the letters, and has scarcely + time to be dried away before another shower sprinkles the flat stone + again, and replenishes those little reservoirs. The unseen, mysterious + seeds of mosses find their way into the lettered furrows, and are made to + germinate by the continual moisture and watery sunshine of the English + sky; and by and by, in a year, or two years, or many years, behold the + complete inscription— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Here Lieth the body, +</pre> + <p> + and all the rest of the tender falsehood—beautifully embossed in + raised letters of living green, a bas-relief of velvet moss on the marble + slab! It becomes more legible, under the skyey influences, after the world + has forgotten the deceased, than when it was fresh from the stone-cutter's + hands. It outlives the grief of friends. I first saw an example of this in + Bebbington churchyard, in Cheshire, and thought that Nature must needs + have had a special tenderness for the person (no noted man, however, in + the world's history) so long ago laid beneath that stone, since she took + such wonderful pains to "keep his memory green." Perhaps the proverbial + phrase just quoted may have had its origin in the natural phenomenon here + described. + </p> + <p> + While we rested ourselves on a horizontal monument, which was elevated + just high enough to be a convenient seat, I observed that one of the + gravestones lay very close to the church,—so close that the + droppings of the eaves would fall upon it. It seemed as if the inmate of + that grave had desired to creep under the church-wall. On closer + inspection, we found an almost illegible epitaph on the stone, and with + difficulty made out this forlorn verse:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Poorly lived, + And poorly died, + Poorly buried, + And no one cried." +</pre> + <p> + It would be hard to compress the story of a cold and luckless life, death, + and burial into fewer words, or more impressive ones; at least, we found + them impressive, perhaps because we had to re-create the inscription by + scraping away the lichens from the faintly traced letters. The grave was + on the shady and damp side of the church, endwise towards it, the + head-stone being within about three feet of the foundation-wall; so that, + unless the poor man was a dwarf, he must have been doubled up to fit him + into his final resting-place. No wonder that his epitaph murmured against + so poor a burial as this! His name, as well as I could make it out, was + Treeo,—John Treeo, I think,—and he died in 1810, at the age of + seventy-four. The gravestone is so overgrown with grass and weeds, so + covered with unsightly lichens, and so crumbly with time and foul weather, + that it is questionable whether anybody will ever be at the trouble of + deciphering it again. But there is a quaint and sad kind of enjoyment in + defeating (to such slight degree as my pen may do it) the probabilities of + oblivion for poor John Treeo, and asking a little sympathy for him, half a + century after his death, and making him better and more widely known, at + least, than any other slumberer in Lillington churchyard: he having been, + as appearances go, the outcast of them all. + </p> + <p> + You find similar old churches and villages in all the neighboring country, + at the distance of every two or three miles; and I describe them, not as + being rare, but because they are so common and characteristic. The village + of Whitnash, within twenty minutes' walk of Leamington, looks as secluded, + as rural, and as little disturbed by the fashions of to-day, as if Dr. + Jephson had never developed all those Parades and Crescents out of his + magic well. I used to wonder whether the inhabitants had ever yet heard of + railways, or, at their slow rate of progress, had even reached the epoch + of stage-coaches. As you approach the village, while it is yet unseen, you + observe a tall, overshadowing canopy of elm-tree tops, beneath which you + almost hesitate to follow the public road, on account of the remoteness + that seems to exist between the precincts of this old-world community and + the thronged modern street out of which you have so recently emerged. + Venturing onward, however, you soon find yourself in the heart of + Whitnash, and see an irregular ring of ancient rustic dwellings + surrounding the village-green, on one side of which stands the church, + with its square Norman tower and battlements, while close adjoining is the + vicarage, made picturesque by peaks and gables. At first glimpse, none of + the houses appear to be less than two or three centuries old, and they are + of the ancient, wooden-framed fashion, with thatched roofs, which give + them the air of birds' nests, thereby assimilating them closely to the + simplicity of nature. + </p> + <p> + The church-tower is mossy and much gnawed by time; it has narrow loopholes + up and down its front and sides, and an arched window over the low portal, + set with small panes of glass, cracked, dim, and irregular, through which + a bygone age is peeping out into the daylight. Some of those old, + grotesque faces, called gargoyles, are seen on the projections of the + architecture. The churchyard is very small, and is encompassed by a gray + stone fence that looks as ancient as the church itself. In front of the + tower, on the village-green, is a yew-tree of incalculable age, with a + vast circumference of trunk, but a very scanty head of foliage; though its + boughs still keep some of the vitality which perhaps was in its early + prime when the Saxon invaders founded Whitnash. A thousand years is no + extraordinary antiquity in the lifetime of a yew. We were pleasantly + startled, however, by discovering an exuberance of more youthful life than + we had thought possible in so old a tree; for the faces of two children + laughed at us out of an opening in the trunk, which had become hollow with + long decay. On one side of the yew stood a framework of worm-eaten timber, + the use and meaning of which puzzled me exceedingly, till I made it out to + be the village-stocks; a public institution that, in its day, had + doubtless hampered many a pair of shank-bones, now crumbling in the + adjacent churchyard. It is not to be supposed, however, that this + old-fashioned mode of punishment is still in vogue among the good people + of Whitnash. The vicar of the parish has antiquarian propensities, and had + probably dragged the stocks out of some dusty hiding-place, and set them + up on their former site as a curiosity. + </p> + <p> + I disquiet myself in vain with the effort to hit upon some characteristic + feature, or assemblage of features, that shall convey to the reader the + influence of hoar antiquity lingering into the present daylight, as I so + often felt it in these old English scenes. It is only an American who can + feel it; and even he begins to find himself growing insensible to its + effect, after a long residence in England. But while you are still new in + the old country, it thrills you with strange emotion to think that this + little church of Whitnash, humble as it seems, stood for ages under the + Catholic faith, and has not materially changed since Wickcliffe's days, + and that it looked as gray as now in Bloody Mary's time, and that + Cromwell's troopers broke off the stone noses of those same gargoyles that + are now grinning in your face. So, too, with the immemorial yew-tree: you + see its great roots grasping hold of the earth like gigantic claws, + clinging so sturdily that no effort of time can wrench them away; and + there being life in the old tree, you feel all the more as if a + contemporary witness were telling you of the things that have been. It has + lived among men, and been a familiar object to them, and seen them brought + to be christened and married and buried in the neighboring church and + churchyard, through so many centuries, that it knows all about our race, + so far as fifty generations of the Whitnash people can supply such + knowledge. + </p> + <p> + And, after all, what a weary life it must have been for the old tree! + Tedious beyond imagination! Such, I think, is the final impression on the + mind of an American visitor, when his delight at finding something + permanent begins to yield to his Western love of change, and he becomes + sensible of the heavy air of a spot where the forefathers and foremothers + have grown up together, intermarried, and died, through a long succession + of lives, without any intermixture of new elements, till family features + and character are all run in the same inevitable mould. Life is there + fossilized in its greenest leaf. The man who died yesterday or ever so + long ago walks the village-street to day, and chooses the same wife that + he married a hundred years since, and must be buried again to-morrow under + the same kindred dust that has already covered him half a score of times. + The stone threshold of his cottage is worn away with his hobnailed + footsteps, shuffling over it from the reign of the first Plantagenet to + that of Victoria. Better than this is the lot of our restless countrymen, + whose modern instinct bids them tend always towards "fresh woods and + pastures new." Rather than such monotony of sluggish ages, loitering on a + village-green, toiling in hereditary fields, listening to the parson's + drone lengthened through centuries in the gray Norman church, let us + welcome whatever change may come,—change of place, social customs, + political institutions, modes of worship,—trusting, that, if all + present things shall vanish, they will but make room for better systems, + and for a higher type of man to clothe his life in them, and to fling them + off in turn. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, while an American willingly accepts growth and change as the + law of his own national and private existence, he has a singular + tenderness for the stone-incrusted institutions of the mother-country. The + reason may be (though I should prefer a more generous explanation) that he + recognizes the tendency of these hardened forms to stiffen her joints and + fetter her ankles, in the race and rivalry of improvement. I hated to see + so much as a twig of ivy wrenched away from an old wall in England. Yet + change is at work, even in such a village as Whitnash. At a subsequent + visit, looking more critically at the irregular circle of dwellings that + surround the yew-tree and confront the church, I perceived that some of + the houses must have been built within no long time, although the thatch, + the quaint gables, and the old oaken framework of the others diffused an + air of antiquity over the whole assemblage. The church itself was + undergoing repair and restoration, which is but another name for change. + Masons were making patchwork on the front of the tower, and were sawing a + slab of stone and piling up bricks to strengthen the side-wall, or + possibly to enlarge the ancient edifice by an additional aisle. Moreover, + they had dug an immense pit in the churchyard, long and broad, and fifteen + feet deep, two thirds of which profundity were discolored by human decay, + and mixed up with crumbly bones. What this excavation was intended for I + could nowise imagine, unless it were the very pit in which Longfellow bids + the "Dead Past bury its Dead," and Whitnash, of all places in the world, + were going to avail itself of our poet's suggestion. If so, it must needs + be confessed that many picturesque and delightful things would be thrown + into the hole, and covered out of sight forever. + </p> + <p> + The article which I am writing has taken its own course, and occupied + itself almost wholly with country churches; whereas I had purposed to + attempt a description of some of the many old towns—Warwick, + Coventry, Kenilworth, Stratford-on-Avon—which lie within an easy + scope of Leamington. And still another church presents itself to my + remembrance. It is that of Hatton, on which I stumbled in the course of a + forenoon's ramble, and paused a little while to look at it for the sake of + old Dr. Parr, who was once its vicar. Hatton, so far as I could discover, + has no public-house, no shop, no contiguity of roofs (as in most English + villages, however small), but is merely an ancient neighborhood of + farm-houses, spacious, and standing wide apart, each within its own + precincts, and offering a most comfortable aspect of orchards, + harvest-fields, barns, stacks, and all manner of rural plenty. It seemed + to be a community of old settlers, among whom everything had been going on + prosperously since an epoch beyond the memory of man; and they kept a + certain privacy among themselves, and dwelt on a cross-road, at the + entrance of which was a barred gate, hospitably open, but still impressing + me with a sense of scarcely warrantable intrusion. After all, in some + shady nook of those gentle Warwickshire slopes there may have been a + denser and more populous settlement, styled Hatton, which I never reached. + </p> + <p> + Emerging from the by-road, and entering upon one that crossed it at right + angles and led to Warwick, I espied the church of Dr. Parr. Like the + others which I have described, it had a low stone tower, square, and + battlemented at its summit: for all these little churches seem to have + been built on the same model, and nearly at the same measurement, and have + even a greater family-likeness than the cathedrals. As I approached, the + bell of the tower (a remarkably deep-toned bell, considering how small it + was) flung its voice abroad, and told me that it was noon. The church + stands among its graves, a little removed from the wayside, quite apart + from any collection of houses, and with no signs of vicarage; it is a good + deal shadowed by trees, and not wholly destitute of ivy. The body of the + edifice, unfortunately (and it is an outrage which the English + church-wardens are fond of perpetrating), has been newly covered with a + yellowish plaster or wash, so as quite to destroy the aspect of antiquity, + except upon the tower, which wears the dark gray hue of many centuries. + The chancel-window is painted with a representation of Christ upon the + Cross, and all the other windows are full of painted or stained glass, but + none of it ancient, nor (if it be fair to judge from without of what ought + to be seen within) possessing any of the tender glory that should be the + inheritance of this branch of Art, revived from mediaeval times. I stepped + over the graves, and peeped in at two or three of the windows, and saw the + snug interior of the church glimmering through the many-colored panes, + like a show of commonplace objects under the fantastic influence of a + dream: for the floor was covered with modern pews, very like what we may + see in a New England meeting-house, though, I think, a little more + favorable than those would be to the quiet slumbers of the Hatton farmers + and their families. Those who slept under Dr. Parr's preaching now prolong + their nap, I suppose, in the churchyard round about, and can scarcely have + drawn much spiritual benefit from any truths that he contrived to tell + them in their lifetime. It struck me as a rare example (even where + examples are numerous) of a man utterly misplaced, that this enormous + scholar, great in the classic tongues, and inevitably converting his own + simplest vernacular into a learned language, should have been set up in + this homely pulpit, and ordained to preach salvation to a rustic audience, + to whom it is difficult to imagine how he could ever have spoken one + available word. + </p> + <p> + Almost always, in visiting such scenes as I have been attempting to + describe, I had a singular sense of having been there before. The + ivy-grown English churches (even that of Bebbington, the first that I + beheld) were quite as familiar to me, when fresh from home, as the old + wooden meeting-house in Salem, which used, on wintry Sabbaths, to be the + frozen purgatory of my childhood. This was a bewildering, yet very + delightful emotion fluttering about me like a faint summer wind, and + filling my imagination with a thousand half-remembrances, which looked as + vivid as sunshine, at a side-glance, but faded quite away whenever I + attempted to grasp and define them. Of course, the explanation of the + mystery was, that history, poetry, and fiction, books of travel, and the + talk of tourists, had given me pretty accurate preconceptions of the + common objects of English scenery, and these, being long ago vivified by a + youthful fancy, had insensibly taken their places among the images of + things actually seen. Yet the illusion was often so powerful, that I + almost doubted whether such airy remembrances might not be a sort of + innate idea, the print of a recollection in some ancestral mind, + transmitted, with fainter and fainter impress through several descents, to + my own. I felt, indeed, like the stalwart progenitor in person, returning + to the hereditary haunts after more than two hundred years, and finding + the church, the hall, the farm-house, the cottage, hardly changed during + his long absence,—the same shady by-paths and hedge-lanes, the same + veiled sky, and green lustre of the lawns and fields,—while his own + affinities for these things, a little obscured by disuse, were reviving at + every step. + </p> + <p> + An American is not very apt to love the English people, as a whole, on + whatever length of acquaintance. I fancy that they would value our regard, + and even reciprocate it in their ungracious way, if we could give it to + them in spite of all rebuffs; but they are beset by a curious and + inevitable infelicity, which compels them, as it were, to keep up what + they seem to consider a wholesome bitterness of feeling between themselves + and all other nationalities, especially that of America. They will never + confess it; nevertheless, it is as essential a tonic to them as their + bitter ale. Therefore,—and possibly, too, from a similar narrowness + in his own character,—an American seldom feels quite as if he were + at home among the English people. If he do so, he has ceased to be an + American. But it requires no long residence to make him love their island, + and appreciate it as thoroughly as they themselves do. For my part, I used + to wish that we could annex it, transferring their thirty millions of + inhabitants to some convenient wilderness in the great West, and putting + half or a quarter as many of ourselves into their places. The change would + be beneficial to both parties. We, in our dry atmosphere, are getting too + nervous, haggard, dyspeptic, extenuated, unsubstantial, theoretic, and + need to be made grosser. John Bull, on the other hand, has grown bulbous, + long-bodied, short-legged, heavy-witted, material, and, in a word, too + intensely English. In a few more centuries he will be the earthliest + creature that ever the earth saw. Heretofore Providence has obviated such + a result by timely intermixtures of alien races with the old English + stock; so that each successive conquest of England has proved a victory by + the revivification and improvement of its native manhood. Cannot America + and England hit upon some scheme to secure even greater advantages to both + nations? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ABOUT WARWICK. + </h2> + <p> + Between bright, new Leamington, the growth of the present century, and + rusty Warwick, founded by King Cymbeline in the twilight ages, a thousand + years before the mediaeval darkness, there are two roads, either of which + may be measured by a sober-paced pedestrian in less than half an hour. + </p> + <p> + One of these avenues flows out of the midst of the smart parades and + crescents of the former town,—along by hedges and beneath the shadow + of great elms, past stuccoed Elizabethan villas and wayside alehouses, and + through a hamlet of modern aspect,—and runs straight into the + principal thoroughfare of Warwick. The battlemented turrets of the castle, + embowered half-way up in foliage, and the tall, slender tower of St. + Mary's Church, rising from among clustered roofs, have been visible almost + from the commencement of the walk. Near the entrance of the town stands + St. John's School-House, a picturesque old edifice of stone, with four + peaked gables in a row, alternately plain and ornamented, and wide, + projecting windows, and a spacious and venerable porch, all overgrown with + moss and ivy, and shut in from the world by a high stone fence, not less + mossy than the gabled front. There is an iron gate, through the rusty + open-work of which you see a grassy lawn, and almost expect to meet the + shy, curious eyes of the little boys of past generations, peeping forth + from their infantile antiquity into the strangeness of our present life. I + find a peculiar charm in these long-established English schools, where the + school-boy of to-day sits side by side, as it were, with his + great-grandsire, on the same old benches, and often, I believe, thumbs a + later, but unimproved edition of the same old grammar or arithmetic. The + newfangled notions of a Yankee school-committee would madden many a + pedagogue, and shake down the roof of many a time-honored seat of + learning, in the mother-country. + </p> + <p> + At this point, however, we will turn back, in order to follow up the other + road from Leamington, which was the one that I loved best to take. It + pursues a straight and level course, bordered by wide gravel-walks and + overhung by the frequent elm, with here a cottage and there a villa, on + one side a wooded plantation, and on the other a rich field of grass or + grain, until, turning at right angles, it brings you to an arched bridge + over the Avon. Its parapet is a balustrade carved out of freestone, into + the soft substance of which a multitude of persons have engraved their + names or initials, many of them now illegible, while others, more deeply + cut, are illuminated with fresh green moss. These tokens indicate a famous + spot; and casting our eyes along the smooth gleam and shadow of the quiet + stream, through a vista of willows that droop on either side into the + water, we behold the gray magnificence of Warwick Castle, uplifting itself + among stately trees, and rearing its turrets high above their loftiest + branches. We can scarcely think the scene real, so completely do those + machicolated towers, the long line of battlements, the massive buttresses, + the high-windowed walls, shape out our indistinct ideas of the antique + time. It might rather seem as if the sleepy river (being Shakespeare's + Avon, and often, no doubt, the mirror of his gorgeous visions) were + dreaming now of a lordly residence that stood here many centuries ago; and + this fantasy is strengthened, when you observe that the image in the + tranquil water has all the distinctness of the actual structure. Either + might be the reflection of the other. Wherever Time has gnawed one of the + stones, you see the mark of his tooth just as plainly in the sunken + reflection. Each is so perfect, that the upper vision seems a castle in + the air, and the lower one an old stronghold of feudalism, miraculously + kept from decay in an enchanted river. + </p> + <p> + A ruinous and ivy-grown bridge, that projects from the bank a little on + the hither side of the castle, has the effect of making the scene appear + more entirely apart from the every-day world, for it ends abruptly in the + middle of the stream,—so that, if a cavalcade of the knights and + ladies of romance should issue from the old walls, they could never tread + on earthly ground, any more than we, approaching from the side of modern + realism, can overleap the gulf between our domain and theirs. Yet, if we + seek to disenchant ourselves, it may readily be done. Crossing the bridge + on which we stand, and passing a little farther on, we come to the + entrance of the castle, abutting on the highway, and hospitably open at + certain hours to all curious pilgrims who choose to disburse half a crown + or so toward the support of the earl's domestics. The sight of that long + series of historic rooms, full of such splendors and rarities as a great + English family necessarily gathers about itself, in its hereditary abode, + and in the lapse of ages, is well worth the money, or ten times as much, + if indeed the value of the spectacle could be reckoned in money's-worth. + But after the attendant has hurried you from end to end of the edifice, + repeating a guide-book by rote, and exorcising each successive hall of its + poetic glamour and witchcraft by the mere tone in which he talks about it, + you will make the doleful discovery that Warwick Castle has ceased to be a + dream. It is better, methinks, to linger on the bridge, gazing at Caesar's + Tower and Guy's Tower in the dim English sunshine above, and in the placid + Avon below, and still keep them as thoughts in your own mind, than climb + to their summits, or touch even a stone of their actual substance. They + will have all the more reality for you, as stalwart relics of immemorial + time, if you are reverent enough to leave them in the intangible sanctity + of a poetic vision. + </p> + <p> + From the bridge over the Avon, the road passes in front of the + castle-gate, and soon enters the principal street of Warwick, a little + beyond St. John's School-House, already described. Chester itself, most + antique of English towns, can hardly show quainter architectural shapes + than many of the buildings that border this street. They are mostly of the + timber-and-plaster kind, with bowed and decrepit ridge-poles, and a whole + chronology of various patchwork in their walls; their low-browed doorways + open upon a sunken floor; their projecting stories peep, as it were, over + one another's shoulders, and rise into a multiplicity of peaked gables; + they have curious windows, breaking out irregularly all over the house, + some even in the roof, set in their own little peaks, opening + lattice-wise, and furnished with twenty small panes of lozenge-shaped + glass. The architecture of these edifices (a visible oaken framework, + showing the whole skeleton of the house,—as if a man's bones should + be arranged on his outside, and his flesh seen through the interstices) is + often imitated by modern builders, and with sufficiently picturesque + effect. The objection is, that such houses, like all imitations of bygone + styles, have an air of affectation; they do not seem to be built in + earnest; they are no better than playthings, or overgrown baby-houses, in + which nobody should be expected to encounter the serious realities of + either birth or death. Besides, originating nothing, we leave no fashions + for another age to copy, when we ourselves shall have grown antique. + </p> + <p> + Old as it looks, all this portion of Warwick has overbrimmed, as it were, + from the original settlement, being outside of the ancient wall. The + street soon runs under an arched gateway, with a church or some other + venerable structure above it, and admits us into the heart of the town. At + one of my first visits, I witnessed a military display. A regiment of + Warwickshire militia, probably commanded by the Earl, was going through + its drill in the market-place; and on the collar of one of the officers + was embroidered the Bear and Ragged Staff, which has been the cognizance + of the Warwick earldom from time immemorial. The soldiers were sturdy + young men, with the simple, stolid, yet kindly faces of English rustics, + looking exceedingly well in a body, but slouching into a yeoman-like + carriage and appearance the moment they were dismissed from drill. Squads + of them were distributed everywhere about the streets, and sentinels were + posted at various points; and I saw a sergeant, with a great key in his + hand (big enough to have been the key of the castle's main entrance when + the gate was thickest and heaviest), apparently setting a guard. Thus, + centuries after feudal times are past, we find warriors still gathering + under the old castle-walls, and commanded by a feudal lord, just as in the + days of the King-Maker, who, no doubt, often mustered his retainers in the + same market-place where I beheld this modern regiment. + </p> + <p> + The interior of the town wears a less old-fashioned aspect than the + suburbs through which we approach it; and the High Street has shops with + modern plate-glass, and buildings with stuccoed fronts, exhibiting as few + projections to hang a thought or sentiment upon as if an architect of + to-day had planned them. And, indeed, so far as their surface goes, they + are perhaps new enough to stand unabashed in an American street; but + behind these renovated faces, with their monotonous lack of expression, + there is probably the substance of the same old town that wore a Gothic + exterior in the Middle Ages. The street is an emblem of England itself. + What seems new in it is chiefly a skilful and fortunate adaptation of what + such a people as ourselves would destroy. The new things are based and + supported on sturdy old things, and derive a massive strength from their + deep and immemorial foundations, though with such limitations and + impediments as only an Englishman could endure. But he likes to feel the + weight of all the past upon his back; and, moreover, the antiquity that + overburdens him has taken root in his being, and has grown to be rather a + hump than a pack, so that there is no getting rid of it without tearing + his whole structure to pieces. In my judgment, as he appears to be + sufficiently comfortable under the mouldy accretion, he had better stumble + on with it as long as he can. He presents a spectacle which is by no means + without its charm for a disinterested and unencumbered observer. + </p> + <p> + When the old edifice, or the antiquated custom or institution, appears in + its pristine form, without any attempt at intermarrying it with modern + fashions, an American cannot but admire the picturesque effect produced by + the sudden cropping up of an apparently dead-and-buried state of society + into the actual present, of which he is himself a part. We need not go far + in Warwick without encountering an instance of the kind. Proceeding + westward through the town, we find ourselves confronted by a huge mass of + natural rock, hewn into something like architectural shape, and penetrated + by a vaulted passage, which may well have been one of King Cymbeline's + original gateways; and on the top of the rock, over the archway, sits a + small old church, communicating with an ancient edifice, or assemblage of + edifices, that look down from a similar elevation on the side of the + street. A range of trees half hides the latter establishment from the sun. + It presents a curious and venerable specimen of the timber-and-plaster + style of building, in which some of the finest old houses in England are + constructed; the front projects into porticos and vestibules, and rises + into many gables, some in a row, and others crowning semi-detached + portions of the structure; the windows mostly open on hinges, but show a + delightful irregularity of shape and position; a multiplicity of chimneys + break through the roof at their own will, or, at least, without any + settled purpose of the architect. The whole affair looks very old,—so + old indeed that the front bulges forth, as if the timber framework were a + little weary, at last, of standing erect so long; but the state of repair + is so perfect, and there is such an indescribable aspect of continuous + vitality within the system of this aged house, that you feel confident + that there may be safe shelter yet, and perhaps for centuries to come, + under its time-honored roof. And on a bench, sluggishly enjoying the + sunshine, and looking into the street of Warwick as from a life apart, a + few old men are generally to be seen, wrapped in long cloaks, on which you + may detect the glistening of a silver badge representing the Bear and + Ragged Staff. These decorated worthies are some of the twelve brethren of + Leicester's Hospital,—a community which subsists to-day under the + identical modes that were established for it in the reign of Queen + Elizabeth, and of course retains many features of a social life that has + vanished almost everywhere else. + </p> + <p> + The edifice itself dates from a much older period than the charitable + institution of which it is now the home. It was the seat of a religious + fraternity far back in the Middle Ages, and continued so till Henry VIII. + turned all the priesthood of England out of doors, and put the most + unscrupulous of his favorites into their vacant abodes. In many instances, + the old monks had chosen the sites of their domiciles so well, and built + them on such a broad system of beauty and convenience, that their + lay-occupants found it easy to convert them into stately and comfortable + homes; and as such they still exist, with something of the antique + reverence lingering about them. The structure now before us seems to have + been first granted to Sir Nicholas Lestrange, who perhaps intended, like + other men, to establish his household gods in the niches whence he had + thrown down the images of saints, and to lay his hearth where an altar had + stood. But there was probably a natural reluctance in those days (when + Catholicism, so lately repudiated, must needs have retained an influence + over all but the most obdurate characters) to bring one's hopes of + domestic prosperity and a fortunate lineage into direct hostility with the + awful claims of the ancient religion. At all events, there is still a + superstitious idea, betwixt a fantasy and a belief, that the possession of + former Church-property has drawn a curse along with it, not only among the + posterity of those to whom it was originally granted, but wherever it has + subsequently been transferred, even if honestly bought and paid for. There + are families, now inhabiting some of the beautiful old abbeys, who appear + to indulge a species of pride in recording the strange deaths and ugly + shapes of misfortune that have occurred among their predecessors, and may + be supposed likely to dog their own pathway down the ages of futurity. + Whether Sir Nicholas Lestrange, in the beef-eating days of Old Harry and + Elizabeth, was a nervous man, and subject to apprehensions of this kind, I + cannot tell; but it is certain that he speedily rid himself of the spoils + of the Church, and that, within twenty years afterwards, the edifice + became the property of the famous Dudley, Earl of Leicester, brother of + the Earl of Warwick. He devoted the ancient religious precinct to a + charitable use, endowing it with an ample revenue, and making it the + perpetual home of twelve poor, honest, and war-broken soldiers, mostly his + own retainers, and natives either of Warwickshire or Gloucestershire. + These veterans, or others wonderfully like them, still occupy their + monkish dormitories and haunt the time-darkened corridors and galleries of + the hospital, leading a life of old-fashioned comfort, wearing the + old-fashioned cloaks, and burnishing the identical silver badges which the + Earl of Leicester gave to the original twelve. He is said to have been a + bad man in his day; but he has succeeded in prolonging one good deed into + what was to him a distant future. + </p> + <p> + On the projecting story, over the arched entrance, there is the date, + 1571, and several coats-of-arms, either the Earl's or those of his + kindred, and immediately above the doorway a stone sculpture of the Bear + and Ragged Staff. + </p> + <p> + Passing through the arch, we find ourselves in a quadrangle, or enclosed + court, such as always formed the central part of a great family residence + in Queen Elizabeth's time, and earlier. There can hardly be a more perfect + specimen of such an establishment than Leicester's Hospital. The + quadrangle is a sort of sky-roofed hall, to which there is convenient + access from all parts of the house. The four inner fronts, with their + high, steep roofs and sharp gables, look into it from antique windows, and + through open corridors and galleries along the sides; and there seems to + be a richer display of architectural devices and ornaments, quainter + carvings in oak, and more fantastic shapes of the timber framework, than + on the side toward the street. On the wall opposite the arched entrance + are the following inscriptions, comprising such moral rules, I presume, as + were deemed most essential for the daily observance of the community: + "Honor all Men"—"Fear God"—"Honor the King"—"Love the + Brotherhood"; and again, as if this latter injunction needed emphasis and + repetition among a household of aged people soured with the hard fortune + of their previous lives,—"Be kindly affectioned one to another." One + sentence, over a door communicating with the Master's side of the house, + is addressed to that dignitary,—"He that ruleth over men must be + just." All these are charactered in old English letters, and form part of + the elaborate ornamentation of the house. Everywhere—on the walls, + over windows and doors, and at all points where there is room to place + them— appear escutcheons of arms, cognizances, and crests, + emblazoned in their proper colors, and illuminating the ancient quadrangle + with their splendor. One of these devices is a large image of a porcupine + on an heraldic wreath, being the crest of the Lords de Lisle. But + especially is the cognizance of the Bear and Ragged Staff repeated over + and over, and over again and again, in a great variety of attitudes, at + full-length, and half-length, in paint and in oaken sculpture, in + bas-relief and rounded image. The founder of the hospital was certainly + disposed to reckon his own beneficence as among the hereditary glories of + his race; and had he lived and died a half-century earlier, he would have + kept up an old Catholic custom by enjoining the twelve bedesmen to pray + for the welfare of his soul. + </p> + <p> + At my first visit, some of the brethren were seated on the bench outside + of the edifice, looking down into the street; but they did not vouchsafe + me a word, and seemed so estranged from modern life, so enveloped in + antique customs and old-fashioned cloaks, that to converse with them would + have been like shouting across the gulf between our age and Queen + Elizabeth's. So I passed into the quadrangle, and found it quite solitary, + except that a plain and neat old woman happened to be crossing it, with an + aspect of business and carefulness that bespoke her a woman of this world, + and not merely a shadow of the past. Asking her if I could come in, she + answered very readily and civilly that I might, and said that I was free + to look about me, hinting a hope, however, that I would not open the + private doors of the brotherhood, as some visitors were in the habit of + doing. Under her guidance, I went into what was formerly the great hall of + the establishment, where King James I. had once been feasted by an Earl of + Warwick, as is commemorated by an inscription on the cobwebbed and dingy + wall. It is a very spacious and barn-like apartment, with a brick floor, + and a vaulted roof, the rafters of which are oaken beams, wonderfully + carved, but hardly visible in the duskiness that broods aloft. The hall + may have made a splendid appearance, when it was decorated with rich + tapestry, and illuminated with chandeliers, cressets, and torches + glistening upon silver dishes, where King James sat at supper among his + brilliantly dressed nobles; but it has come to base uses in these latter + days,—being improved, in Yankee phrase, as a brewery and wash-room, + and as a cellar for the brethren's separate allotments of coal. + </p> + <p> + The old lady here left me to myself, and I returned into the quadrangle. + It was very quiet, very handsome, in its own obsolete style, and must be + an exceedingly comfortable place for the old people to lounge in, when the + inclement winds render it inexpedient to walk abroad. There are shrubs + against the wall, on one side; and on another is a cloistered walk, + adorned with stags' heads and antlers, and running beneath a covered + gallery, up to which ascends a balustraded staircase. In the portion of + the edifice opposite the entrance-arch are the apartments of the Master; + and looking into the window (as the old woman, at no request of mine, had + specially informed me that I might), I saw a low, but vastly comfortable + parlor, very handsomely furnished, and altogether a luxurious place. It + had a fireplace with an immense arch, the antique breadth of which + extended almost from wall to wall of the room, though now fitted up in + such a way, that the modern coal-grate looked very diminutive in the + midst. Gazing into this pleasant interior, it seemed to me, that, among + these venerable surroundings, availing himself of whatever was good in + former things, and eking out their imperfection with the results of modern + ingenuity, the Master might lead a not unenviable life. On the cloistered + side of the quadrangle, where the dark oak panels made the enclosed space + dusky, I beheld a curtained window reddened by a great blaze from within, + and heard the bubbling and squeaking of something— doubtless very + nice and succulent—that was being cooked at the kitchen-fire. I + think, indeed, that a whiff or two of the savory fragrance reached my + nostrils; at all events, the impression grew upon me that Leicester's + Hospital is one of the jolliest old domiciles in England. + </p> + <p> + I was about to depart, when another old woman, very plainly dressed, but + fat, comfortable, and with a cheerful twinkle in her eyes, came in through + the arch, and looked curiously at me. This repeated apparition of the + gentle sex (though by no means under its loveliest guise) had still an + agreeable effect in modifying my ideas of an institution which I had + supposed to be of a stern and monastic character. She asked whether I + wished to see the hospital, and said that the porter, whose office it was + to attend to visitors, was dead, and would be buried that very day, so + that the whole establishment could not conveniently be shown me. She + kindly invited me, however, to visit the apartment occupied by her husband + and herself; so I followed her up the antique staircase, along the + gallery, and into a small, oak-panelled parlor, where sat an old man in a + long blue garment, who arose and saluted me with much courtesy. He seemed + a very quiet person, and yet had a look of travel and adventure, and gray + experience, such as I could have fancied in a palmer of ancient times, who + might likewise have worn a similar costume. The little room was carpeted + and neatly furnished; a portrait of its occupant was hanging on the wall; + and on a table were two swords crossed,—one, probably, his own + battle-weapon, and the other, which I drew half out of the scabbard, had + an inscription on the blade, purporting that it had been taken from the + field of Waterloo. My kind old hostess was anxious to exhibit all the + particulars of their housekeeping, and led me into the bedroom, which was + in the nicest order, with a snow-white quilt upon the bed; and in a little + intervening room was a washing and bathing apparatus; a convenience + (judging from the personal aspect and atmosphere of such parties) seldom + to be met with in the humbler ranks of British life. + </p> + <p> + The old soldier and his wife both seemed glad of somebody to talk with; + but the good woman availed herself of the privilege far more copiously + than the veteran himself, insomuch that he felt it expedient to give her + an occasional nudge with his elbow in her well-padded ribs. "Don't you be + so talkative!" quoth he; and, indeed, he could hardly find space for a + word, and quite as little after his admonition as before. Her nimble + tongue ran over the whole system of life in the hospital. The brethren, + she said, had a yearly stipend (the amount of which she did not mention), + and such decent lodgings as I saw, and some other advantages, free; and, + instead of being pestered with a great many rules, and made to dine + together at a great table, they could manage their little household + matters as they liked, buying their own dinners and having them cooked in + the general kitchen, and eating them snugly in their own parlors. "And," + added she, rightly deeming this the crowning privilege, "with the Master's + permission, they can have their wives to take care of them; and no harm + comes of it; and what more can an old man desire?" It was evident enough + that the good dame found herself in what she considered very rich clover, + and, moreover, had plenty of small occupations to keep her from getting + rusty and dull; but the veteran impressed me as deriving far less + enjoyment from the monotonous ease, without fear of change or hope of + improvement, that had followed upon thirty years of peril and vicissitude. + I fancied, too, that, while pleased with the novelty of a stranger's + visit, he was still a little shy of becoming a spectacle for the + stranger's curiosity; for, if he chose to be morbid about the matter, the + establishment was but an almshouse, in spite of its old-fashioned + magnificence, and his fine blue cloak only a pauper's garment, with a + silver badge on it that perhaps galled his shoulder. In truth, the badge + and the peculiar garb, though quite in accordance with the manners of the + Earl of Leicester's age, are repugnant to modern prejudices, and might + fitly and humanely be abolished. + </p> + <p> + A year or two afterwards I paid another visit to the hospital, and found a + new porter established in office, and already capable of talking like a + guide-book about the history, antiquities, and present condition of the + charity. He informed me that the twelve brethren are selected from among + old soldiers of good character, whose other resources must not exceed an + income of five pounds; thus excluding all commissioned officers, whose + half-pay would of course be more than that amount. They receive from the + hospital an annuity of eighty pounds each, besides their apartments, a + garment of fine blue cloth, an annual abundance of ale, and a privilege at + the kitchen-fire; so that, considering the class from which they are + taken, they may well reckon themselves among the fortunate of the earth. + Furthermore, they are invested with political rights, acquiring a vote for + member of Parliament in virtue either of their income or brotherhood. On + the other hand, as regards their personal freedom or conduct, they are + subject to a supervision which the Master of the hospital might render + extremely annoying, were he so inclined; but the military restraint under + which they have spent the active portion of their lives makes it easier + for them to endure the domestic discipline here imposed upon their age. + The porter bore his testimony (whatever were its value) to their being as + contented and happy as such a set of old people could possibly be, and + affirmed that they spent much time in burnishing their silver badges, and + were as proud of them as a nobleman of his star. These badges, by the by, + except one that was stolen and replaced in Queen Anne's time, are the very + same that decorated the original twelve brethren. + </p> + <p> + I have seldom met with a better guide than my friend the porter. He + appeared to take a genuine interest in the peculiarities of the + establishment, and yet had an existence apart from them, so that he could + the better estimate what those peculiarities were. To be sure, his + knowledge and observation were confined to external things, but, so far, + had a sufficiently extensive scope. He led me up the staircase and + exhibited portions of the timber framework of the edifice that are + reckoned to be eight or nine hundred years old, and are still neither + worm-eaten nor decayed; and traced out what had been a great hall in the + days of the Catholic fraternity, though its area is now filled up with the + apartments of the twelve brethren; and pointed to ornaments of sculptured + oak, done in an ancient religious style of art, but hardly visible amid + the vaulted dimness of the roof. Thence we went to the chapel—the + Gothic church which I noted several pages back—surmounting the + gateway that stretches half across the street. Here the brethren attend + daily prayer, and have each a prayer-book of the finest paper, with a + fair, large type for their old eyes. The interior of the chapel is very + plain, with a picture of no merit for an altar-piece, and a single old + pane of painted glass in the great eastern window, representing,—no + saint, nor angel, as is customary in such cases,—but that grim + sinner, the Earl of Leicester. Nevertheless, amid so many tangible proofs + of his human sympathy, one comes to doubt whether the Earl could have been + such a hardened reprobate, after all. + </p> + <p> + We ascended the tower of the chapel, and looked down between its + battlements into the street, a hundred feet below us; while clambering + half-way up were foxglove-flowers, weeds, small shrubs, and tufts of + grass, that had rooted themselves into the roughnesses of the stone + foundation. Far around us lay a rich and lovely English landscape, with + many a church-spire and noble country-seat, and several objects of high + historic interest. Edge Hill, where the Puritans defeated Charles I., is + in sight on the edge of the horizon, and much nearer stands the house + where Cromwell lodged on the night before the battle. Right under our + eyes, and half enveloping the town with its high-shouldering wall, so that + all the closely compacted streets seemed but a precinct of the estate, was + the Earl of Warwick's delightful park, a wide extent of sunny lawns, + interspersed with broad contiguities of forest-shade. Some of the cedars + of Lebanon were there,—a growth of trees in which the Warwick family + take an hereditary pride. The two highest towers of the castle heave + themselves up out of a mass of foliage, and look down in a lordly manner + upon the plebeian roofs of the town, a part of which are slate-covered + (these are the modern houses), and a part are coated with old red tiles, + denoting the more ancient edifices. A hundred and sixty or seventy years + ago, a great fire destroyed a considerable portion of the town, and + doubtless annihilated many structures of a remote antiquity; at least, + there was a possibility of very old houses in the long past of Warwick, + which King Cymbeline is said to have founded in the year ONE of the + Christian era! + </p> + <p> + And this historic fact or poetic fiction, whichever it may be, brings to + mind a more indestructible reality than anything else that has occurred + within the present field of our vision; though this includes the scene of + Guy of Warwick's legendary exploits, and some of those of the Round Table, + to say nothing of the Battle of Edge Hill. For perhaps it was in the + landscape now under our eyes that Posthumus wandered with the King's + daughter, the sweet, chaste, faithful, and courageous Imogen, the + tenderest and womanliest woman that Shakespeare ever made immortal in the + world. The silver Avon, which we see flowing so quietly by the gray + castle, may have held their images in its bosom. + </p> + <p> + The day, though it began brightly, had long been overcast, and the clouds + now spat down a few spiteful drops upon us, besides that the east-wind was + very chill; so we descended the winding tower-stair, and went next into + the garden, one side of which is shut in by almost the only remaining + portion of the old city-wall. A part of the garden-ground is devoted to + grass and shrubbery, and permeated by gravel-walks, in the centre of one + of which is a beautiful stone vase of Egyptian sculpture, that formerly + stood on the top of a Nilometer, or graduated pillar for measuring the + rise and fall of the river Nile. On the pedestal is a Latin inscription by + Dr. Parr, who (his vicarage of Hatton being so close at hand) was probably + often the Master's guest, and smoked his interminable pipe along these + garden-walks. Of the vegetable-garden, which lies adjacent, the lion's + share is appropriated to the Master, and twelve small, separate patches to + the individual brethren, who cultivate them at their own judgment and by + their own labor; and their beans and cauliflowers have a better flavor, I + doubt not, than if they had received them directly from the dead hand of + the Earl of Leicester, like the rest of their food. In the farther part of + the garden is an arbor for the old men's pleasure and convenience, and I + should like well to sit down among them there, and find out what is really + the bitter and the sweet of such a sort of life. As for the old gentlemen + themselves, they put me queerly in mind of the Salem Custom-House, and the + venerable personages whom I found so quietly at anchor there. + </p> + <p> + The Master's residence, forming one entire side of the quadrangle, fronts + on the garden, and wears an aspect at once stately and homely. It can + hardly have undergone any perceptible change within three centuries; but + the garden, into which its old windows look, has probably put off a great + many eccentricities and quaintnesses, in the way of cunningly clipped + shrubbery, since the gardener of Queen Elizabeth's reign threw down his + rusty shears and took his departure. The present Master's name is Harris; + he is a descendant of the founder's family, a gentleman of independent + fortune, and a clergyman of the Established Church, as the regulations of + the hospital require him to be. I know not what are his official + emoluments; but, according to an English precedent, an ancient charitable + fund is certain to be held directly for the behoof of those who administer + it, and perhaps incidentally, in a moderate way, for the nominal + beneficiaries; and, in the case before us, the twelve brethren being so + comfortably provided for, the Master is likely to be at least as + comfortable as all the twelve together. Yet I ought not, even in a distant + land, to fling an idle gibe against a gentleman of whom I really know + nothing, except that the people under his charge bear all possible tokens + of being tended and cared for as sedulously as if each of them sat by a + warm fireside of his own, with a daughter bustling round the hearth to + make ready his porridge and his titbits. It is delightful to think of the + good life which a suitable man, in the Master's position, has an + opportunity to lead,—linked to time-honored customs, welded in with + an ancient system, never dreaming of radical change, and bringing all the + mellowness and richness of the past down into these railway-days, which do + not compel him or his community to move a whit quicker than of yore. + Everybody can appreciate the advantages of going ahead; it might be well, + sometimes, to think whether there is not a word or two to be said in favor + of standing still or going to sleep. + </p> + <p> + From the garden we went into the kitchen, where the fire was burning + hospitably, and diffused a genial warmth far and wide, together with the + fragrance of some old English roast-beef, which, I think, must at that + moment have been done nearly to a turn. The kitchen is a lofty, spacious, + and noble room, partitioned off round the fireplace, by a sort of + semicircular oaken screen, or rather, an arrangement of heavy and + high-backed settles, with an ever-open entrance between them, on either + side of which is the omnipresent image of the Bear and Ragged Staff, three + feet high, and excellently carved in oak, now black with time and unctuous + kitchen-smoke. The ponderous mantel-piece, likewise of carved oak, towers + high towards the dusky ceiling, and extends its mighty breadth to take in + a vast area of hearth, the arch of the fireplace being positively so + immense that I could compare it to nothing but the city gateway. Above its + cavernous opening were crossed two ancient halberds, the weapons, + possibly, of soldiers who had fought under Leicester in the Low Countries; + and elsewhere on the walls were displayed several muskets, which some of + the present inmates of the hospital may have levelled against the French. + Another ornament of the mantel-piece was a square of silken needlework or + embroidery, faded nearly white, but dimly representing that wearisome Bear + and Ragged Staff, which we should hardly look twice at, only that it was + wrought by the fair fingers of poor Amy Robsart, and beautifully framed in + oak from Kenilworth Castle, at the expense of a Mr. Conner, a countryman + of our own. Certainly, no Englishman would be capable of this little bit + of enthusiasm. Finally, the kitchen-firelight glistens on a splendid + display of copper flagons, all of generous capacity, and one of them about + as big as a half-barrel; the smaller vessels contain the customary + allowance of ale, and the larger one is filled with that foaming liquor on + four festive occasions of the year, and emptied amain by the jolly + brotherhood. I should be glad to see them do it; but it would be an + exploit fitter for Queen Elizabeth's age than these degenerate times. + </p> + <p> + The kitchen is the social hall of the twelve brethren. In the daytime, + they bring their little messes to be cooked here, and eat them in their + own parlors; but after a certain hour, the great hearth is cleared and + swept, and the old men assemble round its blaze, each with his tankard and + his pipe, and hold high converse through the evening. If the Master be a + fit man for his office, methinks he will sometimes sit down sociably among + them; for there is an elbow-chair by the fireside which it would not + demean his dignity to fill, since it was occupied by King James at the + great festival of nearly three centuries ago. A sip of the ale and a whiff + of the tobacco-pipe would put him in friendly relations with his venerable + household; and then we can fancy him instructing them by pithy apothegms + and religious texts which were first uttered here by some Catholic priest + and have impregnated the atmosphere ever since. If a joke goes round, it + shall be of an elder coinage than Joe Miller's, as old as Lord Bacon's + collection, or as the jest-book that Master Slender asked for when he + lacked small-talk for sweet Anne Page. No news shall be spoken of later + than the drifting ashore, on the northern coast, of some stern-post or + figure-head, a barnacled fragment of one of the great galleons of the + Spanish Armada. What a tremor would pass through the antique group, if a + damp newspaper should suddenly be spread to dry before the fire! They + would feel as if either that printed sheet or they themselves must be an + unreality. What a mysterious awe, if the shriek of the railway-train, as + it reaches the Warwick station, should ever so faintly invade their ears! + Movement of any kind seems inconsistent with the stability of such an + institution. Nevertheless, I trust that the ages will carry it along with + them; because it is such a pleasant kind of dream for an American to find + his way thither, and behold a piece of the sixteenth century set into our + prosaic times, and then to depart, and think of its arched doorway as a + spell-guarded entrance which will never be accessible or visible to him + any more. + </p> + <p> + Not far from the market-place of Warwick stands the great church of St. + Mary's: a vast edifice, indeed, and almost worthy to be a cathedral. + People who pretend to skill in such matters say that it is in a poor style + of architecture, though designed (or, at least, extensively restored) by + Sir Christopher Wren; but I thought it very striking, with its wide, high, + and elaborate windows, its tall towers, its immense length, and (for it + was long before I outgrew this Americanism, the love of an old thing + merely for the sake of its age) the tinge of gray antiquity over the + whole. Once, while I stood gazing up at the tower, the clock struck twelve + with a very deep intonation, and immediately some chivies began to play, + and kept up their resounding music for five minutes, as measured by the + hand upon the dial. It was a very delightful harmony, as airy as the notes + of birds, and seemed, a not unbecoming freak of half-sportive fancy in the + huge, ancient, and solemn church; although I have seen an old-fashioned + parlor-clock that did precisely the same thing, in its small way. + </p> + <p> + The great attraction of this edifice is the Beauchamp (or, as the English, + who delight in vulgarizing their fine old Norman names, call it, the + Beechum) Chapel, where the Earls of Warwick and their kindred have been + buried, from four hundred years back till within a recent period. It is a + stately and very elaborate chapel, with a large window of ancient painted + glass, as perfectly preserved as any that I remember seeing in England, + and remarkably vivid in its colors. Here are several monuments with marble + figures recumbent upon them, representing the Earls in their knightly + armor, and their dames in the ruffs and court-finery of their day, looking + hardly stiffer in stone than they must needs have been in their starched + linen and embroidery. The renowned Earl of Leicester of Queen Elizabeth's + time, the benefactor of the hospital, reclines at full length on the + tablet of one of these tombs, side by side with his Countess,—not + Amy Robsart, but a lady who (unless I have confused the story with some + other mouldy scandal) is said to have avenged poor Amy's murder by + poisoning the Earl himself. Be that as it may, both figures, and + especially the Earl, look like the very types of ancient Honor and + Conjugal Faith. In consideration of his long-enduring kindness to the + twelve brethren, I cannot consent to believe him as wicked as he is + usually depicted; and it seems a marvel, now that so many well-established + historical verdicts have been reversed, why some enterprising writer does + not make out Leicester to have been the pattern nobleman of his age. + </p> + <p> + In the centre of the chapel is the magnificent memorial of its founder, + Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick in the time of Henry VI. On a richly + ornamented altar-tomb of gray marble lies the bronze figure of a knight in + gilded armor, most admirably executed: for the sculptors of those days had + wonderful skill in their own style, and could make so lifelike an image of + a warrior, in brass or marble, that, if a trumpet were sounded over his + tomb, you would expect him to start up and handle his sword. The Earl whom + we now speak of, however, has slept soundly in spite of a more serious + disturbance than any blast of a trumpet, unless it were the final one. + Some centuries after his death, the floor of the chapel fell down and + broke open the stone coffin in which he was buried; and among the + fragments appeared the anciently entombed Earl of Warwick, with the color + scarcely faded out of his cheeks, his eyes a little sunken, but in other + respects looking as natural as if he had died yesterday. But exposure to + the atmosphere appeared to begin and finish the long-delayed process of + decay in a moment, causing him to vanish like a bubble; so, that, almost + before there had been time to wonder at him, there was nothing left of the + stalwart Earl save his hair. This sole relic the ladies of Warwick made + prize of, and braided it into rings and brooches for their own adornment; + and thus, with a chapel and a ponderous tomb built on purpose to protect + his remains, this great nobleman could not help being brought untimely to + the light of day, nor even keep his lovelocks on his skull after he had so + long done with love. There seems to be a fatality that disturbs people in + their sepulchres, when they have been over-careful to render them + magnificent and impregnable,—as witness the builders of the + Pyramids, and Hadrian, Augustus, and the Scipios, and most other + personages whose mausoleums have been conspicuous enough to attract the + violator; and as for dead men's hair, I have seen a lock of King Edward + the Fourth's, of a reddish-brown color, which perhaps was once twisted + round the delicate forefinger of Mistress Shore. + </p> + <p> + The direct lineage of the renowned characters that lie buried in this + splendid chapel has long been extinct. The earldom is now held by the + Grevilles, descendants of the Lord Brooke who was slain in the + Parliamentary War; and they have recently (that is to say, within a + century) built a burial-vault on the other side of the church, calculated + (as the sexton assured me, with a nod as if he were pleased) to afford + suitable and respectful accommodation to as many as fourscore coffins. + Thank Heaven, the old man did not call them "CASKETS"!—a vile modern + phrase, which compels a person of sense and good taste to shrink more + disgustfully than ever before from the idea of being buried at all. But as + regards those eighty coffins, only sixteen have as yet been contributed; + and it may be a question with some minds, not merely whether the Grevilles + will hold the earldom of Warwick until the full number shall be made up, + but whether earldoms and all manner of lordships will not have faded out + of England long before those many generations shall have passed from the + castle to the vault. I hope not. A titled and landed aristocracy, if + anywise an evil and an encumbrance, is so only to the nation which is + doomed to bear it on its shoulders; and an American, whose sole relation + to it is to admire its picturesque effect upon society, ought to be the + last man to quarrel with what affords him so much gratuitous enjoyment. + Nevertheless, conservative as England is, and though I scarce ever found + an Englishman who seemed really to desire change, there was continually a + dull sound in my ears as if the old foundations of things were crumbling + away. Some time or other,—by no irreverent effort of violence, but, + rather, in spite of all pious efforts to uphold a heterogeneous pile of + institutions that will have outlasted their vitality,—at some + unexpected moment, there must come a terrible crash. The sole reason why I + should desire it to happen in my day is, that I might be there to see! But + the ruin of my own country is, perhaps, all that I am destined to witness; + and that immense catastrophe (though I am strong in the faith that there + is a national lifetime of a thousand years in us yet) would serve any man + well enough as his final spectacle on earth. + </p> + <p> + If the visitor is inclined to carry away any little memorial of Warwick, + he had better go to an Old Curiosity Shop in the High Street, where there + is a vast quantity of obsolete gewgaws, great and small, and many of them + so pretty and ingenious that you wonder how they came to be thrown aside + and forgotten. As regards its minor tastes, the world changes, but does + not improve; it appears to me, indeed, that there have been epochs of far + more exquisite fancy than the present one, in matters of personal + ornament, and such delicate trifles as we put upon a drawing-room table, a + mantel-piece, or a whatnot. The shop in question is near the East Gate, + but is hardly to be found without careful search, being denoted only by + the name of "REDFERN," painted not very conspicuously in the top-light of + the door. Immediately on entering, we find ourselves among a confusion of + old rubbish and valuables, ancient armor, historic portraits, ebony + cabinets inlaid with pearl, tall, ghostly clocks, hideous old china, dim + looking-glasses in frames of tarnished magnificence,—a thousand + objects of strange aspect, and others that almost frighten you by their + likeness in unlikeness to things now in use. It is impossible to give an + idea of the variety of articles, so thickly strewn about that we can + scarcely move without overthrowing some great curiosity with a crash, or + sweeping away some small one hitched to our sleeves. Three stories of the + entire house are crowded in like manner. The collection, even as we see it + exposed to view, must have been got together at great cost; but the real + treasures of the establishment lie in secret repositories, whence they are + not likely to be drawn forth at an ordinary summons; though, if a + gentleman with a competently long purse should call for them, I doubt not + that the signet-ring of Joseph's friend Pharaoh, or the Duke of Alva's + leading-staff, or the dagger that killed the Duke of Buckingham (all of + which I have seen), or any other almost incredible thing, might make its + appearance. Gold snuff-boxes, antique gems, jewelled goblets, Venetian + wine-glasses (which burst when poison is poured into them, and therefore + must not be used for modern wine-drinking), jasper-handled knives, painted + Sevres teacups,—in short, there are all sorts of things that a + virtuoso ransacks the world to discover. + </p> + <p> + It would be easier to spend a hundred pounds in Mr. Redfern's shop than to + keep the money in one's pocket; but, for my part, I contented myself with + buying a little old spoon of silver-gilt, and fantastically shaped, and + got it at all the more reasonable rate because there happened to be no + legend attached to it. I could supply any deficiency of that kind at much + less expense than regilding the spoon! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RECOLLECTIONS OF A GIFTED WOMAN. + </h2> + <p> + From Leamington to Stratford-on-Avon the distance is eight or nine miles, + over a road that seemed to me most beautiful. Not that I can recall any + memorable peculiarities; for the country, most of the way, is a succession + of the gentlest swells and subsidences, affording wide and far glimpses of + champaign scenery here and there, and sinking almost to a dead level as we + draw near Stratford. Any landscape in New England, even the tamest, has a + more striking outline, and besides would have its blue eyes open in those + lakelets that we encounter almost from mile to mile at home, but of which + the Old Country is utterly destitute; or it would smile in our faces + through the medium of the wayside brooks that vanish under a low stone + arch on one side of the road, and sparkle out again on the other. Neither + of these pretty features is often to be found in an English scene. The + charm of the latter consists in the rich verdure of the fields, in the + stately wayside trees and carefully kept plantations of wood, and in the + old and high cultivation that has humanized the very sods by mingling so + much of man's toil and care among them. To an American there is a kind of + sanctity even in an English turnip-field, when he thinks how long that + small square of ground has been known and recognized as a possession, + transmitted from father to son, trodden often by memorable feet, and + utterly redeemed from savagery by old acquaintanceship with civilized + eyes. The wildest things in England are more than half tame. The trees, + for instance, whether in hedge-row, park, or what they call forest, have + nothing wild about them. They are never ragged; there is a certain + decorous restraint in the freest outspread of their branches, though they + spread wider than any self-nurturing tree; they are tall, vigorous, bulky, + with a look of age-long life, and a promise of more years to come, all of + which will bring them into closer kindred with the race of man. Somebody + or other has known them from the sapling upward; and if they endure long + enough, they grow to be traditionally observed and honored, and connected + with the fortunes of old families, till, like Tennyson's Talking Oak, they + babble with a thousand leafy tongues to ears that can understand them. + </p> + <p> + An American tree, however, if it could grow in fair competition with an + English one of similar species, would probably be the more picturesque + object of the two. The Warwickshire elm has not so beautiful a shape as + those that overhang our village street; and as for the redoubtable English + oak, there is a certain John Bullism in its figure, a compact rotundity of + foliage, a lack of irregular and various outline, that make it look + wonderfully like a gigantic cauliflower. Its leaf, too, is much smaller + than that of most varieties of American oak; nor do I mean to doubt that + the latter, with free leave to grow, reverent care and cultivation, and + immunity from the axe, would live out its centuries as sturdily as its + English brother, and prove far the nobler and more majestic specimen of a + tree at the end of them. Still, however one's Yankee patriotism may + struggle against the admission, it must be owned that the trees and other + objects of an English landscape take hold of the observer by numberless + minute tendrils, as it were, which, look as closely as we choose, we never + find in an American scene. The parasitic growth is so luxuriant, that the + trunk of the tree, so gray and dry in our climate, is better worth + observing than the boughs and foliage; a verdant messiness coats it all + over; so that it looks almost as green as the leaves; and often, moreover, + the stately stem is clustered about, high upward, with creeping and + twining shrubs, the ivy, and sometimes the mistletoe, close-clinging + friends, nurtured by the moisture and never too fervid sunshine, and + supporting themselves by the old tree's abundant strength. We call it a + parasitical vegetation; but, if the phrase imply any reproach, it is + unkind to bestow it on this beautiful affection and relationship which + exist in England between one order of plants and another: the strong tree + being always ready to give support to the trailing shrub, lift it to the + sun, and feed it out of its own heart, if it crave such food; and the + shrub, on its part, repaying its foster-father with an ample luxuriance of + beauty, and adding Corinthian grace to the tree's lofty strength. No + bitter winter nips these tender little sympathies, no hot sun burns the + life out of them; and therefore they outlast the longevity of the oak, + and, if the woodman permitted, would bury it in a green grave, when all is + over. + </p> + <p> + Should there be nothing else along the road to look at, an English hedge + might well suffice to occupy the eyes, and, to a depth beyond what he + would suppose, the heart of an American. We often set out hedges in our + own soil, but might as well set out figs or pineapples and expect to + gather fruit of them. Something grows, to be sure, which we choose to call + a hedge; but it lacks the dense, luxuriant variety of vegetation that is + accumulated into the English original, in which a botanist would find a + thousand shrubs and gracious herbs that the hedgemaker never thought of + planting there. Among them, growing wild, are many of the kindred blossoms + of the very flowers which our pilgrim fathers brought from England, for + the sake of their simple beauty and homelike associations, and which we + have ever since been cultivating in gardens. There is not a softer trait + to be found in the character of those stern men than that they should have + been sensible of these flower-roots clinging among the fibres of their + rugged hearts, and have felt the necessity of bringing them over sea and + making them hereditary in the new land, instead of trusting to what rarer + beauty the wilderness might have in store for them. + </p> + <p> + Or, if the roadside has no hedge, the ugliest stone fence (such as, in + America, would keep itself bare and unsympathizing till the end of time) + is sure to be covered with the small handiwork of Nature; that careful + mother lets nothing go naked there, and if she cannot provide clothing, + gives at least embroidery. No sooner is the fence built than she adopts + and adorns it as a part of her original plan, treating the hard, uncomely + construction as if it had all along been a favorite idea of her own. A + little sprig of ivy may be seen creeping up the side of the low wall and + clinging fast with its many feet to the rough surface; a tuft of grass + roots itself between two of the stones, where a pinch or two of wayside + dust has been moistened into nutritious soil for it; a small bunch of fern + grows in another crevice; a deep, soft, verdant moss spreads itself along + the top and over all the available inequalities of the fence; and where + nothing else will grow, lichens stick tenaciously to the bare stones and + variegate the monotonous gray with hues of yellow and red. Finally, a + great deal of shrubbery clusters along the base of the stone wall, and + takes away the hardness of its outline; and in due time, as the upshot of + these apparently aimless or sportive touches, we recognize that the + beneficent Creator of all things, working through his handmaiden whom we + call Nature, has deigned to mingle a charm of divine gracefulness even + with so earthly an institution as a boundary fence. The clown who wrought + at it little dreamed what fellow-laborer he had. + </p> + <p> + The English should send us photographs of portions of the trunks of trees, + the tangled and various products of a hedge, and a square foot of an old + wall. They can hardly send anything else so characteristic. Their artists, + especially of the later school, sometimes toil to depict such subjects, + but are apt to stiffen the lithe tendrils in the process. The poets + succeed better, with Tennyson at their head, and often produce ravishing + effects by dint of a tender minuteness of touch, to which the genius of + the soil and climate artfully impels them: for, as regards grandeur, there + are loftier scenes in many countries than the best that England can show; + but, for the picturesqueness of the smallest object that lies under its + gentle gloom and sunshine, there is no scenery like it anywhere. + </p> + <p> + In the foregoing paragraphs I have strayed away to a long distance from + the road to Stratford-on-Avon; for I remember no such stone fences as I + have been speaking of in Warwickshire, nor elsewhere in England, except + among the Lakes, or in Yorkshire, and the rough and hilly countries to the + north of it. Hedges there were along my road, however, and broad, level + fields, rustic hamlets, and cottages of ancient date,—from the roof + of one of which the occupant was tearing away the thatch, and showing what + an accumulation of dust, dirt, mouldiness, roots of weeds, families of + mice, swallows' nests, and hordes of insects had been deposited there + since that old straw was new. Estimating its antiquity from these tokens, + Shakespeare himself, in one of his morning rambles out of his native town, + might have seen the thatch laid on; at all events, the cottage-walls were + old enough to have known him as a guest. A few modern villas were also to + be seen, and perhaps there were mansions of old gentility at no great + distance, but hidden among trees; for it is a point of English pride that + such houses seldom allow themselves to be visible from the high-road. In + short, I recollect nothing specially remarkable along the way, nor in the + immediate approach to Stratford; and yet the picture of that June morning + has a glory in my memory, owing chiefly, I believe, to the charm of the + English summer-weather, the really good days of which are the most + delightful that mortal man can ever hope to be favored with. Such a genial + warmth! A little too warm, it might be, yet only to such a degree as to + assure an American (a certainty to which he seldom attains till attempered + to the customary austerity of an English summer-day) that he was quite + warm enough. And after all, there was an unconquerable freshness in the + atmosphere, which every little movement of a breeze shook over me like a + dash of the ocean-spray. Such days need bring us no other happiness than + their own light and temperature. No doubt, I could not have enjoyed it so + exquisitely, except that there must be still latent in us Western + wanderers (even after an absence of two centuries and more), an adaptation + to the English climate which makes us sensible of a motherly kindness in + its scantiest sunshine, and overflows us with delight at its more lavish + smiles. + </p> + <p> + The spire of Shakespeare's church—the Church of the Holy Trinity—begins + to show itself among the trees at a little distance from Stratford. Next + we see the shabby old dwellings, intermixed with mean-looking houses of + modern date; and the streets being quite level, you are struck and + surprised by nothing so much as the tameness of the general scene, as if + Shakespeare's genius were vivid enough to have wrought pictorial splendors + in the town where he was born. Here and there, however, a queer edifice + meets your eye, endowed with the individuality that belongs only to the + domestic architecture of times gone by; the house seems to have grown out + of some odd quality in its inhabitant, as a sea-shell is moulded from + within by the character of its innate; and having been built in a strange + fashion, generations ago, it has ever since been growing stranger and + quainter, as old humorists are apt to do. Here, too (as so often impressed + me in decayed English towns), there appeared to be a greater abundance of + aged people wearing small-clothes and leaning on sticks than you could + assemble on our side of the water by sounding a trumpet and proclaiming a + reward for the most venerable. I tried to account for this phenomenon by + several theories: as, for example, that our new towns are unwholesome for + age and kill it off unseasonably; or that our old men have a subtile sense + of fitness, and die of their own accord rather than live in an unseemly + contrast with youth and novelty but the secret may be, after all, that + hair-dyes, false teeth, modern arts of dress, and other contrivances of a + skin-deep youthfulness, have not crept into these antiquated English + towns, and so people grow old without the weary necessity of seeming + younger than they are. + </p> + <p> + After wandering through two or three streets, I found my way to + Shakespeare's birthplace, which is almost a smaller and humbler house than + any description can prepare the visitor to expect; so inevitably does an + august inhabitant make his abode palatial to our imaginations, receiving + his guests, indeed, in a castle in the air, until we unwisely insist on + meeting him among the sordid lanes and alleys of lower earth. The portion + of the edifice with which Shakespeare had anything to do is hardly large + enough, in the basement, to contain the butcher's stall that one of his + descendants kept, and that still remains there, windowless, with the + cleaver-cuts in its hacked counter, which projects into the street under a + little penthouse-roof, as if waiting for a new occupant. + </p> + <p> + The upper half of the door was open, and, on my rapping at it, a young + person in black made her appearance and admitted me; she was not a menial, + but remarkably genteel (an American characteristic) for an English girl, + and was probably the daughter of the old gentlewoman who takes care of the + house. This lower room has a pavement of gray slabs of stone, which may + have been rudely squared when the house was new, but are now all cracked, + broken, and disarranged in a most unaccountable way. One does not see how + any ordinary usage, for whatever length of time, should have so smashed + these heavy stones; it is as if an earthquake had burst up through the + floor, which afterwards had been imperfectly trodden down again. The room + is whitewashed and very clean, but wofully shabby and dingy, coarsely + built, and such as the most poetical imagination would find it difficult + to idealize. In the rear of this apartment is the kitchen, a still smaller + room, of a similar rude aspect; it has a great, rough fireplace, with + space for a large family under the blackened opening of the chimney, and + an immense passageway for the smoke, through which Shakespeare may have + seen the blue sky by day and the stars glimmering down at him by night. It + is now a dreary spot where the long-extinguished embers used to be. A + glowing fire, even if it covered only a quarter part of the hearth, might + still do much towards making the old kitchen cheerful. But we get a + depressing idea of the stifled, poor, sombre kind of life that could have + been lived in such a dwelling, where this room seems to have been the + gathering-place of the family, with no breadth or scope, no good + retirement, but old and young huddling together cheek by jowl. What a + hardy plant was Shakespeare's genius, how fatal its development, since it + could not be blighted in such an atmosphere! It only brought human nature + the closer to him, and put more unctuous earth about his roots. + </p> + <p> + Thence I was ushered up stairs to the room in which Shakespeare is + supposed to have been born: though, if you peep too curiously into the + matter, you may find the shadow of an ugly doubt on this, as well as most + other points of his mysterious life. It is the chamber over the butcher's + shop, and is lighted by one broad window containing a great many small, + irregular panes of glass. The floor is made of planks, very rudely hewn, + and fitting together with little neatness; the naked beams and rafters, at + the sides of the room and overhead, bear the original marks of the + builder's broad-axe, with no evidence of an attempt to smooth off the job. + Again we have to reconcile ourselves to the smallness of the space + enclosed by these illustrious walls,—a circumstance more difficult + to accept, as regards places that we have heard, read, thought, and + dreamed much about, than any other disenchanting particular of a mistaken + ideal. A few paces—perhaps seven or eight—take us from end to + end of it. So low it is, that I could easily touch the ceiling, and might + have done so without a tiptoe-stretch, had it been a good deal higher; and + this humility of the chamber has tempted a vast multitude of people to + write their names overhead in pencil. Every inch of the sidewalls, even + into the obscurest nooks and corners, is covered with a similar record; + all the window-panes, moreover, are scrawled with diamond signatures, + among which is said to be that of Walter Scott; but so many persons have + sought to immortalize themselves in close vicinity to his name, that I + really could not trace him out. Methinks it is strange that people do not + strive to forget their forlorn little identities, in such situations, + instead of thrusting them forward into the dazzle of a great renown, + where, if noticed, they cannot but be deemed impertinent. + </p> + <p> + This room, and the entire house, so far as I saw it, are whitewashed and + exceedingly clean; nor is there the aged, musty smell with which old + Chester first made me acquainted, and which goes far to cure an American + of his excessive predilection for antique residences. An old lady, who + took charge of me up stairs, had the manners and aspect of a gentlewoman, + and talked with somewhat formidable knowledge and appreciative + intelligence about Shakespeare. Arranged on a table and in chairs were + various prints, views of houses and scenes connected with Shakespeare's + memory, together with editions of his works and local publications about + his home and haunts, from the sale of which this respectable lady perhaps + realizes a handsome profit. At any rate, I bought a good many of them, + conceiving that it might be the civillest way of requiting her for her + instructive conversation and the trouble she took in showing me the house. + It cost me a pang (not a curmudgeonly, but a gentlemanly one) to offer a + downright fee to the lady-like girl who had admitted me; but I swallowed + my delicate scruples with some little difficulty, and she digested hers, + so far as I could observe, with no difficulty at all. In fact, nobody need + fear to hold out half a crown to any person with whom he has occasion to + speak a word in England. + </p> + <p> + I should consider it unfair to quit Shakespeare's house without the frank + acknowledgment that I was conscious of not the slightest emotion while + viewing it, nor any quickening of the imagination. This has often happened + to me in my visits to memorable places. Whatever pretty and apposite + reflections I may have made upon the subject had either occurred to me + before I ever saw Stratford, or have been elaborated since. It is + pleasant, nevertheless, to think that I have seen the place; and I believe + that I can form a more sensible and vivid idea of Shakespeare as a + flesh-and-blood individual now that I have stood on the kitchen-hearth and + in the birth-chamber; but I am not quite certain that this power of + realization is altogether desirable in reference to a great poet. The + Shakespeare whom I met there took various guises, but had not his laurel + on. He was successively the roguish boy,—the youthful deer-stealer,— + the comrade of players,—the too familiar friend of Davenant's + mother,— the careful, thrifty, thriven man of property who came back + from London to lend money on bond, and occupy the best house in Stratford,—the + mellow, red-nosed, autumnal boon-companion of John a' Combe,—and + finally (or else the Stratford gossips belied him), the victim of + convivial habits, who met his death by tumbling into a ditch on his way + home from a drinking-bout, and left his second-best bed to his poor wife. + </p> + <p> + I feel, as sensibly as the reader can, what horrible impiety it is to + remember these things, be they true or false. In either case, they ought + to vanish out of sight on the distant ocean-line of the past, leaving a + pure, white memory, even as a sail, though perhaps darkened with many + stains, looks snowy white on the far horizon. But I draw a moral from + these unworthy reminiscences and this embodiment of the poet, as suggested + by some of the grimy actualities of his life. It is for the high interests + of the world not to insist upon finding out that its greatest men are, in + a certain lower sense, very much the same kind of men as the rest of us, + and often a little worse; because a common mind cannot properly digest + such a discovery, nor ever know the true proportion of the great man's + good and evil, nor how small a part of him it was that touched our muddy + or dusty earth. Thence comes moral bewilderment, and even intellectual + loss, in regard to what is best of him. When Shakespeare invoked a curse + on the man who should stir his bones, he perhaps meant the larger share of + it for him or them who should pry into his perishing earthliness, the + defects or even the merits of the character that he wore in Stratford, + when he had left mankind so much to muse upon that was imperishable and + divine. Heaven keep me from incurring any part of the anathema in requital + for the irreverent sentences above written! + </p> + <p> + From Shakespeare's house, the next step, of course, is to visit his + burial-place. The appearance of the church is most venerable and + beautiful, standing amid a great green shadow of lime-trees, above which + rises the spire, while the Gothic battlements and buttresses and vast + arched windows are obscurely seen through the boughs. The Avon loiters + past the churchyard, an exceedingly sluggish river, which might seem to + have been considering which way it should flow ever since Shakespeare left + off paddling in it and gathering the large forget-me-nots that grow among + its flags and water-weeds. + </p> + <p> + An old man in small-clothes was waiting at the gate; and inquiring whether + I wished to go in, he preceded me to the church-porch, and rapped. I could + have done it quite as effectually for myself; but it seems, the old people + of the neighborhood haunt about the churchyard, in spite of the frowns and + remonstrances of the sexton, who grudges them the half-eleemosynary + sixpence which they sometimes get from visitors. I was admitted into the + church by a respectable-looking and intelligent man in black, the + parish-clerk, I suppose, and probably holding a richer incumbency than his + vicar, if all the fees which he handles remain in his own pocket. He was + already exhibiting the Shakespeare monuments to two or three visitors, and + several other parties came in while I was there. + </p> + <p> + The poet and his family are in possession of what may be considered the + very best burial-places that the church affords. They lie in a row, right + across the breadth of the chancel, the foot of each gravestone being close + to the elevated floor on which the altar stands. Nearest to the side-wall, + beneath Shakespeare's bust, is a slab bearing a Latin inscription + addressed to his wife, and covering her remains; then his own slab, with + the old anathematizing stanza upon it; then that of Thomas Nash, who + married his granddaughter; then that of Dr. Hall, the husband of his + daughter Susannah; and, lastly, Susannah's own. Shakespeare's is the + commonest-looking slab of all, being just such a flag-stone as Essex + Street in Salem used to be paved with, when I was a boy. Moreover, unless + my eyes or recollection deceive me, there is a crack across it, as if it + had already undergone some such violence as the inscription deprecates. + Unlike the other monuments of the family, it bears no name, nor am I + acquainted with the grounds or authority on which it is absolutely + determined to be Shakespeare's; although, being in a range with those of + his wife and children, it might naturally be attributed to him. But, then, + why does his wife, who died afterwards, take precedence of him and occupy + the place next his bust? And where are the graves of another daughter and + a son, who have a better right in the family row than Thomas Nash, his + grandson-in-law? Might not one or both of them have been laid under the + nameless stone? But it is dangerous trifling with Shakespeare's dust; so I + forbear to meddle further with the grave (though the prohibition makes it + tempting), and shall let whatever bones be in it rest in peace. Yet I must + needs add that the inscription on the bust seems to imply that + Shakespeare's grave was directly underneath it. + </p> + <p> + The poet's bust is affixed to the northern wall of the church, the base of + it being about a man's height, or rather more, above the floor of the + chancel. The features of this piece of sculpture are entirely unlike any + portrait of Shakespeare that I have ever seen, and compel me to take down + the beautiful, lofty-browed, and noble picture of him which has hitherto + hung in my mental portrait-gallery. The bust cannot be said to represent a + beautiful face or an eminently noble head; but it clutches firmly hold of + one's sense of reality and insists upon your accepting it, if not as + Shakespeare the poet, yet as the wealthy burgher of Stratford, the friend + of John a' Combe, who lies yonder in the corner. I know not what the + phrenologists say to the bust. The forehead is but moderately developed, + and retreats somewhat, the upper part of the skull rising pyramidally; the + eyes are prominent almost beyond the penthouse of the brow; the upper lip + is so long that it must have been almost a deformity, unless the sculptor + artistically exaggerated its length, in consideration, that, on the + pedestal, it must be foreshortened by being looked at from below. On the + whole, Shakespeare must have had a singular rather than a prepossessing + face; and it is wonderful how, with this bust before its eyes, the world + has persisted in maintaining an erroneous notion of his appearance, + allowing painters and sculptors to foist their idealized nonsense on its + all, instead of the genuine man. For my part, the Shakespeare of my mind's + eye is henceforth to be a personage of a ruddy English complexion, with a + reasonably capacious brow, intelligent and quickly observant eyes, a nose + curved slightly outward, a long, queer upper lip, with the mouth a little + unclosed beneath it, and cheeks considerably developed in the lower part + and beneath the chin. But when Shakespeare was himself (for nine tenths of + the time, according to all appearances, he was but the burgher of + Stratford), he doubtless shone through this dull mask and transfigured it + into the face of an angel. + </p> + <p> + Fifteen or twenty feet behind the row of Shakespeare gravestones is the + great east-window of the church, now brilliant with stained glass of + recent manufacture. On one side of this window, under a sculptured arch of + marble, lies a full-length marble figure of John a' Combe, clad in what I + take to be a robe of municipal dignity, and holding its hands devoutly + clasped. It is a sturdy English figure, with coarse features, a type of + ordinary man whom we smile to see immortalized in the sculpturesque + material of poets and heroes; but the prayerful attitude encourages us to + believe that the old usurer may not, after all, have had that grim + reception in the other world which Shakespeare's squib foreboded for him. + By the by, till I grew somewhat familiar with Warwickshire pronunciation, + I never understood that the point of those ill-natured lines was a pun. + "'Oho!' quoth the Devil, ''t is my John a' Combe'"—that is, "My John + has come!" + </p> + <p> + Close to the poet's bust is a nameless, oblong, cubic tomb, supposed to be + that of a clerical dignitary of the fourteenth century. The church has + other mural monuments and altar-tombs, one or two of the latter upholding + the recumbent figures of knights in armor and their dames, very eminent + and worshipful personages in their day, no doubt, but doomed to appear + forever intrusive and impertinent within the precincts which Shakespeare + has made his own. His renown is tyrannous, and suffers nothing else to be + recognized within the scope of its material presence, unless illuminated + by some side-ray from himself. The clerk informed me that interments no + longer take place in any part of the church. And it is better so; for + methinks a person of delicate individuality, curious about his + burial-place, and desirous of six feet of earth for himself alone, could + never endure to be buried near Shakespeare, but would rise up at midnight + and grope his way out of the church-door, rather than sleep in the shadow + of so stupendous a memory. + </p> + <p> + I should hardly have dared to add another to the innumerable descriptions + of Stratford-on-Avon, if it had not seemed to me that this would form a + fitting framework to some reminiscences of a very remarkable woman. Her + labor, while she lived, was of a nature and purpose outwardly irreverent + to the name of Shakespeare, yet, by its actual tendency, entitling her to + the distinction of being that one of all his worshippers who sought, + though she knew it not, to place the richest and stateliest diadem upon + his brow. We Americans, at least, in the scanty annals of our literature, + cannot afford to forget her high and conscientious exercise of noble + faculties, which, indeed, if you look at the matter in one way, evolved + only a miserable error, but, more fairly considered, produced a result + worth almost what it cost her. Her faith in her own ideas was so genuine, + that, erroneous as they were, it transmuted them to gold, or, at all + events, interfused a large proportion of that precious and indestructible + substance among the waste material from which it can readily be sifted. + </p> + <p> + The only time I ever saw Miss Bacon was in London, where she had lodgings + in Spring Street, Sussex Gardens, at the house of a grocer, a portly, + middle-aged, civil, and friendly man, who, as well as his wife, appeared + to feel a personal kindness towards their lodger. I was ushered up two + (and I rather believe three) pair of stairs into a parlor somewhat humbly + furnished, and told that Miss Bacon would come soon. There were a number + of books on the table, and, looking into them, I found that every one had + some reference, more or less immediate, to her Shakespearian theory,—a + volume of Raleigh's "History of the World," a volume of Montaigne, a + volume of Lord Bacon's letters, a volume of Shakespeare's plays; and on + another table lay a large roll of manuscript, which I presume to have been + a portion of her work. To be sure, there was a pocket-Bible among the + books, but everything else referred to the one despotic idea that had got + possession of her mind; and as it had engrossed her whole soul as well as + her intellect, I have no doubt that she had established subtile + connections between it and the Bible likewise. As is apt to be the case + with solitary students, Miss Bacon probably read late and rose late; for I + took up Montaigne (it was Hazlitt's translation) and had been reading his + journey to Italy a good while before she appeared. + </p> + <p> + I had expected (the more shame for me, having no other ground of such + expectation than that she was a literary woman) to see a very homely, + uncouth, elderly personage, and was quite agreeably disappointed by her + aspect. She was rather uncommonly tall, and had a striking and expressive + face, dark hair, dark eyes, which shone with an inward light as soon as + she began to speak, and by and by a color came into her cheeks and made + her look almost young. Not that she really was so; she must have been + beyond middle age: and there was no unkindness in coming to that + conclusion, because, making allowance for years and ill-health, I could + suppose her to have been handsome and exceedingly attractive once. Though + wholly estranged from society, there was little or no restraint or + embarrassment in her manner: lonely people are generally glad to give + utterance to their pent-up ideas, and often bubble over with them as + freely as children with their new-found syllables. I cannot tell how it + came about, but we immediately found ourselves taking a friendly and + familiar tone together, and began to talk as if we had known one another a + very long while. A little preliminary correspondence had indeed smoothed + the way, and we had a definite topic in the contemplated publication of + her book. + </p> + <p> + She was very communicative about her theory, and would have been much more + so had I desired it; but, being conscious within myself of a sturdy + unbelief, I deemed it fair and honest rather to repress than draw her out + upon the subject. Unquestionably, she was a monomaniac; these + overmastering ideas about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, and the + deep political philosophy concealed beneath the surface of them, had + completely thrown her off her balance; but at the same time they had + wonderfully developed her intellect, and made her what she could not + otherwise have become. It was a very singular phenomenon: a system of + philosophy growing up in thus woman's mind without her volition,— + contrary, in fact, to the determined resistance of her volition,—and + substituting itself in the place of everything that originally grew there. + To have based such a system on fancy, and unconsciously elaborated it for + herself, was almost as wonderful as really to have found it in the plays. + But, in a certain sense, she did actually find it there. Shakespeare has + surface beneath surface, to an immeasurable depth, adapted to the + plummet-line of every reader; his works present many phases of truth, each + with scope large enough to fill a contemplative mind. Whatever you seek in + him you will surely discover, provided you seek truth. There is no + exhausting the various interpretation of his symbols; and a thousand years + hence, a world of new readers will possess a whole library of new books, + as we ourselves do, in these volumes old already. I had half a mind to + suggest to Miss Bacon this explanation of her theory, but forbore, because + (as I could readily perceive) she had as princely a spirit as Queen + Elizabeth herself, and would at once have motioned me from the room. + </p> + <p> + I had heard, long ago, that she believed that the material evidences of + her dogma as to the authorship, together with the key of the new + philosophy, would be found buried in Shakespeare's grave. Recently, as I + understood her, this notion had been somewhat modified, and was now + accurately defined and fully developed in her mind, with a result of + perfect certainty. In Lord Bacon's letters, on which she laid her finger + as she spoke, she had discovered the key and clew to the whole mystery. + There were definite and minute instructions how to find a will and other + documents relating to the conclave of Elizabethan philosophers, which were + concealed (when and by whom she did not inform me) in a hollow space in + the under surface of Shakespeare's gravestone. Thus the terrible + prohibition to remove the stone was accounted for. The directions, she + intimated, went completely and precisely to the point, obviating all + difficulties in the way of coming at the treasure, and even, if I remember + right, were so contrived as to ward off any troublesome consequences + likely to ensue from the interference of the parish-officers. All that + Miss Bacon now remained in England for— indeed, the object for which + she had come hither, and which had kept her here for three years past—was + to obtain possession of these material and unquestionable proofs of the + authenticity of her theory. + </p> + <p> + She communicated all this strange matter in a low, quiet tone; while, on + my part, I listened as quietly, and without any expression of dissent. + Controversy against a faith so settled would have shut her up at once, and + that, too, without in the least weakening her belief in the existence of + those treasures of the tomb; and had it been possible to convince her of + their intangible nature, I apprehend that there would have been nothing + left for the poor enthusiast save to collapse and die. She frankly + confessed that she could no longer bear the society of those who did not + at least lend a certain sympathy to her views, if not fully share in them; + and meeting little sympathy or none, she had now entirely secluded herself + from the world. In all these years, she had seen Mrs. Farrar a few times, + but had long ago given her up,—Carlyle once or twice, but not of + late, although he had received her kindly; Mr. Buchanan, while Minister in + England, had once called on her, and General Campbell, our Consul in + London, had met her two or three times on business. With these exceptions, + which she marked so scrupulously that it was perceptible what epochs they + were in the monotonous passage of her days, she had lived in the + profoundest solitude. She never walked out; she suffered much from + ill-health; and yet, she assured me, she was perfectly happy. + </p> + <p> + I could well conceive it; for Miss Bacon imagined herself to have received + (what is certainly the greatest boon ever assigned to mortals) a high + mission in the world, with adequate powers for its accomplishment; and + lest even these should prove insufficient, she had faith that special + interpositions of Providence were forwarding her human efforts. This idea + was continually coming to the surface, during our interview. She believed, + for example, that she had been providentially led to her lodging-house and + put in relations with the good-natured grocer and his family; and, to say + the truth, considering what a savage and stealthy tribe the London + lodging-house keepers usually are, the honest kindness of this man and his + household appeared to have been little less than miraculous. Evidently, + too, she thought that Providence had brought me forward—a man + somewhat connected with literature—at the critical juncture when she + needed a negotiator with the booksellers; and, on my part, though little + accustomed to regard myself as a divine minister, and though I might even + have preferred that Providence should select some other instrument, I had + no scruple in undertaking to do what I could for her. Her book, as I could + see by turning it over, was a very remarkable one, and worthy of being + offered to the public, which, if wise enough to appreciate it, would be + thankful for what was good in it and merciful to its faults. It was + founded on a prodigious error, but was built up from that foundation with + a good many prodigious truths. And, at all events, whether I could aid her + literary views or no, it would have been both rash and impertinent in me + to attempt drawing poor Miss Bacon out of her delusions, which were the + condition on which she lived in comfort and joy, and in the exercise of + great intellectual power. So I left her to dream as she pleased about the + treasures of Shakespeare's tombstone, and to form whatever designs might + seem good to herself for obtaining possession of them. I was sensible of a + ladylike feeling of propriety in Miss Bacon, and a New England orderliness + in her character, and, in spite of her bewilderment, a sturdy + common-sense, which I trusted would begin to operate at the right time, + and keep her from any actual extravagance. And as regarded this matter of + the tombstone, so it proved. + </p> + <p> + The interview lasted above an hour, during which she flowed out freely, as + to the sole auditor, capable of any degree of intelligent sympathy, whom + she had met with in a very long while. Her conversation was remarkably + suggestive, alluring forth one's own ideas and fantasies from the shy + places where they usually haunt. She was indeed an admirable talker, + considering how long she had held her tongue for lack of a listener,—pleasant, + sunny and shadowy, often piquant, and giving glimpses of all a woman's + various and readily changeable moods and humors; and beneath them all + there ran a deep and powerful under-current of earnestness, which did not + fail to produce in the listener's mind something like a temporary faith in + what she herself believed so fervently. But the streets of London are not + favorable to enthusiasms of this kind, nor, in fact, are they likely to + flourish anywhere in the English atmosphere; so that, long before reaching + Paternoster Row, I felt that it would be a difficult and doubtful matter + to advocate the publication of Miss Bacon's book. Nevertheless, it did + finally get published. + </p> + <p> + Months before that happened, however, Miss Bacon had taken up her + residence at Stratford-on-Avon, drawn thither by the magnetism of those + rich secrets which she supposed to have been hidden by Raleigh, or Bacon, + or I know not whom, in Shakespeare's grave, and protected there by a + curse, as pirates used to bury their gold in the guardianship of a fiend. + She took a humble lodging and began to haunt the church like a ghost. But + she did not condescend to any stratagem or underhand attempt to violate + the grave, which, had she been capable of admitting such an idea, might + possibly have been accomplished by the aid of a resurrection-man. As her + first step, she made acquaintance with the clerk, and began to sound him + as to the feasibility of her enterprise and his own willingness to engage + in it. The clerk apparently listened with not unfavorable ears; but, as + his situation (which the fees of pilgrims, more numerous than at any + Catholic shrine, render lucrative) would have been forfeited by any + malfeasance in office, he stipulated for liberty to consult the vicar. + Miss Bacon requested to tell her own story to the reverend gentleman, and + seems to have been received by him with the utmost kindness, and even to + have succeeded in making a certain impression on his mind as to the + desirability of the search. As their interview had been under the seal of + secrecy, he asked permission to consult a friend, who, as Miss Bacon + either found out or surmised, was a practitioner of the law. What the + legal friend advised she did not learn; but the negotiation continued, and + certainly was never broken off by an absolute refusal on the vicar's part. + He, perhaps, was kindly temporizing with our poor countrywoman, whom an + Englishman of ordinary mould would have sent to a lunatic asylum at once. + I cannot help fancying, however, that her familiarity with the events of + Shakespeare's life, and of his death and burial (of which she would speak + as if she had been present at the edge of the grave), and all the history, + literature, and personalities of the Elizabethan age, together with the + prevailing power of her own belief, and the eloquence with which she knew + how to enforce it, had really gone some little way toward making a convert + of the good clergyman. If so, I honor him above all the hierarchy of + England. + </p> + <p> + The affair certainly looked very hopeful. However erroneously, Miss Bacon + had understood from the vicar that no obstacles would be interposed to the + investigation, and that he himself would sanction it with his presence. It + was to take place after nightfall; and all preliminary arrangements being + made, the vicar and clerk professed to wait only her word in order to set + about lifting the awful stone from the sepulchre. So, at least, Miss Bacon + believed; and as her bewilderment was entirely in her own thoughts, and + never disturbed her perception or accurate remembrance of external things, + I see no reason to doubt it, except it be the tinge of absurdity in the + fact. But, in this apparently prosperous state of things, her own + convictions began to falter. A doubt stole into her mind whether she might + not have mistaken the depository and mode of concealment of those historic + treasures; and after once admitting the doubt, she was afraid to hazard + the shock of uplifting the stone and finding nothing. She examined the + surface of the gravestone, and endeavored, without stirring it, to + estimate whether it were of such thickness as to be capable of containing + the archives of the Elizabethan club. She went over anew the proofs, the + clews, the enigmas, the pregnant sentences, which she had discovered in + Bacon's letters and elsewhere, and now was frightened to perceive that + they did not point so definitely to Shakespeare's tomb as she had + heretofore supposed. There was an unmistakably distinct reference to a + tomb, but it might be Bacon's, or Raleigh's, or Spenser's; and instead of + the "Old Player," as she profanely called him, it might be either of those + three illustrious dead, poet, warrior, or statesman, whose ashes, in + Westminster Abbey, or the Tower burial-ground, or wherever they sleep, it + was her mission to disturb. It is very possible, moreover, that her acute + mind may always have had a lurking and deeply latent distrust of its own + fantasies, and that this now became strong enough to restrain her from a + decisive step. + </p> + <p> + But she continued to hover around the church, and seems to have had full + freedom of entrance in the daytime, and special license, on one occasion + at least, at a late hour of the night. She went thither with a + dark-lantern, which could but twinkle like a glow-worm through the volume + of obscurity that filled the great dusky edifice. Groping her way up the + aisle and towards the chancel, she sat down on the elevated part of the + pavement above Shakespeare's grave. If the divine poet really wrote the + inscription there, and cared as much about the quiet of his bones as its + deprecatory earnestness would imply, it was time for those crumbling + relics to bestir themselves under her sacrilegious feet. But they were + safe. She made no attempt to disturb them; though, I believe, she looked + narrowly into the crevices between Shakespeare's and the two adjacent + stones, and in some way satisfied herself that her single strength would + suffice to lift the former, in case of need. She threw the feeble ray of + her lantern up towards the bust, but could not make it visible beneath the + darkness of the vaulted roof. Had she been subject to superstitious + terrors, it is impossible to conceive of a situation that could better + entitle her to feel them, for, if Shakespeare's ghost would rise at any + provocation, it must have shown itself then; but it is my sincere belief, + that, if his figure had appeared within the scope of her dark-lantern, in + his slashed doublet and gown, and with his eyes bent on her beneath the + high, bald forehead, just as we see him in the bust, she would have met + him fearlessly and controverted his claims to the authorship of the plays, + to his very face. She had taught herself to contemn "Lord Leicester's + groom" (it was one of her disdainful epithets for the world's incomparable + poet) so thoroughly, that even his disembodied spirit would hardly have + found civil treatment at Miss Bacon's hands. + </p> + <p> + Her vigil, though it appears to have had no definite object, continued far + into the night. Several times she heard a low movement in the aisles: a + stealthy, dubious footfall prowling about in the darkness, now here, now + there, among the pillars and ancient tombs, as if some restless inhabitant + of the latter had crept forth to peep at the intruder. By and by the clerk + made his appearance, and confessed that he had been watching her ever + since she entered the church. + </p> + <p> + About this time it was that a strange sort of weariness seems to have + fallen upon her: her toil was all but done, her great purpose, as she + believed, on the very point of accomplishment, when she began to regret + that so stupendous a mission had been imposed on the fragility of a woman. + Her faith in the new philosophy was as mighty as ever, and so was her + confidence in her own adequate development of it, now about to be given to + the world; yet she wished, or fancied so, that it might never have been + her duty to achieve this unparalleled task, and to stagger feebly forward + under her immense burden of responsibility and renown. So far as her + personal concern in the matter went, she would gladly have forfeited the + reward of her patient study and labor for so many years, her exile from + her country and estrangement from her family and friends, her sacrifice of + health and all other interests to this one pursuit, if she could only find + herself free to dwell in Stratford and be forgotten. She liked the old + slumberous town, and awarded the only praise that ever I knew her to + bestow on Shakespeare, the individual man, by acknowledging that his taste + in a residence was good, and that he knew how to choose a suitable + retirement for a person of shy, but genial temperament. And at this point, + I cease to possess the means of tracing her vicissitudes of feeling any + further. In consequence of some advice which I fancied it my duty to + tender, as being the only confidant whom she now had in the world, I fell + under Miss Bacon's most severe and passionate displeasure, and was cast + off by her in the twinkling of an eye. It was a misfortune to which her + friends were always particularly liable; but I think that none of them + ever loved, or even respected, her most ingenuous and noble, but likewise + most sensitive and tumultuous, character the less for it. + </p> + <p> + At that time her book was passing through the press. Without prejudice to + her literary ability, it must be allowed that Miss Bacon was wholly unfit + to prepare her own work for publication, because, among many other + reasons, she was too thoroughly in earnest to know what to leave out. + Every leaf and line was sacred, for all had been written under so deep a + conviction of truth as to assume, in her eyes, the aspect of inspiration. + A practised book-maker, with entire control of her materials, would have + shaped out a duodecimo volume full of eloquent and ingenious dissertation,—criticisms + which quite take the color and pungency out of other people's critical + remarks on Shakespeare,—philosophic truths which she imagined + herself to have found at the roots of his conceptions, and which certainly + come from no inconsiderable depth somewhere. There was a great amount of + rubbish, which any competent editor would have shovelled out of the way. + But Miss Bacon thrust the whole bulk of inspiration and nonsense into the + press in a lump, and there tumbled out a ponderous octavo volume, which + fell with a dead thump at the feet of the public, and has never been + picked up. A few persons turned over one or two of the leaves, as it lay + there, and essayed to kick the volume deeper into the mud; for they were + the hack critics of the minor periodical press in London, than whom, I + suppose, though excellent fellows in their way, there are no gentlemen in + the world less sensible of any sanctity in a book, or less likely to + recognize an author's heart in it, or more utterly careless about + bruising, if they do recognize it. It is their trade. They could not do + otherwise. I never thought of blaming them. It was not for such an + Englishman as one of these to get beyond the idea that an assault was + meditated on England's greatest poet. From the scholars and critics of her + own country, indeed, Miss Bacon might have looked for a worthier + appreciation, because many of the best of them have higher cultivation, + and finer and deeper literary sensibilities than all but the very + profoundest and brightest of Englishmen. But they are not a courageous + body of men; they dare not think a truth that has an odor of absurdity, + lest they should feel themselves bound to speak it out. If any American + ever wrote a word in her behalf, Miss Bacon never knew it, nor did I. Our + journalists at once republished some of the most brutal vituperations of + the English press, thus pelting their poor countrywoman with stolen mud, + without even waiting to know whether the ignominy was deserved. And they + never have known it, to this day, nor ever will. + </p> + <p> + The next intelligence that I had of Miss Bacon was by a letter from the + mayor of Stratford-on-Avon. He was a medical man, and wrote both in his + official and professional character, telling me that an American lady, who + had recently published what the mayor called a "Shakespeare book," was + afflicted with insanity. In a lucid interval she had referred to me, as a + person who had some knowledge of her family and affairs. What she may have + suffered before her intellect gave way, we had better not try to imagine. + No author had ever hoped so confidently as she; none ever failed more + utterly. A superstitious fancy might suggest that the anathema on + Shakespeare's tombstone had fallen heavily on her head in requital of even + the unaccomplished purpose of disturbing the dust beneath, and that the + "Old Player" had kept so quietly in his grave, on the night of her vigil, + because he foresaw how soon and terribly he would be avenged. But if that + benign spirit takes any care or cognizance of such things now, he has + surely requited the injustice that she sought to do him—the high + justice that she really did—by a tenderness of love and pity of + which only he could be capable. What matters it though she called him by + some other name? He had wrought a greater miracle on her than on all the + world besides. This bewildered enthusiast had recognized a depth in the + man whom she decried, which scholars, critics, and learned societies, + devoted to the elucidation of his unrivalled scenes, had never imagined to + exist there. She had paid him the loftiest honor that all these ages of + renown have been able to accumulate upon his memory. And when, not many + months after the outward failure of her lifelong object, she passed into + the better world, I know not why we should hesitate to believe that the + immortal poet may have met her on the threshold and led her in, reassuring + her with friendly and comfortable words, and thanking her (yet with a + smile of gentle humor in his eyes at the thought of certain mistaken + speculations) for having interpreted him to mankind so well. + </p> + <p> + I believe that it has been the fate of this remarkable book never to have + had more than a single reader. I myself am acquainted with it only in + insulated chapters and scattered pages and paragraphs. But, since my + return to America, a young man of genius and enthusiasm has assured me + that he has positively read the book from beginning to end, and is + completely a convert to its doctrines. It belongs to him, therefore, and + not to me, whom, in almost the last letter that I received from her, she + declared unworthy to meddle with her work,—it belongs surely to this + one individual, who has done her so much justice as to know what she + wrote, to place Miss Bacon in her due position before the public and + posterity. + </p> + <p> + This has been too sad a story. To lighten the recollection of it, I will + think of my stroll homeward past Charlecote Park, where I beheld the most + stately elms, singly, in clumps, and in groves, scattered all about in the + sunniest, shadiest, sleepiest fashion; so that I could not but believe in + a lengthened, loitering, drowsy enjoyment which these trees must have in + their existence. Diffused over slow-paced centuries, it need not be keen + nor bubble into thrills and ecstasies, like the momentary delights of + short-lived human beings. They were civilized trees, known to man and + befriended by him for ages past. There is an indescribable difference—as + I believe I have heretofore endeavored to express—between the tamed, + but by no means effete (on the contrary, the richer and more luxuriant) + nature of England, and the rude, shaggy, barbarous nature which offers as + its racier companionship in America. No less a change has been wrought + among the wildest creatures that inhabit what the English call their + forests. By and by, among those refined and venerable trees, I saw a large + herd of deer, mostly reclining, but some standing in picturesque groups, + while the stags threw their large antlers aloft, as if they had been + taught to make themselves tributary to the scenic effect. Some were + running fleetly about, vanishing from light into shadow and glancing forth + again, with here and there a little fawn careering at its mother's heels. + These deer are almost in the same relation to the wild, natural state of + their kind that the trees of an English park hold to the rugged growth of + an American forest. They have held a certain intercourse with man for + immemorial years; and, most probably, the stag that Shakespeare killed was + one of the progenitors of this very herd, and may himself have been a + partly civilized and humanized deer, though in a less degree than these + remote posterity. They are a little wilder than sheep, but they do not + snuff the air at the approach of human beings, nor evince much alarm at + their pretty close proximity; although if you continue to advance, they + toss their heads and take to their heels in a kind of mimic terror, or + something akin to feminine skittishness, with a dim remembrance or + tradition, as it were, of their having come of a wild stock. They have so + long been fed and protected by man, that they must have lost many of their + native instincts, and, I suppose, could not live comfortably through, even + an English winter without human help. One is sensible of a gentle scorn at + them for such dependency, but feels none the less kindly disposed towards + the half-domesticated race; and it may have been his observation of these + tamer characteristics in the Charlecote herd that suggested to Shakespeare + the tender and pitiful description of a wounded stag, in "As You Like It." + </p> + <p> + At a distance of some hundreds of yards from Charlecote Hall, and almost + hidden by the trees between it and the roadside, is an old brick archway + and porter's lodge. In connection with this entrance there appears to have + been a wall and an ancient moat, the latter of which is still visible, a + shallow, grassy scoop along the base of an embankment of the lawn. About + fifty yards within the gateway stands the house, forming three sides of a + square, with three gables in a row on the front, and on each of the two + wings; and there are several towers and turrets at the angles, together + with projecting windows, antique balconies, and other quaint ornaments + suitable to the half-Gothic taste in which the edifice was built. Over the + gateway is the Lucy coat-of-arms, emblazoned in its proper colors. The + mansion dates from the early days of Elizabeth, and probably looked very + much the same as now when Shakespeare was brought before Sir Thomas Lucy + for outrages among his deer. The impression is not that of gray antiquity, + but of stable and time-honored gentility, still as vital as ever. + </p> + <p> + It is a most delightful place. All about the house and domain there is a + perfection of comfort and domestic taste, an amplitude of convenience, + which could have been brought about only by the slow ingenuity and labor + of many successive generations, intent upon adding all possible + improvement to the home where years gone by and years to come give a sort + of permanence to the intangible present. An American is sometimes tempted + to fancy that only by this long process can real homes be produced. One + man's lifetime is not enough for the accomplishment of such a work of art + and nature, almost the greatest merely temporary one that is confided to + him; too little, at any rate,—yet perhaps too long when he is + discouraged by the idea that he must make his house warm and delightful + for a miscellaneous race of successors, of whom the one thing certain is, + that his own grandchildren will not be among them. Such repinings as are + here suggested, however, come only from the fact, that, bred in English + habits of thought, as most of us are, we have not yet modified our + instincts to the necessities of our new forms of life. A lodging in a + wigwam or under a tent has really as many advantages, when we come to know + them, as a home beneath the roof-tree of Charlecote Hall. But, alas! our + philosophers have not yet taught us what is best, nor have our poets sung + us what is beautifulest, in the kind of life that we must lead; and + therefore we still read the old English wisdom, and harp upon the ancient + strings. And thence it happens, that, when we look at a time-honored hall, + it seems more possible for men who inherit such a home, than for + ourselves, to lead noble and graceful lives, quietly doing good and lovely + things as their daily work, and achieving deeds of simple greatness when + circumstances require them. I sometimes apprehend that our institutions + may perish before we shall have discovered the most precious of the + possibilities which they involve. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LICHFIELD AND UTTOXETER. + </h2> + <p> + After my first visit to Leamington Spa, I went by an indirect route to + Lichfield, and put up at the Black Swan. Had I known where to find it, I + would much rather have established myself at the inn formerly kept by the + worthy Mr. Boniface, so famous for his ale in Farquhar's time. The Black + Swan is an old-fashioned hotel, its street-front being penetrated by an + arched passage, in either side of which is an entrance door to the + different parts of the house, and through which, and over the large stones + of its pavement, all vehicles and horsemen rumble and clatter into an + enclosed courtyard, with a thunderous uproar among the contiguous rooms + and chambers. I appeared to be the only guest of the spacious + establishment, but may have had a few fellow-lodgers hidden in their + separate parlors, and utterly eschewing that community of interests which + is the characteristic feature of life in an American hotel. At any rate, I + had the great, dull, dingy, and dreary coffee-room, with its heavy old + mahogany chairs and tables, all to myself, and not a soul to exchange a + word with, except the waiter, who, like most of his class in England, had + evidently left his conversational abilities uncultivated. No former + practice of solitary living, nor habits of reticence, nor well-tested + self-dependence for occupation of mind and amusement, can quite avail, as + I now proved, to dissipate the ponderous gloom of an English coffee-room + under such circumstances as these, with no book at hand save the + county-directory, nor any newspaper but a torn local journal of five days + ago. So I buried myself, betimes, in a huge heap of ancient feathers + (there is no other kind of bed in these old inns), let my head sink into + an unsubstantial pillow, and slept a stifled sleep, infested with such a + fragmentary confusion of dreams that I took them to be a medley, + compounded of the night-troubles of all my predecessors in that same + unrestful couch. And when I awoke, the musty odor of a bygone century was + in my nostrils,—a faint, elusive smell, of which I never had any + conception before crossing the Atlantic. + </p> + <p> + In the morning, after a mutton-chop and a cup of chiccory in the dusky + coffee-room, I went forth and bewildered myself a little while among the + crooked streets, in quest of one or two objects that had chiefly attracted + me to the spot. The city is of very ancient date, and its name in the old + Saxon tongue has a dismal import that would apply well, in these days and + forever henceforward, to many an unhappy locality in our native land. + Lichfield signifies "The Field of the Dead Bodies,"—an epithet, + however, which the town did not assume in remembrance of a battle, but + which probably sprung up by a natural process, like a sprig of rue or + other funereal weed, out of the graves of two princely brothers, sons of a + pagan king of Mercia, who were converted by St. Chad, and afterwards + martyred for their Christian faith. Nevertheless, I was but little + interested in the legends of the remote antiquity of Lichfield, being drawn + thither partly to see its beautiful cathedral, and still more, I believe, + because it was the birthplace of Dr. Johnson, with whose sturdy English + character I became acquainted, at a very early period of my life, through + the good offices of Mr. Boswell. In truth, he seems as familiar to my + recollection, and almost as vivid in his personal aspect to my mind's eye, + as the kindly figure of my own grandfather. It is only a solitary child,—left + much to such wild modes of culture as he chooses for himself while yet + ignorant what culture means, standing on tiptoe to pull down books from no + very lofty shelf, and then shutting himself up, as it were, between the + leaves, going astray through the volume at his own pleasure, and + comprehending it rather by his sensibilities and affections than his + intellect,—that child is the only student that ever gets the sort of + intimacy which I am now thinking of, with a literary personage. I do not + remember, indeed, ever caring much about any of the stalwart Doctor's + grandiloquent productions, except his two stern and masculine poems, + "London," and "The Vanity of Human Wishes"; it was as a man, a talker, and + a humorist, that I knew and loved him, appreciating many of his qualities + perhaps more thoroughly than I do now, though never seeking to put my + instinctive perception of his character into language. + </p> + <p> + Beyond all question, I might have had a wiser friend than he. The + atmosphere in which alone he breathed was dense; his awful dread of death + showed how much muddy imperfection was to be cleansed out of him, before + he could be capable of spiritual existence; he meddled only with the + surface of life, and never cared to penetrate further than to ploughshare + depth; his very sense and sagacity were but a one-eyed clear-sightedness. + I laughed at him, sometimes, standing beside his knee. And yet, + considering that my native propensities were towards Fairy Land, and also + how much yeast is generally mixed up with the mental sustenance of a + New-Englander, it may not have been altogether amiss, in those childish + and boyish days, to keep pace with this heavy-footed traveller and feed on + the gross diet that he carried in his knapsack. It is wholesome food even + now. And, then, how English! Many of the latent sympathies that enabled me + to enjoy the Old Country so well, and that so readily amalgamated + themselves with the American ideas that seemed most adverse to them, may + have been derived from, or fostered and kept alive by, the great English + moralist. Never was a descriptive epithet more nicely appropriate than + that! Dr. Johnson's morality was as English an article as a beefsteak. + </p> + <p> + The city of Lichfield (only the cathedral-towns are called cities, in + England) stands on an ascending site. It has not so many old gabled houses + as Coventry, for example, but still enough to gratify an American appetite + for the antiquities of domestic architecture. The people, too, have an + old-fashioned way with them, and stare at the passing visitor, as if the + railway had not yet quite accustomed them to the novelty of strange faces + moving along their ancient sidewalks. The old women whom I met, in several + instances, dropt me a courtesy; and as they were of decent and comfortable + exterior, and kept quietly on their way without pause or further greeting, + it certainly was not allowable to interpret their little act of respect as + a modest method of asking for sixpence; so that I had the pleasure of + considering it a remnant of the reverential and hospitable manners of + elder times, when the rare presence of a stranger might be deemed worth a + general acknowledgment. Positively, coming from such humble sources, I + took it all the more as a welcome on behalf of the inhabitants, and would + not have exchanged it for an invitation from the mayor and magistrates to + a public dinner. Yet I wish, merely for the experiment's sake, that I + could have emboldened myself to hold out the aforesaid sixpence to at + least one of the old ladies. + </p> + <p> + In my wanderings about town, I came to an artificial piece of water, + called the Minster Pool. It fills the immense cavity in a ledge of rock, + whence the building-materials of the cathedral were quarried out a great + many centuries ago. I should never have guessed the little lake to be of + man's creation, so very pretty and quietly picturesque an object has it + grown to be, with its green banks, and the old trees hanging over its + glassy surface, in which you may see reflected some of the battlements of + the majestic structure that once lay here in unshaped stone. Some little + children stood on the edge of the Pool, angling with pin-hooks; and the + scene reminded me (though really to be quite fair with the reader, the + gist of the analogy has now escaped me) of that mysterious lake in the + Arabian Nights, which had once been a palace and a city, and where a + fisherman used to pull out the former inhabitants in the guise of + enchanted fishes. There is no need of fanciful associations to make the + spot interesting. It was in the porch of one of the houses, in the street + that runs beside the Minster Pool, that Lord Brooke was slain, in the time + of the Parliamentary war, by a shot from the battlements of the cathedral, + which was then held by the Royalists as a fortress. The incident is + commemorated by an inscription on a stone, inlaid into the wall of the + house. + </p> + <p> + I know not what rank the Cathedral of Lichfield holds among its sister + edifices in England, as a piece of magnificent architecture. Except that + of Chester (the grim and simple nave of which stands yet unrivalled in my + memory), and one or two small ones in North Wales, hardly worthy of the + name of cathedrals, it was the first that I had seen. To my uninstructed + vision, it seemed the object best worth gazing at in the whole world; and + now, after beholding a great many more, I remember it with less prodigal + admiration only because others are as magnificent as itself. The traces + remaining in my memory represent it as airy rather than massive. A + multitude of beautiful shapes appeared to be comprehended within its + single outline; it was a kind of kaleidoscopic mystery, so rich a variety + of aspects did it assume from each altered point of view, through the + presentation of a different face, and the rearrangement of its peaks and + pinnacles and the three battlemented towers, with the spires that shot + heavenward from all three, but one loftier than its fellows. Thus it + impressed you, at every change, as a newly created structure of the + passing moment, in which yet you lovingly recognized the half-vanished + structure of the instant before, and felt, moreover, a joyful faith in the + indestructible existence of all this cloudlike vicissitude. A Gothic + cathedral is surely the most wonderful work which mortal man has yet + achieved, so vast, so intricate, and so profoundly simple, with such + strange, delightful recesses in its grand figure, so difficult to + comprehend within one idea, and yet all so consonant that it ultimately + draws the beholder and his universe into its harmony. It is the only thing + in the world that is vast enough and rich enough. + </p> + <p> + Not that I felt, or was worthy to feel, an unmingled enjoyment in gazing + at this wonder. I could not elevate myself to its spiritual height, any + more than I could have climbed from the ground to the summit of one of its + pinnacles. Ascending but a little way, I continually fell back and lay in + a kind of despair, conscious that a flood of uncomprehended beauty was + pouring down upon me, of which I could appropriate only the minutest + portion. After a hundred years, incalculably as my higher sympathies might + be invigorated by so divine an employment, I should still be a gazer from + below and at an awful distance, as yet remotely excluded from the interior + mystery. But it was something gained, even to have that painful sense of + my own limitations, and that half-smothered yearning to soar beyond them. + The cathedral showed me how earthly I was, but yet whispered deeply of + immortality. After all, this was probably the best lesson that it could + bestow, and, taking it as thoroughly as possible home to my heart, I was + fain to be content. If the truth must be told, my ill-trained enthusiasm + soon flagged, and I began to lose the vision of a spiritual or ideal + edifice behind the time-worn and weather-stained front of the actual + structure. Whenever that is the case, it is most reverential to look + another way; but the mood disposes one to minute investigation, and I took + advantage of it to examine the intricate and multitudinous adornment that + was lavished on the exterior wall of this great church. Everywhere, there + were empty niches where statues had been thrown down, and here and there a + statue still lingered in its niche; and over the chief entrance, and + extending across the whole breadth of the building, was a row of angels, + sainted personages, martyrs, and kings, sculptured in reddish stone. Being + much corroded by the moist English atmosphere, during four or five hundred + winters that they had stood there, these benign and majestic figures + perversely put me in mind of the appearance of a sugar image, after a + child has been holding it in his mouth. The venerable infant Time has + evidently found them sweet morsels. + </p> + <p> + Inside of the minster there is a long and lofty nave, transepts of the + same height, and side-aisles and chapels, dim nooks of holiness, where in + Catholic times the lamps were continually burning before the richly + decorated shrines of saints. In the audacity of my ignorance, as I humbly + acknowledge it to have been, I criticised this great interior as too much + broken into compartments, and shorn of half its rightful impressiveness by + the interposition of a screen betwixt the nave and chancel. It did not + spread itself in breadth, but ascended to the roof in lofty narrowness. + One large body of worshippers might have knelt down in the nave, others in + each of the transepts, and smaller ones in the side-aisles, besides an + indefinite number of esoteric enthusiasts in the mysterious sanctities + beyond the screen. Thus it seemed to typify the exclusiveness of sects + rather than the worldwide hospitality of genuine religion. I had imagined + a cathedral with a scope more vast. These Gothic aisles, with their + groined arches overhead, supported by clustered pillars in long vistas up + and down, were venerable and magnificent, but included too much of the + twilight of that monkish gloom out of which they grew. It is no matter + whether I ever came to a more satisfactory appreciation of this kind of + architecture; the only value of my strictures being to show the folly of + looking at noble objects in the wrong mood, and the absurdity of a new + visitant pretending to hold any opinion whatever on such subjects, instead + of surrendering himself to the old builder's influence with childlike + simplicity. + </p> + <p> + A great deal of white marble decorates the old stonework of the aisles, in + the shape of altars, obelisks, sarcophagi, and busts. Most of these + memorials are commemorative of people locally distinguished, especially + the deans and canons of the Cathedral, with their relatives and families; + and I found but two monuments of personages whom I had ever heard of,— + one being Gilbert Wahnesley and the other Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a + literary acquaintance of my boyhood. It was really pleasant to meet her + there; for after a friend has lain in the grave far into the second + century, she would be unreasonable to require any melancholy emotions in a + chance interview at her tombstone. It adds a rich charm to sacred + edifices, this time-honored custom of burial in churches, after a few + years, at least, when the mortal remains have turned to dust beneath the + pavement, and the quaint devices and inscriptions still speak to you + above. The statues, that stood or reclined in several recesses of the + Cathedral, had a kind of life, and I regarded them with an odd sort of + deference, as if they were privileged denizens of the precinct. It was + singular, too, how the memorial of the latest buried person, the man whose + features went familiar in the streets of Lichfield only yesterday, seemed + precisely as much at home here as his mediaeval predecessors. Henceforward + he belonged in the Cathedral like one of its original pillars. Methought + this impression in my fancy might be the shadow of a spiritual fact. The + dying melt into the great multitude of the Departed as quietly as a drop + of water into the ocean, and, it may be are conscious of no unfamiliarity + with their new circumstances, but immediately become aware of an + insufferable strangeness in the world which they have quitted. Death has + not taken them away, but brought them home. + </p> + <p> + The vicissitudes and mischances of sublunary affairs, however, have not + ceased to attend upon these marble inhabitants; for I saw the upper + fragment of a sculptured lady, in a very old-fashioned garb, the lower + half of whom had doubtless been demolished by Cromwell's soldiers when + they took the Minster by storm. And there lies the remnant of this devout + lady on her slab, ever since the outrage, as for centuries before, with a + countenance of divine serenity and her hands clasped in prayer, + symbolizing a depth of religious faith which no earthly turmoil or + calamity could disturb. Another piece of sculpture (apparently a favorite + subject in the Middle Ages, for I have seen several like it in other + cathedrals) was a reclining skeleton, as faithfully representing an + open-work of bones as could well be expected in a solid block of marble, + and at a period, moreover, when the mysteries of the human frame were + rather to be guessed at than revealed. Whatever the anatomical defects of + his production, the old sculptor had succeeded in making it ghastly beyond + measure. How much mischief has been wrought upon us by this invariable + gloom of the Gothic imagination; flinging itself like a death-scented pall + over our conceptions of the future state, smothering our hopes, hiding our + sky, and inducing dismal efforts to raise the harvest of immortality out + of what is most opposite to it,—the grave! + </p> + <p> + The Cathedral service is performed twice every day at ten o'clock and at + four. When I first entered, the choristers (young and old, but mostly, I + think, boys, with voices inexpressibly sweet and clear, and as fresh as + bird-notes) were just winding up their harmonious labors, and soon came + thronging through a side-door from the chancel into the nave. They were + all dressed in long white robes, and looked like a peculiar order of + beings, created on purpose to hover between the roof and pavement of that + dim, consecrated edifice, and illuminate it with divine melodies, reposing + themselves, meanwhile, on the heavy grandeur of the organ-tones like + cherubs on a golden cloud. All at once, however, one of the cherubic + multitude pulled off his white gown, thus transforming himself before my + very eyes into a commonplace youth of the day, in modern frock-coat and + trousers of a decidedly provincial cut. This absurd little incident, I + verily believe, had a sinister effect in putting me at odds with the + proper influences of the Cathedral, nor could I quite recover a suitable + frame of mind during my stay there. But, emerging into the open air, I + began to be sensible that I had left a magnificent interior behind me, and + I have never quite lost the perception and enjoyment of it in these + intervening years. + </p> + <p> + A large space in the immediate neighborhood of the Cathedral is called the + Close, and comprises beautifully kept lawns and a shadowy walk bordered by + the dwellings of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the diocese. All this + row of episcopal, canonical, and clerical residences has an air of the + deepest quiet, repose, and well-protected though not inaccessible + seclusion. They seemed capable of including everything that a saint could + desire, and a great many more things than most of us sinners generally + succeed in acquiring. Their most marked feature is a dignified comfort, + looking as if no disturbance or vulgar intrusiveness could ever cross + their thresholds, encroach upon their ornamented lawns, or straggle into + the beautiful gardens that surround them with flower-beds and rich clumps + of shrubbery. The episcopal palace is a stately mansion of stone, built + somewhat in the Italian style, and bearing on its front the figures 1637, + as the date of its erection. A large edifice of brick, which, if I + remember, stood next to the palace, I took to be the residence of the + second dignitary of the Cathedral; and, in that case, it must have been + the youthful home of Addison, whose father was Dean of Lichfield. I tried + to fancy his figure on the delightful walk that extends in front of those + priestly abodes, from which and the interior lawns it is separated by an + open-work iron fence, lined with rich old shrubbery, and overarched by a + minster-aisle of venerable trees. This path is haunted by the shades of + famous personages who have formerly trodden it. Johnson must have been + familiar with it, both as a boy, and in his subsequent visits to + Lichfield, an illustrious old man. Miss Seward, connected with so many + literary reminiscences, lived in one of the adjacent houses. Tradition + says that it was a favorite spot of Major Andre, who used to pace to and + fro under these trees waiting, perhaps, to catch a last angel-glimpse of + Honoria Sueyd, before he crossed the ocean to encounter his dismal doom + from an American court-martial. David Garrick, no doubt, scampered along + the path in his boyish days, and, if he was an early student of the drama, + must often have thought of those two airy characters of the "Beaux' + Stratagem," Archer and Aimwell, who, on this very ground, after attending + service at the cathedral, contrive to make acquaintance with the ladies of + the comedy. These creatures of mere fiction have as positive a substance + now as the sturdy old figure of Johnson himself. They live, while + realities have died. The shadowy walk still glistens with their + gold-embroidered memories. + </p> + <p> + Seeking for Johnson's birthplace, I found it in St. Mary's Square, which + is not so much a square as the mere widening of a street. The house is + tall and thin, of three stories, with a square front and a roof rising + steep and high. On a side-view, the building looks as if it had been cut + in two in the midst, there being no slope of the roof on that side. A + ladder slanted against the wall, and a painter was giving a livelier line + to the plaster. In a corner-room of the basement, where old Michael + Johnson may be supposed to have sold books, is now what we should call a + dry-goods store, or, according to the English phrase, a mercer's and + haberdasher's shop. The house has a private entrance on a cross-street, + the door being accessible by several much-worn stone steps, which are + bordered by an iron balustrade. I set my foot on the steps and laid my + hand on the balustrade, where Johnson's hand and foot must many a time + have been, and ascending to the door, I knocked once, and again, and + again, and got no admittance. Going round to the shop-entrance, I tried to + open it, but found it as fast bolted as the gate of Paradise. It is + mortifying to be so balked in one's little enthusiasms; but looking round + in quest of somebody to make inquiries of, I was a good deal consoled by + the sight of Dr. Johnson himself, who happened, just at that moment, to be + sitting at his case nearly in the middle of St. Mary's Square, with his + face turned towards his father's house. + </p> + <p> + Of course, it being almost fourscore years since the Doctor laid aside his + weary bulk of flesh, together with the ponderous melancholy that had so + long weighed him down, the intelligent reader will at once comprehend that + he was marble in his substance, and seated in a marble chair, on an + elevated stone pedestal. In short, it was a statue, sculptured by Lucas, + and placed here in 1838, at the expense of Dr. Law, the reverend + chancellor of the diocese. + </p> + <p> + The figure is colossal (though perhaps not much more so than the + mountainous Doctor himself) and looks down upon the spectator from its + pedestal of ten or twelve feet high, with a broad and heavy benignity of + aspect, very like in feature to Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Johnson, + but calmer and sweeter in expression. Several big books are piled up + beneath his chair, and, if I mistake not, he holds a volume in his hand, + thus blinking forth at the world out of his learned abstraction, owllike, + yet benevolent at heart. The statue is immensely massive, a vast + ponderosity of stone, not finely spiritualized, nor, indeed, fully + humanized, but rather resembling a great stone-bowlder than a man. You + must look with the eyes of faith and sympathy, or, possibly, you might + lose the human being altogether, and find only a big stone within your + mental grasp. On the pedestal are three bas-reliefs. In the first, Johnson + is represented as hardly more than a baby, bestriding an old man's + shoulders, resting his chin on the bald head which he embraces with his + little arms, and listening earnestly to the High-Church eloquence of Dr. + Sacheverell. In the second tablet, he is seen riding to school on the + shoulders of two of his comrades, while another boy supports him in the + rear. + </p> + <p> + The third bas-relief possesses, to my mind, a great deal of pathos, to + which my appreciative faculty is probably the more alive, because I have + always been profoundly impressed by the incident here commemorated, and + long ago tried to tell it for the behoof of childish readers. It shows + Johnson in the market-place of Uttoxeter, doing penance for an act of + disobedience to his father, committed fifty years before. He stands + bareheaded, a venerable figure, and a countenance extremely sad and + woebegone, with the wind and rain driving hard against him, and thus + helping to suggest to the spectator the gloom of his inward state. Some + market-people and children gaze awe-stricken into his face, and an aged + man and woman, with clasped and uplifted hands, seem to be praying for + him. These latter personages (whose introduction by the artist is none the + less effective, because, in queer proximity, there are some commodities of + market-day in the shape of living ducks and dead poultry) I interpreted to + represent the spirits of Johnson's father and mother, lending what aid + they could to lighten his half-century's burden of remorse. + </p> + <p> + I had never heard of the above-described piece of sculpture before; it + appears to have no reputation as a work of art, nor am I at all positive + that it deserves any. For me, however, it did as much as sculpture could, + under the circumstances, even if the artist of the Libyan Sibyl had + wrought it, by reviving my interest in the sturdy old Englishman, and + particularly by freshening my perception of a wonderful beauty and + pathetic tenderness in the incident of the penance. So, the next day, I + left Lichfield for Uttoxeter, on one of the few purely sentimental + pilgrimages that I ever undertook, to see the very spot where Johnson had + stood. Boswell, I think, speaks of the town (its name is pronounced + Yuteoxeter) as being about nine miles off from Lichfield, but the + county-map would indicate a greater distance; and by rail, passing from + one line to another, it is as much as eighteen miles. I have always had an + idea of old Michael Johnson sending his literary merchandise by carrier's + wagon, journeying to Uttoxeter afoot on market-day morning, selling books + through the busy hours, and returning to Lichfield at night. This could + not possibly have been the case. + </p> + <p> + Arriving at the Uttoxeter station, the first objects that I saw, with a + green field or two between them and me, were the tower and gray steeple of + a church, rising among red-tiled roofs and a few scattered trees. A very + short walk takes you from the station up into the town. It had been my + previous impression that the market-place of Uttoxeter lay immediately + roundabout the church; and, if I remember the narrative aright, Johnson, + or Boswell in his behalf, describes his father's book-stall as standing in + the market-place, close beside the sacred edifice. It is impossible for me + to say what changes may have occurred in the topography of the town, + during almost a century and a half since Michael Johnson retired from + business, and ninety years, at least, since his son's penance was + performed. But the church has now merely a street of ordinary width + passing around it, while the market-place, though near at hand, neither + forms a part of it nor is really contiguous, nor would its throng and + bustle be apt to overflow their boundaries and surge against the + churchyard and the old gray tower. Nevertheless, a walk of a minute or two + brings a person from the centre of the market-place to the church-door; + and Michael Johnson might very conveniently have located his stall and + laid out his literary ware in the corner at the tower's base; better + there, indeed, than in the busy centre of an agricultural market. But the + picturesque arrangement and full impressiveness of the story absolutely + require that Johnson shall not have done his penance in a corner, ever so + little retired, but shall have been the very nucleus of the crowd,—the + midmost man of the market-place,—a central image of Memory and + Remorse, contrasting with and overpowering the petty materialism around + him. He himself, having the force to throw vitality and truth into what + persons differently constituted might reckon a mere external ceremony, and + an absurd one, could not have failed to see this necessity. I am resolved, + therefore, that the true site of Dr. Johnson's penance was in the middle + of the market-place. + </p> + <p> + That important portion of the town is a rather spacious and irregularly + shaped vacuity, surrounded by houses and shops, some of them old, with + red-tiled roofs, others wearing a pretence of newness, but probably as old + in their inner substance as the rest. The people of Uttoxeter seemed very + idle in the warm summer-day, and were scattered in little groups along the + sidewalks, leisurely chatting with one another, and often turning about to + take a deliberate stare at my humble self; insomuch that I felt as if my + genuine sympathy for the illustrious penitent, and my many reflections + about him, must have imbued me with some of his own singularity of mien. + If their great-grandfathers were such redoubtable starers in the Doctor's + day, his penance was no light one. This curiosity indicates a paucity of + visitors to the little town, except for market purposes, and I question if + Uttoxeter ever saw an American before. The only other thing that greatly + impressed me was the abundance of public-houses, one at every step or two + Red Lions, White Harts, Bulls' Heads, Mitres, Cross Keys, and I know not + what besides. These are probably for the accommodation of the farmers and + peasantry of the neighborhood on market-day, and content themselves with a + very meagre business on other days of the week. At any rate, I was the + only guest in Uttoxeter at the period of my visit, and had but an + infinitesimal portion of patronage to distribute among such a multitude of + inns. The reader, however, will possibly be scandalized to learn what was + the first, and, indeed, the only important affair that I attended to, + after coming so far to indulge a solemn and high emotion, and standing now + on the very spot where my pious errand should have been consummated. I + stepped into one of the rustic hostelries and got my dinner,—bacon + and greens, some mutton-chops, juicier and more delectable than all + America could serve up at the President's table, and a gooseberry pudding; + a sufficient meal for six yeomen, and good enough for a prince, besides a + pitcher of foaming ale, the whole at the pitiful small charge of + eighteen-pence! + </p> + <p> + Dr. Johnson would have forgiven me, for nobody had a heartier faith in + beef and mutton than himself. And as regards my lack of sentiment in + eating my dinner,—it was the wisest thing I had done that day. A + sensible man had better not let himself be betrayed into these attempts to + realize the things which he has dreamed about, and which, when they cease + to be purely ideal in his mind, will have lost the truest of their truth, + the loftiest and profoundest part of their power over his sympathies. + Facts, as we really find them, whatever poetry they may involve, are + covered with a stony excrescence of prose, resembling the crust on a + beautiful sea-shell, and they never show their most delicate and divinest + colors until we shall have dissolved away their grosser actualities by + steeping them long in a powerful menstruum of thought. And seeking to + actualize them again, we do but renew the crust. If this were otherwise,—if + the moral sublimity of a great fact depended in any degree on its garb of + external circumstances, things which change and decay,—it could not + itself be immortal and ubiquitous, and only a brief point of time and a + little neighborhood would be spiritually nourished by its grandeur and + beauty. + </p> + <p> + Such were a few of the reflections which I mingled with my ale, as I + remember to have seen an old quaffer of that excellent liquor stir up his + cup with a sprig of some bitter and fragrant herb. Meanwhile I found + myself still haunted by a desire to get a definite result out of my visit + to Uttoxeter. The hospitable inn was called the Nag's Head, and standing + beside the market-place, was as likely as any other to have entertained + old Michael Johnson in the days when he used to come hither to sell books. + He, perhaps, had dined on bacon and greens, and drunk his ale, and smoked + his pipe, in the very room where I now sat, which was a low, ancient room, + certainly much older than Queen Anne's time, with a red-brick floor, and a + white-washed ceiling, traversed by bare, rough beams, the whole in the + rudest fashion, but extremely neat. Neither did it lack ornament, the + walls being hung with colored engravings of prize oxen and other pretty + prints, and the mantel-piece adorned with earthen-ware figures of + shepherdesses in the Arcadian taste of long ago. Michael Johnson's eyes + might have rested on that selfsame earthen image, to examine which more + closely I had just crossed the brick pavement of the room. And, sitting + down again, still as I sipped my ale, I glanced through the open window + into the sunny market-place, and wished that I could honestly fix on one + spot rather than another, as likely to have been the holy site where + Johnson stood to do his penance. + </p> + <p> + How strange and stupid it is that tradition should not have marked and + kept in mind the very place! How shameful (nothing less than that) that + there should be no local memorial of this incident, as beautiful and + touching a passage as can be cited out of any human life! No inscription + of it, almost as sacred as a verse of Scripture on the wall of the church! + No statue of the venerable and illustrious penitent in the market-place to + throw a wholesome awe over its earthliness, its frauds and petty wrongs of + which the benumbed fingers of conscience can make no record, its selfish + competition of each man with his brother or his neighbor, its traffic of + soul-substance for a little worldly gain! Such a statue, if the piety of + the people did not raise it, might almost have been expected to grow up + out of the pavement of its own accord on the spot that had been watered by + the rain that dripped from Johnson's garments, mingled with his remorseful + tears. + </p> + <p> + Long after my visit to Uttoxeter, I was told that there were individuals + in the town who could have shown me the exact, indubitable spot where + Johnson performed his penance. I was assured, moreover, that sufficient + interest was felt in the subject to have induced certain local discussions + as to the expediency of erecting a memorial. With all deference to my + polite informant, I surmise that there is a mistake, and decline, without + further and precise evidence, giving credit to either of the above + statements. The inhabitants know nothing, as a matter of general interest, + about the penance, and care nothing for the scene of it. If the clergyman + of the parish, for example, had ever heard of it, would he not have used + the theme, time and again, wherewith to work tenderly and profoundly on + the souls committed to his charge? If parents were familiar with it, would + they not teach it to their young ones at the fireside, both to insure + reverence to their own gray hairs, and to protect the children from such + unavailing regrets as Johnson bore upon his heart for fifty years? If the + site were ascertained, would not the pavement thereabouts be worn with + reverential footsteps? Would not every town-born child be able to direct + the pilgrim thither? While waiting at the station, before my departure, I + asked a boy who stood near me,—an intelligent and gentlemanly lad, + twelve or thirteen years old, whom I should take to be a clergyman's son,—I + asked him if he had ever heard the story of Dr. Johnson, how he stood an + hour doing penance near that church, the spire of which rose before us. + The boy stared and answered,— + </p> + <p> + "No!' + </p> + <p> + "Were you born in Uttoxeter?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes." + </p> + <p> + I inquired if no circumstance such as I had mentioned was known or talked + about among the inhabitants. + </p> + <p> + "No," said the boy; "not that I ever heard of." + </p> + <p> + Just think of the absurd little town, knowing nothing of the only + memorable incident which ever happened within its boundaries since the old + Britons built it, this sad and lovely story, which consecrates the spot + (for I found it holy to my contemplation, again, as soon as it lay behind + me) in the heart of a stranger from three thousand miles over the sea! It + but confirms what I have been saying, that sublime and beautiful facts are + best understood when etherealized by distance. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PILGRIMAGE TO OLD BOSTON. + </h2> + <p> + We set out at a little past eleven, and made our first stage to + Manchester. We were by this time sufficiently Anglicized to reckon the + morning a bright and sunny one; although the May sunshine was mingled with + water, as it were, and distempered with a very bitter east-wind. + </p> + <p> + Lancashire is a dreary county (all, at least, except its hilly portions), + and I have never passed through it without wishing myself anywhere but in + that particular spot where I then happened to be. A few places along our + route were historically interesting; as, for example, Bolton, which was + the scene of many remarkable events in the Parliamentary War, and in the + market-square of which one of the Earls of Derby was beheaded. We saw, + along the wayside, the never-failing green fields, hedges, and other + monotonous features of an ordinary English landscape. There were little + factory villages, too, or larger towns, with their tall chimneys, and + their pennons of black smoke, their ugliness of brick-work, and their + heaps of refuse matter from the furnace, which seems to be the only kind + of stuff which Nature cannot take back to herself and resolve into the + elements, when man has thrown it aside. These hillocks of waste and effete + mineral always disfigure the neighborhood of iron-mongering towns, and, + even after a considerable antiquity, are hardly made decent with a little + grass. + </p> + <p> + At a quarter to two we left Manchester by the Sheffield and Lincoln + Railway. The scenery grew rather better than that through which we had + hitherto passed, though still by no means very striking; for (except in + the show-districts, such as the Lake country, or Derbyshire) English + scenery is not particularly well worth looking at, considered as a + spectacle or a picture. It has a real, homely charm of its own, no doubt; + and the rich verdure, and the thorough finish added by human art, are + perhaps as attractive to an American eye as any stronger feature could be. + Our journey, however, between Manchester and Sheffield was not through a + rich tract of country, but along a valley walled in by bleak, ridgy hills + extending straight as a rampart, and across black moorlands with here and + there a plantation of trees. Sometimes there were long and gradual + ascents, bleak, windy, and desolate, conveying the very impression which + the reader gets from many passages of Miss Bronte's novels, and still more + from those of her two sisters. Old stone or brick farm-houses, and, once + in a while, an old church-tower, were visible; but these are almost too + common objects to be noticed in an English landscape. + </p> + <p> + On a railway, I suspect, what little we do see of the country is seen + quite amiss, because it was never intended to be looked at from any point + of view in that straight line; so that it is like looking at the wrong + side of a piece of tapestry. The old highways and foot-paths were as + natural as brooks and rivulets, and adapted themselves by an inevitable + impulse to the physiognomy of the country; and, furthermore, every object + within view of them had some subtile reference to their curves and + undulations; but the line of a railway is perfectly artificial, and puts + all precedent things at sixes-and-sevens. At any rate, be the cause what + it may, there is seldom anything worth seeing within the scope of a + railway traveller's eye; and if there were, it requires an alert marksman + to take a flying shot at the picturesque. + </p> + <p> + At one of the stations (it was near a village of ancient aspect, nestling + round a church, on a wide Yorkshire moor) I saw a tall old lady in black, + who seemed to have just alighted from the train. She caught my attention + by a singular movement of the head, not once only, but continually + repeated, and at regular intervals, as if she were making a stern and + solemn protest against some action that developed itself before her eyes, + and were foreboding terrible disaster, if it should be persisted in. Of + course, it was nothing more than a paralytic or nervous affection; yet one + might fancy that it had its origin in some unspeakable wrong, perpetrated + half a lifetime ago in this old gentlewoman's presence, either against + herself or somebody whom she loved still better. Her features had a + wonderful sternness, which, I presume, was caused by her habitual effort + to compose and keep them quiet, and thereby counteract the tendency to + paralytic movement. The slow, regular, and inexorable character of the + motion—her look of force and self-control, which had the appearance + of rendering it voluntary, while yet it was so fateful— have stamped + this poor lady's face and gesture into my memory; so that, some dark day + or other, I am afraid she will reproduce herself in a dismal romance. + </p> + <p> + The train stopped a minute or two, to allow the tickets to be taken, just + before entering the Sheffield station, and thence I had a glimpse of the + famous town of razors and penknives, enveloped in a cloud of its own + diffusing. My impressions of it are extremely vague and misty,—or, + rather, smoky: for Sheffield seems to me smokier than Manchester. + Liverpool, or Birmingham,—smokier than all England besides, unless + Newcastle be the exception. It might have been Pluto's own metropolis, + shrouded in sulphurous vapor; and, indeed, our approach to it had been by + the Valley of the Shadow of Death, through a tunnel three miles in length, + quite traversing the breadth and depth of a mountainous hill. + </p> + <p> + After passing Sheffield, the scenery became softer, gentler, yet more + picturesque. At one point we saw what I believe to be the utmost northern + verge of Sherwood Forest,—not consisting, however, of thousand-year + oaks, extant from Robin Hood's days, but of young and thriving + plantations, which will require a century or two of slow English growth to + give them much breadth of shade. Earl Fitzwilliam's property lies in this + neighborhood, and probably his castle was hidden among some soft depth of + foliage not far off. Farther onward the country grew quite level around + us, whereby I judged that we must now be in Lincolnshire; and shortly + after six o'clock we caught the first glimpse of the Cathedral towers, + though they loomed scarcely huge enough for our preconceived idea of them. + But, as we drew nearer, the great edifice began to assert itself, making + us acknowledge it to be larger than our receptivity could take in. + </p> + <p> + At the railway-station we found no cab (it being an unknown vehicle in + Lincoln), but only an omnibus belonging to the Saracen's Head, which the + driver recommended as the best hotel in the city, and took us thither + accordingly. It received us hospitably, and looked comfortable enough; + though, like the hotels of most old English towns, it had a musty + fragrance of antiquity, such as I have smelt in a seldom-opened London + church where the broad-aisle is paved with tombstones. The house was of an + ancient fashion, the entrance into its interior court-yard being through + an arch, in the side of which is the door of the hotel. There are long + corridors, an intricate arrangement of passages, and an up-and-down + meandering of staircases, amid which it would be no marvel to encounter + some forgotten guest who had gone astray a hundred years ago, and was + still seeking for his bedroom while the rest of his generation were in + their graves. There is no exaggerating the confusion of mind that seizes + upon a stranger in the bewildering geography of a great old-fashioned + English inn. + </p> + <p> + This hotel stands in the principal street of Lincoln, and within a very + short distance of one of the ancient city-gates, which is arched across + the public way, with a smaller arch for foot-passengers on either side; + the whole, a gray, time-gnawn, ponderous, shadowy structure, through the + dark vista of which you look into the Middle Ages. The street is narrow, + and retains many antique peculiarities; though, unquestionably, English + domestic architecture has lost its most impressive features, in the course + of the last century. In this respect, there are finer old towns than + Lincoln: Chester, for instance, and Shrewsbury,—which last is + unusually rich in those quaint and stately edifices where the gentry of + the shire used to make their winter abodes, in a provincial metropolis. + Almost everywhere, nowadays, there is a monotony of modern brick or + stuccoed fronts, hiding houses that are older than ever, but obliterating + the picturesque antiquity of the street. + </p> + <p> + Between seven and eight o'clock (it being still broad daylight in these + long English days) we set out to pay a preliminary visit to the exterior + of the Cathedral. Passing through the Stone Bow, as the city-gate close by + is called, we ascended a street which grew steeper and narrower as we + advanced, till at last it got to be the steepest street I ever climbed,— + so steep that any carriage, if left to itself, would rattle downward much + faster than it could possibly be drawn up. Being almost the only hill in + Lincolnshire, the inhabitants seem disposed to make the most of it. The + houses on each side had no very remarkable aspect, except one with a stone + portal and carved ornaments, which is now a dwelling-place for + poverty-stricken people, but may have been an aristocratic abode in the + days of the Norman kings, to whom its style of architecture dates back. + This is called the Jewess's House, having been inhabited by a woman of + that faith who was hanged six hundred years ago. + </p> + <p> + And still the street grew steeper and steeper. Certainly, the Bishop and + clergy of Lincoln ought not to be fat men, but of very spiritual, + saint-like, almost angelic habit, if it be a frequent part of their + ecclesiastical duty to climb this hill; for it is a real penance, and was + probably performed as such, and groaned over accordingly, in monkish + times. Formerly, on the day of his installation, the Bishop used to ascend + the hill barefoot, and was doubtless cheered and invigorated by looking + upward to the grandeur that was to console him for the humility of his + approach. We, likewise, were beckoned onward by glimpses of the Cathedral + towers, and, finally, attaining an open square on the summit, we saw an + old Gothic gateway to the left hand, and another to the right. The latter + had apparently been a part of the exterior defences of the Cathedral, at a + time when the edifice was fortified. The west front rose behind. We passed + through one of the side-arches of the Gothic portal, and found ourselves + in the Cathedral Close, a wide, level space, where the great old Minster + has fair room to sit, looking down on the ancient structures that surround + it, all of which, in former days, were the habitations of its dignitaries + and officers. Some of them are still occupied as such, though others are + in too neglected and dilapidated a state to seem worthy of so splendid an + establishment. Unless it be Salisbury Close, however (which is + incomparably rich as regards the old residences that belong to it), I + remember no more comfortably picturesque precincts round any other + cathedral. But, in truth, almost every cathedral close, in turn, has + seemed to me the loveliest, cosiest, safest, least wind-shaken, most + decorous, and most enjoyable shelter that ever the thrift and selfishness + of mortal man contrived for himself. How delightful, to combine all this + with the service of the temple! + </p> + <p> + Lincoln Cathedral is built of a yellowish brown-stone, which appears + either to have been largely restored, or else does not assume the hoary, + crumbly surface that gives such a venerable aspect to most of the ancient + churches and castles in England. In many parts, the recent restorations + are quite evident; but other, and much the larger portions, can scarcely + have been touched for centuries: for there are still the gargoyles, + perfect, or with broken noses, as the case may be, but showing that + variety and fertility of grotesque extravagance which no modern imitation + can effect. There are innumerable niches, too, up the whole height of the + towers, above and around the entrance, and all over the walls: most of + them empty, but a few containing the lamentable remnants of headless + saints and angels. It is singular what a native animosity lives in the + human heart against carved images, insomuch that, whether they represent + Christian saint or Pagan deity, all unsophisticated men seize the first + safe opportunity to knock off their heads! In spite of all dilapidations, + however, the effect of the west front of the Cathedral is still + exceedingly rich, being covered from massive base to airy summit with the + minutest details of sculpture and carving: at least, it was so once; and + even now the spiritual impression of its beauty remains so strong, that we + have to look twice to see that much of it has been obliterated. I have + seen a cherry-stone carved all over by a monk, so minutely that it must + have cost him half a lifetime of labor; and this cathedral-front seems to + have been elaborated in a monkish spirit, like that cherry-stone. Not that + the result is in the least petty, but miraculously grand, and all the more + so for the faithful beauty of the smallest details. + </p> + <p> + An elderly maid, seeing us looking up at the west front, came to the door + of an adjacent house, and called to inquire if we wished to go into the + Cathedral; but as there would have been a dusky twilight beneath its roof, + like the antiquity that has sheltered itself within, we declined for the + present. So we merely walked round the exterior, and thought it more + beautiful than that of York; though, on recollection, I hardly deem it so + majestic and mighty as that. It is vain to attempt a description, or seek + even to record the feeling which the edifice inspires. It does not impress + the beholder as an inanimate object, but as something that has a vast, + quiet, long-enduring life of its own,—a creation which man did not + build, though in some way or other it is connected with him, and kindred + to human nature. In short, I fall straightway to talking nonsense, when I + try to express my inner sense of this and other cathedrals. + </p> + <p> + While we stood in the close, at the eastern end of the Minster, the clock + chimed the quarters; and then Great Tom, who hangs in the Rood Tower, told + us it was eight o'clock, in far the sweetest and mightiest accents that I + ever heard from any bell,—slow, and solemn, and allowing the + profound reverberations of each stroke to die away before the next one + fell. It was still broad daylight in that upper region of the town, and + would be so for some time longer; but the evening atmosphere was getting + sharp and cool. We therefore descended the steep street,—our younger + companion running before us, and gathering such headway that I fully + expected him to break his head against some projecting wall. + </p> + <p> + In the morning we took a fly (an English term for an exceedingly sluggish + vehicle), and drove up to the Minster by a road rather less steep and + abrupt than the one we had previously climbed. We alighted before the west + front, and sent our charioteer in quest of the verger; but, as he was not + immediately to be found, a young girl let us into the nave. We found it + very grand, it is needless to say, but not so grand, methought, as the + vast nave of York Cathedral, especially beneath the great central tower of + the latter. Unless a writer intends a professedly architectural + description, there is but one set of phrases in which to talk of all the + cathedrals in England and elsewhere. They are alike in their great + features: an acre or two of stone flags for a pavement; rows of vast + columns supporting a vaulted roof at a dusky height; great windows, + sometimes richly bedimmed with ancient or modern stained glass; and an + elaborately carved screen between the nave and chancel, breaking the vista + that might else be of such glorious length, and which is further choked up + by a massive organ.—in spite of which obstructions, you catch the + broad, variegated glimmer of the painted east window, where a hundred + saints wear their robes of transfiguration. Behind the screen are the + carved oaken stalls of the Chapter and Prebendaries, the Bishop's throne, + the pulpit, the altar, and whatever else may furnish out the Holy of + Holies. Nor must we forget the range of chapels (once dedicated to + Catholic saints, but which have now lost their individual consecration), + nor the old monuments of kings, warriors, and prelates, in the side-aisles + of the chancel. In close contiguity to the main body of the Cathedral is + the Chapter-House, which, here at Lincoln, as at Salisbury, is supported + by one central pillar rising from the floor, and putting forth branches + like a tree, to hold up the roof. Adjacent to the Chapter-House are the + cloisters, extending round a quadrangle, and paved with lettered + tombstones, the more antique of which have had their inscriptions half + obliterated by the feet of monks taking their noontide exercise in these + sheltered walks, five hundred years ago. Some of these old burial-stones, + although with ancient crosses engraved upon them, have been made to serve + as memorials to dead people of very recent date. + </p> + <p> + In the chancel, among the tombs of forgotten bishops and knights, we saw + an immense slab of stone purporting to be the monument of Catherine + Swynford, wife of John of Gaunt; also, here was the shrine of the little + Saint Hugh, that Christian child who was fabled to have been crucified by + the Jews of Lincoln. The Cathedral is not particularly rich in monuments; + for it suffered grievous outrage and dilapidation, both at the Reformation + and in Cromwell's time. This latter iconoclast is in especially bad odor + with the sextons and vergers of most of the old churches which I have + visited. His soldiers stabled their steeds in the nave of Lincoln + Cathedral, and hacked and hewed the monkish sculptures, and the ancestral + memorials of great families, quite at their wicked and plebeian pleasure. + Nevertheless, there are some most exquisite and marvellous specimens of + flowers, foliage, and grapevines, and miracles of stone-work twined about + arches, as if the material had been as soft as wax in the cunning + sculptor's hands,—the leaves being represented with all their veins, + so that you would almost think it petrified Nature, for which he sought to + steal the praise of Art. Here, too, were those grotesque faces which + always grin at you from the projections of monkish architecture, as if the + builders had gone mad with their own deep solemnity, or dreaded such a + catastrophe, unless permitted to throw in something ineffably absurd. + </p> + <p> + Originally, it is supposed, all the pillars of this great edifice, and all + these magic sculptures, were polished to the utmost degree of lustre; nor + is it unreasonable to think that the artists would have taken these + further pains, when they had already bestowed so much labor in working out + their conceptions to the extremest point. But, at present, the whole + interior of the Cathedral is smeared over with a yellowish wash, the very + meanest hue imaginable, and for which somebody's soul has a bitter + reckoning to undergo. + </p> + <p> + In the centre of the grassy quadrangle about which the cloisters + perambulate is a small, mean brick building, with a locked door. Our + guide,—I forgot to say that we had been captured by a verger, in + black, and with a white tie, but of a lusty and jolly aspect,—our + guide unlocked this door, and disclosed a flight of steps. At the bottom + appeared what I should have taken to be a large square of dim, worn, and + faded oil-carpeting, which might originally have been painted of a rather + gaudy pattern. This was a Roman tessellated pavement, made of small + colored bricks, or pieces of burnt clay. It was accidentally discovered + here, and has not been meddled with, further than by removing the + superincumbent earth and rubbish. + </p> + <p> + Nothing else occurs to me, just now, to be recorded about the interior of + the Cathedral, except that we saw a place where the stone pavement had + been worn away by the feet of ancient pilgrims scraping upon it, as they + knelt down before a shrine of the Virgin. Leaving the Minster, we now went + along a street of more venerable appearance than we had heretofore seen, + bordered with houses, the high peaked roofs of which were covered with red + earthen tiles. It led us to a Roman arch, which was once the gateway of a + fortification, and has been striding across the English street ever since + the latter was a faint village-path, and for centuries before. The arch is + about four hundred yards from the Cathedral; and it is to be noticed that + there are Roman remains in all this neighborhood, some above ground, and + doubtless innumerable more beneath it; for, as in ancient Rome itself, an + inundation of accumulated soil seems to have swept over what was the + surface of that earlier day. The gateway which I am speaking about is + probably buried to a third of its height, and perhaps has as perfect a + Roman pavement (if sought for at the original depth) as that which runs + beneath the Arch of Titus. It is a rude and massive structure, and seems + as stalwart now as it could have been two thousand years ago; and though + Time has gnawed it externally, he has made what amends he could by + crowning its rough and broken summit with grass and weeds, and planting + tufts of yellow flowers on the projections up and down the sides. + </p> + <p> + There are the ruins of a Norman castle, built by the Conqueror, in pretty + close proximity to the Cathedral; but the old gateway is obstructed by a + modern door of wood, and we were denied admittance because some part of + the precincts are used as a prison. We now rambled about on the broad back + of the hill, which, besides the Minster and ruined castle, is the site of + some stately and queer old houses, and of many mean little hovels. I + suspect that all or most of the life of the present day has subsided into + the lower town, and that only priests, poor people, and prisoners dwell in + these upper regions. In the wide, dry moat, at the base of the + castle-wall, are clustered whole colonies of small houses, some of brick, + but the larger portion built of old stones which once made part of the + Norman keep, or of Roman structures that existed before the Conqueror's + castle was ever dreamed about. They are like toadstools that spring up + from the mould of a decaying tree. Ugly as they are, they add wonderfully + to the picturesqueness of the scene, being quite as valuable, in that + respect, as the great, broad, ponderous ruin of the castle-keep, which + rose high above our heads, heaving its huge gray mass out of a bank of + green foliage and ornamental shrubbery, such as lilacs and other flowering + plants, in which its foundations were completely hidden. + </p> + <p> + After walking quite round the castle, I made an excursion through the + Roman gateway, along a pleasant and level road bordered with dwellings of + various character. One or two were houses of gentility, with delightful + and shadowy lawns before them; many had those high, red-tiled roofs, + ascending into acutely pointed gables, which seem to belong to the same + epoch as some of the edifices in our own earlier towns; and there were + pleasant-looking cottages, very sylvan and rural, with hedges so dense and + high, fencing them in, as almost to hide them up to the eaves of their + thatched roofs. In front of one of these I saw various images, crosses, + and relics of antiquity, among which were fragments of old Catholic + tombstones, disposed by way of ornament. + </p> + <p> + We now went home to the Saracen's Head; and as the weather was very + unpropitious, and it sprinkled a little now and then, I would gladly have + felt myself released from further thraldom to the Cathedral. But it had + taken possession of me, and would not let me be at rest; so at length I + found myself compelled to climb the hill again, between daylight and dusk. + A mist was now hovering about the upper height of the great central tower, + so as to dim and half obliterate its battlements and pinnacles, even while + I stood in the close beneath it. It was the most impressive view that I + had had. The whole lower part of the structure was seen with perfect + distinctness; but at the very summit the mist was so dense as to form an + actual cloud, as well defined as ever I saw resting on a mountain-top. + Really and literally, here was a "cloud-capt tower." + </p> + <p> + The entire Cathedral, too, transfigured itself into a richer beauty and + more imposing majesty than ever. The longer I looked, the better I loved + it. Its exterior is certainly far more beautiful than that of York + Minster; and its finer effect is due, I think, to the many peaks in which + the structure ascends, and to the pinnacles which, as it were, repeat and + re-echo them into the sky. York Cathedral is comparatively square and + angular in its general effect; but in this at Lincoln there is a continual + mystery of variety, so that at every glance you are aware of a change, and + a disclosure of something new, yet working an harmonious development of + what you have heretofore seen. The west front is unspeakably grand, and + may be read over and over again forever, and still show undetected + meanings, like a great, broad page of marvellous writing in black-letter,—so + many sculptured ornaments there are, blossoming out before your eyes, and + gray statues that have grown there since you looked last, and empty + niches, and a hundred airy canopies beneath which carved images used to + be, and where they will show themselves again, if you gaze long enough.—But + I will not say another word about the Cathedral. + </p> + <p> + We spent the rest of the day within the sombre precincts of the Saracen's + Head, reading yesterday's "Times," "The Guide-Book of Lincoln," and "The + Directory of the Eastern Counties." Dismal as the weather was, the street + beneath our window was enlivened with a great bustle and turmoil of people + all the evening, because it was Saturday night, and they had accomplished + their week's toil, received their wages, and were making their small + purchases against Sunday, and enjoying themselves as well as they knew + how. A band of music passed to and fro several times, with the rain-drops + falling into the mouth of the brazen trumpet and pattering on the bass-drum; + a spirit-shop, opposite the hotel, had a vast run of custom; and a + coffee-dealer, in the open air, found occasional vent for his commodity, + in spite of the cold water that dripped into the cups. The whole breadth + of the street, between the Stone Bow and the bridge across the Witham, was + thronged to overflowing, and humming with human life. + </p> + <p> + Observing in the Guide-Book that a steamer runs on the river Witham + between Lincoln and Boston, I inquired of the waiter, and learned that she + was to start on Monday at ten o'clock. Thinking it might be an interesting + trip, and a pleasant variation of our customary mode of travel, we + determined to make the voyage. The Witham flows through Lincoln, crossing + the main street under an arched bridge of Gothic construction, a little + below the Saracen's Head. It has more the appearance of a canal than of a + river, in its passage through the town,— being bordered with + hewn-stone mason-work on each side, and provided with one or two locks. + The steamer proved to be small, dirty, and altogether inconvenient. The + early morning had been bright; but the sky now lowered upon us with a + sulky English temper, and we had not long put off before we felt an ugly + wind from the German Ocean blowing right in our teeth. There were a number + of passengers on board, country-people, such as travel by third-class on + the railway; for, I suppose, nobody but ourselves ever dreamt of voyaging + by the steamer for the sake of what he might happen upon in the way of + river-scenery. + </p> + <p> + We bothered a good while about getting through a preliminary lock; nor, + when fairly under way, did we ever accomplish, I think, six miles an hour. + Constant delays were caused, moreover, by stopping to take up passengers + and freight,—not at regular landing-places, but anywhere along the + green banks. The scenery was identical with that of the railway, because + the latter runs along by the river-side through the whole distance, or + nowhere departs from it except to make a short cut across some sinuosity; + so that our only advantage lay in the drawling, snail-like slothfulness of + our progress, which allowed us time enough and to spare for the objects + along the shore. Unfortunately, there was nothing, or next to nothing, to + be seen,—the country being one unvaried level over the whole thirty + miles of our voyage,—not a hill in sight, either near or far, except + that solitary one on the summit of which we had left Lincoln Cathedral. + And the Cathedral was our landmark for four hours or more, and at last + rather faded out than was hidden by any intervening object. + </p> + <p> + It would have been a pleasantly lazy day enough, if the rough and bitter + wind had not blown directly in our faces, and chilled us through, in spite + of the sunshine that soon succeeded a sprinkle or two of rain. These + English east-winds, which prevail from February till June, are greater + nuisances than the east-wind of our own Atlantic coast, although they do + not bring mist and storm, as with us, but some of the sunniest weather + that England sees. Under their influence, the sky smiles and is villanous. + </p> + <p> + The landscape was tame to the last degree, but had an English character + that was abundantly worth our looking at. A green luxuriance of early + grass; old, high-roofed farm-houses, surrounded by their stone barns and + ricks of hay and grain; ancient villages, with the square, gray tower of a + church seen afar over the level country, amid the cluster of red roofs; + here and there a shadowy grove of venerable trees, surrounding what was + perhaps an Elizabethan hall, though it looked more like the abode of some + rich yeoman. Once, too, we saw the tower of a mediaeval castle, that of + Tattershall, built, by a Cromwell, but whether of the Protector's family I + cannot tell. But the gentry do not appear to have settled multitudinously + in this tract of country; nor is it to be wondered at, since a lover of + the picturesque would as soon think of settling in Holland. The river + retains its canal-like aspect all along; and only in the latter part of + its course does it become more than wide enough for the little steamer to + turn itself round,—at broadest, not more than twice that width. + </p> + <p> + The only memorable incident of our voyage happened when a mother-duck was + leading her little fleet of five ducklings across the river, just as our + steamer went swaggering by, stirring the quiet stream into great waves + that lashed the banks on either side. I saw the imminence of the + catastrophe, and hurried to the stern of the boat to witness its + consummation, since I could not possibly avert it. The poor ducklings had + uttered their baby-quacks, and striven with all their tiny might to + escape; four of them, I believe, were washed aside and thrown off unhurt + from the steamer's prow; but the fifth must have gone under the whole + length of the keel, and never could have come up alive. + </p> + <p> + At last, in mid-afternoon, we beheld the tall tower of Saint Botolph's + Church (three hundred feet high, the same elevation as the tallest tower + of Lincoln Cathedral) looming in the distance. At about half past four we + reached Boston (which name has been shortened, in the course of ages, by + the quick and slovenly English pronunciation, from Botolph's town), and + were taken by a cab to the Peacock, in the market-place. It was the best + hotel in town, though a poor one enough; and we were shown into a small, + stifled parlor, dingy, musty, and scented with stale tobacco-smoke,—tobacco-smoke + two days old, for the waiter assured us that the room had not more + recently been fumigated. An exceedingly grim waiter he was, apparently a + genuine descendant of the old Puritans of this English Boston, and quite + as sour as those who people the daughter-city in New England. Our parlor + had the one recommendation of looking into the market-place, and affording + a sidelong glimpse of the tall spire and noble old church. + </p> + <p> + In my first ramble about the town, chance led me to the river-side, at + that quarter where the port is situated. Here were long buildings of an + old-fashioned aspect, seemingly warehouses, with windows in the high, + steep roofs. The Custom-House found ample accommodation within an ordinary + dwelling-house. Two or three large schooners were moored along the river's + brink, which had here a stone margin; another large and handsome schooner + was evidently just finished, rigged and equipped for her first voyage; the + rudiments of another were on the stocks, in a shipyard bordering on the + river. Still another, while I was looking on, came up the stream, and + lowered her mainsail, from a foreign voyage. An old man on the bank hailed + her and inquired about her cargo; but the Lincolnshire people have such a + queer way of talking English that I could not understand the reply. + Farther down the river, I saw a brig, approaching rapidly under sail. The + whole scene made an odd impression of bustle, and sluggishness, and decay, + and a remnant of wholesome life; and I could not but contrast it with the + mighty and populous activity of our own Boston, which was once the feeble + infant of this old English town;—the latter, perhaps, almost + stationary ever since that day, as if the birth of such an offspring had + taken away its own principle of growth. I thought of Long Wharf, and + Faneuil Hall, and Washington Street, and the Great Elm, and the State + House, and exulted lustily,—but yet began to feel at home in this + good old town, for its very name's sake, as I never had before felt, in + England. + </p> + <p> + The next morning we came out in the early sunshine (the sun must have been + shining nearly four hours, however, for it was after eight o'clock), and + strolled about the streets, like people who had a right to be there. The + market-place of Boston is an irregular square, into one end of which the + chancel of the church slightly projects. The gates of the churchyard were + open and free to all passengers, and the common footway of the townspeople + seems to lie to and fro across it. It is paved, according to English + custom, with flat tombstones; and there are also raised or altar tombs, + some of which have armorial hearings on them. One clergyman has caused + himself and his wife to be buried right in the middle of the + stone-bordered path that traverses the churchyard; so that not an + individual of the thousands who pass along this public way can help + trampling over him or her. The scene, nevertheless, was very cheerful in + the morning sun: people going about their business in the day's primal + freshness, which was just as fresh here as in younger villages; children + with milk-pails, loitering over the burial-stones; school-boys playing + leap-frog with the altar-tombs; the simple old town preparing itself for + the day, which would be like myriads of other days that had passed over + it, but yet would be worth living through. And down on the churchyard, + where were buried many generations whom it remembered in their time, + looked the stately tower of Saint Botolph; and it was good to see and + think of such an age-long giant, intermarrying the present epoch with a + distant past, and getting quite imbued with human nature by being so + immemorially connected with men's familiar knowledge and homely interests. + It is a noble tower; and the jackdaws evidently have pleasant homes in + their hereditary nests among its topmost windows, and live delightful + lives, flitting and cawing about its pinnacles and flying buttresses. I + should almost like to be a jackdaw myself, for the sake of living up + there. + </p> + <p> + In front of the church, not more than twenty yards off, and with a low + brick wall between, flows the river Witham. On the hither bank a fisherman + was washing his boat; and another skiff, with her sail lazily half + twisted, lay on the opposite strand. The stream at this point is about of + such width, that, if the tall tower were to tumble over flat on its face, + its top-stone might perhaps reach to the middle of the channel. On the + farther shore there is a line of antique-looking houses, with roofs of red + tile, and windows opening out of them,—some of these dwellings being + so ancient, that the Reverend Mr. Cotton, subsequently our first Boston + minister, must have seen them with his own bodily eyes, when he used to + issue from the front-portal after service. Indeed, there must be very many + houses here, and even some streets, that bear much the aspect that they + did when the Puritan divine paced solemnly among them. + </p> + <p> + In our rambles about town, we went into a bookseller's shop to inquire if + he had any description of Boston for sale. He offered me (or, rather, + produced for inspection, not supposing that I would buy it) a quarto + history of the town, published by subscription, nearly forty years ago. + The bookseller showed himself a well-informed and affable man, and a local + antiquary, to whom a party of inquisitive strangers were a godsend. He had + met with several Americans, who, at various times, had come on pilgrimages + to this place, and he had been in correspondence with others. Happening to + have heard the name of one member of our party, he showed us great + courtesy and kindness, and invited us into his inner domicile, where, as + he modestly intimated, he kept a few articles which it might interest us + to see. So we went with him through the shop, up stairs, into the private + part of his establishment; and, really, it was one of the rarest + adventures I ever met with, to stumble upon this treasure of a man, with + his treasury of antiquities and curiosities, veiled behind the + unostentatious front of a bookseller's shop, in a very moderate line of + village business. The two up-stair rooms into which he introduced us were + so crowded with inestimable articles, that we were almost afraid to stir + for fear of breaking some fragile thing that had been accumulating value + for unknown centuries. + </p> + <p> + The apartment was hung round with pictures and old engravings, many of + which were extremely rare. Premising that he was going to show us + something very curious, Mr. Porter went into the next room and returned + with a counterpane of fine linen, elaborately embroidered with silk, which + so profusely covered the linen that the general effect was as if the main + texture were silken. It was stained and seemed very old, and had an + ancient fragrance. It was wrought all over with birds and flowers in a + most delicate style of needlework, and among other devices, more than once + repeated, was the cipher, M. S.,—being the initials of one of the + most unhappy names that ever a woman bore. This quilt was embroidered by + the hands of Mary Queen of Scots, during her imprisonment at Fotheringay + Castle; and having evidently been a work of years, she had doubtless shed + many tears over it, and wrought many doleful thoughts and abortive schemes + into its texture, along with the birds and flowers. As a counterpart to + this most precious relic, our friend produced some of the handiwork of a + former Queen of Otaheite, presented by her to Captain Cook; it was a bag, + cunningly made of some delicate vegetable stuff, and ornamented with + feathers. Next, he brought out a green silk waistcoat of very antique + fashion, trimmed about the edges and pocket-holes with a rich and delicate + embroidery of gold and silver. This (as the possessor of the treasure + proved, by tracing its pedigree till it came into his hands) was once the + vestment of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Burleigh; but that great statesman must + have been a person of very moderate girth in the chest and waist; for the + garment was hardly more than a comfortable fit for a boy of eleven, the + smallest American of our party, who tried on the gorgeous waistcoat. Then, + Mr. Porter produced some curiously engraved drinking-glasses, with a view + of Saint Botolph's steeple on one of them, and other Boston edifices, + public or domestic, on the remaining two, very admirably done. These + crystal goblets had been a present, long ago, to an old master of the Free + School from his pupils; and it is very rarely, I imagine, that a retired + schoolmaster can exhibit such trophies of gratitude and affection, won + from the victims of his birch rod. + </p> + <p> + Our kind friend kept bringing out one unexpected and wholly unexpectable + thing after another, as if he were a magician, and had only to fling a + private signal into the air, and some attendant imp would hand forth any + strange relic we might choose to ask for. He was especially rich in + drawings by the Old Masters, producing two or three, of exquisite + delicacy, by Raphael, one by Salvator, a head by Rembrandt, and others, in + chalk or pen-and-ink, by Giordano, Benvenuto Cellini, and hands almost as + famous; and besides what were shown us, there seemed to be an endless + supply of these art-treasures in reserve. On the wall hung a + crayon-portrait of Sterne, never engraved, representing him as a rather + young man, blooming, and not uncomely; it was the worldly face of a man + fond of pleasure, but without that ugly, keen, sarcastic, odd expression + that we see in his only engraved portrait. The picture is an original, and + must needs be very valuable; and we wish it might be prefixed to some new + and worthier biography of a writer whose character the world has always + treated with singular harshness, considering how much it owes him. There + was likewise a crayon-portrait of Sterne's wife, looking so haughty and + unamiable, that the wonder is, not that he ultimately left her, but how he + ever contrived to live a week with such an awful woman. + </p> + <p> + After looking at these, and a great many more things than I can remember, + above stairs, we went down to a parlor, where this wonderful bookseller + opened an old cabinet, containing numberless drawers, and looking just fit + to be the repository of such knick-knacks as were stored up in it. He + appeared to possess more treasures than he himself knew off, or knew where + to find; but, rummaging here and there, he brought forth things new and + old: rose-nobles, Victoria crowns, gold angels, double sovereigns of + George IV., two-guinea pieces of George II.; a marriage-medal of the first + Napoleon, only forty-five of which were ever struck off, and of which even + the British Museum does not contain a specimen like this, in gold; a brass + medal, three or four inches in diameter, of a Roman emperor; together with + buckles, bracelets, amulets, and I know not what besides. There was a + green silk tassel from the fringe of Queen Mary's bed at Holyrood Palace. + There were illuminated missals, antique Latin Bibles, and (what may seem + of especial interest to the historian) a Secret-Book of Queen Elizabeth, + in manuscript, written, for aught I know, by her own hand. On examination, + however, it proved to contain, not secrets of state, but recipes for + dishes, drinks, medicines, washes, and all such matters of housewifery, + the toilet, and domestic quackery, among which we were horrified by the + title of one of the nostrums, "How to kill a Fellow quickly"! We never + doubted that bloody Queen Bess might often have had occasion for such a + recipe, but wondered at her frankness, and at her attending to these + anomalous necessities in such a methodical way. The truth is, we had read + amiss, and the Queen had spelt amiss: the word was "Fellon,"—a sort + of whitlow,—not "Fellow." + </p> + <p> + Our hospitable friend now made us drink a glass of wine, as old and + genuine as the curiosities of his cabinet; and while sipping it, we + ungratefully tried to excite his envy, by telling of various things, + interesting to an antiquary and virtuoso, which we had seen in the course + of our travels about England. We spoke, for instance, of a missal bound in + solid gold and set around with jewels, but of such intrinsic value as no + setting could enhance, for it was exquisitely illuminated, throughout, by + the hand of Raphael himself. We mentioned a little silver case which once + contained a portion of the heart of Louis XIV. nicely done up in spices, + but, to the owner's horror and astonishment, Dean Buckland popped the + kingly morsel into his mouth, and swallowed it. We told about the + black-letter prayer-book of King Charles the Martyr, used by him upon the + scaffold, taking which into our hands, it opened of itself at the + Communion Service; and there, on the left-hand page, appeared a spot about + as large as a sixpence, of a yellowish or brownish hue: a drop of the + King's blood had fallen there. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Porter now accompanied us to the church, but first leading us to a + vacant spot of ground where old John Cotton's vicarage had stood till a + very short time since. According to our friend's description, it was a + humble habitation, of the cottage order, built of brick, with a thatched + roof. The site is now rudely fenced in, and cultivated as a vegetable + garden. In the right-hand aisle of the church there is an ancient chapel, + which, at the time of our visit, was in process of restoration, and was to + be dedicated to Mr. Cotton, whom these English people consider as the + founder of our American Boston. It would contain a painted + memorial-window, in honor of the old Puritan minister. A festival in + commemoration of the event was to take place in the ensuing July, to which + I had myself received an invitation, but I knew too well the pains and + penalties incurred by an invited guest at public festivals in England to + accept it. It ought to be recorded (and it seems to have made a very + kindly impression on our kinsfolk here) that five hundred pounds had been + contributed by persons in the United States, principally in Boston, + towards the cost of the memorial-window, and the repair and restoration of + the chapel. + </p> + <p> + After we emerged from the chapel, Mr. Porter approached us with the vicar, + to whom he kindly introduced us, and then took his leave. May a stranger's + benediction rest upon him! He is a most pleasant man; rather, I imagine, a + virtuoso than an antiquary; for he seemed to value the Queen of Otaheite's + bag as highly as Queen Mary's embroidered quilt, and to have an omnivorous + appetite for everything strange and rare. Would that we could fill up his + shelves and drawers (if there are any vacant spaces left) with the + choicest trifles that have dropped out of Time's carpet-bag, or give him + the carpet-bag itself, to take out what he will! + </p> + <p> + The vicar looked about thirty years old, a gentleman, evidently assured of + his position (as clergymen of the Established Church invariably are), + comfortable and well-to-do, a scholar and a Christian, and fit to be a + bishop, knowing how to make the most of life without prejudice to the life + to come. I was glad to see such a model English priest so suitably + accommodated with an old English church. He kindly and courteously did the + honors, showing us quite round the interior, giving us all the information + that we required, and then leaving us to the quiet enjoyment of what we + came to see. + </p> + <p> + The interior of Saint Botolph's is very fine and satisfactory, as stately, + almost, as a cathedral, and has been repaired—so far as repairs were + necessary—in a chaste and noble style. The great eastern window is + of modern painted glass, but is the richest, mellowest, and tenderest + modern window that I have ever seen: the art of painting these glowing + transparencies in pristine perfection being one that the world has lost. + The vast, clear space of the interior church delighted me. There was no + screen,—nothing between the vestibule and the altar to break the + long vista; even the organ stood aside,—though it by and by made us + aware of its presence by a melodious roar. Around the walls there were old + engraved brasses, and a stone coffin, and an alabaster knight of Saint + John, and an alabaster lady, each recumbent at full length, as large as + life, and in perfect preservation, except for a slight modern touch at the + tips of their noses. In the chancel we saw a great deal of oaken work, + quaintly and admirably carved, especially about the seats formerly + appropriated to the monks, which were so contrived as to tumble down with + a tremendous crash, if the occupant happened to fall asleep. + </p> + <p> + We now essayed to climb into the upper regions. Up we went, winding and + still winding round the circular stairs, till we came to the gallery + beneath the stone roof of the tower, whence we could look down and see the + raised Font, and my Talma lying on one of the steps, and looking about as + big as a pocket-handkerchief. Then up again, up, up, up, through a yet + smaller staircase, till we emerged into another stone gallery, above the + jackdaws, and far above the roof beneath which we had before made a halt. + Then up another flight, which led us into a pinnacle of the temple, but + not the highest; so, retracing our steps, we took the right turret this + time, and emerged into the loftiest lantern, where we saw level + Lincolnshire, far and near, though with a haze on the distant horizon. + There were dusty roads, a river, and canals, converging towards Boston, + which—a congregation of red-tiled roofs—lay beneath our feet, + with pygmy people creeping about its narrow streets. We were three hundred + feet aloft, and the pinnacle on which we stood is a landmark forty miles + at sea. + </p> + <p> + Content, and weary of our elevation, we descended the corkscrew stairs and + left the church; the last object that we noticed in the interior being a + bird, which appeared to be at home there, and responded with its cheerful + notes to the swell of the organ. Pausing on the church-steps, we observed + that there were formerly two statues, one on each side of the doorway; the + canopies still remaining and the pedestals being about a yard from the + ground. Some of Mr. Cotton's Puritan parishioners are probably responsible + for the disappearance of these stone saints. This doorway at the base of + the tower is now much dilapidated, but must once have been very rich and + of a peculiar fashion. It opens its arch through a great square tablet of + stone, reared against the front of the tower. On most of the projections, + whether on the tower or about the body of the church, there are gargoyles + of genuine Gothic grotesqueness,—fiends, beasts, angels, and + combinations of all three; and where portions of the edifice are restored, + the modern sculptors have tried to imitate these wild fantasies, but with + very poor success. Extravagance and absurdity have still their law, and + should pay as rigid obedience to it as the primmest things on earth. + </p> + <p> + In our further rambles about Boston, we crossed the river by a bridge, and + observed that the larger part of the town seems to be on that side of its + navigable stream. The crooked streets and narrow lanes reminded me much of + Hanover Street, Ann Street, and other portions of the North End of our + American Boston, as I remember that picturesque region in my boyish days. + It is not unreasonable to suppose that the local habits and recollections + of the first settlers may have had some influence on the physical + character of the streets and houses in the New England metropolis; at any + rate, here is a similar intricacy of bewildering lanes, and numbers of old + peaked and projecting-storied dwellings, such as I used to see there. It + is singular what a home-feeling and sense of kindred I derived from this + hereditary connection and fancied physiognomical resemblance between the + old town and its well-grown daughter, and how reluctant I was, after chill + years of banishment, to leave this hospitable place, on that account. + Moreover, it recalled some of the features of another American town, my + own dear native place, when I saw the seafaring people leaning against + posts, and sitting on planks, under the lee of warehouses,—or + lolling on long-boats, drawn up high and dry, as sailors and old + wharf-rats are accustomed to do, in seaports of little business. In other + respects, the English town is more village-like than either of the + American ones. The women and budding girls chat together at their doors, + and exchange merry greetings with young men; children chase one another in + the summer twilight; school-boys sail little boats on the river, or play + at marbles across the flat tombstones in the churchyard; and ancient men, + in breeches and long waistcoats, wander slowly about the streets, with a + certain familiarity of deportment, as if each one were everybody's + grandfather. I have frequently observed, in old English towns, that Old + Age comes forth more cheerfully and genially into the sunshine than among + ourselves, where the rush, stir, bustle, and irreverent energy of youth + are so preponderant, that the poor, forlorn grandsires begin to doubt + whether they have a right to breathe in such a world any longer, and so + hide their silvery heads in solitude. Speaking of old men, I am reminded + of the scholars of the Boston Charity School, who walk about in antique, + long-skirted blue coats, and knee-breeches, and with bands at their necks,—perfect + and grotesque pictures of the costume of three centuries ago. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of our departure, I looked from the parlor-window of the + Peacock into the market-place, and beheld its irregular square already + well covered with booths, and more in progress of being put up, by + stretching tattered sail-cloth on poles. It was market-day. The dealers + were arranging their commodities, consisting chiefly of vegetables, the + great bulk of which seemed to be cabbages. Later in the forenoon there was + a much greater variety of merchandise: basket-work, both for fancy and + use; twig-brooms, beehives, oranges, rustic attire; all sorts of things, + in short, that are commonly sold at a rural fair. I heard the lowing of + cattle, too, and the bleating of sheep, and found that there was a market + for cows, oxen, and pigs, in another part of the town. A crowd of + towns-people and Lincolnshire yeomen elbowed one another in the square; + Mr. Punch was squeaking in one corner, and a vagabond juggler tried to + find space for his exhibition in another: so that my final glimpse of + Boston was calculated to leave a livelier impression than my former ones. + Meanwhile the tower of Saint Botolph's looked benignantly down; and I + fancied it was bidding me farewell, as it did Mr. Cotton, two or three + hundred years ago, and telling me to describe its venerable height, and + the town beneath it, to the people of the American city, who are partly + akin, if not to the living inhabitants of Old Boston, yet to some of the + dust that lies in its churchyard. + </p> + <p> + One thing more. They have a Bunker Hill in the vicinity of their town; and + (what could hardly be expected of an English community) seem proud to + think that their neighborhood has given name to our first and most widely + celebrated and best remembered battle-field. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NEAR OXFORD. + </h2> + <p> + On a fine morning in September we set out on an excursion to Blenheim,— + the sculptor and myself being seated on the box of our four-horse + carriage, two more of the party in the dicky, and the others less + agreeably accommodated inside. We had no coachman, but two postilions in + short scarlet jackets and leather breeches with top-boots, each astride of + a horse; so that, all the way along, when not otherwise attracted, we had + the interesting spectacle of their up-and-down bobbing in the saddle. It + was a sunny and beautiful day, a specimen of the perfect English weather, + just warm enough for comfort,—indeed, a little too warm, perhaps, in + the noontide sun,—yet retaining a mere spice or suspicion of + austerity, which made it all the more enjoyable. + </p> + <p> + The country between Oxford and Blenheim is not particularly interesting, + being almost level, or undulating very slightly; nor is Oxfordshire, + agriculturally, a rich part of England. We saw one or two hamlets, and I + especially remember a picturesque old gabled house at a turnpike-gate, + and, altogether, the wayside scenery had an aspect of old-fashioned + English life; but there was nothing very memorable till we reached + Woodstock, and stopped to water our horses at the Black Bear. This + neighborhood is called New Woodstock, but has by no means the brand-new + appearance of an American town, being a large village of stone houses, + most of them pretty well time-worn and weather-stained. The Black Bear is + an ancient inn, large and respectable, with balustraded staircases, and + intricate passages and corridors, and queer old pictures and engravings + hanging in the entries and apartments. We ordered a lunch (the most + delightful of English institutions, next to dinner) to be ready against + our return, and then resumed our drive to Blenheim. + </p> + <p> + The park-gate of Blenheim stands close to the end of the village street of + Woodstock. Immediately on passing through its portals we saw the stately + palace in the distance, but made a wide circuit of the park before + approaching it. This noble park contains three thousand acres of land, and + is fourteen miles in circumference. Having been, in part, a royal domain + before it was granted to the Marlborough family, it contains many trees of + unsurpassed antiquity, and has doubtless been the haunt of game and deer + for centuries. We saw pheasants in abundance, feeding in the open lawns + and glades; and the stags tossed their antlers and bounded away, not + affrighted, but only shy and gamesome, as we drove by. It is a magnificent + pleasure-ground, not too tamely kept, nor rigidly subjected within rule, + but vast enough to have lapsed back into nature again, after all the pains + that the landscape-gardeners of Queen Anne's time bestowed on it, when the + domain of Blenheim was scientifically laid out. The great, knotted, + slanting trunks of the old oaks do not now look as if man had much + intermeddled with their growth and postures. The trees of later date, that + were set out in the Great Duke's time, are arranged on the plan of the + order of battle in which the illustrious commander ranked his troops at + Blenheim; but the ground covered is so extensive, and the trees now so + luxuriant, that the spectator is not disagreeably conscious of their + standing in military array, as if Orpheus had summoned them together by + beat of drum. The effect must have been very formal a hundred and fifty + years ago, but has ceased to be so,—although the trees, I presume, + have kept their ranks with even more fidelity than Marlborough's veterans + did. + </p> + <p> + One of the park-keepers, on horseback, rode beside our carriage, pointing + out the choice views, and glimpses at the palace, as we drove through the + domain. There is a very large artificial lake (to say the truth, it seemed + to me fully worthy of being compared with the Welsh lakes, at least, if + not with those of Westmoreland), which was created by Capability Brown, + and fills the basin that he scooped for it, just as if Nature had poured + these broad waters into one of her own valleys. It is a most beautiful + object at a distance, and not less so on its immediate banks; for the + water is very pure, being supplied by a small river, of the choicest + transparency, which was turned thitherward for the purpose. And Blenheim + owes not merely this water-scenery, but almost all its other beauties, to + the contrivance of man. Its natural features are not striking; but Art has + effected such wonderful things that the uninstructed visitor would never + guess that nearly the whole scene was but the embodied thought of a human + mind. A skilful painter hardly does more for his blank sheet of canvas + than the landscape-gardener, the planter, the arranger of trees, has done + for the monotonous surface of Blenheim,—making the most of every + undulation,—flinging down a hillock, a big lump of earth out of a + giant's hand, wherever it was needed,— putting in beauty as often as + there was a niche for it,—opening vistas to every point that + deserved to be seen, and throwing a veil of impenetrable foliage around + what ought to be hidden;—and then, to be sure, the lapse of a + century has softened the harsh outline of man's labors, and has given the + place back to Nature again with the addition of what consummate science + could achieve. + </p> + <p> + After driving a good way, we came to a battlemented tower and adjoining + house, which used to be the residence of the Ranger of Woodstock Park, who + held charge of the property for the King before the Duke of Marlborough + possessed it. The keeper opened the door for us, and in the entrance-hall + we found various things that had to do with the chase and woodland sports. + We mounted the staircase, through several stories, up to the top of the + tower, whence there was a view of the spires of Oxford, and of points much + farther off,—very indistinctly seen, however, as is usually the case + with the misty distances of England. Returning to the ground-floor, we + were ushered into the room in which died Wilmot, the wicked Earl of + Rochester, who was Ranger of the Park in Charles II.'s time. It is a low + and bare little room, with a window in front, and a smaller one behind; + and in the contiguous entrance-room there are the remains of an old + bedstead, beneath the canopy of which, perhaps, Rochester may have made + the penitent end that Bishop Burnet attributes to him. I hardly know what + it is, in this poor fellow's character, which affects us with greater + tenderness on his behalf than for all the other profligates of his day, + who seem to have been neither better nor worse than himself. I rather + suspect that he had a human heart which never quite died out of him, and + the warmth of which is still faintly perceptible amid the dissolute trash + which he left behind. + </p> + <p> + Methinks, if such good fortune ever befell a bookish man, I should choose + this lodge for my own residence, with the topmost room of the tower for a + study, and all the seclusion of cultivated wildness beneath to ramble in. + There being no such possibility, we drove on, catching glimpses of the + palace in new points of view, and by and by came to Rosamond's Well. The + particular tradition that connects Fair Rosamond with it is not now in my + memory; but if Rosamond ever lived and loved, and ever had her abode in + the maze of Woodstock, it may well be believed that she and Henry + sometimes sat beside this spring. It gushes out from a bank, through some + old stone-work, and dashes its little cascade (about as abundant as one + might turn out of a large pitcher) into a pool, whence it steals away + towards the lake, which is not far removed. The water is exceedingly cold, + and as pure as the legendary Rosamond was not, and is fancied to possess + medicinal virtues, like springs at which saints have quenched their + thirst. There were two or three old women and some children in attendance + with tumblers, which they present to visitors, full of the consecrated + water; but most of us filled the tumblers for ourselves, and drank. + </p> + <p> + Thence we drove to the Triumphal Pillar which was erected in honor of the + Great Duke, and on the summit of which he stands, in a Roman garb, holding + a winged figure of Victory in his hand, as an ordinary man might hold a + bird. The column is I know not how many feet high, but lofty enough, at + any rate, to elevate Marlborough far above the rest of the world, and to + be visible a long way off; and it is so placed in reference to other + objects, that, wherever the hero wandered about his grounds, and + especially as he issued from his mansion, he must inevitably have been + reminded of his glory. In truth, until I came to Blenheim, I never had so + positive and material an idea of what Fame really is—of what the + admiration of his country can do for a successful warrior—as I carry + away with me and shall always retain. Unless he had the moral force of a + thousand men together, his egotism (beholding himself everywhere, imbuing + the entire soil, growing in the woods, rippling and gleaming in the water, + and pervading the very air with his greatness) must have been swollen + within him like the liver of a Strasburg goose. On the huge tablets inlaid + into the pedestal of the column, the entire Act of Parliament, bestowing + Blenheim on the Duke of Marlborough and his posterity, is engraved in deep + letters, painted black on the marble ground. The pillar stands exactly a + mile from the principal front of the palace, in a straight line with the + precise centre of its entrance-hall; so that, as already said, it was the + Duke's principal object of contemplation. + </p> + <p> + We now proceeded to the palace-gate, which is a great pillared archway, of + wonderful loftiness and state, giving admittance into a spacious + quadrangle. A stout, elderly, and rather surly footman in livery appeared + at the entrance, and took possession of whatever canes, umbrellas, and + parasols he could get hold of, in order to claim sixpence on our + departure. This had a somewhat ludicrous effect. There is much public + outcry against the meanness of the present Duke in his arrangements for + the admission of visitors (chiefly, of course, his native countrymen) to + view the magnificent palace which their forefathers bestowed upon his own. + In many cases, it seems hard that a private abode should be exposed to the + intrusion of the public merely because the proprietor has inherited or + created a splendor which attracts general curiosity; insomuch that his + home loses its sanctity and seclusion for the very reason that it is + better than other men's houses. But in the case of Blenheim, the public + have certainly an equitable claim to admission, both because the fame of + its first inhabitant is a national possession, and because the mansion was + a national gift, one of the purposes of which was to be a token of + gratitude and glory to the English people themselves. If a man chooses to + be illustrious, he is very likely to incur some little inconveniences + himself, and entail them on his posterity. Nevertheless, his present Grace + of Marlborough absolutely ignores the public claim above suggested, and + (with a thrift of which even the hero of Blenheim himself did not set the + example) sells tickets admitting six persons at ten shillings; if only one + person enters the gate, he must pay for six; and if there are seven in + company, two tickets are required to admit them. The attendants, who meet + you everywhere in the park and palace, expect fees on their own private + account,—their noble master pocketing the ten shillings. But, to be + sure, the visitor gets his money's worth, since it buys him the right to + speak just as freely of the Duke of Marlborough as if he were the keeper + of the Cremorne Gardens. + </p> + <p> + [The above was written two or three years ago, or more; and the Duke of + that day has since transmitted his coronet to his successor, who, we + understand, has adopted much more liberal arrangements. There is seldom + anything to criticise or complain of, as regards the facility of obtaining + admission to interesting private houses in England.] + </p> + <p> + Passing through a gateway on the opposite side of the quadrangle, we had + before us the noble classic front of the palace, with its two projecting + wings. We ascended the lofty steps of the portal, and were admitted into + the entrance-hall, the height of which, from floor to ceiling, is not much + less than seventy feet, being the entire elevation of the edifice. The + hall is lighted by windows in the upper story, and, it being a clear, + bright day, was very radiant with lofty sunshine, amid which a swallow was + flitting to and fro. The ceiling was painted by Sir James Thornhill in + some allegorical design (doubtless commemorative of Marlborough's + victories), the purport of which I did not take the trouble to make out, + —contenting myself with the general effect, which was most + splendidly and effectively ornamental. + </p> + <p> + We were guided through the show-rooms by a very civil person, who allowed + us to take pretty much our own time in looking at the pictures. The + collection is exceedingly valuable,—many of these works of Art + having been presented to the Great Duke by the crowned heads of England or + the Continent. One room was all aglow with pictures by Rubens; and there + were works of Raphael, and many other famous painters, any one of which + would be sufficient to illustrate the meanest house that might contain it. + I remember none of then, however (not being in a picture-seeing mood), so + well as Vandyck's large and familiar picture of Charles I. on horseback, + with a figure and face of melancholy dignity such as never by any other + hand was put on canvas. Yet, on considering this face of Charles (which I + find often repeated in half-lengths) and translating it from the ideal + into literalism, I doubt whether the unfortunate king was really a + handsome or impressive-looking man: a high, thin-ridged nose, a meagre, + hatchet face, and reddish hair and beard,—these are the literal + facts. It is the painter's art that has thrown such pensive and shadowy + grace around him. + </p> + <p> + On our passage through this beautiful suite of apartments, we saw, through + the vista of open doorways, a boy of ten or twelve years old coming + towards us from the farther rooms. He had on a straw hat, a linen sack + that had certainly been washed and re-washed for a summer or two, and gray + trousers a good deal worn,—a dress, in short, which an American + mother in middle station would have thought too shabby for her darling + school-boy's ordinary wear. This urchin's face was rather pale (as those + of English children are apt to be, quite as often as our own), but he had + pleasant eyes, an intelligent look, and an agreeable, boyish manner. It + was Lord Sunderland, grandson of the present Duke, and heir—though + not, I think, in the direct line—of the blood of the great + Marlborough, and of the title and estate. + </p> + <p> + After passing through the first suite of rooms, we were conducted through + a corresponding suite on the opposite side of the entrance-hall. These + latter apartments are most richly adorned with tapestries, wrought and + presented to the first Duke by a sisterhood of Flemish nuns; they look + like great, glowing pictures, and completely cover the walls of the rooms. + The designs purport to represent the Duke's battles and sieges; and + everywhere we see the hero himself, as large as life, and as gorgeous in + scarlet and gold as the holy sisters could make him, with a three-cornered + hat and flowing wig, reining in his horse, and extending his leading-staff + in the attitude of command. Next to Marlborough, Prince Eugene is the most + prominent figure. In the way of upholstery, there can never have been + anything more magnificent than these tapestries; and, considered as works + of Art, they have quite as much merit as nine pictures out of ten. + </p> + <p> + One whole wing of the palace is occupied by the library, a most noble + room, with a vast perspective length from end to end. Its atmosphere is + brighter and more cheerful than that of most libraries: a wonderful + contrast to the old college-libraries of Oxford, and perhaps less sombre + and suggestive of thoughtfulness than any large library ought to be, + inasmuch as so many studious brains as have left their deposit on the + shelves cannot have conspired without producing a very serious and + ponderous result. Both walls and ceiling are white, and there are + elaborate doorways and fireplaces of white marble. The floor is of oak, so + highly polished that our feet slipped upon it as if it had been New + England ice. At one end of the room stands a statue of Queen Anne in her + royal robes, which are so admirably designed and exquisitely wrought that + the spectator certainly gets a strong conception of her royal dignity; + while the face of the statue, fleshy and feeble, doubtless conveys a + suitable idea of her personal character. The marble of this work, long as + it has stood there, is as white as snow just fallen, and must have + required most faithful and religious care to keep it so. As for the + volumes of the library, they are wired within the cases and turn their + gilded backs upon the visitor, keeping their treasures of wit and wisdom + just as intangible as if still in the unwrought mines of human thought. + </p> + <p> + I remember nothing else in the palace, except the chapel, to which we were + conducted last, and where we saw a splendid monument to the first Duke and + Duchess, sculptured by Rysbrack, at the cost, it is said, of forty + thousand pounds. The design includes the statues of the deceased + dignitaries, and various allegorical flourishes, fantasies, and + confusions; and beneath sleep the great Duke and his proud wife, their + veritable bones and dust, and probably all the Marlboroughs that have + since died. It is not quite a comfortable idea, that these mouldy + ancestors still inhabit, after their fashion, the house where their + successors spend the passing day; but the adulation lavished upon the hero + of Blenheim could not have been consummated, unless the palace of his + lifetime had become likewise a stately mausoleum over his remains,— + and such we felt it all to be, after gazing at his tomb. + </p> + <p> + The next business was to see the private gardens. An old Scotch + under-gardener admitted us and led the way, and seemed to have a fair + prospect of earning the fee all by himself; but by and by another + respectable Scotchman made his appearance and took us in charge, proving + to be the head-gardener in person. He was extremely intelligent and + agreeable, talking both scientifically and lovingly about trees and + plants, of which there is every variety capable of English cultivation. + Positively, the Garden of Eden cannot have been more beautiful than this + private garden of Blenheim. It contains three hundred acres, and by the + artful circumlocution of the paths, and the undulations, and the skilfully + interposed clumps of trees, is made to appear limitless. The sylvan + delights of a whole country are compressed into this space, as whole + fields of Persian roses go to the concoction of an ounce of precious + attar. The world within that garden-fence is not the same weary and dusty + world with which we outside mortals are conversant; it is a finer, + lovelier, more harmonious Nature; and the Great Mother lends herself + kindly to the gardener's will, knowing that he will make evident the + half-obliterated traits of her pristine and ideal beauty, and allow her to + take all the credit and praise to herself. I doubt whether there is ever + any winter within that precinct,—any clouds, except the fleecy ones + of summer. The sunshine that I saw there rests upon my recollection of it + as if it were eternal. The lawns and glades are like the memory of places + where one has wandered when first in love. + </p> + <p> + What a good and happy life might be spent in a paradise like this! And + yet, at that very moment, the besotted Duke (ah! I have let out a secret + which I meant to keep to myself; but the ten shillings must pay for all) + was in that very garden (for the guide told us so, and cautioned our young + people not to be too uproarious), and, if in a condition for arithmetic, + was thinking of nothing nobler than how many ten-shilling tickets had that + day been sold. Republican as I am, I should still love to think that + noblemen lead noble lives, and that all this stately and beautiful + environment may serve to elevate them a little way above the rest of us. + If it fail to do so, the disgrace falls equally upon the whole race of + mortals as on themselves; because it proves that no more favorable + conditions of existence would eradicate our vices and weaknesses. How sad, + if this be so! Even a herd of swine, eating the acorns under those + magnificent oaks of Blenheim, would be cleanlier and of better habits than + ordinary swine. + </p> + <p> + Well, all that I have written is pitifully meagre, as a description of + Blenheim; and I bate to leave it without some more adequate expression of + the noble edifice, with its rich domain, all as I saw them in that + beautiful sunshine; for, if a day had been chosen out of a hundred years, + it could not have been a finer one. But I must give up the attempt; only + further remarking that the finest trees here were cedars, of which I saw + one—and there may have been many such—immense in girth, and + not less than three centuries old. I likewise saw a vast heap of laurel, + two hundred feet in circumference, all growing from one root; and the + gardener offered to show us another growth of twice that stupendous size. + If the Great Duke himself had been buried in that spot, his heroic heart + could not have been the seed of a more plentiful crop of laurels. + </p> + <p> + We now went back to the Black Bear, and sat down to a cold collation, of + which we ate abundantly, and drank (in the good old English fashion) a due + proportion of various delightful liquors. A stranger in England, in his + rambles to various quarters of the country, may learn little in regard to + wines (for the ordinary English taste is simple, though sound, in that + particular), but he makes acquaintance with more varieties of hop and malt + liquor than he previously supposed to exist. I remember a sort of foaming + stuff, called hop-champagne, which is very vivacious, and appears to be a + hybrid between ale and bottled cider. Another excellent tipple for warm + weather is concocted by mixing brown-stout or bitter ale with ginger-beer, + the foam of which stirs up the heavier liquor from its depths, forming a + compound of singular vivacity and sufficient body. But of all things ever + brewed from malt (unless it be the Trinity Ale of Cambridge, which I drank + long afterwards, and which Barry Cornwall has celebrated in immortal + verse), commend me to the Archdeacon, as the Oxford scholars call it, in + honor of the jovial dignitary who first taught these erudite worthies how + to brew their favorite nectar. John Barleycorn has given his very heart to + this admirable liquor; it is a superior kind of ale, the Prince of Ales, + with a richer flavor and a mightier spirit than you can find elsewhere in + this weary world. Much have we been strengthened and encouraged by the + potent blood of the Archdeacon! + </p> + <p> + A few days after our excursion to Blenheim, the same party set forth, in + two flies, on a tour to some other places of interest in the neighborhood + of Oxford. It was again a delightful day; and, in truth, every day, of + late, had been so pleasant that it seemed as if each must be the very last + of such perfect weather; and yet the long succession had given us + confidence in as many more to come. The climate of England has been + shamefully maligned, its sulkiness and asperities are not nearly so + offensive as Englishmen tell us (their climate being the only attribute of + their country which they never overvalue); and the really good + summer-weather is the very kindest and sweetest that the world knows. + </p> + <p> + We first drove to the village of Cumnor, about six miles from Oxford, and + alighted at the entrance of the church. Here, while waiting for the keys, + we looked at an old wall of the churchyard, piled up of loose gray stones + which are said to have once formed a portion of Cumnor Hall, celebrated in + Mickle's ballad and Scott's romance. The hall must have been in very close + vicinity to the church,—not more than twenty yards off; and I waded + through the long, dewy grass of the churchyard, and tried to peep over the + wall, in hopes to discover some tangible and traceable remains of the + edifice. But the wall was just too high to be overlooked, and difficult to + clamber over without tumbling down some of the stones; so I took the word + of one of our party, who had been here before, that there is nothing + interesting on the other side. The churchyard is in rather a neglected + state, and seems not to have been mown for the benefit of the parson's + cow; it contains a good many gravestones, of which I remember only some + upright memorials of slate to individuals of the name of Tabbs. + </p> + <p> + Soon a woman arrived with the key of the church-door, and we entered the + simple old edifice, which has the pavement of lettered tombstones, the + sturdy pillars and low arches and other ordinary characteristics of an + English country church. One or two pews, probably those of the gentlefolk + of the neighborhood, were better furnished than the rest, but all in a + modest style. Near the high altar, in the holiest place, there is an + oblong, angular, ponderous tomb of blue marble, built against the wall, + and surmounted by a carved canopy of the same material; and over the tomb, + and beneath the canopy, are two monumental brasses, such as we oftener see + inlaid into a church pavement. On these brasses are engraved the figures + of a gentleman in armor and a lady in an antique garb, each about a foot + high, devoutly kneeling in prayer; and there is a long Latin inscription + likewise cut into the enduring brass, bestowing the highest eulogies on + the character of Anthony Forster, who, with his virtuous dame, lies buried + beneath this tombstone. His is the knightly figure that kneels above; and + if Sir Walter Scott ever saw this tomb, he must have had an even greater + than common disbelief in laudatory epitaphs, to venture on depicting + Anthony Forster in such lines as blacken him in the romance. For my part, + I read the inscription in full faith, and believe the poor deceased + gentleman to be a much-wronged individual, with good grounds for bringing + an action of slander in the courts above. + </p> + <p> + But the circumstance, lightly as we treat it, has its serious moral. What + nonsense it is, this anxiety, which so worries us, about our good fame, or + our bad fame, after death! If it were of the slightest real moment, our + reputations would have been placed by Providence more in our own power, + and less in other people's, than we now find them to be. If poor Anthony + Forster happens to have met Sir Walter in the other world, I doubt whether + he has ever thought it worth while to complain of the latter's + misrepresentations. + </p> + <p> + We did not remain long in the church, as it contains nothing else of + interest; and driving through the village, we passed a pretty large and + rather antique-looking inn, bearing the sign of the Bear and Ragged Staff. + It could not be so old, however, by at least a hundred years, as Giles + Gosling's time; nor is there any other object to remind the visitor of the + Elizabethan age, unless it be a few ancient cottages, that are perhaps of + still earlier date. Cumnor is not nearly so large a village, nor a place + of such mark, as one anticipates from its romantic and legendary fame; + but, being still inaccessible by railway, it has retained more of a sylvan + character than we often find in English country towns. In this retired + neighborhood the road is narrow and bordered with grass, and sometimes + interrupted by gates; the hedges grow in unpruned luxuriance; there is not + that close-shaven neatness and trimness that characterize the ordinary + English landscape. The whole scene conveys the idea of seclusion and + remoteness. We met no travellers, whether on foot or otherwise. + </p> + <p> + I cannot very distinctly trace out this day's peregrinations; but, after + leaving Cumnor a few miles behind us, I think we came to a ferry over the + Thames, where an old woman served as ferryman, and pulled a boat across by + means of a rope stretching from shore to shore. Our two vehicles being + thus placed on the other side, we resumed our drive,—first glancing, + however, at the old woman's antique cottage, with its stone floor, and the + circular settle round the kitchen fireplace, which was quite in the + mediaeval English style. + </p> + <p> + We next stopped at Stanton Harcourt, where we were received at the + parsonage with a hospitality which we should take delight in describing, + if it were allowable to make public acknowledgment of the private and + personal kindnesses which we never failed to find ready for our needs. An + American in an English house will soon adopt the opinion that the English + are the very kindest people on earth, and will retain that idea as long, + at least, as he remains on the inner side of the threshold. Their + magnetism is of a kind that repels strongly while you keep beyond a + certain limit, but attracts as forcibly if you get within the magic line. + </p> + <p> + It was at this place, if I remember right, that I heard a gentleman ask a + friend of mine whether he was the author of "The Red Letter A"; and, after + some consideration (for he did not seem to recognize his own book, at + first, under this improved title), our countryman responded, doubtfully, + that he believed so. The gentleman proceeded to inquire whether our friend + had spent much time in America,—evidently thinking that he must have + been caught young, and have had a tincture of English breeding, at least, + if not birth, to speak the language so tolerably, and appear so much like + other people. This insular narrowness is exceedingly queer, and of very + frequent occurrence, and is quite as much a characteristic of men of + education and culture as of clowns. + </p> + <p> + Stanton Harcourt is a very curious old place. It was formerly the seat of + the ancient family of Harcourt, which now has its principal abode at + Nuneham Courtney, a few miles off. The parsonage is a relic of the family + mansion, or castle, other portions of which are close at hand; for, across + the garden, rise two gray towers, both of them picturesquely venerable, + and interesting for more than their antiquity. One of these towers, in its + entire capacity, from height to depth, constituted the kitchen of the + ancient castle, and is still used for domestic purposes, although it has + not, nor ever had, a chimney; or we might rather say, it is itself one + vast chimney, with a hearth of thirty feet square, and a flue and aperture + of the same size. There are two huge fireplaces within, and the interior + walls of the tower are blackened with the smoke that for centuries used to + gush forth from them, and climb upward, seeking an exit through some wide + air-holes in the comical roof, full seventy feet above. These lofty + openings were capable of being so arranged, with reference to the wind, + that the cooks are said to have been seldom troubled by the smoke; and + here, no doubt, they were accustomed to roast oxen whole, with as little + fuss and ado as a modern cook would roast a fowl. The inside of the tower + is very dim and sombre (being nothing but rough stone walls, lighted only + from the apertures above mentioned), and has still a pungent odor of smoke + and soot, the reminiscence of the fires and feasts of generations that + have passed away. Methinks the extremest range of domestic economy lies + between an American cooking-stove and the ancient kitchen, seventy dizzy + feet in height and all one fireplace, of Stanton Harcourt. + </p> + <p> + Now—the place being without a parallel in England, and therefore + necessarily beyond the experience of an American—it is somewhat + remarkable, that, while we stood gazing at this kitchen, I was haunted and + perplexed by an idea that somewhere or other I had seen just this strange + spectacle before.—The height, the blackness, the dismal void, before + my eyes, seemed as familiar as the decorous neatness of my grandmother's + kitchen; only my unaccountable memory of the scene was lighted up with an + image of lurid fires blazing all round the dim interior circuit of the + tower. I had never before had so pertinacious an attack, as I could not + but suppose it, of that odd state of mind wherein we fitfully and + teasingly remember some previous scene or incident, of which the one now + passing appears to be but the echo and reduplication. Though the + explanation of the mystery did not for some time occur to me, I may as + well conclude the matter here. In a letter of Pope's, addressed to the + Duke of Buckingham, there is an account of Stanton Harcourt (as I now + find, although the name is not mentioned), where he resided while + translating a part of the "Iliad." It is one of the most admirable pieces + of description in the language,—playful and picturesque, with fine + touches of humorous pathos,—and conveys as perfect a picture as ever + was drawn of a decayed English country-house; and among other rooms, most + of which have since crumbled down and disappeared, he dashes off the grim + aspect of this kitchen,—which, moreover, he peoples with witches, + engaging Satan himself as headcook, who stirs the infernal caldrons that + seethe and bubble over the fires. This letter, and others relative to his + abode here, were very familiar to my earlier reading, and, remaining still + fresh at the bottom of my memory, caused the weird and ghostly sensation + that came over one on beholding the real spectacle that had formerly been + made so vivid to my imagination. + </p> + <p> + Our next visit was to the church which stands close by, and is quite as + ancient as the remnants of the castle. In a chapel or side-aisle, + dedicated to the Harcourts, are found some very interesting family + monuments,—and among them, recumbent on a tombstone, the figure of + an armed knight of the Lancastrian party, who was slain in the Wars of the + Roses. His features, dress, and armor are painted in colors, still + wonderfully fresh, and there still blushes the symbol of the Red Rose, + denoting the faction for which he fought and died. His head rests on a + marble or alabaster helmet; and on the tomb lies the veritable helmet, it + is to be presumed, which he wore in battle,—a ponderous iron ease, + with the visor complete, and remnants of the gilding that once covered it. + The crest is a large peacock, not of metal, but of wood. + </p> + <p> + Very possibly, this helmet was but an heraldic adornment of his tomb; and, + indeed, it seems strange that it has not been stolen before now, + especially in Cromwell's time, when knightly tombs were little respected, + and when armor was in request. However, it is needless to dispute with the + dead knight about the identity of his iron pot, and we may as well allow + it to be the very same that so often gave him the headache in his + lifetime. Leaning against the wall, at the foot of the tomb, is the shaft + of a spear, with a wofully tattered and utterly faded banner appended to + it,—the knightly banner beneath which he marshalled his followers in + the field. As it was absolutely falling to pieces, I tore off one little + bit, no bigger than a finger-nail, and put it into my waistcoat-pocket; + but seeking it subsequently, it was not to be found. + </p> + <p> + On the opposite side of the little chapel, two or three yards from this + tomb, is another monument, on which lie, side by side, one of the same + knightly race of Harcourts, and his lady. The tradition of the family is, + that this knight was the standard-bearer of Henry of Richmond in the + Battle of Bosworth Field; and a banner, supposed to be the same that he + carried, now droops over his effigy. It is just such a colorless silk rag + as the one already described. The knight has the order of the Garter on + his knee, and the lady wears it on her left arm, an odd place enough for a + garter; but, if worn in its proper locality, it could not be decorously + visible. The complete preservation and good condition of these statues, + even to the minutest adornment of the sculpture, and their very noses,—the + most vulnerable part of a marble man, as of a living one,—are + miraculous. Except in Westminster Abbey, among the chapels of the kings, I + have seen none so well preserved. Perhaps they owe it to the loyalty of + Oxfordshire, diffused throughout its neighborhood by the influence of the + University, during the great Civil War and the rule of the Parliament. It + speaks well, too, for the upright and kindly character of this old family, + that the peasantry, among whom they had lived for ages, did not desecrate + their tombs, when it might have been done with impunity. + </p> + <p> + There are other and more recent memorials of the Harcourts, one of which + is the tomb of the last lord, who died about a hundred years ago. His + figure, like those of his ancestors, lies on the top of his tomb, clad, + not in armor, but in his robes as a peer. The title is now extinct, but + the family survives in a younger branch, and still holds this patrimonial + estate, though they have long since quitted it as a residence. + </p> + <p> + We next went to see the ancient fish-ponds appertaining to the mansion, + and which used to be of vast dietary importance to the family in Catholic + times, and when fish was not otherwise attainable. There are two or three, + or more, of these reservoirs, one of which is of very respectable size,—large + enough, indeed, to be really a picturesque object, with its grass-green + borders, and the trees drooping over it, and the towers of the castle and + the church reflected within the weed-grown depths of its smooth mirror. A + sweet fragrance, as it were, of ancient time and present quiet and + seclusion was breathing all around; the sunshine of to-day had a mellow + charm of antiquity in its brightness. These ponds are said still to breed + abundance of such fish as love deep and quiet waters; but I saw only some + minnows, and one or two snakes, which were lying among the weeds on the + top of the water, sunning and bathing themselves at once. + </p> + <p> + I mentioned that there were two towers remaining of the old castle: the + one containing the kitchen we have already visited; the other, still more + interesting, is next to be described. It is some seventy feet high, gray + and reverend, but in excellent repair, though I could not perceive that + anything had been done to renovate it. The basement story was once the + family chapel, and is, of course, still a consecrated spot. At one corner + of the tower is a circular turret, within which a narrow staircase, with + worn steps of stone, winds round and round as it climbs upward, giving + access to a chamber on each floor, and finally emerging on the + battlemented roof. Ascending this turret-stair, and arriving at the third + story, we entered a chamber, not large, though occupying the whole area of + the tower, and lighted by a window on each side. It was wainscoted from + floor to ceiling with dark oak, and had a little fireplace in one of the + corners. The window-panes were small and set in lead. The curiosity of + this room is, that it was once the residence of Pope, and that he here + wrote a considerable part of the translation of Isomer, and likewise, no + doubt, the admirable letters to which I have referred above. The room once + contained a record by himself, scratched with a diamond on one of the + window-panes (since removed for safe-keeping to Nuneham Courtney, where it + was shown me), purporting that he had here finished the fifth book of the + "Iliad" on such a day. + </p> + <p> + A poet has a fragrance about him, such as no other human being is gifted + withal; it is indestructible, and clings forevermore to everything that he + has touched. I was not impressed, at Blenheim, with any sense that the + mighty Duke still haunted the palace that was created for him; but here, + after a century and a half, we are still conscious of the presence of that + decrepit little figure of Queen Anne's time, although he was merely a + casual guest in the old tower, during one or two summer months. However + brief the time and slight the connection, his spirit cannot be exorcised + so long as the tower stands. In my mind, moreover, Pope, or any other + person with an available claim, is right in adhering to the spot, dead or + alive; for I never saw a chamber that I should like better to inhabit,—so + comfortably small, in such a safe and inaccessible seclusion, and with a + varied landscape from each window. One of them looks upon the church, + close at hand, and down into the green churchyard, extending almost to the + foot of the tower; the others have views wide and far, over a gently + undulating tract of country. If desirous of a loftier elevation, about a + dozen more steps of the turret-stair will bring the occupant to the summit + of the tower,—where Pope used to come, no doubt, in the summer + evenings, and peep—poor little shrimp that he was!— through + the embrasures of the battlement. + </p> + <p> + From Stanton Harcourt we drove—I forget how far—to a point + where a boat was waiting for us upon the Thames, or some other stream; for + I am ashamed to confess my ignorance of the precise geographical + whereabout. We were, at any rate, some miles above Oxford, and, I should + imagine, pretty near one of the sources of England's mighty river. It was + little more than wide enough for the boat, with extended oars, to pass, + shallow, too, and bordered with bulrushes and water-weeds, which, in some + places, quite overgrew the surface of the river from bank to bank. The + shores were flat and meadow-like, and sometimes, the boatman told us, are + overflowed by the rise of the stream. The water looked clean and pure, but + not particularly transparent, though enough so to show us that the bottom + is very much weedgrown; and I was told that the weed is an American + production, brought to England with importations of timber, and now + threatening to choke up the Thames and other English rivers. I wonder it + does not try its obstructive powers upon the Merrimack, the Connecticut, + or the Hudson,—not to speak of the St. Lawrence or the Mississippi! + </p> + <p> + It was an open boat, with cushioned seats astern, comfortably + accommodating our party; the day continued sunny and warm, and perfectly + still; the boatman, well trained to his business, managed the oars + skilfully and vigorously; and we went down the stream quite as swiftly as + it was desirable to go, the scene being so pleasant, and the passing hours + so thoroughly agreeable. The river grew a little wider and deeper, + perhaps, as we glided on, but was still an inconsiderable stream: for it + had a good deal more than a hundred miles to meander through before it + should bear fleets on its bosom, and reflect palaces and towers and + Parliament houses and dingy and sordid piles of various structure, as it + rolled two and fro with the tide, dividing London asunder. Not, in truth, + that I ever saw any edifice whatever reflected in its turbid breast, when + the sylvan stream, as we beheld it now, is swollen into the Thames at + London. + </p> + <p> + Once, on our voyage, we had to land, while the boatman and some other + persons drew our skiff round some rapids, which we could not otherwise + have passed; another time, the boat went through a lock. We, meanwhile, + stepped ashore to examine the ruins of the old nunnery of Godstowe, where + Fair Rosamond secluded herself, after being separated from her royal + lover. There is a long line of ruinous wall, and a shattered tower at one + of the angles; the whole much ivy-grown,—brimming over, indeed, with + clustering ivy, which is rooted inside of the walls. The nunnery is now, I + believe, held in lease by the city of Oxford, which has converted its + precincts into a barn-yard. The gate was under lock and key, so that we + could merely look at the outside, and soon resumed our places in the boat. + </p> + <p> + At three o'clock or thereabouts (or sooner or later,—for I took + little heed of time, and only wished that these delightful wanderings + might last forever) we reached Folly Bridge, at Oxford. Here we took + possession of a spacious barge, with a house in it, and a comfortable + dining-room or drawing-room within the house, and a level roof, on which + we could sit at ease, or dance if so inclined. These barges are common at + Oxford,—some very splendid ones being owned by the students of the + different colleges, or by clubs. They are drawn by horses, like + canal-boats; and a horse being attached to our own barge, he trotted off + at a reasonable pace, and we slipped through the water behind him, with a + gentle and pleasant motion, which, save for the constant vicissitude of + cultivated scenery, was like no motion at all. It was life without the + trouble of living; nothing was ever more quietly agreeable. In this happy + state of mind and body we gazed at Christ Church meadows, as we passed, + and at the receding spires and towers of Oxford, and on a good deal of + pleasant variety along the banks: young men rowing or fishing; troops of + naked boys bathing, as if this were Arcadia, in the simplicity of the + Golden Age; country-houses, cottages, water-side inns, all with something + fresh about them, as not being sprinkled with the dust of the highway. We + were a large party now; for a number of additional guests had joined us at + Folly Bridge, and we comprised poets, novelists, scholars, sculptors, + painters, architects, men and women of renown, dear friends, genial, + outspoken, open-hearted Englishmen,—all voyaging onward together, + like the wise ones of Gotham in a bowl. I remember not a single annoyance, + except, indeed, that a swarm of wasps came aboard of us and alighted on + the head of one of our young gentlemen, attracted by the scent of the + pomatum which he had been rubbing into his hair. He was the only victim, + and his small trouble the one little flaw in our day's felicity, to put us + in mind that we were mortal. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile a table had been laid in the interior of our barge, and spread + with cold ham, cold fowl, cold pigeon-pie, cold beef, and other + substantial cheer, such as the English love, and Yankees too,—besides + tarts, and cakes, and pears, and plums,—not forgetting, of course, a + goodly provision of port, sherry, and champagne, and bitter ale, which is + like mother's milk to an Englishman, and soon grows equally acceptable to + his American cousin. By the time these matters had been properly attended + to, we had arrived at that part of the Thames which passes by Nuneham + Courtney, a fine estate belonging to the Harcourts, and the present + residence of the family. Here we landed, and, climbing a steep slope from + the river-side, paused a moment or two to look at an architectural object, + called the Carfax, the purport of which I do not well understand. Thence + we proceeded onward, through the loveliest park and woodland scenery I + ever saw, and under as beautiful a declining sunshine as heaven ever shed + over earth, to the stately mansion-house. + </p> + <p> + As we here cross a private threshold, it is not allowable to pursue my + feeble narrative of this delightful day with the same freedom as + heretofore; so, perhaps, I may as well bring it to a close. I may mention, + however, that I saw the library, a fine, large apartment, hung round with + portraits of eminent literary men, principally of the last century, most + of whom were familiar guests of the Harcourts. The house itself is about + eighty years old, and is built in the classic style, as if the family had + been anxious to diverge as far as possible from the Gothic picturesqueness + of their old abode at Stanton Harcourt. The grounds were laid out in part + by Capability Brown, and seemed to me even more beautiful than those of + Blenheim. Mason the poet, a friend of the house, gave the design of a + portion of the garden. Of the whole place I will not be niggardly of my + rude Transatlantic praise, but be bold to say that it appeared to me as + perfect as anything earthly can he,—utterly and entirely finished, + as if the years and generations had done all that the hearts and minds of + the successive owners could contrive for a spot they dearly loved. Such + homes as Nuneham Courtney are among the splendid results of long + hereditary possession; and we Republicans, whose households melt away like + new-fallen snow in a spring morning, must content ourselves with our many + counterbalancing advantages, for this one, so apparently desirable to the + far-projecting selfishness of our nature, we are certain never to attain. + </p> + <p> + It must not be supposed, nevertheless, that Nuneham Courtney is one of the + great show-places of England. It is merely a fair specimen of the better + class of country-seats, and has a hundred rivals, and many superiors, in + the features of beauty, and expansive, manifold, redundant comfort, which + most impressed me. A moderate man might be content with such a home,—that + is all. + </p> + <p> + And now I take leave of Oxford without even an attempt to describe it,— + there being no literary faculty, attainable or conceivable by me, which + can avail to put it adequately, or even tolerably, upon paper. It must + remain its own sole expression; and those whose sad fortune it may be + never to behold it have no better resource than to dream about gray, + weather-stained, ivy-grown edifices, wrought with quaint Gothic ornament, + and standing around grassy quadrangles, where cloistered walks have echoed + to the quiet footsteps of twenty generations,—lawns and gardens of + luxurious repose, shadowed with canopies of foliage, and lit up with sunny + glimpses through archways of great boughs,—spires, towers, and + turrets, each with its history and legend,—dimly magnificent + chapels, with painted windows of rare beauty and brilliantly diversified + hues, creating an atmosphere of richest gloom,—vast college-halls, + high-windowed, oaken-panelled, and hung round with portraits of the men, + in every age, whom the University has nurtured to be illustrious,—long + vistas of alcoved libraries, where the wisdom and learned folly of all + time is shelved,—kitchens (we throw in this feature by way of + ballast, and because it would not be English Oxford without its beef and + beer), with huge fireplaces, capable of roasting a hundred joints at once,—and + cavernous cellars, where rows of piled-up hogsheads seethe and fume with + that mighty malt-liquor which is the true milk of Alma Mater; make all + these things vivid in your dream, and you will never know nor believe how + inadequate is the result to represent even the merest outside of Oxford. + </p> + <p> + We feel a genuine reluctance to conclude this article without making our + grateful acknowledgments, by name, to a gentleman whose overflowing + kindness was the main condition of all our sight-seeings and enjoyments. + Delightful as will always be our recollection of Oxford and its + neighborhood, we partly suspect that it owes much of its happy coloring to + the genial medium through which the objects were presented to us,—to + the kindly magic of a hospitality unsurpassed, within our experience, in + the quality of making the guest contented with his host, with himself, and + everything about him. He has inseparably mingled his image with our + remembrance of the Spires of Oxford. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SOME OF THE HAUNTS OF BURNS. + </h2> + <p> + We left Carlisle at a little past eleven, and within the half-hour were at + Gretna Green. Thence we rushed onward into Scotland through a flat and + dreary tract of country, consisting mainly of desert and bog, where + probably the moss-troopers were accustomed to take refuge after their + raids into England. Anon, however, the hills hove themselves up to view, + occasionally attaining a height which might almost be called mountainous. + In about two hours we reached Dumfries, and alighted at the station there. + </p> + <p> + Chill as the Scottish summer is reputed to be, we found it an awfully hot + day, not a whit less so than the day before; but we sturdily adventured + through the burning sunshine up into the town, inquiring our way to the + residence of Burns. The street leading from the station is called + Shakespeare Street; and at its farther extremity we read "Burns Street" on + a corner-house, the avenue thus designated having been formerly known as + "Mill-Hole Brae." It is a vile lane, paved with small, hard stones from + side to side, and bordered by cottages or mean houses of whitewashed + stone, joining one to another along the whole length of the street. With + not a tree, of course, or a blade of grass between the paving-stones, the + narrow lane was as hot as Topbet, and reeked with a genuine Scotch odor, + being infested with unwashed children, and altogether in a state of + chronic filth; although some women seemed to be hopelessly scrubbing the + thresholds of their wretched dwellings. I never saw an outskirt of a town + less fit for a poet's residence, or in which it would be more miserable + for any man of cleanly predilections to spend his days. + </p> + <p> + We asked for Burns's dwelling; and a woman pointed across the street to a + two-story house, built of stone, and whitewashed, like its neighbors, but + perhaps of a little more respectable aspect than most of them, though I + hesitate in saying so. It was not a separate structure, but under the same + continuous roof with the next. There was an inscription on the door, + hearing no reference to Burns, but indicating that the house was now + occupied by a ragged or industrial school. On knocking, we were instantly + admitted by a servant-girl, who smiled intelligently when we told our + errand, and showed us into a low and very plain parlor, not more than + twelve or fifteen feet square. A young woman, who seemed to be a teacher + in the school, soon appeared, and told us that this had been Burns's usual + sitting-room, and that he had written many of his songs here. + </p> + <p> + She then led us up a narrow staircase into a little bedchamber over the + parlor. Connecting with it, there is a very small room, or windowed + closet, which Burns used as a study; and the bedchamber itself was the one + where he slept in his later lifetime, and in which he died at last. + Altogether, it is an exceedingly unsuitable place for a pastoral and rural + poet to live or die in,—even more unsatisfactory than Shakespeare's + house, which has a certain homely picturesqueness that contrasts favorably + with the suburban sordidness of the abode before us. The narrow lane, the + paving-stones, and the contiguity of wretched hovels are depressing to + remember; and the steam of them (such is our human weakness) might almost + make the poet's memory less fragrant. + </p> + <p> + As already observed, it was an intolerably hot day. After leaving the + house, we found our way into the principal street of the town, which, it + may be fair to say, is of very different aspect from the wretched outskirt + above described. Entering a hotel (in which, as a Dumfries guide-book + assured us, Prince Charles Edward had once spent a night), we rested and + refreshed ourselves, and then set forth in quest of the mausoleum of + Burns. + </p> + <p> + Coming to St. Michael's Church, we saw a man digging a grave, and, + scrambling out of the hole, he let us into the churchyard, which was + crowded full of monuments. Their general shape and construction are + peculiar to Scotland, being a perpendicular tablet of marble or other + stone, within a framework of the same material, somewhat resembling the + frame of a looking-glass; and, all over the churchyard, those sepulchral + memorials rise to the height of ten, fifteen, or twenty feet, forming + quite an imposing collection of monuments, but inscribed with names of + small general significance. It was easy, indeed, to ascertain the rank of + those who slept below; for in Scotland it is the custom to put the + occupation of the buried personage (as "Skinner," "Shoemaker," "Flesher") + on his tombstone. As another peculiarity, wives are buried under their + maiden names, instead of those of their husbands; thus giving a + disagreeable impression that the married pair have bidden each other an + eternal farewell on the edge of the grave. + </p> + <p> + There was a foot-path through this crowded churchyard, sufficiently well + worn to guide us to the grave of Burns; but a woman followed behind us, + who, it appeared, kept the key of the mausoleum, and was privileged to + show it to strangers. The monument is a sort of Grecian temple, with + pilasters and a dome, covering a space of about twenty feet square. It was + formerly open to all the inclemencies of the Scotch atmosphere, but is now + protected and shut in by large squares of rough glass, each pane being of + the size of one whole side of the structure. The woman unlocked the door, + and admitted us into the interior. Inlaid into the floor of the mausoleum + is the gravestone of Burns,—the very same that was laid over his + grave by Jean Armour, before this monument was built. Displayed against + the surrounding wall is a marble statue of Burns at the plough, with the + Genius of Caledonia summoning the ploughman to turn poet. Methought it was + not a very successful piece of work; for the plough was better sculptured + than the man, and the man, though heavy and cloddish, was more effective + than the goddess. Our guide informed us that an old man of ninety, who + knew Burns, certifies this statue to be very like the original. + </p> + <p> + The bones of the poet, and of Jean Armour, and of some of their children, + lie in the vault over which we stood. Our guide (who was intelligent, in + her own plain way, and very agreeable to talk withal) said that the vault + was opened about three weeks ago, on occasion of the burial of the eldest + son of Burns. The poet's bones were disturbed, and the dry skull, once so + brimming over with powerful thought and bright and tender fantasies, was + taken away, and kept for several days by a Dumfries doctor. It has since + been deposited in a new leaden coffin, and restored to the vault. We + learned that there is a surviving daughter of Burns's eldest son, and + daughters likewise of the two younger sons,—and, besides these, an + illegitimate posterity by the eldest son, who appears to have been of + disreputable life in his younger days. He inherited his father's failings, + with some faint shadow, I have also understood, of the great qualities + which have made the world tender of his father's vices and weaknesses. + </p> + <p> + We listened readily enough to this paltry gossip, but found that it robbed + the poet's memory of some of the reverence that was its due. Indeed, this + talk over his grave had very much the same tendency and effect as the + home-scene of his life, which we had been visiting just previously. + Beholding his poor, mean dwelling and its surroundings, and picturing his + outward life and earthly manifestations from these, one does not so much + wonder that the people of that day should have failed to recognize all + that was admirable and immortal in a disreputable, drunken, shabbily + clothed, and shabbily housed man, consorting with associates of damaged + character, and, as his only ostensible occupation, gauging the whiskey, + which he too often tasted. Siding with Burns, as we needs must, in his + plea against the world, let us try to do the world a little justice too. + It is far easier to know and honor a poet when his fame has taken shape in + the spotlessness of marble than when the actual man comes staggering + before you, besmeared with the sordid stains of his daily life. For my + part, I chiefly wonder that his recognition dawned so brightly while he + was still living. There must have been something very grand in his + immediate presence, some strangely impressive characteristic in his + natural behavior, to have caused him to seem like a demigod so soon. + </p> + <p> + As we went back through the churchyard, we saw a spot where nearly four + hundred inhabitants of Dumfries were buried during the cholera year; and + also some curious old monuments, with raised letters, the inscriptions on + which were not sufficiently legible to induce us to puzzle them out; but, + I believe, they mark the resting-places of old Covenanters, some of whom + were killed by Claverhouse and his fellow-ruffians. + </p> + <p> + St. Michael's Church is of red freestone, and was built about a hundred + years ago, on an old Catholic foundation. Our guide admitted us into it, + and showed us, in the porch, a very pretty little marble figure of a child + asleep, with a drapery over the lower part, from beneath which appeared + its two baby feet. It was truly a sweet little statue; and the woman told + us that it represented a child of the sculptor, and that the baby (here + still in its marble infancy) had died more than twenty-six years ago. + "Many ladies," she said, "especially such as had ever lost a child, had + shed tears over it." It was very pleasant to think of the sculptor + bestowing the best of his genius and art to re-create his tender child in + stone, and to make the representation as soft and sweet as the original; + but the conclusion of the story has something that jars with our awakened + sensibilities. A gentleman from London had seen the statue, and was so + much delighted with it that he bought it of the father-artist, after it + had lain above a quarter of a century in the church-porch. So this was not + the real, tender image that came out of the father's heart; he had sold + that truest one for a hundred guineas, and sculptured this mere copy to + replace it. The first figure was entirely naked in its earthly and + spiritual innocence. The copy, as I have said above, has a drapery over + the lower limbs. But, after all, if we come to the truth of the matter, + the sleeping baby may be as fully reposited in the drawing-room of a + connoisseur as in a cold and dreary church-porch. + </p> + <p> + We went into the church, and found it very plain and naked, without + altar-decorations, and having its floor quite covered with unsightly + wooden pews. The woman led us to a pew cornering on one of the + side-aisles, and, telling us that it used to be Burns's family-pew, showed + us his seat, which is in the corner by the aisle. It is so situated, that + a sturdy pillar hid him from the pulpit, and from the minister's eye; "for + Robin was no great friends with the ministers," said she. This touch—his + seat behind the pillar, and Burns himself nodding in sermon-time, or + keenly observant of profane things—brought him before us to the + life. In the corner-seat of the next pew, right before Burns, and not more + than two feet off, sat the young lady on whom the poet saw that + unmentionable parasite which he has immortalized in song. We were + ungenerous enough to ask the lady's name, but the good woman could not + tell it. This was the last thing which we saw in Dumfries worthy of + record; and it ought to be noted that our guide refused some money which + my companion offered her, because I had already paid her what she deemed + sufficient. + </p> + <p> + At the railway-station we spent more than a weary hour, waiting for the + train, which at last came up, and took us to Mauchline. We got into an + omnibus, the only conveyance to be had, and drove about a mile to the + village, where we established ourselves at the Loudoun Hotel, one of the + veriest country inns which we have found in Great Britain. The town of + Mauchline, a place more redolent of Burns than almost any other, consists + of a street or two of contiguous cottages, mostly whitewashed, and with + thatched roofs. It has nothing sylvan or rural in the immediate village, + and is as ugly a place as mortal man could contrive to make, or to render + uglier through a succession of untidy generations. The fashion of paving + the village street, and patching one shabby house on the gable-end of + another, quite shuts out all verdure and pleasantness; but, I presume, we + are not likely to see a more genuine old Scotch village, such as they used + to be in Burns's time, and long before, than this of Mauchline. The church + stands about midway up the street, and is built of red freestone, very + simple in its architecture, with a square tower and pinnacles. In this + sacred edifice, and its churchyard, was the scene of one of Burns's most + characteristic productions, "The Holy Fair." + </p> + <p> + Almost directly opposite its gate, across the village street, stands Posie + Nansie's inn, where the "Jolly Beggars" congregated. The latter is a + two-story, red-stone, thatched house, looking old, but by no means + venerable, like a drunken patriarch. It has small, old-fashioned windows, + and may well have stood for centuries,—though, seventy or eighty + years ago, when Burns was conversant with it, I should fancy it might have + been something better than a beggars' alehouse. The whole town of + Mauchline looks rusty and time-worn,—even the newer houses, of which + there are several, being shadowed and darkened by the general aspect of + the place. When we arrived, all the wretched little dwellings seemed to + have belched forth their inhabitants into the warm summer evening; + everybody was chatting with everybody, on the most familiar terms; the + bare-legged children gambolled or quarrelled uproariously, and came + freely, moreover, and looked into the window of our parlor. When we + ventured out, we were followed by the gaze of the old town: people + standing in their doorways, old women popping their heads from the + chamber-windows, and stalwart men idle on Saturday at e'en, after their + week's hard labor—clustering at the street-corners, merely to stare + at our unpretending selves. Except in some remote little town of Italy + (where, besides, the inhabitants had the intelligible stimulus of + beggary), I have never been honored with nearly such an amount of public + notice. + </p> + <p> + The next forenoon my companion put me to shame by attending church, after + vainly exhorting me to do the like; and, it being Sacrament Sunday, and my + poor friend being wedged into the farther end of a closely filled pew, he + was forced to stay through the preaching of four several sermons, and came + back perfectly exhausted and desperate. He was somewhat consoled, however, + on finding that he had witnessed a spectacle of Scotch manners identical + with that of Burns's "Holy Fair," on the very spot where the poet located + that immortal description. By way of further conformance to the customs of + the country, we ordered a sheep's head and the broth, and did penance + accordingly; and at five o'clock we took a fly, and set out for Burns's + farm of Moss Giel. + </p> + <p> + Moss Giel is not more than a mile from Mauchline, and the road extends + over a high ridge of land, with a view of far hills and green slopes on + either side. Just before we reached the farm, the driver stopped to point + out a hawthorn, growing by the wayside, which he said was Burns's "Lousie + Thorn"; and I devoutly plucked a branch, although I have really forgotten + where or how this illustrious shrub has been celebrated. We then turned + into a rude gateway, and almost immediately came to the farm-house of Moss + Giel, standing some fifty yards removed from the high-road, behind a tall + hedge of hawthorn, and considerably overshadowed by trees. The house is a + whitewashed stone cottage, like thousands of others in England and + Scotland, with a thatched roof, on which grass and weeds have intruded a + picturesque, though alien growth. There is a door and one window in front, + besides another little window that peeps out among the thatch. Close by + the cottage, and extending back at right angles from it, so as to enclose + the farm-yard, are two other buildings of the same size, shape, and + general appearance as the house: any one of the three looks just as fit + for a human habitation as the two others, and all three look still more + suitable for donkey-stables and pigsties. As we drove into the farm-yard, + bounded on three sides by these three hovels, a large dog began to bark at + us; and some women and children made their appearance, but seemed to demur + about admitting us, because the master and mistress were very religious + people, and had not yet come back from the Sacrament at Mauchline. + </p> + <p> + However, it would not do to be turned back from the very threshold of + Robert Burns; and as the women seemed to be merely straggling visitors, + and nobody, at all events, had a right to send us away, we went into the + back door, and, turning to the right, entered a kitchen. It showed a + deplorable lack of housewifely neatness, and in it there were three or + four children, one of whom, a girl eight or nine years old, held a baby in + her arms. She proved to be the daughter of the people of the house, and + gave us what leave she could to look about us. Thence we stepped across + the narrow mid-passage of the cottage into the only other apartment below + stairs, a sitting-room, where we found a young man eating broad and + cheese. He informed us that he did not live there, and had only called in + to refresh himself on his way home from church. This room, like the + kitchen, was a noticeably poor one, and, besides being all that the + cottage had to show for a parlor, it was a sleeping-apartment, having two + beds, which might be curtained off, on occasion. The young man allowed us + liberty (so far as in him lay) to go up stairs. Up we crept, accordingly; + and a few steps brought us to the top of the staircase, over the kitchen, + where we found the wretchedest little sleeping-chamber in the world, with + a sloping roof under the thatch, and two beds spread upon the bare floor. + This, most probably, was Burns's chamber; or, perhaps, it may have been + that of his mother's servant-maid; and, in either case, this rude floor, + at one time or another, must have creaked beneath the poet's midnight + tread. On the opposite side of the passage was the door of another + attic-chamber, opening which, I saw a considerable number of cheeses on + the floor. + </p> + <p> + The whole house was pervaded with a frowzy smell, and also a dunghill + odor; and it is not easy to understand how the atmosphere of such a + dwelling can be any more agreeable or salubrious morally than it appeared + to be physically. No virgin, surely, could keep a holy awe about her while + stowed higgledy-piggledy with coarse-natured rustics into this narrowness + and filth. Such a habitation is calculated to make beasts of men and + women; and it indicates a degree of barbarism which I did not imagine to + exist in Scotland, that a tiller of broad fields, like the farmer of + Mauchline, should have his abode in a pigsty. It is sad to think of + anybody—not to say a poet, but any human being—sleeping, + eating, thinking, praying, and spending all his home-life in this + miserable hovel; but, methinks, I never in the least knew how to estimate + the miracle of Burns's genius, nor his heroic merit for being no worse + man, until I thus learned the squalid hindrances amid which he developed + himself. Space, a free atmosphere, and cleanliness have a vast deal to do + with the possibilities of human virtue. + </p> + <p> + The biographers talk of the farm of Moss Giel as being damp and + unwholesome; but, I do not see why, outside of the cottage-walls, it + should possess so evil a reputation. It occupies a high, broad ridge, + enjoying, surely, whatever benefit can come of a breezy site, and sloping + far downward before any marshy soil is reached. The high hedge, and the + trees that stand beside the cottage, give it a pleasant aspect enough to + one who does not know the grimy secrets of the interior; and the summer + afternoon was now so bright that I shall remember the scene with a great + deal of sunshine over it. + </p> + <p> + Leaving the cottage, we drove through a field, which the driver told us + was that in which Burns turned up the mouse's nest. It is the enclosure + nearest to the cottage, and seems now to be a pasture, and a rather + remarkably unfertile one. A little farther on, the ground was whitened + with an immense number of daisies,—daisies, daisies everywhere; and + in answer to my inquiry, the driver said that this was the field where + Burns ran his ploughshare over the daisy. If so, the soil seems to have + been consecrated to daisies by the song which he bestowed on that first + immortal one. I alighted, and plucked a whole handful of these "wee, + modest, crimson-tipped flowers," which will be precious to many friends in + our own country as coming from Burns's farm, and being of the same race + and lineage as that daisy which he turned into an amaranthine flower while + seeming to destroy it. + </p> + <p> + From Moss Giel we drove through a variety of pleasant scenes, some of + which were familiar to us by their connection with Burns. We skirted, too, + along a portion of the estate of Auchinleck, which still belongs to the + Boswell family,—the present possessor being Sir James Boswell [Sir + James Boswell is now dead], a grandson of Johnson's friend, and son of the + Sir Alexander who was killed in a duel. Our driver spoke of Sir James as a + kind, free-hearted man, but addicted to horse-races and similar pastimes, + and a little too familiar with the wine-cup; so that poor Bozzy's + booziness would appear to have become hereditary in his ancient line. + There is no male heir to the estate of Auchinleck. The portion of the + lands which we saw is covered with wood and much undermined with + rabbit-warrens; nor, though the territory extends over a large number of + acres, is the income very considerable. + </p> + <p> + By and by we came to the spot where Burns saw Miss Alexander, the Lass of + Ballochmyle. It was on a bridge, which (or, more probably, a bridge that + has succeeded to the old one, and is made of iron) crosses from bank to + bank, high in air, over a deep gorge of the road; so that the young lady + may have appeared to Burns like a creature between earth and sky, and + compounded chiefly of celestial elements. But, in honest truth, the great + charm of a woman, in Burns's eyes, was always her womanhood, and not the + angelic mixture which other poets find in her. + </p> + <p> + Our driver pointed out the course taken by the Lass of Ballochmyle, + through the shrubbery, to a rock on the banks of the Lugar, where it seems + to be the tradition that Burns accosted her. The song implies no such + interview. Lovers, of whatever condition, high or low, could desire no + lovelier scene in which to breathe their vows: the river flowing over its + pebbly bed, sometimes gleaming into the sunshine, sometimes hidden deep in + verdure, and here and there eddying at the foot of high and precipitous + cliffs. This beautiful estate of Ballochmyle is still held by the family + of Alexanders, to whom Burns's song has given renown on cheaper terms than + any other set of people ever attained it. How slight the tenure seems! A + young lady happened to walk out, one summer afternoon, and crossed the + path of a neighboring farmer, who celebrated the little incident in four + or five warm, rude, at least, not refined, though rather ambitious,—and + somewhat ploughman-like verses. Burns has written hundreds of better + things; but henceforth, for centuries, that maiden has free admittance + into the dream-land of Beautiful Women, and she and all her race are + famous. I should like to know the present head of the family, and + ascertain what value, if any, the members of it put upon the celebrity + thus won. + </p> + <p> + We passed through Catrine, known hereabouts as "the clean village of + Scotland." Certainly, as regards the point indicated, it has greatly the + advantage of Mauchline, whither we now returned without seeing anything + else worth writing about. + </p> + <p> + There was a rain-storm during the night, and, in the morning, the rusty, + old, sloping street of Mauchline was glistening with wet, while frequent + showers came spattering down. The intense heat of many days past was + exchanged for a chilly atmosphere, much more suitable to a stranger's idea + of what Scotch temperature ought to be. We found, after breakfast, that + the first train northward had already gone by, and that we must wait till + nearly two o'clock for the next. I merely ventured out once, during the + forenoon, and took a brief walk through the village, in which I have left + little to describe. Its chief business appears to be the manufacture of + snuff-boxes. There are perhaps five or six shops, or more, including those + licensed to sell only tea and tobacco; the best of them have the + characteristics of village stores in the United States, dealing in a small + way with an extensive variety of articles. I peeped into the open gateway + of the churchyard, and saw that the ground was absolutely stuffed with + dead people, and the surface crowded with gravestones, both perpendicular + and horizontal. All Burns's old Mauchline acquaintance are doubtless + there, and the Armours among them, except Bonny Jean, who sleeps by her + poet's side. The family of Armour is now extinct in Mauchline. + </p> + <p> + Arriving at the railway-station, we found a tall, elderly, comely + gentleman walking to and fro and waiting for the train. He proved to be a + Mr. Alexander,—it may fairly be presumed the Alexander of + Ballochmyle, a blood relation of the lovely lass. Wonderful efficacy of a + poet's verse, that could shed a glory from Long Ago on this old + gentleman's white hair! These Alexanders, by the by, are not an old family + on the Ballochmyle estate; the father of the lass having made a fortune in + trade, and established himself as the first landed proprietor of his name + in these parts. The original family was named Whitefoord. + </p> + <p> + Our ride to Ayr presented nothing very remarkable; and, indeed, a cloudy + and rainy day takes the varnish off the scenery and causes a woful + diminution in the beauty and impressiveness of everything we see. Much of + our way lay along a flat, sandy level, in a southerly direction. We + reached Ayr in the midst of hopeless rain, and drove to the King's Arms + Hotel. In the intervals of showers I took peeps at the town, which + appeared to have many modern or modern-fronted edifices; although there + are likewise tall, gray, gabled, and quaint-looking houses in the + by-streets, here and there, betokening an ancient place. The town lies on + both sides of the Ayr, which is here broad and stately, and bordered with + dwellings that look from their windows directly down into the passing + tide. + </p> + <p> + I crossed the river by a modern and handsome stone bridge, and recrossed + it, at no great distance, by a venerable structure of four gray arches, + which must have bestridden the stream ever since the early days of + Scottish history. These are the "Two Briggs of Ayr," whose midnight + conversation was overheard by Burns, while other auditors were aware only + of the rush and rumble of the wintry stream among the arches. The ancient + bridge is steep and narrow, and paved like a street, and defended by a + parapet of red freestone, except at the two ends, where some mean old + shops allow scanty room for the pathway to creep between. Nothing else + impressed me hereabouts, unless I mention, that, during the rain, the + women and girls went about the streets of Ayr barefooted to save their + shoes. + </p> + <p> + The next morning wore a lowering aspect, as if it felt itself destined to + be one of many consecutive days of storm. After a good Scotch breakfast, + however, of fresh herrings and eggs, we took a fly, and started at a + little past ten for the banks of the Doon. On our way, at about two miles + from Ayr, we drew up at a roadside cottage, on which was an inscription to + the effect that Robert Burns was born within its walls. It is now a + public-house; and, of course, we alighted and entered its little + sitting-room, which, as we at present see it, is a neat apartment, with + the modern improvement of a ceiling. The walls are much overscribbled with + names of visitors, and the wooden door of a cupboard in the wainscot, as + well as all the other wood-work of the room, is cut and carved with + initial letters. So, likewise, are two tables, which, having received a + coat of varnish over the inscriptions, form really curious and interesting + articles of furniture. I have seldom (though I do not, personally adopt + this mode of illustrating my bumble name) felt inclined to ridicule the + natural impulse of most people thus to record themselves at the shrines of + poets and heroes. + </p> + <p> + On a panel, let into the wall in a corner of the room, is a portrait of + Burns, copied from the original picture by Nasmyth. The floor of this + apartment is of boards, which are probably a recent substitute for the + ordinary flag-stones of a peasant's cottage. There is but one other room + pertaining to the genuine birthplace of Robert Burns: it is the kitchen, + into which we now went. It has a floor of flag-stones, even ruder than + those of Shakespeare's house,—though, perhaps, not so strangely + cracked and broken as the latter, over which the hoof of Satan himself + might seem to have been trampling. A new window has been opened through + the wall, towards the road; but on the opposite side is the little + original window, of only four small panes, through which came the first + daylight that shone upon the Scottish poet. At the side of the room, + opposite the fireplace, is a recess, containing a bed, which can be hidden + by curtains. In that humble nook, of all places in the world, Providence + was pleased to deposit the germ of the richest, human life which mankind + then had within its circumference. + </p> + <p> + These two rooms, as I have said, make up the whole sum and substance of + Burns's birthplace: for there were no chambers, nor even attics; and the + thatched roof formed the only ceiling of kitchen and sitting-room, the + height of which was that of the whole house. The cottage, however, is + attached to another edifice of the same size and description, as these + little habitations often are; and, moreover, a splendid addition has been + made to it, since the poet's renown began to draw visitors to the wayside + alehouse. The old woman of the house led us through an entry, and showed a + vaulted hall, of no vast dimensions, to be sure, but marvellously large + and splendid as compared with what might be anticipated from the outward + aspect of the cottage. It contained a bust of Burns, and was hung round + with pictures and engravings, principally illustrative of his life and + poems. In this part of the house, too, there is a parlor, fragrant with + tobacco-smoke; and, no doubt, many a noggin of whiskey is here quaffed to + the memory of the bard, who professed to draw so much inspiration from + that potent liquor. + </p> + <p> + We bought some engravings of Kirk Alloway, the Bridge of Doon, and the + monument, and gave the old woman a fee besides, and took our leave. A very + short drive farther brought us within sight of the monument, and to the + hotel, situated close by the entrance of the ornamental grounds within + which the former is enclosed. We rang the bell at the gate of the + enclosure, but were forced to wait a considerable time; because the old + man, the regular superintendent of the spot, had gone to assist at the + laying of the corner-stone of a new kirk. He appeared anon, and admitted + us, but immediately hurried away to be present at the concluding + ceremonies, leaving us locked up with Burns. + </p> + <p> + The enclosure around the monument is beautifully laid out as an ornamental + garden, and abundantly provided with rare flowers and shrubbery, all + tended with loving care. The monument stands on an elevated site, and + consists of a massive basement-story, three-sided, above which rises a + light and elegant Grecian temple,—a mere dome, supported on + Corinthian pillars, and open to all the winds. The edifice is beautiful in + itself; though I know not what peculiar appropriateness it may have, as + the memorial of a Scottish rural poet. + </p> + <p> + The door of the basement-story stood open; and, entering, we saw a bust of + Burns in a niche, looking keener, more refined, but not so warm and + whole-souled as his pictures usually do. I think the likeness cannot be + good. In the centre of the room stood a glass case, in which were + reposited the two volumes of the little Pocket Bible that Burns gave to + Highland Mary, when they pledged their troth to one another. It is poorly + printed, on coarse paper. A verse of Scripture, referring to the solemnity + and awfulness of vows, is written within the cover of each volume, in the + poet's own hand; and fastened to one of the covers is a lock of Highland + Mary's golden hair. This Bible had been carried to America—by one of + her relatives, but was sent back to be fitly treasured here. + </p> + <p> + There is a staircase within the monument, by which we ascended to the top, + and had a view of both Briggs of Doon; the scene of Tam O'Shanter's + misadventure being close at hand. Descending, we wandered through the + enclosed garden, and came to a little building in a corner, on entering + which, we found the two statues of Tam and Sutor Wat,—ponderous + stone-work enough, yet permeated in a remarkable degree with living warmth + and jovial hilarity. From this part of the garden, too, we again beheld + the old Brigg of Doon, over which Tam galloped in such imminent and awful + peril. It is a beautiful object in the landscape, with one high, graceful + arch, ivy-grown, and shadowed all over and around with foliage. + </p> + <p> + When we had waited a good while, the old gardener came, telling us that he + had heard an excellent prayer at laying the corner-stone of the new kirk. + He now gave us some roses and sweetbrier, and let us out from his pleasant + garden. We immediately hastened to Kirk Alloway, which is within two or + three minutes' walk of the monument. A few steps ascend from the roadside, + through a gate, into the old graveyard, in the midst of which stands the + kirk. The edifice is wholly roofless, but the side-walls and gable-ends + are quite entire, though portions of them are evidently modern + restorations. Never was there a plainer little church, or one with smaller + architectural pretension; no New England meeting-house has more simplicity + in its very self, though poetry and fun have clambered and clustered so + wildly over Kirk Alloway that it is difficult to see it as it actually + exists. By the by, I do not understand why Satan and an assembly of + witches should hold their revels within a consecrated precinct; but the + weird scene has so established itself in the world's imaginative faith + that it must be accepted as an authentic incident, in spite of rule and + reason to the contrary. Possibly, some carnal minister, some priest of + pious aspect and hidden infidelity, had dispelled the consecration of the + holy edifice by his pretence of prayer, and thus made it the resort of + unhappy ghosts and sorcerers and devils. + </p> + <p> + The interior of the kirk, even now, is applied to quite as impertinent a + purpose as when Satan and the witches used it as a dancing-hall; for it is + divided in the midst by a wall of stone-masonry, and each compartment has + been converted into a family burial-place. The name on one of the + monuments is Crawfurd; the other bore no inscription. It is impossible not + to feel that these good people, whoever they may be, had no business to + thrust their prosaic bones into a spot that belongs to the world, and + where their presence jars with the emotions, be they sad or gay, which the + pilgrim brings thither. They slant us out from our own precincts, too,—from + that inalienable possession which Burns bestowed in free gift upon + mankind, by taking it from the actual earth and annexing it to the domain + of imagination. And here these wretched squatters have lain down to their + long sleep, after barring each of the two doorways of the kirk with an + iron grate! May their rest be troubled, till they rise and let us in! + </p> + <p> + Kirk Alloway is inconceivably small, considering how large a space it + fills in our imagination before we see it. I paced its length, outside of + the wall, and found it only seventeen of my paces, and not more than ten + of them in breadth. There seem to have been but very few windows, all of + which, if I rightly remember, are now blocked up with mason-work of stone. + One mullioned window, tall and narrow, in the eastern gable, might have + been seen by Tam O'Shanter, blazing with devilish light, as he approached + along the road from Ayr; and there is a small and square one, on the side + nearest the road, into which he might have peered, as he sat on horseback. + Indeed, I could easily have looked through it, standing on the ground, had + not the opening been walled up. There is an odd kind of belfry at the peak + of one of the gables, with the small bell still hanging in it. And this is + all that I remember of Kirk Alloway, except that the stones of its + material are gray and irregular. + </p> + <p> + The road from Ayr passes Alloway Kirk, and crosses the Doon by a modern + bridge, without swerving much from a straight line. To reach the old + bridge, it appears to have made a bend, shortly after passing the kirk, + and then to have turned sharply towards the river. The new bridge is + within a minute's walk of the monument; and we went thither, and leaned + over its parapet to admire the beautiful Doon, flowing wildly and sweetly + between its deep and wooded banks. I never saw a lovelier scene; although + this might have been even lovelier, if a kindly sun had shone upon it. The + ivy-grown, ancient bridge, with its high arch, through which we had a + picture of the river and the green banks beyond, was absolutely the most + picturesque object, in a quiet and gentle way, that ever blessed my eyes. + Bonny Doon, with its wooded banks, and the boughs dipping into the water! + </p> + <p> + The memory of them, at this moment, affects me like the song of birds, and + Burns crooning some verses, simple and wild, in accordance with their + native melody. + </p> + <p> + It was impossible to depart without crossing the very bridge of Tam's + adventure; so we went thither, over a now disused portion of the road, + and, standing on the centre of the arch, gathered some ivy-leaves from + that sacred spot. This done, we returned as speedily as might be to Ayr, + whence, taking the rail, we soon beheld Ailsa Craig rising like a pyramid + out of the sea. Drawing nearer to Glasgow, Bell Lomond hove in sight, with + a dome-like summit, supported by a shoulder on each side. But a man is + better than a mountain; and we had been holding intercourse, if not with + the reality, at least with the stalwart ghost of one of Earth's memorable + sons, amid the scenes where he lived and sung. We shall appreciate him + better as a poet, hereafter; for there is no writer whose life, as a man, + has so much to do with his fame, and throws such a necessary light, upon + whatever he has produced. Henceforth, there will be a personal warmth for + us in everything that he wrote; and, like his countrymen, we shall know + him in a kind of personal way, as if we had shaken hands with him, and + felt the thrill of his actual voice. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LONDON SUBURB. + </h2> + <p> + One of our English summers looks, in the retrospect, as if it had been + patched with more frequent sunshine than the sky of England ordinarily + affords; but I believe that it may be only a moral effect,—a "light + that never was on sea nor land," caused by our having found a particularly + delightful abode in the neighborhood of London. In order to enjoy it, + however, I was compelled to solve the problem of living in two places at + once,—an impossibility which I so far accomplished as to vanish, at + frequent intervals, out of men's sight and knowledge on one side of + England, and take my place in a circle of familiar faces on the other, so + quietly that I seemed to have been there all along. It was the easier to + get accustomed to our new residence, because it was not only rich in all + the material properties of a home, but had also the home-like atmosphere, + the household element, which is of too intangible a character to be let + even with the most thoroughly furnished lodging-house. A friend had given + us his suburban residence, with all its conveniences, elegances, and + snuggeries,—its drawing-rooms and library, still warm and bright + with the recollection of the genial presences that we had known there,— + its closets, chambers, kitchen, and even its wine-cellar, if we could have + availed ourselves of so dear and delicate a trust,—its lawn and + cosey garden-nooks, and whatever else makes up the multitudinous idea of + an English home,—he had transferred it all to us, pilgrims and dusty + wayfarers, that we might rest and take our ease during his summer's + absence on the Continent. We had long been dwelling in tents, as it were, + and morally shivering by hearths which, heap the bituminous coal upon them + as we might, no blaze could render cheerful. I remember, to this day, the + dreary feeling with which I sat by our first English fireside, and watched + the chill and rainy twilight of an autumn day darkening down upon the + garden; while the portrait of the preceding occupant of the house + (evidently a most unamiable personage in his lifetime) scowled + inhospitably from above the mantel-piece, as if indignant that an American + should try to make himself at home there. Possibly it may appease his + sulky shade to know that I quitted his abode as much a stranger as I + entered it. But mow, at last, we were in a genuine British home, where + refined and warm-hearted people had just been living their daily life, and + had left us a summer's inheritance of slowly ripened days, such as a + stranger's hasty opportunities so seldom permit him to enjoy. + </p> + <p> + Within so trifling a distance of the central spot of all the world (which, + as Americans have at present no centre of their own, we may allow to be + somewhere in the vicinity, we will say, of St. Paul's Cathedral), it might + have seemed natural that I should be tossed about by the turbulence of the + vast London whirlpool. But I had drifted into a still eddy, where + conflicting movements made a repose, and, wearied with a good deal of + uncongenial activity, I found the quiet of my temporary haven more + attractive than anything that the great town could offer. I already knew + London well; that is to say, I had long ago satisfied (so far as it was + capable of satisfaction) that mysterious yearning—the magnetism of + millions of hearts operating upon one—which impels every man's + individuality to mingle itself with the immensest mass of human life + within his scope. Day alter day, at an earlier period, I had trodden the + thronged thoroughfares, the broad, lonely squares, the lanes, alleys, and + strange labyrinthine courts, the parks, the gardens and enclosures of + ancient studious societies, so retired and silent amid the city uproar, + the markets, the foggy streets along the river-side, the bridges,—I + had sought all parts of the metropolis, in short, with an unweariable and + indiscriminating curiosity; until few of the native inhabitants, I fancy, + had turned so many of its corners as myself. These aimless wanderings (in + which my prime purpose and achievement were to lose my way, and so to find + it the more surely) had brought one, at one time or another, to the sight + and actual presence of almost all the objects and renowned localities that + I had read about, and which had made London the dream-city of my youth. I + had found it better than my dream; for there is nothing else in life + comparable (in that species of enjoyment, I mean) to the thick, heavy, + oppressive, sombre delight which an American is sensible of, hardly + knowing whether to call it a pleasure or a pain, in the atmosphere of + London. The result was, that I acquired a home-feeling there, as nowhere + else in the world,—though afterwards I came to have a somewhat + similar sentiment in regard to Rome; and as long as either of those two + great cities shall exist, the cities of the Past and of the Present, a + man's native soil may crumble beneath his feet without leaving him + altogether homeless upon earth. + </p> + <p> + Thus, having once fully yielded to its influence, I was in a manner free + of the city, and could approach or keep away from it as I pleased. Hence + it happened, that, living within a quarter of an hour's rush of the London + Bridge Terminus, I was oftener tempted to spend a whole summer-day in our + garden than to seek anything new or old, wonderful or commonplace, beyond + its precincts. It was a delightful garden, of no great extent, but + comprising a good many facilities for repose and enjoyment, such as arbors + and garden-seats, shrubbery, flower-beds, rose-bushes in a profusion of + bloom, pinks, poppies, geraniums, sweet-peas, and a variety of other + scarlet, yellow, blue, and purple blossoms, which I did not trouble myself + to recognize individually, yet had always a vague sense of their beauty + about me. The dim sky of England has a most happy effect on the coloring + of flowers, blending richness with delicacy in the same texture; but in + this garden, as everywhere else, the exuberance of English verdure had a + greater charm than any tropical splendor or diversity of hue. The hunger + for natural beauty might be satisfied with grass and green leaves forever. + Conscious of the triumph of England in this respect, and loyally anxious + for the credit of my own country, it gratified me to observe what trouble + and pains the English gardeners are fain to throw away in producing a few + sour plums and abortive pears and apples,—as, for example, in this + very garden, where a row of unhappy trees were spread out perfectly flat + against a brick wall, looking as if impaled alive, or crucified, with a + cruel and unattainable purpose of compelling them to produce rich fruit by + torture. For my part, I never ate an English fruit, raised in the open + air, that could compare in flavor with a Yankee turnip. + </p> + <p> + The garden included that prime feature of English domestic scenery, a + lawn. It had been levelled, carefully shorn, and converted into a + bowling-green, on which we sometimes essayed to practise the time-honored + game of bowls, most unskilfully, yet not without a perception that it + involves a very pleasant mixture of exercise and ease, as is the case with + most of the old English pastimes. Our little domain was shut in by the + house on one side, and in other directions by a hedge-fence and a brick + wall, which last was concealed or softened by shrubbery and the impaled + fruit-trees already mentioned. Over all the outer region, beyond our + immediate precincts, there was an abundance of foliage, tossed aloft from + the near or distant trees with which that agreeable suburb is adorned. The + effect was wonderfully sylvan and rural, insomuch that we might have + fancied ourselves in the depths of a wooded seclusion; only that, at brief + intervals, we could hear the galloping sweep of a railway-train passing + within a quarter of a mile, and its discordant screech, moderated by a + little farther distance, as it reached the Blackheath Station. That harsh, + rough sound, seeking me out so inevitably, was the voice of the great + world summoning me forth. I know not whether I was the more pained or + pleased to be thus constantly put in mind of the neighborhood of London; + for, on the one hand, my conscience stung me a little for reading a book, + or playing with children in the grass, when there were so many better + things for an enlightened traveller to do,—while, at the same time, + it gave a deeper delight to my luxurious idleness, to contrast it with the + turmoil which I escaped. On the whole, however, I do not repent of a + single wasted hour, and only wish that I could have spent twice as many in + the same way; for the impression on my memory is, that I was as happy in + that hospitable garden as the English summer-day was long. + </p> + <p> + One chief condition of my enjoyment was the weather. Italy has nothing + like it, nor America. There never was such weather except in England, + where, in requital of a vast amount of horrible east-wind between February + and June, and a brown October and black November, and a wet, chill, + sunless winter, there are a few weeks of incomparable summer, scattered + through July and August, and the earlier portion of September, small in + quantity, but exquisite enough to atone for the whole year's atmospherical + delinquencies. After all, the prevalent sombreness may have brought out + those sunny intervals in such high relief, that I see them, in my + recollection, brighter than they really were: a little light makes a glory + for people who live habitually in a gray gloom. The English, however, do + not seem to know how enjoyable the momentary gleams of their summer are; + they call it broiling weather, and hurry to the seaside with red, + perspiring faces, in a state of combustion and deliquescence; and I have + observed that even their cattle have similar susceptibilities, seeking the + deepest shade, or standing midleg deep in pools and streams to cool + themselves, at temperatures which our own cows would deem little more than + barely comfortable. To myself, after the summer heats of my native land + had somewhat effervesced out of my blood and memory, it was the weather of + Paradise itself. It might be a little too warm; but it was that modest and + inestimable superabundance which constitutes a bounty of Providence, + instead of just a niggardly enough. During my first year in England, + residing in perhaps the most ungenial part of the kingdom, I could never + be quite comfortable without a fire on the hearth; in the second + twelvemonth, beginning to get acclimatized, I became sensible of an + austere friendliness, shy, but sometimes almost tender, in the veiled, + shadowy, seldom smiling summer; and in the succeeding years,—whether + that I had renewed my fibre with English beef and replenished my blood + with English ale, or whatever were the cause,—I grew content with + winter and especially in love with summer, desiring little more for + happiness than merely to breathe and bask. At the midsummer which we are + now speaking of, I must needs confess that the noontide sun came down more + fervently than I found altogether tolerable; so that I was fain to shift + my position with the shadow of the shrubbery, making myself the movable + index of a sundial that reckoned up the hours of an almost interminable + day. + </p> + <p> + For each day seemed endless, though never wearisome. As far as your actual + experience is concerned, the English summer-day has positively no + beginning and no end. When you awake, at any reasonable hour, the sun is + already shining through the curtains; you live through unnumbered hours of + Sabbath quietude, with a calm variety of incident softly etched upon their + tranquil lapse; and at length you become conscious that it is bedtime + again, while there is still enough daylight in the sky to make the pages + of your book distinctly legible. Night, if there be any such season, hangs + down a transparent veil through which the bygone day beholds its + successor; or, if not quite true of the latitude of London, it may be + soberly affirmed of the more northern parts of the island, that To-morrow + is born before its Yesterday is dead. They exist together in the golden + twilight, where the decrepit old day dimly discerns the face of the + ominous infant; and you, though a more mortal, may simultaneously touch + them both with one finger of recollection and another of prophecy. I cared + not how long the day might be, nor how many of them. I had earned this + repose by a long course of irksome toil and perturbation, and could have + been content never to stray out of the limits of that suburban villa and + its garden. If I lacked anything beyond, it would have satisfied me well + enough to dream about it, instead of struggling for its actual possession. + At least, this was the feeling of the moment; although the transitory, + flitting, and irresponsible character of my life there was perhaps the + most enjoyable element of all, as allowing me much of the comfort of house + and home without any sense of their weight upon my back. The nomadic life + has great advantages, if we can find tents ready pitched for us at every + stage. + </p> + <p> + So much for the interior of our abode,—a spot of deepest quiet, + within reach of the intensest activity. But, even when we stopped beyond + our own gate, we were not shocked with any immediate presence of the great + world. We were dwelling in one of those oases that have grown up (in + comparatively recent years, I believe) on the wide waste of Blackheath, + which otherwise offers a vast extent of unoccupied ground in singular + proximity to the metropolis. As a general thing, the proprietorship of the + soil seems to exist in everybody and nobody; but exclusive rights have + been obtained, here and there, chiefly by men whose daily concerns link + them with London, so that you find their villas or boxes standing along + village streets which have often more of an American aspect than the elder + English settlements. The scene is semi-rural. Ornamental trees overshadow + the sidewalks, and grassy margins border the wheel-tracks. The houses, to + be sure, have certain points of difference from those of an American + village, bearing tokens of architectural design, though seldom of + individual taste; and, as far as possible, they stand aloof from the + street, and separated each from its neighbor by hedge or fence, in + accordance with the careful exclusiveness of the English character, which + impels the occupant, moreover, to cover the front of his dwelling with as + much concealment of shrubbery as his limits will allow. Through the + interstices, you catch glimpses of well-kept lawns, generally ornamented + with flowers, and with what the English call rock-work, being heaps of + ivy-grown stones and fossils, designed for romantic effect in a small way. + Two or three of such village streets as are here described take a + collective name,—as, for instance, Blackheath Park,—and + constitute a kind of community of residents, with gateways, kept by a + policeman, and a semi-privacy, stepping beyond which, you find yourself on + the breezy heath. + </p> + <p> + On this great, bare, dreary common I often went astray, as I afterwards + did on the Campagna of Rome, and drew the air (tainted with London smoke + though it might be) into my lungs by deep inspirations, with a strange and + unexpected sense of desert freedom. The misty atmosphere helps you to + fancy a remoteness that perhaps does not quite exist. During the little + time that it lasts, the solitude is as impressive as that of a Western + prairie or forest; but soon the railway shriek, a mile or two away, + insists upon informing you of your whereabout; or you recognize in the + distance some landmark that you may have known,—an insulated villa, + perhaps, with its garden-wall around it, or the rudimental street of a new + settlement which is sprouting on this otherwise barren soil. Half a + century ago, the most frequent token of man's beneficent contiguity might + have been a gibbet, and the creak, like a tavern sign, of a murderer + swinging to and fro in irons. Blackheath, with its highwaymen and + footpads, was dangerous in those days; and even now, for aught I know, the + Western prairie may still compare favorably with it as a safe region to go + astray in. When I was acquainted with Blackheath, the ingenious device of + garroting had recently come into fashion; and I can remember, while + crossing those waste places at midnight, and hearing footsteps behind me, + to have been sensibly encouraged by also hearing, not far off, the + clinking hoof-tramp of one of the horse-patrols who do regular duty there. + About sunset, or a little later, was the time when the broad and somewhat + desolate peculiarity of the heath seemed to me to put on its utmost + impressiveness. At that hour, finding myself on elevated ground, I once + had a view of immense London, four or five miles off, with the vast Dome + in the midst, and the towers of the two Houses of Parliament rising up + into the smoky canopy, the thinner substance of which obscured a mass of + things, and hovered about the objects that were most distinctly visible,—a + glorious and sombre picture, dusky, awful, but irresistibly attractive, + like a young man's dream of the great world, foretelling at that distance + a grandeur never to be fully realized. + </p> + <p> + While I lived in that neighborhood, the tents of two or three sets of + cricket-players were constantly pitched on Blackheath, and matches were + going forward that seemed to involve the honor and credit of communities + or counties, exciting an interest in everybody but myself, who cared not + what part of England might glorify itself at the expense of another. It is + necessary to be born an Englishman, I believe, in order to enjoy this + great national game; at any rate, as a spectacle for an outside observer, + I found it lazy, lingering, tedious, and utterly devoid of pictorial + effects. Choice of other amusements was at hand. Butts for archery were + established, and bows and arrows were to be let, at so many shots for a + penny,—there being abundance of space for a farther flight-shot than + any modern archer can lend to his shaft. Then there was an absurd game of + throwing a stick at crockery-ware, which I have witnessed a hundred times, + and personally engaged in once or twice, without ever having the + satisfaction to see a bit of broken crockery. In other spots you found + donkeys for children to ride, and ponies of a very meek and patient + spirit, on which the Cockney pleasure-seekers of both sexes rode races and + made wonderful displays of horsemanship. By way of refreshment there was + gingerbread (but, as a true patriot, I must pronounce it greatly interior + to our native dainty), and ginger-beer, and probably stauncher liquor + among the booth-keeper's hidden stores. The frequent railway-trains, as + well as the numerous steamers to Greenwich, have made the vacant portions + of Blackheath a play-ground and breathing-place for the Londoners, readily + and very cheaply accessible; so that, in view of this broader use and + enjoyment, I a little grudged the tracts that have been filched away, so + to speak, and individualized by thriving citizens. One sort of visitors + especially interested me: they were schools of little boys or girls, under + the guardianship of their instructors,— charity schools, as I often + surmised from their aspect, collected among dark alleys and squalid + courts; and hither they were brought to spend a summer afternoon, these + pale little progeny of the sunless nooks of London, who had never known + that the sky was any broader than that narrow and vapory strip above their + native lane. I fancied that they took but a doubtful pleasure, being half + affrighted at the wide, empty space overhead and round about them, finding + the air too little medicated with smoke, soot, and graveyard exhalations, + to be breathed with comfort, and feeling shelterless and lost because + grimy London, their slatternly and disreputable mother, had suffered them + to stray out of her arms. + </p> + <p> + Passing among these holiday people, we come to one of the gateways of + Greenwich Park, opening through an old brick wall. It admits us from the + bare heath into a scene of antique cultivation and woodland ornament, + traversed in all directions by avenues of trees, many of which bear tokens + of a venerable age. These broad and well-kept pathways rise and decline + over the elevations and along the bases of gentle hills which diversify + the whole surface of the Park. The loftiest, and most abrupt of them + (though but of very moderate height) is one of the earth's noted summits, + and may hold up its head with Mont Blanc and Chimborazo, as being the site + of Greenwich Observatory, where, if all nations will consent to say so, + the longitude of our great globe begins. I used to regulate my watch by + the broad dial-plate against the Observatory wall, and felt it pleasant to + be standing at the very centre of Time and Space. + </p> + <p> + There are lovelier parks than this in the neighborhood of London, richer + scenes of greensward and cultivated trees; and Kensington, especially, in + a summer afternoon, has seemed to me as delightful as any place can or + ought to be, in a world which, some time or other, we must quit. But + Greenwich, too, is beautiful,—a spot where the art of man has + conspired with Nature, as if he and the great mother had taken counsel + together how to make a pleasant scene, and the longest liver of the two + had faithfully carried out their mutual design. It has, likewise, an + additional charm of its own, because, to all appearance, it is the + people's property and play-ground in a much more genuine way than the + aristocratic resorts in closer vicinity to the metropolis. It affords one + of the instances in which the monarch's property is actually the people's, + and shows how much more natural is their relation to the sovereign than to + the nobility, which pretends to hold the intervening space between the + two: for a nobleman makes a paradise only for himself, and fills it with + his own pomp and pride; whereas the people are sooner or later the + legitimate inheritors of whatever beauty kings and queens create, as now + of Greenwich Park. On Sundays, when the sun shone, and even on those grim + and sombre days when, if it do not actually rain, the English persist in + calling it fine weather, it was too good to see how sturdily the plebeians + trod under their own oaks, and what fulness of simple enjoyment they + evidently found there. They were the people,—not the populace,— + specimens of a class whose Sunday clothes are a distinct kind of garb from + their week-day ones; and this, in England, implies wholesome habits of + life, daily thrift, and a rank above the lowest. I longed to be acquainted + with them, in order to investigate what manner of folks they were, what + sort of households they kept, their politics, their religion, their + tastes, and whether they were as narrow-minded as their betters. There can + be very little doubt of it: an Englishman is English, in whatever rank of + life, though no more intensely so, I should imagine, as an artisan or + petty shopkeeper, than as a member of Parliament. + </p> + <p> + The English character, as I conceive it, is by no means a very lofty one; + they seem to have a great deal of earth and grimy dust clinging about + them, as was probably the case with the stalwart and quarrelsome people + who sprouted up out of the soil, after Cadmus had sown the dragon's teeth. + And yet, though the individual Englishman is sometimes preternaturally + disagreeable, an observer standing aloof has a sense of natural kindness + towards them in the lump. They adhere closer to the original simplicity in + which mankind was created than we ourselves do; they love, quarrel, laugh, + cry, and turn their actual selves inside out, with greater freedom than + any class of Americans would consider decorous. It was often so with these + holiday folks in Greenwich Park; and, ridiculous as it may sound, I fancy + myself to have caught very satisfactory glimpses of Arcadian life among + the Cockneys there, hardly beyond the scope of Bow-Bells, picnicking in + the grass, uncouthly gambolling on the broad slopes, or straying in motley + groups or by single pairs of love-making youths and maidens, along the + sun-streaked avenues. Even the omnipresent policemen or park-keepers could + not disturb the beatific impression on my mind. One feature, at all + events, of the Golden Age was to be seen in the herds of deer that + encountered you in the somewhat remoter recesses of the Park, and were + readily prevailed upon to nibble a bit of bread out of your hand. But, + though no wrong had ever been done them, and no horn had sounded nor hound + bayed at the heels of themselves or their antlered progenitors for + centuries past, there was still an apprehensiveness lingering in their + hearts; so that a slight movement of the hand or a step too near would + send a whole squadron of them scampering away, just as a breath scatters + the winged seeds of a dandelion. + </p> + <p> + The aspect of Greenwich Park, with all those festal people wandering + through it, resembled that of the Borghese Gardens under the walls of + Rome, on a Sunday or Saint's day; but, I am not ashamed to say, it a + little disturbed whatever grim ghost of Puritanic strictness might be + lingering in the sombre depths of a New England heart, among severe and + sunless remembrances of the Sabbaths of childhood, and pangs of remorse + for ill-gotten lessons in the catechism, and for erratic fantasies or + hardly suppressed laughter in the middle of long sermons. Occasionally, I + tried to take the long-hoarded sting out of these compunctious smarts by + attending divine service in the open air. On a cart outside of the + Park-wall (and, if I mistake not, at two or three corners and secluded + spots within the Park itself) a Methodist preacher uplifts his voice and + speedily gathers a congregation, his zeal for whose religious welfare + impels the good man to such earnest vociferation and toilsome gesture that + his perspiring face is quickly in a stew. His inward flame conspires with + the too fervid sun and makes a positive martyr of him, even in the very + exercise of his pious labor; insomuch that he purchases every atom of + spiritual increment to his hearers by loss of his own corporeal solidity, + and, should his discourse last long enough, must finally exhale before + their eyes. If I smile at him, be it understood, it is not in scorn; he + performs his sacred office more acceptably than many a prelate. These + wayside services attract numbers who would not otherwise listen to prayer, + sermon, or hymn, from one year's end to another, and who, for that very + reason, are the auditors most likely to be moved by the preacher's + eloquence. Yonder Greenwich pensioner, too,— in his costume of + three-cornered hat, and old-fashioned, brass-buttoned blue coat with ample + skirts, which makes him look like a contemporary of Admiral Benbow,—that + tough old mariner may hear a word or two which will go nearer his heart + than anything that the chaplain of the Hospital can be expected to + deliver. I always noticed, moreover, that a considerable proportion of the + audience were soldiers, who came hither with a day's leave from Woolwich,—hardy + veterans in aspect, some of whom wore as many as four or five medals, + Crimean or East Indian, on the breasts of their scarlet coats. The + miscellaneous congregation listen with every appearance of heartfelt + interest; and, for my own part, I must frankly acknowledge that I never + found it possible to give five minutes' attention to any other English + preaching: so cold and commonplace are the homilies that pass for such, + under the aged roofs of churches. And as for cathedrals, the sermon is an + exceedingly diminutive and unimportant part of the religious services,—if, + indeed, it be considered a part,— among the pompous ceremonies, the + intonations, and the resounding and lofty-voiced strains of the + choristers. The magnificence of the setting quite dazzles out what we + Puritans look upon as the jewel of the whole affair; for I presume that it + was our forefathers, the Dissenters in England and America, who gave the + sermon its present prominence in the Sabbath exercises. + </p> + <p> + The Methodists are probably the first and only Englishmen who have + worshipped in the open air since the ancient Britons listened to the + preaching of the Druids; and it reminded me of that old priesthood, to see + certain memorials of their dusky epoch—not religious, however, but + warlike—in the neighborhood of the spot where the Methodist was + holding forth. These were some ancient barrows, beneath or within which + are supposed to be buried the slain of a forgotten or doubtfully + remembered battle, fought on the site of Greenwich Park as long ago as two + or three centuries after the birth of Christ. Whatever may once have been + their height and magnitude, they have now scarcely more prominence in the + actual scene than the battle of which they are the sole monuments retains + in history,—being only a few mounds side by side, elevated a little + above the surface of the ground, ten or twelve feet in diameter, with a + shallow depression in their summits. When one of them was opened, not long + since, no bones, nor armor, nor weapons were discovered, nothing but some + small jewels, and a tuft of hair,—perhaps from the head of a valiant + general, who, dying on the field of his victory, bequeathed this lock, + together with his indestructible fame, to after ages. The hair and jewels + are probably in the British Museum, where the potsherds and rubbish of + innumerable generations make the visitor wish that each passing century + could carry off all its fragments and relics along with it, instead of + adding them to the continually accumulating burden which human knowledge + is compelled to lug upon its back. As for the fame, I know not what has + become of it. + </p> + <p> + After traversing the Park, we come into the neighborhood of Greenwich + Hospital, and will pass through one of its spacious gateways for the sake + of glancing at an establishment which does more honor to the heart of + England than anything else that I am acquainted with, of a public nature. + It is very seldom that we can be sensible of anything like kindliness in + the acts or relations of such an artificial thing as a National + Government. Our own government, I should conceive, is too much an + abstraction ever to feel any sympathy for its maimed sailors and soldiers, + though it will doubtless do then a severe kind of justice, as chilling as + the touch of steel. But it seemed to me that the Greenwich pensioners are + the petted children of the nation, and that the government is their + dry-nurse, and that the old men themselves have a childlike consciousness + of their position. Very likely, a better sort of life might have been + arranged, and a wiser care bestowed on them; but, such as it is, it + enables them to spend a sluggish, careless, comfortable old age, + grumbling, growling, gruff, as if all the foul weather of their past years + were pent up within them, yet not much more discontented than such + weather-beaten and battle-battered fragments of human kind must inevitably + be. Their home, in its outward form, is on a very magnificent plan. Its + germ was a royal palace, the full expansion of which has resulted in a + series of edifices externally more beautiful than any English palace that + I have seen, consisting of several quadrangles of stately architecture, + united by colonnades and gravel-walks, and enclosing grassy squares, with + statues in the centre, the whole extending along the Thames. It is built + of marble, or very light-colored stone, in the classic style, with pillars + and porticos, which (to my own taste, and, I fancy, to that of the old + sailors) produce but a cold and shivery effect in the English climate. Had + I been the architect, I would have studied the characters, habits, and + predilections of nautical people in Wapping, Hotherhithe, and the + neighborhood of the Tower (places which I visited in affectionate + remembrance of Captain Lemuel Gulliver, and other actual or mythological + navigators), and would have built the hospital in a kind of ethereal + similitude to the narrow, dark, ugly, and inconvenient, but snug and cosey + homeliness of the sailor boarding-houses there. There can be no question + that all the above attributes, or enough of then to satisfy an old + sailor's heart, might be reconciled with architectural beauty and the + wholesome contrivances of modern dwellings, and thus a novel and genuine + style of building be given to the world. + </p> + <p> + But their countrymen meant kindly by the old fellows in assigning them the + ancient royal site where Elizabeth held her court and Charles II. began to + build his palace. So far as the locality went, it was treating them like + so many kings; and, with a discreet abundance of grog, beer, and tobacco, + there was perhaps little more to be accomplished in behalf of men whose + whole previous lives have tended to unfit them for old age. Their chief + discomfort is probably for lack of something to do or think about. But, + judging by the few whom I saw, a listless habit seems to have crept over + them, a dim dreaminess of mood, in which they sit between asleep and + awake, and find the long day wearing towards bedtime without its having + made any distinct record of itself upon their consciousness. Sitting on + stone benches in the sunshine, they subside into slumber, or nearly so, + and start at the approach of footsteps echoing under the colonnades, + ashamed to be caught napping, and rousing themselves in a hurry, as + formerly on the midnight watch at sea. In their brightest moments, they + gather in groups and bore one another with endless sea-yarns about their + voyages under famous admirals, and about gale and calm, battle and chase, + and all that class of incident that has its sphere on the deck and in the + hollow interior of a ship, where their world has exclusively been. For + other pastime, they quarrel among themselves, comrade with comrade, and + perhaps shake paralytic fists in furrowed faces. If inclined for a little + exercise, they can bestir their wooden legs on the long esplanade that + borders by the Thames, criticising the rig of passing ships, and firing + off volleys of malediction at the steamers, which have made the sea + another element than that they used to be acquainted with. All this is but + cold comfort for the evening of life, yet may compare rather favorably + with the preceding portions of it, comprising little save imprisonment on + shipboard, in the course of which they have been tossed all about the + world and caught hardly a glimpse of it, forgetting what grass and trees + are, and never finding out what woman is, though they may have encountered + a painted spectre which they took for her. A country owes much to human + beings whose bodies she has worn out and whose immortal part she has left + undeveloped or debased, as we tied them here; and having wasted an idle + paragraph upon them, let me now suggest that old men have a kind of + susceptibility to moral impressions, and even (up to an advanced period) a + receptivity of truth, which often appears to come to them after the active + time of life is past. The Greenwich pensioners might prove better subjects + for true education now than in their school-boy days; but then where is + the Normal School that could educate instructors for such a class? + </p> + <p> + There is a beautiful chapel for the pensioners, in the classic style, over + the altar of which hangs a picture by West. I never could look at it long + enough to make out its design; for this artist (though it pains me to say + it of so respectable a countryman) had a gift of frigidity, a knack of + grinding ice into his paint, a power of stupefying the spectator's + perceptions and quelling his sympathy, beyond any other limner that ever + handled a brush. In spite of many pangs of conscience, I seize this + opportunity to wreak a lifelong abhorrence upon the poor, blameless man, + for the sake of that dreary picture of Lear, an explosion of frosty fury, + that used to be a bugbear to me in the Athenaeum Exhibition. Would fire + burn it, I wonder? + </p> + <p> + The principal thing that they have to show you, at Greenwich Hospital, is + the Painted Hall. It is a splendid and spacious room, at least a hundred + feet long and half as high, with a ceiling painted in fresco by Sir James + Thornhill. As a work of art, I presume, this frescoed canopy has little + merit, though it produces an exceedingly rich effect by its brilliant + coloring and as a specimen of magnificent upholstery. The walls of the + grand apartment are entirely covered with pictures, many of them + representing battles and other naval incidents that were once fresher in + the world's memory than now, but chiefly portraits of old admirals, + comprising the whole line of heroes who have trod the quarter-decks of + British ships for more than two hundred years back. Next to a tomb in + Westminster Abbey, which was Nelson's most elevated object of ambition, it + would seem to be the highest need of a naval warrior to have his portrait + hung up in the Painted Hall; but, by dint of victory upon victory, these + illustrious personages have grown to be a mob, and by no means a very + interesting one, so far as regards the character of the faces here + depicted. They are generally commonplace, and often singularly stolid; and + I have observed (both in the Painted Hall and elsewhere, and not only in + portraits, but in the actual presence of such renowned people as I have + caught glimpses of) that the countenances of heroes are not nearly so + impressive as those of statesmen,—except, of course, in the rare + instances where warlike ability has been but the one-sided manifestation + of a profound genius for managing the world's affairs. Nine tenths of + these distinguished admirals, for instance, if their faces tell truth, + must needs have been blockheads, and might have served better, one would + imagine, as wooden figure-heads for their own ships than to direct any + difficult and intricate scheme of action from the quarter-deck. It is + doubtful whether the same kind of men will hereafter meet with a similar + degree of success; for they were victorious chiefly through the old + English hardihood, exercised in a field of which modern science had not + yet got possession. Rough valor has lost something of its value, since + their days, and must continue to sink lower and lower in the comparative + estimate of warlike qualities. In the next naval war, as between England + and France, I would bet, methinks, upon the Frenchman's head. + </p> + <p> + It is remarkable, however, that the great naval hero of England—the + greatest, therefore, in the world, and of all time—had none of the + stolid characteristics that belong to his class, and cannot fairly be + accepted as their representative man. Foremost in the roughest of + professions, he was as delicately organized as a woman, and as painfully + sensitive as a poet. More than any other Englishman he won the love and + admiration of his country, but won them through the efficacy of qualities + that are not English, or, at all events, were intensified in his case and + made poignant and powerful by something morbid in the man, which put him + otherwise at cross-purposes with life. He was a man of genius; and genius + in an Englishman (not to cite the good old simile of a pearl in the + oyster) is usually a symptom of a lack of balance in the general making-up + of the character; as we may satisfy ourselves by running over the list of + their poets, for example, and observing how many of them have been sickly + or deformed, and how often their lives have been darkened by insanity. An + ordinary Englishman is the healthiest and wholesomest of human beings; an + extraordinary one is almost always, in one way or another, a sick man. It + was so with Lord Nelson. The wonderful contrast or relation between his + personal qualities, the position which he held, and the life that he + lived, makes him as interesting a personage as all history has to show; + and it is a pity that Southey's biography—so good in its superficial + way, and yet so inadequate as regards any real delineation of the man—should + have taken the subject out of the hands of some writer endowed with more + delicate appreciation and deeper insight than that genuine Englishman + possessed. But Southey accomplished his own purpose, which, apparently, + was to present his hero as a pattern for England's young midshipmen. + </p> + <p> + But the English capacity for hero-worship is full to the brim with what + they are able to comprehend of Lord Nelson's character. Adjoining the + Painted Hall is a smaller room, the walls of which are completely and + exclusively adorned with pictures of the great Admiral's exploits. We see + the frail, ardent man in all the most noted events of his career, from his + encounter with a Polar bear to his death at Trafalgar, quivering here and + there about the room like a blue, lambent flame. No Briton ever enters + that apartment without feeling the beef and ale of his composition stirred + to its depths, and finding himself changed into a Hero for the notice, + however stolid his brain, however tough his heart, however unexcitable his + ordinary mood. To confess the truth, I myself, though belonging to another + parish, have been deeply sensible to the sublime recollections there + aroused, acknowledging that Nelson expressed his life in a kind of + symbolic poetry which I had as much right to understand as these burly + islanders. Cool and critical observer as I sought to be, I enjoyed their + burst of honest indignation when a visitor (not an American, I am glad to + say) thrust his walking-stick almost into Nelson's face, in one of the + pictures, by way of pointing a remark; and the bystanders immediately + glowed like so many hot coals, and would probably have consumed the + offender in their wrath, had he not effected his retreat. But the most + sacred objects of all are two of Nelson's coats, under separate glass + cases. One is that which he wore at the Battle of the Nile, and it is now + sadly injured by moths, which will quite destroy it in a few years, unless + its guardians preserve it as we do Washington's military suit, by + occasionally baking it in an oven. The other is the coat in which he + received his death-wound at Trafalgar. On its breast are sewed three or + four stars and orders of knighthood, now much dimmed by time and damp, but + which glittered brightly enough on the battle-day to draw the fatal aim of + a French marksman. The bullet-hole is visible on the shoulder, as well as + a part of the golden tassels of an epaulet, the rest of which was shot + away. Over the coat is laid a white waistcoat with a great blood-stain on + it, out of which all the redness has utterly faded, leaving it of a dingy + yellow line, in the threescore years since that blood gushed out. Yet it + was once the reddest blood in England,— Nelson's blood! + </p> + <p> + The hospital stands close adjacent to the town of Greenwich, which will + always retain a kind of festal aspect in my memory, in consequence of my + having first become acquainted with it on Easter Monday. Till a few years + ago, the first three days of Easter were a carnival season in this old + town, during which the idle and disreputable part of London poured itself + into the streets like an inundation of the Thames, as unclean as that + turbid mixture of the offscourings of the vast city, and overflowing with + its grimy pollution whatever rural innocence, if any, might be found in + the suburban neighborhood. This festivity was called Greenwich Fair, the + final one of which, in an immemorial succession, it was my fortune to + behold. + </p> + <p> + If I had bethought myself of going through the fair with a note-book and + pencil, jotting down all the prominent objects, I doubt not that the + result might have been a sketch of English life quite as characteristic + and worthy of historical preservation as an account of the Roman Carnival. + Having neglected to do so, I remember little more than a confusion of + unwashed and shabbily dressed people, intermixed with some smarter + figures, but, on the whole, presenting a mobbish appearance such as we + never see in our own country. It taught me to understand why Shakespeare, + in speaking of a crowd, so often alludes to its attribute of evil odor. + The common people of England, I am afraid, have no daily familiarity with + even so necessary a thing as a wash-bowl, not to mention a bathing-tub. + And furthermore, it is one mighty difference between them and us, that + every man and woman on our side of the water has a working-day suit and a + holiday suit, and is occasionally as fresh as a rose, whereas, in the good + old country, the griminess of his labor or squalid habits clings forever + to the individual, and gets to be a part of his personal substance. These + are broad facts, involving great corollaries and dependencies. There are + really, if you stop to think about it, few sadder spectacles in the world + than a ragged coat, or a soiled and shabby gown, at a festival. + </p> + <p> + This unfragrant crowd was exceedingly dense, being welded together, as it + were, in the street through which we strove to make our way. On either + side were oyster-stands, stalls of oranges (a very prevalent fruit in + England, where they give the withered ones a guise of freshness by boiling + them), and booths covered with old sail-cloth, in which the commodity that + most attracted the eye was gilt gingerbread. It was so completely + enveloped in Dutch gilding that I did not at first recognize an old + acquaintance, but wondered what those golden crowns and images could be. + There were likewise drums and other toys for small children, and a variety + of showy and worthless articles for children of a larger growth; though it + perplexed me to imagine who, in such a mob, could have the innocent taste + to desire playthings, or the money to pay for them. Not that I have a + right to license the mob, on my own knowledge, of being any less innocent + than a set of cleaner and better dressed people might have been; for, + though one of them stole my pocket-handkerchief, I could not but consider + it fair game, under the circumstances, and was grateful to the thief for + sparing me my purse. They were quiet, civil, and remarkably good-humored, + making due allowance for the national gruffness; there was no riot, no + tumultuous swaying to and fro of the mass, such as I have often noted in + an American crowd, no noise of voices, except frequent bursts of laughter, + hoarse or shrill, and a widely diffused, inarticulate murmur, resembling + nothing so much as the rumbling of the tide among the arches of London + Bridge. What immensely perplexed me was a sharp, angry sort of rattle, in + all quarters, far off and close at hand, and sometimes right at my own + back, where it sounded as if the stout fabric of my English surtout had + been ruthlessly rent in twain; and everybody's clothes, all over the fair, + were evidently being torn asunder in the same way. By and by, I discovered + that this strange noise was produced by a little instrument called "The + Fun of the Fair,"—a sort of rattle, consisting of a wooden wheel, + the cogs of which turn against a thin slip of wood, and so produce a + rasping sound when drawn smartly against a person's back. The ladies draw + their rattles against the backs of their male friends (and everybody + passes for a friend at Greenwich Fair), and the young men return the + compliment on the broad British backs of the ladies; and all are bound by + immemorial custom to take it in good part and be merry at the joke. As it + was one of my prescribed official duties to give an account of such + mechanical contrivances as might be unknown in my own country, I have + thought it right to be thus particular in describing the Fun of the Fair. + </p> + <p> + But this was far from being the sole amusement. There were theatrical + booths, in front of which were pictorial representations of the scenes to + be enacted within; and anon a drummer emerged from one of them, thumping + on a terribly lax drum, and followed by the entire dramatis personae, who + ranged themselves on a wooden platform in front of the theatre. They were + dressed in character, but wofully shabby, with very dingy and wrinkled + white tights, threadbare cotton-velvets, crumpled silks, and crushed + muslin, and all the gloss and glory gone out of their aspect and attire, + seen thus in the broad daylight and after a long series of performances. + They sang a song together, and withdrew into the theatre, whither the + public were invited to follow them at the inconsiderable cost of a penny a + ticket. Before another booth stood a pair of brawny fighting-men, + displaying their muscle, and soliciting patronage for an exhibition of the + noble British art of pugilism. There were pictures of giants, monsters, + and outlandish beasts, most prodigious, to be sure, and worthy of all + admiration, unless the artist had gone incomparably beyond his subject. + Jugglers proclaimed aloud the miracles which they were prepared to work; + and posture-makers dislocated every joint of their bodies and tied their + limbs into inextricable knots, wherever they could find space to spread a + little square of carpet on the ground. In the midst of the confusion, + while everybody was treading on his neighbor's toes, some little boys were + very solicitous to brush your boots. These lads, I believe, are a product + of modern society,—at least, no older than the time of Gay, who + celebrates their origin in his "Trivia"; but in most other respects the + scene reminded me of Bunyan's description of Vanity Fair,—nor is it + at all improbable that the Pilgrim may have been a merry-maker here, in + his wild youth. + </p> + <p> + It seemed very singular—though, of course, I immediately classified + it as an English characteristic—to see a great many portable + weighing-machines, the owners of which cried out, continually and amain, + "Come, know your weight! Come, come, know your weight to-day! Come, know + your weight!" and a multitude of people, mostly large in the girth, were + moved by this vociferation to sit down in the machines. I know not whether + they valued themselves on their beef, and estimated their standing as + members of society at so much a pound; but I shall set it down as a + national peculiarity, and a symbol of the prevalence of the earthly over + the spiritual element, that Englishmen are wonderfully bent on knowing how + solid and physically ponderous they are. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, having an appetite for the brown bread and the tripe and + sausages of life, as well as for its nicer cates and dainties, I enjoyed + the scene, and was amused at the sight of a gruff old Greenwich pensioner, + who, forgetful of the sailor-frolics of his young days, stood looking with + grim disapproval at all these vanities. Thus we squeezed our way through + the mob-jammed town, and emerged into the Park, where, likewise, we met a + great many merry-makers, but with freer space for their gambols than in + the streets. We soon found ourselves the targets for a cannonade with + oranges (most of them in a decayed condition), which went humming past our + ears from the vantage-ground of neighboring hillocks, sometimes hitting + our sacred persons with an inelastic thump. This was one of the privileged + freedoms of the time, and was nowise to be resented, except by returning + the salute. Many persons were running races, hand in hand, down the + declivities, especially that steepest one on the summit of which stands + the world-central Observatory, and (as in the race of life) the partners + were usually male and female, and often caught a tumble together before + reaching the bottom of the hill. Hereabouts we were pestered and haunted + by two young girls, the eldest not more than thirteen, teasing us to buy + matches; and finding no market for their commodity, the taller one + suddenly turned a somerset before our faces, and rolled heels over head + from top to bottom of the hill on which we stood. Then, scrambling up the + acclivity, the topsy-turvy trollop offered us her matches again, as + demurely as if she had never flung aside her equilibrium; so that, + dreading a repetition of the feat, we gave her sixpence and an admonition, + and enjoined her never to do so any more. + </p> + <p> + The most curious amusement that we witnessed here—or anywhere else, + indeed—was an ancient and hereditary pastime called "Kissing in the + Ring." I shall describe the sport exactly as I saw it, although an English + friend assures me that there are certain ceremonies with a handkerchief, + which make it much more decorous and graceful. A handkerchief, indeed! + There was no such thing in the crowd, except it were the one which they + had just filched out of my pocket. It is one of the simplest kinds of + games, needing little or no practice to make the player altogether + perfect; and the manner of it is this. A ring is formed (in the present + case, it was of large circumference and thickly gemmed around with faces, + mostly on the broad grin), into the centre of which steps an adventurous + youth, and, looking round the circle, selects whatever maiden may most + delight his eye. He presents his hand (which she is bound to accept), + leads her into the centre, salutes her on the lips, and retires, taking + his stand in the expectant circle. The girl, in her turn, throws a + favorable regard on some fortunate young man, offers her hand to lead him + forth, makes him happy with a maidenly kiss, and withdraws to hide her + blushes, if any there be, among the simpering faces in the ring; while the + favored swain loses no time in transferring her salute to the prettiest + and plumpest among the many mouths that are primming themselves in + anticipation. And thus the thing goes on, till all the festive throng are + inwreathed and intertwined into an endless and inextricable chain of + kisses; though, indeed, it smote me with compassion to reflect that some + forlorn pair of lips might be left out, and never know the triumph of a + salute, after throwing aside so many delicate reserves for the sake of + winning it. If the young men had any chivalry, there was a fair chance to + display it by kissing the homeliest damsel in the circle. + </p> + <p> + To be frank, however, at the first glance, and to my American eye, they + looked all homely alike, and the chivalry that I suggest is more than I + could have been capable of, at any period of my life. They seemed to be + country-lasses, of sturdy and wholesome aspect, with coarse-grained, + cabbage-rosy cheeks, and, I am willing to suppose, a stout texture of + moral principle, such as would bear a good deal of rough usage without + suffering much detriment. But how unlike the trim little damsels of my + native land! I desire above all things to be courteous; but, since the + plain truth must be told, the soil and climate of England produce feminine + beauty as rarely as they do delicate fruit, and though admirable specimens + of both are to be met with, they are the hot-house ameliorations of + refined society, and apt, moreover, to relapse into the coarseness of the + original stock. The men are manlike, but the women are not beautiful, + though the female Bull be well enough adapted to the male. To return to + the lasses of Greenwich Fair, their charms were few, and their behavior, + perhaps, not altogether commendable; and yet it was impossible not to feel + a degree of faith in their innocent intentions, with such a half-bashful + zest and entire simplicity did they keep up their part of the game. It put + the spectator in good-humor to look at them, because there was still + something of the old Arcadian life, the secure freedom of the antique age, + in their way of surrendering their lips to strangers, as if there were no + evil or impurity in the world. As for the young men, they were chiefly + specimens of the vulgar sediment of London life, often shabbily genteel, + rowdyish, pale, wearing the unbrushed coat, unshifted linen, and unwashed + faces of yesterday, as well as the haggardness of last night's jollity in + a gin-shop. Gathering their character from these tokens, I wondered + whether there were any reasonable prospect of their fair partners + returning to their rustic homes with as much innocence (whatever were its + amount or quality) as they brought, to Greenwich Fair, in spite of the + perilous familiarity established by Kissing in the Ring. + </p> + <p> + The manifold disorders resulting from the fair, at which a vast city was + brought into intimate relations with a comparatively rural district, have + at length led to its suppression; this was the very last celebration of + it, and brought to a close the broad-mouthed merriment of many hundred + years. Thus my poor sketch, faint as its colors are, may acquire some + little value in the reader's eyes from the consideration that no observer + of the coming time will ever have an opportunity to give a better. I + should find it difficult to believe, however, that the queer pastime just + described, or any moral mischief to which that and other customs might + pave the way, can have led to the overthrow of Greenwich Fair; for it has + often seemed to me that Englishmen of station and respectability, unless + of a peculiarly philanthropic turn, have neither any faith in the feminine + purity of the lower orders of their countrywomen, nor the slightest value + for it, allowing its possible existence. The distinction of ranks is so + marked, that the English cottage damsel holds a position somewhat + analogous to that of the negro girl in our Southern States. Hence cones + inevitable detriment to the moral condition of those men themselves, who + forget that the humblest woman has a right and a duty to hold herself in + the same sanctity as the highest. The subject cannot well be discussed in + these pages; but I offer it as a serious conviction, from what I have been + able to observe, that the England of to-day is the unscrupulous old + England of Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, Humphrey Clinker and Roderick + Random; and in our refined era, just the same as at that more free-spoken + epoch, this singular people has a certain contempt for any fine-strained + purity, any special squeamishness, as they consider it, on the part of an + ingenuous youth. They appear to look upon it as a suspicious phenomenon in + the masculine character. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, I by no means take upon me to affirm that English morality, + as regards the phase here alluded to, is really at a lower point than our + own. Assuredly, I hope so, because, making a higher pretension, or, at all + events, more carefully hiding whatever may be amiss, we are either better + than they, or necessarily a great deal worse. It impressed me that their + open avowal and recognition of immoralities served to throw the disease to + the surface, where it might be more effectually dealt with, and leave a + sacred interior not utterly profaned, instead of turning its poison back + among the inner vitalities of the character, at the imminent risk of + corrupting them all. Be that as it may, these Englishmen are certainly a + franker and simpler people than ourselves, from peer to peasant; but if we + can take it as compensatory on our part (which I leave to be considered) + that they owe those noble and manly qualities to a coarser grain in their + nature, and that, with a finer one in ours, we shall ultimately acquire a + marble polish of which they are unsusceptible, I believe that this may be + the truth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + UP THE THAMES. + </h2> + <p> + The upper portion of Greenwich (where my last article left me loitering) + is a cheerful, comely, old-fashioned town, the peculiarities of which, if + there be any, have passed out of my remembrance. As you descend towards + the Thames, the streets get meaner, and the shabby and sunken houses, + elbowing one another for frontage, bear the sign-boards of beer-shops and + eating-rooms, with especial promises of whitebait and other delicacies in + the fishing line. You observe, also, a frequent announcement of "The + Gardens" in the rear; although, estimating the capacity of the premises by + their external compass, the entire sylvan charm and shadowy seclusion of + such blissful resorts must be limited within a small back-yard. These + places of cheap sustenance and recreation depend for support upon the + innumerable pleasure-parties who come from London Bridge by steamer, at a + fare of a few pence, and who get as enjoyable a meal for a shilling a head + as the Ship Hotel would afford a gentleman for a guinea. + </p> + <p> + The steamers, which are constantly smoking their pipes up and down the + Thames, offer much the most agreeable mode of getting to London. At least, + it might be exceedingly agreeable, except for the myriad floating + particles of soot from the stove-pipe, and the heavy heat of midsummer + sunshine on the unsheltered deck, or the chill, misty air draught of a + cloudy day, and the spiteful little showers of rain that may spatter down + upon you at any moment, whatever the promise of the sky; besides which + there is some slight inconvenience from the inexhaustible throng of + passengers, who scarcely allow you standing-room, nor so much as a breath + of unappropriated air, and never a chance to sit down. If these + difficulties, added to the possibility of getting your pocket picked, + weigh little with you, the panorama along the shores of the memorable + river, and the incidents and shows of passing life upon its bosom, render + the trip far preferable to the brief yet tiresome shoot along the railway + track. On one such voyage, a regatta of wherries raced past us, and at + once involved every soul on board our steamer in the tremendous excitement + of the struggle. The spectacle was but a moment within our view, and + presented nothing more than a few light skiffs, in each of which sat a + single rower, bare-armed, and with little apparel, save a shirt and + drawers, pale, anxious, with every muscle on the stretch, and plying his + oars in such fashion that the boat skimmed along with the aerial celerity + of a swallow. I wondered at myself for so immediately catching an interest + in the affair, which seemed to contain no very exalted rivalship of + manhood; but, whatever the kind of battle or the prize of victory, it + stirs one's sympathy immensely, and is even awful, to behold the rare + sight of a man thoroughly in earnest, doing his best, putting forth all + there is in him, and staking his very soul (as these rowers appeared + willing to do) on the issue of the contest. It was the seventy-fourth + annual regatta of the Free Watermen of Greenwich, and announced itself as + under the patronage of the Lord Mayor and other distinguished individuals, + at whose expense, I suppose, a prize-boat was offered to the conqueror, + and some small amounts of money to the inferior competitors. + </p> + <p> + The aspect of London along the Thanes, below Bridge, as it is called, is + by no means so impressive as it ought to be, considering what peculiar + advantages are offered for the display of grand and stately architecture + by the passage of a river through the midst of a great city. It seems, + indeed, as if the heart of London had been cleft open for the mere purpose + of showing how rotten and drearily mean it had become. The shore is lined + with the shabbiest, blackest, and ugliest buildings that can be imagined, + decayed warehouses with blind windows, and wharves that look ruinous; + insomuch that, had I known nothing more of the world's metropolis, I might + have fancied that it had already experienced the downfall which I have + heard commercial and financial prophets predict for it, within the + century. And the muddy tide of the Thames, reflecting nothing, and hiding + a million of unclean secrets within its breast,—a sort of guilty + conscience, as it were, unwholesome with the rivulets of sin that + constantly flow into it,—is just the dismal stream to glide by such + a city. The surface, to be sure, displays no lack of activity, being + fretted by the passage of a hundred steamers and covered with a good deal + of shipping, but mostly of a clumsier build than I had been accustomed to + see in the Mersey: a fact which I complacently attributed to the smaller + number of American clippers in the Thames, and the less prevalent + influence of American example in refining away the broad-bottomed capacity + of the old Dutch or English models. + </p> + <p> + About midway between Greenwich and London Bridge, at a rude landing-place + on the left bank of the river, the steamer rings its bell and makes a + momentary pause in front of a large circular structure, where it may be + worth our while to scramble ashore. It indicates the locality of one of + those prodigious practical blunders that would supply John Bull with a + topic of inexhaustible ridicule, if his cousin Jonathan had committed + them, but of which he himself perpetrates ten to our one in the mere + wantonness of wealth that lacks better employment. The circular building + covers the entrance to the Thames Tunnel, and is surmounted by a dome of + glass, so as to throw daylight down into the great depth at which the + passage of the river commences. Descending a wearisome succession of + staircases, we at last find ourselves, still in the broad noon, standing + before a closed door, on opening which we behold the vista of an arched + corridor that extends into everlasting midnight. In these days, when glass + has been applied to so many new purposes, it is a pity that the architect + had not thought of arching portions of his abortive tunnel with immense + blocks of the lucid substance, over which the dusky Thames would have + flowed like a cloud, making the sub-fluvial avenue only a little gloomier + than a street of upper London. At present, it is illuminated at regular + intervals by jets of gas, not very brilliantly, yet with lustre enough to + show the damp plaster of the ceiling and walls, and the massive stone + pavement, the crevices of which are oozy with moisture, not from the + incumbent river, but from hidden springs in the earth's deeper heart. + There are two parallel corridors, with a wall between, for the separate + accommodation of the double throng of foot-passengers, equestrians, and + vehicles of all kinds, which was expected to roll and reverberate + continually through the Tunnel. Only one of them has ever been opened, and + its echoes are but feebly awakened by infrequent footfalls. + </p> + <p> + Yet there seem to be people who spend their lives here, and who probably + blink like owls, when, once or twice a year, perhaps, they happen to climb + into the sunshine. All along the corridor, which I believe to be a mile in + extent, we see stalls or shops in little alcoves, kept principally by + women; they were of a ripe age, I was glad to observe, and certainly + robbed England of none of its very moderate supply of feminine loveliness + by their deeper than tomb-like interment. As you approach (and they are so + accustomed to the dusky gaslight that they read all your characteristics + afar off), they assail you with hungry entreaties to buy some of their + merchandise, holding forth views of the Tunnel put up in cases of + Derbyshire spar, with a magnifying-glass at one end to make the vista more + effective. They offer you, besides, cheap jewelry, sunny topazes and + resplendent emeralds for sixpence, and diamonds as big as the Kohi-i-noor + at a not much heavier cost, together with a multifarious trumpery which + has died out of the upper world to reappear in this Tartarean bazaar. That + you may fancy yourself still in the realms of the living, they urge you to + partake of cakes, candy, ginger-beer, and such small refreshment, more + suitable, however, for the shadowy appetite of ghosts than for the sturdy + stomachs of Englishmen. The most capacious of the shops contains a + dioramic exhibition of cities and scenes in the daylight world, with a + dreary glimmer of gas among them all; so that they serve well enough to + represent the dim, unsatisfactory remembrances that dead people might be + supposed to retain from their past lives, mixing them up with the + ghastliness of their unsubstantial state. I dwell the more upon these + trifles, and do my best to give them a mockery of importance, because, if + these are nothing, then all this elaborate contrivance and mighty piece of + work has been wrought in vain. The Englishman has burrowed under the bed + of his great river, and set ships of two or three thousand tons a-rolling + over his head, only to provide new sites for a few old women to sell cakes + and ginger-beer! + </p> + <p> + Yet the conception was a grand one; and though it has proved an absolute + failure, swallowing an immensity of toil and money, with annual returns + hardly sufficient to keep the pavement free from the ooze of subterranean + springs, yet it needs, I presume, only an expenditure three or four (or, + for aught I know, twenty) times as large, to make the enterprise + brilliantly successful. The descent is so great from the bank of the river + to its surface, and the Tunnel dips so profoundly under the river's bed, + that the approaches on either side must commence a long way off, in order + to render the entrance accessible to horsemen or vehicles; so that the + larger part of the cost of the whole affair should have been expended on + its margins. It has turned out a sublime piece of folly; and when the + New-Zealander of distant ages shall have moralized sufficiently among the + ruins of London Bridge, he will bethink himself that somewhere thereabout + was the marvellous Tunnel, the very existence of which will seem to him as + incredible as that of the hanging gardens of Babylon. But the Thames will + long ago have broken through the massive arch, and choked up the corridors + with mud and sand and with the large stones of the structure itself, + intermixed with skeletons of drowned people, the rusty ironwork of sunken + vessels, and the great many such precious and curious things as a river + always contrives to hide in its bosom; the entrance will have been + obliterated, and its very site forgotten beyond the memory of twenty + generations of men, and the whole neighborhood be held a dangerous spot on + account of the malaria; insomuch that the traveller will make but a brief + and careless inquisition for the traces of the old wonder, and will stake + his credit before the public, in some Pacific Monthly of that day, that + the story of it is but a myth, though enriched with a spiritual profundity + which he will proceed to unfold. + </p> + <p> + Yet it is impossible (for a Yankee, at least) to see so much magnificent + ingenuity thrown away, without trying to endow the unfortunate result with + some kind of use, fulness, though perhaps widely different from the + purpose of its original conception. In former ages, the mile-long + corridors, with their numerous alcoves, might have been utilized as a + series of dungeons, the fittest of all possible receptacles for prisoners + of state. Dethroned monarchs and fallen statesmen would not have needed to + remonstrate against a domicile so spacious, so deeply secluded from the + world's scorn, and so admirably in accordance with their thenceforward + sunless fortunes. An alcove here might have suited Sir Walter Raleigh + better than that darksome hiding-place communicating with the great + chamber in the Tower, pacing from end to end of which he meditated upon + his "History of the World." His track would here have been straight and + narrow, indeed, and would therefore have lacked somewhat of the freedom + that his intellect demanded; and yet the length to which his footsteps + might have travelled forth and retraced themselves would partly have + harmonized his physical movement with the grand curves and planetary + returns of his thought, through cycles of majestic periods. Having it in + his mind to compose the world's history, methinks he could have asked no + better retirement than such a cloister as this, insulated from all the + seductions of mankind and womankind, deep beneath their mysteries and + motives, down into the heart of things, full of personal reminiscences in + order to the comprehensive measurement and verification of historic + records, seeing into the secrets of human nature,—secrets that + daylight never yet revealed to mortal,—but detecting their whole + scope and purport with the infallible eyes of unbroken solitude and night. + And then the shades of the old mighty men might have risen from their + still profounder abodes and joined him in the dim corridor, treading + beside him with an antique stateliness of mien, telling him in melancholy + tones, grand, but always melancholy, of the greater ideas and purposes + which their most renowned performances so imperfectly carried out, that, + magnificent successes in the view of all posterity, they were but failures + to those who planned them. As Raleigh was a navigator, Noah would have + explained to him the peculiarities of construction that made the ark so + seaworthy; as Raleigh was a statesman, Moses would have discussed with him + the principles of laws and government; as Raleigh was a soldier, Caesar + and Hannibal would have held debate in his presence, with this martial + student for their umpire; as Raleigh was a poet, David, or whatever most + illustrious bard he might call up, would have touched his harp, and made + manifest all the true significance of the past by means of song and the + subtle intelligences of music. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, I had forgotten that Sir Walter Raleigh's century knew nothing + of gaslight, and that it would require a prodigious and wasteful + expenditure of tallow-candles to illuminate the Tunnel sufficiently to + discern even a ghost. On this account, however, it would be all the more + suitable place of confinement for a metaphysician, to keep him from + bewildering mankind with his shadowy speculations; and, being shut off + from external converse, the dark corridor would help him to make rich + discoveries in those cavernous regions and mysterious by-paths of the + intellect, which he had so long accustomed himself to explore. But how + would every successive age rejoice in so secure a habitation for its + reformers, and especially for each best and wisest man that happened to be + then alive! He seeks to burn up our whole system of society, under + pretence of purifying it from its abuses! Away with him into the Tunnel, + and let him begin by setting the Thames on fire, if he is able! + </p> + <p> + If not precisely these, yet akin to these were some of the fantasies that + haunted me as I passed under the river: for the place is suggestive of + such idle and irresponsible stuff by its own abortive character, its lack + of whereabout on upper earth, or any solid foundation of realities. Could + I have looked forward a few years, I might have regretted that American + enterprise had not provided a similar tunnel, under the Hudson or the + Potomac, for the convenience of our National Government in times hardly + yet gone by. It would be delightful to clap up all the enemies of our + peace and Union in the dark together, and there let them abide, listening + to the monotonous roll of the river above their heads, or perhaps in a + state of miraculously suspended animation, until,—be it after + months, years, or centuries,—when the turmoil shall be all over, the + Wrong washed away in blood (since that must needs be the cleansing fluid), + and the Right firmly rooted in the soil which that blood will have + enriched, they might crawl forth again and catch a single glimpse at their + redeemed country, and feel it to be a better land than they deserve, and + die! + </p> + <p> + I was not sorry when the daylight reached me after a much briefer abode in + the nether regions than, I fear, would await the troublesome personages + just hinted at. Emerging on the Surrey side of the Thames, I found myself + in Rotherhithe, a neighborhood not unfamiliar to the readers of old books + of maritime adventure. There being a ferry hard by the mouth of the + Tunnel, I recrossed the river in the primitive fashion of an open boat, + which the conflict of wind and tide, together with the swash and swell of + the passing steamers, tossed high and low rather tumultuously. This + inquietude of our frail skiff (which, indeed, bobbed up and down like a + cork) so much alarmed an old lady, the only other passenger, that the + boatmen essayed to comfort her. "Never fear, mother!" grumbled one of + them, "we'll make the river as smooth as we can for you. We'll get a + plane, and plane down the waves!" The joke may not read very brilliantly; + but I make bold to record it as the only specimen that reached my ears of + the old, rough water-wit for which the Thames used to be so celebrated. + Passing directly along the line of the sunken Tunnel, we landed in + Wapping, which I should have presupposed to be the most tarry and pitchy + spot on earth, swarming with old salts, and full of warm, bustling, + coarse, homely, and cheerful life. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a + cold and torpid neighborhood, mean, shabby, and unpicturesque, both as to + its buildings and inhabitants: the latter comprising (so far as was + visible to me) not a single unmistakable sailor, though plenty of + land-sharks, who get a half-dishonest livelihood by business connected + with the sea. Ale and spirit vaults (as petty drinking-establishments are + styled in England, pretending to contain vast cellars full of liquor + within the compass of ten feet square above ground) were particularly + abundant, together with apples, oranges, and oysters, the stalls of + fishmongers and butchers, and slop-shops, where blue jackets and duck + trousers swung and capered before the doors. Everything was on the poorest + scale, and the place bore an aspect of unredeemable decay. From this + remote point of London, I strolled leisurely towards the heart of the + city; while the streets, at first but thinly occupied by man or vehicle, + got more and more thronged with foot-passengers, carts, drays, cabs, and + the all-pervading and all-accommodating omnibus. But I lack courage, and + feel that I should lack perseverance, as the gentlest reader would lack + patience, to undertake a descriptive stroll through London streets; more + especially as there would be a volume ready for the printer before we + could reach a midway resting-place at Charing Cross. It will be the easier + course to step aboard another passing steamer, and continue our trip up + the Thames. + </p> + <p> + The next notable group of objects is an assemblage of ancient walls, + battlements, and turrets, out of the midst of which rises prominently one + great square tower, of a grayish line, bordered with white stone, and + having a small turret at each corner of the roof. This central structure + is the White Tower, and the whole circuit of ramparts and enclosed + edifices constitutes what is known in English history, and still more + widely and impressively in English poetry, as the Tower. A crowd of + rivercraft are generally moored in front of it; but, if we look sharply at + the right moment under the base of the rampart, we may catch a glimpse of + an arched water-entrance, half submerged, past which the Thames glides as + indifferently as if it were the mouth of a city-kennel. Nevertheless, it + is the Traitor's Gate, a dreary kind of triumphal passageway (now supposed + to be shut up and barred forever), through which a multitude of noble and + illustrious personages have entered the Tower and found it a brief + resting-place on their way to heaven. Passing it many times, I never + observed that anybody glanced at this shadowy and ominous trap-door, save + myself. It is well that America exists, if it were only that her vagrant + children may be impressed and affected by the historical monuments of + England in a degree of which the native inhabitants are evidently + incapable. These matters are too familiar, too real, and too hopelessly + built in amongst and mixed up with the common objects and affairs of life, + to be easily susceptible of imaginative coloring in their minds; and even + their poets and romancers feel it a toil, and almost a delusion, to + extract poetic material out of what seems embodied poetry itself to an + American. An Englishman cares nothing about the Tower, which to us is a + haunted castle in dreamland. That honest and excellent gentleman, the late + Mr. G. P. R. James (whose mechanical ability, one might have supposed, + would nourish itself by devouring every old stone of such a structure), + once assured me that he had never in his life set eyes upon the Tower, + though for years an historic novelist in London. + </p> + <p> + Not to spend a whole summer's day upon the voyage, we will suppose + ourselves to have reached London Bridge, and thence to have taken another + steamer for a farther passage up the river. But here the memorable objects + succeed each other so rapidly that I can spare but a single sentence even + for the great Dome, through I deem it more picturesque, in that dusky + atmosphere, than St. Peter's in its clear blue sky. I must mention, + however (since everything connected with royalty is especially interesting + to my dear countrymen), that I once saw a large and beautiful barge, + splendidly gilded and ornamented, and overspread with a rich covering, + lying at the pier nearest to St. Paul's Cathedral; it had the royal banner + of Great Britain displayed, besides being decorated with a number of other + flags; and many footmen (who are universally the grandest and gaudiest + objects to be seen in England at this day, and these were regal ones, in a + bright scarlet livery bedizened with gold-lace, and white silk stockings) + were in attendance. I know not what festive or ceremonial occasion may + have drawn out this pageant; after all, it might have been merely a + city-spectacle, appertaining to the Lord Mayor; but the sight had its + value in bringing vividly before me the grand old times when the sovereign + and nobles were accustomed to use the Thames as the high street of the + metropolis, and join in pompous processions upon it; whereas, the + desuetude of such customs, nowadays, has caused the whole show of + river-life to consist in a multitude of smoke-begrimed steamers. An + analogous change has taken place in the streets, where cabs and the + omnibus have crowded out a rich variety of vehicles; and thus life gets + more monotonous in hue from age to age, and appears to seize every + opportunity to strip off a bit of its gold-lace among the wealthier + classes, and to make itself decent in the lower ones. + </p> + <p> + Yonder is Whitefriars, the old rowdy Alsatia, now wearing as decorous a + face as any other portion of London; and, adjoining it, the avenues and + brick squares of the Temple, with that historic garden, close upon the + river-side, and still rich in shrubbery and flowers, where the partisans + of York and Lancaster plucked the fatal roses, and scattered their pale + and bloody petals over so many English battle-fields. Hard by, we see tine + long white front or rear of Somerset House, and, farther on, rise the two + new Houses of Parliament, with a huge unfinished tower already hiding its + imperfect summit in the smoky canopy,—the whole vast and cumbrous + edifice a specimen of the best that modern architecture can effect, + elaborately imitating the masterpieces of those simple ages when men + "builded better than they knew." Close by it, we have a glimpse of the + roof and upper towers of the holy Abbey; while that gray, ancestral pile + on the opposite side of the river is Lambeth Palace, a venerable group of + halls and turrets, chiefly built of brick, but with at least one large + tower of stone. In our course, we have passed beneath half a dozen + bridges, and, emerging out of the black heart of London, shall soon reach + a cleanly suburb, where old Father Thames, if I remember, begins to put on + an aspect of unpolluted innocence. And now we look back upon the mass of + innumerable roofs, out of which rise steeples, towers, columns, and the + great crowning Dome,—look back, in short, upon that mystery of the + world's proudest city, amid which a man so longs and loves to be; not, + perhaps, because it contains much that is positively admirable and + enjoyable, but because, at all events, the world has nothing better. The + cream of external life is there; and whatever merely intellectual or + material good we fail to find perfect in London, we may as well content + ourselves to seek that unattainable thing no farther on this earth. + </p> + <p> + The steamer terminates its trip at Chelsea, an old town endowed with a + prodigious number of pothouses, and some famous gardens, called the + Cremorne, for public amusement. The most noticeable thing, however, is + Chelsea Hospital, which, like that of Greenwich, was founded, I believe, + by Charles II. (whose bronze statue, in the guise of an old Roman, stands + in the centre of the quadrangle,) and appropriated as a home for aged and + infirm soldiers of the British army. The edifices are of three stories + with windows in the high roofs, and are built of dark, sombre brick, with + stone edgings and facings. The effect is by no means that of grandeur + (which is somewhat disagreeably an attribute of Greenwich Hospital), but a + quiet and venerable neatness. At each extremity of the street-front there + is a spacious and hospitably open gateway, lounging about which I saw some + gray veterans in long scarlet coats of an antique fashion, and the cocked + hats of a century ago, or occasionally a modern foraging-cap. Almost all + of them moved with a rheumatic gait, two or three stumped on wooden legs, + and here and there an arm was missing. Inquiring of one of these + fragmentary heroes whether a stranger could be admitted to see the + establishment, he replied most cordially, "O yes, sir,—anywhere! + Walk in and go where you please,—up stairs, or anywhere!" So I + entered, and, passing along the inner side of the quadrangle, came to the + door of the chapel, which forms a part of the contiguity of edifices next + the street. Here another pensioner, an old warrior of exceedingly + peaceable and Christian demeanor, touched his three-cornered hat and asked + if I wished to see the interior; to which I assenting, he unlocked the + door, and we went in. + </p> + <p> + The chapel consists of a great hall with a vaulted roof, and over the + altar is a large painting in fresco, the subject of which I did not + trouble myself to make out. More appropriate adornments of the place, + dedicated as well to martial reminiscences as religious worship, are the + long ranges of dusty and tattered banners that hang from their staves all + round the ceiling of the chapel. They are trophies of battles fought and + won in every quarter of the world, comprising the captured flags of all + the nations with whom the British lion has waged war since James II.'s + time,—French, Dutch, East Indian, Prussian, Russian, Chinese, and + American,—collected together in this consecrated spot, not to + symbolize that there shall be no more discord upon earth, but drooping + over the aisle in sullen, though peaceable humiliation. Yes, I said + "American" among the rest; for the good old pensioner mistook me for an + Englishman, and failed not to point out (and, methought, with an especial + emphasis of triumph) some flags that had been taken at Bladensburg and + Washington. I fancied, indeed, that they hung a little higher and drooped + a little lower than any of their companions in disgrace. It is a comfort, + however, that their proud devices are already indistinguishable, or nearly + so, owing to dust and tatters and the kind offices of the moths, and that + they will soon rot from the banner-staves and be swept out in unrecognized + fragments from the chapel-door. + </p> + <p> + It is a good method of teaching a man how imperfectly cosmopolitan he is, + to show him his country's flag occupying a position of dishonor in a + foreign land. But, in truth, the whole system of a people crowing over its + military triumphs had far better he dispensed with, both on account of the + ill-blood that it helps to keep fermenting among the nations, and because + it operates as an accumulative inducement to future generations to aim at + a kind of glory, the gain of which has generally proved more ruinous than + its loss. I heartily wish that every trophy of victory might crumble away, + and that every reminiscence or tradition of a hero, from the beginning of + the world to this day, could pass out of all men's memories at once and + forever. I might feel very differently, to be sure, if we Northerners had + anything especially valuable to lose by the fading of those illuminated + names. + </p> + <p> + I gave the pensioner (but I am afraid there may have been a little + affectation in it) a magnificent guerdon of all the silver I had in my + pocket, to requite him for having unintentionally stirred up my patriotic + susceptibilities. He was a meek-looking, kindly old man, with a humble + freedom and affability of manner that made it pleasant to converse with + him. Old soldiers, I know not why, seem to be more accostable than old + sailors. One is apt to hear a growl beneath the smoothest courtesy of the + latter. The mild veteran, with his peaceful voice, and gentle reverend + aspect, told me that he had fought at a cannon all through the Battle of + Waterloo, and escaped unhurt; he had now been in the hospital four or five + years, and was married, but necessarily underwent a separation from his + wife, who lived outside of the gates. To my inquiry whether his + fellow-pensioners were comfortable and happy, he answered, with great + alacrity, "O yes, sir!" qualifying his evidence, after a moment's + consideration, by saying in an undertone, "There are some people, your + Honor knows, who could not be comfortable anywhere." I did know it, and + fear that the system of Chelsea Hospital allows too little of that + wholesome care and regulation of their own occupations and interests which + might assuage the sting of life to those naturally uncomfortable + individuals by giving them something external to think about. But my old + friend here was happy in the hospital, and by this time, very likely, is + happy in heaven, in spite of the bloodshed that he may have caused by + touching off a cannon at Waterloo. + </p> + <p> + Crossing Battersea Bridge, in the neighborhood of Chelsea, I remember + seeing a distant gleam of the Crystal Palace, glimmering afar in the + afternoon sunshine like an imaginary structure,—an air-castle by + chance descended upon earth, and resting there one instant before it + vanished, as we sometimes see a soap-bubble touch unharmed on the carpet,—a + thing of only momentary visibility and no substance, destined to be + overburdened and crushed down by the first cloud-shadow that might fall + upon that spot. Even as I looked, it disappeared. Shall I attempt a + picture of this exhalation of modern ingenuity, or what else shall I try + to paint? Everything in London and its vicinity has been depicted + innumerable times, but never once translated into intelligible images; it + is an "old, old story," never yet told, nor to be told. While writing + these reminiscences, I am continually impressed with the futility of the + effort to give any creative truth to ink sketch, so that it might produce + such pictures in the reader's mind as would cause the original scenes to + appear familiar when afterwards beheld. Nor have other writers often been + more successful in representing definite objects prophetically to my own + mind. In truth, I believe that the chief delight and advantage of this + kind of literature is not for any real information that it supplies to + untravelled people, but for reviving the recollections and reawakening the + emotions of persons already acquainted with the scenes described. Thus I + found an exquisite pleasure, the other day, in reading Mr. Tuckerman's + "Month in England," fine example of the way in which a refined and + cultivated American looks at the Old Country, the things that he naturally + seeks there, and the modes of feeling and reflection which they excite. + Correct outlines avail little or nothing, though truth of coloring may be + somewhat more efficacious. Impressions, however, states of mind produced + by interesting and remarkable objects, these, if truthfully and vividly + recorded, may work a genuine effect, and, though lint the result, of what + we see, go further towards representing the actual scene than any direct + effort to paint it. Give the emotions that cluster about it, and, without + being able to analyze the spell by which it is summoned up, you get + something like a simulacre of the object in the midst of them. From some + of the above reflections I draw the comfortable inference, that, the + longer and better known a thing may be, so much the more eligible is it as + the subject of a descriptive sketch. + </p> + <p> + On a Sunday afternoon, I passed through a side-entrance in the + time-blackened wall of a place of worship, and found myself among a + congregation assembled in one of the transepts and the immediately + contiguous portion of the nave. It was a vast old edifice, spacious + enough, within the extent covered by its pillared roof and overspread by + its stone pavement, to accommodate the whole of church-going London, and + with a far wider and loftier concave than any human power of lungs could + fill with audible prayer. Oaken benches were arranged in the transept, on + one of which I seated myself, and joined, as well as I knew how, in the + sacred business that was going forward. But when it came to the sermon, + the voice of the preacher was puny, and so were his thoughts, and both + seemed impertinent at such a time and place, where he and all of us were + bodily included within a sublime act of religion, which could be seen + above and around us and felt beneath our feet. The structure itself was + the worship of the devout men of long ago, miraculously preserved in stone + without losing an atom of its fragrance and fervor; it was a kind of + anthem-strain that they had sung and poured out of the organ in centuries + gone by; and being so grand and sweet, the Divine benevolence had willed + it to be prolonged for the behoof of auditors unborn. I therefore came to + the conclusion, that, in my individual case, it would be better and more + reverent to let my eyes wander about the edifice than to fasten them and + my thoughts on the evidently uninspired mortal who was venturing—and + felt it no venture at all—to speak here above his breath. + </p> + <p> + The interior of Westminster Abbey (for the reader recognized it, no doubt, + the moment we entered) is built of rich brown stone; and the whole of it—the + lofty roof, the tall, clustered pillars, and the pointed arches—appears + to be in consummate repair. At all points where decay has laid its finger, + the structure is clamped with iron or otherwise carefully protected; and + being thus watched over,—whether as a place of ancient sanctity, a + noble specimen of Gothic art, or an object of national interest and pride,—it + may reasonably be expected to survive for as many ages as have passed over + it already. It was sweet to feel its venerable quietude, its long-enduring + peace, and yet to observe how kindly and even cheerfully it received the + sunshine of to-day, which fell from the great windows into the fretted + aisles and arches that laid aside somewhat of their aged gloom to welcome + it. Sunshine always seems friendly to old abbeys, churches, and castles, + kissing them, as it were, with a more affectionate, though still + reverential familiarity, than it accords to edifices of later date. A + square of golden light lay on the sombre pavement of the nave, afar off, + falling through the grand western entrance, the folding leaves of which + were wide open, and afforded glimpses of people passing to and fro in the + outer world, while we sat dimly enveloped in the solemnity of antique + devotion. In the south transept, separated from us by the full breadth of + the minster, there were painted glass windows of which the uppermost + appeared to be a great orb of many-colored radiance, being, indeed, a + cluster of saints and angels whose glorified bodies formed the rays of an + aureole emanating from a cross in the midst. These windows are modern, but + combine softness with wonderful brilliancy of effect. Through the pillars + and arches, I saw that the walls in that distant region of the edifice + were almost wholly incrusted with marble, now grown yellow with time, no + blank, unlettered slabs, but memorials of such men as their respective + generations deemed wisest and bravest. Some of them were commemorated + merely by inscriptions on mural tablets, others by sculptured bas-reliefs, + others (once famous, but now forgotten generals or admirals, these) by + ponderous tombs that aspired towards the roof of the aisle, or partly + curtained the immense arch of a window. These mountains of marble were + peopled with the sisterhood of Allegory, winged trumpeters, and classic + figures in full-bottomed wigs; but it was strange to observe how the old + Abbey melted all such absurdities into the breadth of its own grandeur, + even magnifying itself by what would elsewhere have been ridiculous. + Methinks it is the test of Gothic sublimity to overpower the ridiculous + without deigning to hide it; and these grotesque monuments of the last + century answer a similar purpose with the grinning faces which, the old + architects scattered among their most solemn conceptions. + </p> + <p> + From these distant wanderings (it was my first visit to Westminster Abbey, + and I would gladly have taken it all in at a glance) my eyes came back and + began to investigate what was immediately about me in the transept. Close + at my elbow was the pedestal of Canning's statue. Next beyond it was a + massive tomb, on the spacious tablet of which reposed the full-length + figures of a marble lord and lady, whom an inscription announced to be the + Duke and Duchess of Newcastle,—the historic Duke of Charles I.'s + time, and the fantastic Duchess, traditionally remembered by her poems and + plays. She was of a family, as the record on her tomb proudly informed us, + of which all the brothers had been valiant and all the sisters virtuous. A + recent statue of Sir John Malcolm, the new marble as white as snow, held + the next place; and near by was a mural monument and bust of Sir Peter + Warren. The round visage of this old British admiral has a certain + interest for a New-Englander, because it was by no merit of his own + (though he took care to assume it as such), but by the valor and warlike + enterprise of our colonial forefathers, especially the stout men of + Massachusetts, that he won rank and renown, and a tomb in Westminster + Abbey. Lord Mansfield, a huge mass of marble done into the guise of a + judicial gown and wig, with a stern face in the midst of the latter, sat + on the other side of the transept; and on the pedestal beside him was a + figure of Justice, holding forth, instead of the customary grocer's + scales, an actual pair of brass steelyards. It is an ancient and classic + instrument, undoubtedly; but I had supposed that Portia (when Shylock's + pound of flesh was to be weighed) was the only judge that ever really + called for it in a court of justice. Pitt and Fox were in the same + distinguished company; and John Kemble, in Roman costume, stood not far + off, but strangely shorn of the dignity that is said to have enveloped him + like a mantle in his lifetime. Perhaps the evanescent majesty of the stage + is incompatible with the long endurance of marble and the solemn reality + of the tomb; though, on the other hand, almost every illustrious personage + here represented has been invested with more or less of stage-trickery by + his sculptor. In truth, the artist (unless there be a divine efficacy in + his touch, making evident a heretofore hidden dignity in the actual form) + feels it—an imperious law to remove his subject as far from the + aspect of ordinary life as may be possible without sacrificing every trace + of resemblance. The absurd effect of the contrary course is very + remarkable in the statue of Mr. Wilberforce, whose actual self, save for + the lack of color, I seemed to behold, seated just across the aisle. + </p> + <p> + This excellent man appears to have sunk into himself in a sitting posture, + with a thin leg crossed over his knee, a book in one hand, and a finger of + the other under his chin, I believe, or applied to the side of his nose, + or to some equally familiar purpose; while his exceedingly homely and + wrinkled face, held a little on one side, twinkles at you with the + shrewdest complacency, as if he were looking right into your eyes, and + twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal from him. He + keeps this look so pertinaciously that you feel it to be insufferably + impertinent, and bethink yourself what common ground there may be between + yourself and a stone image, enabling you to resent it. I have no doubt + that the statue is as like Mr. Wilberforce as one pea to another, and you + might fancy, that, at some ordinary moment, when he least expected it, and + before he had time to smooth away his knowing complication of wrinkles, he + had seen the Gorgon's head, and whitened into marble,—not only his + personal self, but his coat and small-clothes, down to a button and the + minutest crease of the cloth. The ludicrous result marks the impropriety + of bestowing the age-long duration of marble upon small, characteristic + individualities, such as might come within the province of waxen imagery. + The sculptor should give permanence to the figure of a great man in his + mood of broad and grand composure, which would obliterate all mean + peculiarities; for, if the original were unaccustomed to such a mood, or + if his features were incapable of assuming the guise, it seems + questionable whether he could really have been entitled to a marble + immortality. In point of fact, however, the English face and form are + seldom statuesque, however illustrious the individual. + </p> + <p> + It ill becomes me, perhaps, to have lapsed into this mood of half-jocose + criticism in describing my first visit to Westminster Abbey, a spot which + I had dreamed about more reverentially, from my childhood upward, than any + other in the world, and which I then beheld, and now look back upon, with + profound gratitude to the men who built it, and a kindly interest, I may + add, in the humblest personage that has contributed his little all to its + impressiveness, by depositing his dust or his memory there. But it is a + characteristic of this grand edifice that it permits you to smile as + freely under the roof of its central nave as if you stood beneath the yet + grander canopy of heaven. Break into laughter, if you feel inclined, + provided the vergers do not hear it echoing among the arches. In an + ordinary church you would keep your countenance for fear of disturbing the + sanctities or proprieties of the place; but you need leave no honest and + decorous portion of your human nature outside of these benign and truly + hospitable walls. Their mild awfulness will take care of itself. Thus it + does no harm to the general impression, when you come to be sensible that + many of the monuments are ridiculous, and commemorate a mob of people who + are mostly forgotten in their graves, and few of whom ever deserved any + better boon from posterity. You acknowledge the force of Sir Godfrey + Kneller's objection to being buried in Westminster Abbey, because "they do + bury fools there!" Nevertheless, these grotesque carvings of marble, that + break out in dingy-white blotches on the old freestone of the interior + walls, have come there by as natural a process as might cause mosses and + ivy to cluster about the external edifice; for they are the historical and + biographical record of each successive age, written with its own hand, and + all the truer for the inevitable mistakes, and none the less solemn for + the occasional absurdity. Though you entered the Abbey expecting to see + the tombs only of the illustrious, you are content at last to read many + names, both in literature and history, that have now lost the reverence of + mankind, if indeed they ever really possessed it. + </p> + <p> + Let these men rest in peace. Even if you miss a name or two that you hoped + to find there, they may well be spared. It matters little a few more or + less, or whether Westminster Abbey contains or lacks any one man's grave, + so long as the Centuries, each with the crowd of personages that it deemed + memorable, have chosen it as their place of honored sepulture, and laid + themselves down under its pavement. The inscriptions and devices on the + walls are rich with evidences of the fluctuating tastes, fashions, + manners, opinions, prejudices, follies, wisdoms of the past, and thus they + combine into a more truthful memorial of their dead times than any + individual epitaph-maker ever meant to write. + </p> + <p> + When the services were over, many of the audience seemed inclined to + linger in the nave or wander away among the mysterious aisles; for there + is nothing in this world so fascinating as a Gothic minster, which always + invites you deeper and deeper into its heart both by vast revelations and + shadowy concealments. Through the open-work screen that divides the nave + from the chancel and choir, we could discern the gleam of a marvellous + window, but were debarred from entrance into that more sacred precinct of + the Abbey by the vergers. These vigilant officials (doing their duty all + the more strenuously because no fees could be exacted from Sunday + visitors) flourished their staves, and drove us towards the grand entrance + like a flock of sheep. Lingering through one of the aisles, I happened to + look down, and found my foot upon a stone inscribed with this familiar + exclamation, "O rare Ben Jonson!" and remembered the story of stout old + Ben's burial in that spot, standing upright,—not, I presume, on + account of any unseemly reluctance on his part to lie down in the dust, + like other men, but because standing-room was all that could reasonably be + demanded for a poet among the slumberous notabilities of his age. It made + me weary to think of it!—such a prodigious length of time to keep + one's feet!—apart from the honor of the thing, it would certainly + have been better for Ben to stretch himself at ease in some country + churchyard. To this day, however, I fancy that there is a contemptuous + alloy mixed up with the admiration which the higher classes of English + society profess for their literary men. + </p> + <p> + Another day—in truth, many other days—I sought out Poets' + Corner, and found a sign-board and pointed finger, directing the visitor + to it, on the corner house of a little lane leading towards the rear of + the Abbey. The entrance is at the southeastern end of the south transept, + and it is used, on ordinary occasions, as the only free mode of access to + the building. It is no spacious arch, but a small, lowly door, passing + through which, and pushing aside an inner screen that partly keeps out an + exceedingly chill wind, you find yourself in a dim nook of the Abbey, with + the busts of poets gazing at you from the otherwise bare stone-work of the + walls. Great poets, too; for Ben Jenson is right behind the door, and + Spenser's tablet is next, and Butler's on the same side of the transept, + and Milton's (whose bust you know at once by its resemblance to one of his + portraits, though older, more wrinkled, and sadder than that) is close by, + and a profile-medallion of Gray beneath it. A window high aloft sheds down + a dusky daylight on these and many other sculptured marbles, now as yellow + as old parchment, that cover the three walls of the nook up to an + elevation of about twenty feet above the pavement. It seemed to me that I + had always been familiar with the spot. Enjoying a humble intimacy—and + how much of my life had else been a dreary solitude!—with many of + its inhabitants, I could not feel myself a stranger there. It was + delightful to be among them. There was a genial awe, mingled with a sense + of kind and friendly presences about me; and I was glad, moreover, at + finding so many of them there together, in fit companionship, mutually + recognized and duly honored, all reconciled now, whatever distant + generations, whatever personal hostility or other miserable impediment, + had divided them far asunder while they lived. I have never felt a similar + interest in any other tombstones, nor have I ever been deeply moved by the + imaginary presence of other famous dead people. A poet's ghost is the only + one that survives for his fellow-mortals, after his bones are in the dust,—and + be not ghostly, but cherishing many hearts with his own warmth in the + chillest atmosphere of life. What other fame is worth aspiring for? Or, + let me speak it more boldly, what other long-enduring fame can exist? We + neither remember nor care anything for the past, except as the poet has + made it intelligibly noble and sublime to our comprehension. The shades of + the mighty have no substance; they flit ineffectually about the darkened + stage where they performed their momentary parts, save when the poet has + thrown his own creative soul into them, and imparted a more vivid life + than ever they were able to manifest to mankind while they dwelt in the + body. And therefore—though he cunningly disguises himself in their + armor, their robes of state, or kingly purple—it is not the + statesman, the warrior, or the monarch that survives, but the despised + poet, whom they may have fed with their crumbs, and to whom they owe all + that they now are or have,—a name! + </p> + <p> + In the foregoing paragraph I seem to have been betrayed into a flight + above or beyond the customary level that best agrees with me; but it + represents fairly enough the emotions with which I passed from Poets' + Corner into the chapels, which contain the sepulchres of kings and great + people. They are magnificent even now, and must have been inconceivably so + when the marble slabs and pillars wore their new polish, and the statues + retained the brilliant colors with which they were originally painted, and + the shrines their rich gilding, of which the sunlight still shows a + glimmer or a streak, though the sunbeam itself looks tarnished with + antique dust. Yet this recondite portion of the Abbey presents few + memorials of personages whom we care to remember. The shrine of Edward the + Confessor has a certain interest, because it was so long held in religious + reverence, and because the very dust that settled upon it was formerly + worth gold. The helmet and war-saddle of Henry V., worn at Agincourt, and + now suspended above his tomb, are memorable objects, but more for + Shakespeare's sake than the victor's own. Rank has been the general + passport to admission here. Noble and regal dust is as cheap as dirt under + the pavement. I am glad to recollect, indeed (and it is too characteristic + of the right English spirit not to be mentioned), one or two gigantic + statues of great mechanicians, who contributed largely to the material + welfare of England, sitting familiarly in their marble chairs among + forgotten kings and queens. Otherwise, the quaintness of the earlier + monuments, and the antique beauty of some of them, are what chiefly gives + them value. Nevertheless, Addison is buried among the men of rank; not on + the plea of his literary fame, however, but because he was connected with + nobility by marriage, and had been a Secretary of State. His gravestone is + inscribed with a resounding verse from Tickell's lines to his memory, the + only lines by which Tickell himself is now remembered, and which (as I + discovered a little while ago) he mainly filched from an obscure versifier + of somewhat earlier date. + </p> + <p> + Returning to Poets' Corner, I looked again at the walls, and wondered how + the requisite hospitality can be shown to poets of our own and the + succeeding ages. There is hardly a foot of space left, although room has + lately been found for a bust of Southey and a full-length statue of + Campbell. At best, only a little portion of the Abbey is dedicated to + poets, literary men, musical composers, and others of the gentle artist + breed, and even into that small nook of sanctity men of other pursuits + have thought it decent to intrude themselves. Methinks the tuneful throng, + being at home here, should recollect how they were treated in their + lifetime, and turn the cold shoulder, looking askance at nobles and + official personages, however worthy of honorable intercourse elsewhere. + Yet it shows aptly and truly enough what portion of the world's regard and + honor has heretofore been awarded to literary eminence in comparison with + other modes of greatness,—this dimly lighted corner (nor even that + quietly to themselves) in the vast minster, the walls of which are + sheathed and hidden under marble that has been wasted upon the illustrious + obscure. Nevertheless, it may not be worth while to quarrel with the world + on this account; for, to confess the very truth, their own little nook + contains more than one poet whose memory is kept alive by his monument, + instead of imbuing the senseless stone with a spiritual immortality,—men + of whom you do not ask, "Where is he?" but, "Why is he here?" I estimate + that all the literary people who really make an essential part of one's + inner life, including the period since English literature first existed, + might have ample elbow-room to sit down and quaff their draughts of + Castaly round Chaucer's broad, horizontal tombstone. These divinest poets + consecrate the spot, and throw a reflected glory over the humblest of + their companions. And as for the latter, it is to be hoped that they may + have long outgrown the characteristic jealousies and morbid sensibilities + of their craft, and have found out the little value (probably not + amounting to sixpence in immortal currency) of the posthumous renown which + they once aspired to win. It would be a poor compliment to a dead poet to + fancy him leaning out of the sky and snuffing up the impure breath of + earthly praise. + </p> + <p> + Yet we cannot easily rid ourselves of the notion that those who have + bequeathed us the inheritance of an undying song would fain be conscious + of its endless reverberations in the hearts of mankind, and would delight, + among sublimer enjoyments, to see their names emblazoned in such a + treasure-place of great memories as Westminster Abbey. There are some men, + at all events,—true and tender poets, moreover, and fully deserving + of the honor,—whose spirits, I feel certain, would linger a little + while about Poets' Corner for the sake of witnessing their own apotheosis + among their kindred. They have had a strong natural yearning, not so much + for applause as sympathy, which the cold fortune of their lifetime did but + scantily supply; so that this unsatisfied appetite may make itself felt + upon sensibilities at once so delicate and retentive, even a step or two + beyond the grave. Leigh Hunt, for example, would be pleased, even now, if + he could learn that his bust had been reposited in the midst of the old + poets whom he admired and loved; though there is hardly a man among the + authors of to-day and yesterday whom the judgment of Englishmen would be + less likely to place there. He deserves it, however, if not for his verse + (the value of which I do not estimate, never having been able to read it), + yet for his delightful prose, his unmeasured poetry, the inscrutable + happiness of his touch, working soft miracles by a life-process like the + growth of grass and flowers. As with all such gentle writers, his page + sometimes betrayed a vestige of affectation, but, the next moment, a rich, + natural luxuriance overgrew and buried it out of sight. I knew him a + little, and (since, Heaven be praised, few English celebrities whom I + chanced to meet have enfranchised my pen by their decease, and as I assume + no liberties with living men) I will conclude this rambling article by + sketching my first interview with Leigh Hunt. + </p> + <p> + He was then at Hammersmith, occupying a very plain and shabby little + house, in a contiguous range of others like it, with no prospect but that + of an ugly village street, and certainly nothing to gratify his craving + for a tasteful environment, inside or out. A slatternly maid-servant + opened the door for us, and he himself stood in the entry, a beautiful and + venerable old man, buttoned to the chin in a black dress-coat, tall and + slender, with a countenance quietly alive all over, and the gentlest and + most naturally courteous manner. He ushered us into his little study, or + parlor, or both,—a very forlorn room, with poor paper-hangings and + carpet, few books, no pictures that I remember, and an awful lack of + upholstery. I touch distinctly upon these external blemishes and this + nudity of adornment, not that they would be worth mentioning in a sketch + of other remarkable persons, but because Leigh Hunt was born with such a + faculty of enjoying all beautiful things that it seemed as if Fortune, did + him as much wrong in not supplying them as in withholding a sufficiency of + vital breath from ordinary men. All kinds of mild magnificence, tempered + by his taste, would have become him well; but he had not the grim dignity + that assumes nakedness as the better robe. + </p> + <p> + I have said that he was a beautiful old man. In truth, I never saw a finer + countenance, either as to the mould of features or the expression, nor any + that showed the play of feeling so perfectly without the slightest + theatrical emphasis. It was like a child's face in this respect. At my + first glimpse of him, when he met us in the entry, I discerned that he was + old, his long hair being white and his wrinkles many; it was an aged + visage, in short, such as I had not at all expected to see, in spite of + dates, because his books talk to the reader with the tender vivacity of + youth. But when he began to speak, and as he grew more earnest in + conversation, I ceased to be sensible of his age; sometimes, indeed, its + dusky shadow darkened through the gleam which his sprightly thoughts + diffused about his face, but then another flash of youth came out of his + eyes and made an illumination again. I never witnessed such a wonderfully + illusive transformation, before or since; and, to this day, trusting only + to my recollection, I should find it difficult to decide which was his + genuine and stable predicament,—youth or age. I have met no + Englishman whose manners seemed to me so agreeable, soft, rather than + polished, wholly unconventional, the natural growth of a kindly and + sensitive disposition without any reference to rule, or else obedient to + some rule so subtile that the nicest observer could not detect the + application of it. + </p> + <p> + His eyes were dark and very fine, and his delightful voice accompanied + their visible language like music. He appeared to be exceedingly + appreciative of whatever was passing among those who surrounded him, and + especially of the vicissitudes in the consciousness of the person to whom + he happened to be addressing himself at the moment. I felt that no effect + upon my mind of what he uttered, no emotion, however transitory, in + myself, escaped his notice, though not from any positive vigilance on his + part, but because his faculty of observation was so penetrative and + delicate; and to say the truth, it a little confused me to discern always + a ripple on his mobile face, responsive to any slightest breeze that + passed over the inner reservoir of my sentiments, and seemed thence to + extend to a similar reservoir within himself. On matters of feeling, and + within a certain depth, you might spare yourself the trouble of utterance, + because he already knew what you wanted to say, and perhaps a little more + than you would have spoken. His figure was full of gentle movement, + though, somehow, without disturbing its quietude; and as he talked, he + kept folding his hands nervously, and betokened in many ways a fine and + immediate sensibility, quick to feel pleasure or pain, though scarcely + capable, I should imagine, of a passionate experience in either direction. + There was not am English trait in him from head to foot, morally, + intellectually, or physically. Beef, ale, or stout, brandy or port-wine, + entered not at all into his composition. In his earlier life, he appears + to have given evidences of courage and sturdy principle, and of a tendency + to fling himself into the rough struggle of humanity on the liberal side. + It would be taking too much upon myself to affirm that this was merely a + projection of his fancy world into the actual, and that he never could + have hit a downright blow, and was altogether an unsuitable person to + receive one. I beheld him not in his armor, but in his peacefulest robes. + Nevertheless, drawing my conclusion merely from what I saw, it would have + occurred to me that his main deficiency was a lack of grit. Though + anything but a timid man, the combative and defensive elements were not + prominently developed in his character, and could have been made available + only when he put an unnatural force upon his instincts. It was on this + account, and also because of the fineness of his nature generally, that + the English appreciated him no better, and left this sweet and delicate + poet poor, and with scanty laurels in his declining age. + </p> + <p> + It was not, I think, from his American blood that Leigh Hunt derived + either his amiability or his peaceful inclinations; at least, I do not see + how we can reasonably claim the former quality as a national + characteristic, though the latter might have been fairly inherited from + his ancestors on the mother's side, who were Pennsylvania Quakers. But the + kind of excellence that distinguished him—his fineness, subtilty, + and grace—was that which the richest cultivation has heretofore + tended to develop in the happier examples of American genius, and which + (though I say it a little reluctantly) is perhaps what our future + intellectual advancement may make general among us. His person, at all + events, was thoroughly American, and of the best type, as were likewise + his manners; for we are the best as well as the worst mannered people in + the world. + </p> + <p> + Leigh Hunt loved dearly to be praised. That is to say, he desired sympathy + as a flower seeks sunshine, and perhaps profited by it as much in the + richer depth of coloring that it imparted to his ideas. In response to all + that we ventured to express about his writings (and, for my part, I went + quite to the extent of my conscience, which was a long way, and there left + the matter to a lady and a young girl, who happily were with me), his face + shone, and he manifested great delight, with a perfect, and yet delicate, + frankness for which I loved him. He could not tell us, he said, the + happiness that such appreciation gave him; it always took him by surprise, + he remarked, for—perhaps because he cleaned his own boots, and + performed other little ordinary offices for himself— he never had + been conscious of anything wonderful in his own person. And then he + smiled, making himself and all the poor little parlor about him beautiful + thereby. It is usually the hardest thing in the world to praise a man to + his face; but Leigh Hunt received the incense with such gracious + satisfaction (feeling it to be sympathy, not vulgar praise), that the only + difficulty was to keep the enthusiasm of the moment within the limit of + permanent opinion. A storm had suddenly come up while we were talking; the + rain poured, the lightning flashed, and the thunder broke; but I hope, and + have great pleasure in believing, that it was a sunny hour for Leigh Hunt. + Nevertheless, it was not to my voice that he most favorably inclined his + ear, but to those of my companions. Women are the fit ministers at such a + shrine. + </p> + <p> + He must have suffered keenly in his lifetime, and enjoyed keenly, keeping + his emotions so much upon the surface as he seemed to do, and convenient + for everybody to play upon. Being of a cheerful temperament, happiness had + probably the upper hand. His was a light, mildly joyous nature, gentle, + graceful, yet seldom attaining to that deepest grace which results from + power; for beauty, like woman, its human representative, dallies with the + gentle, but yields its consummate favor only to the strong. I imagine that + Leigh Bunt may have been more beautiful when I met him, both in person and + character, than in his earlier days. As a young man, I could conceive of + his being finical in certain moods, but not now, when the gravity of age + shed a venerable grace about him. I rejoiced to hear him say that he was + favored with most confident and cheering anticipations in respect to a + future life; and there were abundant proofs, throughout our interview, of + an unrepining spirit, resignation, quiet, relinquishment of the worldly + benefits that were denied him, thankful enjoyment of whatever he had to + enjoy, and piety, and hope shining onward into the dusk,—all of + which gave a reverential cast to the feeling with which we parted from + him. I wish that he could have had one full draught of prosperity before + he died. As a matter of artistic propriety, it would have been delightful + to see him inhabiting a beautiful house of his own, in an Italian climate, + with all sorts of elaborate upholstery and minute elegances about him, and + a succession of tender and lovely women to praise his sweet poetry from + morning to night. I hardly know whether it is my fault, or the effect of a + weakness in Leigh Haunt's character, that I should be sensible of a regret + of this nature, when, at the same time, I sincerely believe that he has + found an infinity of better things in the world whither he has gone. + </p> + <p> + At our leave-taking he grasped me warmly by both hands, and seemed as much + interested in our whole party as if he had known us for years. All this + was genuine feeling, a quick, luxuriant growth out of his heart, which was + a soil for flower-seeds of rich and rare varieties, not acorns, but a true + heart, nevertheless. Several years afterwards I met him for the last time + at a London dinner-party, looking sadly broken down by infirmities; and my + final recollection of the beautiful old man presents him arm in arm with, + nay, if I mistake not, partly embraced and supported by, another beloved + and honored poet, whose minstrel-name, since he has a week-day one for his + personal occasions, I will venture to speak. It was Barry Cornwall, whose + kind introduction had first made me known to Leigh Hunt. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OUTSIDE GLIMPSES OF ENGLISH POVERTY. + </h2> + <p> + Becoming an inhabitant of a great English town, I often turned aside from + the prosperous thoroughfares (where the edifices, the shops, and the + bustling crowd differed not so much from scenes with which I was familiar + in my own country), and went designedly astray among precincts that + reminded me of some of Dickens's grimiest pages. There I caught glimpses + of a people and a mode of life that were comparatively new to my + observation, a sort of sombre phantasmagoric spectacle, exceedingly + undelightful to behold, yet involving a singular interest and even + fascination in its ugliness. + </p> + <p> + Dirt, one would fancy, is plenty enough all over the world, being the + symbolic accompaniment of the foul incrustation which began to settle over + and bedim all earthly things as soon as Eve had bitten the apple; ever + since which hapless epoch, her daughters have chiefly been engaged in a + desperate and unavailing struggle to get rid of it. But the dirt of a + poverty-stricken English street is a monstrosity unknown on our side of + the Atlantic. It reigns supreme within its own limits, and is + inconceivable everywhere beyond them. We enjoy the great advantage, that + the brightness and dryness of our atmosphere keep everything clean that + the sun shines upon, converting the larger portion of our impurities into + transitory dust which the next wind can sweep away, in contrast with the + damp, adhesive grime that incorporates itself with all surfaces (unless + continually and painfully cleansed) in the chill moisture of the English + air. Then the all-pervading smoke of the city, abundantly intermingled + with the sable snow-flakes of bituminous coal, hovering overhead, + descending, and alighting on pavements and rich architectural fronts, on + the snowy muslin of the ladies, and the gentlemen's starched collars and + shirt-bosoms, invests even the better streets in a half-mourning garb. It + is beyond the resources of Wealth to keep the smut away from its premises + or its own fingers' ends; and as for Poverty, it surrenders itself to the + dark influence without a struggle. Along with disastrous circumstances, + pinching need, adversity so lengthened out as to constitute the rule of + life, there comes a certain chill depression of the spirits which seems + especially to shudder at cold water. In view of so wretched a state of + things, we accept the ancient Deluge not merely as an insulated + phenomenon, but as a periodical necessity, and acknowledge that nothing + less than such a general washing-day could suffice to cleanse the slovenly + old world of its moral and material dirt. + </p> + <p> + Gin-shops, or what the English call spirit-vaults, are numerous in the + vicinity of these poor streets, and are set off with the magnificence of + gilded door-posts, tarnished by contact with the unclean customers who + haunt there. Ragged children come thither with old shaving-mugs, or + broken-nosed teapots, or ally such makeshift receptacle, to get a little + poison or madness for their parents, who deserve no better requital at + their hands for having engendered them. Inconceivably sluttish women enter + at noonday and stand at the counter among boon-companions of both sexes, + stirring up misery and jollity in a bumper together, and quaffing off the + mixture with a relish. As for the men, they lounge there continually, + drinking till they are drunken,—drinking as long as they have a + half-penny left, and then, as it seemed to me, waiting for a sixpenny + miracle to be wrought in their pockets so as to enable them to be drunken + again. Most of these establishments have a significant advertisement of + "Beds," doubtless for the accommodation of their customers in the interval + between one intoxication and the next. I never could find it in my heart, + however, utterly to condemn these sad revellers, and should certainly wait + till I had some better consolation to offer before depriving them of their + dram of gin, though death itself were in the glass; for methought their + poor souls needed such fiery stimulant to lift them a little way out of + the smothering squalor of both their outward and interior life, giving + them glimpses and suggestions, even if bewildering ones, of a spiritual + existence that limited their present misery. The temperance-reformers + unquestionably derive their commission from the Divine Beneficence, but + have never been taken fully into its counsels. All may not be lost, though + those good men fail. + </p> + <p> + Pawnbrokers' establishments, distinguished by the mystic symbol of the + three golden balls, were conveniently accessible; though what personal + property these wretched people could possess, capable of being estimated + in silver or copper, so as to afford a basis for a loan, was a problem + that still perplexes me. Old clothesmen, likewise, dwelt hard by, and hung + out ancient garments to dangle in the wind. There were butchers' shops, + too, of a class adapted to the neighborhood, presenting no such generously + fattened carcasses as Englishmen love to gaze at in the market, no + stupendous halves of mighty beeves, no dead hogs or muttons ornamented + with carved bas-reliefs of fat on their ribs and shoulders, in a + peculiarly British style of art,—not these, but bits and gobbets of + lean meat, selvages snipt off from steaks, tough and stringy morsels, bare + bones smitten away from joints by the cleaver, tripe, liver, bullocks' + feet, or whatever else was cheapest and divisible into the smallest lots. + I am afraid that even such delicacies came to many of their tables hardly + oftener than Christmas. In the windows of other little shops you saw half + a dozen wizened herrings, some eggs in a basket, looking so dingily + antique that your imagination smelt them, fly-speckled biscuits, segments + of a hungry cheese, pipes and papers of tobacco. Now and then a sturdy + milk-woman passed by with a wooden yoke over her shoulders, supporting a + pail on either side, filled with a whitish fluid, the composition of which + was water and chalk and the milk of a sickly cow, who gave the best she + had, poor thing! but could scarcely make it rich or wholesome, spending + her life in some close city-nook and pasturing on strange food. I have + seen, once or twice, a donkey coming into one of these streets with + panniers full of vegetables, and departing with a return cargo of what + looked like rubbish and street-sweepings. No other commerce seemed to + exist, except, possibly, a girl might offer you a pair of stockings or a + worked collar, or a man whisper something mysterious about wonderfully + cheap cigars. And yet I remember seeing female hucksters in those regions, + with their wares on the edge of the sidewalk and their own seats right in + the carriage-way, pretending to sell half-decayed oranges and apples, + toffy, Ormskirk cakes, combs, and cheap jewelry, the coarsest kind of + crockery, and little plates of oysters,—knitting patiently all day + long, and removing their undiminished stock in trade at nightfall. All + indispensable importations from other quarters of the town were on a + remarkably diminutive scale: for example, the wealthier inhabitants + purchased their coal by the wheelbarrow-load, and the poorer ones by the + peck-measure. It was a curious and melancholy spectacle, when an overladen + coal-cart happened to pass through the street and drop a handful or two of + its burden in the mud, to see half a dozen women and children scrambling + for the treasure-trove, like a flock of hens and chickens gobbling up some + spilt corn. In this connection I may as well mention a commodity of boiled + snails (for such they appeared to me, though probably a marine production) + which used to be peddled from door to door, piping hot, as an article of + cheap nutriment. + </p> + <p> + The population of these dismal abodes appeared to consider the sidewalks + and middle of the street as their common hall. In a drama of low life, the + unity of place might be arranged rigidly according to the classic rule, + and the street be the one locality in which every scene and incident + should occur. Courtship, quarrels, plot and counterplot, conspiracies for + robbery and murder, family difficulties or agreements,— all such + matters, I doubt not, are constantly discussed or transacted in this + sky-roofed saloon, so regally hung with its sombre canopy of coal-smoke. + Whatever the disadvantages of the English climate, the only comfortable or + wholesome part of life, for the city poor, must be spent in the open air. + The stifled and squalid rooms where they lie down at night, whole families + and neighborhoods together, or sulkily elbow one another in the daytime, + when a settled rain drives them within doors, are worse horrors than it is + worth while (without a practical object in view) to admit into one's + imagination. No wonder that they creep forth from the foul mystery of + their interiors, stumble down from their garrets, or scramble up out of + their cellars, on the upper step of which you may see the grimy housewife, + before the shower is ended, letting the raindrops gutter down her visage; + while her children (an impish progeny of cavernous recesses below the + common sphere of humanity) swarm into the daylight and attain all that + they know of personal purification in the nearest mud-puddle. It might + almost make a man doubt the existence of his own soul, to observe how + Nature has flung these little wretches into the street and left them + there, so evidently regarding them as nothing worth, and how all mankind + acquiesce in the great mother's estimate of her offspring. For, if they + are to have no immortality, what superior claim can I assert for mine? And + how difficult to believe that anything so precious as a germ of immortal + growth can have been buried under this dirt-heap, plunged into this + cesspool of misery and vice! As often as I beheld the scene, it affected + me with surprise and loathsome interest, much resembling, though in a far + intenser degree, the feeling with which, when a boy, I used to turn over a + plank or an old log that had long lain on the damp ground, and found a + vivacious multitude of unclean and devilish-looking insects scampering to + and fro beneath it. Without an infinite faith, there seemed as much + prospect of a blessed futurity for those hideous hugs and many-footed + worms as for these brethren of our humanity and co-heirs of all our + heavenly inheritance. Ah, what a mystery! Slowly, slowly, as after groping + at the bottom of a deep, noisome, stagnant pool, my hope struggles upward + to the surface, bearing the half-drowned body of a child along with it, + and heaving it aloft for its life, and my own life, and all our lives. + Unless these slime-clogged nostrils can be made capable of inhaling + celestial air, I know not how the purest and most intellectual of us can + reasonably expect ever to taste a breath of it. The whole question of + eternity is staked there. If a single one of those helpless little ones be + lost, the world is lost! + </p> + <p> + The women and children greatly preponderate in such places; the men + probably wandering abroad in quest of that daily miracle, a dinner and a + drink, or perhaps slumbering in the daylight that they may the better + follow out their cat-like rambles through the dark. Here are women with + young figures, but old, wrinkled, yellow faces, fanned and blear-eyed with + the smoke which they cannot spare from their scanty fires,—it being + too precious for its warmth to be swallowed by the chimney. Some of them + sit on the doorsteps, nursing their unwashed babies at bosoms which we + will glance aside from, for the sake of our mothers and all womanhood, + because the fairest spectacle is here the foulest. Yet motherhood, in + these dark abodes, is strangely identical with what we have all known it + to be in the happiest homes. Nothing, as I remember, smote me with more + grief and pity (all the more poignant because perplexingly entangled with + an inclination to smile) than to hear a gaunt and ragged mother priding + herself on the pretty ways of her ragged and skinny infant, just as a + young matron might, when she invites her lady friends to admire her plump, + white-robed darling in the nursery. Indeed, no womanly characteristic + seemed to have altogether perished out of these poor souls. It was the + very same creature whose tender torments make the rapture of our young + days, whom we love, cherish, and protect, and rely upon in life and death, + and whom we delight to see beautify her beauty with rich robes and set it + off with jewels, though now fantastically masquerading in a garb of + tatters, wholly unfit for her to handle. I recognized her, over and over + again, in the groups round a doorstep or in the descent of a cellar, + chatting with prodigious earnestness about intangible trifles, laughing + for a little jest, sympathizing at almost the same instant with one + neighbor's sunshine and another's shadow, wise, simple, sly, and patient, + yet easily perturbed, and breaking into small feminine ebullitions of + spite, wrath, and jealousy, tornadoes of a moment, such as vary the social + atmosphere of her silken-skirted sisters, though smothered into propriety + by dint of a well-bred habit. Not that there was an absolute deficiency of + good-breeding, even here. It often surprised me to witness a courtesy and + deference among these ragged folks, which, having seen it, I did not + thoroughly believe in, wondering whence it should have come. I am + persuaded, however, that there were laws of intercourse which they never + violated,—a code of the cellar, the garret, the common staircase, + the doorstep, and the pavement, which perhaps had as deep a foundation in + natural fitness as the code of the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Yet again I doubt whether I may not have been uttering folly in the last + two sentences, when I reflect how rude and rough these specimens of + feminine character generally were. They had a readiness with their hands + that reminded me of Molly Seagrim and other heroines in Fielding's novels. + For example, I have seen a woman meet a man in the street, and, for no + reason perceptible to me, suddenly clutch him by the hair and cuff his + ears,—an infliction which he bore with exemplary patience, only + snatching the very earliest opportunity to take to his heels. Where a + sharp tongue will not serve the purpose, they trust to the sharpness of + their finger-nails, or incarnate a whole vocabulary of vituperative words + in a resounding slap, or the downright blow of a doubled fist. All English + people, I imagine, are influenced in a far greater degree than ourselves + by this simple and honest tendency, in cases of disagreement, to batter + one another's persons; and whoever has seen a crowd of English ladies (for + instance, at the door of the Sistine Chapel, in Holy Week) will be + satisfied that their belligerent propensities are kept in abeyance only by + a merciless rigor on the part of society. It requires a vast deal of + refinement to spiritualize their large physical endowments. Such being the + case with the delicate ornaments of the drawing-room, it is the less to be + wondered at that women who live mostly in the open air, amid the coarsest + kind of companionship and occupation, should carry on the intercourse of + life with a freedom unknown to any class of American females, though + still, I am resolved to think, compatible with a generous breadth of + natural propriety. It shocked me, at first, to see them (of all ages, even + elderly, as well as infants that could just toddle across the street + alone) going about in the mud and mire, or through the dusky snow and + slosh of a severe week in winter, with petticoats high uplifted above + bare, red feet and legs; but I was comforted by observing that both shoes + and stockings generally reappeared with better weather, having been + thriftily kept out of the damp for the convenience of dry feet within + doors. Their hardihood was wonderful, and their strength greater than + could have been expected from such spare diet as they probably lived upon. + I have seen them carrying on their heads great burdens under which they + walked as freely as if they were fashionable bonnets; or sometimes the + burden was huge enough almost to cover the whole person, looked at from + behind,—as in Tuscan villages you may see the girls coming in from + the country with great bundles of green twigs upon their backs, so that + they resemble locomotive masses of verdure and fragrance. But these poor + English women seemed to be laden with rubbish, incongruous and + indescribable, such as bones and rags, the sweepings of the house and of + the street, a merchandise gathered up from what poverty itself had thrown + away, a heap of filthy stuff analogous to Christian's bundle of sin. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes, though very seldom, I detected a certain gracefulness among the + younger women that was altogether new to my observation. It was a charm + proper to the lowest class. One girl I particularly remember, in a garb + none of the cleanest and nowise smart, and herself exceedingly coarse in + all respects, but yet endowed with a sort of witchery, a native charm, a + robe of simple beauty and suitable behavior that she was born in and had + never been tempted to throw off, because she had really nothing else to + put on. Eve herself could not have been more natural. Nothing was + affected, nothing imitated; no proper grace was vulgarized by an effort to + assume the manners or adornments of another sphere. This kind of beauty, + arrayed in a fitness of its own, is probably vanishing out of the world, + and will certainly never be found in America, where all the girls, whether + daughters of the upper-tendon, the mediocrity, the cottage, or the kennel, + aim at one standard of dress and deportment, seldom accomplishing a + perfectly triumphant hit or an utterly absurd failure. Those words, + "genteel" and "ladylike," are terrible ones and do us infinite mischief, + but it is because (at least, I hope so) we are in a transition state, and + shall emerge into a higher mode of simplicity than has ever been known to + past ages. + </p> + <p> + In such disastrous circumstances as I have been attempting to describe, it + was beautiful to observe what a mysterious efficacy still asserted itself + in character. A woman, evidently poor as the poorest of her neighbors, + would be knitting or sewing on the doorstep, just as fifty other women + were; but round about her skirts (though wofully patched) you would be + sensible of a certain sphere of decency, which, it seemed to me, could not + have been kept more impregnable in the cosiest little sitting-room, where + the tea-kettle on the hob was humming its good old song of domestic peace. + Maidenhood had a similar power. The evil habit that grows upon us in this + harsh world makes me faithless to my own better perceptions; and yet I + have seen girls in these wretched streets, on whose virgin purity, judging + merely from their impression on my instincts as they passed by, I should + have deemed it safe, at the moment, to stake my life. The next moment, + however, as the surrounding flood of moral uncleanness surged over their + footsteps, I would not have staked a spike of thistle-down on the same + wager. Yet the miracle was within the scope of Providence, which is + equally wise and equally beneficent (even to those poor girls, though I + acknowledge the fact without the remotest comprehension of the mode of + it), whether they were pure or what we fellow-sinners call vile. Unless + your faith be deep-rooted and of most vigorous growth, it is the safer way + not to turn aside into this region so suggestive of miserable doubt. It + was a place "with dreadful faces thronged," wrinkled and grim with vice + and wretchedness; and, thinking over the line of Milton here quoted, I + come to the conclusion that those ugly lineaments which startled Adam and + Eve, as they looked backward to the closed gate of Paradise, were no + fiends from the pit, but the more terrible foreshadowings of what so many + of their descendants were to be. God help them, and us likewise, their + brethren and sisters! Let me add, that, forlorn, ragged, careworn, + hopeless, dirty, haggard, hungry, as they were, the most pitiful thing of + all was to see the sort of patience with which they accepted their lot, as + if they had been born into the world for that and nothing else. Even the + little children had this characteristic in as perfect development as their + grandmothers. + </p> + <p> + The children, in truth, were the ill-omened blossoms from which another + harvest of precisely such dark fruitage as I saw ripened around me was to + be produced. Of course you would imagine these to be lumps of crude + iniquity, tiny vessels as full as they could hold of naughtiness; nor can + I say a great deal to the contrary. Small proof of parental discipline + could I discern, save when a mother (drunken, I sincerely hope) snatched + her own imp out of a group of pale, half-naked, humor-eaten abortions that + were playing and squabbling together in the mud, turned up its tatters, + brought down her heavy hand on its poor little tenderest part, and let it + go again with a shake. If the child knew what the punishment was for, it + was wiser than I pretend to be. It yelled, and went back to its playmates + in the mud. Yet let me bear testimony to what was beautiful, and more + touching than anything that I ever witnessed in the intercourse of happier + children. I allude to the superintendence which some of these small people + (too small, one would think, to be sent into the street alone, had there + been any other nursery for them) exercised over still smaller ones. Whence + they derived such a sense of duty, unless immediately from God, I cannot + tell; but it was wonderful to observe the expression of responsibility in + their deportment, the anxious fidelity with which they discharged their + unfit office, the tender patience with which they linked their less + pliable impulses to the wayward footsteps of an infant, and let it guide + them whithersoever it liked. In the hollow-cheeked, large-eyed girl of + ten, whom I saw giving a cheerless oversight to her baby-brother, I did + not so much marvel at it. She had merely come a little earlier than usual + to the perception of what was to be her business in life. But I admired + the sickly-looking little boy, who did violence to his boyish nature by + making himself the servant of his little sister,—she too small to + walk, and he too small to take her in his arms,—and therefore + working a kind of miracle to transport her from one dirt-heap to another. + Beholding such works of love and duty, I took heart again, and deemed it + not so impossible, after all, for these neglected children to find a path + through the squalor and evil of their circumstances up to the gate of + heaven. Perhaps there was this latent good in all of them, though + generally they looked brutish, and dull even in their sports; there was + little mirth among them, nor even a fully awakened spirit of + blackguardism. Yet sometimes, again, I saw, with surprise and a sense as + if I had been asleep and dreaming, the bright, intelligent, merry face of + a child whose dark eyes gleamed with vivacious expression through the dirt + that incrusted its skin, like sunshine struggling through a very dusty + window-pane. + </p> + <p> + In these streets the belted and blue-coated policeman appears seldom in + comparison with the frequency of his occurrence in more reputable + thoroughfares. I used to think that the inhabitants would have ample time + to murder one another, or any stranger, like myself, who might violate the + filthy sanctities of the place; before the law could bring up its + lumbering assistance. Nevertheless, there is a supervision; nor does the + watchfulness of authority permit the populace to be tempted to any + outbreak. Once, in a time of dearth I noticed a ballad-singer going + through the street hoarsely chanting some discordant strain in a + provincial dialect, of which I could only make out that it addressed the + sensibilities of the auditors on the score of starvation; but by his side + stalked the policeman, offering no interference, but watchful to hear what + this rough minstrel said or sang, and silence him, if his effusion + threatened to prove too soul-stirring. In my judgment, however, there is + little or no danger of that kind: they starve patiently, sicken patiently, + die patiently, not through resignation, but a diseased flaccidity of hope. + If ever they should do mischief to those above them, it will probably be + by the communication of some destructive pestilence; for, so the medical + men affirm, they suffer all the ordinary diseases with a degree of + virulence elsewhere unknown, and keep among themselves traditionary + plagues that have long ceased to afflict more fortunate societies. Charity + herself gathers her robe about her to avoid their contact. It would be a + dire revenge, indeed, if they were to prove their claims to be reckoned of + one blood and nature with the noblest and wealthiest by compelling them to + inhale death through the diffusion of their own poverty-poisoned + atmosphere. + </p> + <p> + A true Englishman is a kind man at heart, but has an unconquerable dislike + to poverty and beggary. Beggars have heretofore been so strange to an + American that he is apt to become their prey, being recognized through his + national peculiarities, and beset by them in the streets. The English + smile at him, and say that there are ample public arrangements for every + pauper's possible need, that street-charity promotes idleness and vice, + and that yonder personification of misery on the pavement will lay up a + good day's profit, besides supping more luxuriously than the dupe who + gives him a shilling. By and by the stranger adopts their theory and + begins to practise upon it, much to his own temporary freedom from + annoyance, but not entirely without moral detriment or sometimes a too + late contrition. Years afterwards, it may be, his memory is still haunted + by some vindictive wretch whose cheeks were pale and hunger-pinched, whose + rags fluttered in the east-wind, whose right arm was paralyzed and his + left leg shrivelled into a mere nerveless stick, but whom he passed by + remorselessly because an Englishman chose to say that the fellow's misery + looked too perfect, was too artistically got up, to be genuine. Even + allowing this to be true (as, a hundred chances to one, it was), it would + still have been a clear case of economy to buy him off with a little loose + silver, so that his lamentable figure should not limp at the heels of your + conscience all over the world. To own the truth, I provided myself with + several such imaginary persecutors in England, and recruited their number + with at least one sickly-looking wretch whose acquaintance I first made at + Assisi, in Italy, and, taking a dislike to something sinister in his + aspect, permitted him to beg early and late, and all day long, without + getting a single baiocco. At my latest glimpse of him, the villain avenged + himself, not by a volley of horrible curses, as any other Italian beggar + would, but by taking an expression so grief-stricken, want-wrung, + hopeless, and withal resigned, that I could paint his lifelike portrait at + this moment. Were I to go over the same ground again, I would listen to no + man's theories, but buy the little luxury of beneficence at a cheap rate, + instead of doing myself a moral mischief by exuding a stony incrustation + over whatever natural sensibility I might possess. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, there were some mendicants whose utmost efforts I even + now felicitate myself on having withstood. Such was a phenomenon abridged + of his lower half, who beset me for two or three years together, and, in + spite of his deficiency of locomotive members, had some supernatural + method of transporting himself (simultaneously, I believe) to all quarters + of the city. He wore a sailor's jacket (possibly, because skirts would + have been a superfluity to his figure), and had a remarkably + broad-shouldered and muscular frame, surmounted by a large, fresh-colored + face, which was full of power and intelligence. His dress and linen were + the perfection of neatness. Once a day, at least, wherever I went, I + suddenly became aware of this trunk of a man on the path before me, + resting on his base, and looking as if he had just sprouted out of the + pavement, and would sink into it again and reappear at some other spot the + instant you left him behind. The expression of his eye was perfectly + respectful, but terribly fixed, holding your own as by fascination, never + once winking, never wavering from its point-blank gaze right into your + face, till you were completely beyond the range of his battery of one + immense rifled cannon. This was his mode of soliciting alms; and he + reminded me of the old beggar who appealed so touchingly to the charitable + sympathies of Gil Blas, taking aim at him from the roadside with a + long-barrelled musket. The intentness and directness of his silent appeal, + his close and unrelenting attack upon your individuality, respectful as it + seemed, was the very flower of insolence; or, if you give it a possibly + truer interpretation, it was the tyrannical effort of a man endowed with + great natural force of character to constrain your reluctant will to his + purpose. Apparently, he had staked his salvation upon the ultimate success + of a daily struggle between himself and me, the triumph of which would + compel me to become a tributary to the hat that lay on the pavement beside + him. Man or fiend, however, there was a stubbornness in his intended + victim which this massive fragment of a mighty personality had not + altogether reckoned upon, and by its aid I was enabled to pass him at my + customary pace hundreds of times over, quietly meeting his terribly + respectful eye, and allowing him the fair chance which I felt to be his + due, to subjugate me, if he really had the strength for it. He never + succeeded, but, on the other hand, never gave up the contest; and should I + ever walk those streets again, I am certain that the truncated tyrant will + sprout up through the pavement and look me fixedly in the eye, and perhaps + get the victory. + </p> + <p> + I should think all the more highly of myself, if I had shown equal heroism + in resisting another class of beggarly depredators, who assailed me on my + weaker side and won an easy spoil. Such was the sanctimonious clergyman, + with his white cravat, who visited me with a subscription-paper, which he + himself had drawn up, in a case of heart-rending distress;—the + respectable and ruined tradesman, going from door to door, shy and silent + in his own person, but accompanied by a sympathizing friend, who bore + testimony to his integrity, and stated the unavoidable misfortunes that + had crushed him down;—or the delicate and prettily dressed lady, who + had been bred in affluence, but was suddenly thrown upon the perilous + charities of the world by the death of an indulgent, but secretly + insolvent father, or the commercial catastrophe and simultaneous suicide + of the best of husbands; or the gifted, but unsuccessful author, appealing + to my fraternal sympathies, generously rejoicing in some small + prosperities which he was kind enough to term my own triumphs in the field + of letters, and claiming to have largely contributed to them by his + unbought notices in the public journals. England is full of such people, + and a hundred other varieties of peripatetic tricksters, higher than + these, and lower, who act their parts tolerably well, but seldom with an + absolutely illusive effect. I knew at once, raw Yankee as I was, that they + were humbugs, almost without an exception,—rats that nibble at the + honest bread and cheese of the community, and grow fat by their petty + pilferings, yet often gave them what they asked, and privately owned + myself a simpleton. There is a decorum which restrains you (unless you + happen to be a police-constable) from breaking through a crust of + plausible respectability, even when you are certain that there is a knave + beneath it. + </p> + <p> + After making myself as familiar as I decently could with the poor streets, + I became curious to see what kind of a home was provided for the + inhabitants at the public expense, fearing that it must needs be a most + comfortless one, or else their choice (if choice it were) of so miserable + a life outside was truly difficult to account for. Accordingly, I visited + a great almshouse, and was glad to observe how unexceptionably all the + parts of the establishment were carried on, and what an orderly life, + full-fed, sufficiently reposeful, and undisturbed by the arbitrary + exercise of authority, seemed to be led there. Possibly, indeed, it was + that very orderliness, and the cruel necessity of being neat and clean, + and even the comfort resulting from these and other Christian-like + restraints and regulations, that constituted the principal grievance on + the part of the poor, shiftless inmates, accustomed to a lifelong luxury + of dirt and harum-scarumness. The wild life of the streets has perhaps as + unforgetable a charm, to those who have once thoroughly imbibed it, as the + life of the forest or the prairie. But I conceive rather that there must + be insuperable difficulties, for the majority of the poor, in the way of + getting admittance to the almshouse, than that a merely aesthetic + preference for the street would incline the pauper-class to fare scantily + and precariously, and expose their raggedness to the rain and snow, when + such a hospitable door stood wide open for their entrance. It might be + that the roughest and darkest side of the matter was not shown me, there + being persons of eminent station and of both sexes in the party which I + accompanied; and, of course, a properly trained public functionary would + have deemed it a monstrous rudeness, as well as a great shame, to exhibit + anything to people of rank that might too painfully shock their + sensibilities. + </p> + <p> + The women's ward was the portion of the establishment which we especially + examined. It could not be questioned that they were treated with kindness + as well as care. No doubt, as has been already suggested, some of them + felt the irksomeness of submission to general rules of orderly behavior, + after being accustomed to that perfect freedom from the minor proprieties, + at least, which is one of the compensations of absolutely hopeless + poverty, or of any circumstances that set us fairly below the decencies of + life. I asked the governor of the house whether he met with any difficulty + in keeping peace and order among his inmates; and he informed me that his + troubles among the women were incomparably greater than with the men. They + were freakish, and apt to be quarrelsome, inclined to plague and pester + one another in ways that it was impossible to lay hold of, and to thwart + his own authority by the like intangible methods. He said this with the + utmost good-nature, and quite won my regard by so placidly resigning + himself to the inevitable necessity of letting the women throw dust into + his eyes. They certainly looked peaceable and sisterly enough, as I saw + them, though still it might be faintly perceptible that some of them were + consciously playing their parts before the governor and his distinguished + visitors. + </p> + <p> + This governor seemed to me a man thoroughly fit for his position. An + American, in an office of similar responsibility, would doubtless be a + much superior person, better educated, possessing a far wider range of + thought, more naturally acute, with a quicker tact of external observation + and a readier faculty of dealing with difficult cases. The women would not + succeed in throwing half so much dust into his eyes. Moreover, his black + coat, and thin, sallow visage, would make him look like a scholar, and his + manners would indefinitely approximate to those of a gentleman. But I + cannot help questioning, whether, on the whole, these higher endowments + would produce decidedly better results. The Englishman was thoroughly + plebeian both in aspect and behavior, a bluff, ruddy-faced, hearty, + kindly, yeoman-like personage, with no refinement whatever, nor any + superfluous sensibility, but gifted with a native wholesomeness of + character which must have been a very beneficial element in the atmosphere + of the almshouse. He spoke to his pauper family in loud, good-humored, + cheerful tones, and treated them with a healthy freedom that probably + caused the forlorn wretches to feel as if they were free and healthy + likewise. If he had understood them a little better, he would not have + treated them half so wisely. We are apt to make sickly people more morbid, + and unfortunate people more miserable, by endeavoring to adapt our + deportment to their especial and individual needs. They eagerly accept our + well-meant efforts; but it is like returning their own sick breath back + upon themselves, to be breathed over and over again, intensifying the + inward mischief at every repetition. The sympathy that would really do + them good is of a kind that recognizes their sound and healthy parts, and + ignores the part affected by disease, which will thrive under the eye of a + too close observer like a poisonous weed in the sunshine. My good friend + the governor had no tendencies in the latter direction, and abundance of + them in the former, and was consequently as wholesome and invigorating as + the west-wind with a little spice of the north in it, brightening the + dreary visages that encountered us as if he had carried a sunbeam in his + hand. He expressed himself by his whole being and personality, and by + works more than words, and had the not unusual English merit of knowing + what to do much better than how to talk about it. + </p> + <p> + The women, I imagine, must have felt one imperfection in their state, + however comfortable otherwise. They were forbidden, or, at all events, + lacked the means, to follow out their natural instinct of adorning + themselves; all were dressed in one homely uniform of blue-checked gowns, + with such caps upon their heads as English servants wear. Generally, too, + they had one dowdy English aspect, and a vulgar type of features so nearly + alike that they seemed literally to constitute a sisterhood. We have few + of these absolutely unilluminated faces among our native American + population, individuals of whom must be singularly unfortunate, if, mixing + as we do, no drop of gentle blood has contributed to refine the turbid + element, no gleam of hereditary intelligence has lighted up the stolid + eyes, which their forefathers brought, from the Old Country. Even in this + English almshouse, however, there was at least one person who claimed to + be intimately connected with rank and wealth. The governor, after + suggesting that this person would probably be gratified by our visit, + ushered us into a small parlor, which was furnished a little more like a + room in a private dwelling than others that we entered, and had a row of + religious books and fashionable novels on the mantel-piece. An old lady + sat at a bright coal-fire, reading a romance, and rose to receive us with + a certain pomp of manner and elaborate display of ceremonious courtesy, + which, in spite of myself, made me inwardly question the genuineness of + her aristocratic pretensions. But, at any rate, she looked like a + respectable old soul, and was evidently gladdened to the very core of her + frost-bitten heart by the awful punctiliousness with which she responded + to her gracious and hospitable, though unfamiliar welcome. After a little + polite conversation, we retired; and the governor, with a lowered voice + and an air of deference, told us that she had been a lady of quality, and + had ridden in her own equipage, not many years before, and now lived in + continual expectation that some of her rich relatives would drive up in + their carriages to take her away. Meanwhile, he added, she was treated + with great respect by her fellow-paupers. I could not help thinking, from + a few criticisable peculiarities in her talk and manner, that there might + have been a mistake on the governor's part, and perhaps a venial + exaggeration on the old lady's, concerning her former position in society; + but what struck me was the forcible instance of that most prevalent of + English vanities, the pretension to aristocratic connection, on one side, + and the submission and reverence with which it was accepted by the + governor and his household, on the other. Among ourselves, I think, when + wealth and eminent position have taken their departure, they seldom leave + a pallid ghost behind them,—or, if it sometimes stalks abroad, few + recognize it. + </p> + <p> + We went into several other rooms, at the doors of which, pausing on the + outside, we could hear the volubility, and sometimes the wrangling, of the + female inhabitants within, but invariably found silence and peace, when we + stepped over the threshold. The women were grouped together in their + sitting-rooms, sometimes three or four, sometimes a larger number, + classified by their spontaneous affinities, I suppose, and all busied, so + far as I can remember, with the one occupation of knitting coarse yarn + stockings. Hardly any of them, I am sorry to say, had a brisk or cheerful + air, though it often stirred them up to a momentary vivacity to be + accosted by the governor, and they seemed to like being noticed, however + slightly, by the visitors. The happiest person whom I saw there (and, + running hastily through my experiences, I hardly recollect to have seen a + happier one in my life, if you take a careless flow of spirits as + happiness) was an old woman that lay in bed among ten or twelve + heavy-looking females, who plied their knitting-work round about her. She + laughed, when we entered, and immediately began to talk to us, in a thin, + little, spirited quaver, claiming to be more than a century old; and the + governor (in whatever way he happened to be cognizant of the fact) + confirmed her age to be a hundred and four. Her jauntiness and cackling + merriment were really wonderful. It was as if she had got through with all + her actual business in life two or three generations ago, and now, freed + from every responsibility for herself or others, had only to keep up a + mirthful state of mind till the short time, or long time (and, happy as + she was, she appeared not to care whether it were long or short), before + Death, who had misplaced her name in his list, might remember to take her + away. She had gone quite round the circle of human existence, and come + back to the play-ground again. And so she had grown to be a kind of + miraculous old pet, the plaything of people seventy or eighty years + younger than herself, who talked and laughed with her as if she were a + child, finding great delight in her wayward and strangely playful + responses, into some of which she cunningly conveyed a gibe that caused + their ears to tingle a little. She had done getting out of bed in this + world, and lay there to be waited upon like a queen or a baby. + </p> + <p> + In the same room sat a pauper who had once been an actress of considerable + repute, but was compelled to give up her profession by a softening of the + brain. The disease seemed to have stolen the continuity out of her life, + and disturbed an healthy relationship between the thoughts within her and + the world without. On our first entrance, she looked cheerfully at us, and + showed herself ready to engage in conversation; but suddenly, while we + were talking with the century-old crone, the poor actress began to weep, + contorting her face with extravagant stage-grimaces, and wringing her + hands for some inscrutable sorrow. It might have been a reminiscence of + actual calamity in her past life, or, quite as probably, it was but a + dramatic woe, beneath which she had staggered and shrieked and wrung her + hands with hundreds of repetitions in the sight of crowded theatres, and + been as often comforted by thunders of applause. But my idea of the + mystery was, that she had a sense of wrong in seeing the aged woman (whose + empty vivacity was like the rattling of dry peas in a bladder) chosen as + the central object of interest to the visitors, while she herself, who had + agitated thousands of hearts with a breath, sat starving for the + admiration that was her natural food. I appeal to the whole society of + artists of the Beautiful and the Imaginative,—poets, romancers, + painters, sculptors, actors,— whether or no this is a grief that may + be felt even amid the torpor of a dissolving brain! + </p> + <p> + We looked into a good many sleeping-chambers, where were rows of beds, + mostly calculated for two occupants, and provided with sheets and + pillow-cases that resembled sackcloth. It appeared to me that the sense of + beauty was insufficiently regarded in all the arrangements of the + almshouse; a little cheap luxury for the eye, at least, might do the poor + folks a substantial good. But, at all events, there was the beauty of + perfect neatness and orderliness, which, being heretofore known to few of + them, was perhaps as much as they could well digest in the remnant of + their lives. We were invited into the laundry, where a great washing and + drying were in process, the whole atmosphere being hot and vaporous with + the steam of wet garments and bedclothes. This atmosphere was the + pauper-life of the past week or fortnight resolved into a gaseous state, + and breathing it, however fastidiously, we were forced to inhale the + strange element into our inmost being. Had the Queen been there, I know + not how she could have escaped the necessity. What an intimate brotherhood + is this in which we dwell, do what we may to put an artificial remoteness + between the high creature and the low one! A poor man's breath, borne on + the vehicle of tobacco-smoke, floats into a palace-window and reaches the + nostrils of a monarch. It is but an example, obvious to the sense, of the + innumerable and secret channels by which, at every moment of our lives, + the flow and reflux of a common humanity pervade us all. How superficial + are the niceties of such as pretend to keep aloof! Let the whole world be + cleansed, or not a man or woman of us all can be clean. + </p> + <p> + By and by we came to the ward where the children were kept, on entering + which, we saw, in the first place, several unlovely and unwholesome little + people lazily playing together in a court-yard. And here a singular + incommodity befell one member of our party. Among the children was a + wretched, pale, half-torpid little thing (about six years old, perhaps,—but + I know not whether a girl or a boy), with a humor in its eyes and face, + which the governor said was the scurvy, and which appeared to bedim its + powers of vision, so that it toddled about gropingly, as if in quest of it + did not precisely know what. This child—this sickly, wretched, + humor-eaten infant, the offspring of unspeakable sin and sorrow, whom it + must have required several generations of guilty progenitors to render so + pitiable an object as we beheld it—immediately took an unaccountable + fancy to the gentleman just hinted at. It prowled about him like a pet + kitten, rubbing against his legs, following everywhere at his heels, + pulling at his coat-tails, and, at last, exerting all the speed that its + poor limbs were capable of, got directly before him and held forth its + arms, mutely insisting on being taken up. It said not a word, being + perhaps under-witted and incapable of prattle. But it smiled up in his + face,—a sort of woful gleam was that smile, through the sickly + blotches that covered its features,—and found means to express such + a perfect confidence that it was going to be fondled and made much of, + that there was no possibility in a human heart of balking its expectation. + It was as if God had promised the poor child this favor on behalf of that + individual, and he was bound to fulfil the contract, or else no longer + call himself a man among men. Nevertheless, it could be no easy thing for + him to do, he being a person burdened with more than an Englishman's + customary reserve, shy of actual contact with human beings, afflicted with + a peculiar distaste for whatever was ugly, and, furthermore, accustomed to + that habit of observation from an insulated stand-point which is said + (but, I hope, erroneously) to have the tendency of putting ice into the + blood. + </p> + <p> + So I watched the struggle in his mind with a good deal of interest, and am + seriously of opinion that he did an heroic act, and effected more than he + dreamed of towards his final salvation, when he took up the loathsome + child and caressed it as tenderly as if he had been its father. To be + sure, we all smiled at him, at the time, but doubtless would have acted + pretty much the same in a similar stress of circumstances. The child, at + any rate, appeared to be satisfied with his behavior; for when he had held + it a considerable time, and set it down, it still favored him with its + company, keeping fast hold of his forefinger till we reached the confines + of the place. And on our return through the court-yard, after visiting + another part of the establishment, here again was this same little + Wretchedness waiting for its victim, with a smile of joyful, and yet dull + recognition about its scabby mouth and in its rheumy eyes. No doubt, the + child's mission in reference to our friend was to remind him that he was + responsible, in his degree, for all the sufferings and misdemeanors of the + world in which he lived, and was not entitled to look upon a particle of + its dark calamity as if it were none of his concern: the offspring of a + brother's iniquity being his own blood-relation, and the guilt, likewise, + a burden on him, unless he expiated it by better deeds. + </p> + <p> + All the children in this ward seemed to be invalids, and, going up stairs, + we found more of them in the same or a worse condition than the little + creature just described, with their mothers (or more probably other women, + for the infants were mostly foundlings) in attendance as nurses. The + matron of the ward, a middle-aged woman, remarkably kind and motherly in + aspect, was walking to and fro across the chamber—on that weary + journey in which careful mothers and nurses travel so continually and so + far, and gain never a step of progress—with an unquiet baby in her + arms. She assured us that she enjoyed her occupation, being exceedingly + fond of children; and, in fact, the absence of timidity in all the little + people was a sufficient proof that they could have had no experience of + harsh treatment, though, on the other hand, none of them appeared to be + attracted to one individual more than another. In this point they differed + widely from the poor child below stairs. They seemed to recognize a + universal motherhood in womankind, and cared not which individual might be + the mother of the moment. I found their tameness as shocking as did + Alexander Selkirk that of the brute subjects of his else solitary kingdom. + It was a sort of tame familiarity, a perfect indifference to the approach + of strangers, such as I never noticed in other children. I accounted for + it partly by their nerveless, unstrung state of body, incapable of the + quick thrills of delight and fear which play upon the lively harp-strings + of a healthy child's nature, and partly by their woful lack of + acquaintance with a private home, and their being therefore destitute of + the sweet home-bred shyness, which is like the sanctity of heaven about a + mother-petted child. Their condition was like that of chickens hatched in + an oven, and growing up without the especial guardianship of a matron hen: + both the chicken and the child, methinks, must needs want something that + is essential to their respective characters. + </p> + <p> + In this chamber (which was spacious, containing a large number of beds) + there was a clear fire burning on the hearth, as in all the other occupied + rooms; and directly in front of the blaze sat a woman holding a baby, + which, beyond all reach of comparison, was the most horrible object that + ever afflicted my sight. Days afterwards—nay, even now, when I bring + it up vividly before my mind's eye—it seemed to lie upon the floor + of my heart, polluting my moral being with the sense of something + grievously amiss in the entire conditions of humanity. The holiest man + could not be otherwise than full of wickedness, the chastest virgin seemed + impure, in a world where such a babe was possible. The governor whispered + me, apart, that, like nearly all the rest of them, it was the child of + unhealthy parents. Ah, yes! There was the mischief. This spectral infant, + a hideous mockery of the visible link which Love creates between man and + woman, was born of disease and sin. Diseased Sin was its father, and + Sinful Disease its mother, and their offspring lay in the woman's arms + like a nursing Pestilence, which, could it live and grow up, would make + the world a more accursed abode than ever heretofore. Thank Heaven, it + could not live! This baby, if we must give it that sweet name, seemed to + be three or four months old, but, being such an unthrifty changeling, + might have been considerably older. It was all covered with blotches, and + preternaturally dark and discolored; it was withered away, quite shrunken + and fleshless; it breathed only amid pantings and gaspings, and moaned + painfully at every gasp. The only comfort in reference to it was the + evident impossibility of its surviving to draw many more of those + miserable, moaning breaths; and it would have been infinitely less + heart-depressing to see it die, right before my eyes, than to depart and + carry it alive in my remembrance, still suffering the incalculable torture + of its little life. I can by no means express how horrible this infant + was, neither ought I to attempt it. And yet I must add one final touch. + Young as the poor little creature was, its pain and misery had endowed it + with a premature intelligence, insomuch that its eyes seemed to stare at + the bystanders out of their sunken sockets knowingly and appealingly, as + if summoning us one and all to witness the deadly wrong of its existence. + At least, I so interpreted its look, when it positively met and responded + to my own awe-stricken gaze, and therefore I lay the case, as far as I am + able, before mankind, on whom God has imposed the necessity to suffer in + soul and body till this dark and dreadful wrong be righted. + </p> + <p> + Thence we went to the school-rooms, which were underneath the chapel. The + pupils, like the children whom we had just seen, were, in large + proportion, foundlings. Almost without exception, they looked sickly, with + marks of eruptive trouble in their doltish faces, and a general tendency + to diseases of the eye. Moreover, the poor little wretches appeared to be + uneasy within their skins, and screwed themselves about on the benches in + a disagreeably suggestive way, as if they had inherited the evil habits of + their parents as an innermost garment of the same texture and material as + the shirt of Nessus, and must wear it with unspeakable discomfort as long + as they lived. I saw only a single child that looked healthy; and on my + pointing him out, the governor informed me that this little boy, the sole + exception to the miserable aspect of his school-fellows, was not a + foundling, nor properly a work-house child, being born of respectable + parentage, and his father one of the officers of the institution. As for + the remainder,—the hundred pale abortions to be counted against one + rosy-cheeked boy,—what shall we say or do? Depressed by the sight of + so much misery, and uninventive of remedies for the evils that force + themselves on my perception, I can do little more than recur to the idea + already hinted at in the early part of this article, regarding the speedy + necessity of a new deluge. So far as these children are concerned, at any + rate, it would be a blessing to the human race, which they will contribute + to enervate and corrupt,—a greater blessing to themselves, who + inherit no patrimony but disease and vice, and in whose souls, if there be + a spark of God's life, this seems the only possible mode of keeping it + aglow,—if every one of them could be drowned to-night, by their best + friends, instead of being put tenderly to bed. This heroic method of + treating human maladies, moral and material, is certainly beyond the scope + of man's discretionary rights, and probably will not be adopted by Divine + Providence until the opportunity of milder reformation shall have been + offered us again and again, through a series of future ages. + </p> + <p> + It may be fair to acknowledge that the humane and excellent governor, as + well as other persons better acquainted with the subject than myself, took + a less gloomy view of it, though still so dark a one as to involve scanty + consolation. They remarked that individuals of the male sex, picked up in + the streets and nurtured in the workhouse, sometimes succeed tolerably + well in life, because they are taught trades before being turned into the + world, and, by dint of immaculate behavior and good luck, are not, + unlikely to get employment and earn a livelihood. The case is different + with the girls. They can only go to service, and are invariably rejected + by families of respectability on account of their origin, and for the + better reason of their unfitness to fill satisfactorily even the meanest + situations in a well-ordered English household. Their resource is to take + service with people only a step or two above the poorest class, with whom + they fare scantily, endure harsh treatment, lead shifting and precarious + lives, and finally drop into the slough of evil, through which, in their + best estate, they do but pick their slimy way on stepping-stones. + </p> + <p> + From the schools we went to the bake-house, and the brew-house (for such + cruelty is not harbored in the heart of a true Englishman as to deny a + pauper his daily allowance of beer), and through the kitchens, where we + beheld an immense pot over the fire, surging and walloping with some kind + of a savory stew that filled it up to its brim. We also visited a tailor's + shop, and a shoemaker's shop, in both of which a number of mien, and pale, + diminutive apprentices, were at work, diligently enough, though seemingly + with small heart in the business. Finally, the governor ushered us into a + shed, inside of which was piled up an immense quantity of new coffins. + They were of the plainest description, made of pine boards, probably of + American growth, not very nicely smoothed by the plane, neither painted + nor stained with black, but provided with a loop of rope at either end for + the convenience of lifting the rude box and its inmate into the cart that + shall carry them to the burial-ground. There, in holes ten feet deep, the + paupers are buried one above another, mingling their relics + indistinguishably. In another world may they resume their individuality, + and find it a happier one than here! + </p> + <p> + As we departed, a character came under our notice which I have met with in + all almshouses, whether of the city or village, or in England or America. + It was the familiar simpleton, who shuffled across the court-yard, + clattering his wooden-soled shoes, to greet us with a howl or a laugh, I + hardly know which, holding out his hand for a penny, and chuckling grossly + when it was given him. All under-witted persons, so far as my experience + goes, have this craving for copper coin, and appear to estimate its value + by a miraculous instinct, which is one of the earliest gleams of human + intelligence while the nobler faculties are yet in abeyance. There may + come a time, even in this world, when we shall all understand that our + tendency to the individual appropriation of gold and broad acres, fine + houses, and such good and beautiful things as are equally enjoyable by a + multitude, is but a trait of imperfectly developed intelligence, like the + simpleton's cupidity of a penny. When that day dawns,—and probably + not till then,—I imagine that there will be no more poor streets nor + need of almshouses. + </p> + <p> + I was once present at the wedding of some poor English people, and was + deeply impressed by the spectacle, though by no means with such proud and + delightful emotions as seem to have affected all England on the recent + occasion of the marriage of its Prince. It was in the Cathedral at + Manchester, a particularly black and grim old structure, into which I had + stepped to examine some ancient and curious wood-carvings within the + choir. The woman in attendance greeted me with a smile (which always + glimmers forth on the feminine visage, I know not why, when a wedding is + in question), and asked me to take a seat in the nave till some poor + parties were married, it being the Easter holidays, and a good time for + them to marry, because no fees would be demanded by the clergyman. I sat + down accordingly, and soon the parson and his clerk appeared at the altar, + and a considerable crowd of people made their entrance at a side-door, and + ranged themselves in a long, huddled line across the chancel. They were my + acquaintances of the poor streets, or persons in a precisely similar + condition of life, and were now come to their marriage-ceremony in just + such garbs as I had always seen them wear: the men in their loafers' + coats, out at elbows, or their laborers' jackets, defaced with grimy toil; + the women drawing their shabby shawls tighter about their shoulders, to + hide the raggedness beneath; all of them unbrushed, unshaven, unwashed, + uncombed, and wrinkled with penury and care; nothing virgin-like in the + brides, nor hopeful or energetic in the bridegrooms;—they were, in + short, the mere rags and tatters of the human race, whom some east-wind of + evil omen, howling along the streets, had chanced to sweep together into + an unfragrant heap. Each and all of them, conscious of his or her + individual misery, had blundered into the strange miscalculation of + supposing that they could lessen the sum of it by multiplying it into the + misery of another person. All the couples (and it was difficult, in such a + confused crowd, to compute exactly their number) stood up at once, and had + execution done upon them in the lump, the clergyman addressing only small + parts of the service to each individual pair, but so managing the larger + portion as to include the whole company without the trouble of repetition. + By this compendious contrivance, one would apprehend, he came dangerously + near making every man and woman the husband or wife of every other; nor, + perhaps, would he have perpetrated much additional mischief by the + mistake; but, after receiving a benediction in common, they assorted + themselves in their own fashion, as they only knew how, and departed to + the garrets, or the cellars, or the unsheltered street-corners, where + their honeymoon and subsequent lives were to be spent. The parson smiled + decorously, the clerk and the sexton grinned broadly, the female attendant + tittered almost aloud, and even the married parties seemed to see + something exceedingly funny in the affair; but for my part, though + generally apt enough to be tickled by a joke, I laid it away in my memory + as one of the saddest sights I ever looked upon. + </p> + <p> + Not very long afterwards, I happened to be passing the same venerable + Cathedral, and heard a clang of joyful bells, and beheld a bridal party + coming down the steps towards a carriage and four horses, with a portly + coachman and two postilions, that waited at the gate. One parson and one + service had amalgamated the wretchedness of a score of paupers; a Bishop + and three or four clergymen had combined their spiritual might to forge + the golden links of this other marriage-bond. The bridegroom's mien had a + sort of careless and kindly English pride; the bride floated along in her + white drapery, a creature, so nice and delicate that it was a luxury to + see her, and a pity that her silk slippers should touch anything so grimy + as the old stones of the churchyard avenue. The crowd of ragged people, + who always cluster to witness what they may of an aristocratic wedding, + broke into audible admiration of the bride's beauty and the bridegroom's + manliness, and uttered prayers and ejaculations (possibly paid for in + alms) for the happiness of both. If the most favorable of earthly + conditions could make them happy, they had every prospect of it. They were + going to live on their abundance in one of those stately and delightful + English homes, such as no other people ever created or inherited, a hall + set far and safe within its own private grounds, and surrounded with + venerable trees, shaven lawns, rich shrubbery, and trimmest pathways, the + whole so artfully contrived and tended that summer rendered it a paradise, + and even winter would hardly disrobe it of its beauty; and all this fair + property seemed more exclusively and inalienably their own, because of its + descent through many forefathers, each of whom had added an improvement or + a charm, and thus transmitted it with a stronger stamp of rightful + possession to his heir. And is it possible, after all, that there may be a + flaw in the title-deeds? Is, or is not, the system wrong that gives one + married pair so immense a superfluity of luxurious home, and shuts out a + million others from any home whatever? One day or another, safe as they + deem themselves, and safe as the hereditary temper of the people really + tends to make them, the gentlemen of England will be compelled to face + this question. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CIVIC BANQUETS. + </h2> + <p> + It has often perplexed one to imagine how an Englishman will be able to + reconcile himself to any future state of existence from which the earthly + institution of dinner shall be excluded. Even if he fail to take his + appetite along with him (which it seems to me hardly possible to believe, + since this endowment is so essential to his composition), the immortal day + must still admit an interim of two or three hours during which he will be + conscious of a slight distaste, at all events, if not an absolute + repugnance, to merely spiritual nutriment. The idea of dinner has so + imbedded itself among his highest and deepest characteristics, so + illuminated itself with intellect and softened itself with the kindest + emotions of his heart, so linked itself with Church and State, and grown + so majestic with long hereditary customs and ceremonies, that, by taking + it utterly away, Death, instead of putting the final touch to his + perfection, would leave him infinitely less complete than we have already + known him. He could not be roundly happy. Paradise, among all its + enjoyments, would lack one daily felicity which his sombre little island + possessed. Perhaps it is not irreverent to conjecture that a provision may + have been made, in this particular, for the Englishman's exceptional + necessities. It strikes me that Milton was of the opinion here suggested, + and may have intended to throw out a delightful and consolatory hope for + his countrymen, when he represents the genial archangel as playing his + part with such excellent appetite at Adam's dinner-table, and confining + himself to fruit and vegetables only because, in those early days of her + housekeeping, Eve had no more acceptable viands to set before him. Milton, + indeed, had a true English taste for the pleasures of the table, though + refined by the lofty and poetic discipline to which he had subjected + himself. It is delicately implied in the refection in Paradise, and more + substantially, though still elegantly, betrayed in the sonnet proposing to + "Laurence, of virtuous father virtuous son," a series of nice little + dinners in midwinter and it blazes fully out in that untasted banquet + which, elaborate as it was, Satan tossed up in a trice from the + kitchen-ranges of Tartarus. + </p> + <p> + Among this people, indeed, so wise in their generation, dinner has a kind + of sanctity quite independent of the dishes that may be set upon the + table; so that, if it be only a mutton-chop, they treat it with due + reverence, and are rewarded with a degree of enjoyment which such reckless + devourers as ourselves do not often find in our richest abundance. It is + good to see how staunch they are after fifty or sixty years of heroic + eating, still relying upon their digestive powers and indulging a vigorous + appetite; whereas an American has generally lost the one and learned to + distrust the other long before reaching the earliest decline of life; and + thenceforward he makes little account of his dinner, and dines at his + peril, if at all. I know not whether my countrymen will allow me to tell + them, though I think it scarcely too much to affirm, that on this side of + the water, people never dine. At any rate, abundantly as Nature has + provided us with most of the material requisites, the highest possible + dinner has never yet been eaten in America. It is the consummate flower of + civilization and refinement; and our inability to produce it, or to + appreciate its admirable beauty, if a happy inspiration should bring it + into bloom, marks fatally the limit of culture which we have attained. + </p> + <p> + It is not to be supposed, however, that the mob of cultivated Englishmen + know how to dine in this elevated sense. The unpolishable ruggedness of + the national character is still an impediment to them, even in that + particular line where they are best qualified to excel. Though often + present at good men's feasts, I remember only a single dinner, which, + while lamentably conscious that many of its higher excellences were thrown + away upon me, I yet could feel to be a perfect work of art. It could not, + without unpardonable coarseness, be styled a matter of animal enjoyment, + because, out of the very perfection of that lower bliss, there had arisen + a dream-like development of spiritual happiness. As in the masterpieces of + painting and poetry, there was a something intangible, a final + deliciousness that only fluttered about your comprehension, vanishing + whenever you tried to detain it, and compelling you to recognize it by + faith rather than sense. It seemed as if a diviner set of senses were + requisite, and had been partly supplied, for the special fruition of this + banquet, and that the guests around the table (only eight in number) were + becoming so educated, polished, and softened, by the delicate influences + of what they ate and drunk, as to be now a little more than mortal for the + nonce. And there was that gentle, delicious sadness, too, which we find in + the very summit of our most exquisite enjoyments, and feel it a charm + beyond all the gayety through which it keeps breathing its undertone. In + the present case, it was worth a heavier sigh, to reflect that such a + festal achievement,—the production of so much art, skill, fancy, + invention, and perfect taste,—the growth of all the ages, which + appeared to have been ripening for this hour, since man first began to eat + and to moisten his food with wine,—must lavish its happiness upon so + brief a moment, when other beautiful things can be made a joy forever. Yet + a dinner like this is no better than we can get, any day, at the + rejuvenescent Cornhill Coffee-House, unless the whole man, with soul, + intellect, and stomach, is ready to appreciate it, and unless, moreover, + there is such a harmony in all the circumstances and accompaniments, and + especially such a pitch of well-according minds, that nothing shall jar + rudely against the guest's thoroughly awakened sensibilities. The world, + and especially our part of it, being the rough, ill-assorted, and + tumultuous place we find it, a beefsteak is about as good as any other + dinner. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing reminiscence, however, has drawn me aside from the main + object of my sketch, in which I purposed to give a slight idea of those + public, or partially public banquets, the custom of which so thoroughly + prevails among the English people, that nothing is ever decided upon, in + matters of peace and war, until they have chewed upon it in the shape of + roast-beef, and talked it fully over in their cups. Nor are these + festivities merely occasional, but of stated recurrence in all + considerable municipalities and associated bodies. The most ancient times + appear to have been as familiar with them as the Englishmen of to-day. In + many of the old English towns, you find some stately Gothic hall or + chamber in which the Mayor and other authorities of the place have long + held their sessions; and always, in convenient contiguity, there is a + dusky kitchen, with an immense fireplace where an ox might be roasting at + his ease, though the less gigantic scale of modern cookery may now have + permitted the cobwebs to gather in its chimney. St. Mary's Hall, in + Coventry, is so good a specimen of an ancient banqueting-room, that + perhaps I may profitably devote a page or two to the description of it. + </p> + <p> + In a narrow street, opposite to St. Michael's Church, one of the three + famous spires of Coventry, you behold a mediaeval edifice, in the basement + of which is such a venerable and now deserted kitchen as I have above + alluded to, and, on the same level, a cellar, with low stone pillars and + intersecting arches, like the crypt of a cathedral. Passing up a well-worn + staircase, the oaken balustrade of which is as black as ebony, you enter + the fine old hall, some sixty feet in length, and broad and lofty in + proportion. It is lighted by six windows of modern stained glass, on one + side, and by the immense and magnificent arch of another window at the + farther end of the room, its rich and ancient panes constituting a genuine + historical piece, in which are represented some of the kingly personages + of old times, with their heraldic blazonries. Notwithstanding the colored + light thus thrown into the hall, and though it was noonday when I last saw + it, the panelling of black-oak, and some faded tapestry that hung round + the walls, together with the cloudy vault of the roof above, made a gloom, + which the richness only illuminated into more appreciable effect. The + tapestry is wrought with figures in the dress of Henry VI.'s time (which + is the date of the hall), and is regarded by antiquaries as authentic + evidence both for the costume of that epoch, and, I believe, for the + actual portraiture of men known in history. They are as colorless as + ghosts, however, and vanish drearily into the old stitch-work of their + substance when you try to make them out. Coats-of-arms were formerly + emblazoned all round the hall, but have been almost rubbed out by people + hanging their overcoats against them or by women with dishclouts and + scrubbing-brushes, obliterating hereditary glories in their blind + hostility to dust and spiders' webs. Full-length portraits of several + English kings, Charles II. being the earliest, hang on the walls; and on + the dais, or elevated part of the floor, stands an antique chair of state, + which several royal characters are traditionally said to have occupied + while feasting here with their loyal subjects of Coventry. It is roomy + enough for a person of kingly bulk, or even two such, but angular and + uncomfortable, reminding me of the oaken settles which used to be seen in + old-fashioned New England kitchens. + </p> + <p> + Overhead, supported by a self-sustaining power, without the aid of a + single pillar, is the original ceiling of oak, precisely similar in shape + to the roof of a barn, with all the beams and rafters plainly to be seen. + At the remote height of sixty feet, you hardly discern that they are + carved with figures of angels and doubtless many other devices, of which + the admirable Gothic art is wasted in the duskiness that has so long been + brooding there. Over the entrance of the hall, opposite the great arched + window, the party-colored radiance of which glimmers faintly through the + interval, is a gallery for minstrels; and a row of ancient suits of armor + is suspended from its balustrade. It impresses me, too (for, having gone + so far, I would fain leave nothing untouched upon), that I remember, + somewhere about these venerable precincts, a picture of the Countess + Godiva on horseback, in which the artist has been so niggardly of that + illustrious lady's hair, that, if she had no ampler garniture, there was + certainly much need for the good people of Coventry to shut their eyes. + After all my pains, I fear that I have made but a poor hand at the + description, as regards a transference of the scene from my own mind to + the reader's. It gave me a most vivid idea of antiquity that had been very + little tampered with; insomuch that, if a group of steel-clad knights had + come clanking through the doorway, and a bearded and beruffed old figure + had handed in a stately dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a + long-forgotten fashion, unveiling a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in + the mouldy tomb, yet stepping majestically to the trill of harp and viol + from the minstrels' gallery, while the rusty armor responded with a hollow + ringing sound beneath,—why, I should have felt that these shadows, + once so familiar with the spot, had a better right in St. Mary's Hall than + I, a stranger from a far country which has no Past. But the moral of the + foregoing description is to show how tenaciously this love of pompous + dinners, this reverence for dinner as a sacred institution, has caught + hold of the English character; since, from the earliest recognizable + period, we find them building their civic banqueting-halls as + magnificently as their palaces or cathedrals. + </p> + <p> + I know not whether the hall just described is now used for festive + purposes, but others of similar antiquity and splendor still are. For + example, there is Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in London, a very fine old room, + adorned with admirably carved wood-work on the ceiling and walls. It is + also enriched with Holbein's masterpiece, representing a grave assemblage + of barbers and surgeons, all portraits (with such extensive beards that + methinks one half of the company might have been profitably occupied in + trimming the other), kneeling before King Henry VIII. Sir Robert Peel is + said to have offered a thousand pounds for the liberty of cutting out one + of the heads from this picture, he conditioning to have a perfect + facsimile painted in. The room has many other pictures of distinguished + members of the company in long-past times, and of some of the monarchs and + statesmen of England, all darkened with age, but darkened into such ripe + magnificence as only age could bestow. It is not my design to inflict any + more specimens of ancient hall-painting on the reader; but it may be worth + while to touch upon other modes of stateliness that still survive in these + time-honored civic feasts, where there appears to be a singular assumption + of dignity and solemn pomp by respectable citizens who would never dream + of claiming any privilege of rank outside of their own sphere. Thus, I saw + two caps of state for the warden and junior warden of the company, caps of + silver (real coronets or crowns, indeed, for these city-grandees) wrought + in open-work and lined with crimson velvet. In a strong-closet, opening + from the hall, there was a great deal of rich plate to furnish forth the + banquet-table, comprising hundreds of forks and spoons, a vast silver + punch-bowl, the gift of some jolly king or other, and, besides a multitude + of less noticeable vessels, two loving-cups, very elaborately wrought in + silver gilt, one presented by Henry VIII., the other by Charles II. These + cups, including the covers and pedestals, are very large and weighty, + although the bowl-part would hardly contain more than half a pint of wine, + which, when the custom was first established, each guest was probably + expected to drink off at a draught. In passing them from hand to hand + adown a long table of compotators, there is a peculiar ceremony which I + may hereafter have occasion to describe. Meanwhile, if I might assume such + a liberty, I should be glad to invite the reader to the official + dinner-table of his Worship, the Mayor, at a large English seaport where I + spent several years. + </p> + <p> + The Mayor's dinner-parties occur as often as once a fortnight, and, + inviting his guests by fifty or sixty at a time, his Worship probably + assembles at his board most of the eminent citizens and distinguished + personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's + incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling + among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. A + miscellaneous party of Englishmen can always find more comfortable ground + to meet upon than as many Americans, their differences of opinion being + incomparably less radical than ours, and it being the sincerest wish of + all their hearts, whether they call themselves Liberals or what not, that + nothing in this world shall ever be greatly altered from what it has been + and is. Thus there is seldom such a virulence of political hostility that + it may not be dissolved in a glass or two of wine, without making the good + liquor any more dry or bitter than accords with English taste. + </p> + <p> + The first dinner of this kind at which I had the honor to be present took + place during assize-time, and included among the guests the judges and the + prominent members of the bar. Reaching the Town Hall at seven o'clock, I + communicated my name to one of several splendidly dressed footmen, and he + repeated it to another on the first staircase, by whom it was passed to a + third, and thence to a fourth at the door of the reception-room, losing + all resemblance to the original sound in the course of these + transmissions; so that I had the advantage of making my entrance in the + character of a stranger, not only to the whole company, but to myself as + well. His Worship, however, kindly recognized me, and put me on + speaking-terms with two or three gentlemen, whom I found very affable, and + all the more hospitably attentive on the score of my nationality. It is + very singular how kind an Englishman will almost invariably be to an + individual American, without ever bating a jot of his prejudice against + the American character in the lump. My new acquaintances took evident + pains to put me at my ease; and, in requital of their good-nature, I soon + began to look round at the general company in a critical spirit, making my + crude observations apart, and drawing silent inferences, of the + correctness of which I should not have been half so well satisfied a year + afterwards as at that moment. + </p> + <p> + There were two judges present, a good many lawyers, and a few officers of + the army in uniform. The other guests seemed to be principally of the + mercantile class, and among them was a ship-owner from Nova Scotia, with + whom I coalesced a little, inasmuch as we were born with the same sky over + our heads, and an unbroken continuity of soil between his abode and mine. + There was one old gentleman, whose character I never made out, with + powdered hair, clad in black breeches and silk stockings, and wearing a + rapier at his side; otherwise, with the exception of the military + uniforms, there was little or no pretence of official costume. It being + the first considerable assemblage of Englishmen that I had seen, my honest + impression about then was, that they were a heavy and homely set of + people, with a remarkable roughness of aspect and behavior, not repulsive, + but beneath which it required more familiarity with the national character + than I then possessed always to detect the good breeding of a gentleman. + Being generally middle-aged, or still further advanced, they were by no + means graceful in figure; for the comeliness of the youthful Englishman + rapidly diminishes with years, his body appearing to grow longer, his legs + to abbreviate themselves, and his stomach to assume the dignified + prominence which justly belongs to that metropolis of his system. His face + (what with the acridity of the atmosphere, ale at lunch, wine at dinner, + and a well-digested abundance of succulent food) gets red and mottled, and + develops at least one additional chin, with a promise of more; so that, + finally, a stranger recognizes his animal part at the most superficial + glance, but must take time and a little pains to discover the + intellectual. Comparing him with an American, I really thought that our + national paleness and lean habit of flesh gave us greatly the advantage in + an aesthetic point of view. It seemed to me, moreover, that the English + tailor had not done so much as he might and ought for these heavy figures, + but had gone on wilfully exaggerating their uncouthness by the roominess + of their garments; he had evidently no idea of accuracy of fit, and + smartness was entirely out of his line. But, to be quite open with the + reader, I afterwards learned to think that this aforesaid tailor has a + deeper art than his brethren among ourselves, knowing how to dress his + customers with such individual propriety that they look as if they were + born in their clothes, the fit being to the character rather than the + form. If you make an Englishman smart (unless he be a very exceptional + one, of whom I have seen a few), you make him a monster; his best aspect + is that of ponderous respectability. + </p> + <p> + To make an end of these first impressions, I fancied that not merely the + Suffolk bar, but the bar of any inland county in New England, might show a + set of thin-visaged men, looking wretchedly worn, sallow, deeply wrinkled + across the forehead, and grimly furrowed about the mouth, with whom these + heavy-checked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as they must + needs be, would stand very little chance in a professional contest. How + that matter might turn out, I am unqualified to decide. But I state these + results of my earliest glimpses at Englishmen, not for what they are + worth, but because I ultimately gave them up as worth little or nothing. + In course of time, I came to the conclusion that Englishmen of all ages + are a rather good-looking people, dress in admirable taste from their own + point of view, and, under a surface never silken to the touch, have a + refinement of manners too thorough and genuine to be thought of as a + separate endowment,—that is to say, if the individual himself be a + man of station, and has had gentlemen for his father and grandfather. The + sturdy Anglo-Saxon nature does not refine itself short of the third + generation. The tradesmen, too, and all other classes, have their own + proprieties. The only value of my criticisms, therefore, lay in their + exemplifying the proneness of a traveller to measure one people by the + distinctive characteristics of another,—as English writers + invariably measure us, and take upon themselves to be disgusted + accordingly, instead of trying to find out some principle of beauty with + which we may be in conformity. + </p> + <p> + In due time we were summoned to the table, and went thither in no solemn + procession, but with a good deal of jostling, thrusting behind, and + scrambling for places when we reached our destination. The legal + gentlemen, I suspect, were responsible for this indecorous zeal, which I + never afterwards remarked in a similar party. The dining-hall was of noble + size, and, like the other rooms of the suite, was gorgeously painted and + gilded and brilliantly illuminated. There was a splendid table-service, + and a noble array of footmen, some of them in plain clothes, and others + wearing the town-livery, richly decorated with gold-lace, and themselves + excellent specimens of the blooming young manhood of Britain. When we were + fairly seated, it was certainly an agreeable spectacle to look up and down + the long vista of earnest faces, and behold them so resolute, so conscious + that there was an important business in hand, and so determined to be + equal to the occasion. Indeed, Englishman or not, I hardly know what can + be prettier than a snow-white table-cloth, a huge heap of flowers as a + central decoration, bright silver, rich china, crystal glasses, decanters + of Sherry at due intervals, a French roll and an artistically folded + napkin at each plate, all that airy portion of a banquet, in short, that + comes before the first mouthful, the whole illuminated by a blaze of + artificial light, without which a dinner of made-dishes looks spectral, + and the simplest viands are the best. Printed bills-of-fare were + distributed, representing an abundant feast, no part of which appeared on + the table until called for in separate plates. I have entirely forgotten + what it was, but deem it no great matter, inasmuch as there is a pervading + commonplace and identicalness in the composition of extensive dinners, on + account of the impossibility of supplying a hundred guests with anything + particularly delicate or rare. It was suggested to me that certain juicy + old gentlemen had a private understanding what to call for, and that it + would be good policy in a stranger to follow in their footsteps through + the feast. I did not care to do so, however, because, like Sancho Panza's + dip out of Camacho's caldron, any sort of pot-luck at such a table would + be sure to suit my purpose; so I chose a dish or two on my own judgment, + and, getting through my labors betimes, had great pleasure in seeing the + Englishmen toil onward to the end. + </p> + <p> + They drank rather copiously, too, though wisely; for I observed that they + seldom took Hock, and let the Champagne bubble slowly away out of the + goblet, solacing themselves with Sherry, but tasting it warily before + bestowing their final confidence. Their taste in wines, however, did not + seem so exquisite, and certainly was not so various, as that to which many + Americans pretend. This foppery of an intimate acquaintance with rare + vintages does not suit a sensible Englishman, as he is very much in + earnest about his wines, and adopts one or two as his lifelong friends, + seldom exchanging them for any Delilahs of a moment, and reaping the + reward of his constancy in an unimpaired stomach, and only so much gout as + he deems wholesome and desirable. Knowing well the measure of his powers, + he is not apt to fill his glass too often. Society, indeed, would hardly + tolerate habitual imprudences of that kind, though, in my opinion, the + Englishmen now upon the stage could carry off their three bottles, at + need, with as steady a gait as any of their forefathers. It is not so very + long since the three-bottle heroes sank finally under the table. It may be + (at least, I should be glad if it were true) that there was an occult + sympathy between our temperance reform, now somewhat in abeyance, and the + almost simultaneous disappearance of hard-drinking among the respectable + classes in England. I remember a middle-aged gentleman telling me (in + illustration of the very slight importance attached to breaches of + temperance within the memory of men not yet old) that he had seen a + certain magistrate, Sir John Linkwater, or Drinkwater,—but I think + the jolly old knight could hardly have staggered under so perverse a + misnomer as this last,—while sitting on the magisterial bench, pull + out a crown-piece and hand it to the clerk. "Mr. Clerk," said Sir John, as + if it were the most indifferent fact in the world, "I was drunk last + night. There are my five shillings." + </p> + <p> + During the dinner, I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with the + gentlemen on either side of me. One of them, a lawyer, expatiated with + great unction on the social standing of the judges. Representing the + dignity and authority of the Crown, they take precedence, during + assize-time, of the highest military men in the kingdom, of the + Lord-Lieutenant of the county, of the Archbishops, of the royal Dukes, and + even of the Prince of Wales. For the nonce, they are the greatest men in + England. With a glow of professional complacency that amounted to + enthusiasm, my friend assured me, that, in case of a royal dinner, a + judge, if actually holding an assize, would be expected to offer his arm + and take the Queen herself to the table. Happening to be in company with + some of these elevated personages, on subsequent occasions, it appeared to + me that the judges are fully conscious of their paramount claims to + respect, and take rather more pains to impress them on their ceremonial + inferiors than men of high hereditary rank are apt to do. Bishops, if it + be not irreverent to say so, are sometimes marked by a similar + characteristic. Dignified position is so sweet to an Englishman, that he + needs to be born in it, and to feel it thoroughly incorporated with his + nature from its original germ, in order to keep him from flaunting it + obtrusively in the faces of innocent bystanders. + </p> + <p> + My companion on the other side was a thick-set, middle-aged man, uncouth + in manners, and ugly where none were handsome, with a dark, roughly hewn + visage, that looked grim in repose, and secured to hold within itself the + machinery of a very terrific frown. He ate with resolute appetite, and let + slip few opportunities of imbibing whatever liquids happened to be passing + by. I was meditating in what way this grisly featured table-fellow might + most safely be accosted, when he turned to me with a surly sort of + kindness, and invited me to take a glass of wine. We then began a + conversation that abounded, on his part, with sturdy sense, and, somehow + or other, brought me closer to him than I had yet stood to an Englishman. + I should hardly have taken him to be an educated man, certainly not a + scholar of accurate training; and yet he seemed to have all the resources + of education and trained intellectual power at command. My fresh + Americanism, and watchful observation of English characteristics, appeared + either to interest or amuse him, or perhaps both. Under the mollifying + influences of abundance of meat and drink, he grew very gracious (not that + I ought to use such a phrase to describe his evidently genuine good-will), + and by and by expressed a wish for further acquaintance, asking me to call + at his rooms in London and inquire for Sergeant Wilkins,—throwing + out the name forcibly, as if he had no occasion to be ashamed of it. I + remembered Dean Swift's retort to Sergeant Bettesworth on a similar + announcement,—"Of what regiment, pray, sir?"—and fancied that + the same question might not have been quite amiss, if applied to the + rugged individual at my side. But I heard of him subsequently as one of + the prominent men at the English bar, a rough customer, and a terribly + strong champion in criminal cases; and it caused me more regret than might + have been expected, on so slight an acquaintanceship, when, not long + afterwards, I saw his death announced in the newspapers. Not rich in + attractive qualities, he possessed, I think, the most attractive one of + all,—thorough manhood. + </p> + <p> + After the cloth was removed, a goodly group of decanters were set before + the Mayor, who sent them forth on their outward voyage, full freighted + with Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Claret, of which excellent liquors, + methought, the latter found least acceptance among the guests. When every + man had filled his glass, his Worship stood up and proposed a toast. It + was, of course, "Our gracious Sovereign," or words to that effect; and + immediately a band of musicians, whose preliminary footings and thrummings + I had already heard behind me, struck up "God save the Queen," and the + whole company rose with one impulse to assist in singing that famous + national anthem. It was the first time in my life that I had ever seen a + body of men, or even a single man, under the active influence of the + sentiment of Loyalty; for, though we call ourselves loyal to our country + and institutions, and prove it by our readiness to shed blood and + sacrifice life in their behalf, still the principle is as cold and hard, + in an American bosom, as the steel spring that puts in motion a powerful + machinery. In the Englishman's system, a force similar to that of our + steel spring is generated by the warm throbbings of human hearts. He + clothes our bare abstraction in flesh and blood,—at present, in the + flesh and blood of a woman,—and manages to combine love, awe, and + intellectual reverence, all in one emotion, and to embody his mother, his + wife, his children, the whole idea of kindred, in a single person, and + make her the representative of his country and its laws. We Americans + smile superior, as I did at the Mayor's table; and yet, I fancy, we lose + some very agreeable titillations of the heart in consequence of our proud + prerogative of caring no more about our President than for a man of straw, + or a stuffed scarecrow straddling in a cornfield. + </p> + <p> + But, to say the truth, the spectacle struck me rather ludicrously, to see + this party of stout middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, in the fulness of + meat and drink, their ample and ruddy faces glistening with wine, + perspiration, and enthusiasm, rumbling out those strange old stanzas from + the very bottom of their hearts and stomachs, which two organs, in the + English interior arrangement, lie closer together than in ours. The song + seemed to me the rudest old ditty in the world; but I could not wonder at + its universal acceptance and indestructible popularity, considering how + inimitably it expresses the national faith and feeling as regards the + inevitable righteousness of England, the Almighty's consequent respect and + partiality for that redoubtable little island, and his presumed readiness + to strengthen its defence against the contumacious wickedness and knavery + of all other principalities or republics. Tennyson himself, though + evidently English to the very last prejudice, could not write half so good + a song for the purpose. Finding that the entire dinner-table struck in, + with voices of every pitch between rolling thunder and the squeak of a + cart-wheel, and that the strain was not of such delicacy as to be much + hurt by the harshest of them, I determined to lend my own assistance in + swelling the triumphant roar. It seemed but a proper courtesy to the first + Lady in the land, whose guest, in the largest sense, I might consider + myself. Accordingly, my first tuneful efforts (and probably my last, for I + purpose not to sing any more, unless it he "Hail Columbia" on the + restoration of the Union) were poured freely forth in honor of Queen + Victoria. The Sergeant smiled like the carved head of a Swiss nutcracker, + and the other gentlemen in my neighborhood, by nods and gestures, evinced + grave approbation of so suitable a tribute to English superiority; and we + finished our stave and sat down in an extremely happy frame of mind. + </p> + <p> + Other toasts followed in honor of the great institutions and interests of + the country, and speeches in response to each were made by individuals + whom the Mayor designated or the company called for. None of them + impressed me with a very high idea of English postprandial oratory. It is + inconceivable, indeed, what ragged and shapeless utterances most + Englishmen are satisfied to give vent to, without attempting anything like + artistic shape, but clapping on a patch here and another there, and + ultimately getting out what they want to say, and generally with a result + of sufficiently good sense, but in some such disorganized mass as if they + had thrown it up rather than spoken it. It seemed to me that this was + almost as much by choice as necessity. An Englishman, ambitious of public + favor, should not be too smooth. If an orator is glib, his countrymen + distrust him. They dislike smartness. The stronger and heavier his + thoughts, the better, provided there be an element of commonplace running + through them; and any rough, yet never vulgar force of expression, such as + would knock an opponent down, if it hit him, only it must not be too + personal, is altogether to their taste; but a studied neatness of + language, or other such superficial graces, they cannot abide. They do not + often permit a man to make himself a fine orator of malice aforethought, + that is, unless he be a nobleman (as, for example, Lord Stanley, of the + Derby family), who, as an hereditary legislator and necessarily a public + speaker, is bound to remedy a poor natural delivery in the best way he + can. On the whole, I partly agree with them, and, if I cared for any + oratory whatever, should be as likely to applaud theirs as our own. When + an English speaker sits down, you feel that you have been listening to a + real man, and not to an actor; his sentiments have a wholesome earth-smell + in them, though, very likely, this apparent naturalness is as much an art + as what we expend in rounding a sentence or elaborating a peroration. + </p> + <p> + It is one good effect of this inartificial style, that nobody in England + seems to feel any shyness about shovelling the untrimmed and untrimmable + ideas out of his mind for the benefit of an audience. At least, nobody did + on the occasion now in hand, except a poor little Major of Artillery, who + responded for the Army in a thin, quavering voice, with a terribly + hesitating trickle of fragmentary ideas, and, I question not, would rather + have been bayoneted in front of his batteries than to have said a word. + Not his own mouth, but the cannon's, was this poor Major's proper organ of + utterance. + </p> + <p> + While I was thus amiably occupied in criticising my fellow-guests, the + Mayor had got up to propose another toast; and listening rather + inattentively to the first sentence or two, I soon became sensible of a + drift in his Worship's remarks that made me glance apprehensively towards + Sergeant Wilkins. "Yes," grumbled that gruff personage, shoving a decanter + of Port towards me, "it is your turn next"; and seeing in my face, I + suppose, the consternation of a wholly unpractised orator, he kindly + added, "It is nothing. A mere acknowledgment will answer the purpose. The + less you say, the better they will like it." That being the case, I + suggested that perhaps they would like it best if I said nothing at all. + But the Sergeant shook his head. Now, on first receiving the Mayor's + invitation to dinner, it had occurred to me that I might possibly be + brought into my present predicament; but I had dismissed the idea from my + mind as too disagreeable to be entertained, and, moreover, as so alien + from my disposition and character that Fate surely could not keep such a + misfortune in store for me. If nothing else prevented, an earthquake or + the crack of doom would certainly interfere before I need rise to speak. + Yet here was the Mayor getting on inexorably,—and, indeed, I + heartily wished that he might get on and on forever, and of his wordy + wanderings find no end. + </p> + <p> + If the gentle reader, my kindest friend and closest confidant, deigns to + desire it, I can impart to him my own experience as a public speaker quite + as indifferently as if it concerned another person. Indeed, it does + concern another, or a mere spectral phenomenon, for it was not I, in my + proper and natural self, that sat there at table or subsequently rose to + speak. At the moment, then, if the choice had been offered me whether the + Mayor should let off a speech at my head or a pistol, I should + unhesitatingly have taken the latter alternative. I had really nothing to + say, not an idea in my head, nor, which was a great deal worse, any + flowing words or embroidered sentences in which to dress out that empty + Nothing, and give it a cunning aspect of intelligence, such as might last + the poor vacuity the little time it had to live. But time pressed; the + Mayor brought his remarks, affectionately eulogistic of the United States + and highly complimentary to their distinguished representative at that + table, to a close, amid a vast deal of cheering; and the band struck up + "Hail Columbia," I believe, though it might have been "Old Hundred," or + "God save the Queen" over again, for anything that I should have known or + cared. When the music ceased, there was an intensely disagreeable instant, + during which I seemed to rend away and fling off the habit of a lifetime, + and rose, still void of ideas, but with preternatural composure, to make a + speech. The guests rattled on the table, and cried, "Hear!" most + vociferously, as if now, at length, in this foolish and idly garrulous + world, had come the long-expected moment when one golden word was to be + spoken; and in that imminent crisis, I caught a glimpse of a little bit of + an effusion of international sentiment, which it might, and must, and + should do to utter. + </p> + <p> + Well; it was nothing, as the Sergeant had said. What surprised me most, + was the sound of my own voice, which I had never before heard at a + declamatory pitch, and which impressed me as belonging to some other + person, who, and not myself, would be responsible for the speech: a + prodigious consolation and encouragement under the circumstances! I went + on without the slightest embarrassment, and sat down amid great applause, + wholly undeserved by anything that I had spoken, but well won from + Englishmen, methought, by the new development of pluck that alone had + enabled me to speak at all. "It was handsomely done!" quoth Sergeant + Wilkins; and I felt like a recruit who had been for the first time under + fire. + </p> + <p> + I would gladly have ended my oratorical career then and there forever, but + was often placed in a similar or worse position, and compelled to meet it + as I best might; for this was one of the necessities of an office which I + had voluntarily taken on my shoulders, and beneath which I might be + crushed by no moral delinquency on my own part, but could not shirk + without cowardice and shame. My subsequent fortune was various. Once, + though I felt it to be a kind of imposture, I got a speech by heart, and + doubtless it might have been a very pretty one, only I forgot every + syllable at the moment of need, and had to improvise another as well as I + could. I found it a better method to prearrange a few points in my mind, + and trust to the spur of the occasion, and the kind aid of Providence, for + enabling me to bring them to bear. The presence of any considerable + proportion of personal friends generally dumbfounded me. I would rather + have talked with an enemy in the gate. Invariably, too, I was much + embarrassed by a small audience, and succeeded better with a large one,— + the sympathy of a multitude possessing a buoyant effect, which lifts the + speaker a little way out of his individuality and tosses him towards a + perhaps better range of sentiment than his private one. Again, if I rose + carelessly and confidently, with an expectation of going through the + business entirely at my ease, I often found that I had little or nothing + to say; whereas, if I came to the charge in perfect despair, and at a + crisis when failure would have been horrible, it once or twice happened + that the frightful emergency concentrated my poor faculties, and enabled + me to give definite and vigorous expression to sentiments which an instant + before looked as vague and far off as the clouds in the atmosphere. On the + whole, poor as my own success may have been, I apprehend that any + intelligent man with a tongue possesses the chief requisite of oratorical + power, and may develop many of the others, if he deems it worth while to + bestow a great amount of labor and pains on an object which the most + accomplished orators, I suspect, have not found altogether satisfactory to + their highest impulses. At any rate, it must be a remarkably true man who + can keep his own elevated conception of truth when the lower feeling of a + multitude is assailing his natural sympathies, and who can speak out + frankly the best that there is in him, when by adulterating it a little, + or a good deal, he knows that he may make it ten times as acceptable to + the audience. + </p> + <p> + This slight article on the civic banquets of England would be too + wretchedly imperfect, without an attempted description of a Lord Mayor's + dinner at the Mansion House in London. I should have preferred the annual + feast at Guildhall, but never had the good fortune to witness it. Once, + however, I was honored with an invitation to one of the regular dinners, + and gladly accepted it,—taking the precaution, nevertheless, though + it hardly seemed necessary, to inform the City-King, through a mutual + friend, that I was no fit representative of American eloquence, and must + humbly make it a condition that I should not be expected to open my mouth, + except for the reception of his Lordship's bountiful hospitality. The + reply was gracious and acquiescent; so that I presented myself in the + great entrance-hall of the Mansion House, at half past six o'clock, in a + state of most enjoyable freedom from the pusillanimous apprehensions that + often tormented me at such times. The Mansion House was built in Queen + Anne's days, in the very heart of old London, and is a palace worthy of + its inhabitant, were he really as great a man as his traditionary state + and pomp would seem to indicate. Times are changed, however, since the + days of Whittington, or even of Hogarth's Industrious Apprentice, to whom + the highest imaginable reward of lifelong integrity was a seat in the Lord + Mayor's chair. People nowadays say that the real dignity and importance + have perished out of the office, as they do, sooner or later, out of all + earthly institutions, leaving only a painted and gilded shell like that of + an Easter egg, and that it is only second-rate and third-rate men who now + condescend to be ambitious of the Mayoralty. I felt a little grieved at + this; for the original emigrants of New England had strong sympathies with + the people of London, who were mostly Puritans in religion and + Parliamentarians in politics, in the early days of our country; so that + the Lord Mayor was a potentate of huge dimensions in the estimation of our + forefathers, and held to be hardly second to the prime minister of the + throne. The true great men of the city now appear to have aims beyond city + greatness, connecting themselves with national politics, and seeking to be + identified with the aristocracy of the country. + </p> + <p> + In the entrance-hall I was received by a body of footmen dressed in a + livery of blue coats and buff breeches, in which they looked wonderfully + like American Revolutionary generals, only bedizened with far more lace + and embroidery than those simple and grand old heroes ever dreamed of + wearing. There were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should have + taken to be military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and large + silver epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord Mayor's + household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the places + which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our names (for + I had included myself in a little group of friends) were announced; and + ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the doorway of the first + reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of a presentation to the + Lady Mayoress. As this distinguished couple retired into private life at + the termination of their year of office, it is inadmissible to make any + remarks, critical or laudatory, on the manners and bearing of two + personages suddenly emerging from a position of respectable mediocrity + into one of pre-eminent dignity within their own sphere. Such individuals + almost always seem to grow nearly or quite to the full size of their + office. If it were desirable to write an essay on the latent aptitude of + ordinary people for grandeur, we have an exemplification in our own + country, and on a scale incomparably greater than that of the Mayoralty, + though invested with nothing like the outward magnificence that gilds and + embroiders the latter. If I have been correctly informed, the Lord Mayor's + salary is exactly double that of the President of the United States, and + yet is found very inadequate to his necessary expenditure. + </p> + <p> + There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide + folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be + venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as + spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid + fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers + and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them + celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I recollect + none preeminently distinguished in either department. But it is certainly + a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for example, who + deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face to face, thus to + bring them together under genial auspices, in connection with persons of + note in other lines. I know not what may be the Lord Mayor's mode or + principle of selecting his guests, nor whether, during his official term, + he can proffer his hospitality to every man of noticeable talent in the + wide world of London, nor, in fine, whether his Lordship's invitation is + much sought for or valued; but it seemed to me that this periodical feast + is one of the many sagacious methods which the English have contrived for + keeping up a good understanding among different sorts of people. Like most + other distinctions of society, however, I presume that the Lord Mayor's + card does not often seek out modest merit, but comes at last when the + recipient is conscious of the bore, and doubtful about the honor. + </p> + <p> + One very pleasant characteristic, which I never met with at any other + public or partially public dinner, was the presence of ladies. No doubt, + they were principally the wives and daughters of city magnates; and if we + may judge from the many sly allusions in old plays and satirical poems, + the city of London has always been famous for the beauty of its women and + the reciprocal attractions between them and the men of quality. Be that as + it might, while straying hither and thither through those crowded + apartments, I saw much reason for modifying certain heterodox opinions + which I had imbibed, in my Transatlantic newness and rawness, as regarded + the delicate character and frequent occurrence of English beauty. To state + the entire truth (being, at this period, some years old in English life), + my taste, I fear, had long since begun to be deteriorated by acquaintance + with other models of feminine loveliness than it was my happiness to know + in America. I often found, or seemed to find, if I may dare to confess it, + in the persons of such of my dear countrywomen as I now occasionally met, + a certain meagreness, (Heaven forbid that I should call it scrawniness!) a + deficiency of physical development, a scantiness, so to speak, in the + pattern of their material make, a paleness of complexion, a thinness of + voice,—all of which characteristics, nevertheless, only made me + resolve so much the more sturdily to uphold these fair creatures as + angels, because I was sometimes driven to a half-acknowledgment, that the + English ladies, looked at from a lower point of view, were perhaps a + little finer animals than they. The advantages of the latter, if any they + could really be said to have, were all comprised in a few additional lumps + of clay on their shoulders and other parts of their figures. It would be a + pitiful bargain to give up the ethereal charm of American beauty in + exchange for half a hundred-weight of human clay! + </p> + <p> + At a given signal we all found our way into an immense room, called the + Egyptian Hall, I know not why, except that the architecture was classic, + and as different as possible from the ponderous style of Memphis and the + Pyramids. A powerful band played inspiringly as we entered, and a + brilliant profusion of light shone down on two long tables, extending the + whole length of the hall, and a cross-table between them, occupying nearly + its entire breadth. Glass gleamed and silver glistened on an acre or two + of snowy damask, over which were set out all the accompaniments of a + stately feast. We found our places without much difficulty, and the Lord + Mayor's chaplain implored a blessing on the food,—a ceremony which + the English never omit, at a great dinner or a small one, yet consider, I + fear, not so much a religious rite as a sort of preliminary relish before + the soup. + </p> + <p> + The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in accordance + with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, in spite of + the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, judging from the + proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that there was no + practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the capacity of the + soup-tureens. Not being fond of this civic dainty, I partook of it but + once, and then only in accordance with the wise maxim, always to taste a + fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish, at its indigenous site; and the very + fountain-head of turtle-soup, I suppose, is in the Lord Mayor's + dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox customs which people follow for + half a century without knowing why, to drink a sip of rum-punch, in a very + small tumbler, after the soup. It was excellently well-brewed, and it + seemed to me almost worth while to sup the soup for the sake of sipping + the punch. The rest of the dinner was catalogued in a bill-of-fare printed + on delicate white paper within an arabesque border of green and gold. It + looked very good, not only in the English and French names of the numerous + dishes, but also in the positive reality of the dishes themselves, which + were all set on the table to be carved and distributed by the guests. This + ancient and honest method is attended with a good deal of trouble, and a + lavish effusion of gravy, yet by no means bestowed or dispensed in vain, + because you have thereby the absolute assurance of a banquet actually + before your eyes, instead of a shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and + such meagre fulfilment as a single guest can contrive to get upon his + individual plate. I wonder that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at + prize-oxen in the shape of butcher's-meat, do not generally better + estimate the aesthetic gormandism of devouring the whole dinner with their + eyesight, before proceeding to nibble the comparatively few morsels which, + after all, the most heroic appetite and widest stomachic capacity of mere + mortals can enable even an alderman really to eat. There fell to my lot + three delectable things enough, which I take pains to remember, that the + reader may not go away wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to + which I have bidden him,— a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, + exquisitely stewed, and part of a ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as + the grouse, but feeding high up towards the summit of the Scotch + mountains, whence it gets a wild delicacy of flavor very superior to that + of the artificially nurtured English game-fowl. All the other dainties + have vanished from my memory as completely as those of Prospero's banquet + after Ariel had clapped his wings over it. The band played at intervals + inspiriting us to new efforts, as did likewise the sparkling wines which + the footmen supplied from an inexhaustible cellar, and which the guests + quaffed with little apparent reference to the disagreeable fact that there + comes a to-morrow morning after every feast. As long as that shall be the + case, a prudent man can never have full enjoyment of his dinner. + </p> + <p> + Nearly opposite to me, on the other side of the table, sat a young lady in + white, whom I am sorely tempted to describe, but dare not, because not + only the supereminence of her beauty, but its peculiar character, would + cause the sketch to be recognized, however rudely it might be drawn. I + hardly thought that there existed such a woman outside of a picture-frame, + or the covers of a romance: not that I had ever met with her resemblance + even there, but, being so distinct and singular an apparition; she seemed + likelier to find her sisterhood in poetry and picture than in real life. + Let us turn away from her, lest a touch too apt should compel her stately + and cold and soft and womanly grace to gleam out upon my page with a + strange repulsion and unattainableness in the very spell that made her + beautiful. At her side, and familiarly attentive to her, sat a gentleman + of whom I remember only a hard outline of the nose and forehead, and such + a monstrous portent of a beard that you could discover no symptom of a + mouth, except, when he opened it to speak, or to put in a morsel of food. + Then, indeed, you suddenly became aware of a cave hidden behind the + impervious and darksome shrubbery. There could be no doubt who this + gentleman and lady were. Any child would have recognized them at a glance. + It was Bluebeard and a new wife (the loveliest of the series, but with + already a mysterious gloom overshadowing her fair young brow) travelling + in their honeymoon, and dining, among other distinguished strangers, at + the Lord Mayor's table. + </p> + <p> + After an hour or two of valiant achievement with knife and fork came the + dessert; and at the point of the festival where finger-glasses are usually + introduced, a large silver basin was carried round to the guests, + containing rose-water, into which we dipped the ends of our napkins and + were conscious of a delightful fragrance, instead of that heavy and weary + odor, the hateful ghost of a defunct dinner. This seems to be an ancient + custom of the city, not confined to the Lord Mayor's table, but never met + with westward of Temple Bar. + </p> + <p> + During all the feast, in accordance with another ancient custom, the + origin or purport of which I do not remember to have heard, there stood a + man in armor, with a helmet on his head, behind his Lordship's chair. When + the after-dinner wine was placed on the table, still another official + personage appeared behind the chair, and proceeded to make a solemn and + sonorous proclamation (in which he enumerated the principal guests, + comprising three or four noblemen, several baronets, and plenty of + generals, members of Parliament, aldermen, and other names of the + illustrious, one of which sounded strangely familiar to my ears), ending + in some such style as this: "and other gentlemen and ladies, here present, + the Lord Mayor drinks to you all in a loving-cup,"—giving a sort, of + sentimental twang to the two words,—"and sends it round among you!" + And forthwith the loving-cup—several of them, indeed, on each side + of the tables—came slowly down with all the antique ceremony. + </p> + <p> + The fashion of it is thus. The Lord Mayor, standing up and taking the + covered cup in both hands, presents it to the guest at his elbow, who + likewise rises, and removes the cover for his Lordship to drink, which + being successfully accomplished, the guest replaces the cover and receives + the cup into his own hands. He then presents it to his next neighbor, that + the cover may be again removed for himself to take a draught, after which + the third person goes through a similar manoeuvre with a fourth, and he + with a fifth, until the whole company find themselves inextricably + intertwisted and entangled in one complicated chain of love. When the cup + came to my hands, I examined it critically, both inside and out, and + perceived it to be an antique and richly ornamented silver goblet, capable + of holding about a quart of wine. Considering how much trouble we all + expended in getting the cup to our lips, the guests appeared to content + themselves with wonderfully moderate potations. In truth, nearly or quite + the original quart of wine being still in the goblet, it seemed doubtful + whether any of the company had more than barely touched the silver rim + before passing it to their neighbors,—a degree of abstinence that + might be accounted for by a fastidious repugnance to so many compotators + in one cup, or possibly by a disapprobation of the liquor. Being curious + to know all about these important matters, with a view of recommending to + my countrymen whatever they might usefully adopt, I drank an honest sip + from the loving-cup, and had no occasion for another,—ascertaining + it to be Claret of a poor original quality, largely mingled with water, + and spiced and sweetened. It was good enough, however, for a merely + spectral or ceremonial drink, and could never have been intended for any + better purpose. + </p> + <p> + The toasts now began in the customary order, attended with speeches + neither more nor less witty and ingenious than the specimens of + table-eloquence which had heretofore delighted me. As preparatory to each + new display, the herald, or whatever he was, behind the chair of state, + gave awful notice that the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor was about to + propose a toast. His Lordship being happily delivered thereof, together + with some accompanying remarks, the band played an appropriate tune, and + the herald again issued proclamation to the effect that such or such a + nobleman, or gentleman, general, dignified clergyman, or what not, was + going to respond to the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor's toast; then, if I + mistake not, there was another prodigious flourish of trumpets and + twanging of stringed instruments; and finally the doomed individual, + waiting all this while to be decapitated, got up and proceeded to make a + fool of himself. A bashful young earl tried his maiden oratory on the good + citizens of London, and having evidently got every word by heart (even + including, however he managed it, the most seemingly casual improvisations + of the moment), he really spoke like a book, and made incomparably the + smoothest speech I ever heard in England. + </p> + <p> + The weight and gravity of the speakers, not only on this occasion, but all + similar ones, was what impressed me as most extraordinary, not to say + absurd. Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits into + festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into a most + enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and old Port, + and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to speeches as + heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so refreshing? If the + Champagne had thrown its sparkle over the surface of these effusions, or + if the generous Port had shone through their substance with a ruddy glow + of the old English humor, I might have seen a reason for honest gentlemen + prattling in their cups, and should undoubtedly have been glad to be a + listener. But there was no attempt nor impulse of the kind on the part of + the orators, nor apparent expectation of such a phenomenon on that of the + audience. In fact, I imagine that the latter were best pleased when the + speaker embodied his ideas in the figurative language of arithmetic, or + struck upon any hard matter of business or statistics, as a heavy-laden + bark bumps upon a rock in mid-ocean. The sad severity, the too earnest + utilitarianism, of modern life, have wrought a radical and lamentable + change, I am afraid, in this ancient and goodly institution of civic + banquets. People used to come to them, a few hundred years ago, for the + sake of being jolly; they come now with an odd notion of pouring sober + wisdom into their wine by way of wormwood-bitters, and thus make such a + mess of it that the wine and wisdom reciprocally spoil one another. + </p> + <p> + Possibly, the foregoing sentiments have taken a spice of acridity from a + circumstance that happened about this stage of the feast, and very much + interrupted my own further enjoyment of it. Up to this time, my condition + had been exceedingly felicitous, both on account of the brilliancy of the + scene, and because I was in close proximity with three very pleasant + English friends. One of them was a lady, whose honored name my readers + would recognize as a household word, if I dared write it; another, a + gentleman, likewise well known to them, whose fine taste, kind heart, and + genial cultivation are qualities seldom mixed in such happy proportion as + in him. The third was the man to whom I owed most in England, the warm + benignity of whose nature was never weary of doing me good, who led me to + many scenes of life, in town, camp, and country, which I never could have + found out for myself, who knew precisely the kind of help a stranger + needs, and gave it as freely as if he had not had a thousand more + important things to live for. Thus I never felt safer or cosier at + anybody's fireside, even my own, than at the dinner-table of the Lord + Mayor. + </p> + <p> + Out of this serene sky came a thunderbolt. His Lordship got up and + proceeded to make some very eulogistic remarks upon "the literary and + commercial"—I question whether those two adjectives were ever before + married by a copulative conjunction, and they certainly would not live + together in illicit intercourse, of their own accord—"the literary + and commercial attainments of an eminent gentleman there present," and + then went on to speak of the relations of blood and interest between Great + Britain and the aforesaid eminent gentleman's native country. Those bonds + were more intimate than had ever before existed between two great nations, + throughout all history, and his Lordship felt assured that that whole + honorable company would join him in the expression of a fervent wish that + they might be held inviolably sacred, on both sides of the Atlantic, now + and forever. Then came the same wearisome old toast, dry and hard to chew + upon as a musty sea-biscuit, which had been the text of nearly all the + oratory of my public career. The herald sonorously announced that Mr. + So-and-so would now respond to his Right Honorable Lordship's toast and + speech, the trumpets sounded the customary flourish for the onset, there + was a thunderous rumble of anticipatory applause, and finally a deep + silence sank upon the festive hall. + </p> + <p> + All this was a horrid piece of treachery on the Lord Mayor's part, after + beguiling me within his lines on a pledge of safe-conduct; and it seemed + very strange that he could not let an unobtrusive individual eat his + dinner in peace, drink a small sample of the Mansion House wine, and go + away grateful at heart for the old English hospitality. If his Lordship + had sent me an infusion of ratsbane in the loving-cup, I should have taken + it much more kindly at his hands. But I suppose the secret of the matter + to have been somewhat as follows. + </p> + <p> + All England, just then, was in one of those singular fits of panic + excitement (not fear, though as sensitive and tremulous as that emotion), + which, in consequence of the homogeneous character of the people, their + intense patriotism, and their dependence for their ideas in public affairs + on other sources than their own examination and individual thought, are + more sudden, pervasive, and unreasoning than any similar mood of our own + public. In truth, I have never seen the American public in a state at all + similar, and believe that we are incapable of it. Our excitements are not + impulsive, like theirs, but, right or wrong, are moral and intellectual. + For example, the grand rising of the North, at the commencement of this + war, bore the aspect of impulse and passion only because it was so + universal, and necessarily done in a moment, just as the quiet and + simultaneous getting-up of a thousand people out of their chairs would + cause a tumult that might be mistaken for a storm. We were cool then, and + have been cool ever since, and shall remain cool to the end, which we + shall take coolly, whatever it may be. There is nothing which the English + find it so difficult to understand in us as this characteristic. They + imagine us, in our collective capacity, a kind of wild beast, whose normal + condition is savage fury, and are always looking for the moment when we + shall break through the slender barriers of international law and comity, + and compel the reasonable part of the world, with themselves at the head, + to combine for the purpose of putting us into a stronger cage. At times + this apprehension becomes so powerful (and when one man feels it, a + million do), that it resembles the passage of the wind over a broad field + of grain, where you see the whole crop bending and swaying beneath one + impulse, and each separate stalk tossing with the selfsame disturbance as + its myriad companions. At such periods all Englishmen talk with a terrible + identity of sentiment and expression. You have the whole country in each + man; and not one of them all, if you put him strictly to the question, can + give a reasonable ground for his alarm. There are but two nations in the + world—our own country and France—that can put England into + this singular state. It is the united sensitiveness of a people extremely + well-to-do, careful of their country's honor, most anxious for the + preservation of the cumbrous and moss-grown prosperity which they have + been so long in consolidating, and incompetent (owing to the national + half-sightedness, and their habit of trusting to a few leading minds for + their public opinion) to judge when that prosperity is really threatened. + </p> + <p> + If the English were accustomed to look at the foreign side of any + international dispute, they might easily have satisfied themselves that + there was very little danger of a war at that particular crisis, from the + simple circumstance that their own Government had positively not an inch + of honest ground to stand upon, and could not fail to be aware of the + fact. Neither could they have met Parliament with any show of a + justification for incurring war. It was no such perilous juncture as + exists now, when law and right are really controverted on sustainable or + plausible grounds, and a naval commander may at any moment fire off the + first cannon of a terrible contest. If I remember it correctly, it was a + mere diplomatic squabble, in which the British ministers, with the politic + generosity which they are in the habit of showing towards their official + subordinates, had tried to browbeat us for the purpose of sustaining an + ambassador in an indefensible proceeding; and the American Government (for + God had not denied us an administration of statesmen then) had retaliated + with stanch courage and exquisite skill, putting inevitably a cruel + mortification upon their opponents, but indulging them with no pretence + whatever for active resentment. + </p> + <p> + Now the Lord Mayor, like any other Englishman, probably fancied that War + was on the western gale, and was glad to lay hold of even so insignificant + an American as myself, who might be made to harp on the rusty old strings + of national sympathies, identity of blood and interest, and community of + language and literature, and whisper peace where there was no peace, in + however weak an utterance. And possibly his Lordship thought, in his + wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to be expressed by a company + of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and far-famed dinner-table, might + have an appreciable influence on the grand result. Thus, when the Lord + Mayor invited me to his feast, it was a piece of strategy. He wanted to + induce me to fling myself, like a lesser Curtius, with a larger object of + self-sacrifice, into the chasm of discord between England and America, + and, on my ignominious demur, had resolved to shove me in with his own + right-honorable hands, in the hope of closing up the horrible pit forever. + On the whole, I forgive his Lordship. He meant well by all parties,—himself, + who would share the glory, and me, who ought to have desired nothing + better than such an heroic opportunity,—his own country, which would + continue to get cotton and breadstuffs, and mine, which would get + everything that men work with and wear. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the Lord Mayor began to speak, I rapped upon my mind, and it + gave forth a hollow sound, being absolutely empty of appropriate ideas. I + never thought of listening to the speech, because I knew it all beforehand + in twenty repetitions from other lips, and was aware that it would not + offer a single suggestive point. In this dilemma, I turned to one of my + three friends, a gentleman whom I knew to possess an enviable flow of + silver speech, and obtested him, by whatever he deemed holiest, to give me + at least an available thought or two to start with, and, once afloat, I + would trust to my guardian-angel for enabling me to flounder ashore again. + He advised me to begin with some remarks complimentary to the Lord Mayor, + and expressive of the hereditary reverence in which his office was held,—at + least, my friend thought that there would be no harm in giving his + Lordship this little sugar-plum, whether quite the fact or no,—was + held by the descendants of the Puritan forefathers. Thence, if I liked, + getting flexible with the oil of my own eloquence, I might easily slide + off into the momentous subject of the relations between England and + America, to which his Lordship had made such weighty allusion. + </p> + <p> + Seizing this handful of straw with a death-grip, and bidding my three + friends bury me honorably, I got upon my legs to save both countries, or + perish in the attempt. The tables roared and thundered at me, and suddenly + were silent again. But, as I have never happened to stand in a position of + greater dignity and peril, I deem it a stratagem of sage policy here to + close these Sketches, leaving myself still erect in so heroic an attitude. + </p> + <h3> + THE END + </h3> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Old Home, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OLD HOME *** + +***** This file should be named 8090-h.htm or 8090-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/0/9/8090/ + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Old Home + A Series of English Sketches + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8090] +[This file was first posted on June 13, 2003] +[Last updated on December 17, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OLD HOME *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + + + + + + + +OUR OLD HOME + +A Series of English Sketches + +by + +Nathaniel Hawthorne + + +To Franklin Pierce, + +As a Slight Memorial of a College Friendship, prolonged through Manhood, +and retaining all its Vitality in our Autumnal Years, + +This Volume is inscribed by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + + +TO A FRIEND. + + +I have not asked your consent, my dear General, to the foregoing +inscription, because it would have been no inconsiderable disappointment +to me had you withheld it; for I have long desired to connect your name +with some book of mine, in commemoration of an early friendship that has +grown old between two individuals of widely dissimilar pursuits and +fortunes. I only wish that the offering were a worthier one than this +volume of sketches, which certainly are not of a kind likely to prove +interesting to a statesman in retirement, inasmuch as they meddle with no +matters of policy or government, and have very little to say about the +deeper traits of national character. In their humble way, they belong +entirely to aesthetic literature, and can achieve no higher success than +to represent to the American reader a few of the external aspects of +English scenery and life, especially those that are touched with the +antique charm to which our countrymen are more susceptible than are the +people among whom it is of native growth. + +I once hoped, indeed, that so slight a volume would not be all that I +might write. These and other sketches, with which, in a somewhat rougher +form than I have given them here, my journal was copiously filled, were +intended for the side-scenes and backgrounds and exterior adornment of a +work of fiction of which the plan had imperfectly developed itself in my +mind, and into which I ambitiously proposed to convey more of various +modes of truth than I could have grasped by a direct effort. Of course, +I should not mention this abortive project, only that it has been utterly +thrown aside and will never now be accomplished. The Present, the +Immediate, the Actual, has proved too potent for me. It takes away not +only my scanty faculty, but even my desire for imaginative composition, +and leaves me sadly content to scatter a thousand peaceful fantasies upon +the hurricane that is sweeping us all along with it, possibly, into a +Limbo where our nation and its polity may be as literally the fragments +of a shattered dream as my unwritten Romance. But I have far better +hopes for our dear country; and for my individual share of the +catastrophe, I afflict myself little, or not at all, and shall easily +find room for the abortive work on a certain ideal shelf, where are +reposited many other shadowy volumes of mine, more in number, and very +much superior in quality, to those which I have succeeded in rendering +actual. + +To return to these poor Sketches; some of my friends have told me that +they evince an asperity of sentiment towards the English people which I +ought not to feel, and which it is highly inexpedient to express. The +charge surprises me, because, if it be true, I have written from a +shallower mood than I supposed. I seldom came into personal relations +with an Englishman without beginning to like him, and feeling my +favorable impression wax stronger with the progress of the acquaintance. +I never stood in an English crowd without being conscious of hereditary +sympathies. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that an American is +continually thrown upon his national antagonism by some acrid quality in +the moral atmosphere of England. These people think so loftily of +themselves, and so contemptuously of everybody else, that it requires +more generosity than I possess to keep always in perfectly good-humor +with them. Jotting down the little acrimonies of the moment in my +journal, and transferring them thence (when they happened to be tolerably +well expressed) to these pages, it is very possible that I may have said +things which a profound observer of national character would hesitate to +sanction, though never any, I verily believe, that had not more or less +of truth. If they be true, there is no reason in the world why they +should not be said. Not an Englishman of them all ever spared America +for courtesy's sake or kindness; nor, in my opinion, would it contribute +in the least to our mutual advantage and comfort if we were to besmear +one another all over with butter and honey. At any rate, we must not +judge of an Englishman's susceptibilities by our own, which, likewise, I +trust, are of a far less sensitive texture than formerly. + +And now farewell, my dear friend; and excuse (if you think it needs any +excuse) the freedom with which I thus publicly assert a personal +friendship between a private individual and a statesman who has filled +what was then the most august position in the world. But I dedicate my +book to the Friend, and shall defer a colloquy with the Statesman till +some calmer and sunnier hour. Only this let me say, that, with the +record of your life in my memory, and with a sense of your character in +my deeper consciousness as among the few things that time has left as it +found them, I need no assurance that you continue faithful forever to +that grand idea of an irrevocable Union, which, as you once told me, was +the earliest that your brave father taught you. For other men there may +be a choice of paths,--for you, but one; and it rests among my +certainties that no man's loyalty is more steadfast, no man's hopes or +apprehensions on behalf of our national existence more deeply heartfelt, +or more closely intertwined with his possibilities of personal happiness, +than those of FRANKLIN PIERCE. + +THE WAYSIDE, July 2, 1863. + + + +CONTENTS. + +Consular Experiences +Leamington Spa +About Warwick +Recollections of a Gifted Woman +Lichfield and Uttoxeter +Pilgrimage to Old Boston +Near Oxford +Some of the Haunts of Burns +A London Suburb +Up the Thames +Outside Glimpses of English Poverty +Civic Banquets. + + + + + +OUR OLD HOME. + + + + +CONSULAR EXPERIENCES. + + +The Consulate of the United States, in my day, was located in Washington +Buildings (a shabby and smoke-stained edifice of four stories high, thus +illustriously named in honor of our national establishment), at the lower +corner of Brunswick Street, contiguous to the Gorec Arcade, and in the +neighborhood of scone of the oldest docks. This was by no means a polite +or elegant portion of England's great commercial city, nor were the +apartments of the American official so splendid as to indicate the +assumption of much consular pomp on his part. A narrow and ill-lighted +staircase gave access to an equally narrow and ill-lighted passageway on +the first floor, at the extremity of which, surmounting a door-frame, +appeared an exceedingly stiff pictorial representation of the Goose and +Gridiron, according to the English idea of those ever-to-be-honored +symbols. The staircase and passageway were often thronged, of a morning, +with a set of beggarly and piratical-looking scoundrels (I do no wrong to +our own countrymen in styling them so, for not one in twenty was a +genuine American), purporting to belong to our mercantile marine, and +chiefly composed of Liverpool Blackballers and the scum of every maritime +nation on earth; such being the seamen by whose assistance we then +disputed the navigation of the world with England. These specimens of a +most unfortunate class of people were shipwrecked crews in quest of bed, +board, and clothing, invalids asking permits for the hospital, bruised +and bloody wretches complaining of ill-treatment by their officers, +drunkards, desperadoes, vagabonds, and cheats, perplexingly intermingled +with an uncertain proportion of reasonably honest men. All of them (save +here and there a poor devil of a kidnapped landsman in his shore-going +rags) wore red flannel shirts, in which they had sweltered or shivered +throughout the voyage, and all required consular assistance in one form +or another. + +Any respectable visitor, if he could make up his mind to elbow a passage +among these sea-monsters, was admitted into an outer office, where he +found more of the same species, explaining their respective wants or +grievances to the Vice-Consul and clerks, while their shipmates awaited +their turn outside the door. Passing through this exterior court, the +stranger was ushered into an inner privacy, where sat the Consul himself, +ready to give personal attention to such peculiarly difficult and more +important cases as might demand the exercise of (what we will courteously +suppose to be) his own higher judicial or administrative sagacity. + +It was an apartment of very moderate size, painted in imitation of oak, +and duskily lighted by two windows looking across a by-street at the +rough brick-side of an immense cotton warehouse, a plainer and uglier +structure than ever was built in America. On the walls of the room hung +a large map of the United States (as they were, twenty years ago, but +seem little likely to be, twenty years hence), and a similar one of Great +Britain, with its territory so provokingly compact, that we may expect it +to sink sooner than sunder. Farther adornments were some rude engravings +of our naval victories in the War of 1812, together with the Tennessee +State House, and a Hudson River steamer, and a colored, life-size +lithograph of General Taylor, with an honest hideousness of aspect, +occupying the place of honor above the mantel-piece. On the top of a +bookcase stood a fierce and terrible bust of General Jackson, pilloried +in a military collar which rose above his ears, and frowning forth +immitigably at any Englishman who might happen to cross the threshold. I +am afraid, however, that the truculence of the old General's expression +was utterly thrown away on this stolid and obdurate race of men; for, +when they occasionally inquired whom this work of art represented, I was +mortified to find that the younger ones had never heard of the battle of +New Orleans, and that their elders had either forgotten it altogether, or +contrived to misremember, and twist it wrong end foremost into something +like an English victory. They have caught from the old Romans (whom they +resemble in so many other characteristics) this excellent method of +keeping the national glory intact by sweeping all defeats and +humiliations clean out of their memory. Nevertheless, my patriotism +forbade me to take down either the bust, or the pictures, both because it +seemed no more than right that an American Consulate (being a little +patch of our nationality imbedded into the soil and institutions of +England) should fairly represent the American taste in the fine arts, and +because these decorations reminded me so delightfully of an old-fashioned +American barber's shop. + +One truly English object was a barometer hanging on the wall, generally +indicating one or another degree of disagreeable weather, and so seldom +pointing to Fair, that I began to consider that portion of its circle as +made superfluously. The deep chimney, with its grate of bituminous coal, +was English too, as was also the chill temperature that sometimes called +for a fire at midsummer, and the foggy or smoky atmosphere which often, +between November and March, compelled me to set the gas aflame at +noonday. I am not aware of omitting anything important in the above +descriptive inventory, unless it be some book-shelves filled with octavo +volumes of the American Statutes, and a good many pigeon-holes stuffed +with dusty communications from former Secretaries of State, and other +official documents of similar value, constituting part of the archives of +the Consulate, which I might have done my successor a favor by flinging +into the coal-grate. Yes; there was one other article demanding +prominent notice: the consular copy of the New Testament, bound in black +morocco, and greasy, I fear, with a daily succession of perjured kisses; +at least, I can hardly hope that all the ten thousand oaths, administered +by me between two breaths, to all sorts of people and on all manner of +worldly business, were reckoned by the swearer as if taken at his soul's +peril. + +Such, in short, was the dusky and stifled chamber in which I spent +wearily a considerable portion of more than four good years of my +existence. At first, to be quite frank with the reader, I looked upon it +as not altogether fit to be tenanted by the commercial representative of +so great and prosperous a country as the United States then were; and I +should speedily have transferred my headquarters to airier and loftier +apartments, except for the prudent consideration that my government would +have left me thus to support its dignity at my own personal expense. +Besides, a long line of distinguished predecessors, of whom the latest is +now a gallant general under the Union banner, had found the locality good +enough for them; it might certainly be tolerated, therefore, by an +individual so little ambitious of external magnificence as myself. So I +settled quietly down, striking some of my roots into such soil as I could +find, adapting myself to circumstances, and with so much success, that, +though from first to last I hated the very sight of the little room, I +should yet have felt a singular kind of reluctance in changing it for a +better. + +Hither, in the course of my incumbency, came a great variety of visitors, +principally Americans, but including almost every other nationality on +earth, especially the distressed and downfallen ones like those of Poland +and Hungary. Italian bandits (for so they looked), proscribed +conspirators from Old Spain, Spanish-Americans, Cubans who processed to +have stood by Lopez and narrowly escaped his fate, scarred French +soldiers of the Second Republic,--in a word, all sufferers, or pretended +ones, in the cause of Liberty, all people homeless in the widest sense, +those who never had a country or had lost it, those whom their native +land had impatiently flung off for planning a better system of things +than they were born to,--a multitude of these and, doubtless, an equal +number of jail-birds, outwardly of the same feather, sought the American +Consulate, in hopes of at least a bit of bread, and, perhaps, to beg a +passage to the blessed shores of Freedom. In most cases there was +nothing, and in any case distressingly little, to be done for them; +neither was I of a proselyting disposition, nor desired to make my +Consulate a nucleus for the vagrant discontents of other lands. And yet +it was a proud thought, a forcible appeal to the sympathies of an +American, that these unfortunates claimed the privileges of citizenship +in our Republic on the strength of the very same noble misdemeanors that +had rendered them outlaws to their native despotisms. So I gave them +what small help I could. Methinks the true patriots and martyr-spirits +of the whole world should have been conscious of a pang near the heart, +when a deadly blow was aimed at the vitality of a country which they have +felt to be their own in the last resort. + +As for my countrymen, I grew better acquainted with many of our national +characteristics during those four years than in all my preceding life. +Whether brought more strikingly out by the contrast with English manners, +or that my Yankee friends assumed an extra peculiarity from a sense of +defiant patriotism, so it was that their tones, sentiments, and behavior, +even their figures and cast of countenance, all seemed chiselled in +sharper angles than ever I had imagined them to be at home. It impressed +me with an odd idea of having somehow lost the property of my own person, +when I occasionally heard one of them speaking of me as "my Consul"! +They often came to the Consulate in parties of half a dozen or more, on +no business whatever, but merely to subject their public servant to a +rigid examination, and see how he was getting on with his duties. These +interviews were rather formidable, being characterized by a certain +stiffness which I felt to be sufficiently irksome at the moment, though +it looks laughable enough in the retrospect. It is my firm belief that +these fellow-citizens, possessing a native tendency to organization, +generally halted outside of the door to elect a speaker, chairman, or +moderator, and thus approached me with all the formalities of a +deputation from the American people. After salutations on both sides,-- +abrupt, awful, and severe on their part, and deprecatory on mine,--and +the national ceremony of shaking hands being duly gone through with, the +interview proceeded by a series of calm and well-considered questions or +remarks from the spokesman (no other of the guests vouchsafing to utter a +word), and diplomatic responses from the Consul, who sometimes found the +investigation a little more searching than he liked. I flatter myself, +however, that, by much practice, I attained considerable skill in this +kind of intercourse, the art of which lies in passing off commonplaces +for new and valuable truths, and talking trash and emptiness in such a +way that a pretty acute auditor might mistake it for something solid. If +there be any better method of dealing with such junctures,--when talk is +to be created out of nothing, and within the scope of several minds at +once, so that you cannot apply yourself to your interlocutor's +individuality,--I have not learned it. + +Sitting, as it were, in the gateway between the Old World and the New, +where the steamers and packets landed the greater part of our wandering +countrymen, and received them again when their wanderings were done, I +saw that no people on earth have such vagabond habits as ourselves. The +Continental races never travel at all if they can help it; nor does an +Englishman ever think of stirring abroad, unless he has the money to +spare, or proposes to himself some definite advantage from the journey; +but it seemed to me that nothing was more common than for a young +American deliberately to spend all his resources in an aesthetic +peregrination about Europe, returning with pockets nearly empty to begin +the world in earnest. It happened, indeed, much oftener than was at all +agreeable to myself, that their funds held out just long enough to bring +them to the door of my Consulate, where they entered as if with an +undeniable right to its shelter and protection, and required at my hands +to be sent home again. In my first simplicity,--finding them gentlemanly +in manners, passably educated, and only tempted a little beyond their +means by a laudable desire of improving and refining themselves, or, +perhaps for the sake of getting better artistic instruction in music, +painting, or sculpture than our country could supply,--I sometimes took +charge of them on my private responsibility, since our government gives +itself no trouble about its stray children, except the seafaring class. +But, after a few such experiments, discovering that none of these +estimable and ingenuous young men, however trustworthy they might appear, +ever dreamed of reimbursing the Consul, I deemed it expedient to take +another course with them. Applying myself to some friendly shipmaster, I +engaged homeward passages on their behalf, with the understanding that +they were to make themselves serviceable on shipboard; and I remember +several very pathetic appeals from painters and musicians, touching the +damage which their artistic fingers were likely to incur from handling +the ropes. But my observation of so many heavier troubles left me very +little tenderness for their finger-ends. In time I grew to be reasonably +hard-hearted, though it never was quite possible to leave a countryman +with no shelter save an English poorhouse, when, as he invariably +averred, he had only to set foot on his native soil to be possessed of +ample funds. It was my ultimate conclusion, however, that American +ingenuity may be pretty safely left to itself, and that, one way or +another, a Yankee vagabond is certain to turn up at his own threshold, if +he has any, without help of a Consul, and perhaps be taught a lesson of +foresight that may profit him hereafter. + +Among these stray Americans, I met with no other case so remarkable as +that of an old man, who was in the habit of visiting me once in a few +months, and soberly affirmed that he had been wandering about England +more than a quarter of a century (precisely twenty-seven years, I think), +and all the while doing his utmost to get home again. Herman Melville, +in his excellent novel or biography of "Israel Potter," has an idea +somewhat similar to this. The individual now in question was a mild and +patient, but very ragged and pitiable old fellow, shabby beyond +description, lean and hungry-looking, but with a large and somewhat red +nose. He made no complaint of his ill-fortune, but only repeated in a +quiet voice, with a pathos of which he was himself evidently unconscious, +"I want to get home to Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia." He described +himself as a printer by trade, and said that he had come over when he was +a younger man, in the hope of bettering himself, and for the sake of +seeing the Old Country, but had never since been rich enough to pay his +homeward passage. His manner and accent did not quite convince me that +he was an American, and I told him so; but he steadfastly affirmed, "Sir, +I was born and have lived in Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia," and +then went on to describe some public edifices and other local objects +with which he used to be familiar, adding, with a simplicity that touched +me very closely, "Sir, I had rather be there than here!" Though I still +manifested a lingering doubt, he took no offence, replying with the +same mild depression as at first, and insisting again and again on +Ninety-second Street. Up to the time when I saw him, he still got a +little occasional job-work at his trade, but subsisted mainly on such +charity as he met with in his wanderings, shifting from place to place +continually, and asking assistance to convey him to his native land. +Possibly he was an impostor, one of the multitudinous shapes of English +vagabondism, and told his falsehood with such powerful simplicity, +because, by many repetitions, he had convinced himself of its truth. But +if, as I believe, the tale was fact, how very strange and sad was this +old man's fate! Homeless on a foreign shore, looking always towards his +country, coming again and again to the point whence so many were setting +sail for it,--so many who would soon tread in Ninety-second Street,-- +losing, in this long series of years, some of the distinctive +characteristics of an American, and at last dying and surrendering his +clay to be a portion of the soil whence he could not escape in his +lifetime. + +He appeared to see that he had moved me, but did not attempt to press his +advantage with any new argument, or any varied form of entreaty. He had +but scanty and scattered thoughts in his gray head, and in the intervals +of those, like the refrain of an old ballad, came in the monotonous +burden of his appeal, "If I could only find myself in Ninety-second +Street, Philadelphia!" But even his desire of getting home had ceased to +be an ardent one (if, indeed, it had not always partaken of the dreamy +sluggishness of his character), although it remained his only locomotive +impulse, and perhaps the sole principle of life that kept his blood from +actual torpor. + +The poor old fellow's story seemed to me almost as worthy of being +chanted in immortal song as that of Odysseus or Evangeline. I took his +case into deep consideration, but dared not incur the moral +responsibility of sending him across the sea, at his age, after so many +years of exile, when the very tradition of him had passed away, to find +his friends dead, or forgetful, or irretrievably vanished, and the whole +country become more truly a foreign land to him than England was now,-- +and even Ninety-second Street, in the weedlike decay and growth of our +localities, made over anew and grown unrecognizable by his old eyes. +That street, so patiently longed for, had transferred itself to the New +Jerusalem, and he must seek it there, contenting his slow heart, +meanwhile, with the smoke-begrimed thoroughfares of English towns, +or the green country lanes and by-paths with which his wanderings had +made him familiar; for doubtless he had a beaten track and was the +"long-remembered beggar" now, with food and a roughly hospitable greeting +ready for him at many a farm-house door, and his choice of lodging under +a score of haystacks. In America, nothing awaited him but that worst +form of disappointment which comes under the guise of a long-cherished +and late-accomplished purpose, and then a year or two of dry and barren +sojourn in an almshouse, and death among strangers at last, where he had +imagined a circle of familiar faces. So I contented myself with giving +him alms, which he thankfully accepted, and went away with bent shoulders +and an aspect of gentle forlornness; returning upon his orbit, however, +after a few months, to tell the same sad and quiet story of his abode in +England for more than twenty-seven years, in all which time he had been +endeavoring, and still endeavored as patiently as ever, to find his way +home to Ninety-second Street, Philadelphia. + +I recollect another case, of a more ridiculous order, but still with a +foolish kind of pathos entangled in it, which impresses me now more +forcibly than it did at the moment. One day, a queer, stupid, +good-natured, fat-faced individual came into my private room, dressed in +a sky-blue, cut-away coat and mixed trousers, both garments worn and +shabby, and rather too small for his overgrown bulk. After a little +preliminary talk, he turned out to be a country shopkeeper (from +Connecticut, I think), who had left a flourishing business, and come over +to England purposely and solely to have an interview with the Queen. +Some years before he had named his two children, one for her Majesty and +the other for Prince Albert, and had transmitted photographs of the +little people, as well as of his wife and himself, to the illustrious +godmother. The Queen had gratefully acknowledged the favor in a letter +under the hand of her private secretary. Now, the shopkeeper, like a +great many other Americans, had long cherished a fantastic notion that he +was one of the rightful heirs of a rich English estate; and on the +strength of her Majesty's letter and the hopes of royal patronage which +it inspired, he had shut up his little country-store and come over to +claim his inheritance. On the voyage, a German fellow-passenger had +relieved him of his money on pretence of getting it favorably exchanged, +and had disappeared immediately on the ship's arrival; so that the poor +fellow was compelled to pawn all his clothes, except the remarkably +shabby ones in which I beheld him, and in which (as he himself hinted, +with a melancholy, yet good-natured smile) he did not look altogether fit +to see the Queen. I agreed with him that the bobtailed coat and mixed +trousers constituted a very odd-looking court-dress, and suggested that +it was doubtless his present purpose to get back to Connecticut as fast +as possible. But no! The resolve to see the Queen was as strong in him +as ever; and it was marvellous the pertinacity with which he clung to it +amid raggedness and starvation, and the earnestness of his supplication +that I would supply him with funds for a suitable appearance at Windsor +Castle. + +I never had so satisfactory a perception of a complete booby before in my +life; and it caused me to feel kindly towards him, and yet impatient and +exasperated on behalf of common-sense, which could not possibly tolerate +that such an unimaginable donkey should exist. I laid his absurdity +before him in the very plainest terms, but without either exciting his +anger or shaking his resolution. "O my dear man," quoth he, with +good-natured, placid, simple, and tearful stubbornness, "if you could but +enter into my feelings and see the matter from beginning to end as I see +it!" To confess the truth, I have since felt that I was hard-hearted to +the poor simpleton, and that there was more weight in his remonstrance +than I chose to be sensible of, at the time; for, like many men who have +been in the habit of making playthings or tools of their imagination and +sensibility, I was too rigidly tenacious of what was reasonable in the +affairs of real life. And even absurdity has its rights, when, as in +this case, it has absorbed a human being's entire nature and purposes. I +ought to have transmitted him to Mr. Buchanan, in London, who, being a +good-natured old gentleman, and anxious, just then, to gratify the +universal Yankee nation, might, for the joke's sake, have got him +admittance to the Queen, who had fairly laid herself open to his visit, +and has received hundreds of our countrymen on infinitely slighter +grounds. But I was inexorable, being turned to flint by the insufferable +proximity of a fool, and refused to interfere with his business in any +way except to procure him a passage home. I can see his face of mild, +ridiculous despair, at this moment, and appreciate, better than I could +then, how awfully cruel he must have felt my obduracy to be. For years +and years, the idea of an interview with Queen Victoria had haunted his +poor foolish mind; and now, when he really stood on English ground, and +the palace-door was hanging ajar for him, he was expected to turn brick, +a penniless and bamboozled simpleton, merely because an iron-hearted +consul refused to lend him thirty shillings (so low had his demand +ultimately sunk) to buy a second-class ticket on the rail for London! + +He visited the Consulate several times afterwards, subsisting on a +pittance that I allowed him in the hope of gradually starving him back to +Connecticut, assailing me with the old petition at every opportunity, +looking shabbier at every visit, but still thoroughly good-tempered, +mildly stubborn, and smiling through his tears, not without a perception +of the ludicrousness of his own position. Finally, he disappeared +altogether, and whither he had wandered, and whether he ever saw the +Queen, or wasted quite away in the endeavor, I never knew; but I remember +unfolding the "Times," about that period, with a daily dread of reading +an account of a ragged Yankee's attempt to steal into Buckingham Palace, +and how he smiled tearfully at his captors and besought them to introduce +him to her Majesty. I submit to Mr. Secretary Seward that he ought to +make diplomatic remonstrances to the British Ministry, and require them +to take such order that the Queen shall not any longer bewilder the wits +of our poor compatriots by responding to their epistles and thanking them +for their photographs. + +One circumstance in the foregoing incident--I mean the unhappy +storekeeper's notion of establishing his claim to an English estate--was +common to a great many other applications, personal or by letter, with +which I was favored by my countrymen. The cause of this peculiar +insanity lies deep in the Anglo-American heart. After all these bloody +wars and vindictive animosities, we have still an unspeakable yearning +towards England. When our forefathers left the old home, they pulled up +many of their roots, but trailed along with them others, which were never +snapt asunder by the tug of such a lengthening distance, nor have been +torn out of the original soil by the violence of subsequent struggles, +nor severed by the edge of the sword. Even so late as these days, they +remain entangled with our heart-strings, and might often have influenced +our national cause like the tiller-ropes of a ship, if the rough gripe of +England had been capable of managing so sensitive a kind of machinery. +It has required nothing less than the boorishness, the stolidity, the +self-sufficiency, the contemptuous jealousy, the half-sagacity, +invariably blind of one eye and often distorted of the other, that +characterize this strange people, to compel us to be a great nation in +our own right, instead of continuing virtually, if not in name, a +province of their small island. What pains did they take to shake us +off, and have ever since taken to keep us wide apart from them! It might +seem their folly, but was really their fate, or, rather, the Providence +of God, who has doubtless a work for us to do, in which the massive +materiality of the English character would have been too ponderous a +dead-weight upon our progress. And, besides, if England had been wise +enough to twine our new vigor round about her ancient strength, her power +would have been too firmly established ever to yield, in its due season, +to the otherwise immutable law of imperial vicissitude. The earth might +then have beheld the intolerable spectacle of a sovereignty and +institutions, imperfect, but indestructible. + +Nationally, there has ceased to be any peril of so inauspicious and yet +outwardly attractive an amalgamation. But as an individual, the American +is often conscious of the deep-rooted sympathies that belong more fitly +to times gone by, and feels a blind pathetic tendency to wander back +again, which makes itself evident in such wild dreams as I have alluded +to above, about English inheritances. A mere coincidence of names (the +Yankee one, perhaps, having been assumed by legislative permission), a +supposititious pedigree, a silver mug on which an anciently engraved +coat-of-arms has been half scrubbed out, a seal with an uncertain crest, +an old yellow letter or document in faded ink, the more scantily legible +the better,--rubbish of this kind, found in a neglected drawer, has been +potent enough to turn the brain of many an honest Republican, especially +if assisted by an advertisement for lost heirs, cut out of a British +newspaper. There is no estimating or believing, till we come into a +position to know it, what foolery lurks latent in the breasts of very +sensible people. Remembering such sober extravagances, I should not be +at all surprised to find that I am myself guilty of some unsuspected +absurdity, that may appear to me the most substantial trait in my +character. + +I might fill many pages with instances of this diseased American appetite +for English soil. A respectable-looking woman, well advanced in life, of +sour aspect, exceedingly homely, but decidedly New-Englandish in figure +and manners, came to my office with a great bundle of documents, at the +very first glimpse of which I apprehended something terrible. Nor was I +mistaken. The bundle contained evidences of her indubitable claim to the +site on which Castle Street, the Town Hall, the Exchange, and all the +principal business part of Liverpool have long been situated; and with +considerable peremptoriness, the good lady signified her expectation that +I should take charge of her suit, and prosecute it to judgment; not, +however, on the equitable condition of receiving half the value of the +property recovered (which, in case of complete success, would have made +both of us ten or twenty fold millionaires), but without recompense or +reimbursement of legal expenses, solely as an incident of my official +duty. Another time came two ladies, bearing a letter of emphatic +introduction from his Excellency the Governor of their native State, who +testified in most satisfactory terms to their social respectability. +They were claimants of a great estate in Cheshire, and announced +themselves as blood-relatives of Queen Victoria,--a point, however, which +they deemed it expedient to keep in the background until their +territorial rights should be established, apprehending that the Lord High +Chancellor might otherwise be less likely to come to a fair decision in +respect to them, from a probable disinclination to admit new members into +the royal kin. Upon my honor, I imagine that they had an eye to the +possibility of the eventual succession of one or both of them to the +crown of Great Britain through superiority of title over the Brunswick +line; although, being maiden ladies, like their predecessor Elizabeth, +they could hardly have hoped to establish a lasting dynasty upon the +throne. It proves, I trust, a certain disinterestedness on my part, +that, encountering them thus in the dawn of their fortunes, I forbore to +put in a plea for a future dukedom. + +Another visitor of the same class was a gentleman of refined manners, +handsome figure, and remarkably intellectual aspect. Like many men of an +adventurous cast, he had so quiet a deportment, and such an apparent +disinclination to general sociability, that you would have fancied him +moving always along some peaceful and secluded walk of life. Yet, +literally from his first hour, he had been tossed upon the surges of a +most varied and tumultuous existence, having been born at sea, of +American parentage, but on board of a Spanish vessel, and spending many +of the subsequent years in voyages, travels, and outlandish incidents and +vicissitudes, which, methought, had hardly been paralleled since the days +of Gulliver or De Foe. When his dignified reserve was overcome, he had +the faculty of narrating these adventures with wonderful eloquence, +working up his descriptive sketches with such intuitive perception of the +picturesque points that the whole was thrown forward with a positively +illusive effect, like matters of your own visual experience. In fact, +they were so admirably done that I could never more than half believe +them, because the genuine affairs of life are not apt to transact +themselves so artistically. Many of his scenes were laid in the East, +and among those seldom-visited archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean, so that +there was an Oriental fragrance breathing through his talk and an odor of +the Spice Islands still lingering in his garments. He had much to say of +the delightful qualities of the Malay pirates, who, indeed, carry on a +predatory warfare against the ships of all civilized nations, and cut +every Christian throat among their prisoners; but (except for deeds of +that character, which are the rule and habit of their life, and matter of +religion and conscience with them) they are a gentle-natured people, of +primitive innocence and integrity. + +But his best story was about a race of men (if men they were) who seemed +so fully to realize Swift's wicked fable of the Yahoos, that my friend +was much exercised with psychological speculations whether or no they had +any souls. They dwelt in the wilds of Ceylon, like other savage beasts, +hairy, and spotted with tufts of fur, filthy, shameless, weaponless +(though warlike in their individual bent), tool-less, houseless, +language-less, except for a few guttural sounds, hideously dissonant, +whereby they held some rudest kind of communication among themselves. +They lacked both memory and foresight, and were wholly destitute of +government, social institutions, or law or rulership of any description, +except the immediate tyranny of the strongest; radically untamable, +moreover, save that the people of the country managed to subject a few of +the less ferocious and stupid ones to outdoor servitude among their other +cattle. They were beastly in almost all their attributes, and that to +such a degree that the observer, losing sight of any link betwixt them +and manhood, could generally witness their brutalities without greater +horror than at those of some disagreeable quadruped in a menagerie. And +yet, at times, comparing what were the lowest general traits in his own +race with what was highest in these abominable monsters, he found a +ghastly similitude that half compelled him to recognize them as human +brethren. + +After these Gulliverian researches, my agreeable acquaintance had fallen +under the ban of the Dutch government, and had suffered (this, at least, +being matter of fact) nearly two years' imprisonment, with confiscation +of a large amount of property, for which Mr. Belmont, our minister at the +Hague, had just made a peremptory demand of reimbursement and damages. +Meanwhile, since arriving in England on his way to the United States, he +had been providentially led to inquire into the circumstances of his +birth on shipboard, and had discovered that not himself alone, but +another baby, had come into the world during the same voyage of the +prolific vessel, and that there were almost irrefragable reasons for +believing that these two children had been assigned to the wrong mothers. +Many reminiscences of his early days confirmed him in the idea that his +nominal parents were aware of the exchange. The family to which he felt +authorized to attribute his lineage was that of a nobleman, in the +picture-gallery of whose country-seat (whence, if I mistake not, our +adventurous friend had just returned) he had discovered a portrait +bearing a striking resemblance to himself. As soon as he should have +reported the outrageous action of the Dutch government to President +Pierce and the Secretary of State, and recovered the confiscated +property, he purposed to return to England and establish his claim to the +nobleman's title and estate. + +I had accepted his Oriental fantasies (which, indeed, to do him justice, +have been recorded by scientific societies among the genuine phenomena of +natural history), not as matters of indubitable credence, but as +allowable specimens of an imaginative traveller's vivid coloring and rich +embroidery on the coarse texture and dull neutral tints of truth. The +English romance was among the latest communications that he intrusted to +my private ear; and as soon as I heard the first chapter,--so wonderfully +akin to what I might have wrought out of my own head, not unpractised in +such figments,--I began to repent having made myself responsible for the +future nobleman's passage homeward in the next Collins steamer. +Nevertheless, should his English rent-roll fall a little behindhand, his +Dutch claim for a hundred thousand dollars was certainly in the hands of +our government, and might at least be valuable to the extent of thirty +pounds, which I had engaged to pay on his behalf. But I have reason to +fear that his Dutch riches turned out to be Dutch gilt, or fairy gold, +and his English country-seat a mere castle in the air,--which I +exceedingly regret, for he was a delightful companion and a very +gentlemanly man. + +A Consul, in his position of universal responsibility, the general +adviser and helper, sometimes finds himself compelled to assume the +guardianship of personages who, in their own sphere, are supposed capable +of superintending the highest interests of whole communities. An elderly +Irishman, a naturalized citizen, once put the desire and expectation of +all our penniless vagabonds into a very suitable phrase, by pathetically +entreating me to be a "father to him"; and, simple as I sit scribbling +here, I have acted a father's part, not only by scores of such unthrifty +old children as himself, but by a progeny of far loftier pretensions. It +may be well for persons who are conscious of any radical weakness in +their character, any besetting sin, any unlawful propensity, any +unhallowed impulse, which (while surrounded with the manifold restraints +that protect a man from that treacherous and lifelong enemy, his lower +self, in the circle of society where he is at home) they may have +succeeded in keeping under the lock and key of strictest propriety,--it +may be well for them, before seeking the perilous freedom of a distant +land, released from the watchful eyes of neighborhoods and coteries, +lightened of that wearisome burden, an immaculate name, and blissfully +obscure after years of local prominence,--it may be well for such +individuals to know that when they set foot on a foreign shore, the +long-imprisoned Evil, scenting a wild license in the unaccustomed +atmosphere, is apt to grow riotous in its iron cage. It rattles the +rusty barriers with gigantic turbulence, and if there be an infirm joint +anywhere in the framework, it breaks madly forth, compressing the +mischief of a lifetime into a little space. + +A parcel of letters had been accumulating at the Consulate for two or +three weeks, directed to a certain Doctor of Divinity, who had left +America by a sailing-packet and was still upon the sea. In due time, the +vessel arrived, and the reverend Doctor paid me a visit. He was a +fine-looking middle-aged gentleman, a perfect model of clerical +propriety, scholar-like, yet with the air of a man of the world rather +than a student, though overspread with the graceful sanctity of a popular +metropolitan divine, a part of whose duty it might be to exemplify the +natural accordance between Christianity and good-breeding. He seemed a +little excited, as an American is apt to be on first arriving in England, +but conversed with intelligence as well as animation, making himself so +agreeable that his visit stood out in considerable relief from the +monotony of my daily commonplace. As I learned from authentic sources, +he was somewhat distinguished in his own region for fervor and eloquence +in the pulpit, but was now compelled to relinquish it temporarily for the +purpose of renovating his impaired health by an extensive tour in Europe. +Promising to dine with me, he took up his bundle of letters and went +away. + +The Doctor, however, failed to make his appearance at dinner-time, or to +apologize the next day for his absence; and in the course of a day or two +more, I forgot all about him, concluding that he must have set forth on +his Continental travels, the plan of which he had sketched out at our +interview. But, by and by, I received a call from the master of the +vessel in which he had arrived. He was in some alarm about his +passenger, whose luggage remained on shipboard, but of whom nothing had +been heard or seen since the moment of his departure from the Consulate. +We conferred together, the captain and I, about the expediency of setting +the police on the traces (if any were to be found) of our vanished +friend; but it struck me that the good captain was singularly reticent, +and that there was something a little mysterious in a few points that he +hinted at rather than expressed; so that, scrutinizing the affair +carefully, I surmised that the intimacy of life on shipboard might have +taught him more about the reverend gentleman than, for some reason or +other, he deemed it prudent to reveal. At home, in our native country, I +would have looked to the Doctor's personal safety and left his reputation +to take care of itself, knowing that the good fame of a thousand saintly +clergymen would amply dazzle out any lamentable spot on a single +brother's character. But in scornful and invidious England, on the idea +that the credit of the sacred office was measurably intrusted to my +discretion, I could not endure, for the sake of American Doctors of +Divinity generally, that this particular Doctor should cut an ignoble +figure in the police reports of the English newspapers, except at the +last necessity. The clerical body, I flatter myself, will acknowledge +that I acted on their own principle. Besides, it was now too late; the +mischief and violence, if any had been impending, were not of a kind +which it requires the better part of a week to perpetrate; and to sum up +the entire matter, I felt certain, from a good deal of somewhat similar +experience, that, if the missing Doctor still breathed this vital air, he +would turn up at the Consulate as soon as his money should be stolen or +spent. + +Precisely a week after this reverend person's disappearance, there came +to my office a tall, middle-aged gentleman in a blue military surtout, +braided at the seams, but out at elbows, and as shabby as if the wearer +had been bivouacking in it throughout a Crimean campaign. It was +buttoned up to the very chin, except where three or four of the buttons +were lost; nor was there any glimpse of a white shirt-collar illuminating +the rusty black cravat. A grisly mustache was just beginning to roughen +the stranger's upper lip. He looked disreputable to the last degree, but +still had a ruined air of good society glimmering about him, like a few +specks of polish on a sword-blade that has lain corroding in a mud-puddle. +I took him to be some American marine officer, of dissipated habits, or +perhaps a cashiered British major, stumbling into the wrong quarters +through the unrectified bewilderment of last night's debauch. He greeted +me, however, with polite familiarity, as though we had been previously +acquainted; whereupon I drew coldly back (as sensible people naturally +do, whether from strangers or former friends, when too evidently at odds +with fortune) and requested to know who my visitor might be, and what was +his business at the Consulate. "Am I then so changed?" he exclaimed with +a vast depth of tragic intonation; and after a little blind and +bewildered talk, behold! the truth flashed upon me. It was the Doctor of +Divinity! If I had meditated a scene or a coup de theatre, I could not +have contrived a more effectual one than by this simple and genuine +difficulty of recognition. The poor Divine must have felt that he had +lost his personal identity through the misadventures of one little week. +And, to say the truth, he did look as if, like Job, on account of his +especial sanctity, he had been delivered over to the direst temptations +of Satan, and proving weaker than the man of Uz, the Arch Enemy had been +empowered to drag him through Tophet, transforming him, in the process, +from the most decorous of metropolitan clergymen into the rowdiest and +dirtiest of disbanded officers. I never fathomed the mystery of his +military costume, but conjectured that a lurking sense of fitness had +induced him to exchange his clerical garments for this habit of a sinner; +nor can I tell precisely into what pitfall, not more of vice than +terrible calamity, he had precipitated himself,--being more than +satisfied to know that the outcasts of society can sink no lower than +this poor, desecrated wretch had sunk. + +The opportunity, I presume, does not often happen to a layman, of +administering moral and religious reproof to a Doctor of Divinity; but +finding the occasion thrust upon me, and the hereditary Puritan waxing +strong in my breast, I deemed it a matter of conscience not to let it +pass entirely unimproved. The truth is, I was unspeakably shocked and +disgusted. Not, however, that I was then to learn that clergymen are +made of the same flesh and blood as other people, and perhaps lack one +small safeguard which the rest of us possess, because they are aware of +their own peccability, and therefore cannot look up to the clerical class +for the proof of the possibility of a pure life on earth, with such +reverential confidence as we are prone to do. But I remembered the +innocent faith of my boyhood, and the good old silver-headed clergyman, +who seemed to me as much a saint then on earth as he is now in heaven, +and partly for whose sake, through all these darkening years, I retain a +devout, though not intact nor unwavering respect for the entire +fraternity. What a hideous wrong, therefore, had the backslider +inflicted on his brethren, and still more on me, who much needed whatever +fragments of broken reverence (broken, not as concerned religion, but its +earthly institutions and professors) it might yet be possible to patch +into a sacred image! Should all pulpits and communion-tables have +thenceforth a stain upon them, and the guilty one go unrebuked for it? +So I spoke to the unhappy man as I never thought myself warranted in +speaking to any other mortal, hitting him hard, doing my utmost to find +out his vulnerable part, and prick him into the depths of it. And not +without more effect than I had dreamed of, or desired! + +No doubt, the novelty of the Doctor's reversed position, thus standing up +to receive such a fulmination as the clergy have heretofore arrogated the +exclusive right of inflicting, might give additional weight and sting to +the words which I found utterance for. But there was another reason +(which, had I in the least suspected it, would have closed my lips at +once) for his feeling morbidly sensitive to the cruel rebuke that I +administered. The unfortunate man had come to me, laboring under one of +the consequences of his riotous outbreak, in the shape of delirium +tremens; he bore a hell within the compass of his own breast, all the +torments of which blazed up with tenfold inveteracy when I thus took upon +myself the Devil's office of stirring up the red-hot embers. His +emotions, as well as the external movement and expression of them by +voice, countenance, and gesture, were terribly exaggerated by the +tremendous vibration of nerves resulting from the disease. It was the +deepest tragedy I ever witnessed. I know sufficiently, from that one +experience, how a condemned soul would manifest its agonies; and for the +future, if I have anything to do with sinners, I mean to operate upon +them through sympathy, and not rebuke. What had I to do with rebuking +him? The disease, long latent in his heart, had shown itself in a +frightful eruption on the surface of his life. That was all! Is it a +thing to scold the sufferer for? + +To conclude this wretched story, the poor Doctor of Divinity, having been +robbed of all his money in this little airing beyond the limits of +propriety, was easily persuaded to give up the intended tour and return +to his bereaved flock, who, very probably, were thereafter conscious of +an increased unction in his soul-stirring eloquence, without suspecting +the awful depths into which their pastor had dived in quest of it. His +voice is now silent. I leave it to members of his own profession to +decide whether it was better for him thus to sin outright, and so to be +let into the miserable secret what manner of man he was, or to have gone +through life outwardly unspotted, making the first discovery of his +latent evil at the judgment-seat. It has occurred to me that his dire +calamity, as both he and I regarded it, might have been the only method +by which precisely such a man as himself, and so situated, could be +redeemed. He has learned, ere now, how that matter stood. + +For a man, with a natural tendency to meddle with other people's +business, there could not possibly be a more congenial sphere than the +Liverpool Consulate. For myself, I had never been in the habit of +feeling that I could sufficiently comprehend any particular conjunction +of circumstances with human character, to justify me in thrusting in my +awkward agency among the intricate and unintelligible machinery of +Providence. I have always hated to give advice, especially when there is +a prospect of its being taken. It is only one-eyed people who love to +advise, or have any spontaneous promptitude of action. When a man opens +both his eyes, he generally sees about as many reasons for acting in any +one way as in any other, and quite as many for acting in neither; and is +therefore likely to leave his friends to regulate their own conduct, and +also to remain quiet as regards his especial affairs till necessity shall +prick him onward. Nevertheless, the world and individuals flourish upon +a constant succession of blunders. The secret of English practical +success lies in their characteristic faculty of shutting one eye, whereby +they get so distinct and decided a view of what immediately concerns them +that they go stumbling towards it over a hundred insurmountable +obstacles, and achieve a magnificent triumph without ever being aware of +half its difficulties. If General McClellan could but have shut his left +eye, the right one would long ago have guided us into Richmond. +Meanwhile, I have strayed far away from the Consulate, where, as I was +about to say, I was compelled, in spite of my disinclination, to impart +both advice and assistance in multifarious affairs that did not +personally concern me, and presume that I effected about as little +mischief as other men in similar contingencies. The duties of the office +carried me to prisons, police-courts, hospitals, lunatic asylums, +coroner's inquests, death-beds, funerals, and brought me in contact with +insane people, criminals, ruined speculators, wild adventurers, +diplomatists, brother-consuls, and all manner of simpletons and +unfortunates, in greater number and variety than I had ever dreamed of as +pertaining to America; in addition to whom there was an equivalent +multitude of English rogues, dexterously counterfeiting the genuine +Yankee article. It required great discrimination not to be taken in by +these last-mentioned scoundrels; for they knew how to imitate our +national traits, had been at great pains to instruct themselves as +regarded American localities, and were not readily to be caught by a +cross-examination as to the topographical features, public institutions, +or prominent inhabitants of the places where they pretended to belong. +The best shibboleth I ever hit upon lay in the pronunciation of the word +"been," which the English invariably make to rhyme with "green," and we +Northerners, at least (in accordance, I think, with the custom of +Shakespeare's time), universally pronounce "bin." + +All the matters that I have been treating of, however, were merely +incidental, and quite distinct from the real business of the office. A +great part of the wear and tear of mind and temper resulted from the bad +relations between the seamen and officers of American ships. Scarcely a +morning passed, but that some sailor came to show the marks of his +ill-usage on shipboard. Often, it was a whole crew of them, each with +his broken head or livid bruise, and all testifying with one voice to a +constant series of savage outrages during the voyage; or, it might be, +they laid an accusation of actual murder, perpetrated by the first or +second officers with many blows of steel-knuckles, a rope's end, or a +marline-spike, or by the captain, in the twinkling of an eye, with a shot +of his pistol. Taking the seamen's view of the case, you would suppose +that the gibbet was hungry for the murderers. Listening to the captain's +defence, you would seem to discover that he and his officers were the +humanest of mortals, but were driven to a wholesome severity by the +mutinous conduct of the crew, who, moreover, had themselves slain their +comrade in the drunken riot and confusion of the first day or two after +they were shipped. Looked at judicially, there appeared to be no right +side to the matter, nor any right side possible in so thoroughly vicious +a system as that of the American mercantile marine. The Consul could do +little, except to take depositions, hold forth the greasy Testament to be +profaned anew with perjured kisses, and, in a few instances of murder or +manslaughter, carry the case before an English magistrate, who generally +decided that the evidence was too contradictory to authorize the +transmission of the accused for trial in America. The newspapers all +over England contained paragraphs, inveighing against the cruelties of +American shipmasters. The British Parliament took up the matter (for +nobody is so humane as John Bull, when his benevolent propensities are to +be gratified by finding fault with his neighbor), and caused Lord John +Russell to remonstrate with our government on the outrages for which it +was responsible before the world, and which it failed to prevent or +punish. The American Secretary of State, old General Cass, responded, +with perfectly astounding ignorance of the subject, to the effect that +the statements of outrages had probably been exaggerated, that the +present laws of the United States were quite adequate to deal with them, +and that the interference of the British Minister was uncalled for. + +The truth is, that the state of affairs was really very horrible, and +could be met by no laws at that time (or I presume now) in existence. I +once thought of writing a pamphlet on the subject, but quitted the +Consulate before finding time to effect my purpose; and all that phase of +my life immediately assumed so dreamlike a consistency that I despaired +of making it seem solid or tangible to the public. And now it looks +distant and dim, like troubles of a century ago. The origin of the evil +lay in the character of the seamen, scarcely any of whom were American, +but the offscourings and refuse of all the seaports of the world, such +stuff as piracy is made of, together with a considerable intermixture of +returning emigrants, and a sprinkling of absolutely kidnapped American +citizens. Even with such material, the ships were very inadequately +manned. The shipmaster found himself upon the deep, with a vast +responsibility of property and human life upon his hands, and no means of +salvation except by compelling his inefficient and demoralized crew to +heavier exertions than could reasonably be required of the same number of +able seamen. By law he had been intrusted with no discretion of +judicious punishment, he therefore habitually left the whole matter of +discipline to his irresponsible mates, men often of scarcely a superior +quality to the crew. Hence ensued a great mass of petty outrages, +unjustifiable assaults, shameful indignities, and nameless cruelty, +demoralizing alike to the perpetrators and the sufferers; these +enormities fell into the ocean between the two countries, and could be +punished in neither. Many miserable stories come back upon my memory as +I write; wrongs that were immense, but for which nobody could be held +responsible, and which, indeed, the closer you looked into them, the more +they lost the aspect of wilful misdoing and assumed that of an inevitable +calamity. It was the fault of a system, the misfortune of an individual. +Be that as it may, however, there will be no possibility of dealing +effectually with these troubles as long as we deem it inconsistent with +our national dignity or interests to allow the English courts, under such +restrictions as may seem fit, a jurisdiction over offences perpetrated on +board our vessels in mid-ocean. + +In such a life as this, the American shipmaster develops himself into a +man of iron energies, dauntless courage, and inexhaustible resource, at +the expense, it must be acknowledged, of some of the higher and gentler +traits which might do him excellent service in maintaining his authority. +The class has deteriorated of late years on account of the narrower field +of selection, owing chiefly to the diminution of that excellent body of +respectably educated New England seamen, from the flower of whom the +officers used to be recruited. Yet I found them, in many cases, very +agreeable and intelligent companions, with less nonsense about them than +landsmen usually have, eschewers of fine-spun theories, delighting in +square and tangible ideas, but occasionally infested with prejudices that +stuck to their brains like barnacles to a ship's bottom. I never could +flatter myself that I was a general favorite with them. One or two, +perhaps, even now, would scarcely meet me on amicable terms. Endowed +universally with a great pertinacity of will, they especially disliked +the interference of a consul with their management on shipboard; +notwithstanding which I thrust in my very limited authority at every +available opening, and did the utmost that lay in my power, though with +lamentably small effect, towards enforcing a better kind of discipline. +They thought, no doubt (and on plausible grounds enough, but scarcely +appreciating just that one little grain of hard New England sense, oddly +thrown in among the flimsier composition of the Consul's character), that +he, a landsman, a bookman, and, as people said of him, a fanciful +recluse, could not possibly understand anything of the difficulties or +the necessities of a shipmaster's position. But their cold regards were +rather acceptable than otherwise, for it is exceedingly awkward to assume +a judicial austerity in the morning towards a man with whom you have been +hobnobbing over night. + +With the technical details of the business of that great Consulate (for +great it then was, though now, I fear, wofully fallen off, and perhaps +never to be revived in anything like its former extent), I did not much +interfere. They could safely be left to the treatment of two as +faithful, upright, and competent subordinates, both Englishmen, as ever a +man was fortunate enough to meet with, in a line of life altogether new +and strange to him. I had come over with instructions to supply both +their places with Americans, but, possessing a happy faculty of knowing +my own interest and the public's, I quietly kept hold of them, being +little inclined to open the consular doors to a spy of the State +Department or an intriguer for my own office. The venerable Vice-Consul, +Mr. Pearce, had witnessed the successive arrivals of a score of newly +appointed Consuls, shadowy and short-lived dignitaries, and carried his +reminiscences back to the epoch of Consul Maury, who was appointed by +Washington, and has acquired almost the grandeur of a mythical personage +in the annals of the Consulate. The principal clerk, Mr. Wilding, who +has since succeeded to the Vice-Consulship, was a man of English +integrity,--not that the English are more honest than ourselves, but only +there is a certain sturdy reliableness common among them, which we do not +quite so invariably manifest in just these subordinate positions,--of +English integrity, combined with American acuteness of intellect, +quick-wittedness, and diversity of talent. It seemed an immense pity +that he should wear out his life at a desk, without a step in advance +from year's end to year's end, when, had it been his luck to be born on +our side of the water, his bright faculties and clear probity would have +insured him eminent success in whatever path he night adopt. Meanwhile, +it would have been a sore mischance to me, had any better fortune on his +part deprived me of Mr. Wilding's services. + +A fair amount of common-sense, some acquaintance with the United States +Statutes, an insight into character, a tact of management, a general +knowledge of the world, and a reasonable but not too inveterately decided +preference for his own will and judgment over those of interested +people,--these natural attributes and moderate acquirements will enable a +consul to perform many of his duties respectably, but not to dispense +with a great variety of other qualifications, only attainable by long +experience. Yet, I think, few consuls are so well accomplished. An +appointment of whatever grade, in the diplomatic or consular service of +America, is too often what the English call a "job"; that is to say, it +is made on private and personal grounds, without a paramount eye to the +public good or the gentleman's especial fitness for the position. It is +not too much to say (of course allowing for a brilliant exception here +and there), that an American never is thoroughly qualified for a foreign +post, nor has time to make himself so, before the revolution of the +political wheel discards him from his office. Our country wrongs itself +by permitting such a system of unsuitable appointments, and, still more, +of removals for no cause, just when the incumbent might be beginning to +ripen into usefulness. Mere ignorance of official detail is of +comparatively small moment; though it is considered indispensable, I +presume, that a man in any private capacity shall be thoroughly +acquainted with the machinery and operation of his business, and shall +not necessarily lose his position on having attained such knowledge. But +there are so many more important things to be thought of, in the +qualifications of a foreign resident, that his technical dexterity or +clumsiness is hardly worth mentioning. + +One great part of a consul's duty, for example, should consist in +building up for himself a recognized position in the society where he +resides, so that his local influence might be felt in behalf of his own +country, and, so far as they are compatible (as they generally are to the +utmost extent), for the interests of both nations. The foreign city +should know that it has a permanent inhabitant and a hearty well-wisher +in him. There are many conjunctures (and one of them is now upon us) +where a long-established, honored, and trusted American citizen, holding +a public position under our government in such a town as Liverpool, might +go far towards swaying and directing the sympathies of the inhabitants. +He might throw his own weight into the balance against mischief makers; +he might have set his foot on the first little spark of malignant +purpose, which the next wind may blow into a national war. But we +wilfully give up all advantages of this kind. The position is totally +beyond the attainment of an American; there to-day, bristling all over +with the porcupine quills of our Republic, and gone to-morrow, just as he +is becoming sensible of the broader and more generous patriotism which +might almost amalgamate with that of England, without losing an atom of +its native force and flavor. In the changes that appear to await us, and +some of which, at least, can hardly fail to be for good, let us hope for +a reform in this matter. + +For myself, as the gentle reader would spare me the trouble of saying, I +was not at all the kind of man to grow into such an ideal Consul as I +have here suggested. I never in my life desired to be burdened with +public influence. I disliked my office from the first, and never came +into any good accordance with it. Its dignity, so far as it had any, was +an encumbrance; the attentions it drew upon me (such as invitations to +Mayor's banquets and public celebrations of all kinds, where, to my +horror, I found myself expected to stand up and speak) were--as I may say +without incivility or ingratitude, because there is nothing personal in +that sort of hospitality--a bore. The official business was irksome, and +often painful. There was nothing pleasant about the whole affair, except +the emoluments; and even those, never too bountifully reaped, were +diminished by more than half in the second or third year of my +incumbency. All this being true, I was quite prepared, in advance of the +inauguration of Mr. Buchanan, to send in my resignation. When my +successor arrived, I drew the long, delightful breath which first made me +thoroughly sensible what an unnatural life I had been leading, and +compelled me to admire myself for having battled with it so sturdily. +The newcomer proved to be a very genial and agreeable gentleman, an +F. F. V., and, as he pleasantly acknowledged, a Southern Fire Eater, +--an announcement to which I responded, with similar good-humor and +self-complacency, by parading my descent from an ancient line of +Massachusetts Puritans. Since our brief acquaintanceship, my fire-eating +friend has had ample opportunities to banquet on his favorite diet, hot +and hot, in the Confederate service. For myself, as soon as I was out of +office, the retrospect began to look unreal. I could scarcely believe +that it was I,--that figure whom they called a Consul,--but a sort of +Double Ganger, who had been permitted to assume my aspect, under which he +went through his shadowy duties with a tolerable show of efficiency, +while my real self had lain, as regarded my proper mode of being and +acting, in a state of suspended animation. + +The same sense of illusion still pursues me. There is some mistake in +this matter. I have been writing about another man's consular +experiences, with which, through some mysterious medium of transmitted +ideas, I find myself intimately acquainted, but in which I cannot +possibly have had a personal interest. Is it not a dream altogether? +The figure of that poor Doctor of Divinity looks wonderfully lifelike; so +do those of the Oriental adventurer with the visionary coronet above his +brow, and the moonstruck visitor of the Queen, and the poor old wanderer, +seeking his native country through English highways and by-ways for +almost thirty years; and so would a hundred others that I might summon up +with similar distinctness. But were they more than shadows? Surely, I +think not. Nor are these present pages a bit of intrusive autobiography. +Let not the reader wrong me by supposing it. I never should have written +with half such unreserve, had it been a portion of this life congenial +with my nature, which I am living now, instead of a series of incidents +and characters entirely apart from my own concerns, and on which the +qualities personally proper to me could have had no bearing. Almost the +only real incidents, as I see them now, were the visits of a young +English friend, a scholar and a literary amateur, between whom and myself +there sprung up an affectionate, and, I trust, not transitory regard. He +used to come and sit or stand by my fireside, talking vivaciously and +eloquently with me about literature and life, his own national +characteristics and mine, with such kindly endurance of the many rough +republicanisms wherewith I assailed him, and such frank and amiable +assertion of all sorts of English prejudices and mistakes, that I +understood his countrymen infinitely the better for him, and was almost +prepared to love the intensest Englishman of them all, for his sake. It +would gratify my cherished remembrance of this dear friend, if I could +manage, without offending him, or letting the public know it, to +introduce his name upon my page. Bright was the illumination of my dusky +little apartment, as often as he made his appearance there! + +The English sketches which I have been offering to the public comprise a +few of the more external and therefore more readily manageable things +that I took note of, in many escapes from the imprisonment of my consular +servitude. Liverpool, though not very delightful as a place of +residence, is a most convenient and admirable point to get away from. +London is only five hours off by the fast train. Chester, the most +curious town in England, with its encompassing wall, its ancient rows, +and its venerable cathedral, is close at hand. North Wales, with all its +hills and ponds, its noble sea-scenery, its multitude of gray castles and +strange old villages, may be glanced at in a summer day or two. The +lakes and mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland may be reached before +dinner-time. The haunted and legendary Isle of Man, a little kingdom by +itself, lies within the scope of an afternoon's voyage. Edinburgh or +Glasgow are attainable over night, and Loch Lomond betimes in the +morning. Visiting these famous localities, and a great many others, I +hope that I do not compromise my American patriotism by acknowledging +that I was often conscious of a fervent hereditary attachment to the +native soil of our forefathers, and felt it to be our own Old Home. + + + + +LEAMINGTON SPA. + + +In the course of several visits and stays of considerable length we +acquired a homelike feeling towards Leamington, and came back thither +again and again, chiefly because we had been there before. Wandering and +wayside people, such as we had long since become, retain a few of the +instincts that belong to a more settled way of life, and often prefer +familiar and commonplace objects (for the very reason that they are so) +to the dreary strangeness of scenes that might be thought much better +worth the seeing. There is a small nest of a place in Leamington--at +No. 10, Lansdowne Circus--upon which, to this day, my reminiscences are +apt to settle as one of the coziest nooks in England or in the world; not +that it had any special charm of its own, but only that we stayed long +enough to know it well, and even to grow a little tired of it. In my +opinion, the very tediousness of home and friends makes a part of what we +love them for; if it be not mixed in sufficiently with the other elements +of life, there may be mad enjoyment, but no happiness. + +The modest abode to which I have alluded forms one of a circular range of +pretty, moderate-sized, two-story houses, all built on nearly the same +plan, and each provided with its little grass-plot, its flowers, its +tufts of box trimmed into globes and other fantastic shapes, and its +verdant hedges shutting the house in from the common drive and dividing +it from its equally cosey neighbors. Coming out of the door, and taking +a turn round the circle of sister-dwellings, it is difficult to find your +way back by any distinguishing individuality of your own habitation. In +the centre of the Circus is a space fenced in with iron railing, a small +play-place and sylvan retreat for the children of the precinct, permeated +by brief paths through the fresh English grass, and shadowed by various +shrubbery; amid which, if you like, you may fancy yourself in a deep +seclusion, though probably the mark of eye-shot from the windows of all +the surrounding houses. But, in truth, with regard to the rest of the +town and the world at large, all abode here is a genuine seclusion; for +the ordinary stream of life does not run through this little, quiet pool, +and few or none of the inhabitants seem to be troubled with any business +or outside activities. I used to set them down as half-pay officers, +dowagers of narrow income, elderly maiden ladies, and other people of +respectability, but small account, such as hang on the world's skirts +rather than actually belong to it. The quiet of the place was seldom +disturbed, except by the grocer and butcher, who came to receive orders, +or by the cabs, hackney-coaches, and Bath-chairs, in which the ladies +took an infrequent airing, or the livery-steed which the retired captain +sometimes bestrode for a morning ride, or by the red-coated postman who +went his rounds twice a day to deliver letters, and again in the evening, +ringing a hand-bell, to take letters for the mail. In merely mentioning +these slight interruptions of its sluggish stillness, I seem to myself to +disturb too much the atmosphere of quiet that brooded over the spot; +whereas its impression upon me was, that the world had never found the +way hither, or had forgotten it, and that the fortunate inhabitants were +the only ones who possessed the spell-word of admittance. Nothing could +have suited me better, at the time; for I had been holding a position of +public servitude, which imposed upon me (among a great many lighter +duties) the ponderous necessity of being universally civil and sociable. + +Nevertheless, if a man were seeking the bustle of society, he might find +it more readily in Leamington than in most other English towns. It is a +permanent watering-place, a sort of institution to which I do not know +any close parallel in American life: for such places as Saratoga bloom +only for the summer-season, and offer a thousand dissimilitudes even +then; while Leamington seems to be always in flower, and serves as a home +to the homeless all the year round. Its original nucleus, the plausible +excuse for the town's coming into prosperous existence, lies in the +fiction of a chalybeate well, which, indeed, is so far a reality that out +of its magical depths have gushed streets, groves, gardens, mansions, +shops, and churches, and spread themselves along the banks of the little +river Leam. This miracle accomplished, the beneficent fountain has +retired beneath a pump-room, and appears to have given up all pretensions +to the remedial virtues formerly attributed to it. I know not whether +its waters are ever tasted nowadays; but not the less does Leamington--in +pleasant Warwickshire, at the very midmost point of England, in a good +hunting neighborhood, and surrounded by country-seats and castles-- +continue to be a resort of transient visitors, and the more permanent +abode of a class of genteel, unoccupied, well-to-do, but not very wealthy +people, such as are hardly known among ourselves. Persons who have no +country-houses, and whose fortunes are inadequate to a London +expenditure, find here, I suppose, a sort of town and country life in +one. + +In its present aspect the town is of no great age. In contrast with the +antiquity of many places in its neighborhood, it has a bright, new face, +and seems almost to smile even amid the sombreness of an English autumn. +Nevertheless, it is hundreds upon hundreds of years old, if we reckon up +that sleepy lapse of time during which it existed as a small village of +thatched houses, clustered round a priory; and it would still have been +precisely such a rural village, but for a certain Dr. Jephson, who lived +within the memory of man, and who found out the magic well, and foresaw +what fairy wealth might be made to flow from it. A public garden has +been laid out along the margin of the Leam, and called the Jephson +Garden, in honor of him who created the prosperity of his native spot. A +little way within the garden-gate there is a circular temple of Grecian +architecture, beneath the dome of which stands a marble statue of the +good Doctor, very well executed, and representing him with a face of +fussy activity and benevolence: just the kind of man, if luck favored +him, to build up the fortunes of those about him, or, quite as probably, +to blight his whole neighborhood by some disastrous speculation. + +The Jephson Garden is very beautiful, like most other English +pleasure-grounds; for, aided by their moist climate and not too fervid +sun, the landscape-gardeners excel in converting flat or tame surfaces +into attractive scenery, chiefly through the skilful arrangement of trees +and shrubbery. An Englishman aims at this effect even in the little +patches under the windows of a suburban villa, and achieves it on a +larger scale in a tract of many acres. The Garden is shadowed with trees +of a fine growth, standing alone, or in dusky groves and dense +entanglements, pervaded by woodland paths; and emerging from these +pleasant glooms, we come upon a breadth of sunshine, where the +greensward--so vividly green that it has a kind of lustre in it--is +spotted with beds of gemlike flowers. Rustic chairs and benches are +scattered about, some of them ponderously fashioned out of the stumps of +obtruncated trees, and others more artfully made with intertwining +branches, or perhaps an imitation of such frail handiwork in iron. In a +central part of the Garden is an archery-ground, where laughing maidens +practise at the butts, generally missing their ostensible mark, but, by +the mere grace of their action, sending an unseen shaft into some young +man's heart. There is space, moreover, within these precincts, for an +artificial lake, with a little green island in the midst of it; both lake +and island being the haunt of swans, whose aspect and movement in the +water are most beautiful and stately,--most infirm, disjointed, and +decrepit, when, unadvisedly, they see fit to emerge, and try to walk upon +dry land. In the latter case, they look like a breed of uncommonly +ill-contrived geese; and I record the matter here for the sake of the +moral,--that we should never pass judgment on the merits of any person or +thing, unless we behold them in the sphere and circumstances to which +they are specially adapted. In still another part of the Garden there is +a labyrinthine maze, formed of an intricacy of hedge-bordered walks, +involving himself in which, a man might wander for hours inextricably +within a circuit of only a few yards. It seemed to me a sad emblem of +the mental and moral perplexities in which we sometimes go astray, petty +in scope, yet large enough to entangle a lifetime, and bewilder us with a +weary movement, but no genuine progress. + +The Leam,--the "high complectioned Leam," as Drayton calls it,--after +drowsing across the principal street of the town beneath a handsome +bridge, skirts along the margin of the Garden without any perceptible +flow. Heretofore I had fancied the Concord the laziest river in the +world, but now assign that amiable distinction to the little English +stream. Its water is by no means transparent, but has a greenish, +goose-puddly hue, which, however, accords well with the other coloring +and characteristics of the scene, and is disagreeable neither to sight +nor smell. Certainly, this river is a perfect feature of that gentle +picturesqueness in which England is so rich, sleeping, as it does, +beneath a margin of willows that droop into its bosom, and other trees, +of deeper verdure than our own country can boast, inclining lovingly over +it. On the Garden-side it is bordered by a shadowy, secluded grove, with +winding paths among its boskiness, affording many a peep at the river's +imperceptible lapse and tranquil gleam; and on the opposite shore stands +the priory-church, with its churchyard full of shrubbery and tombstones. + +The business portion of the town clusters about the banks of the Leam, +and is naturally densest around the well to which the modern settlement +owes its existence. Here are the commercial inns, the post-office, the +furniture-dealers, the iron-mongers, and all the heavy and homely +establishments that connect themselves even with the airiest modes of +human life; while upward from the river, by a long and gentle ascent, +rises the principal street, which is very bright and cheerful in its +physiognomy, and adorned with shop-fronts almost as splendid as those of +London, though on a diminutive scale. There are likewise side-streets +and cross-streets, many of which are bordered with the beautiful +Warwickshire elm, a most unusual kind of adornment for an English town; +and spacious avenues, wide enough to afford room for stately groves, with +foot-paths running beneath the lofty shade, and rooks cawing and +chattering so high in the tree-tops that their voices get musical before +reaching the earth. The houses are mostly built in blocks and ranges, in +which every separate tenement is a repetition of its fellow, though the +architecture of the different ranges is sufficiently various. Some of +them are almost palatial in size and sumptuousness of arrangement. Then, +on the outskirts of the town, there are detached villas, enclosed within +that separate domain of high stone fence and embowered shrubbery which an +Englishman so loves to build and plant around his abode, presenting to +the public only an iron gate, with a gravelled carriage-drive winding +away towards the half-hidden mansion. Whether in street or suburb, +Leamington may fairly be called beautiful, and, at some points, +magnificent; but by and by you become doubtfully suspicious of a somewhat +unreal finery: it is pretentious, though not glaringly so; it has been +built with malice aforethought, as a place of gentility and enjoyment. +Moreover, splendid as the houses look, and comfortable as they often are, +there is a nameless something about them, betokening that they have not +grown out of human hearts, but are the creations of a skilfully applied +human intellect: no man has reared any one of them, whether stately or +humble, to be his lifelong residence, wherein to bring up his children, +who are to inherit it as a home. They are nicely contrived +lodging-houses, one and all,--the best as well as the shabbiest of them, +--and therefore inevitably lack some nameless property that a home should +have. This was the case with our own little snuggery in Lansdowne +Circus, as with all the rest; it had not grown out of anybody's +individual need, but was built to let or sell, and was therefore like a +ready-made garment,--a tolerable fit, but only tolerable. + +All these blocks, ranges, and detached villas are adorned with the finest +and most aristocratic manes that I have found anywhere in England, +except, perhaps, in Bath, which is the great metropolis of that +second-class gentility with which watering-places are chiefly populated. +Lansdowne Crescent, Lansdowne Circus, Lansdowne Terrace, Regent Street, +Warwick Street, Clarendon Street, the Upper and Lower Parade: such are a +few of the designations. Parade, indeed, is a well-chosen name for the +principal street, along which the population of the idle town draws +itself out for daily review and display. I only wish that my descriptive +powers would enable me to throw off a picture of the scene at a sunny +noontide, individualizing each character with a touch the great people +alighting from their carriages at the principal shop-doors; the elderly +ladies and infirm Indian officers drawn along in Bath-chairs; the comely, +rather than pretty, English girls, with their deep, healthy bloom, which +an American taste is apt to deem fitter for a milkmaid than for a lady; +the mustached gentlemen with frogged surtouts and a military air; the +nursemaids and chubby children, but no chubbier than our own, and +scampering on slenderer legs; the sturdy figure of John Bull in all +varieties and of all ages, but ever with the stamp of authenticity +somewhere about him. + +To say the truth, I have been holding the pen over my paper, purposing to +write a descriptive paragraph or two about the throng on the principal +Parade of Leamington, so arranging it as to present a sketch of the +British out-of-door aspect on a morning walk of gentility; but I find no +personages quite sufficiently distinct and individual in my memory to +supply the materials of such a panorama. + +Oddly enough, the only figure that comes fairly forth to my mind's eye is +that of a dowager, one of hundreds whom I used to marvel at, all over +England, but who have scarcely a representative among our own ladies of +autumnal life, so thin, careworn, and frail, as age usually makes the +latter. + +I have heard a good deal of the tenacity with which English ladies retain +their personal beauty to a late period of life; but (not to suggest that +an American eye needs use and cultivation before it can quite appreciate +the charm of English beauty at any age) it strikes me that an English +lady of fifty is apt to become a creature less refined and delicate, so +far as her physique goes, than anything that we Western people class +under the name of woman. She has an awful ponderosity of frame, not +pulpy, like the looser development of our few fat women, but massive with +solid beef and streaky tallow; so that (though struggling manfully +against the idea) you inevitably think of her as made up of steaks and +sirloins. When she walks, her advance is elephantine. When she sits +down, it is on a great round space of her Maker's footstool, where she +looks as if nothing could ever move her. She imposes awe and respect by +the muchness of her personality, to such a degree that you probably +credit her with far greater moral and intellectual force than she can +fairly claim. Her visage is usually grim and stern, seldom positively +forbidding, yet calmly terrible, not merely by its breadth and +weight of feature, but because it seems to express so much well-founded +self-reliance, such acquaintance with the world, its toils, troubles, and +dangers, and such sturdy capacity for trampling down a foe. Without +anything positively salient, or actively offensive, or, indeed, unjustly +formidable to her neighbors, she has the effect of a seventy-four +gun-ship in time of peace; for, while you assure yourself that there is +no real danger, you cannot help thinking how tremendous would be her +onset, if pugnaciously inclined, and how futile the effort to inflict any +counter-injury. She certainly looks tenfold--nay, a hundred-fold--better +able to take care of herself than our slender-framed and haggard +womankind; but I have not found reason to suppose that the English +dowager of fifty has actually greater courage, fortitude, and strength of +character than our women of similar age, or even a tougher physical +endurance than they. Morally, she is strong, I suspect, only in society, +and in the common routine of social affairs, and would be found powerless +and timid in any exceptional strait that might call for energy outside of +the conventionalities amid which she has grown up. + +You can meet this figure in the street, and live, and even smile at the +recollection. But conceive of her in a ball-room, with the bare, brawny +arms that she invariably displays there, and all the other corresponding +development, such as is beautiful in the maiden blossom, but a spectacle +to howl at in such an over-blown cabbage-rose as this. + +Yet, somewhere in this enormous bulk there must be hidden the modest, +slender, violet-nature of a girl, whom an alien mass of earthliness has +unkindly overgrown; for an English maiden in her teens, though very +seldom so pretty as our own damsels, possesses, to say the truth, a +certain charm of half-blossom, and delicately folded leaves, and tender +womanhood shielded by maidenly reserves, with which, somehow or other, +our American girls often fail to adorn themselves during an appreciable +moment. It is a pity that the English violet should grow into such an +outrageously developed peony as I have attempted to describe. I wonder +whether a middle-aged husband ought to be considered as legally married +to all the accretions that have overgrown the slenderness of his bride, +since he led her to the altar, and which make her so much more than he +ever bargained for! Is it not a sounder view of the case, that the +matrimonial bond cannot be held to include the three fourths of the wife +that had no existence when the ceremony was performed? And as a matter +of conscience and good morals, ought not an English married pair to +insist upon the celebration of a silver-wedding at the end of twenty-five +years, in order to legalize and mutually appropriate that corporeal +growth of which both parties have individually come into possession since +they were pronounced one flesh? + +The chief enjoyment of my several visits to Leamington lay in rural walks +about the neighborhood, and in jaunts to places of note and interest, +which are particularly abundant in that region. The high-roads are made +pleasant to the traveller by a border of trees, and often afford him the +hospitality of a wayside bench beneath a comfortable shade. But a +fresher delight is to be found in the foot-paths, which go wandering away +from stile to stile, along hedges, and across broad fields, and through +wooded parks, leading you to little hamlets of thatched cottages, +ancient, solitary farm-houses, picturesque old mills, streamlets, pools, +and all those quiet, secret, unexpected, yet strangely familiar features +of English scenery that Tennyson shows us in his idyls and eclogues. +These by-paths admit the wayfarer into the very heart of rural life, and +yet do not burden him with a sense of intrusiveness. He has a right to +go whithersoever they lead him; for, with all their shaded privacy, they +are as much the property of the public as the dusty high-road itself, and +even by an older tenure. Their antiquity probably exceeds that of the +Roman ways; the footsteps of the aboriginal Britons first wore away the +grass, and the natural flow of intercourse between village and village +has kept the track bare ever since. An American farmer would plough +across any such path, and obliterate it with his hills of potatoes and +Indian corn; but here it is protected by law, and still more by the +sacredness that inevitably springs up, in this soil, along the +well-defined footprints of centuries. Old associations are sure to be +fragrant herbs in English nostrils; we pull them up as weeds. + +I remember such a path, the access to which is from Lovers' Grove, a +range of tall old oaks and elms on a high hill-top, whence there is a +view of Warwick Castle, and a wide extent of landscape, beautiful, though +bedimmed with English mist. This particular foot-path, however, is not a +remarkably good specimen of its kind, since it leads into no hollows and +seclusions, and soon terminates in a high-road. It connects Leamington +by a short cut with the small neighboring village of Lillington, a place +which impresses an American observer with its many points of contrast to +the rural aspects of his own country. The village consists chiefly of +one row of contiguous dwellings, separated only by party-walls, but +ill-matched among themselves, being of different heights, and apparently +of various ages, though all are of an antiquity which we should call +venerable. Some of the windows are leaden-framed lattices, opening on +hinges. These houses are mostly built of gray stone; but others, in the +same range, are of brick, and one or two are in a very old fashion,-- +Elizabethan, or still older,--having a ponderous framework of oak, +painted black, and filled in with plastered stone or bricks. Judging by +the patches of repair, the oak seems to be the more durable part of the +structure. Some of the roofs are covered with earthen tiles; others +(more decayed and poverty-stricken) with thatch, out of which sprouts a +luxurious vegetation of grass, house-leeks, and yellow flowers. What +especially strikes an American is the lack of that insulated space, the +intervening gardens, grass-plots, orchards, broad-spreading shade-trees, +which occur between our own village-houses. These English dwellings have +no such separate surroundings; they all grow together, like the cells of +a honeycomb. + +Beyond the first row of houses, and hidden from it by a turn of the road, +there was another row (or block, as we should call it) of small old +cottages, stuck one against another, with their thatched roofs forming a +single contiguity. These, I presume, were the habitations of the poorest +order of rustic laborers; and the narrow precincts of each cottage, as +well as the close neighborhood of the whole, gave the impression of a +stifled, unhealthy atmosphere among the occupants. It seemed impossible +that there should be a cleanly reserve, a proper self-respect among +individuals, or a wholesome unfamiliarity between families where human +life was crowded and massed into such intimate communities as these. +Nevertheless, not to look beyond the outside, I never saw a prettier +rural scene than was presented by this range of contiguous huts. For in +front of the whole row was a luxuriant and well-trimmed hawthorn hedge, +and belonging to each cottage was a little square of garden-ground, +separated from its neighbors by a line of the same verdant fence. The +gardens were chockfull, not of esculent vegetables, but of flowers, +familiar ones, but very bright-colored, and shrubs of box, some of which +were trimmed into artistic shapes; and I remember, before one door, a +representation of Warwick Castle, made of oyster-shells. The cottagers +evidently loved the little nests in which they dwelt, and did their best +to make them beautiful, and succeeded more than tolerably well,--so +kindly did nature help their humble efforts with its verdure, flowers, +moss, lichens, and the green things that grew out of the thatch. Through +some of the open doorways we saw plump children rolling about on the +stone floors, and their mothers, by no means very pretty, but as +happy-looking as mothers generally are; and while we gazed at these +domestic matters, an old woman rushed wildly out of one of the gates, +upholding a shovel, on which she clanged and clattered with a key. At +first we fancied that she intended an onslaught against ourselves, but +soon discovered that a more dangerous enemy was abroad; for the old +lady's bees had swarmed, and the air was full of them, whizzing by our +heads like bullets. + +Not far from these two rows of houses and cottages, a green lane, +overshadowed with trees, turned aside from the main road, and tended +towards a square, gray tower, the battlements of which were just high +enough to be visible above the foliage. Wending our way thitherward, we +found the very picture and ideal of a country church and churchyard. The +tower seemed to be of Norman architecture, low, massive, and crowned with +battlements. The body of the church was of very modest dimensions, and +the eaves so low that I could touch them with my walking-stick. We +looked into the windows and beheld the dim and quiet interior, a narrow +space, but venerable with the consecration of many centuries, and keeping +its sanctity as entire and inviolate as that of a vast cathedral. The +nave was divided from the side aisles of the church by pointed arches +resting on very sturdy pillars: it was good to see how solemnly they held +themselves to their age-long task of supporting that lowly roof. There +was a small organ, suited in size to the vaulted hollow, which it weekly +filled with religious sound. On the opposite wall of the church, between +two windows, was a mural tablet of white marble, with an inscription in +black letters,--the only such memorial that I could discern, although +many dead people doubtless lay beneath the floor, and had paved it with +their ancient tombstones, as is customary in old English churches. There +were no modern painted windows, flaring with raw colors, nor other +gorgeous adornments, such as the present taste for mediaeval restoration +often patches upon the decorous simplicity of the gray village-church. +It is probably the worshipping-place of no more distinguished a +congregation than the farmers and peasantry who inhabit the houses and +cottages which I have just described. Had the lord of the manor been one +of the parishioners, there would have been an eminent pew near the +chancel, walled high about, curtained, and softly cushioned, warmed by a +fireplace of its own, and distinguished by hereditary tablets and +escutcheons on the enclosed stone pillar. + +A well-trodden path led across the churchyard, and the gate being on the +latch, we entered, and walked round among the graves and monuments. The +latter were chiefly head-stones, none of which were very old, so far as +was discoverable by the dates; some, indeed, in so ancient a cemetery, +were disagreeably new, with inscriptions glittering like sunshine in gold +letters. The ground must have been dug over and over again, innumerable +times, until the soil is made up of what was once human clay, out of +which have sprung successive crops of gravestones, that flourish their +allotted time, and disappear, like the weeds and flowers in their briefer +period. The English climate is very unfavorable to the endurance of +memorials in the open air. Twenty years of it suffice to give as much +antiquity of aspect, whether to tombstone or edifice, as a hundred years +of our own drier atmosphere,--so soon do the drizzly rains and constant +moisture corrode the surface of marble or freestone. Sculptured edges +loose their sharpness in a year or two; yellow lichens overspread a +beloved name, and obliterate it while it is yet fresh upon some +survivor's heart. Time gnaws an English gravestone with wonderful +appetite; and when the inscription is quite illegible, the sexton takes +the useless slab away, and perhaps makes a hearthstone of it, and digs up +the unripe bones which it ineffectually tried to memorialize, and gives +the bed to another sleeper. In the Charter Street burial-ground at +Salem, and in the old graveyard on the hill at Ipswich, I have seen more +ancient gravestones, with legible inscriptions on them, than in any +English churchyard. + +And yet this same ungenial climate, hostile as it generally is to the +long remembrance of departed people, has sometimes a lovely way of +dealing with the records on certain monuments that lie horizontally in +the open air. The rain falls into the deep incisions of the letters, and +has scarcely time to be dried away before another shower sprinkles the +flat stone again, and replenishes those little reservoirs. The unseen, +mysterious seeds of mosses find their way into the lettered furrows, and +are made to germinate by the continual moisture and watery sunshine of +the English sky; and by and by, in a year, or two years, or many years, +behold the complete inscription-- + + Here Lieth the body, + +and all the rest of the tender falsehood--beautifully embossed in raised +letters of living green, a bas-relief of velvet moss on the marble slab! +It becomes more legible, under the skyey influences, after the world has +forgotten the deceased, than when it was fresh from the stone-cutter's +hands. It outlives the grief of friends. I first saw an example of this +in Bebbington churchyard, in Cheshire, and thought that Nature must needs +have had a special tenderness for the person (no noted man, however, in +the world's history) so long ago laid beneath that stone, since she took +such wonderful pains to "keep his memory green." Perhaps the proverbial +phrase just quoted may have had its origin in the natural phenomenon here +described. + +While we rested ourselves on a horizontal monument, which was elevated +just high enough to be a convenient seat, I observed that one of the +gravestones lay very close to the church,--so close that the droppings of +the eaves would fall upon it. It seemed as if the inmate of that grave +had desired to creep under the church-wall. On closer inspection, we +found an almost illegible epitaph on the stone, and with difficulty made +out this forlorn verse:-- + + "Poorly lived, + And poorly died, + Poorly buried, + And no one cried." + +It would be hard to compress the story of a cold and luckless life, +death, and burial into fewer words, or more impressive ones; at least, we +found them impressive, perhaps because we had to re-create the +inscription by scraping away the lichens from the faintly traced letters. +The grave was on the shady and damp side of the church, endwise towards +it, the head-stone being within about three feet of the foundation-wall; +so that, unless the poor man was a dwarf, he must have been doubled up to +fit him into his final resting-place. No wonder that his epitaph +murmured against so poor a burial as this! His name, as well as I could +make it out, was Treeo,--John Treeo, I think,--and he died in 1810, at +the age of seventy-four. The gravestone is so overgrown with grass and +weeds, so covered with unsightly lichens, and so crumbly with time and +foul weather, that it is questionable whether anybody will ever be at the +trouble of deciphering it again. But there is a quaint and sad kind of +enjoyment in defeating (to such slight degree as my pen may do it) the +probabilities of oblivion for poor John Treeo, and asking a little +sympathy for him, half a century after his death, and making him better +and more widely known, at least, than any other slumberer in Lillington +churchyard: he having been, as appearances go, the outcast of them all. + +You find similar old churches and villages in all the neighboring +country, at the distance of every two or three miles; and I describe +them, not as being rare, but because they are so common and +characteristic. The village of Whitnash, within twenty minutes' walk of +Leamington, looks as secluded, as rural, and as little disturbed by the +fashions of to-day, as if Dr. Jephson had never developed all those +Parades and Crescents out of his magic well. I used to wonder whether +the inhabitants had ever yet heard of railways, or, at their slow rate of +progress, had even reached the epoch of stage-coaches. As you approach +the village, while it is yet unseen, you observe a tall, overshadowing +canopy of elm-tree tops, beneath which you almost hesitate to follow the +public road, on account of the remoteness that seems to exist between the +precincts of this old-world community and the thronged modern street out +of which you have so recently emerged. Venturing onward, however, you +soon find yourself in the heart of Whitnash, and see an irregular ring of +ancient rustic dwellings surrounding the village-green, on one side of +which stands the church, with its square Norman tower and battlements, +while close adjoining is the vicarage, made picturesque by peaks and +gables. At first glimpse, none of the houses appear to be less than two +or three centuries old, and they are of the ancient, wooden-framed +fashion, with thatched roofs, which give them the air of birds' nests, +thereby assimilating them closely to the simplicity of nature. + +The church-tower is mossy and much gnawed by time; it has narrow +loopholes up and down its front and sides, and an arched window over the +low portal, set with small panes of glass, cracked, dim, and irregular, +through which a bygone age is peeping out into the daylight. Some of +those old, grotesque faces, called gargoyles, are seen on the projections +of the architecture. The churchyard is very small, and is encompassed by +a gray stone fence that looks as ancient as the church itself. In front +of the tower, on the village-green, is a yew-tree of incalculable age, +with a vast circumference of trunk, but a very scanty head of foliage; +though its boughs still keep some of the vitality which perhaps was in +its early prime when the Saxon invaders founded Whitnash. A thousand +years is no extraordinary antiquity in the lifetime of a yew. We were +pleasantly startled, however, by discovering an exuberance of more +youthful life than we had thought possible in so old a tree; for the +faces of two children laughed at us out of an opening in the trunk, which +had become hollow with long decay. On one side of the yew stood a +framework of worm-eaten timber, the use and meaning of which puzzled me +exceedingly, till I made it out to be the village-stocks; a public +institution that, in its day, had doubtless hampered many a pair of +shank-bones, now crumbling in the adjacent churchyard. It is not to be +supposed, however, that this old-fashioned mode of punishment is still in +vogue among the good people of Whitnash. The vicar of the parish has +antiquarian propensities, and had probably dragged the stocks out of some +dusty hiding-place, and set them up on their former site as a curiosity. + +I disquiet myself in vain with the effort to hit upon some characteristic +feature, or assemblage of features, that shall convey to the reader the +influence of hoar antiquity lingering into the present daylight, as I so +often felt it in these old English scenes. It is only an American who +can feel it; and even he begins to find himself growing insensible to its +effect, after a long residence in England. But while you are still new +in the old country, it thrills you with strange emotion to think that +this little church of Whitnash, humble as it seems, stood for ages under +the Catholic faith, and has not materially changed since Wickcliffe's +days, and that it looked as gray as now in Bloody Mary's time, and that +Cromwell's troopers broke off the stone noses of those same gargoyles +that are now grinning in your face. So, too, with the immemorial +yew-tree: you see its great roots grasping hold of the earth like +gigantic claws, clinging so sturdily that no effort of time can wrench +them away; and there being life in the old tree, you feel all the more as +if a contemporary witness were telling you of the things that have been. +It has lived among men, and been a familiar object to them, and seen them +brought to be christened and married and buried in the neighboring church +and churchyard, through so many centuries, that it knows all about our +race, so far as fifty generations of the Whitnash people can supply such +knowledge. + +And, after all, what a weary life it must have been for the old tree! +Tedious beyond imagination! Such, I think, is the final impression on +the mind of an American visitor, when his delight at finding something +permanent begins to yield to his Western love of change, and he becomes +sensible of the heavy air of a spot where the forefathers and foremothers +have grown up together, intermarried, and died, through a long succession +of lives, without any intermixture of new elements, till family features +and character are all run in the same inevitable mould. Life is there +fossilized in its greenest leaf. The man who died yesterday or ever so +long ago walks the village-street to day, and chooses the same wife that +he married a hundred years since, and must be buried again to-morrow +under the same kindred dust that has already covered him half a score of +times. The stone threshold of his cottage is worn away with his +hobnailed footsteps, shuffling over it from the reign of the first +Plantagenet to that of Victoria. Better than this is the lot of our +restless countrymen, whose modern instinct bids them tend always towards +"fresh woods and pastures new." Rather than such monotony of sluggish +ages, loitering on a village-green, toiling in hereditary fields, +listening to the parson's drone lengthened through centuries in the gray +Norman church, let us welcome whatever change may come,--change of place, +social customs, political institutions, modes of worship,--trusting, +that, if all present things shall vanish, they will but make room for +better systems, and for a higher type of man to clothe his life in them, +and to fling them off in turn. + +Nevertheless, while an American willingly accepts growth and change as +the law of his own national and private existence, he has a singular +tenderness for the stone-incrusted institutions of the mother-country. +The reason may be (though I should prefer a more generous explanation) +that he recognizes the tendency of these hardened forms to stiffen her +joints and fetter her ankles, in the race and rivalry of improvement. I +hated to see so much as a twig of ivy wrenched away from an old wall in +England. Yet change is at work, even in such a village as Whitnash. At +a subsequent visit, looking more critically at the irregular circle of +dwellings that surround the yew-tree and confront the church, I perceived +that some of the houses must have been built within no long time, +although the thatch, the quaint gables, and the old oaken framework of +the others diffused an air of antiquity over the whole assemblage. The +church itself was undergoing repair and restoration, which is but another +name for change. Masons were making patchwork on the front of the tower, +and were sawing a slab of stone and piling up bricks to strengthen the +side-wall, or possibly to enlarge the ancient edifice by an additional +aisle. Moreover, they had dug an immense pit in the churchyard, long and +broad, and fifteen feet deep, two thirds of which profundity were +discolored by human decay, and mixed up with crumbly bones. What this +excavation was intended for I could nowise imagine, unless it were the +very pit in which Longfellow bids the "Dead Past bury its Dead," and +Whitnash, of all places in the world, were going to avail itself of our +poet's suggestion. If so, it must needs be confessed that many +picturesque and delightful things would be thrown into the hole, and +covered out of sight forever. + +The article which I am writing has taken its own course, and occupied +itself almost wholly with country churches; whereas I had purposed to +attempt a description of some of the many old towns--Warwick, Coventry, +Kenilworth, Stratford-on-Avon--which lie within an easy scope of +Leamington. And still another church presents itself to my remembrance. +It is that of Hatton, on which I stumbled in the course of a forenoon's +ramble, and paused a little while to look at it for the sake of old Dr. +Parr, who was once its vicar. Hatton, so far as I could discover, has no +public-house, no shop, no contiguity of roofs (as in most English +villages, however small), but is merely an ancient neighborhood of +farm-houses, spacious, and standing wide apart, each within its own +precincts, and offering a most comfortable aspect of orchards, +harvest-fields, barns, stacks, and all manner of rural plenty. It seemed +to be a community of old settlers, among whom everything had been going +on prosperously since an epoch beyond the memory of man; and they kept a +certain privacy among themselves, and dwelt on a cross-road, at the +entrance of which was a barred gate, hospitably open, but still +impressing me with a sense of scarcely warrantable intrusion. After all, +in some shady nook of those gentle Warwickshire slopes there may have +been a denser and more populous settlement, styled Hatton, which I never +reached. + +Emerging from the by-road, and entering upon one that crossed it at right +angles and led to Warwick, I espied the church of Dr. Parr. Like the +others which I have described, it had a low stone tower, square, and +battlemented at its summit: for all these little churches seem to have +been built on the same model, and nearly at the same measurement, and +have even a greater family-likeness than the cathedrals. As I +approached, the bell of the tower (a remarkably deep-toned bell, +considering how small it was) flung its voice abroad, and told me that it +was noon. The church stands among its graves, a little removed from the +wayside, quite apart from any collection of houses, and with no signs of +vicarage; it is a good deal shadowed by trees, and not wholly destitute +of ivy. The body of the edifice, unfortunately (and it is an outrage +which the English church-wardens are fond of perpetrating), has been +newly covered with a yellowish plaster or wash, so as quite to destroy +the aspect of antiquity, except upon the tower, which wears the dark gray +hue of many centuries. The chancel-window is painted with a +representation of Christ upon the Cross, and all the other windows are +full of painted or stained glass, but none of it ancient, nor (if it be +fair to judge from without of what ought to be seen within) possessing +any of the tender glory that should be the inheritance of this branch of +Art, revived from mediaeval times. I stepped over the graves, and peeped +in at two or three of the windows, and saw the snug interior of the +church glimmering through the many-colored panes, like a show of +commonplace objects under the fantastic influence of a dream: for the +floor was covered with modern pews, very like what we may see in a New +England meeting-house, though, I think, a little more favorable than +those would be to the quiet slumbers of the Hatton farmers and their +families. Those who slept under Dr. Parr's preaching now prolong their +nap, I suppose, in the churchyard round about, and can scarcely have +drawn much spiritual benefit from any truths that he contrived to tell +them in their lifetime. It struck me as a rare example (even where +examples are numerous) of a man utterly misplaced, that this enormous +scholar, great in the classic tongues, and inevitably converting his own +simplest vernacular into a learned language, should have been set up in +this homely pulpit, and ordained to preach salvation to a rustic +audience, to whom it is difficult to imagine how he could ever have +spoken one available word. + +Almost always, in visiting such scenes as I have been attempting to +describe, I had a singular sense of having been there before. The +ivy-grown English churches (even that of Bebbington, the first that I +beheld) were quite as familiar to me, when fresh from home, as the old +wooden meeting-house in Salem, which used, on wintry Sabbaths, to be the +frozen purgatory of my childhood. This was a bewildering, yet very +delightful emotion fluttering about me like a faint summer wind, and +filling my imagination with a thousand half-remembrances, which looked as +vivid as sunshine, at a side-glance, but faded quite away whenever I +attempted to grasp and define them. Of course, the explanation of the +mystery was, that history, poetry, and fiction, books of travel, and the +talk of tourists, had given me pretty accurate preconceptions of the +common objects of English scenery, and these, being long ago vivified by +a youthful fancy, had insensibly taken their places among the images of +things actually seen. Yet the illusion was often so powerful, that I +almost doubted whether such airy remembrances might not be a sort of +innate idea, the print of a recollection in some ancestral mind, +transmitted, with fainter and fainter impress through several descents, +to my own. I felt, indeed, like the stalwart progenitor in person, +returning to the hereditary haunts after more than two hundred years, and +finding the church, the hall, the farm-house, the cottage, hardly changed +during his long absence,--the same shady by-paths and hedge-lanes, the +same veiled sky, and green lustre of the lawns and fields,--while his own +affinities for these things, a little obscured by disuse, were reviving +at every step. + +An American is not very apt to love the English people, as a whole, on +whatever length of acquaintance. I fancy that they would value our +regard, and even reciprocate it in their ungracious way, if we could give +it to them in spite of all rebuffs; but they are beset by a curious and +inevitable infelicity, which compels them, as it were, to keep up what +they seem to consider a wholesome bitterness of feeling between +themselves and all other nationalities, especially that of America. They +will never confess it; nevertheless, it is as essential a tonic to them +as their bitter ale. Therefore,--and possibly, too, from a similar +narrowness in his own character,--an American seldom feels quite as if he +were at home among the English people. If he do so, he has ceased to be +an American. But it requires no long residence to make him love their +island, and appreciate it as thoroughly as they themselves do. For my +part, I used to wish that we could annex it, transferring their thirty +millions of inhabitants to some convenient wilderness in the great West, +and putting half or a quarter as many of ourselves into their places. +The change would be beneficial to both parties. We, in our dry +atmosphere, are getting too nervous, haggard, dyspeptic, extenuated, +unsubstantial, theoretic, and need to be made grosser. John Bull, on the +other hand, has grown bulbous, long-bodied, short-legged, heavy-witted, +material, and, in a word, too intensely English. In a few more centuries +he will be the earthliest creature that ever the earth saw. Heretofore +Providence has obviated such a result by timely intermixtures of alien +races with the old English stock; so that each successive conquest of +England has proved a victory by the revivification and improvement of its +native manhood. Cannot America and England hit upon some scheme to +secure even greater advantages to both nations? + + + + +ABOUT WARWICK. + + +Between bright, new Leamington, the growth of the present century, and +rusty Warwick, founded by King Cymbeline in the twilight ages, a thousand +years before the mediaeval darkness, there are two roads, either of which +may be measured by a sober-paced pedestrian in less than half an hour. + +One of these avenues flows out of the midst of the smart parades and +crescents of the former town,--along by hedges and beneath the shadow of +great elms, past stuccoed Elizabethan villas and wayside alehouses, and +through a hamlet of modern aspect,--and runs straight into the principal +thoroughfare of Warwick. The battlemented turrets of the castle, +embowered half-way up in foliage, and the tall, slender tower of St. +Mary's Church, rising from among clustered roofs, have been visible +almost from the commencement of the walk. Near the entrance of the town +stands St. John's School-House, a picturesque old edifice of stone, with +four peaked gables in a row, alternately plain and ornamented, and wide, +projecting windows, and a spacious and venerable porch, all overgrown +with moss and ivy, and shut in from the world by a high stone fence, not +less mossy than the gabled front. There is an iron gate, through the +rusty open-work of which you see a grassy lawn, and almost expect to meet +the shy, curious eyes of the little boys of past generations, peeping +forth from their infantile antiquity into the strangeness of our present +life. I find a peculiar charm in these long-established English schools, +where the school-boy of to-day sits side by side, as it were, with his +great-grandsire, on the same old benches, and often, I believe, thumbs a +later, but unimproved edition of the same old grammar or arithmetic. The +newfangled notions of a Yankee school-committee would madden many a +pedagogue, and shake down the roof of many a time-honored seat of +learning, in the mother-country. + +At this point, however, we will turn back, in order to follow up the +other road from Leamington, which was the one that I loved best to take. +It pursues a straight and level course, bordered by wide gravel-walks and +overhung by the frequent elm, with here a cottage and there a villa, on +one side a wooded plantation, and on the other a rich field of grass or +grain, until, turning at right angles, it brings you to an arched bridge +over the Avon. Its parapet is a balustrade carved out of freestone, into +the soft substance of which a multitude of persons have engraved their +names or initials, many of them now illegible, while others, more deeply +cut, are illuminated with fresh green moss. These tokens indicate a +famous spot; and casting our eyes along the smooth gleam and shadow of +the quiet stream, through a vista of willows that droop on either side +into the water, we behold the gray magnificence of Warwick Castle, +uplifting itself among stately trees, and rearing its turrets high above +their loftiest branches. We can scarcely think the scene real, so +completely do those machicolated towers, the long line of battlements, +the massive buttresses, the high-windowed walls, shape out our indistinct +ideas of the antique time. It might rather seem as if the sleepy river +(being Shakespeare's Avon, and often, no doubt, the mirror of his +gorgeous visions) were dreaming now of a lordly residence that stood here +many centuries ago; and this fantasy is strengthened, when you observe +that the image in the tranquil water has all the distinctness of the +actual structure. Either might be the reflection of the other. Wherever +Time has gnawed one of the stones, you see the mark of his tooth just as +plainly in the sunken reflection. Each is so perfect, that the upper +vision seems a castle in the air, and the lower one an old stronghold of +feudalism, miraculously kept from decay in an enchanted river. + +A ruinous and ivy-grown bridge, that projects from the bank a little on +the hither side of the castle, has the effect of making the scene appear +more entirely apart from the every-day world, for it ends abruptly in the +middle of the stream,--so that, if a cavalcade of the knights and ladies +of romance should issue from the old walls, they could never tread on +earthly ground, any more than we, approaching from the side of modern +realism, can overleap the gulf between our domain and theirs. Yet, if we +seek to disenchant ourselves, it may readily be done. Crossing the +bridge on which we stand, and passing a little farther on, we come to the +entrance of the castle, abutting on the highway, and hospitably open at +certain hours to all curious pilgrims who choose to disburse half a crown +or so toward the support of the earl's domestics. The sight of that long +series of historic rooms, full of such splendors and rarities as a great +English family necessarily gathers about itself, in its hereditary abode, +and in the lapse of ages, is well worth the money, or ten times as much, +if indeed the value of the spectacle could be reckoned in money's-worth. +But after the attendant has hurried you from end to end of the edifice, +repeating a guide-book by rote, and exorcising each successive hall of +its poetic glamour and witchcraft by the mere tone in which he talks +about it, you will make the doleful discovery that Warwick Castle has +ceased to be a dream. It is better, methinks, to linger on the bridge, +gazing at Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower in the dim English sunshine +above, and in the placid Avon below, and still keep them as thoughts in +your own mind, than climb to their summits, or touch even a stone of +their actual substance. They will have all the more reality for you, as +stalwart relics of immemorial time, if you are reverent enough to leave +them in the intangible sanctity of a poetic vision. + +From the bridge over the Avon, the road passes in front of the +castle-gate, and soon enters the principal street of Warwick, a little +beyond St. John's School-House, already described. Chester itself, most +antique of English towns, can hardly show quainter architectural shapes +than many of the buildings that border this street. They are mostly of +the timber-and-plaster kind, with bowed and decrepit ridge-poles, and a +whole chronology of various patchwork in their walls; their low-browed +doorways open upon a sunken floor; their projecting stories peep, as it +were, over one another's shoulders, and rise into a multiplicity of +peaked gables; they have curious windows, breaking out irregularly all +over the house, some even in the roof, set in their own little peaks, +opening lattice-wise, and furnished with twenty small panes of +lozenge-shaped glass. The architecture of these edifices (a visible +oaken framework, showing the whole skeleton of the house,--as if a man's +bones should be arranged on his outside, and his flesh seen through the +interstices) is often imitated by modern builders, and with sufficiently +picturesque effect. The objection is, that such houses, like all +imitations of bygone styles, have an air of affectation; they do not seem +to be built in earnest; they are no better than playthings, or overgrown +baby-houses, in which nobody should be expected to encounter the serious +realities of either birth or death. Besides, originating nothing, we +leave no fashions for another age to copy, when we ourselves shall have +grown antique. + +Old as it looks, all this portion of Warwick has overbrimmed, as it were, +from the original settlement, being outside of the ancient wall. The +street soon runs under an arched gateway, with a church or some other +venerable structure above it, and admits us into the heart of the town. +At one of my first visits, I witnessed a military display. A regiment of +Warwickshire militia, probably commanded by the Earl, was going through +its drill in the market-place; and on the collar of one of the officers +was embroidered the Bear and Ragged Staff, which has been the cognizance +of the Warwick earldom from time immemorial. The soldiers were sturdy +young men, with the simple, stolid, yet kindly faces of English rustics, +looking exceedingly well in a body, but slouching into a yeoman-like +carriage and appearance the moment they were dismissed from drill. +Squads of them were distributed everywhere about the streets, and +sentinels were posted at various points; and I saw a sergeant, with a +great key in his hand (big enough to have been the key of the castle's +main entrance when the gate was thickest and heaviest), apparently +setting a guard. Thus, centuries after feudal times are past, we find +warriors still gathering under the old castle-walls, and commanded by a +feudal lord, just as in the days of the King-Maker, who, no doubt, often +mustered his retainers in the same market-place where I beheld this +modern regiment. + +The interior of the town wears a less old-fashioned aspect than the +suburbs through which we approach it; and the High Street has shops with +modern plate-glass, and buildings with stuccoed fronts, exhibiting as few +projections to hang a thought or sentiment upon as if an architect of +to-day had planned them. And, indeed, so far as their surface goes, they +are perhaps new enough to stand unabashed in an American street; but +behind these renovated faces, with their monotonous lack of expression, +there is probably the substance of the same old town that wore a Gothic +exterior in the Middle Ages. The street is an emblem of England itself. +What seems new in it is chiefly a skilful and fortunate adaptation of +what such a people as ourselves would destroy. The new things are based +and supported on sturdy old things, and derive a massive strength from +their deep and immemorial foundations, though with such limitations and +impediments as only an Englishman could endure. But he likes to feel the +weight of all the past upon his back; and, moreover, the antiquity that +overburdens him has taken root in his being, and has grown to be rather a +hump than a pack, so that there is no getting rid of it without tearing +his whole structure to pieces. In my judgment, as he appears to be +sufficiently comfortable under the mouldy accretion, he had better +stumble on with it as long as he can. He presents a spectacle which is +by no means without its charm for a disinterested and unencumbered +observer. + +When the old edifice, or the antiquated custom or institution, appears in +its pristine form, without any attempt at intermarrying it with modern +fashions, an American cannot but admire the picturesque effect produced +by the sudden cropping up of an apparently dead-and-buried state of +society into the actual present, of which he is himself a part. We need +not go far in Warwick without encountering an instance of the kind. +Proceeding westward through the town, we find ourselves confronted by a +huge mass of natural rock, hewn into something like architectural shape, +and penetrated by a vaulted passage, which may well have been one of King +Cymbeline's original gateways; and on the top of the rock, over the +archway, sits a small old church, communicating with an ancient edifice, +or assemblage of edifices, that look down from a similar elevation on the +side of the street. A range of trees half hides the latter establishment +from the sun. It presents a curious and venerable specimen of the +timber-and-plaster style of building, in which some of the finest old +houses in England are constructed; the front projects into porticos and +vestibules, and rises into many gables, some in a row, and others +crowning semi-detached portions of the structure; the windows mostly open +on hinges, but show a delightful irregularity of shape and position; a +multiplicity of chimneys break through the roof at their own will, or, at +least, without any settled purpose of the architect. The whole affair +looks very old,--so old indeed that the front bulges forth, as if the +timber framework were a little weary, at last, of standing erect so long; +but the state of repair is so perfect, and there is such an indescribable +aspect of continuous vitality within the system of this aged house, that +you feel confident that there may be safe shelter yet, and perhaps for +centuries to come, under its time-honored roof. And on a bench, +sluggishly enjoying the sunshine, and looking into the street of Warwick +as from a life apart, a few old men are generally to be seen, wrapped in +long cloaks, on which you may detect the glistening of a silver badge +representing the Bear and Ragged Staff. These decorated worthies are +some of the twelve brethren of Leicester's Hospital,--a community which +subsists to-day under the identical modes that were established for it in +the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and of course retains many features of a +social life that has vanished almost everywhere else. + +The edifice itself dates from a much older period than the charitable +institution of which it is now the home. It was the seat of a religious +fraternity far back in the Middle Ages, and continued so till Henry VIII. +turned all the priesthood of England out of doors, and put the most +unscrupulous of his favorites into their vacant abodes. In many +instances, the old monks had chosen the sites of their domiciles so well, +and built them on such a broad system of beauty and convenience, that +their lay-occupants found it easy to convert them into stately and +comfortable homes; and as such they still exist, with something of the +antique reverence lingering about them. The structure now before us +seems to have been first granted to Sir Nicholas Lestrange, who perhaps +intended, like other men, to establish his household gods in the niches +whence he had thrown down the images of saints, and to lay his hearth +where an altar had stood. But there was probably a natural reluctance in +those days (when Catholicism, so lately repudiated, must needs have +retained an influence over all but the most obdurate characters) to bring +one's hopes of domestic prosperity and a fortunate lineage into direct +hostility with the awful claims of the ancient religion. At all events, +there is still a superstitious idea, betwixt a fantasy and a belief, that +the possession of former Church-property has drawn a curse along with it, +not only among the posterity of those to whom it was originally granted, +but wherever it has subsequently been transferred, even if honestly +bought and paid for. There are families, now inhabiting some of the +beautiful old abbeys, who appear to indulge a species of pride in +recording the strange deaths and ugly shapes of misfortune that have +occurred among their predecessors, and may be supposed likely to dog +their own pathway down the ages of futurity. Whether Sir Nicholas +Lestrange, in the beef-eating days of Old Harry and Elizabeth, was a +nervous man, and subject to apprehensions of this kind, I cannot tell; +but it is certain that he speedily rid himself of the spoils of the +Church, and that, within twenty years afterwards, the edifice became the +property of the famous Dudley, Earl of Leicester, brother of the Earl of +Warwick. He devoted the ancient religious precinct to a charitable use, +endowing it with an ample revenue, and making it the perpetual home of +twelve poor, honest, and war-broken soldiers, mostly his own retainers, +and natives either of Warwickshire or Gloucestershire. These veterans, +or others wonderfully like them, still occupy their monkish dormitories +and haunt the time-darkened corridors and galleries of the hospital, +leading a life of old-fashioned comfort, wearing the old-fashioned +cloaks, and burnishing the identical silver badges which the Earl of +Leicester gave to the original twelve. He is said to have been a bad man +in his day; but he has succeeded in prolonging one good deed into what +was to him a distant future. + +On the projecting story, over the arched entrance, there is the date, +1571, and several coats-of-arms, either the Earl's or those of his +kindred, and immediately above the doorway a stone sculpture of the Bear +and Ragged Staff. + +Passing through the arch, we find ourselves in a quadrangle, or enclosed +court, such as always formed the central part of a great family residence +in Queen Elizabeth's time, and earlier. There can hardly be a more +perfect specimen of such an establishment than Leicester's Hospital. The +quadrangle is a sort of sky-roofed hall, to which there is convenient +access from all parts of the house. The four inner fronts, with their +high, steep roofs and sharp gables, look into it from antique windows, +and through open corridors and galleries along the sides; and there seems +to be a richer display of architectural devices and ornaments, quainter +carvings in oak, and more fantastic shapes of the timber framework, than +on the side toward the street. On the wall opposite the arched entrance +are the following inscriptions, comprising such moral rules, I presume, +as were deemed most essential for the daily observance of the community: +"Honor all Men"--"Fear God"--"Honor the King"--"Love the Brotherhood"; +and again, as if this latter injunction needed emphasis and repetition +among a household of aged people soured with the hard fortune of their +previous lives,--"Be kindly affectioned one to another." One sentence, +over a door communicating with the Master's side of the house, is +addressed to that dignitary,--"He that ruleth over men must be just." +All these are charactered in old English letters, and form part of the +elaborate ornamentation of the house. Everywhere--on the walls, over +windows and doors, and at all points where there is room to place them-- +appear escutcheons of arms, cognizances, and crests, emblazoned in their +proper colors, and illuminating the ancient quadrangle with their +splendor. One of these devices is a large image of a porcupine on an +heraldic wreath, being the crest of the Lords de Lisle. But especially +is the cognizance of the Bear and Ragged Staff repeated over and over, +and over again and again, in a great variety of attitudes, at +full-length, and half-length, in paint and in oaken sculpture, in +bas-relief and rounded image. The founder of the hospital was certainly +disposed to reckon his own beneficence as among the hereditary glories of +his race; and had he lived and died a half-century earlier, he would have +kept up an old Catholic custom by enjoining the twelve bedesmen to pray +for the welfare of his soul. + +At my first visit, some of the brethren were seated on the bench outside +of the edifice, looking down into the street; but they did not vouchsafe +me a word, and seemed so estranged from modern life, so enveloped in +antique customs and old-fashioned cloaks, that to converse with them +would have been like shouting across the gulf between our age and Queen +Elizabeth's. So I passed into the quadrangle, and found it quite +solitary, except that a plain and neat old woman happened to be crossing +it, with an aspect of business and carefulness that bespoke her a woman +of this world, and not merely a shadow of the past. Asking her if I +could come in, she answered very readily and civilly that I might, and +said that I was free to look about me, hinting a hope, however, that I +would not open the private doors of the brotherhood, as some visitors +were in the habit of doing. Under her guidance, I went into what was +formerly the great hall of the establishment, where King James I. had +once been feasted by an Earl of Warwick, as is commemorated by an +inscription on the cobwebbed and dingy wall. It is a very spacious and +barn-like apartment, with a brick floor, and a vaulted roof, the rafters +of which are oaken beams, wonderfully carved, but hardly visible in the +duskiness that broods aloft. The hall may have made a splendid +appearance, when it was decorated with rich tapestry, and illuminated +with chandeliers, cressets, and torches glistening upon silver dishes, +where King James sat at supper among his brilliantly dressed nobles; but +it has come to base uses in these latter days,--being improved, in Yankee +phrase, as a brewery and wash-room, and as a cellar for the brethren's +separate allotments of coal. + +The old lady here left me to myself, and I returned into the quadrangle. +It was very quiet, very handsome, in its own obsolete style, and must be +an exceedingly comfortable place for the old people to lounge in, when +the inclement winds render it inexpedient to walk abroad. There are +shrubs against the wall, on one side; and on another is a cloistered +walk, adorned with stags' heads and antlers, and running beneath a +covered gallery, up to which ascends a balustraded staircase. In the +portion of the edifice opposite the entrance-arch are the apartments of +the Master; and looking into the window (as the old woman, at no request +of mine, had specially informed me that I might), I saw a low, but vastly +comfortable parlor, very handsomely furnished, and altogether a luxurious +place. It had a fireplace with an immense arch, the antique breadth of +which extended almost from wall to wall of the room, though now fitted up +in such a way, that the modern coal-grate looked very diminutive in the +midst. Gazing into this pleasant interior, it seemed to me, that, among +these venerable surroundings, availing himself of whatever was good in +former things, and eking out their imperfection with the results of +modern ingenuity, the Master might lead a not unenviable life. On the +cloistered side of the quadrangle, where the dark oak panels made the +enclosed space dusky, I beheld a curtained window reddened by a great +blaze from within, and heard the bubbling and squeaking of something-- +doubtless very nice and succulent--that was being cooked at the +kitchen-fire. I think, indeed, that a whiff or two of the savory +fragrance reached my nostrils; at all events, the impression grew upon me +that Leicester's Hospital is one of the jolliest old domiciles in +England. + +I was about to depart, when another old woman, very plainly dressed, but +fat, comfortable, and with a cheerful twinkle in her eyes, came in +through the arch, and looked curiously at me. This repeated apparition +of the gentle sex (though by no means under its loveliest guise) had +still an agreeable effect in modifying my ideas of an institution which I +had supposed to be of a stern and monastic character. She asked whether +I wished to see the hospital, and said that the porter, whose office it +was to attend to visitors, was dead, and would be buried that very day, +so that the whole establishment could not conveniently be shown me. She +kindly invited me, however, to visit the apartment occupied by her +husband and herself; so I followed her up the antique staircase, along +the gallery, and into a small, oak-panelled parlor, where sat an old man +in a long blue garment, who arose and saluted me with much courtesy. He +seemed a very quiet person, and yet had a look of travel and adventure, +and gray experience, such as I could have fancied in a palmer of ancient +times, who might likewise have worn a similar costume. The little room +was carpeted and neatly furnished; a portrait of its occupant was hanging +on the wall; and on a table were two swords crossed,--one, probably, his +own battle-weapon, and the other, which I drew half out of the scabbard, +had an inscription on the blade, purporting that it had been taken from +the field of Waterloo. My kind old hostess was anxious to exhibit all +the particulars of their housekeeping, and led me into the bedroom, which +was in the nicest order, with a snow-white quilt upon the bed; and in a +little intervening room was a washing and bathing apparatus; a +convenience (judging from the personal aspect and atmosphere of such +parties) seldom to be met with in the humbler ranks of British life. + +The old soldier and his wife both seemed glad of somebody to talk with; +but the good woman availed herself of the privilege far more copiously +than the veteran himself, insomuch that he felt it expedient to give her +an occasional nudge with his elbow in her well-padded ribs. "Don't you +be so talkative!" quoth he; and, indeed, he could hardly find space for a +word, and quite as little after his admonition as before. Her nimble +tongue ran over the whole system of life in the hospital. The brethren, +she said, had a yearly stipend (the amount of which she did not mention), +and such decent lodgings as I saw, and some other advantages, free; and, +instead of being pestered with a great many rules, and made to dine +together at a great table, they could manage their little household +matters as they liked, buying their own dinners and having them cooked in +the general kitchen, and eating them snugly in their own parlors. "And," +added she, rightly deeming this the crowning privilege, "with the +Master's permission, they can have their wives to take care of them; and +no harm comes of it; and what more can an old man desire?" It was +evident enough that the good dame found herself in what she considered +very rich clover, and, moreover, had plenty of small occupations to keep +her from getting rusty and dull; but the veteran impressed me as deriving +far less enjoyment from the monotonous ease, without fear of change or +hope of improvement, that had followed upon thirty years of peril and +vicissitude. I fancied, too, that, while pleased with the novelty of a +stranger's visit, he was still a little shy of becoming a spectacle for +the stranger's curiosity; for, if he chose to be morbid about the matter, +the establishment was but an almshouse, in spite of its old-fashioned +magnificence, and his fine blue cloak only a pauper's garment, with a +silver badge on it that perhaps galled his shoulder. In truth, the badge +and the peculiar garb, though quite in accordance with the manners of the +Earl of Leicester's age, are repugnant to modern prejudices, and might +fitly and humanely be abolished. + +A year or two afterwards I paid another visit to the hospital, and found +a new porter established in office, and already capable of talking like a +guide-book about the history, antiquities, and present condition of the +charity. He informed me that the twelve brethren are selected from among +old soldiers of good character, whose other resources must not exceed an +income of five pounds; thus excluding all commissioned officers, whose +half-pay would of course be more than that amount. They receive from the +hospital an annuity of eighty pounds each, besides their apartments, a +garment of fine blue cloth, an annual abundance of ale, and a privilege +at the kitchen-fire; so that, considering the class from which they are +taken, they may well reckon themselves among the fortunate of the earth. +Furthermore, they are invested with political rights, acquiring a vote +for member of Parliament in virtue either of their income or brotherhood. +On the other hand, as regards their personal freedom or conduct, they are +subject to a supervision which the Master of the hospital might render +extremely annoying, were he so inclined; but the military restraint under +which they have spent the active portion of their lives makes it easier +for them to endure the domestic discipline here imposed upon their age. +The porter bore his testimony (whatever were its value) to their being as +contented and happy as such a set of old people could possibly be, and +affirmed that they spent much time in burnishing their silver badges, and +were as proud of them as a nobleman of his star. These badges, by the +by, except one that was stolen and replaced in Queen Anne's time, are the +very same that decorated the original twelve brethren. + +I have seldom met with a better guide than my friend the porter. He +appeared to take a genuine interest in the peculiarities of the +establishment, and yet had an existence apart from them, so that he could +the better estimate what those peculiarities were. To be sure, his +knowledge and observation were confined to external things, but, so far, +had a sufficiently extensive scope. He led me up the staircase and +exhibited portions of the timber framework of the edifice that are +reckoned to be eight or nine hundred years old, and are still neither +worm-eaten nor decayed; and traced out what had been a great hall in the +days of the Catholic fraternity, though its area is now filled up with +the apartments of the twelve brethren; and pointed to ornaments of +sculptured oak, done in an ancient religious style of art, but hardly +visible amid the vaulted dimness of the roof. Thence we went to the +chapel--the Gothic church which I noted several pages back--surmounting +the gateway that stretches half across the street. Here the brethren +attend daily prayer, and have each a prayer-book of the finest paper, +with a fair, large type for their old eyes. The interior of the chapel +is very plain, with a picture of no merit for an altar-piece, and a +single old pane of painted glass in the great eastern window, +representing,--no saint, nor angel, as is customary in such cases,--but +that grim sinner, the Earl of Leicester. Nevertheless, amid so many +tangible proofs of his human sympathy, one comes to doubt whether the +Earl could have been such a hardened reprobate, after all. + +We ascended the tower of the chapel, and looked down between its +battlements into the street, a hundred feet below us; while clambering +half-way up were foxglove-flowers, weeds, small shrubs, and tufts of +grass, that had rooted themselves into the roughnesses of the stone +foundation. Far around us lay a rich and lovely English landscape, with +many a church-spire and noble country-seat, and several objects of high +historic interest. Edge Hill, where the Puritans defeated Charles I., is +in sight on the edge of the horizon, and much nearer stands the house +where Cromwell lodged on the night before the battle. Right under our +eyes, and half enveloping the town with its high-shouldering wall, so +that all the closely compacted streets seemed but a precinct of the +estate, was the Earl of Warwick's delightful park, a wide extent of sunny +lawns, interspersed with broad contiguities of forest-shade. Some of the +cedars of Lebanon were there,--a growth of trees in which the Warwick +family take an hereditary pride. The two highest towers of the castle +heave themselves up out of a mass of foliage, and look down in a lordly +manner upon the plebeian roofs of the town, a part of which are +slate-covered (these are the modern houses), and a part are coated with +old red tiles, denoting the more ancient edifices. A hundred and sixty +or seventy years ago, a great fire destroyed a considerable portion of +the town, and doubtless annihilated many structures of a remote +antiquity; at least, there was a possibility of very old houses in the +long past of Warwick, which King Cymbeline is said to have founded in the +year ONE of the Christian era! + +And this historic fact or poetic fiction, whichever it may be, brings to +mind a more indestructible reality than anything else that has occurred +within the present field of our vision; though this includes the scene of +Guy of Warwick's legendary exploits, and some of those of the Round +Table, to say nothing of the Battle of Edge Hill. For perhaps it was in +the landscape now under our eyes that Posthumus wandered with the King's +daughter, the sweet, chaste, faithful, and courageous Imogen, the +tenderest and womanliest woman that Shakespeare ever made immortal in the +world. The silver Avon, which we see flowing so quietly by the gray +castle, may have held their images in its bosom. + +The day, though it began brightly, had long been overcast, and the clouds +now spat down a few spiteful drops upon us, besides that the east-wind +was very chill; so we descended the winding tower-stair, and went next +into the garden, one side of which is shut in by almost the only +remaining portion of the old city-wall. A part of the garden-ground is +devoted to grass and shrubbery, and permeated by gravel-walks, in the +centre of one of which is a beautiful stone vase of Egyptian sculpture, +that formerly stood on the top of a Nilometer, or graduated pillar for +measuring the rise and fall of the river Nile. On the pedestal is a +Latin inscription by Dr. Parr, who (his vicarage of Hatton being so close +at hand) was probably often the Master's guest, and smoked his +interminable pipe along these garden-walks. Of the vegetable-garden, +which lies adjacent, the lion's share is appropriated to the Master, and +twelve small, separate patches to the individual brethren, who cultivate +them at their own judgment and by their own labor; and their beans and +cauliflowers have a better flavor, I doubt not, than if they had received +them directly from the dead hand of the Earl of Leicester, like the rest +of their food. In the farther part of the garden is an arbor for the old +men's pleasure and convenience, and I should like well to sit down among +them there, and find out what is really the bitter and the sweet of such +a sort of life. As for the old gentlemen themselves, they put me queerly +in mind of the Salem Custom-House, and the venerable personages whom I +found so quietly at anchor there. + +The Master's residence, forming one entire side of the quadrangle, fronts +on the garden, and wears an aspect at once stately and homely. It can +hardly have undergone any perceptible change within three centuries; but +the garden, into which its old windows look, has probably put off a great +many eccentricities and quaintnesses, in the way of cunningly clipped +shrubbery, since the gardener of Queen Elizabeth's reign threw down his +rusty shears and took his departure. The present Master's name is +Harris; he is a descendant of the founder's family, a gentleman of +independent fortune, and a clergyman of the Established Church, as the +regulations of the hospital require him to be. I know not what are his +official emoluments; but, according to an English precedent, an ancient +charitable fund is certain to be held directly for the behoof of those +who administer it, and perhaps incidentally, in a moderate way, for the +nominal beneficiaries; and, in the case before us, the twelve brethren +being so comfortably provided for, the Master is likely to be at least as +comfortable as all the twelve together. Yet I ought not, even in a +distant land, to fling an idle gibe against a gentleman of whom I really +know nothing, except that the people under his charge bear all possible +tokens of being tended and cared for as sedulously as if each of them sat +by a warm fireside of his own, with a daughter bustling round the hearth +to make ready his porridge and his titbits. It is delightful to think of +the good life which a suitable man, in the Master's position, has an +opportunity to lead,--linked to time-honored customs, welded in with an +ancient system, never dreaming of radical change, and bringing all the +mellowness and richness of the past down into these railway-days, which +do not compel him or his community to move a whit quicker than of yore. +Everybody can appreciate the advantages of going ahead; it might be well, +sometimes, to think whether there is not a word or two to be said in +favor of standing still or going to sleep. + +From the garden we went into the kitchen, where the fire was burning +hospitably, and diffused a genial warmth far and wide, together with the +fragrance of some old English roast-beef, which, I think, must at that +moment have been done nearly to a turn. The kitchen is a lofty, +spacious, and noble room, partitioned off round the fireplace, by a sort +of semicircular oaken screen, or rather, an arrangement of heavy and +high-backed settles, with an ever-open entrance between them, on either +side of which is the omnipresent image of the Bear and Ragged Staff, +three feet high, and excellently carved in oak, now black with time and +unctuous kitchen-smoke. The ponderous mantel-piece, likewise of carved +oak, towers high towards the dusky ceiling, and extends its mighty +breadth to take in a vast area of hearth, the arch of the fireplace being +positively so immense that I could compare it to nothing but the city +gateway. Above its cavernous opening were crossed two ancient halberds, +the weapons, possibly, of soldiers who had fought under Leicester in the +Low Countries; and elsewhere on the walls were displayed several muskets, +which some of the present inmates of the hospital may have levelled +against the French. Another ornament of the mantel-piece was a square of +silken needlework or embroidery, faded nearly white, but dimly +representing that wearisome Bear and Ragged Staff, which we should hardly +look twice at, only that it was wrought by the fair fingers of poor Amy +Robsart, and beautifully framed in oak from Kenilworth Castle, at the +expense of a Mr. Conner, a countryman of our own. Certainly, no +Englishman would be capable of this little bit of enthusiasm. Finally, +the kitchen-firelight glistens on a splendid display of copper flagons, +all of generous capacity, and one of them about as big as a half-barrel; +the smaller vessels contain the customary allowance of ale, and the +larger one is filled with that foaming liquor on four festive occasions +of the year, and emptied amain by the jolly brotherhood. I should be +glad to see them do it; but it would be an exploit fitter for Queen +Elizabeth's age than these degenerate times. + +The kitchen is the social hall of the twelve brethren. In the daytime, +they bring their little messes to be cooked here, and eat them in their +own parlors; but after a certain hour, the great hearth is cleared and +swept, and the old men assemble round its blaze, each with his tankard +and his pipe, and hold high converse through the evening. If the Master +be a fit man for his office, methinks he will sometimes sit down sociably +among them; for there is an elbow-chair by the fireside which it would +not demean his dignity to fill, since it was occupied by King James at +the great festival of nearly three centuries ago. A sip of the ale and a +whiff of the tobacco-pipe would put him in friendly relations with his +venerable household; and then we can fancy him instructing them by pithy +apothegms and religious texts which were first uttered here by some +Catholic priest and have impregnated the atmosphere ever since. If a +joke goes round, it shall be of an elder coinage than Joe Miller's, as +old as Lord Bacon's collection, or as the jest-book that Master Slender +asked for when he lacked small-talk for sweet Anne Page. No news shall +be spoken of later than the drifting ashore, on the northern coast, of +some stern-post or figure-head, a barnacled fragment of one of the great +galleons of the Spanish Armada. What a tremor would pass through the +antique group, if a damp newspaper should suddenly be spread to dry +before the fire! They would feel as if either that printed sheet or they +themselves must be an unreality. What a mysterious awe, if the shriek of +the railway-train, as it reaches the Warwick station, should ever so +faintly invade their ears! Movement of any kind seems inconsistent with +the stability of such an institution. Nevertheless, I trust that the +ages will carry it along with them; because it is such a pleasant kind of +dream for an American to find his way thither, and behold a piece of the +sixteenth century set into our prosaic times, and then to depart, and +think of its arched doorway as a spell-guarded entrance which will never +be accessible or visible to him any more. + +Not far from the market-place of Warwick stands the great church of St. +Mary's: a vast edifice, indeed, and almost worthy to be a cathedral. +People who pretend to skill in such matters say that it is in a poor +style of architecture, though designed (or, at least, extensively +restored) by Sir Christopher Wren; but I thought it very striking, with +its wide, high, and elaborate windows, its tall towers, its immense +length, and (for it was long before I outgrew this Americanism, the love +of an old thing merely for the sake of its age) the tinge of gray +antiquity over the whole. Once, while I stood gazing up at the tower, +the clock struck twelve with a very deep intonation, and immediately some +chivies began to play, and kept up their resounding music for five +minutes, as measured by the hand upon the dial. It was a very delightful +harmony, as airy as the notes of birds, and seemed, a not unbecoming +freak of half-sportive fancy in the huge, ancient, and solemn church; +although I have seen an old-fashioned parlor-clock that did precisely the +same thing, in its small way. + +The great attraction of this edifice is the Beauchamp (or, as the +English, who delight in vulgarizing their fine old Norman names, call it, +the Beechum) Chapel, where the Earls of Warwick and their kindred have +been buried, from four hundred years back till within a recent period. +It is a stately and very elaborate chapel, with a large window of ancient +painted glass, as perfectly preserved as any that I remember seeing in +England, and remarkably vivid in its colors. Here are several monuments +with marble figures recumbent upon them, representing the Earls in their +knightly armor, and their dames in the ruffs and court-finery of their +day, looking hardly stiffer in stone than they must needs have been in +their starched linen and embroidery. The renowned Earl of Leicester of +Queen Elizabeth's time, the benefactor of the hospital, reclines at full +length on the tablet of one of these tombs, side by side with his +Countess,--not Amy Robsart, but a lady who (unless I have confused the +story with some other mouldy scandal) is said to have avenged poor +Amy's murder by poisoning the Earl himself. Be that as it may, both +figures, and especially the Earl, look like the very types of ancient +Honor and Conjugal Faith. In consideration of his long-enduring +kindness to the twelve brethren, I cannot consent to believe him as +wicked as he is usually depicted; and it seems a marvel, now that so many +well-established historical verdicts have been reversed, why some +enterprising writer does not make out Leicester to have been the pattern +nobleman of his age. + +In the centre of the chapel is the magnificent memorial of its founder, +Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick in the time of Henry VI. On a richly +ornamented altar-tomb of gray marble lies the bronze figure of a knight +in gilded armor, most admirably executed: for the sculptors of those days +had wonderful skill in their own style, and could make so lifelike an +image of a warrior, in brass or marble, that, if a trumpet were sounded +over his tomb, you would expect him to start up and handle his sword. +The Earl whom we now speak of, however, has slept soundly in spite of a +more serious disturbance than any blast of a trumpet, unless it were the +final one. Some centuries after his death, the floor of the chapel fell +down and broke open the stone coffin in which he was buried; and among +the fragments appeared the anciently entombed Earl of Warwick, with the +color scarcely faded out of his cheeks, his eyes a little sunken, but in +other respects looking as natural as if he had died yesterday. But +exposure to the atmosphere appeared to begin and finish the long-delayed +process of decay in a moment, causing him to vanish like a bubble; so, +that, almost before there had been time to wonder at him, there was +nothing left of the stalwart Earl save his hair. This sole relic the +ladies of Warwick made prize of, and braided it into rings and brooches +for their own adornment; and thus, with a chapel and a ponderous tomb +built on purpose to protect his remains, this great nobleman could not +help being brought untimely to the light of day, nor even keep his +lovelocks on his skull after he had so long done with love. There seems +to be a fatality that disturbs people in their sepulchres, when they have +been over-careful to render them magnificent and impregnable,--as witness +the builders of the Pyramids, and Hadrian, Augustus, and the Scipios, and +most other personages whose mausoleums have been conspicuous enough to +attract the violator; and as for dead men's hair, I have seen a lock of +King Edward the Fourth's, of a reddish-brown color, which perhaps was +once twisted round the delicate forefinger of Mistress Shore. + +The direct lineage of the renowned characters that lie buried in this +splendid chapel has long been extinct. The earldom is now held by the +Grevilles, descendants of the Lord Brooke who was slain in the +Parliamentary War; and they have recently (that is to say, within a +century) built a burial-vault on the other side of the church, calculated +(as the sexton assured me, with a nod as if he were pleased) to afford +suitable and respectful accommodation to as many as fourscore coffins. +Thank Heaven, the old man did not call them "CASKETS"!--a vile modern +phrase, which compels a person of sense and good taste to shrink more +disgustfully than ever before from the idea of being buried at all. But +as regards those eighty coffins, only sixteen have as yet been +contributed; and it may be a question with some minds, not merely whether +the Grevilles will hold the earldom of Warwick until the full number +shall be made up, but whether earldoms and all manner of lordships will +not have faded out of England long before those many generations shall +have passed from the castle to the vault. I hope not. A titled and +landed aristocracy, if anywise an evil and an encumbrance, is so only to +the nation which is doomed to bear it on its shoulders; and an American, +whose sole relation to it is to admire its picturesque effect upon +society, ought to be the last man to quarrel with what affords him so +much gratuitous enjoyment. Nevertheless, conservative as England is, and +though I scarce ever found an Englishman who seemed really to desire +change, there was continually a dull sound in my ears as if the old +foundations of things were crumbling away. Some time or other,--by no +irreverent effort of violence, but, rather, in spite of all pious efforts +to uphold a heterogeneous pile of institutions that will have outlasted +their vitality,--at some unexpected moment, there must come a terrible +crash. The sole reason why I should desire it to happen in my day is, +that I might be there to see! But the ruin of my own country is, +perhaps, all that I am destined to witness; and that immense catastrophe +(though I am strong in the faith that there is a national lifetime of a +thousand years in us yet) would serve any man well enough as his final +spectacle on earth. + +If the visitor is inclined to carry away any little memorial of Warwick, +he had better go to an Old Curiosity Shop in the High Street, where there +is a vast quantity of obsolete gewgaws, great and small, and many of them +so pretty and ingenious that you wonder how they came to be thrown aside +and forgotten. As regards its minor tastes, the world changes, but does +not improve; it appears to me, indeed, that there have been epochs of far +more exquisite fancy than the present one, in matters of personal +ornament, and such delicate trifles as we put upon a drawing-room table, +a mantel-piece, or a whatnot. The shop in question is near the East +Gate, but is hardly to be found without careful search, being denoted +only by the name of "REDFERN," painted not very conspicuously in the +top-light of the door. Immediately on entering, we find ourselves among +a confusion of old rubbish and valuables, ancient armor, historic +portraits, ebony cabinets inlaid with pearl, tall, ghostly clocks, +hideous old china, dim looking-glasses in frames of tarnished +magnificence,--a thousand objects of strange aspect, and others that +almost frighten you by their likeness in unlikeness to things now in use. +It is impossible to give an idea of the variety of articles, so thickly +strewn about that we can scarcely move without overthrowing some great +curiosity with a crash, or sweeping away some small one hitched to our +sleeves. Three stories of the entire house are crowded in like manner. +The collection, even as we see it exposed to view, must have been got +together at great cost; but the real treasures of the establishment lie +in secret repositories, whence they are not likely to be drawn forth at +an ordinary summons; though, if a gentleman with a competently long purse +should call for them, I doubt not that the signet-ring of Joseph's +friend Pharaoh, or the Duke of Alva's leading-staff, or the dagger that +killed the Duke of Buckingham (all of which I have seen), or any other +almost incredible thing, might make its appearance. Gold snuff-boxes, +antique gems, jewelled goblets, Venetian wine-glasses (which burst when +poison is poured into them, and therefore must not be used for modern +wine-drinking), jasper-handled knives, painted Sevres teacups,--in short, +there are all sorts of things that a virtuoso ransacks the world to +discover. + +It would be easier to spend a hundred pounds in Mr. Redfern's shop than +to keep the money in one's pocket; but, for my part, I contented myself +with buying a little old spoon of silver-gilt, and fantastically shaped, +and got it at all the more reasonable rate because there happened to be +no legend attached to it. I could supply any deficiency of that kind at +much less expense than regilding the spoon! + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF A GIFTED WOMAN. + + +From Leamington to Stratford-on-Avon the distance is eight or nine miles, +over a road that seemed to me most beautiful. Not that I can recall any +memorable peculiarities; for the country, most of the way, is a +succession of the gentlest swells and subsidences, affording wide and far +glimpses of champaign scenery here and there, and sinking almost to a +dead level as we draw near Stratford. Any landscape in New England, even +the tamest, has a more striking outline, and besides would have its blue +eyes open in those lakelets that we encounter almost from mile to mile at +home, but of which the Old Country is utterly destitute; or it would +smile in our faces through the medium of the wayside brooks that vanish +under a low stone arch on one side of the road, and sparkle out again on +the other. Neither of these pretty features is often to be found in an +English scene. The charm of the latter consists in the rich verdure of +the fields, in the stately wayside trees and carefully kept plantations +of wood, and in the old and high cultivation that has humanized the very +sods by mingling so much of man's toil and care among them. To an +American there is a kind of sanctity even in an English turnip-field, +when he thinks how long that small square of ground has been known and +recognized as a possession, transmitted from father to son, trodden often +by memorable feet, and utterly redeemed from savagery by old +acquaintanceship with civilized eyes. The wildest things in England are +more than half tame. The trees, for instance, whether in hedge-row, +park, or what they call forest, have nothing wild about them. They are +never ragged; there is a certain decorous restraint in the freest +outspread of their branches, though they spread wider than any +self-nurturing tree; they are tall, vigorous, bulky, with a look of +age-long life, and a promise of more years to come, all of which will +bring them into closer kindred with the race of man. Somebody or other +has known them from the sapling upward; and if they endure long enough, +they grow to be traditionally observed and honored, and connected with +the fortunes of old families, till, like Tennyson's Talking Oak, they +babble with a thousand leafy tongues to ears that can understand them. + +An American tree, however, if it could grow in fair competition with an +English one of similar species, would probably be the more picturesque +object of the two. The Warwickshire elm has not so beautiful a shape as +those that overhang our village street; and as for the redoubtable +English oak, there is a certain John Bullism in its figure, a compact +rotundity of foliage, a lack of irregular and various outline, that make +it look wonderfully like a gigantic cauliflower. Its leaf, too, is much +smaller than that of most varieties of American oak; nor do I mean to +doubt that the latter, with free leave to grow, reverent care and +cultivation, and immunity from the axe, would live out its centuries as +sturdily as its English brother, and prove far the nobler and more +majestic specimen of a tree at the end of them. Still, however one's +Yankee patriotism may struggle against the admission, it must be owned +that the trees and other objects of an English landscape take hold of the +observer by numberless minute tendrils, as it were, which, look as +closely as we choose, we never find in an American scene. The parasitic +growth is so luxuriant, that the trunk of the tree, so gray and dry in +our climate, is better worth observing than the boughs and foliage; a +verdant messiness coats it all over; so that it looks almost as green as +the leaves; and often, moreover, the stately stem is clustered about, +high upward, with creeping and twining shrubs, the ivy, and sometimes the +mistletoe, close-clinging friends, nurtured by the moisture and never too +fervid sunshine, and supporting themselves by the old tree's abundant +strength. We call it a parasitical vegetation; but, if the phrase imply +any reproach, it is unkind to bestow it on this beautiful affection and +relationship which exist in England between one order of plants and +another: the strong tree being always ready to give support to the +trailing shrub, lift it to the sun, and feed it out of its own heart, +if it crave such food; and the shrub, on its part, repaying its +foster-father with an ample luxuriance of beauty, and adding Corinthian +grace to the tree's lofty strength. No bitter winter nips these tender +little sympathies, no hot sun burns the life out of them; and therefore +they outlast the longevity of the oak, and, if the woodman permitted, +would bury it in a green grave, when all is over. + +Should there be nothing else along the road to look at, an English hedge +might well suffice to occupy the eyes, and, to a depth beyond what he +would suppose, the heart of an American. We often set out hedges in our +own soil, but might as well set out figs or pineapples and expect to +gather fruit of them. Something grows, to be sure, which we choose to +call a hedge; but it lacks the dense, luxuriant variety of vegetation +that is accumulated into the English original, in which a botanist would +find a thousand shrubs and gracious herbs that the hedgemaker never +thought of planting there. Among them, growing wild, are many of the +kindred blossoms of the very flowers which our pilgrim fathers brought +from England, for the sake of their simple beauty and homelike +associations, and which we have ever since been cultivating in gardens. +There is not a softer trait to be found in the character of those stern +men than that they should have been sensible of these flower-roots +clinging among the fibres of their rugged hearts, and have felt the +necessity of bringing them over sea and making them hereditary in the new +land, instead of trusting to what rarer beauty the wilderness might have +in store for them. + +Or, if the roadside has no hedge, the ugliest stone fence (such as, in +America, would keep itself bare and unsympathizing till the end of time) +is sure to be covered with the small handiwork of Nature; that careful +mother lets nothing go naked there, and if she cannot provide clothing, +gives at least embroidery. No sooner is the fence built than she adopts +and adorns it as a part of her original plan, treating the hard, uncomely +construction as if it had all along been a favorite idea of her own. A +little sprig of ivy may be seen creeping up the side of the low wall and +clinging fast with its many feet to the rough surface; a tuft of grass +roots itself between two of the stones, where a pinch or two of wayside +dust has been moistened into nutritious soil for it; a small bunch of +fern grows in another crevice; a deep, soft, verdant moss spreads itself +along the top and over all the available inequalities of the fence; and +where nothing else will grow, lichens stick tenaciously to the bare +stones and variegate the monotonous gray with hues of yellow and red. +Finally, a great deal of shrubbery clusters along the base of the stone +wall, and takes away the hardness of its outline; and in due time, as the +upshot of these apparently aimless or sportive touches, we recognize that +the beneficent Creator of all things, working through his handmaiden whom +we call Nature, has deigned to mingle a charm of divine gracefulness even +with so earthly an institution as a boundary fence. The clown who +wrought at it little dreamed what fellow-laborer he had. + +The English should send us photographs of portions of the trunks of +trees, the tangled and various products of a hedge, and a square foot of +an old wall. They can hardly send anything else so characteristic. +Their artists, especially of the later school, sometimes toil to depict +such subjects, but are apt to stiffen the lithe tendrils in the process. +The poets succeed better, with Tennyson at their head, and often produce +ravishing effects by dint of a tender minuteness of touch, to which the +genius of the soil and climate artfully impels them: for, as regards +grandeur, there are loftier scenes in many countries than the best that +England can show; but, for the picturesqueness of the smallest object +that lies under its gentle gloom and sunshine, there is no scenery like +it anywhere. + +In the foregoing paragraphs I have strayed away to a long distance from +the road to Stratford-on-Avon; for I remember no such stone fences as I +have been speaking of in Warwickshire, nor elsewhere in England, except +among the Lakes, or in Yorkshire, and the rough and hilly countries to +the north of it. Hedges there were along my road, however, and broad, +level fields, rustic hamlets, and cottages of ancient date,--from the +roof of one of which the occupant was tearing away the thatch, and +showing what an accumulation of dust, dirt, mouldiness, roots of weeds, +families of mice, swallows' nests, and hordes of insects had been +deposited there since that old straw was new. Estimating its antiquity +from these tokens, Shakespeare himself, in one of his morning rambles out +of his native town, might have seen the thatch laid on; at all events, +the cottage-walls were old enough to have known him as a guest. A few +modern villas were also to be seen, and perhaps there were mansions of +old gentility at no great distance, but hidden among trees; for it is a +point of English pride that such houses seldom allow themselves to be +visible from the high-road. In short, I recollect nothing specially +remarkable along the way, nor in the immediate approach to Stratford; and +yet the picture of that June morning has a glory in my memory, owing +chiefly, I believe, to the charm of the English summer-weather, the +really good days of which are the most delightful that mortal man can +ever hope to be favored with. Such a genial warmth! A little too warm, +it might be, yet only to such a degree as to assure an American (a +certainty to which he seldom attains till attempered to the customary +austerity of an English summer-day) that he was quite warm enough. And +after all, there was an unconquerable freshness in the atmosphere, which +every little movement of a breeze shook over me like a dash of the +ocean-spray. Such days need bring us no other happiness than their own +light and temperature. No doubt, I could not have enjoyed it so +exquisitely, except that there must be still latent in us Western +wanderers (even after an absence of two centuries and more), an +adaptation to the English climate which makes us sensible of a motherly +kindness in its scantiest sunshine, and overflows us with delight at its +more lavish smiles. + +The spire of Shakespeare's church--the Church of the Holy Trinity--begins +to show itself among the trees at a little distance from Stratford. Next +we see the shabby old dwellings, intermixed with mean-looking houses of +modern date; and the streets being quite level, you are struck and +surprised by nothing so much as the tameness of the general scene, as if +Shakespeare's genius were vivid enough to have wrought pictorial +splendors in the town where he was born. Here and there, however, a +queer edifice meets your eye, endowed with the individuality that belongs +only to the domestic architecture of times gone by; the house seems to +have grown out of some odd quality in its inhabitant, as a sea-shell is +moulded from within by the character of its innate; and having been built +in a strange fashion, generations ago, it has ever since been growing +stranger and quainter, as old humorists are apt to do. Here, too (as so +often impressed me in decayed English towns), there appeared to be a +greater abundance of aged people wearing small-clothes and leaning on +sticks than you could assemble on our side of the water by sounding a +trumpet and proclaiming a reward for the most venerable. I tried to +account for this phenomenon by several theories: as, for example, that +our new towns are unwholesome for age and kill it off unseasonably; or +that our old men have a subtile sense of fitness, and die of their own +accord rather than live in an unseemly contrast with youth and novelty +but the secret may be, after all, that hair-dyes, false teeth, modern +arts of dress, and other contrivances of a skin-deep youthfulness, have +not crept into these antiquated English towns, and so people grow old +without the weary necessity of seeming younger than they are. + +After wandering through two or three streets, I found my way to +Shakespeare's birthplace, which is almost a smaller and humbler house +than any description can prepare the visitor to expect; so inevitably +does an august inhabitant make his abode palatial to our imaginations, +receiving his guests, indeed, in a castle in the air, until we unwisely +insist on meeting him among the sordid lanes and alleys of lower earth. +The portion of the edifice with which Shakespeare had anything to do is +hardly large enough, in the basement, to contain the butcher's stall that +one of his descendants kept, and that still remains there, windowless, +with the cleaver-cuts in its hacked counter, which projects into the +street under a little penthouse-roof, as if waiting for a new occupant. + +The upper half of the door was open, and, on my rapping at it, a young +person in black made her appearance and admitted me; she was not a +menial, but remarkably genteel (an American characteristic) for an +English girl, and was probably the daughter of the old gentlewoman who +takes care of the house. This lower room has a pavement of gray slabs of +stone, which may have been rudely squared when the house was new, but are +now all cracked, broken, and disarranged in a most unaccountable way. +One does not see how any ordinary usage, for whatever length of time, +should have so smashed these heavy stones; it is as if an earthquake had +burst up through the floor, which afterwards had been imperfectly trodden +down again. The room is whitewashed and very clean, but wofully shabby +and dingy, coarsely built, and such as the most poetical imagination +would find it difficult to idealize. In the rear of this apartment is +the kitchen, a still smaller room, of a similar rude aspect; it has a +great, rough fireplace, with space for a large family under the blackened +opening of the chimney, and an immense passageway for the smoke, through +which Shakespeare may have seen the blue sky by day and the stars +glimmering down at him by night. It is now a dreary spot where the +long-extinguished embers used to be. A glowing fire, even if it covered +only a quarter part of the hearth, might still do much towards making the +old kitchen cheerful. But we get a depressing idea of the stifled, poor, +sombre kind of life that could have been lived in such a dwelling, where +this room seems to have been the gathering-place of the family, with no +breadth or scope, no good retirement, but old and young huddling together +cheek by jowl. What a hardy plant was Shakespeare's genius, how fatal +its development, since it could not be blighted in such an atmosphere! +It only brought human nature the closer to him, and put more unctuous +earth about his roots. + +Thence I was ushered up stairs to the room in which Shakespeare is +supposed to have been born: though, if you peep too curiously into the +matter, you may find the shadow of an ugly doubt on this, as well as most +other points of his mysterious life. It is the chamber over the +butcher's shop, and is lighted by one broad window containing a great +many small, irregular panes of glass. The floor is made of planks, very +rudely hewn, and fitting together with little neatness; the naked beams +and rafters, at the sides of the room and overhead, bear the original +marks of the builder's broad-axe, with no evidence of an attempt to +smooth off the job. Again we have to reconcile ourselves to the +smallness of the space enclosed by these illustrious walls,--a +circumstance more difficult to accept, as regards places that we have +heard, read, thought, and dreamed much about, than any other +disenchanting particular of a mistaken ideal. A few paces--perhaps +seven or eight--take us from end to end of it. So low it is, that I +could easily touch the ceiling, and might have done so without a +tiptoe-stretch, had it been a good deal higher; and this humility of +the chamber has tempted a vast multitude of people to write their names +overhead in pencil. Every inch of the sidewalls, even into the +obscurest nooks and corners, is covered with a similar record; all the +window-panes, moreover, are scrawled with diamond signatures, among which +is said to be that of Walter Scott; but so many persons have sought to +immortalize themselves in close vicinity to his name, that I really could +not trace him out. Methinks it is strange that people do not strive to +forget their forlorn little identities, in such situations, instead of +thrusting them forward into the dazzle of a great renown, where, if +noticed, they cannot but be deemed impertinent. + +This room, and the entire house, so far as I saw it, are whitewashed and +exceedingly clean; nor is there the aged, musty smell with which old +Chester first made me acquainted, and which goes far to cure an American +of his excessive predilection for antique residences. An old lady, who +took charge of me up stairs, had the manners and aspect of a gentlewoman, +and talked with somewhat formidable knowledge and appreciative +intelligence about Shakespeare. Arranged on a table and in chairs were +various prints, views of houses and scenes connected with Shakespeare's +memory, together with editions of his works and local publications about +his home and haunts, from the sale of which this respectable lady perhaps +realizes a handsome profit. At any rate, I bought a good many of them, +conceiving that it might be the civillest way of requiting her for her +instructive conversation and the trouble she took in showing me the +house. It cost me a pang (not a curmudgeonly, but a gentlemanly one) to +offer a downright fee to the lady-like girl who had admitted me; but I +swallowed my delicate scruples with some little difficulty, and she +digested hers, so far as I could observe, with no difficulty at all. In +fact, nobody need fear to hold out half a crown to any person with whom +he has occasion to speak a word in England. + +I should consider it unfair to quit Shakespeare's house without the frank +acknowledgment that I was conscious of not the slightest emotion while +viewing it, nor any quickening of the imagination. This has often +happened to me in my visits to memorable places. Whatever pretty and +apposite reflections I may have made upon the subject had either occurred +to me before I ever saw Stratford, or have been elaborated since. It is +pleasant, nevertheless, to think that I have seen the place; and I +believe that I can form a more sensible and vivid idea of Shakespeare as +a flesh-and-blood individual now that I have stood on the kitchen-hearth +and in the birth-chamber; but I am not quite certain that this power of +realization is altogether desirable in reference to a great poet. The +Shakespeare whom I met there took various guises, but had not his laurel +on. He was successively the roguish boy,--the youthful deer-stealer,-- +the comrade of players,--the too familiar friend of Davenant's mother,-- +the careful, thrifty, thriven man of property who came back from London +to lend money on bond, and occupy the best house in Stratford,--the +mellow, red-nosed, autumnal boon-companion of John a' Combe,--and finally +(or else the Stratford gossips belied him), the victim of convivial +habits, who met his death by tumbling into a ditch on his way home from a +drinking-bout, and left his second-best bed to his poor wife. + +I feel, as sensibly as the reader can, what horrible impiety it is to +remember these things, be they true or false. In either case, they ought +to vanish out of sight on the distant ocean-line of the past, leaving a +pure, white memory, even as a sail, though perhaps darkened with many +stains, looks snowy white on the far horizon. But I draw a moral from +these unworthy reminiscences and this embodiment of the poet, as +suggested by some of the grimy actualities of his life. It is for the +high interests of the world not to insist upon finding out that its +greatest men are, in a certain lower sense, very much the same kind of +men as the rest of us, and often a little worse; because a common mind +cannot properly digest such a discovery, nor ever know the true +proportion of the great man's good and evil, nor how small a part of him +it was that touched our muddy or dusty earth. Thence comes moral +bewilderment, and even intellectual loss, in regard to what is best of +him. When Shakespeare invoked a curse on the man who should stir his +bones, he perhaps meant the larger share of it for him or them who should +pry into his perishing earthliness, the defects or even the merits of the +character that he wore in Stratford, when he had left mankind so much to +muse upon that was imperishable and divine. Heaven keep me from +incurring any part of the anathema in requital for the irreverent +sentences above written! + +From Shakespeare's house, the next step, of course, is to visit his +burial-place. The appearance of the church is most venerable and +beautiful, standing amid a great green shadow of lime-trees, above which +rises the spire, while the Gothic battlements and buttresses and vast +arched windows are obscurely seen through the boughs. The Avon loiters +past the churchyard, an exceedingly sluggish river, which might seem to +have been considering which way it should flow ever since Shakespeare +left off paddling in it and gathering the large forget-me-nots that grow +among its flags and water-weeds. + +An old man in small-clothes was waiting at the gate; and inquiring +whether I wished to go in, he preceded me to the church-porch, and +rapped. I could have done it quite as effectually for myself; but it +seems, the old people of the neighborhood haunt about the churchyard, in +spite of the frowns and remonstrances of the sexton, who grudges them the +half-eleemosynary sixpence which they sometimes get from visitors. I was +admitted into the church by a respectable-looking and intelligent man in +black, the parish-clerk, I suppose, and probably holding a richer +incumbency than his vicar, if all the fees which he handles remain in his +own pocket. He was already exhibiting the Shakespeare monuments to two +or three visitors, and several other parties came in while I was there. + +The poet and his family are in possession of what may be considered the +very best burial-places that the church affords. They lie in a row, +right across the breadth of the chancel, the foot of each gravestone +being close to the elevated floor on which the altar stands. Nearest to +the side-wall, beneath Shakespeare's bust, is a slab bearing a Latin +inscription addressed to his wife, and covering her remains; then his own +slab, with the old anathematizing stanza upon it; then that of Thomas +Nash, who married his granddaughter; then that of Dr. Hall, the husband +of his daughter Susannah; and, lastly, Susannah's own. Shakespeare's is +the commonest-looking slab of all, being just such a flag-stone as Essex +Street in Salem used to be paved with, when I was a boy. Moreover, +unless my eyes or recollection deceive me, there is a crack across it, as +if it had already undergone some such violence as the inscription +deprecates. Unlike the other monuments of the family, it bears no name, +nor am I acquainted with the grounds or authority on which it is +absolutely determined to be Shakespeare's; although, being in a range +with those of his wife and children, it might naturally be attributed to +him. But, then, why does his wife, who died afterwards, take precedence +of him and occupy the place next his bust? And where are the graves of +another daughter and a son, who have a better right in the family row +than Thomas Nash, his grandson-in-law? Might not one or both of them +have been laid under the nameless stone? But it is dangerous trifling +with Shakespeare's dust; so I forbear to meddle further with the grave +(though the prohibition makes it tempting), and shall let whatever bones +be in it rest in peace. Yet I must needs add that the inscription on the +bust seems to imply that Shakespeare's grave was directly underneath it. + +The poet's bust is affixed to the northern wall of the church, the base +of it being about a man's height, or rather more, above the floor of the +chancel. The features of this piece of sculpture are entirely unlike any +portrait of Shakespeare that I have ever seen, and compel me to take down +the beautiful, lofty-browed, and noble picture of him which has hitherto +hung in my mental portrait-gallery. The bust cannot be said to represent +a beautiful face or an eminently noble head; but it clutches firmly hold +of one's sense of reality and insists upon your accepting it, if not as +Shakespeare the poet, yet as the wealthy burgher of Stratford, the friend +of John a' Combe, who lies yonder in the corner. I know not what the +phrenologists say to the bust. The forehead is but moderately developed, +and retreats somewhat, the upper part of the skull rising pyramidally; +the eyes are prominent almost beyond the penthouse of the brow; the upper +lip is so long that it must have been almost a deformity, unless the +sculptor artistically exaggerated its length, in consideration, that, on +the pedestal, it must be foreshortened by being looked at from below. On +the whole, Shakespeare must have had a singular rather than a +prepossessing face; and it is wonderful how, with this bust before its +eyes, the world has persisted in maintaining an erroneous notion of his +appearance, allowing painters and sculptors to foist their idealized +nonsense on its all, instead of the genuine man. For my part, the +Shakespeare of my mind's eye is henceforth to be a personage of a ruddy +English complexion, with a reasonably capacious brow, intelligent and +quickly observant eyes, a nose curved slightly outward, a long, queer +upper lip, with the mouth a little unclosed beneath it, and cheeks +considerably developed in the lower part and beneath the chin. But when +Shakespeare was himself (for nine tenths of the time, according to all +appearances, he was but the burgher of Stratford), he doubtless shone +through this dull mask and transfigured it into the face of an angel. + +Fifteen or twenty feet behind the row of Shakespeare gravestones is the +great east-window of the church, now brilliant with stained glass of +recent manufacture. On one side of this window, under a sculptured arch +of marble, lies a full-length marble figure of John a' Combe, clad in +what I take to be a robe of municipal dignity, and holding its hands +devoutly clasped. It is a sturdy English figure, with coarse features, a +type of ordinary man whom we smile to see immortalized in the +sculpturesque material of poets and heroes; but the prayerful attitude +encourages us to believe that the old usurer may not, after all, have had +that grim reception in the other world which Shakespeare's squib +foreboded for him. By the by, till I grew somewhat familiar with +Warwickshire pronunciation, I never understood that the point of those +ill-natured lines was a pun. "'Oho!' quoth the Devil, ''t is my John a' +Combe'"--that is, "My John has come!" + +Close to the poet's bust is a nameless, oblong, cubic tomb, supposed to +be that of a clerical dignitary of the fourteenth century. The church +has other mural monuments and altar-tombs, one or two of the latter +upholding the recumbent figures of knights in armor and their dames, very +eminent and worshipful personages in their day, no doubt, but doomed to +appear forever intrusive and impertinent within the precincts which +Shakespeare has made his own. His renown is tyrannous, and suffers +nothing else to be recognized within the scope of its material presence, +unless illuminated by some side-ray from himself. The clerk informed me +that interments no longer take place in any part of the church. And it +is better so; for methinks a person of delicate individuality, curious +about his burial-place, and desirous of six feet of earth for himself +alone, could never endure to be buried near Shakespeare, but would rise +up at midnight and grope his way out of the church-door, rather than +sleep in the shadow of so stupendous a memory. + +I should hardly have dared to add another to the innumerable descriptions +of Stratford-on-Avon, if it had not seemed to me that this would form a +fitting framework to some reminiscences of a very remarkable woman. Her +labor, while she lived, was of a nature and purpose outwardly irreverent +to the name of Shakespeare, yet, by its actual tendency, entitling her to +the distinction of being that one of all his worshippers who sought, +though she knew it not, to place the richest and stateliest diadem upon +his brow. We Americans, at least, in the scanty annals of our +literature, cannot afford to forget her high and conscientious exercise +of noble faculties, which, indeed, if you look at the matter in one way, +evolved only a miserable error, but, more fairly considered, produced a +result worth almost what it cost her. Her faith in her own ideas was so +genuine, that, erroneous as they were, it transmuted them to gold, or, at +all events, interfused a large proportion of that precious and +indestructible substance among the waste material from which it can +readily be sifted. + +The only time I ever saw Miss Bacon was in London, where she had lodgings +in Spring Street, Sussex Gardens, at the house of a grocer, a portly, +middle-aged, civil, and friendly man, who, as well as his wife, appeared +to feel a personal kindness towards their lodger. I was ushered up two +(and I rather believe three) pair of stairs into a parlor somewhat humbly +furnished, and told that Miss Bacon would come soon. There were a number +of books on the table, and, looking into them, I found that every one had +some reference, more or less immediate, to her Shakespearian theory,--a +volume of Raleigh's "History of the World," a volume of Montaigne, a +volume of Lord Bacon's letters, a volume of Shakespeare's plays; and on +another table lay a large roll of manuscript, which I presume to have +been a portion of her work. To be sure, there was a pocket-Bible among +the books, but everything else referred to the one despotic idea that had +got possession of her mind; and as it had engrossed her whole soul as +well as her intellect, I have no doubt that she had established subtile +connections between it and the Bible likewise. As is apt to be the case +with solitary students, Miss Bacon probably read late and rose late; for +I took up Montaigne (it was Hazlitt's translation) and had been reading +his journey to Italy a good while before she appeared. + +I had expected (the more shame for me, having no other ground of such +expectation than that she was a literary woman) to see a very homely, +uncouth, elderly personage, and was quite agreeably disappointed by her +aspect. She was rather uncommonly tall, and had a striking and +expressive face, dark hair, dark eyes, which shone with an inward light +as soon as she began to speak, and by and by a color came into her cheeks +and made her look almost young. Not that she really was so; she must +have been beyond middle age: and there was no unkindness in coming to +that conclusion, because, making allowance for years and ill-health, I +could suppose her to have been handsome and exceedingly attractive once. +Though wholly estranged from society, there was little or no restraint or +embarrassment in her manner: lonely people are generally glad to give +utterance to their pent-up ideas, and often bubble over with them as +freely as children with their new-found syllables. I cannot tell how it +came about, but we immediately found ourselves taking a friendly and +familiar tone together, and began to talk as if we had known one another +a very long while. A little preliminary correspondence had indeed +smoothed the way, and we had a definite topic in the contemplated +publication of her book. + +She was very communicative about her theory, and would have been much +more so had I desired it; but, being conscious within myself of a sturdy +unbelief, I deemed it fair and honest rather to repress than draw her out +upon the subject. Unquestionably, she was a monomaniac; these +overmastering ideas about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, and the +deep political philosophy concealed beneath the surface of them, had +completely thrown her off her balance; but at the same time they had +wonderfully developed her intellect, and made her what she could not +otherwise have become. It was a very singular phenomenon: a system of +philosophy growing up in thus woman's mind without her volition,-- +contrary, in fact, to the determined resistance of her volition,--and +substituting itself in the place of everything that originally grew +there. To have based such a system on fancy, and unconsciously +elaborated it for herself, was almost as wonderful as really to have +found it in the plays. But, in a certain sense, she did actually find it +there. Shakespeare has surface beneath surface, to an immeasurable +depth, adapted to the plummet-line of every reader; his works present +many phases of truth, each with scope large enough to fill a +contemplative mind. Whatever you seek in him you will surely discover, +provided you seek truth. There is no exhausting the various +interpretation of his symbols; and a thousand years hence, a world of new +readers will possess a whole library of new books, as we ourselves do, in +these volumes old already. I had half a mind to suggest to Miss Bacon +this explanation of her theory, but forbore, because (as I could readily +perceive) she had as princely a spirit as Queen Elizabeth herself, and +would at once have motioned me from the room. + +I had heard, long ago, that she believed that the material evidences of +her dogma as to the authorship, together with the key of the new +philosophy, would be found buried in Shakespeare's grave. Recently, as I +understood her, this notion had been somewhat modified, and was now +accurately defined and fully developed in her mind, with a result of +perfect certainty. In Lord Bacon's letters, on which she laid her finger +as she spoke, she had discovered the key and clew to the whole mystery. +There were definite and minute instructions how to find a will and other +documents relating to the conclave of Elizabethan philosophers, which +were concealed (when and by whom she did not inform me) in a hollow +space in the under surface of Shakespeare's gravestone. Thus the +terrible prohibition to remove the stone was accounted for. The +directions, she intimated, went completely and precisely to the point, +obviating all difficulties in the way of coming at the treasure, and +even, if I remember right, were so contrived as to ward off any +troublesome consequences likely to ensue from the interference of the +parish-officers. All that Miss Bacon now remained in England for-- +indeed, the object for which she had come hither, and which had kept her +here for three years past--was to obtain possession of these material and +unquestionable proofs of the authenticity of her theory. + +She communicated all this strange matter in a low, quiet tone; while, on +my part, I listened as quietly, and without any expression of dissent. +Controversy against a faith so settled would have shut her up at once, +and that, too, without in the least weakening her belief in the existence +of those treasures of the tomb; and had it been possible to convince her +of their intangible nature, I apprehend that there would have been +nothing left for the poor enthusiast save to collapse and die. She +frankly confessed that she could no longer bear the society of those who +did not at least lend a certain sympathy to her views, if not fully share +in them; and meeting little sympathy or none, she had now entirely +secluded herself from the world. In all these years, she had seen Mrs. +Farrar a few times, but had long ago given her up,--Carlyle once or +twice, but not of late, although he had received her kindly; Mr. +Buchanan, while Minister in England, had once called on her, and General +Campbell, our Consul in London, had met her two or three times on +business. With these exceptions, which she marked so scrupulously that +it was perceptible what epochs they were in the monotonous passage of her +days, she had lived in the profoundest solitude. She never walked out; +she suffered much from ill-health; and yet, she assured me, she was +perfectly happy. + +I could well conceive it; for Miss Bacon imagined herself to have +received (what is certainly the greatest boon ever assigned to mortals) a +high mission in the world, with adequate powers for its accomplishment; +and lest even these should prove insufficient, she had faith that special +interpositions of Providence were forwarding her human efforts. This +idea was continually coming to the surface, during our interview. She +believed, for example, that she had been providentially led to her +lodging-house and put in relations with the good-natured grocer and his +family; and, to say the truth, considering what a savage and stealthy +tribe the London lodging-house keepers usually are, the honest kindness +of this man and his household appeared to have been little less than +miraculous. Evidently, too, she thought that Providence had brought me +forward--a man somewhat connected with literature--at the critical +juncture when she needed a negotiator with the booksellers; and, on my +part, though little accustomed to regard myself as a divine minister, and +though I might even have preferred that Providence should select some +other instrument, I had no scruple in undertaking to do what I could for +her. Her book, as I could see by turning it over, was a very remarkable +one, and worthy of being offered to the public, which, if wise enough to +appreciate it, would be thankful for what was good in it and merciful to +its faults. It was founded on a prodigious error, but was built up from +that foundation with a good many prodigious truths. And, at all events, +whether I could aid her literary views or no, it would have been both +rash and impertinent in me to attempt drawing poor Miss Bacon out of her +delusions, which were the condition on which she lived in comfort and +joy, and in the exercise of great intellectual power. So I left her to +dream as she pleased about the treasures of Shakespeare's tombstone, and +to form whatever designs might seem good to herself for obtaining +possession of them. I was sensible of a ladylike feeling of propriety in +Miss Bacon, and a New England orderliness in her character, and, in spite +of her bewilderment, a sturdy common-sense, which I trusted would begin +to operate at the right time, and keep her from any actual extravagance. +And as regarded this matter of the tombstone, so it proved. + +The interview lasted above an hour, during which she flowed out freely, +as to the sole auditor, capable of any degree of intelligent sympathy, +whom she had met with in a very long while. Her conversation was +remarkably suggestive, alluring forth one's own ideas and fantasies from +the shy places where they usually haunt. She was indeed an admirable +talker, considering how long she had held her tongue for lack of a +listener,--pleasant, sunny and shadowy, often piquant, and giving +glimpses of all a woman's various and readily changeable moods and +humors; and beneath them all there ran a deep and powerful under-current +of earnestness, which did not fail to produce in the listener's mind +something like a temporary faith in what she herself believed so +fervently. But the streets of London are not favorable to enthusiasms of +this kind, nor, in fact, are they likely to flourish anywhere in the +English atmosphere; so that, long before reaching Paternoster Row, I felt +that it would be a difficult and doubtful matter to advocate the +publication of Miss Bacon's book. Nevertheless, it did finally get +published. + +Months before that happened, however, Miss Bacon had taken up her +residence at Stratford-on-Avon, drawn thither by the magnetism of those +rich secrets which she supposed to have been hidden by Raleigh, or Bacon, +or I know not whom, in Shakespeare's grave, and protected there by a +curse, as pirates used to bury their gold in the guardianship of a fiend. +She took a humble lodging and began to haunt the church like a ghost. +But she did not condescend to any stratagem or underhand attempt to +violate the grave, which, had she been capable of admitting such an idea, +might possibly have been accomplished by the aid of a resurrection-man. +As her first step, she made acquaintance with the clerk, and began to +sound him as to the feasibility of her enterprise and his own willingness +to engage in it. The clerk apparently listened with not unfavorable +ears; but, as his situation (which the fees of pilgrims, more numerous +than at any Catholic shrine, render lucrative) would have been forfeited +by any malfeasance in office, he stipulated for liberty to consult the +vicar. Miss Bacon requested to tell her own story to the reverend +gentleman, and seems to have been received by him with the utmost +kindness, and even to have succeeded in making a certain impression on +his mind as to the desirability of the search. As their interview had +been under the seal of secrecy, he asked permission to consult a friend, +who, as Miss Bacon either found out or surmised, was a practitioner of +the law. What the legal friend advised she did not learn; but the +negotiation continued, and certainly was never broken off by an absolute +refusal on the vicar's part. He, perhaps, was kindly temporizing with +our poor countrywoman, whom an Englishman of ordinary mould would have +sent to a lunatic asylum at once. I cannot help fancying, however, that +her familiarity with the events of Shakespeare's life, and of his death +and burial (of which she would speak as if she had been present at the +edge of the grave), and all the history, literature, and personalities of +the Elizabethan age, together with the prevailing power of her own +belief, and the eloquence with which she knew how to enforce it, had +really gone some little way toward making a convert of the good +clergyman. If so, I honor him above all the hierarchy of England. + +The affair certainly looked very hopeful. However erroneously, Miss +Bacon had understood from the vicar that no obstacles would be interposed +to the investigation, and that he himself would sanction it with his +presence. It was to take place after nightfall; and all preliminary +arrangements being made, the vicar and clerk professed to wait only her +word in order to set about lifting the awful stone from the sepulchre. +So, at least, Miss Bacon believed; and as her bewilderment was entirely +in her own thoughts, and never disturbed her perception or accurate +remembrance of external things, I see no reason to doubt it, except it be +the tinge of absurdity in the fact. But, in this apparently prosperous +state of things, her own convictions began to falter. A doubt stole into +her mind whether she might not have mistaken the depository and mode of +concealment of those historic treasures; and after once admitting the +doubt, she was afraid to hazard the shock of uplifting the stone and +finding nothing. She examined the surface of the gravestone, and +endeavored, without stirring it, to estimate whether it were of such +thickness as to be capable of containing the archives of the Elizabethan +club. She went over anew the proofs, the clews, the enigmas, the +pregnant sentences, which she had discovered in Bacon's letters and +elsewhere, and now was frightened to perceive that they did not point so +definitely to Shakespeare's tomb as she had heretofore supposed. There +was an unmistakably distinct reference to a tomb, but it might be +Bacon's, or Raleigh's, or Spenser's; and instead of the "Old Player," as +she profanely called him, it might be either of those three illustrious +dead, poet, warrior, or statesman, whose ashes, in Westminster Abbey, or +the Tower burial-ground, or wherever they sleep, it was her mission to +disturb. It is very possible, moreover, that her acute mind may always +have had a lurking and deeply latent distrust of its own fantasies, and +that this now became strong enough to restrain her from a decisive step. + +But she continued to hover around the church, and seems to have had full +freedom of entrance in the daytime, and special license, on one occasion +at least, at a late hour of the night. She went thither with a +dark-lantern, which could but twinkle like a glow-worm through the volume +of obscurity that filled the great dusky edifice. Groping her way up the +aisle and towards the chancel, she sat down on the elevated part of the +pavement above Shakespeare's grave. If the divine poet really wrote the +inscription there, and cared as much about the quiet of his bones as its +deprecatory earnestness would imply, it was time for those crumbling +relics to bestir themselves under her sacrilegious feet. But they were +safe. She made no attempt to disturb them; though, I believe, she looked +narrowly into the crevices between Shakespeare's and the two adjacent +stones, and in some way satisfied herself that her single strength would +suffice to lift the former, in case of need. She threw the feeble ray of +her lantern up towards the bust, but could not make it visible beneath +the darkness of the vaulted roof. Had she been subject to superstitious +terrors, it is impossible to conceive of a situation that could better +entitle her to feel them, for, if Shakespeare's ghost would rise at any +provocation, it must have shown itself then; but it is my sincere belief, +that, if his figure had appeared within the scope of her dark-lantern, in +his slashed doublet and gown, and with his eyes bent on her beneath the +high, bald forehead, just as we see him in the bust, she would have met +him fearlessly and controverted his claims to the authorship of the +plays, to his very face. She had taught herself to contemn "Lord +Leicester's groom" (it was one of her disdainful epithets for the world's +incomparable poet) so thoroughly, that even his disembodied spirit would +hardly have found civil treatment at Miss Bacon's hands. + +Her vigil, though it appears to have had no definite object, continued +far into the night. Several times she heard a low movement in the +aisles: a stealthy, dubious footfall prowling about in the darkness, now +here, now there, among the pillars and ancient tombs, as if some restless +inhabitant of the latter had crept forth to peep at the intruder. By and +by the clerk made his appearance, and confessed that he had been watching +her ever since she entered the church. + +About this time it was that a strange sort of weariness seems to have +fallen upon her: her toil was all but done, her great purpose, as she +believed, on the very point of accomplishment, when she began to regret +that so stupendous a mission had been imposed on the fragility of a +woman. Her faith in the new philosophy was as mighty as ever, and so was +her confidence in her own adequate development of it, now about to be +given to the world; yet she wished, or fancied so, that it might never +have been her duty to achieve this unparalleled task, and to stagger +feebly forward under her immense burden of responsibility and renown. So +far as her personal concern in the matter went, she would gladly have +forfeited the reward of her patient study and labor for so many years, +her exile from her country and estrangement from her family and friends, +her sacrifice of health and all other interests to this one pursuit, if +she could only find herself free to dwell in Stratford and be forgotten. +She liked the old slumberous town, and awarded the only praise that ever +I knew her to bestow on Shakespeare, the individual man, by acknowledging +that his taste in a residence was good, and that he knew how to choose a +suitable retirement for a person of shy, but genial temperament. And at +this point, I cease to possess the means of tracing her vicissitudes of +feeling any further. In consequence of some advice which I fancied it my +duty to tender, as being the only confidant whom she now had in the +world, I fell under Miss Bacon's most severe and passionate displeasure, +and was cast off by her in the twinkling of an eye. It was a misfortune +to which her friends were always particularly liable; but I think that +none of them ever loved, or even respected, her most ingenuous and noble, +but likewise most sensitive and tumultuous, character the less for it. + +At that time her book was passing through the press. Without prejudice +to her literary ability, it must be allowed that Miss Bacon was wholly +unfit to prepare her own work for publication, because, among many other +reasons, she was too thoroughly in earnest to know what to leave out. +Every leaf and line was sacred, for all had been written under so deep a +conviction of truth as to assume, in her eyes, the aspect of inspiration. +A practised book-maker, with entire control of her materials, would have +shaped out a duodecimo volume full of eloquent and ingenious +dissertation,--criticisms which quite take the color and pungency out of +other people's critical remarks on Shakespeare,--philosophic truths which +she imagined herself to have found at the roots of his conceptions, and +which certainly come from no inconsiderable depth somewhere. There was a +great amount of rubbish, which any competent editor would have shovelled +out of the way. But Miss Bacon thrust the whole bulk of inspiration and +nonsense into the press in a lump, and there tumbled out a ponderous +octavo volume, which fell with a dead thump at the feet of the public, +and has never been picked up. A few persons turned over one or two of +the leaves, as it lay there, and essayed to kick the volume deeper into +the mud; for they were the hack critics of the minor periodical press in +London, than whom, I suppose, though excellent fellows in their way, +there are no gentlemen in the world less sensible of any sanctity in a +book, or less likely to recognize an author's heart in it, or more +utterly careless about bruising, if they do recognize it. It is their +trade. They could not do otherwise. I never thought of blaming them. +It was not for such an Englishman as one of these to get beyond the idea +that an assault was meditated on England's greatest poet. From the +scholars and critics of her own country, indeed, Miss Bacon might have +looked for a worthier appreciation, because many of the best of them have +higher cultivation, and finer and deeper literary sensibilities than all +but the very profoundest and brightest of Englishmen. But they are not a +courageous body of men; they dare not think a truth that has an odor of +absurdity, lest they should feel themselves bound to speak it out. If +any American ever wrote a word in her behalf, Miss Bacon never knew it, +nor did I. Our journalists at once republished some of the most brutal +vituperations of the English press, thus pelting their poor countrywoman +with stolen mud, without even waiting to know whether the ignominy was +deserved. And they never have known it, to this day, nor ever will. + +The next intelligence that I had of Miss Bacon was by a letter from the +mayor of Stratford-on-Avon. He was a medical man, and wrote both in his +official and professional character, telling me that an American lady, +who had recently published what the mayor called a "Shakespeare book," +was afflicted with insanity. In a lucid interval she had referred to me, +as a person who had some knowledge of her family and affairs. What she +may have suffered before her intellect gave way, we had better not try to +imagine. No author had ever hoped so confidently as she; none ever +failed more utterly. A superstitious fancy might suggest that the +anathema on Shakespeare's tombstone had fallen heavily on her head in +requital of even the unaccomplished purpose of disturbing the dust +beneath, and that the "Old Player" had kept so quietly in his grave, on +the night of her vigil, because he foresaw how soon and terribly he would +be avenged. But if that benign spirit takes any care or cognizance of +such things now, he has surely requited the injustice that she sought to +do him--the high justice that she really did--by a tenderness of love and +pity of which only he could be capable. What matters it though she +called him by some other name? He had wrought a greater miracle on her +than on all the world besides. This bewildered enthusiast had recognized +a depth in the man whom she decried, which scholars, critics, and learned +societies, devoted to the elucidation of his unrivalled scenes, had never +imagined to exist there. She had paid him the loftiest honor that all +these ages of renown have been able to accumulate upon his memory. And +when, not many months after the outward failure of her lifelong object, +she passed into the better world, I know not why we should hesitate to +believe that the immortal poet may have met her on the threshold and led +her in, reassuring her with friendly and comfortable words, and thanking +her (yet with a smile of gentle humor in his eyes at the thought of +certain mistaken speculations) for having interpreted him to mankind so +well. + +I believe that it has been the fate of this remarkable book never to have +had more than a single reader. I myself am acquainted with it only in +insulated chapters and scattered pages and paragraphs. But, since my +return to America, a young man of genius and enthusiasm has assured me +that he has positively read the book from beginning to end, and is +completely a convert to its doctrines. It belongs to him, therefore, and +not to me, whom, in almost the last letter that I received from her, she +declared unworthy to meddle with her work,--it belongs surely to this one +individual, who has done her so much justice as to know what she wrote, +to place Miss Bacon in her due position before the public and posterity. + +This has been too sad a story. To lighten the recollection of it, I will +think of my stroll homeward past Charlecote Park, where I beheld the most +stately elms, singly, in clumps, and in groves, scattered all about in +the sunniest, shadiest, sleepiest fashion; so that I could not but +believe in a lengthened, loitering, drowsy enjoyment which these trees +must have in their existence. Diffused over slow-paced centuries, it +need not be keen nor bubble into thrills and ecstasies, like the +momentary delights of short-lived human beings. They were civilized +trees, known to man and befriended by him for ages past. There is an +indescribable difference--as I believe I have heretofore endeavored to +express--between the tamed, but by no means effete (on the contrary, the +richer and more luxuriant) nature of England, and the rude, shaggy, +barbarous nature which offers as its racier companionship in America. No +less a change has been wrought among the wildest creatures that inhabit +what the English call their forests. By and by, among those refined and +venerable trees, I saw a large herd of deer, mostly reclining, but some +standing in picturesque groups, while the stags threw their large antlers +aloft, as if they had been taught to make themselves tributary to the +scenic effect. Some were running fleetly about, vanishing from light +into shadow and glancing forth again, with here and there a little fawn +careering at its mother's heels. These deer are almost in the same +relation to the wild, natural state of their kind that the trees of an +English park hold to the rugged growth of an American forest. They have +held a certain intercourse with man for immemorial years; and, most +probably, the stag that Shakespeare killed was one of the progenitors of +this very herd, and may himself have been a partly civilized and +humanized deer, though in a less degree than these remote posterity. +They are a little wilder than sheep, but they do not snuff the air at the +approach of human beings, nor evince much alarm at their pretty close +proximity; although if you continue to advance, they toss their heads and +take to their heels in a kind of mimic terror, or something akin to +feminine skittishness, with a dim remembrance or tradition, as it were, +of their having come of a wild stock. They have so long been fed and +protected by man, that they must have lost many of their native +instincts, and, I suppose, could not live comfortably through, even an +English winter without human help. One is sensible of a gentle scorn at +them for such dependency, but feels none the less kindly disposed towards +the half-domesticated race; and it may have been his observation of these +tamer characteristics in the Charlecote herd that suggested to +Shakespeare the tender and pitiful description of a wounded stag, in "As +You Like It." + +At a distance of some hundreds of yards from Charlecote Hall, and almost +hidden by the trees between it and the roadside, is an old brick archway +and porter's lodge. In connection with this entrance there appears to +have been a wall and an ancient moat, the latter of which is still +visible, a shallow, grassy scoop along the base of an embankment of the +lawn. About fifty yards within the gateway stands the house, forming +three sides of a square, with three gables in a row on the front, and on +each of the two wings; and there are several towers and turrets at the +angles, together with projecting windows, antique balconies, and other +quaint ornaments suitable to the half-Gothic taste in which the edifice +was built. Over the gateway is the Lucy coat-of-arms, emblazoned in its +proper colors. The mansion dates from the early days of Elizabeth, and +probably looked very much the same as now when Shakespeare was brought +before Sir Thomas Lucy for outrages among his deer. The impression is +not that of gray antiquity, but of stable and time-honored gentility, +still as vital as ever. + +It is a most delightful place. All about the house and domain there is a +perfection of comfort and domestic taste, an amplitude of convenience, +which could have been brought about only by the slow ingenuity and labor +of many successive generations, intent upon adding all possible +improvement to the home where years gone by and years to come give a sort +of permanence to the intangible present. An American is sometimes +tempted to fancy that only by this long process can real homes be +produced. One man's lifetime is not enough for the accomplishment of +such a work of art and nature, almost the greatest merely temporary one +that is confided to him; too little, at any rate,--yet perhaps too long +when he is discouraged by the idea that he must make his house warm and +delightful for a miscellaneous race of successors, of whom the one thing +certain is, that his own grandchildren will not be among them. Such +repinings as are here suggested, however, come only from the fact, that, +bred in English habits of thought, as most of us are, we have not yet +modified our instincts to the necessities of our new forms of life. A +lodging in a wigwam or under a tent has really as many advantages, when +we come to know them, as a home beneath the roof-tree of Charlecote Hall. +But, alas! our philosophers have not yet taught us what is best, nor have +our poets sung us what is beautifulest, in the kind of life that we must +lead; and therefore we still read the old English wisdom, and harp upon +the ancient strings. And thence it happens, that, when we look at a +time-honored hall, it seems more possible for men who inherit such a +home, than for ourselves, to lead noble and graceful lives, quietly doing +good and lovely things as their daily work, and achieving deeds of simple +greatness when circumstances require them. I sometimes apprehend that +our institutions may perish before we shall have discovered the most +precious of the possibilities which they involve. + + + + +LICHFIELD AND UTTOXETER. + + +After my first visit to Leamington Spa, I went by an indirect route to +Lichfield, and put up at the Black Swan. Had I known where to find it, I +would much rather have established myself at the inn formerly kept by the +worthy Mr. Boniface, so famous for his ale in Farquhar's time. The Black +Swan is an old-fashioned hotel, its street-front being penetrated by an +arched passage, in either side of which is an entrance door to the +different parts of the house, and through which, and over the large +stones of its pavement, all vehicles and horsemen rumble and clatter into +an enclosed courtyard, with a thunderous uproar among the contiguous +rooms and chambers. I appeared to be the only guest of the spacious +establishment, but may have had a few fellow-lodgers hidden in their +separate parlors, and utterly eschewing that community of interests which +is the characteristic feature of life in an American hotel. At any rate, +I had the great, dull, dingy, and dreary coffee-room, with its heavy old +mahogany chairs and tables, all to myself, and not a soul to exchange a +word with, except the waiter, who, like most of his class in England, had +evidently left his conversational abilities uncultivated. No former +practice of solitary living, nor habits of reticence, nor well-tested +self-dependence for occupation of mind and amusement, can quite avail, as +I now proved, to dissipate the ponderous gloom of an English coffee-room +under such circumstances as these, with no book at hand save the +county-directory, nor any newspaper but a torn local journal of five days +ago. So I buried myself, betimes, in a huge heap of ancient feathers +(there is no other kind of bed in these old inns), let my head sink into +an unsubstantial pillow, and slept a stifled sleep, infested with such a +fragmentary confusion of dreams that I took them to be a medley, +compounded of the night-troubles of all my predecessors in that same +unrestful couch. And when I awoke, the musty odor of a bygone century +was in my nostrils,--a faint, elusive smell, of which I never had any +conception before crossing the Atlantic. + +In the morning, after a mutton-chop and a cup of chiccory in the dusky +coffee-room, I went forth and bewildered myself a little while among the +crooked streets, in quest of one or two objects that had chiefly +attracted me to the spot. The city is of very ancient date, and its name +in the old Saxon tongue has a dismal import that would apply well, in +these days and forever henceforward, to many an unhappy locality in our +native land. Lichfield signifies "The Field of the Dead Bodies,"--an +epithet, however, which the town did not assume in remembrance of a +battle, but which probably sprung up by a natural process, like a sprig +of rue or other funereal weed, out of the graves of two princely +brothers, sons of a pagan king of Mercia, who were converted by St. Chad, +and afterwards martyred for their Christian faith. Nevertheless, I was +but little interested in the legends of the remote antiquity of +Lichfield, being drawn thither partly to see its beautiful cathedral, and +still more, I believe, because it was the birthplace of Dr. Johnson, with +whose sturdy English character I became acquainted, at a very early +period of my life, through the good offices of Mr. Boswell. In truth, he +seems as familiar to my recollection, and almost as vivid in his personal +aspect to my mind's eye, as the kindly figure of my own grandfather. It +is only a solitary child,--left much to such wild modes of culture as he +chooses for himself while yet ignorant what culture means, standing on +tiptoe to pull down books from no very lofty shelf, and then shutting +himself up, as it were, between the leaves, going astray through the +volume at his own pleasure, and comprehending it rather by his +sensibilities and affections than his intellect,--that child is the only +student that ever gets the sort of intimacy which I am now thinking of, +with a literary personage. I do not remember, indeed, ever caring much +about any of the stalwart Doctor's grandiloquent productions, except his +two stern and masculine poems, "London," and "The Vanity of Human +Wishes"; it was as a man, a talker, and a humorist, that I knew and loved +him, appreciating many of his qualities perhaps more thoroughly than I do +now, though never seeking to put my instinctive perception of his +character into language. + +Beyond all question, I might have had a wiser friend than he. The +atmosphere in which alone he breathed was dense; his awful dread of death +showed how much muddy imperfection was to be cleansed out of him, before +he could be capable of spiritual existence; he meddled only with the +surface of life, and never cared to penetrate further than to ploughshare +depth; his very sense and sagacity were but a one-eyed clear-sightedness. +I laughed at him, sometimes, standing beside his knee. And yet, +considering that my native propensities were towards Fairy Land, and also +how much yeast is generally mixed up with the mental sustenance of a +New-Englander, it may not have been altogether amiss, in those childish +and boyish days, to keep pace with this heavy-footed traveller and feed +on the gross diet that he carried in his knapsack. It is wholesome food +even now. And, then, how English! Many of the latent sympathies that +enabled me to enjoy the Old Country so well, and that so readily +amalgamated themselves with the American ideas that seemed most adverse +to them, may have been derived from, or fostered and kept alive by, the +great English moralist. Never was a descriptive epithet more nicely +appropriate than that! Dr. Johnson's morality was as English an article +as a beefsteak. + +The city of Lichfield (only the cathedral-towns are called cities, in +England) stands on an ascending site. It has not so many old gabled +houses as Coventry, for example, but still enough to gratify an American +appetite for the antiquities of domestic architecture. The people, too, +have an old-fashioned way with them, and stare at the passing visitor, as +if the railway had not yet quite accustomed them to the novelty of +strange faces moving along their ancient sidewalks. The old women whom I +met, in several instances, dropt me a courtesy; and as they were of +decent and comfortable exterior, and kept quietly on their way without +pause or further greeting, it certainly was not allowable to interpret +their little act of respect as a modest method of asking for sixpence; so +that I had the pleasure of considering it a remnant of the reverential +and hospitable manners of elder times, when the rare presence of a +stranger might be deemed worth a general acknowledgment. Positively, +coming from such humble sources, I took it all the more as a welcome on +behalf of the inhabitants, and would not have exchanged it for an +invitation from the mayor and magistrates to a public dinner. Yet I +wish, merely for the experiment's sake, that I could have emboldened +myself to hold out the aforesaid sixpence to at least one of the old +ladies. + +In my wanderings about town, I came to an artificial piece of water, +called the Minster Pool. It fills the immense cavity in a ledge of rock, +whence the building-materials of the cathedral were quarried out a great +many centuries ago. I should never have guessed the little lake to be of +man's creation, so very pretty and quietly picturesque an object has it +grown to be, with its green banks, and the old trees hanging over its +glassy surface, in which you may see reflected some of the battlements of +the majestic structure that once lay here in unshaped stone. Some little +children stood on the edge of the Pool, angling with pin-hooks; and the +scene reminded me (though really to be quite fair with the reader, the +gist of the analogy has now escaped me) of that mysterious lake in the +Arabian Nights, which had once been a palace and a city, and where a +fisherman used to pull out the former inhabitants in the guise of +enchanted fishes. There is no need of fanciful associations to make the +spot interesting. It was in the porch of one of the houses, in the +street that runs beside the Minster Pool, that Lord Brooke was slain, in +the time of the Parliamentary war, by a shot from the battlements of the +cathedral, which was then held by the Royalists as a fortress. The +incident is commemorated by an inscription on a stone, inlaid into the +wall of the house. + +I know not what rank the Cathedral of Lichfield holds among its sister +edifices in England, as a piece of magnificent architecture. Except that +of Chester (the grim and simple nave of which stands yet unrivalled in my +memory), and one or two small ones in North Wales, hardly worthy of the +name of cathedrals, it was the first that I had seen. To my uninstructed +vision, it seemed the object best worth gazing at in the whole world; and +now, after beholding a great many more, I remember it with less prodigal +admiration only because others are as magnificent as itself. The traces +remaining in my memory represent it as airy rather than massive. A +multitude of beautiful shapes appeared to be comprehended within its +single outline; it was a kind of kaleidoscopic mystery, so rich a variety +of aspects did it assume from each altered point of view, through the +presentation of a different face, and the rearrangement of its peaks and +pinnacles and the three battlemented towers, with the spires that shot +heavenward from all three, but one loftier than its fellows. Thus it +impressed you, at every change, as a newly created structure of the +passing moment, in which yet you lovingly recognized the half-vanished +structure of the instant before, and felt, moreover, a joyful faith in +the indestructible existence of all this cloudlike vicissitude. A Gothic +cathedral is surely the most wonderful work which mortal man has yet +achieved, so vast, so intricate, and so profoundly simple, with such +strange, delightful recesses in its grand figure, so difficult to +comprehend within one idea, and yet all so consonant that it ultimately +draws the beholder and his universe into its harmony. It is the only +thing in the world that is vast enough and rich enough. + +Not that I felt, or was worthy to feel, an unmingled enjoyment in gazing +at this wonder. I could not elevate myself to its spiritual height, any +more than I could have climbed from the ground to the summit of one of +its pinnacles. Ascending but a little way, I continually fell back and +lay in a kind of despair, conscious that a flood of uncomprehended beauty +was pouring down upon me, of which I could appropriate only the minutest +portion. After a hundred years, incalculably as my higher sympathies +might be invigorated by so divine an employment, I should still be a +gazer from below and at an awful distance, as yet remotely excluded from +the interior mystery. But it was something gained, even to have that +painful sense of my own limitations, and that half-smothered yearning to +soar beyond them. The cathedral showed me how earthly I was, but yet +whispered deeply of immortality. After all, this was probably the best +lesson that it could bestow, and, taking it as thoroughly as possible +home to my heart, I was fain to be content. If the truth must be told, +my ill-trained enthusiasm soon flagged, and I began to lose the vision of +a spiritual or ideal edifice behind the time-worn and weather-stained +front of the actual structure. Whenever that is the case, it is most +reverential to look another way; but the mood disposes one to minute +investigation, and I took advantage of it to examine the intricate and +multitudinous adornment that was lavished on the exterior wall of this +great church. Everywhere, there were empty niches where statues had been +thrown down, and here and there a statue still lingered in its niche; and +over the chief entrance, and extending across the whole breadth of the +building, was a row of angels, sainted personages, martyrs, and kings, +sculptured in reddish stone. Being much corroded by the moist English +atmosphere, during four or five hundred winters that they had stood +there, these benign and majestic figures perversely put me in mind of the +appearance of a sugar image, after a child has been holding it in his +mouth. The venerable infant Time has evidently found them sweet morsels. + +Inside of the minster there is a long and lofty nave, transepts of the +same height, and side-aisles and chapels, dim nooks of holiness, where in +Catholic times the lamps were continually burning before the richly +decorated shrines of saints. In the audacity of my ignorance, as I +humbly acknowledge it to have been, I criticised this great interior as +too much broken into compartments, and shorn of half its rightful +impressiveness by the interposition of a screen betwixt the nave and +chancel. It did not spread itself in breadth, but ascended to the roof +in lofty narrowness. One large body of worshippers might have knelt down +in the nave, others in each of the transepts, and smaller ones in the +side-aisles, besides an indefinite number of esoteric enthusiasts in the +mysterious sanctities beyond the screen. Thus it seemed to typify the +exclusiveness of sects rather than the worldwide hospitality of genuine +religion. I had imagined a cathedral with a scope more vast. These +Gothic aisles, with their groined arches overhead, supported by clustered +pillars in long vistas up and down, were venerable and magnificent, but +included too much of the twilight of that monkish gloom out of which they +grew. It is no matter whether I ever came to a more satisfactory +appreciation of this kind of architecture; the only value of my +strictures being to show the folly of looking at noble objects in the +wrong mood, and the absurdity of a new visitant pretending to hold any +opinion whatever on such subjects, instead of surrendering himself to the +old builder's influence with childlike simplicity. + +A great deal of white marble decorates the old stonework of the aisles, +in the shape of altars, obelisks, sarcophagi, and busts. Most of these +memorials are commemorative of people locally distinguished, especially +the deans and canons of the Cathedral, with their relatives and families; +and I found but two monuments of personages whom I had ever heard of,-- +one being Gilbert Wahnesley and the other Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a +literary acquaintance of my boyhood. It was really pleasant to meet her +there; for after a friend has lain in the grave far into the second +century, she would be unreasonable to require any melancholy emotions in +a chance interview at her tombstone. It adds a rich charm to sacred +edifices, this time-honored custom of burial in churches, after a few +years, at least, when the mortal remains have turned to dust beneath the +pavement, and the quaint devices and inscriptions still speak to you +above. The statues, that stood or reclined in several recesses of the +Cathedral, had a kind of life, and I regarded them with an odd sort of +deference, as if they were privileged denizens of the precinct. It was +singular, too, how the memorial of the latest buried person, the man +whose features went familiar in the streets of Lichfield only yesterday, +seemed precisely as much at home here as his mediaeval predecessors. +Henceforward he belonged in the Cathedral like one of its original +pillars. Methought this impression in my fancy might be the shadow of a +spiritual fact. The dying melt into the great multitude of the Departed +as quietly as a drop of water into the ocean, and, it may be are +conscious of no unfamiliarity with their new circumstances, but +immediately become aware of an insufferable strangeness in the world +which they have quitted. Death has not taken them away, but brought them +home. + +The vicissitudes and mischances of sublunary affairs, however, have not +ceased to attend upon these marble inhabitants; for I saw the upper +fragment of a sculptured lady, in a very old-fashioned garb, the lower +half of whom had doubtless been demolished by Cromwell's soldiers when +they took the Minster by storm. And there lies the remnant of this +devout lady on her slab, ever since the outrage, as for centuries before, +with a countenance of divine serenity and her hands clasped in prayer, +symbolizing a depth of religious faith which no earthly turmoil or +calamity could disturb. Another piece of sculpture (apparently a +favorite subject in the Middle Ages, for I have seen several like it in +other cathedrals) was a reclining skeleton, as faithfully representing an +open-work of bones as could well be expected in a solid block of marble, +and at a period, moreover, when the mysteries of the human frame were +rather to be guessed at than revealed. Whatever the anatomical defects +of his production, the old sculptor had succeeded in making it ghastly +beyond measure. How much mischief has been wrought upon us by this +invariable gloom of the Gothic imagination; flinging itself like a +death-scented pall over our conceptions of the future state, smothering +our hopes, hiding our sky, and inducing dismal efforts to raise the +harvest of immortality out of what is most opposite to it,--the grave! + +The Cathedral service is performed twice every day at ten o'clock and at +four. When I first entered, the choristers (young and old, but mostly, I +think, boys, with voices inexpressibly sweet and clear, and as fresh as +bird-notes) were just winding up their harmonious labors, and soon came +thronging through a side-door from the chancel into the nave. They were +all dressed in long white robes, and looked like a peculiar order of +beings, created on purpose to hover between the roof and pavement of that +dim, consecrated edifice, and illuminate it with divine melodies, +reposing themselves, meanwhile, on the heavy grandeur of the organ-tones +like cherubs on a golden cloud. All at once, however, one of the +cherubic multitude pulled off his white gown, thus transforming himself +before my very eyes into a commonplace youth of the day, in modern +frock-coat and trousers of a decidedly provincial cut. This absurd +little incident, I verily believe, had a sinister effect in putting me at +odds with the proper influences of the Cathedral, nor could I quite +recover a suitable frame of mind during my stay there. But, emerging +into the open air, I began to be sensible that I had left a magnificent +interior behind me, and I have never quite lost the perception and +enjoyment of it in these intervening years. + +A large space in the immediate neighborhood of the Cathedral is called +the Close, and comprises beautifully kept lawns and a shadowy walk +bordered by the dwellings of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the +diocese. All this row of episcopal, canonical, and clerical residences +has an air of the deepest quiet, repose, and well-protected though not +inaccessible seclusion. They seemed capable of including everything that +a saint could desire, and a great many more things than most of us +sinners generally succeed in acquiring. Their most marked feature is a +dignified comfort, looking as if no disturbance or vulgar intrusiveness +could ever cross their thresholds, encroach upon their ornamented +lawns, or straggle into the beautiful gardens that surround them with +flower-beds and rich clumps of shrubbery. The episcopal palace is a +stately mansion of stone, built somewhat in the Italian style, and +bearing on its front the figures 1637, as the date of its erection. A +large edifice of brick, which, if I remember, stood next to the palace, I +took to be the residence of the second dignitary of the Cathedral; and, +in that case, it must have been the youthful home of Addison, whose +father was Dean of Lichfield. I tried to fancy his figure on the +delightful walk that extends in front of those priestly abodes, from +which and the interior lawns it is separated by an open-work iron fence, +lined with rich old shrubbery, and overarched by a minster-aisle of +venerable trees. This path is haunted by the shades of famous personages +who have formerly trodden it. Johnson must have been familiar with it, +both as a boy, and in his subsequent visits to Lichfield, an illustrious +old man. Miss Seward, connected with so many literary reminiscences, +lived in one of the adjacent houses. Tradition says that it was a +favorite spot of Major Andre, who used to pace to and fro under these +trees waiting, perhaps, to catch a last angel-glimpse of Honoria Sueyd, +before he crossed the ocean to encounter his dismal doom from an American +court-martial. David Garrick, no doubt, scampered along the path in his +boyish days, and, if he was an early student of the drama, must often +have thought of those two airy characters of the "Beaux' Stratagem," +Archer and Aimwell, who, on this very ground, after attending service at +the cathedral, contrive to make acquaintance with the ladies of the +comedy. These creatures of mere fiction have as positive a substance now +as the sturdy old figure of Johnson himself. They live, while realities +have died. The shadowy walk still glistens with their gold-embroidered +memories. + +Seeking for Johnson's birthplace, I found it in St. Mary's Square, which +is not so much a square as the mere widening of a street. The house is +tall and thin, of three stories, with a square front and a roof rising +steep and high. On a side-view, the building looks as if it had been cut +in two in the midst, there being no slope of the roof on that side. A +ladder slanted against the wall, and a painter was giving a livelier line +to the plaster. In a corner-room of the basement, where old Michael +Johnson may be supposed to have sold books, is now what we should call a +dry-goods store, or, according to the English phrase, a mercer's and +haberdasher's shop. The house has a private entrance on a cross-street, +the door being accessible by several much-worn stone steps, which are +bordered by an iron balustrade. I set my foot on the steps and laid my +hand on the balustrade, where Johnson's hand and foot must many a time +have been, and ascending to the door, I knocked once, and again, and +again, and got no admittance. Going round to the shop-entrance, I tried +to open it, but found it as fast bolted as the gate of Paradise. It is +mortifying to be so balked in one's little enthusiasms; but looking round +in quest of somebody to make inquiries of, I was a good deal consoled by +the sight of Dr. Johnson himself, who happened, just at that moment, to +be sitting at his case nearly in the middle of St. Mary's Square, with +his face turned towards his father's house. + +Of course, it being almost fourscore years since the Doctor laid aside +his weary bulk of flesh, together with the ponderous melancholy that had +so long weighed him down, the intelligent reader will at once comprehend +that he was marble in his substance, and seated in a marble chair, on an +elevated stone pedestal. In short, it was a statue, sculptured by Lucas, +and placed here in 1838, at the expense of Dr. Law, the reverend +chancellor of the diocese. + +The figure is colossal (though perhaps not much more so than the +mountainous Doctor himself) and looks down upon the spectator from its +pedestal of ten or twelve feet high, with a broad and heavy benignity of +aspect, very like in feature to Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of +Johnson, but calmer and sweeter in expression. Several big books are +piled up beneath his chair, and, if I mistake not, he holds a volume in +his hand, thus blinking forth at the world out of his learned +abstraction, owllike, yet benevolent at heart. The statue is immensely +massive, a vast ponderosity of stone, not finely spiritualized, nor, +indeed, fully humanized, but rather resembling a great stone-bowlder than +a man. You must look with the eyes of faith and sympathy, or, possibly, +you might lose the human being altogether, and find only a big stone +within your mental grasp. On the pedestal are three bas-reliefs. In the +first, Johnson is represented as hardly more than a baby, bestriding an +old man's shoulders, resting his chin on the bald head which he embraces +with his little arms, and listening earnestly to the High-Church +eloquence of Dr. Sacheverell. In the second tablet, he is seen riding to +school on the shoulders of two of his comrades, while another boy +supports him in the rear. + +The third bas-relief possesses, to my mind, a great deal of pathos, to +which my appreciative faculty is probably the more alive, because I have +always been profoundly impressed by the incident here commemorated, and +long ago tried to tell it for the behoof of childish readers. It shows +Johnson in the market-place of Uttoxeter, doing penance for an act of +disobedience to his father, committed fifty years before. He stands +bareheaded, a venerable figure, and a countenance extremely sad and +woebegone, with the wind and rain driving hard against him, and thus +helping to suggest to the spectator the gloom of his inward state. Some +market-people and children gaze awe-stricken into his face, and an aged +man and woman, with clasped and uplifted hands, seem to be praying for +him. These latter personages (whose introduction by the artist is none +the less effective, because, in queer proximity, there are some +commodities of market-day in the shape of living ducks and dead poultry) +I interpreted to represent the spirits of Johnson's father and mother, +lending what aid they could to lighten his half-century's burden of +remorse. + +I had never heard of the above-described piece of sculpture before; it +appears to have no reputation as a work of art, nor am I at all positive +that it deserves any. For me, however, it did as much as sculpture +could, under the circumstances, even if the artist of the Libyan Sibyl +had wrought it, by reviving my interest in the sturdy old Englishman, and +particularly by freshening my perception of a wonderful beauty and +pathetic tenderness in the incident of the penance. So, the next day, I +left Lichfield for Uttoxeter, on one of the few purely sentimental +pilgrimages that I ever undertook, to see the very spot where Johnson had +stood. Boswell, I think, speaks of the town (its name is pronounced +Yuteoxeter) as being about nine miles off from Lichfield, but the +county-map would indicate a greater distance; and by rail, passing from +one line to another, it is as much as eighteen miles. I have always had +an idea of old Michael Johnson sending his literary merchandise by +carrier's wagon, journeying to Uttoxeter afoot on market-day morning, +selling books through the busy hours, and returning to Lichfield at +night. This could not possibly have been the case. + +Arriving at the Uttoxeter station, the first objects that I saw, with a +green field or two between them and me, were the tower and gray steeple +of a church, rising among red-tiled roofs and a few scattered trees. A +very short walk takes you from the station up into the town. It had been +my previous impression that the market-place of Uttoxeter lay immediately +roundabout the church; and, if I remember the narrative aright, Johnson, +or Boswell in his behalf, describes his father's book-stall as standing +in the market-place, close beside the sacred edifice. It is impossible +for me to say what changes may have occurred in the topography of the +town, during almost a century and a half since Michael Johnson retired +from business, and ninety years, at least, since his son's penance was +performed. But the church has now merely a street of ordinary width +passing around it, while the market-place, though near at hand, neither +forms a part of it nor is really contiguous, nor would its throng and +bustle be apt to overflow their boundaries and surge against the +churchyard and the old gray tower. Nevertheless, a walk of a minute or +two brings a person from the centre of the market-place to the +church-door; and Michael Johnson might very conveniently have located his +stall and laid out his literary ware in the corner at the tower's base; +better there, indeed, than in the busy centre of an agricultural market. +But the picturesque arrangement and full impressiveness of the story +absolutely require that Johnson shall not have done his penance in a +corner, ever so little retired, but shall have been the very nucleus of +the crowd,--the midmost man of the market-place,--a central image of +Memory and Remorse, contrasting with and overpowering the petty +materialism around him. He himself, having the force to throw vitality +and truth into what persons differently constituted might reckon a mere +external ceremony, and an absurd one, could not have failed to see this +necessity. I am resolved, therefore, that the true site of Dr. Johnson's +penance was in the middle of the market-place. + +That important portion of the town is a rather spacious and irregularly +shaped vacuity, surrounded by houses and shops, some of them old, with +red-tiled roofs, others wearing a pretence of newness, but probably as +old in their inner substance as the rest. The people of Uttoxeter seemed +very idle in the warm summer-day, and were scattered in little groups +along the sidewalks, leisurely chatting with one another, and often +turning about to take a deliberate stare at my humble self; insomuch that +I felt as if my genuine sympathy for the illustrious penitent, and my +many reflections about him, must have imbued me with some of his own +singularity of mien. If their great-grandfathers were such redoubtable +starers in the Doctor's day, his penance was no light one. This +curiosity indicates a paucity of visitors to the little town, except for +market purposes, and I question if Uttoxeter ever saw an American before. +The only other thing that greatly impressed me was the abundance of +public-houses, one at every step or two Red Lions, White Harts, Bulls' +Heads, Mitres, Cross Keys, and I know not what besides. These are +probably for the accommodation of the farmers and peasantry of the +neighborhood on market-day, and content themselves with a very meagre +business on other days of the week. At any rate, I was the only guest in +Uttoxeter at the period of my visit, and had but an infinitesimal portion +of patronage to distribute among such a multitude of inns. The reader, +however, will possibly be scandalized to learn what was the first, and, +indeed, the only important affair that I attended to, after coming so far +to indulge a solemn and high emotion, and standing now on the very spot +where my pious errand should have been consummated. I stepped into one +of the rustic hostelries and got my dinner,--bacon and greens, some +mutton-chops, juicier and more delectable than all America could serve up +at the President's table, and a gooseberry pudding; a sufficient meal for +six yeomen, and good enough for a prince, besides a pitcher of foaming +ale, the whole at the pitiful small charge of eighteen-pence! + +Dr. Johnson would have forgiven me, for nobody had a heartier faith in +beef and mutton than himself. And as regards my lack of sentiment in +eating my dinner,--it was the wisest thing I had done that day. A +sensible man had better not let himself be betrayed into these attempts +to realize the things which he has dreamed about, and which, when they +cease to be purely ideal in his mind, will have lost the truest of their +truth, the loftiest and profoundest part of their power over his +sympathies. Facts, as we really find them, whatever poetry they may +involve, are covered with a stony excrescence of prose, resembling the +crust on a beautiful sea-shell, and they never show their most delicate +and divinest colors until we shall have dissolved away their grosser +actualities by steeping them long in a powerful menstruum of thought. +And seeking to actualize them again, we do but renew the crust. If this +were otherwise,--if the moral sublimity of a great fact depended in any +degree on its garb of external circumstances, things which change and +decay,--it could not itself be immortal and ubiquitous, and only a brief +point of time and a little neighborhood would be spiritually nourished by +its grandeur and beauty. + +Such were a few of the reflections which I mingled with my ale, as I +remember to have seen an old quaffer of that excellent liquor stir up his +cup with a sprig of some bitter and fragrant herb. Meanwhile I found +myself still haunted by a desire to get a definite result out of my visit +to Uttoxeter. The hospitable inn was called the Nag's Head, and standing +beside the market-place, was as likely as any other to have entertained +old Michael Johnson in the days when he used to come hither to sell +books. He, perhaps, had dined on bacon and greens, and drunk his ale, +and smoked his pipe, in the very room where I now sat, which was a low, +ancient room, certainly much older than Queen Anne's time, with a +red-brick floor, and a white-washed ceiling, traversed by bare, rough +beams, the whole in the rudest fashion, but extremely neat. Neither did +it lack ornament, the walls being hung with colored engravings of +prize oxen and other pretty prints, and the mantel-piece adorned with +earthen-ware figures of shepherdesses in the Arcadian taste of long ago. +Michael Johnson's eyes might have rested on that selfsame earthen image, +to examine which more closely I had just crossed the brick pavement of +the room. And, sitting down again, still as I sipped my ale, I glanced +through the open window into the sunny market-place, and wished that I +could honestly fix on one spot rather than another, as likely to have +been the holy site where Johnson stood to do his penance. + +How strange and stupid it is that tradition should not have marked and +kept in mind the very place! How shameful (nothing less than that) that +there should be no local memorial of this incident, as beautiful and +touching a passage as can be cited out of any human life! No inscription +of it, almost as sacred as a verse of Scripture on the wall of the +church! No statue of the venerable and illustrious penitent in the +market-place to throw a wholesome awe over its earthliness, its frauds +and petty wrongs of which the benumbed fingers of conscience can make no +record, its selfish competition of each man with his brother or his +neighbor, its traffic of soul-substance for a little worldly gain! Such +a statue, if the piety of the people did not raise it, might almost have +been expected to grow up out of the pavement of its own accord on the +spot that had been watered by the rain that dripped from Johnson's +garments, mingled with his remorseful tears. + +Long after my visit to Uttoxeter, I was told that there were individuals +in the town who could have shown me the exact, indubitable spot where +Johnson performed his penance. I was assured, moreover, that sufficient +interest was felt in the subject to have induced certain local +discussions as to the expediency of erecting a memorial. With all +deference to my polite informant, I surmise that there is a mistake, and +decline, without further and precise evidence, giving credit to either of +the above statements. The inhabitants know nothing, as a matter of +general interest, about the penance, and care nothing for the scene of +it. If the clergyman of the parish, for example, had ever heard of it, +would he not have used the theme, time and again, wherewith to work +tenderly and profoundly on the souls committed to his charge? If parents +were familiar with it, would they not teach it to their young ones at the +fireside, both to insure reverence to their own gray hairs, and to +protect the children from such unavailing regrets as Johnson bore upon +his heart for fifty years? If the site were ascertained, would not the +pavement thereabouts be worn with reverential footsteps? Would not every +town-born child be able to direct the pilgrim thither? While waiting at +the station, before my departure, I asked a boy who stood near me,--an +intelligent and gentlemanly lad, twelve or thirteen years old, whom I +should take to be a clergyman's son,--I asked him if he had ever heard +the story of Dr. Johnson, how he stood an hour doing penance near that +church, the spire of which rose before us. The boy stared and +answered,-- + +"No!' + +"Were you born in Uttoxeter?" + +"Yes." + +I inquired if no circumstance such as I had mentioned was known or talked +about among the inhabitants. + +"No," said the boy; "not that I ever heard of." + +Just think of the absurd little town, knowing nothing of the only +memorable incident which ever happened within its boundaries since the +old Britons built it, this sad and lovely story, which consecrates the +spot (for I found it holy to my contemplation, again, as soon as it lay +behind me) in the heart of a stranger from three thousand miles over the +sea! It but confirms what I have been saying, that sublime and beautiful +facts are best understood when etherealized by distance. + + + + +PILGRIMAGE TO OLD BOSTON. + + +We set out at a little past eleven, and made our first stage to +Manchester. We were by this time sufficiently Anglicized to reckon the +morning a bright and sunny one; although the May sunshine was mingled +with water, as it were, and distempered with a very bitter east-wind. + +Lancashire is a dreary county (all, at least, except its hilly portions), +and I have never passed through it without wishing myself anywhere but in +that particular spot where I then happened to be. A few places along our +route were historically interesting; as, for example, Bolton, which was +the scene of many remarkable events in the Parliamentary War, and in the +market-square of which one of the Earls of Derby was beheaded. We saw, +along the wayside, the never-failing green fields, hedges, and other +monotonous features of an ordinary English landscape. There were little +factory villages, too, or larger towns, with their tall chimneys, and +their pennons of black smoke, their ugliness of brick-work, and their +heaps of refuse matter from the furnace, which seems to be the only kind +of stuff which Nature cannot take back to herself and resolve into the +elements, when man has thrown it aside. These hillocks of waste and +effete mineral always disfigure the neighborhood of iron-mongering towns, +and, even after a considerable antiquity, are hardly made decent with a +little grass. + +At a quarter to two we left Manchester by the Sheffield and Lincoln +Railway. The scenery grew rather better than that through which we had +hitherto passed, though still by no means very striking; for (except in +the show-districts, such as the Lake country, or Derbyshire) English +scenery is not particularly well worth looking at, considered as a +spectacle or a picture. It has a real, homely charm of its own, no +doubt; and the rich verdure, and the thorough finish added by human art, +are perhaps as attractive to an American eye as any stronger feature +could be. Our journey, however, between Manchester and Sheffield was not +through a rich tract of country, but along a valley walled in by bleak, +ridgy hills extending straight as a rampart, and across black moorlands +with here and there a plantation of trees. Sometimes there were long and +gradual ascents, bleak, windy, and desolate, conveying the very +impression which the reader gets from many passages of Miss Bronte's +novels, and still more from those of her two sisters. Old stone or brick +farm-houses, and, once in a while, an old church-tower, were visible; but +these are almost too common objects to be noticed in an English +landscape. + +On a railway, I suspect, what little we do see of the country is seen +quite amiss, because it was never intended to be looked at from any point +of view in that straight line; so that it is like looking at the wrong +side of a piece of tapestry. The old highways and foot-paths were as +natural as brooks and rivulets, and adapted themselves by an inevitable +impulse to the physiognomy of the country; and, furthermore, every object +within view of them had some subtile reference to their curves and +undulations; but the line of a railway is perfectly artificial, and puts +all precedent things at sixes-and-sevens. At any rate, be the cause what +it may, there is seldom anything worth seeing within the scope of a +railway traveller's eye; and if there were, it requires an alert marksman +to take a flying shot at the picturesque. + +At one of the stations (it was near a village of ancient aspect, nestling +round a church, on a wide Yorkshire moor) I saw a tall old lady in black, +who seemed to have just alighted from the train. She caught my attention +by a singular movement of the head, not once only, but continually +repeated, and at regular intervals, as if she were making a stern and +solemn protest against some action that developed itself before her eyes, +and were foreboding terrible disaster, if it should be persisted in. Of +course, it was nothing more than a paralytic or nervous affection; yet +one might fancy that it had its origin in some unspeakable wrong, +perpetrated half a lifetime ago in this old gentlewoman's presence, +either against herself or somebody whom she loved still better. Her +features had a wonderful sternness, which, I presume, was caused by her +habitual effort to compose and keep them quiet, and thereby counteract +the tendency to paralytic movement. The slow, regular, and inexorable +character of the motion--her look of force and self-control, which had +the appearance of rendering it voluntary, while yet it was so fateful-- +have stamped this poor lady's face and gesture into my memory; so that, +some dark day or other, I am afraid she will reproduce herself in a +dismal romance. + +The train stopped a minute or two, to allow the tickets to be taken, just +before entering the Sheffield station, and thence I had a glimpse of the +famous town of razors and penknives, enveloped in a cloud of its own +diffusing. My impressions of it are extremely vague and misty,--or, +rather, smoky: for Sheffield seems to me smokier than Manchester. +Liverpool, or Birmingham,--smokier than all England besides, unless +Newcastle be the exception. It might have been Pluto's own metropolis, +shrouded in sulphurous vapor; and, indeed, our approach to it had been by +the Valley of the Shadow of Death, through a tunnel three miles in +length, quite traversing the breadth and depth of a mountainous hill. + +After passing Sheffield, the scenery became softer, gentler, yet more +picturesque. At one point we saw what I believe to be the utmost +northern verge of Sherwood Forest,--not consisting, however, of +thousand-year oaks, extant from Robin Hood's days, but of young and +thriving plantations, which will require a century or two of slow English +growth to give them much breadth of shade. Earl Fitzwilliam's property +lies in this neighborhood, and probably his castle was hidden among some +soft depth of foliage not far off. Farther onward the country grew quite +level around us, whereby I judged that we must now be in Lincolnshire; +and shortly after six o'clock we caught the first glimpse of the +Cathedral towers, though they loomed scarcely huge enough for our +preconceived idea of them. But, as we drew nearer, the great edifice +began to assert itself, making us acknowledge it to be larger than our +receptivity could take in. + +At the railway-station we found no cab (it being an unknown vehicle in +Lincoln), but only an omnibus belonging to the Saracen's Head, which the +driver recommended as the best hotel in the city, and took us thither +accordingly. It received us hospitably, and looked comfortable enough; +though, like the hotels of most old English towns, it had a musty +fragrance of antiquity, such as I have smelt in a seldom-opened London +church where the broad-aisle is paved with tombstones. The house was of +an ancient fashion, the entrance into its interior court-yard being +through an arch, in the side of which is the door of the hotel. There +are long corridors, an intricate arrangement of passages, and an +up-and-down meandering of staircases, amid which it would be no marvel to +encounter some forgotten guest who had gone astray a hundred years ago, +and was still seeking for his bedroom while the rest of his generation +were in their graves. There is no exaggerating the confusion of mind +that seizes upon a stranger in the bewildering geography of a great +old-fashioned English inn. + +This hotel stands in the principal street of Lincoln, and within a very +short distance of one of the ancient city-gates, which is arched across +the public way, with a smaller arch for foot-passengers on either side; +the whole, a gray, time-gnawn, ponderous, shadowy structure, through the +dark vista of which you look into the Middle Ages. The street is narrow, +and retains many antique peculiarities; though, unquestionably, English +domestic architecture has lost its most impressive features, in the +course of the last century. In this respect, there are finer old towns +than Lincoln: Chester, for instance, and Shrewsbury,--which last is +unusually rich in those quaint and stately edifices where the gentry of +the shire used to make their winter abodes, in a provincial metropolis. +Almost everywhere, nowadays, there is a monotony of modern brick or +stuccoed fronts, hiding houses that are older than ever, but obliterating +the picturesque antiquity of the street. + +Between seven and eight o'clock (it being still broad daylight in these +long English days) we set out to pay a preliminary visit to the exterior +of the Cathedral. Passing through the Stone Bow, as the city-gate close +by is called, we ascended a street which grew steeper and narrower as we +advanced, till at last it got to be the steepest street I ever climbed,-- +so steep that any carriage, if left to itself, would rattle downward much +faster than it could possibly be drawn up. Being almost the only hill in +Lincolnshire, the inhabitants seem disposed to make the most of it. The +houses on each side had no very remarkable aspect, except one with a +stone portal and carved ornaments, which is now a dwelling-place for +poverty-stricken people, but may have been an aristocratic abode in the +days of the Norman kings, to whom its style of architecture dates back. +This is called the Jewess's House, having been inhabited by a woman of +that faith who was hanged six hundred years ago. + +And still the street grew steeper and steeper. Certainly, the Bishop +and clergy of Lincoln ought not to be fat men, but of very spiritual, +saint-like, almost angelic habit, if it be a frequent part of their +ecclesiastical duty to climb this hill; for it is a real penance, and was +probably performed as such, and groaned over accordingly, in monkish +times. Formerly, on the day of his installation, the Bishop used to +ascend the hill barefoot, and was doubtless cheered and invigorated by +looking upward to the grandeur that was to console him for the humility +of his approach. We, likewise, were beckoned onward by glimpses of the +Cathedral towers, and, finally, attaining an open square on the summit, +we saw an old Gothic gateway to the left hand, and another to the right. +The latter had apparently been a part of the exterior defences of the +Cathedral, at a time when the edifice was fortified. The west front rose +behind. We passed through one of the side-arches of the Gothic portal, +and found ourselves in the Cathedral Close, a wide, level space, where +the great old Minster has fair room to sit, looking down on the ancient +structures that surround it, all of which, in former days, were the +habitations of its dignitaries and officers. Some of them are still +occupied as such, though others are in too neglected and dilapidated a +state to seem worthy of so splendid an establishment. Unless it be +Salisbury Close, however (which is incomparably rich as regards the old +residences that belong to it), I remember no more comfortably picturesque +precincts round any other cathedral. But, in truth, almost every +cathedral close, in turn, has seemed to me the loveliest, cosiest, +safest, least wind-shaken, most decorous, and most enjoyable shelter that +ever the thrift and selfishness of mortal man contrived for himself. How +delightful, to combine all this with the service of the temple! + +Lincoln Cathedral is built of a yellowish brown-stone, which appears +either to have been largely restored, or else does not assume the hoary, +crumbly surface that gives such a venerable aspect to most of the ancient +churches and castles in England. In many parts, the recent restorations +are quite evident; but other, and much the larger portions, can scarcely +have been touched for centuries: for there are still the gargoyles, +perfect, or with broken noses, as the case may be, but showing that +variety and fertility of grotesque extravagance which no modern imitation +can effect. There are innumerable niches, too, up the whole height of +the towers, above and around the entrance, and all over the walls: most +of them empty, but a few containing the lamentable remnants of headless +saints and angels. It is singular what a native animosity lives in the +human heart against carved images, insomuch that, whether they represent +Christian saint or Pagan deity, all unsophisticated men seize the first +safe opportunity to knock off their heads! In spite of all +dilapidations, however, the effect of the west front of the Cathedral is +still exceedingly rich, being covered from massive base to airy summit +with the minutest details of sculpture and carving: at least, it was so +once; and even now the spiritual impression of its beauty remains so +strong, that we have to look twice to see that much of it has been +obliterated. I have seen a cherry-stone carved all over by a monk, so +minutely that it must have cost him half a lifetime of labor; and this +cathedral-front seems to have been elaborated in a monkish spirit, like +that cherry-stone. Not that the result is in the least petty, but +miraculously grand, and all the more so for the faithful beauty of the +smallest details. + +An elderly maid, seeing us looking up at the west front, came to the door +of an adjacent house, and called to inquire if we wished to go into the +Cathedral; but as there would have been a dusky twilight beneath its +roof, like the antiquity that has sheltered itself within, we declined +for the present. So we merely walked round the exterior, and thought it +more beautiful than that of York; though, on recollection, I hardly deem +it so majestic and mighty as that. It is vain to attempt a description, +or seek even to record the feeling which the edifice inspires. It does +not impress the beholder as an inanimate object, but as something that +has a vast, quiet, long-enduring life of its own,--a creation which man +did not build, though in some way or other it is connected with him, and +kindred to human nature. In short, I fall straightway to talking +nonsense, when I try to express my inner sense of this and other +cathedrals. + +While we stood in the close, at the eastern end of the Minster, the clock +chimed the quarters; and then Great Tom, who hangs in the Rood Tower, +told us it was eight o'clock, in far the sweetest and mightiest accents +that I ever heard from any bell,--slow, and solemn, and allowing the +profound reverberations of each stroke to die away before the next one +fell. It was still broad daylight in that upper region of the town, and +would be so for some time longer; but the evening atmosphere was getting +sharp and cool. We therefore descended the steep street,--our younger +companion running before us, and gathering such headway that I fully +expected him to break his head against some projecting wall. + +In the morning we took a fly (an English term for an exceedingly sluggish +vehicle), and drove up to the Minster by a road rather less steep and +abrupt than the one we had previously climbed. We alighted before the +west front, and sent our charioteer in quest of the verger; but, as he +was not immediately to be found, a young girl let us into the nave. We +found it very grand, it is needless to say, but not so grand, methought, +as the vast nave of York Cathedral, especially beneath the great central +tower of the latter. Unless a writer intends a professedly architectural +description, there is but one set of phrases in which to talk of all the +cathedrals in England and elsewhere. They are alike in their great +features: an acre or two of stone flags for a pavement; rows of vast +columns supporting a vaulted roof at a dusky height; great windows, +sometimes richly bedimmed with ancient or modern stained glass; and an +elaborately carved screen between the nave and chancel, breaking the +vista that might else be of such glorious length, and which is further +choked up by a massive organ.--in spite of which obstructions, you catch +the broad, variegated glimmer of the painted east window, where a hundred +saints wear their robes of transfiguration. Behind the screen are the +carved oaken stalls of the Chapter and Prebendaries, the Bishop's throne, +the pulpit, the altar, and whatever else may furnish out the Holy of +Holies. Nor must we forget the range of chapels (once dedicated to +Catholic saints, but which have now lost their individual consecration), +nor the old monuments of kings, warriors, and prelates, in the +side-aisles of the chancel. In close contiguity to the main body of the +Cathedral is the Chapter-House, which, here at Lincoln, as at Salisbury, +is supported by one central pillar rising from the floor, and putting +forth branches like a tree, to hold up the roof. Adjacent to the +Chapter-House are the cloisters, extending round a quadrangle, and paved +with lettered tombstones, the more antique of which have had their +inscriptions half obliterated by the feet of monks taking their noontide +exercise in these sheltered walks, five hundred years ago. Some of these +old burial-stones, although with ancient crosses engraved upon them, have +been made to serve as memorials to dead people of very recent date. + +In the chancel, among the tombs of forgotten bishops and knights, we saw +an immense slab of stone purporting to be the monument of Catherine +Swynford, wife of John of Gaunt; also, here was the shrine of the little +Saint Hugh, that Christian child who was fabled to have been crucified by +the Jews of Lincoln. The Cathedral is not particularly rich in +monuments; for it suffered grievous outrage and dilapidation, both at the +Reformation and in Cromwell's time. This latter iconoclast is in +especially bad odor with the sextons and vergers of most of the old +churches which I have visited. His soldiers stabled their steeds in the +nave of Lincoln Cathedral, and hacked and hewed the monkish sculptures, +and the ancestral memorials of great families, quite at their wicked and +plebeian pleasure. Nevertheless, there are some most exquisite and +marvellous specimens of flowers, foliage, and grapevines, and miracles of +stone-work twined about arches, as if the material had been as soft as +wax in the cunning sculptor's hands,--the leaves being represented with +all their veins, so that you would almost think it petrified Nature, for +which he sought to steal the praise of Art. Here, too, were those +grotesque faces which always grin at you from the projections of monkish +architecture, as if the builders had gone mad with their own deep +solemnity, or dreaded such a catastrophe, unless permitted to throw in +something ineffably absurd. + +Originally, it is supposed, all the pillars of this great edifice, and +all these magic sculptures, were polished to the utmost degree of lustre; +nor is it unreasonable to think that the artists would have taken these +further pains, when they had already bestowed so much labor in working +out their conceptions to the extremest point. But, at present, the whole +interior of the Cathedral is smeared over with a yellowish wash, the very +meanest hue imaginable, and for which somebody's soul has a bitter +reckoning to undergo. + +In the centre of the grassy quadrangle about which the cloisters +perambulate is a small, mean brick building, with a locked door. Our +guide,--I forgot to say that we had been captured by a verger, in black, +and with a white tie, but of a lusty and jolly aspect,--our guide +unlocked this door, and disclosed a flight of steps. At the bottom +appeared what I should have taken to be a large square of dim, worn, and +faded oil-carpeting, which might originally have been painted of a rather +gaudy pattern. This was a Roman tessellated pavement, made of small +colored bricks, or pieces of burnt clay. It was accidentally discovered +here, and has not been meddled with, further than by removing the +superincumbent earth and rubbish. + +Nothing else occurs to me, just now, to be recorded about the interior of +the Cathedral, except that we saw a place where the stone pavement had +been worn away by the feet of ancient pilgrims scraping upon it, as they +knelt down before a shrine of the Virgin. Leaving the Minster, we now +went along a street of more venerable appearance than we had heretofore +seen, bordered with houses, the high peaked roofs of which were covered +with red earthen tiles. It led us to a Roman arch, which was once the +gateway of a fortification, and has been striding across the English +street ever since the latter was a faint village-path, and for centuries +before. The arch is about four hundred yards from the Cathedral; and it +is to be noticed that there are Roman remains in all this neighborhood, +some above ground, and doubtless innumerable more beneath it; for, as in +ancient Rome itself, an inundation of accumulated soil seems to have +swept over what was the surface of that earlier day. The gateway which I +am speaking about is probably buried to a third of its height, and +perhaps has as perfect a Roman pavement (if sought for at the original +depth) as that which runs beneath the Arch of Titus. It is a rude and +massive structure, and seems as stalwart now as it could have been two +thousand years ago; and though Time has gnawed it externally, he has made +what amends he could by crowning its rough and broken summit with grass +and weeds, and planting tufts of yellow flowers on the projections up and +down the sides. + +There are the ruins of a Norman castle, built by the Conqueror, in pretty +close proximity to the Cathedral; but the old gateway is obstructed by a +modern door of wood, and we were denied admittance because some part of +the precincts are used as a prison. We now rambled about on the broad +back of the hill, which, besides the Minster and ruined castle, is the +site of some stately and queer old houses, and of many mean little +hovels. I suspect that all or most of the life of the present day has +subsided into the lower town, and that only priests, poor people, and +prisoners dwell in these upper regions. In the wide, dry moat, at the +base of the castle-wall, are clustered whole colonies of small houses, +some of brick, but the larger portion built of old stones which once made +part of the Norman keep, or of Roman structures that existed before the +Conqueror's castle was ever dreamed about. They are like toadstools that +spring up from the mould of a decaying tree. Ugly as they are, they add +wonderfully to the picturesqueness of the scene, being quite as valuable, +in that respect, as the great, broad, ponderous ruin of the castle-keep, +which rose high above our heads, heaving its huge gray mass out of a bank +of green foliage and ornamental shrubbery, such as lilacs and other +flowering plants, in which its foundations were completely hidden. + +After walking quite round the castle, I made an excursion through the +Roman gateway, along a pleasant and level road bordered with dwellings of +various character. One or two were houses of gentility, with delightful +and shadowy lawns before them; many had those high, red-tiled roofs, +ascending into acutely pointed gables, which seem to belong to the same +epoch as some of the edifices in our own earlier towns; and there were +pleasant-looking cottages, very sylvan and rural, with hedges so dense +and high, fencing them in, as almost to hide them up to the eaves of +their thatched roofs. In front of one of these I saw various images, +crosses, and relics of antiquity, among which were fragments of old +Catholic tombstones, disposed by way of ornament. + +We now went home to the Saracen's Head; and as the weather was very +unpropitious, and it sprinkled a little now and then, I would gladly have +felt myself released from further thraldom to the Cathedral. But it had +taken possession of me, and would not let me be at rest; so at length I +found myself compelled to climb the hill again, between daylight and +dusk. A mist was now hovering about the upper height of the great +central tower, so as to dim and half obliterate its battlements and +pinnacles, even while I stood in the close beneath it. It was the most +impressive view that I had had. The whole lower part of the structure +was seen with perfect distinctness; but at the very summit the mist was +so dense as to form an actual cloud, as well defined as ever I saw +resting on a mountain-top. Really and literally, here was a "cloud-capt +tower." + +The entire Cathedral, too, transfigured itself into a richer beauty and +more imposing majesty than ever. The longer I looked, the better I loved +it. Its exterior is certainly far more beautiful than that of York +Minster; and its finer effect is due, I think, to the many peaks in which +the structure ascends, and to the pinnacles which, as it were, repeat and +re-echo them into the sky. York Cathedral is comparatively square and +angular in its general effect; but in this at Lincoln there is a +continual mystery of variety, so that at every glance you are aware of a +change, and a disclosure of something new, yet working an harmonious +development of what you have heretofore seen. The west front is +unspeakably grand, and may be read over and over again forever, and still +show undetected meanings, like a great, broad page of marvellous writing +in black-letter,--so many sculptured ornaments there are, blossoming out +before your eyes, and gray statues that have grown there since you looked +last, and empty niches, and a hundred airy canopies beneath which carved +images used to be, and where they will show themselves again, if you gaze +long enough.--But I will not say another word about the Cathedral. + +We spent the rest of the day within the sombre precincts of the Saracen's +Head, reading yesterday's "Times," "The Guide-Book of Lincoln," and "The +Directory of the Eastern Counties." Dismal as the weather was, the +street beneath our window was enlivened with a great bustle and turmoil +of people all the evening, because it was Saturday night, and they had +accomplished their week's toil, received their wages, and were making +their small purchases against Sunday, and enjoying themselves as well as +they knew how. A band of music passed to and fro several times, with the +rain-drops falling into the mouth of the brazen trumpet and pattering on +the bass-drum; a spirit-shop, opposite the hotel, had a vast run of +custom; and a coffee-dealer, in the open air, found occasional vent for +his commodity, in spite of the cold water that dripped into the cups. +The whole breadth of the street, between the Stone Bow and the bridge +across the Witham, was thronged to overflowing, and humming with human +life. + +Observing in the Guide-Book that a steamer runs on the river Witham +between Lincoln and Boston, I inquired of the waiter, and learned that +she was to start on Monday at ten o'clock. Thinking it might be an +interesting trip, and a pleasant variation of our customary mode of +travel, we determined to make the voyage. The Witham flows through +Lincoln, crossing the main street under an arched bridge of Gothic +construction, a little below the Saracen's Head. It has more the +appearance of a canal than of a river, in its passage through the town,-- +being bordered with hewn-stone mason-work on each side, and provided with +one or two locks. The steamer proved to be small, dirty, and altogether +inconvenient. The early morning had been bright; but the sky now lowered +upon us with a sulky English temper, and we had not long put off before +we felt an ugly wind from the German Ocean blowing right in our teeth. +There were a number of passengers on board, country-people, such as +travel by third-class on the railway; for, I suppose, nobody but +ourselves ever dreamt of voyaging by the steamer for the sake of what he +might happen upon in the way of river-scenery. + +We bothered a good while about getting through a preliminary lock; nor, +when fairly under way, did we ever accomplish, I think, six miles an +hour. Constant delays were caused, moreover, by stopping to take up +passengers and freight,--not at regular landing-places, but anywhere +along the green banks. The scenery was identical with that of the +railway, because the latter runs along by the river-side through the +whole distance, or nowhere departs from it except to make a short cut +across some sinuosity; so that our only advantage lay in the drawling, +snail-like slothfulness of our progress, which allowed us time enough and +to spare for the objects along the shore. Unfortunately, there was +nothing, or next to nothing, to be seen,--the country being one unvaried +level over the whole thirty miles of our voyage,--not a hill in sight, +either near or far, except that solitary one on the summit of which we +had left Lincoln Cathedral. And the Cathedral was our landmark for four +hours or more, and at last rather faded out than was hidden by any +intervening object. + +It would have been a pleasantly lazy day enough, if the rough and bitter +wind had not blown directly in our faces, and chilled us through, in +spite of the sunshine that soon succeeded a sprinkle or two of rain. +These English east-winds, which prevail from February till June, are +greater nuisances than the east-wind of our own Atlantic coast, although +they do not bring mist and storm, as with us, but some of the sunniest +weather that England sees. Under their influence, the sky smiles and is +villanous. + +The landscape was tame to the last degree, but had an English character +that was abundantly worth our looking at. A green luxuriance of early +grass; old, high-roofed farm-houses, surrounded by their stone barns and +ricks of hay and grain; ancient villages, with the square, gray tower of +a church seen afar over the level country, amid the cluster of red roofs; +here and there a shadowy grove of venerable trees, surrounding what was +perhaps an Elizabethan hall, though it looked more like the abode of some +rich yeoman. Once, too, we saw the tower of a mediaeval castle, that of +Tattershall, built, by a Cromwell, but whether of the Protector's family +I cannot tell. But the gentry do not appear to have settled +multitudinously in this tract of country; nor is it to be wondered at, +since a lover of the picturesque would as soon think of settling in +Holland. The river retains its canal-like aspect all along; and only in +the latter part of its course does it become more than wide enough for +the little steamer to turn itself round,--at broadest, not more than +twice that width. + +The only memorable incident of our voyage happened when a mother-duck was +leading her little fleet of five ducklings across the river, just as our +steamer went swaggering by, stirring the quiet stream into great waves +that lashed the banks on either side. I saw the imminence of the +catastrophe, and hurried to the stern of the boat to witness its +consummation, since I could not possibly avert it. The poor ducklings +had uttered their baby-quacks, and striven with all their tiny might to +escape; four of them, I believe, were washed aside and thrown off unhurt +from the steamer's prow; but the fifth must have gone under the whole +length of the keel, and never could have come up alive. + +At last, in mid-afternoon, we beheld the tall tower of Saint Botolph's +Church (three hundred feet high, the same elevation as the tallest tower +of Lincoln Cathedral) looming in the distance. At about half past four +we reached Boston (which name has been shortened, in the course of ages, +by the quick and slovenly English pronunciation, from Botolph's town), +and were taken by a cab to the Peacock, in the market-place. It +was the best hotel in town, though a poor one enough; and we were shown +into a small, stifled parlor, dingy, musty, and scented with stale +tobacco-smoke,--tobacco-smoke two days old, for the waiter assured us +that the room had not more recently been fumigated. An exceedingly +grim waiter he was, apparently a genuine descendant of the old Puritans +of this English Boston, and quite as sour as those who people the +daughter-city in New England. Our parlor had the one recommendation of +looking into the market-place, and affording a sidelong glimpse of the +tall spire and noble old church. + +In my first ramble about the town, chance led me to the river-side, at +that quarter where the port is situated. Here were long buildings of an +old-fashioned aspect, seemingly warehouses, with windows in the high, +steep roofs. The Custom-House found ample accommodation within an +ordinary dwelling-house. Two or three large schooners were moored along +the river's brink, which had here a stone margin; another large and +handsome schooner was evidently just finished, rigged and equipped for +her first voyage; the rudiments of another were on the stocks, in a +shipyard bordering on the river. Still another, while I was looking on, +came up the stream, and lowered her mainsail, from a foreign voyage. An +old man on the bank hailed her and inquired about her cargo; but the +Lincolnshire people have such a queer way of talking English that I could +not understand the reply. Farther down the river, I saw a brig, +approaching rapidly under sail. The whole scene made an odd impression +of bustle, and sluggishness, and decay, and a remnant of wholesome life; +and I could not but contrast it with the mighty and populous activity of +our own Boston, which was once the feeble infant of this old English +town;--the latter, perhaps, almost stationary ever since that day, as if +the birth of such an offspring had taken away its own principle of +growth. I thought of Long Wharf, and Faneuil Hall, and Washington +Street, and the Great Elm, and the State House, and exulted lustily,--but +yet began to feel at home in this good old town, for its very name's +sake, as I never had before felt, in England. + +The next morning we came out in the early sunshine (the sun must have +been shining nearly four hours, however, for it was after eight o'clock), +and strolled about the streets, like people who had a right to be there. +The market-place of Boston is an irregular square, into one end of which +the chancel of the church slightly projects. The gates of the churchyard +were open and free to all passengers, and the common footway of the +townspeople seems to lie to and fro across it. It is paved, according to +English custom, with flat tombstones; and there are also raised or altar +tombs, some of which have armorial hearings on them. One clergyman has +caused himself and his wife to be buried right in the middle of the +stone-bordered path that traverses the churchyard; so that not an +individual of the thousands who pass along this public way can help +trampling over him or her. The scene, nevertheless, was very cheerful in +the morning sun: people going about their business in the day's primal +freshness, which was just as fresh here as in younger villages; children +with milk-pails, loitering over the burial-stones; school-boys playing +leap-frog with the altar-tombs; the simple old town preparing itself for +the day, which would be like myriads of other days that had passed over +it, but yet would be worth living through. And down on the churchyard, +where were buried many generations whom it remembered in their time, +looked the stately tower of Saint Botolph; and it was good to see and +think of such an age-long giant, intermarrying the present epoch with a +distant past, and getting quite imbued with human nature by being so +immemorially connected with men's familiar knowledge and homely +interests. It is a noble tower; and the jackdaws evidently have pleasant +homes in their hereditary nests among its topmost windows, and live +delightful lives, flitting and cawing about its pinnacles and flying +buttresses. I should almost like to be a jackdaw myself, for the sake of +living up there. + +In front of the church, not more than twenty yards off, and with a low +brick wall between, flows the river Witham. On the hither bank a +fisherman was washing his boat; and another skiff, with her sail lazily +half twisted, lay on the opposite strand. The stream at this point is +about of such width, that, if the tall tower were to tumble over flat on +its face, its top-stone might perhaps reach to the middle of the channel. +On the farther shore there is a line of antique-looking houses, with +roofs of red tile, and windows opening out of them,--some of these +dwellings being so ancient, that the Reverend Mr. Cotton, subsequently +our first Boston minister, must have seen them with his own bodily eyes, +when he used to issue from the front-portal after service. Indeed, there +must be very many houses here, and even some streets, that bear much the +aspect that they did when the Puritan divine paced solemnly among them. + +In our rambles about town, we went into a bookseller's shop to inquire if +he had any description of Boston for sale. He offered me (or, rather, +produced for inspection, not supposing that I would buy it) a quarto +history of the town, published by subscription, nearly forty years ago. +The bookseller showed himself a well-informed and affable man, and a +local antiquary, to whom a party of inquisitive strangers were a godsend. +He had met with several Americans, who, at various times, had come on +pilgrimages to this place, and he had been in correspondence with others. +Happening to have heard the name of one member of our party, he showed us +great courtesy and kindness, and invited us into his inner domicile, +where, as he modestly intimated, he kept a few articles which it might +interest us to see. So we went with him through the shop, up stairs, +into the private part of his establishment; and, really, it was one of +the rarest adventures I ever met with, to stumble upon this treasure of a +man, with his treasury of antiquities and curiosities, veiled behind the +unostentatious front of a bookseller's shop, in a very moderate line of +village business. The two up-stair rooms into which he introduced us +were so crowded with inestimable articles, that we were almost afraid to +stir for fear of breaking some fragile thing that had been accumulating +value for unknown centuries. + +The apartment was hung round with pictures and old engravings, many of +which were extremely rare. Premising that he was going to show us +something very curious, Mr. Porter went into the next room and returned +with a counterpane of fine linen, elaborately embroidered with silk, +which so profusely covered the linen that the general effect was as if +the main texture were silken. It was stained and seemed very old, and +had an ancient fragrance. It was wrought all over with birds and flowers +in a most delicate style of needlework, and among other devices, more +than once repeated, was the cipher, M. S.,--being the initials of one of +the most unhappy names that ever a woman bore. This quilt was +embroidered by the hands of Mary Queen of Scots, during her imprisonment +at Fotheringay Castle; and having evidently been a work of years, she had +doubtless shed many tears over it, and wrought many doleful thoughts and +abortive schemes into its texture, along with the birds and flowers. As +a counterpart to this most precious relic, our friend produced some of +the handiwork of a former Queen of Otaheite, presented by her to Captain +Cook; it was a bag, cunningly made of some delicate vegetable stuff, and +ornamented with feathers. Next, he brought out a green silk waistcoat of +very antique fashion, trimmed about the edges and pocket-holes with a +rich and delicate embroidery of gold and silver. This (as the possessor +of the treasure proved, by tracing its pedigree till it came into his +hands) was once the vestment of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Burleigh; but that +great statesman must have been a person of very moderate girth in the +chest and waist; for the garment was hardly more than a comfortable fit +for a boy of eleven, the smallest American of our party, who tried on the +gorgeous waistcoat. Then, Mr. Porter produced some curiously engraved +drinking-glasses, with a view of Saint Botolph's steeple on one of them, +and other Boston edifices, public or domestic, on the remaining two, very +admirably done. These crystal goblets had been a present, long ago, to +an old master of the Free School from his pupils; and it is very rarely, +I imagine, that a retired schoolmaster can exhibit such trophies of +gratitude and affection, won from the victims of his birch rod. + +Our kind friend kept bringing out one unexpected and wholly unexpectable +thing after another, as if he were a magician, and had only to fling a +private signal into the air, and some attendant imp would hand forth any +strange relic we might choose to ask for. He was especially rich in +drawings by the Old Masters, producing two or three, of exquisite +delicacy, by Raphael, one by Salvator, a head by Rembrandt, and others, +in chalk or pen-and-ink, by Giordano, Benvenuto Cellini, and hands +almost as famous; and besides what were shown us, there seemed to be an +endless supply of these art-treasures in reserve. On the wall hung a +crayon-portrait of Sterne, never engraved, representing him as a rather +young man, blooming, and not uncomely; it was the worldly face of a man +fond of pleasure, but without that ugly, keen, sarcastic, odd expression +that we see in his only engraved portrait. The picture is an original, +and must needs be very valuable; and we wish it might be prefixed to some +new and worthier biography of a writer whose character the world has +always treated with singular harshness, considering how much it owes him. +There was likewise a crayon-portrait of Sterne's wife, looking so haughty +and unamiable, that the wonder is, not that he ultimately left her, but +how he ever contrived to live a week with such an awful woman. + +After looking at these, and a great many more things than I can remember, +above stairs, we went down to a parlor, where this wonderful bookseller +opened an old cabinet, containing numberless drawers, and looking just +fit to be the repository of such knick-knacks as were stored up in it. +He appeared to possess more treasures than he himself knew off, or knew +where to find; but, rummaging here and there, he brought forth things new +and old: rose-nobles, Victoria crowns, gold angels, double sovereigns of +George IV., two-guinea pieces of George II.; a marriage-medal of the +first Napoleon, only forty-five of which were ever struck off, and of +which even the British Museum does not contain a specimen like this, in +gold; a brass medal, three or four inches in diameter, of a Roman +emperor; together with buckles, bracelets, amulets, and I know not what +besides. There was a green silk tassel from the fringe of Queen Mary's +bed at Holyrood Palace. There were illuminated missals, antique Latin +Bibles, and (what may seem of especial interest to the historian) a +Secret-Book of Queen Elizabeth, in manuscript, written, for aught I know, +by her own hand. On examination, however, it proved to contain, not +secrets of state, but recipes for dishes, drinks, medicines, washes, and +all such matters of housewifery, the toilet, and domestic quackery, among +which we were horrified by the title of one of the nostrums, "How to kill +a Fellow quickly"! We never doubted that bloody Queen Bess might often +have had occasion for such a recipe, but wondered at her frankness, and +at her attending to these anomalous necessities in such a methodical way. +The truth is, we had read amiss, and the Queen had spelt amiss: the word +was "Fellon,"--a sort of whitlow,--not "Fellow." + +Our hospitable friend now made us drink a glass of wine, as old and +genuine as the curiosities of his cabinet; and while sipping it, we +ungratefully tried to excite his envy, by telling of various things, +interesting to an antiquary and virtuoso, which we had seen in the course +of our travels about England. We spoke, for instance, of a missal bound +in solid gold and set around with jewels, but of such intrinsic value as +no setting could enhance, for it was exquisitely illuminated, throughout, +by the hand of Raphael himself. We mentioned a little silver case which +once contained a portion of the heart of Louis XIV. nicely done up in +spices, but, to the owner's horror and astonishment, Dean Buckland popped +the kingly morsel into his mouth, and swallowed it. We told about the +black-letter prayer-book of King Charles the Martyr, used by him upon the +scaffold, taking which into our hands, it opened of itself at the +Communion Service; and there, on the left-hand page, appeared a spot +about as large as a sixpence, of a yellowish or brownish hue: a drop of +the King's blood had fallen there. + +Mr. Porter now accompanied us to the church, but first leading us to a +vacant spot of ground where old John Cotton's vicarage had stood till a +very short time since. According to our friend's description, it was a +humble habitation, of the cottage order, built of brick, with a thatched +roof. The site is now rudely fenced in, and cultivated as a vegetable +garden. In the right-hand aisle of the church there is an ancient +chapel, which, at the time of our visit, was in process of restoration, +and was to be dedicated to Mr. Cotton, whom these English people consider +as the founder of our American Boston. It would contain a painted +memorial-window, in honor of the old Puritan minister. A festival in +commemoration of the event was to take place in the ensuing July, to +which I had myself received an invitation, but I knew too well the pains +and penalties incurred by an invited guest at public festivals in England +to accept it. It ought to be recorded (and it seems to have made a very +kindly impression on our kinsfolk here) that five hundred pounds had been +contributed by persons in the United States, principally in Boston, +towards the cost of the memorial-window, and the repair and restoration +of the chapel. + +After we emerged from the chapel, Mr. Porter approached us with the +vicar, to whom he kindly introduced us, and then took his leave. May a +stranger's benediction rest upon him! He is a most pleasant man; rather, +I imagine, a virtuoso than an antiquary; for he seemed to value the Queen +of Otaheite's bag as highly as Queen Mary's embroidered quilt, and to +have an omnivorous appetite for everything strange and rare. Would that +we could fill up his shelves and drawers (if there are any vacant spaces +left) with the choicest trifles that have dropped out of Time's +carpet-bag, or give him the carpet-bag itself, to take out what he will! + +The vicar looked about thirty years old, a gentleman, evidently assured +of his position (as clergymen of the Established Church invariably are), +comfortable and well-to-do, a scholar and a Christian, and fit to be a +bishop, knowing how to make the most of life without prejudice to the +life to come. I was glad to see such a model English priest so suitably +accommodated with an old English church. He kindly and courteously did +the honors, showing us quite round the interior, giving us all the +information that we required, and then leaving us to the quiet enjoyment +of what we came to see. + +The interior of Saint Botolph's is very fine and satisfactory, as +stately, almost, as a cathedral, and has been repaired--so far as repairs +were necessary--in a chaste and noble style. The great eastern window is +of modern painted glass, but is the richest, mellowest, and tenderest +modern window that I have ever seen: the art of painting these glowing +transparencies in pristine perfection being one that the world has lost. +The vast, clear space of the interior church delighted me. There was no +screen,--nothing between the vestibule and the altar to break the long +vista; even the organ stood aside,--though it by and by made us aware of +its presence by a melodious roar. Around the walls there were old +engraved brasses, and a stone coffin, and an alabaster knight of Saint +John, and an alabaster lady, each recumbent at full length, as large as +life, and in perfect preservation, except for a slight modern touch at +the tips of their noses. In the chancel we saw a great deal of oaken +work, quaintly and admirably carved, especially about the seats formerly +appropriated to the monks, which were so contrived as to tumble down with +a tremendous crash, if the occupant happened to fall asleep. + +We now essayed to climb into the upper regions. Up we went, winding and +still winding round the circular stairs, till we came to the gallery +beneath the stone roof of the tower, whence we could look down and see +the raised Font, and my Talma lying on one of the steps, and looking +about as big as a pocket-handkerchief. Then up again, up, up, up, +through a yet smaller staircase, till we emerged into another stone +gallery, above the jackdaws, and far above the roof beneath which we had +before made a halt. Then up another flight, which led us into a pinnacle +of the temple, but not the highest; so, retracing our steps, we took the +right turret this time, and emerged into the loftiest lantern, where we +saw level Lincolnshire, far and near, though with a haze on the distant +horizon. There were dusty roads, a river, and canals, converging towards +Boston, which--a congregation of red-tiled roofs--lay beneath our feet, +with pygmy people creeping about its narrow streets. We were three +hundred feet aloft, and the pinnacle on which we stood is a landmark +forty miles at sea. + +Content, and weary of our elevation, we descended the corkscrew stairs +and left the church; the last object that we noticed in the interior +being a bird, which appeared to be at home there, and responded with its +cheerful notes to the swell of the organ. Pausing on the church-steps, +we observed that there were formerly two statues, one on each side of the +doorway; the canopies still remaining and the pedestals being about a +yard from the ground. Some of Mr. Cotton's Puritan parishioners are +probably responsible for the disappearance of these stone saints. This +doorway at the base of the tower is now much dilapidated, but must once +have been very rich and of a peculiar fashion. It opens its arch through +a great square tablet of stone, reared against the front of the tower. +On most of the projections, whether on the tower or about the body of the +church, there are gargoyles of genuine Gothic grotesqueness,--fiends, +beasts, angels, and combinations of all three; and where portions of the +edifice are restored, the modern sculptors have tried to imitate these +wild fantasies, but with very poor success. Extravagance and absurdity +have still their law, and should pay as rigid obedience to it as the +primmest things on earth. + +In our further rambles about Boston, we crossed the river by a bridge, +and observed that the larger part of the town seems to be on that side of +its navigable stream. The crooked streets and narrow lanes reminded me +much of Hanover Street, Ann Street, and other portions of the North End +of our American Boston, as I remember that picturesque region in my +boyish days. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the local habits and +recollections of the first settlers may have had some influence on the +physical character of the streets and houses in the New England +metropolis; at any rate, here is a similar intricacy of bewildering +lanes, and numbers of old peaked and projecting-storied dwellings, such +as I used to see there. It is singular what a home-feeling and sense of +kindred I derived from this hereditary connection and fancied +physiognomical resemblance between the old town and its well-grown +daughter, and how reluctant I was, after chill years of banishment, to +leave this hospitable place, on that account. Moreover, it recalled +some of the features of another American town, my own dear native place, +when I saw the seafaring people leaning against posts, and sitting on +planks, under the lee of warehouses,--or lolling on long-boats, drawn up +high and dry, as sailors and old wharf-rats are accustomed to do, in +seaports of little business. In other respects, the English town is more +village-like than either of the American ones. The women and budding +girls chat together at their doors, and exchange merry greetings with +young men; children chase one another in the summer twilight; school-boys +sail little boats on the river, or play at marbles across the flat +tombstones in the churchyard; and ancient men, in breeches and long +waistcoats, wander slowly about the streets, with a certain familiarity +of deportment, as if each one were everybody's grandfather. I have +frequently observed, in old English towns, that Old Age comes forth more +cheerfully and genially into the sunshine than among ourselves, where the +rush, stir, bustle, and irreverent energy of youth are so preponderant, +that the poor, forlorn grandsires begin to doubt whether they have a +right to breathe in such a world any longer, and so hide their silvery +heads in solitude. Speaking of old men, I am reminded of the scholars of +the Boston Charity School, who walk about in antique, long-skirted blue +coats, and knee-breeches, and with bands at their necks,--perfect and +grotesque pictures of the costume of three centuries ago. + +On the morning of our departure, I looked from the parlor-window of the +Peacock into the market-place, and beheld its irregular square already +well covered with booths, and more in progress of being put up, by +stretching tattered sail-cloth on poles. It was market-day. The dealers +were arranging their commodities, consisting chiefly of vegetables, the +great bulk of which seemed to be cabbages. Later in the forenoon there +was a much greater variety of merchandise: basket-work, both for fancy +and use; twig-brooms, beehives, oranges, rustic attire; all sorts of +things, in short, that are commonly sold at a rural fair. I heard the +lowing of cattle, too, and the bleating of sheep, and found that there +was a market for cows, oxen, and pigs, in another part of the town. A +crowd of towns-people and Lincolnshire yeomen elbowed one another in the +square; Mr. Punch was squeaking in one corner, and a vagabond juggler +tried to find space for his exhibition in another: so that my final +glimpse of Boston was calculated to leave a livelier impression than my +former ones. Meanwhile the tower of Saint Botolph's looked benignantly +down; and I fancied it was bidding me farewell, as it did Mr. Cotton, two +or three hundred years ago, and telling me to describe its venerable +height, and the town beneath it, to the people of the American city, who +are partly akin, if not to the living inhabitants of Old Boston, yet to +some of the dust that lies in its churchyard. + +One thing more. They have a Bunker Hill in the vicinity of their town; +and (what could hardly be expected of an English community) seem proud to +think that their neighborhood has given name to our first and most widely +celebrated and best remembered battle-field. + + + + +NEAR OXFORD. + + +On a fine morning in September we set out on an excursion to Blenheim,-- +the sculptor and myself being seated on the box of our four-horse +carriage, two more of the party in the dicky, and the others less +agreeably accommodated inside. We had no coachman, but two postilions in +short scarlet jackets and leather breeches with top-boots, each astride +of a horse; so that, all the way along, when not otherwise attracted, we +had the interesting spectacle of their up-and-down bobbing in the saddle. +It was a sunny and beautiful day, a specimen of the perfect English +weather, just warm enough for comfort,--indeed, a little too warm, +perhaps, in the noontide sun,--yet retaining a mere spice or suspicion of +austerity, which made it all the more enjoyable. + +The country between Oxford and Blenheim is not particularly interesting, +being almost level, or undulating very slightly; nor is Oxfordshire, +agriculturally, a rich part of England. We saw one or two hamlets, and I +especially remember a picturesque old gabled house at a turnpike-gate, +and, altogether, the wayside scenery had an aspect of old-fashioned +English life; but there was nothing very memorable till we reached +Woodstock, and stopped to water our horses at the Black Bear. This +neighborhood is called New Woodstock, but has by no means the brand-new +appearance of an American town, being a large village of stone houses, +most of them pretty well time-worn and weather-stained. The Black Bear +is an ancient inn, large and respectable, with balustraded staircases, +and intricate passages and corridors, and queer old pictures and +engravings hanging in the entries and apartments. We ordered a lunch +(the most delightful of English institutions, next to dinner) to be ready +against our return, and then resumed our drive to Blenheim. + +The park-gate of Blenheim stands close to the end of the village street +of Woodstock. Immediately on passing through its portals we saw the +stately palace in the distance, but made a wide circuit of the park +before approaching it. This noble park contains three thousand acres of +land, and is fourteen miles in circumference. Having been, in part, a +royal domain before it was granted to the Marlborough family, it contains +many trees of unsurpassed antiquity, and has doubtless been the haunt of +game and deer for centuries. We saw pheasants in abundance, feeding in +the open lawns and glades; and the stags tossed their antlers and bounded +away, not affrighted, but only shy and gamesome, as we drove by. It is a +magnificent pleasure-ground, not too tamely kept, nor rigidly subjected +within rule, but vast enough to have lapsed back into nature again, after +all the pains that the landscape-gardeners of Queen Anne's time bestowed +on it, when the domain of Blenheim was scientifically laid out. The +great, knotted, slanting trunks of the old oaks do not now look as if man +had much intermeddled with their growth and postures. The trees of later +date, that were set out in the Great Duke's time, are arranged on the +plan of the order of battle in which the illustrious commander ranked his +troops at Blenheim; but the ground covered is so extensive, and the trees +now so luxuriant, that the spectator is not disagreeably conscious of +their standing in military array, as if Orpheus had summoned them +together by beat of drum. The effect must have been very formal a +hundred and fifty years ago, but has ceased to be so,--although the +trees, I presume, have kept their ranks with even more fidelity than +Marlborough's veterans did. + +One of the park-keepers, on horseback, rode beside our carriage, pointing +out the choice views, and glimpses at the palace, as we drove through the +domain. There is a very large artificial lake (to say the truth, it +seemed to me fully worthy of being compared with the Welsh lakes, at +least, if not with those of Westmoreland), which was created by +Capability Brown, and fills the basin that he scooped for it, just as if +Nature had poured these broad waters into one of her own valleys. It is +a most beautiful object at a distance, and not less so on its immediate +banks; for the water is very pure, being supplied by a small river, of +the choicest transparency, which was turned thitherward for the purpose. +And Blenheim owes not merely this water-scenery, but almost all its other +beauties, to the contrivance of man. Its natural features are not +striking; but Art has effected such wonderful things that the +uninstructed visitor would never guess that nearly the whole scene was +but the embodied thought of a human mind. A skilful painter hardly does +more for his blank sheet of canvas than the landscape-gardener, the +planter, the arranger of trees, has done for the monotonous surface of +Blenheim,--making the most of every undulation,--flinging down a hillock, +a big lump of earth out of a giant's hand, wherever it was needed,-- +putting in beauty as often as there was a niche for it,--opening vistas +to every point that deserved to be seen, and throwing a veil of +impenetrable foliage around what ought to be hidden;--and then, to be +sure, the lapse of a century has softened the harsh outline of man's +labors, and has given the place back to Nature again with the addition of +what consummate science could achieve. + +After driving a good way, we came to a battlemented tower and adjoining +house, which used to be the residence of the Ranger of Woodstock Park, +who held charge of the property for the King before the Duke of +Marlborough possessed it. The keeper opened the door for us, and in the +entrance-hall we found various things that had to do with the chase and +woodland sports. We mounted the staircase, through several stories, up +to the top of the tower, whence there was a view of the spires of Oxford, +and of points much farther off,--very indistinctly seen, however, as is +usually the case with the misty distances of England. Returning to the +ground-floor, we were ushered into the room in which died Wilmot, the +wicked Earl of Rochester, who was Ranger of the Park in Charles II.'s +time. It is a low and bare little room, with a window in front, and a +smaller one behind; and in the contiguous entrance-room there are the +remains of an old bedstead, beneath the canopy of which, perhaps, +Rochester may have made the penitent end that Bishop Burnet attributes to +him. I hardly know what it is, in this poor fellow's character, which +affects us with greater tenderness on his behalf than for all the other +profligates of his day, who seem to have been neither better nor worse +than himself. I rather suspect that he had a human heart which never +quite died out of him, and the warmth of which is still faintly +perceptible amid the dissolute trash which he left behind. + +Methinks, if such good fortune ever befell a bookish man, I should choose +this lodge for my own residence, with the topmost room of the tower for a +study, and all the seclusion of cultivated wildness beneath to ramble in. +There being no such possibility, we drove on, catching glimpses of the +palace in new points of view, and by and by came to Rosamond's Well. The +particular tradition that connects Fair Rosamond with it is not now in my +memory; but if Rosamond ever lived and loved, and ever had her abode in +the maze of Woodstock, it may well be believed that she and Henry +sometimes sat beside this spring. It gushes out from a bank, through +some old stone-work, and dashes its little cascade (about as abundant as +one might turn out of a large pitcher) into a pool, whence it steals away +towards the lake, which is not far removed. The water is exceedingly +cold, and as pure as the legendary Rosamond was not, and is fancied to +possess medicinal virtues, like springs at which saints have quenched +their thirst. There were two or three old women and some children in +attendance with tumblers, which they present to visitors, full of the +consecrated water; but most of us filled the tumblers for ourselves, and +drank. + +Thence we drove to the Triumphal Pillar which was erected in honor of the +Great Duke, and on the summit of which he stands, in a Roman garb, +holding a winged figure of Victory in his hand, as an ordinary man might +hold a bird. The column is I know not how many feet high, but lofty +enough, at any rate, to elevate Marlborough far above the rest of the +world, and to be visible a long way off; and it is so placed in reference +to other objects, that, wherever the hero wandered about his grounds, and +especially as he issued from his mansion, he must inevitably have been +reminded of his glory. In truth, until I came to Blenheim, I never had +so positive and material an idea of what Fame really is--of what the +admiration of his country can do for a successful warrior--as I carry +away with me and shall always retain. Unless he had the moral force of a +thousand men together, his egotism (beholding himself everywhere, imbuing +the entire soil, growing in the woods, rippling and gleaming in the +water, and pervading the very air with his greatness) must have been +swollen within him like the liver of a Strasburg goose. On the huge +tablets inlaid into the pedestal of the column, the entire Act of +Parliament, bestowing Blenheim on the Duke of Marlborough and his +posterity, is engraved in deep letters, painted black on the marble +ground. The pillar stands exactly a mile from the principal front of the +palace, in a straight line with the precise centre of its entrance-hall; +so that, as already said, it was the Duke's principal object of +contemplation. + +We now proceeded to the palace-gate, which is a great pillared archway, +of wonderful loftiness and state, giving admittance into a spacious +quadrangle. A stout, elderly, and rather surly footman in livery +appeared at the entrance, and took possession of whatever canes, +umbrellas, and parasols he could get hold of, in order to claim sixpence +on our departure. This had a somewhat ludicrous effect. There is much +public outcry against the meanness of the present Duke in his +arrangements for the admission of visitors (chiefly, of course, his +native countrymen) to view the magnificent palace which their forefathers +bestowed upon his own. In many cases, it seems hard that a private abode +should be exposed to the intrusion of the public merely because the +proprietor has inherited or created a splendor which attracts general +curiosity; insomuch that his home loses its sanctity and seclusion for +the very reason that it is better than other men's houses. But in the +case of Blenheim, the public have certainly an equitable claim to +admission, both because the fame of its first inhabitant is a national +possession, and because the mansion was a national gift, one of the +purposes of which was to be a token of gratitude and glory to the English +people themselves. If a man chooses to be illustrious, he is very likely +to incur some little inconveniences himself, and entail them on his +posterity. Nevertheless, his present Grace of Marlborough absolutely +ignores the public claim above suggested, and (with a thrift of which +even the hero of Blenheim himself did not set the example) sells tickets +admitting six persons at ten shillings; if only one person enters the +gate, he must pay for six; and if there are seven in company, two tickets +are required to admit them. The attendants, who meet you everywhere in +the park and palace, expect fees on their own private account,--their +noble master pocketing the ten shillings. But, to be sure, the visitor +gets his money's worth, since it buys him the right to speak just as +freely of the Duke of Marlborough as if he were the keeper of the +Cremorne Gardens. + +[The above was written two or three years ago, or more; and the Duke of +that day has since transmitted his coronet to his successor, who, we +understand, has adopted much more liberal arrangements. There is seldom +anything to criticise or complain of, as regards the facility of +obtaining admission to interesting private houses in England.] + +Passing through a gateway on the opposite side of the quadrangle, we had +before us the noble classic front of the palace, with its two projecting +wings. We ascended the lofty steps of the portal, and were admitted into +the entrance-hall, the height of which, from floor to ceiling, is not +much less than seventy feet, being the entire elevation of the edifice. +The hall is lighted by windows in the upper story, and, it being a clear, +bright day, was very radiant with lofty sunshine, amid which a swallow +was flitting to and fro. The ceiling was painted by Sir James Thornhill +in some allegorical design (doubtless commemorative of Marlborough's +victories), the purport of which I did not take the trouble to make out, +--contenting myself with the general effect, which was most splendidly +and effectively ornamental. + +We were guided through the show-rooms by a very civil person, who allowed +us to take pretty much our own time in looking at the pictures. The +collection is exceedingly valuable,--many of these works of Art having +been presented to the Great Duke by the crowned heads of England or the +Continent. One room was all aglow with pictures by Rubens; and there +were works of Raphael, and many other famous painters, any one of which +would be sufficient to illustrate the meanest house that might contain +it. I remember none of then, however (not being in a picture-seeing +mood), so well as Vandyck's large and familiar picture of Charles I. on +horseback, with a figure and face of melancholy dignity such as never by +any other hand was put on canvas. Yet, on considering this face of +Charles (which I find often repeated in half-lengths) and translating it +from the ideal into literalism, I doubt whether the unfortunate king was +really a handsome or impressive-looking man: a high, thin-ridged nose, a +meagre, hatchet face, and reddish hair and beard,--these are the literal +facts. It is the painter's art that has thrown such pensive and shadowy +grace around him. + +On our passage through this beautiful suite of apartments, we saw, +through the vista of open doorways, a boy of ten or twelve years old +coming towards us from the farther rooms. He had on a straw hat, a linen +sack that had certainly been washed and re-washed for a summer or two, +and gray trousers a good deal worn,--a dress, in short, which an American +mother in middle station would have thought too shabby for her darling +school-boy's ordinary wear. This urchin's face was rather pale (as those +of English children are apt to be, quite as often as our own), but he had +pleasant eyes, an intelligent look, and an agreeable, boyish manner. It +was Lord Sunderland, grandson of the present Duke, and heir--though not, +I think, in the direct line--of the blood of the great Marlborough, and +of the title and estate. + +After passing through the first suite of rooms, we were conducted through +a corresponding suite on the opposite side of the entrance-hall. These +latter apartments are most richly adorned with tapestries, wrought and +presented to the first Duke by a sisterhood of Flemish nuns; they look +like great, glowing pictures, and completely cover the walls of the +rooms. The designs purport to represent the Duke's battles and sieges; +and everywhere we see the hero himself, as large as life, and as +gorgeous in scarlet and gold as the holy sisters could make him, with a +three-cornered hat and flowing wig, reining in his horse, and extending +his leading-staff in the attitude of command. Next to Marlborough, +Prince Eugene is the most prominent figure. In the way of upholstery, +there can never have been anything more magnificent than these +tapestries; and, considered as works of Art, they have quite as much +merit as nine pictures out of ten. + +One whole wing of the palace is occupied by the library, a most noble +room, with a vast perspective length from end to end. Its atmosphere is +brighter and more cheerful than that of most libraries: a wonderful +contrast to the old college-libraries of Oxford, and perhaps less sombre +and suggestive of thoughtfulness than any large library ought to be, +inasmuch as so many studious brains as have left their deposit on the +shelves cannot have conspired without producing a very serious and +ponderous result. Both walls and ceiling are white, and there are +elaborate doorways and fireplaces of white marble. The floor is of oak, +so highly polished that our feet slipped upon it as if it had been New +England ice. At one end of the room stands a statue of Queen Anne in her +royal robes, which are so admirably designed and exquisitely wrought that +the spectator certainly gets a strong conception of her royal dignity; +while the face of the statue, fleshy and feeble, doubtless conveys a +suitable idea of her personal character. The marble of this work, long +as it has stood there, is as white as snow just fallen, and must have +required most faithful and religious care to keep it so. As for the +volumes of the library, they are wired within the cases and turn their +gilded backs upon the visitor, keeping their treasures of wit and wisdom +just as intangible as if still in the unwrought mines of human thought. + +I remember nothing else in the palace, except the chapel, to which we +were conducted last, and where we saw a splendid monument to the first +Duke and Duchess, sculptured by Rysbrack, at the cost, it is said, of +forty thousand pounds. The design includes the statues of the deceased +dignitaries, and various allegorical flourishes, fantasies, and +confusions; and beneath sleep the great Duke and his proud wife, their +veritable bones and dust, and probably all the Marlboroughs that have +since died. It is not quite a comfortable idea, that these mouldy +ancestors still inhabit, after their fashion, the house where their +successors spend the passing day; but the adulation lavished upon the +hero of Blenheim could not have been consummated, unless the palace of +his lifetime had become likewise a stately mausoleum over his remains,-- +and such we felt it all to be, after gazing at his tomb. + +The next business was to see the private gardens. An old Scotch +under-gardener admitted us and led the way, and seemed to have a fair +prospect of earning the fee all by himself; but by and by another +respectable Scotchman made his appearance and took us in charge, proving +to be the head-gardener in person. He was extremely intelligent and +agreeable, talking both scientifically and lovingly about trees and +plants, of which there is every variety capable of English cultivation. +Positively, the Garden of Eden cannot have been more beautiful than this +private garden of Blenheim. It contains three hundred acres, and by the +artful circumlocution of the paths, and the undulations, and the +skilfully interposed clumps of trees, is made to appear limitless. The +sylvan delights of a whole country are compressed into this space, as +whole fields of Persian roses go to the concoction of an ounce of +precious attar. The world within that garden-fence is not the same weary +and dusty world with which we outside mortals are conversant; it is a +finer, lovelier, more harmonious Nature; and the Great Mother lends +herself kindly to the gardener's will, knowing that he will make evident +the half-obliterated traits of her pristine and ideal beauty, and allow +her to take all the credit and praise to herself. I doubt whether there +is ever any winter within that precinct,--any clouds, except the fleecy +ones of summer. The sunshine that I saw there rests upon my recollection +of it as if it were eternal. The lawns and glades are like the memory of +places where one has wandered when first in love. + +What a good and happy life might be spent in a paradise like this! And +yet, at that very moment, the besotted Duke (ah! I have let out a secret +which I meant to keep to myself; but the ten shillings must pay for all) +was in that very garden (for the guide told us so, and cautioned our +young people not to be too uproarious), and, if in a condition for +arithmetic, was thinking of nothing nobler than how many ten-shilling +tickets had that day been sold. Republican as I am, I should still love +to think that noblemen lead noble lives, and that all this stately and +beautiful environment may serve to elevate them a little way above the +rest of us. If it fail to do so, the disgrace falls equally upon the +whole race of mortals as on themselves; because it proves that no more +favorable conditions of existence would eradicate our vices and +weaknesses. How sad, if this be so! Even a herd of swine, eating the +acorns under those magnificent oaks of Blenheim, would be cleanlier and +of better habits than ordinary swine. + +Well, all that I have written is pitifully meagre, as a description of +Blenheim; and I bate to leave it without some more adequate expression of +the noble edifice, with its rich domain, all as I saw them in that +beautiful sunshine; for, if a day had been chosen out of a hundred years, +it could not have been a finer one. But I must give up the attempt; only +further remarking that the finest trees here were cedars, of which I saw +one--and there may have been many such--immense in girth, and not less +than three centuries old. I likewise saw a vast heap of laurel, two +hundred feet in circumference, all growing from one root; and the +gardener offered to show us another growth of twice that stupendous size. +If the Great Duke himself had been buried in that spot, his heroic heart +could not have been the seed of a more plentiful crop of laurels. + +We now went back to the Black Bear, and sat down to a cold collation, of +which we ate abundantly, and drank (in the good old English fashion) a +due proportion of various delightful liquors. A stranger in England, in +his rambles to various quarters of the country, may learn little in +regard to wines (for the ordinary English taste is simple, though sound, +in that particular), but he makes acquaintance with more varieties of hop +and malt liquor than he previously supposed to exist. I remember a sort +of foaming stuff, called hop-champagne, which is very vivacious, and +appears to be a hybrid between ale and bottled cider. Another excellent +tipple for warm weather is concocted by mixing brown-stout or bitter ale +with ginger-beer, the foam of which stirs up the heavier liquor from its +depths, forming a compound of singular vivacity and sufficient body. But +of all things ever brewed from malt (unless it be the Trinity Ale of +Cambridge, which I drank long afterwards, and which Barry Cornwall has +celebrated in immortal verse), commend me to the Archdeacon, as the +Oxford scholars call it, in honor of the jovial dignitary who first +taught these erudite worthies how to brew their favorite nectar. John +Barleycorn has given his very heart to this admirable liquor; it is a +superior kind of ale, the Prince of Ales, with a richer flavor and a +mightier spirit than you can find elsewhere in this weary world. Much +have we been strengthened and encouraged by the potent blood of the +Archdeacon! + +A few days after our excursion to Blenheim, the same party set forth, in +two flies, on a tour to some other places of interest in the neighborhood +of Oxford. It was again a delightful day; and, in truth, every day, of +late, had been so pleasant that it seemed as if each must be the very +last of such perfect weather; and yet the long succession had given us +confidence in as many more to come. The climate of England has been +shamefully maligned, its sulkiness and asperities are not nearly so +offensive as Englishmen tell us (their climate being the only attribute +of their country which they never overvalue); and the really good +summer-weather is the very kindest and sweetest that the world knows. + +We first drove to the village of Cumnor, about six miles from Oxford, and +alighted at the entrance of the church. Here, while waiting for the +keys, we looked at an old wall of the churchyard, piled up of loose gray +stones which are said to have once formed a portion of Cumnor Hall, +celebrated in Mickle's ballad and Scott's romance. The hall must have +been in very close vicinity to the church,--not more than twenty yards +off; and I waded through the long, dewy grass of the churchyard, and +tried to peep over the wall, in hopes to discover some tangible and +traceable remains of the edifice. But the wall was just too high to be +overlooked, and difficult to clamber over without tumbling down some of +the stones; so I took the word of one of our party, who had been here +before, that there is nothing interesting on the other side. The +churchyard is in rather a neglected state, and seems not to have been +mown for the benefit of the parson's cow; it contains a good many +gravestones, of which I remember only some upright memorials of slate to +individuals of the name of Tabbs. + +Soon a woman arrived with the key of the church-door, and we entered the +simple old edifice, which has the pavement of lettered tombstones, the +sturdy pillars and low arches and other ordinary characteristics of an +English country church. One or two pews, probably those of the +gentlefolk of the neighborhood, were better furnished than the rest, but +all in a modest style. Near the high altar, in the holiest place, there +is an oblong, angular, ponderous tomb of blue marble, built against the +wall, and surmounted by a carved canopy of the same material; and over +the tomb, and beneath the canopy, are two monumental brasses, such as we +oftener see inlaid into a church pavement. On these brasses are engraved +the figures of a gentleman in armor and a lady in an antique garb, each +about a foot high, devoutly kneeling in prayer; and there is a long Latin +inscription likewise cut into the enduring brass, bestowing the highest +eulogies on the character of Anthony Forster, who, with his virtuous +dame, lies buried beneath this tombstone. His is the knightly figure +that kneels above; and if Sir Walter Scott ever saw this tomb, he must +have had an even greater than common disbelief in laudatory epitaphs, to +venture on depicting Anthony Forster in such lines as blacken him in the +romance. For my part, I read the inscription in full faith, and believe +the poor deceased gentleman to be a much-wronged individual, with good +grounds for bringing an action of slander in the courts above. + +But the circumstance, lightly as we treat it, has its serious moral. +What nonsense it is, this anxiety, which so worries us, about our good +fame, or our bad fame, after death! If it were of the slightest real +moment, our reputations would have been placed by Providence more in our +own power, and less in other people's, than we now find them to be. If +poor Anthony Forster happens to have met Sir Walter in the other world, I +doubt whether he has ever thought it worth while to complain of the +latter's misrepresentations. + +We did not remain long in the church, as it contains nothing else of +interest; and driving through the village, we passed a pretty large and +rather antique-looking inn, bearing the sign of the Bear and Ragged +Staff. It could not be so old, however, by at least a hundred years, as +Giles Gosling's time; nor is there any other object to remind the visitor +of the Elizabethan age, unless it be a few ancient cottages, that are +perhaps of still earlier date. Cumnor is not nearly so large a village, +nor a place of such mark, as one anticipates from its romantic and +legendary fame; but, being still inaccessible by railway, it has retained +more of a sylvan character than we often find in English country towns. +In this retired neighborhood the road is narrow and bordered with grass, +and sometimes interrupted by gates; the hedges grow in unpruned +luxuriance; there is not that close-shaven neatness and trimness that +characterize the ordinary English landscape. The whole scene conveys the +idea of seclusion and remoteness. We met no travellers, whether on foot +or otherwise. + +I cannot very distinctly trace out this day's peregrinations; but, after +leaving Cumnor a few miles behind us, I think we came to a ferry over the +Thames, where an old woman served as ferryman, and pulled a boat across +by means of a rope stretching from shore to shore. Our two vehicles +being thus placed on the other side, we resumed our drive,--first +glancing, however, at the old woman's antique cottage, with its stone +floor, and the circular settle round the kitchen fireplace, which was +quite in the mediaeval English style. + +We next stopped at Stanton Harcourt, where we were received at the +parsonage with a hospitality which we should take delight in describing, +if it were allowable to make public acknowledgment of the private and +personal kindnesses which we never failed to find ready for our needs. +An American in an English house will soon adopt the opinion that the +English are the very kindest people on earth, and will retain that idea +as long, at least, as he remains on the inner side of the threshold. +Their magnetism is of a kind that repels strongly while you keep beyond a +certain limit, but attracts as forcibly if you get within the magic line. + +It was at this place, if I remember right, that I heard a gentleman ask a +friend of mine whether he was the author of "The Red Letter A"; and, +after some consideration (for he did not seem to recognize his own book, +at first, under this improved title), our countryman responded, +doubtfully, that he believed so. The gentleman proceeded to inquire +whether our friend had spent much time in America,--evidently thinking +that he must have been caught young, and have had a tincture of English +breeding, at least, if not birth, to speak the language so tolerably, and +appear so much like other people. This insular narrowness is exceedingly +queer, and of very frequent occurrence, and is quite as much a +characteristic of men of education and culture as of clowns. + +Stanton Harcourt is a very curious old place. It was formerly the seat +of the ancient family of Harcourt, which now has its principal abode at +Nuneham Courtney, a few miles off. The parsonage is a relic of the +family mansion, or castle, other portions of which are close at hand; +for, across the garden, rise two gray towers, both of them picturesquely +venerable, and interesting for more than their antiquity. One of these +towers, in its entire capacity, from height to depth, constituted the +kitchen of the ancient castle, and is still used for domestic purposes, +although it has not, nor ever had, a chimney; or we might rather say, it +is itself one vast chimney, with a hearth of thirty feet square, and a +flue and aperture of the same size. There are two huge fireplaces +within, and the interior walls of the tower are blackened with the smoke +that for centuries used to gush forth from them, and climb upward, +seeking an exit through some wide air-holes in the comical roof, full +seventy feet above. These lofty openings were capable of being so +arranged, with reference to the wind, that the cooks are said to have +been seldom troubled by the smoke; and here, no doubt, they were +accustomed to roast oxen whole, with as little fuss and ado as a modern +cook would roast a fowl. The inside of the tower is very dim and sombre +(being nothing but rough stone walls, lighted only from the apertures +above mentioned), and has still a pungent odor of smoke and soot, the +reminiscence of the fires and feasts of generations that have passed +away. Methinks the extremest range of domestic economy lies between an +American cooking-stove and the ancient kitchen, seventy dizzy feet in +height and all one fireplace, of Stanton Harcourt. + +Now--the place being without a parallel in England, and therefore +necessarily beyond the experience of an American--it is somewhat +remarkable, that, while we stood gazing at this kitchen, I was haunted +and perplexed by an idea that somewhere or other I had seen just this +strange spectacle before.--The height, the blackness, the dismal void, +before my eyes, seemed as familiar as the decorous neatness of my +grandmother's kitchen; only my unaccountable memory of the scene was +lighted up with an image of lurid fires blazing all round the dim +interior circuit of the tower. I had never before had so pertinacious an +attack, as I could not but suppose it, of that odd state of mind wherein +we fitfully and teasingly remember some previous scene or incident, of +which the one now passing appears to be but the echo and reduplication. +Though the explanation of the mystery did not for some time occur to me, +I may as well conclude the matter here. In a letter of Pope's, addressed +to the Duke of Buckingham, there is an account of Stanton Harcourt (as I +now find, although the name is not mentioned), where he resided while +translating a part of the "Iliad." It is one of the most admirable +pieces of description in the language,--playful and picturesque, with +fine touches of humorous pathos,--and conveys as perfect a picture as +ever was drawn of a decayed English country-house; and among other rooms, +most of which have since crumbled down and disappeared, he dashes off the +grim aspect of this kitchen,--which, moreover, he peoples with witches, +engaging Satan himself as headcook, who stirs the infernal caldrons that +seethe and bubble over the fires. This letter, and others relative to +his abode here, were very familiar to my earlier reading, and, remaining +still fresh at the bottom of my memory, caused the weird and ghostly +sensation that came over one on beholding the real spectacle that had +formerly been made so vivid to my imagination. + +Our next visit was to the church which stands close by, and is quite as +ancient as the remnants of the castle. In a chapel or side-aisle, +dedicated to the Harcourts, are found some very interesting family +monuments,--and among them, recumbent on a tombstone, the figure of an +armed knight of the Lancastrian party, who was slain in the Wars of the +Roses. His features, dress, and armor are painted in colors, still +wonderfully fresh, and there still blushes the symbol of the Red Rose, +denoting the faction for which he fought and died. His head rests on a +marble or alabaster helmet; and on the tomb lies the veritable helmet, it +is to be presumed, which he wore in battle,--a ponderous iron ease, with +the visor complete, and remnants of the gilding that once covered it. +The crest is a large peacock, not of metal, but of wood. + +Very possibly, this helmet was but an heraldic adornment of his tomb; +and, indeed, it seems strange that it has not been stolen before now, +especially in Cromwell's time, when knightly tombs were little respected, +and when armor was in request. However, it is needless to dispute with +the dead knight about the identity of his iron pot, and we may as well +allow it to be the very same that so often gave him the headache in his +lifetime. Leaning against the wall, at the foot of the tomb, is the +shaft of a spear, with a wofully tattered and utterly faded banner +appended to it,--the knightly banner beneath which he marshalled his +followers in the field. As it was absolutely falling to pieces, I tore +off one little bit, no bigger than a finger-nail, and put it into my +waistcoat-pocket; but seeking it subsequently, it was not to be found. + +On the opposite side of the little chapel, two or three yards from this +tomb, is another monument, on which lie, side by side, one of the same +knightly race of Harcourts, and his lady. The tradition of the family +is, that this knight was the standard-bearer of Henry of Richmond in the +Battle of Bosworth Field; and a banner, supposed to be the same that he +carried, now droops over his effigy. It is just such a colorless silk +rag as the one already described. The knight has the order of the Garter +on his knee, and the lady wears it on her left arm, an odd place enough +for a garter; but, if worn in its proper locality, it could not be +decorously visible. The complete preservation and good condition of +these statues, even to the minutest adornment of the sculpture, and their +very noses,--the most vulnerable part of a marble man, as of a living +one,--are miraculous. Except in Westminster Abbey, among the chapels of +the kings, I have seen none so well preserved. Perhaps they owe it to +the loyalty of Oxfordshire, diffused throughout its neighborhood by the +influence of the University, during the great Civil War and the rule of +the Parliament. It speaks well, too, for the upright and kindly +character of this old family, that the peasantry, among whom they had +lived for ages, did not desecrate their tombs, when it might have been +done with impunity. + +There are other and more recent memorials of the Harcourts, one of which +is the tomb of the last lord, who died about a hundred years ago. His +figure, like those of his ancestors, lies on the top of his tomb, clad, +not in armor, but in his robes as a peer. The title is now extinct, but +the family survives in a younger branch, and still holds this patrimonial +estate, though they have long since quitted it as a residence. + +We next went to see the ancient fish-ponds appertaining to the mansion, +and which used to be of vast dietary importance to the family in Catholic +times, and when fish was not otherwise attainable. There are two or +three, or more, of these reservoirs, one of which is of very respectable +size,--large enough, indeed, to be really a picturesque object, with its +grass-green borders, and the trees drooping over it, and the towers of +the castle and the church reflected within the weed-grown depths of its +smooth mirror. A sweet fragrance, as it were, of ancient time and +present quiet and seclusion was breathing all around; the sunshine of +to-day had a mellow charm of antiquity in its brightness. These ponds +are said still to breed abundance of such fish as love deep and quiet +waters; but I saw only some minnows, and one or two snakes, which were +lying among the weeds on the top of the water, sunning and bathing +themselves at once. + +I mentioned that there were two towers remaining of the old castle: the +one containing the kitchen we have already visited; the other, still more +interesting, is next to be described. It is some seventy feet high, gray +and reverend, but in excellent repair, though I could not perceive that +anything had been done to renovate it. The basement story was once the +family chapel, and is, of course, still a consecrated spot. At one +corner of the tower is a circular turret, within which a narrow +staircase, with worn steps of stone, winds round and round as it climbs +upward, giving access to a chamber on each floor, and finally emerging on +the battlemented roof. Ascending this turret-stair, and arriving at the +third story, we entered a chamber, not large, though occupying the whole +area of the tower, and lighted by a window on each side. It was +wainscoted from floor to ceiling with dark oak, and had a little +fireplace in one of the corners. The window-panes were small and set in +lead. The curiosity of this room is, that it was once the residence of +Pope, and that he here wrote a considerable part of the translation of +Isomer, and likewise, no doubt, the admirable letters to which I have +referred above. The room once contained a record by himself, scratched +with a diamond on one of the window-panes (since removed for safe-keeping +to Nuneham Courtney, where it was shown me), purporting that he had here +finished the fifth book of the "Iliad" on such a day. + +A poet has a fragrance about him, such as no other human being is gifted +withal; it is indestructible, and clings forevermore to everything that +he has touched. I was not impressed, at Blenheim, with any sense that +the mighty Duke still haunted the palace that was created for him; but +here, after a century and a half, we are still conscious of the presence +of that decrepit little figure of Queen Anne's time, although he was +merely a casual guest in the old tower, during one or two summer months. +However brief the time and slight the connection, his spirit cannot be +exorcised so long as the tower stands. In my mind, moreover, Pope, or +any other person with an available claim, is right in adhering to the +spot, dead or alive; for I never saw a chamber that I should like better +to inhabit,--so comfortably small, in such a safe and inaccessible +seclusion, and with a varied landscape from each window. One of them +looks upon the church, close at hand, and down into the green churchyard, +extending almost to the foot of the tower; the others have views wide and +far, over a gently undulating tract of country. If desirous of a loftier +elevation, about a dozen more steps of the turret-stair will bring the +occupant to the summit of the tower,--where Pope used to come, no doubt, +in the summer evenings, and peep--poor little shrimp that he was!-- +through the embrasures of the battlement. + +From Stanton Harcourt we drove--I forget how far--to a point where a boat +was waiting for us upon the Thames, or some other stream; for I am +ashamed to confess my ignorance of the precise geographical whereabout. +We were, at any rate, some miles above Oxford, and, I should imagine, +pretty near one of the sources of England's mighty river. It was little +more than wide enough for the boat, with extended oars, to pass, shallow, +too, and bordered with bulrushes and water-weeds, which, in some places, +quite overgrew the surface of the river from bank to bank. The shores +were flat and meadow-like, and sometimes, the boatman told us, are +overflowed by the rise of the stream. The water looked clean and pure, +but not particularly transparent, though enough so to show us that the +bottom is very much weedgrown; and I was told that the weed is an +American production, brought to England with importations of timber, and +now threatening to choke up the Thames and other English rivers. I +wonder it does not try its obstructive powers upon the Merrimack, the +Connecticut, or the Hudson,--not to speak of the St. Lawrence or the +Mississippi! + +It was an open boat, with cushioned seats astern, comfortably +accommodating our party; the day continued sunny and warm, and perfectly +still; the boatman, well trained to his business, managed the oars +skilfully and vigorously; and we went down the stream quite as swiftly as +it was desirable to go, the scene being so pleasant, and the passing +hours so thoroughly agreeable. The river grew a little wider and deeper, +perhaps, as we glided on, but was still an inconsiderable stream: for it +had a good deal more than a hundred miles to meander through before it +should bear fleets on its bosom, and reflect palaces and towers and +Parliament houses and dingy and sordid piles of various structure, as it +rolled two and fro with the tide, dividing London asunder. Not, in +truth, that I ever saw any edifice whatever reflected in its turbid +breast, when the sylvan stream, as we beheld it now, is swollen into the +Thames at London. + +Once, on our voyage, we had to land, while the boatman and some other +persons drew our skiff round some rapids, which we could not otherwise +have passed; another time, the boat went through a lock. We, meanwhile, +stepped ashore to examine the ruins of the old nunnery of Godstowe, where +Fair Rosamond secluded herself, after being separated from her royal +lover. There is a long line of ruinous wall, and a shattered tower at +one of the angles; the whole much ivy-grown,--brimming over, indeed, with +clustering ivy, which is rooted inside of the walls. The nunnery is now, +I believe, held in lease by the city of Oxford, which has converted its +precincts into a barn-yard. The gate was under lock and key, so that we +could merely look at the outside, and soon resumed our places in the +boat. + +At three o'clock or thereabouts (or sooner or later,--for I took little +heed of time, and only wished that these delightful wanderings might last +forever) we reached Folly Bridge, at Oxford. Here we took possession of +a spacious barge, with a house in it, and a comfortable dining-room or +drawing-room within the house, and a level roof, on which we could sit at +ease, or dance if so inclined. These barges are common at Oxford,--some +very splendid ones being owned by the students of the different colleges, +or by clubs. They are drawn by horses, like canal-boats; and a horse +being attached to our own barge, he trotted off at a reasonable pace, and +we slipped through the water behind him, with a gentle and pleasant +motion, which, save for the constant vicissitude of cultivated scenery, +was like no motion at all. It was life without the trouble of living; +nothing was ever more quietly agreeable. In this happy state of mind +and body we gazed at Christ Church meadows, as we passed, and at the +receding spires and towers of Oxford, and on a good deal of pleasant +variety along the banks: young men rowing or fishing; troops of naked +boys bathing, as if this were Arcadia, in the simplicity of the Golden +Age; country-houses, cottages, water-side inns, all with something fresh +about them, as not being sprinkled with the dust of the highway. We were +a large party now; for a number of additional guests had joined us at +Folly Bridge, and we comprised poets, novelists, scholars, sculptors, +painters, architects, men and women of renown, dear friends, genial, +outspoken, open-hearted Englishmen,--all voyaging onward together, like +the wise ones of Gotham in a bowl. I remember not a single annoyance, +except, indeed, that a swarm of wasps came aboard of us and alighted on +the head of one of our young gentlemen, attracted by the scent of the +pomatum which he had been rubbing into his hair. He was the only victim, +and his small trouble the one little flaw in our day's felicity, to put +us in mind that we were mortal. + +Meanwhile a table had been laid in the interior of our barge, and spread +with cold ham, cold fowl, cold pigeon-pie, cold beef, and other +substantial cheer, such as the English love, and Yankees too,--besides +tarts, and cakes, and pears, and plums,--not forgetting, of course, a +goodly provision of port, sherry, and champagne, and bitter ale, which is +like mother's milk to an Englishman, and soon grows equally acceptable to +his American cousin. By the time these matters had been properly +attended to, we had arrived at that part of the Thames which passes by +Nuneham Courtney, a fine estate belonging to the Harcourts, and the +present residence of the family. Here we landed, and, climbing a steep +slope from the river-side, paused a moment or two to look at an +architectural object, called the Carfax, the purport of which I do not +well understand. Thence we proceeded onward, through the loveliest park +and woodland scenery I ever saw, and under as beautiful a declining +sunshine as heaven ever shed over earth, to the stately mansion-house. + +As we here cross a private threshold, it is not allowable to pursue my +feeble narrative of this delightful day with the same freedom as +heretofore; so, perhaps, I may as well bring it to a close. I may +mention, however, that I saw the library, a fine, large apartment, hung +round with portraits of eminent literary men, principally of the last +century, most of whom were familiar guests of the Harcourts. The house +itself is about eighty years old, and is built in the classic style, as +if the family had been anxious to diverge as far as possible from the +Gothic picturesqueness of their old abode at Stanton Harcourt. The +grounds were laid out in part by Capability Brown, and seemed to me even +more beautiful than those of Blenheim. Mason the poet, a friend of the +house, gave the design of a portion of the garden. Of the whole place I +will not be niggardly of my rude Transatlantic praise, but be bold to say +that it appeared to me as perfect as anything earthly can he,--utterly +and entirely finished, as if the years and generations had done all that +the hearts and minds of the successive owners could contrive for a spot +they dearly loved. Such homes as Nuneham Courtney are among the splendid +results of long hereditary possession; and we Republicans, whose +households melt away like new-fallen snow in a spring morning, must +content ourselves with our many counterbalancing advantages, for this +one, so apparently desirable to the far-projecting selfishness of our +nature, we are certain never to attain. + +It must not be supposed, nevertheless, that Nuneham Courtney is one of +the great show-places of England. It is merely a fair specimen of the +better class of country-seats, and has a hundred rivals, and many +superiors, in the features of beauty, and expansive, manifold, redundant +comfort, which most impressed me. A moderate man might be content with +such a home,--that is all. + +And now I take leave of Oxford without even an attempt to describe it,-- +there being no literary faculty, attainable or conceivable by me, which +can avail to put it adequately, or even tolerably, upon paper. It must +remain its own sole expression; and those whose sad fortune it may be +never to behold it have no better resource than to dream about gray, +weather-stained, ivy-grown edifices, wrought with quaint Gothic ornament, +and standing around grassy quadrangles, where cloistered walks have +echoed to the quiet footsteps of twenty generations,--lawns and gardens +of luxurious repose, shadowed with canopies of foliage, and lit up with +sunny glimpses through archways of great boughs,--spires, towers, and +turrets, each with its history and legend,--dimly magnificent chapels, +with painted windows of rare beauty and brilliantly diversified hues, +creating an atmosphere of richest gloom,--vast college-halls, +high-windowed, oaken-panelled, and hung round with portraits of the men, +in every age, whom the University has nurtured to be illustrious,--long +vistas of alcoved libraries, where the wisdom and learned folly of all +time is shelved,--kitchens (we throw in this feature by way of ballast, +and because it would not be English Oxford without its beef and beer), +with huge fireplaces, capable of roasting a hundred joints at once,--and +cavernous cellars, where rows of piled-up hogsheads seethe and fume with +that mighty malt-liquor which is the true milk of Alma Mater; make all +these things vivid in your dream, and you will never know nor believe how +inadequate is the result to represent even the merest outside of Oxford. + +We feel a genuine reluctance to conclude this article without making our +grateful acknowledgments, by name, to a gentleman whose overflowing +kindness was the main condition of all our sight-seeings and enjoyments. +Delightful as will always be our recollection of Oxford and its +neighborhood, we partly suspect that it owes much of its happy coloring +to the genial medium through which the objects were presented to us,--to +the kindly magic of a hospitality unsurpassed, within our experience, in +the quality of making the guest contented with his host, with himself, +and everything about him. He has inseparably mingled his image with our +remembrance of the Spires of Oxford. + + + + +SOME OF THE HAUNTS OF BURNS. + + +We left Carlisle at a little past eleven, and within the half-hour were +at Gretna Green. Thence we rushed onward into Scotland through a flat +and dreary tract of country, consisting mainly of desert and bog, where +probably the moss-troopers were accustomed to take refuge after their +raids into England. Anon, however, the hills hove themselves up to view, +occasionally attaining a height which might almost be called mountainous. +In about two hours we reached Dumfries, and alighted at the station +there. + +Chill as the Scottish summer is reputed to be, we found it an awfully hot +day, not a whit less so than the day before; but we sturdily adventured +through the burning sunshine up into the town, inquiring our way to the +residence of Burns. The street leading from the station is called +Shakespeare Street; and at its farther extremity we read "Burns Street" +on a corner-house, the avenue thus designated having been formerly known +as "Mill-Hole Brae." It is a vile lane, paved with small, hard stones +from side to side, and bordered by cottages or mean houses of whitewashed +stone, joining one to another along the whole length of the street. With +not a tree, of course, or a blade of grass between the paving-stones, the +narrow lane was as hot as Topbet, and reeked with a genuine Scotch odor, +being infested with unwashed children, and altogether in a state of +chronic filth; although some women seemed to be hopelessly scrubbing the +thresholds of their wretched dwellings. I never saw an outskirt of a +town less fit for a poet's residence, or in which it would be more +miserable for any man of cleanly predilections to spend his days. + +We asked for Burns's dwelling; and a woman pointed across the street to a +two-story house, built of stone, and whitewashed, like its neighbors, but +perhaps of a little more respectable aspect than most of them, though I +hesitate in saying so. It was not a separate structure, but under the +same continuous roof with the next. There was an inscription on the +door, hearing no reference to Burns, but indicating that the house was +now occupied by a ragged or industrial school. On knocking, we were +instantly admitted by a servant-girl, who smiled intelligently when we +told our errand, and showed us into a low and very plain parlor, not more +than twelve or fifteen feet square. A young woman, who seemed to be a +teacher in the school, soon appeared, and told us that this had been +Burns's usual sitting-room, and that he had written many of his songs +here. + +She then led us up a narrow staircase into a little bedchamber over the +parlor. Connecting with it, there is a very small room, or windowed +closet, which Burns used as a study; and the bedchamber itself was the +one where he slept in his later lifetime, and in which he died at last. +Altogether, it is an exceedingly unsuitable place for a pastoral and +rural poet to live or die in,--even more unsatisfactory than +Shakespeare's house, which has a certain homely picturesqueness that +contrasts favorably with the suburban sordidness of the abode before us. +The narrow lane, the paving-stones, and the contiguity of wretched hovels +are depressing to remember; and the steam of them (such is our human +weakness) might almost make the poet's memory less fragrant. + +As already observed, it was an intolerably hot day. After leaving the +house, we found our way into the principal street of the town, which, it +may be fair to say, is of very different aspect from the wretched +outskirt above described. Entering a hotel (in which, as a Dumfries +guide-book assured us, Prince Charles Edward had once spent a night), we +rested and refreshed ourselves, and then set forth in quest of the +mausoleum of Burns. + +Coming to St. Michael's Church, we saw a man digging a grave, and, +scrambling out of the hole, he let us into the churchyard, which was +crowded full of monuments. Their general shape and construction are +peculiar to Scotland, being a perpendicular tablet of marble or other +stone, within a framework of the same material, somewhat resembling the +frame of a looking-glass; and, all over the churchyard, those sepulchral +memorials rise to the height of ten, fifteen, or twenty feet, forming +quite an imposing collection of monuments, but inscribed with names of +small general significance. It was easy, indeed, to ascertain the rank +of those who slept below; for in Scotland it is the custom to put the +occupation of the buried personage (as "Skinner," "Shoemaker," "Flesher") +on his tombstone. As another peculiarity, wives are buried under their +maiden names, instead of those of their husbands; thus giving a +disagreeable impression that the married pair have bidden each other an +eternal farewell on the edge of the grave. + +There was a foot-path through this crowded churchyard, sufficiently well +worn to guide us to the grave of Burns; but a woman followed behind us, +who, it appeared, kept the key of the mausoleum, and was privileged to +show it to strangers. The monument is a sort of Grecian temple, with +pilasters and a dome, covering a space of about twenty feet square. It +was formerly open to all the inclemencies of the Scotch atmosphere, but +is now protected and shut in by large squares of rough glass, each pane +being of the size of one whole side of the structure. The woman unlocked +the door, and admitted us into the interior. Inlaid into the floor of +the mausoleum is the gravestone of Burns,--the very same that was laid +over his grave by Jean Armour, before this monument was built. Displayed +against the surrounding wall is a marble statue of Burns at the plough, +with the Genius of Caledonia summoning the ploughman to turn poet. +Methought it was not a very successful piece of work; for the plough was +better sculptured than the man, and the man, though heavy and cloddish, +was more effective than the goddess. Our guide informed us that an old +man of ninety, who knew Burns, certifies this statue to be very like the +original. + +The bones of the poet, and of Jean Armour, and of some of their children, +lie in the vault over which we stood. Our guide (who was intelligent, in +her own plain way, and very agreeable to talk withal) said that the vault +was opened about three weeks ago, on occasion of the burial of the eldest +son of Burns. The poet's bones were disturbed, and the dry skull, once +so brimming over with powerful thought and bright and tender fantasies, +was taken away, and kept for several days by a Dumfries doctor. It has +since been deposited in a new leaden coffin, and restored to the vault. +We learned that there is a surviving daughter of Burns's eldest son, and +daughters likewise of the two younger sons,--and, besides these, an +illegitimate posterity by the eldest son, who appears to have been of +disreputable life in his younger days. He inherited his father's +failings, with some faint shadow, I have also understood, of the great +qualities which have made the world tender of his father's vices and +weaknesses. + +We listened readily enough to this paltry gossip, but found that it +robbed the poet's memory of some of the reverence that was its due. +Indeed, this talk over his grave had very much the same tendency and +effect as the home-scene of his life, which we had been visiting just +previously. Beholding his poor, mean dwelling and its surroundings, and +picturing his outward life and earthly manifestations from these, one +does not so much wonder that the people of that day should have failed to +recognize all that was admirable and immortal in a disreputable, drunken, +shabbily clothed, and shabbily housed man, consorting with associates of +damaged character, and, as his only ostensible occupation, gauging the +whiskey, which he too often tasted. Siding with Burns, as we needs must, +in his plea against the world, let us try to do the world a little +justice too. It is far easier to know and honor a poet when his fame has +taken shape in the spotlessness of marble than when the actual man comes +staggering before you, besmeared with the sordid stains of his daily +life. For my part, I chiefly wonder that his recognition dawned so +brightly while he was still living. There must have been something very +grand in his immediate presence, some strangely impressive characteristic +in his natural behavior, to have caused him to seem like a demigod so +soon. + +As we went back through the churchyard, we saw a spot where nearly four +hundred inhabitants of Dumfries were buried during the cholera year; and +also some curious old monuments, with raised letters, the inscriptions on +which were not sufficiently legible to induce us to puzzle them out; but, +I believe, they mark the resting-places of old Covenanters, some of whom +were killed by Claverhouse and his fellow-ruffians. + +St. Michael's Church is of red freestone, and was built about a hundred +years ago, on an old Catholic foundation. Our guide admitted us into it, +and showed us, in the porch, a very pretty little marble figure of a +child asleep, with a drapery over the lower part, from beneath which +appeared its two baby feet. It was truly a sweet little statue; and the +woman told us that it represented a child of the sculptor, and that the +baby (here still in its marble infancy) had died more than twenty-six +years ago. "Many ladies," she said, "especially such as had ever lost a +child, had shed tears over it." It was very pleasant to think of the +sculptor bestowing the best of his genius and art to re-create his tender +child in stone, and to make the representation as soft and sweet as the +original; but the conclusion of the story has something that jars with +our awakened sensibilities. A gentleman from London had seen the statue, +and was so much delighted with it that he bought it of the father-artist, +after it had lain above a quarter of a century in the church-porch. So +this was not the real, tender image that came out of the father's heart; +he had sold that truest one for a hundred guineas, and sculptured this +mere copy to replace it. The first figure was entirely naked in its +earthly and spiritual innocence. The copy, as I have said above, has a +drapery over the lower limbs. But, after all, if we come to the truth of +the matter, the sleeping baby may be as fully reposited in the +drawing-room of a connoisseur as in a cold and dreary church-porch. + +We went into the church, and found it very plain and naked, without +altar-decorations, and having its floor quite covered with unsightly +wooden pews. The woman led us to a pew cornering on one of the +side-aisles, and, telling us that it used to be Burns's family-pew, +showed us his seat, which is in the corner by the aisle. It is so +situated, that a sturdy pillar hid him from the pulpit, and from the +minister's eye; "for Robin was no great friends with the ministers," said +she. This touch--his seat behind the pillar, and Burns himself nodding +in sermon-time, or keenly observant of profane things--brought him before +us to the life. In the corner-seat of the next pew, right before Burns, +and not more than two feet off, sat the young lady on whom the poet saw +that unmentionable parasite which he has immortalized in song. We were +ungenerous enough to ask the lady's name, but the good woman could not +tell it. This was the last thing which we saw in Dumfries worthy of +record; and it ought to be noted that our guide refused some money which +my companion offered her, because I had already paid her what she deemed +sufficient. + +At the railway-station we spent more than a weary hour, waiting for the +train, which at last came up, and took us to Mauchline. We got into an +omnibus, the only conveyance to be had, and drove about a mile to the +village, where we established ourselves at the Loudoun Hotel, one of the +veriest country inns which we have found in Great Britain. The town of +Mauchline, a place more redolent of Burns than almost any other, consists +of a street or two of contiguous cottages, mostly whitewashed, and with +thatched roofs. It has nothing sylvan or rural in the immediate village, +and is as ugly a place as mortal man could contrive to make, or to render +uglier through a succession of untidy generations. The fashion of paving +the village street, and patching one shabby house on the gable-end of +another, quite shuts out all verdure and pleasantness; but, I presume, we +are not likely to see a more genuine old Scotch village, such as they +used to be in Burns's time, and long before, than this of Mauchline. The +church stands about midway up the street, and is built of red freestone, +very simple in its architecture, with a square tower and pinnacles. In +this sacred edifice, and its churchyard, was the scene of one of Burns's +most characteristic productions, "The Holy Fair." + +Almost directly opposite its gate, across the village street, stands +Posie Nansie's inn, where the "Jolly Beggars" congregated. The latter is +a two-story, red-stone, thatched house, looking old, but by no means +venerable, like a drunken patriarch. It has small, old-fashioned +windows, and may well have stood for centuries,--though, seventy or +eighty years ago, when Burns was conversant with it, I should fancy it +might have been something better than a beggars' alehouse. The whole +town of Mauchline looks rusty and time-worn,--even the newer houses, of +which there are several, being shadowed and darkened by the general +aspect of the place. When we arrived, all the wretched little dwellings +seemed to have belched forth their inhabitants into the warm summer +evening; everybody was chatting with everybody, on the most familiar +terms; the bare-legged children gambolled or quarrelled uproariously, and +came freely, moreover, and looked into the window of our parlor. When we +ventured out, we were followed by the gaze of the old town: people +standing in their doorways, old women popping their heads from the +chamber-windows, and stalwart men idle on Saturday at e'en, after their +week's hard labor--clustering at the street-corners, merely to stare at +our unpretending selves. Except in some remote little town of Italy +(where, besides, the inhabitants had the intelligible stimulus of +beggary), I have never been honored with nearly such an amount of public +notice. + +The next forenoon my companion put me to shame by attending church, after +vainly exhorting me to do the like; and, it being Sacrament Sunday, and +my poor friend being wedged into the farther end of a closely filled pew, +he was forced to stay through the preaching of four several sermons, and +came back perfectly exhausted and desperate. He was somewhat consoled, +however, on finding that he had witnessed a spectacle of Scotch manners +identical with that of Burns's "Holy Fair," on the very spot where the +poet located that immortal description. By way of further conformance to +the customs of the country, we ordered a sheep's head and the broth, and +did penance accordingly; and at five o'clock we took a fly, and set out +for Burns's farm of Moss Giel. + +Moss Giel is not more than a mile from Mauchline, and the road extends +over a high ridge of land, with a view of far hills and green slopes on +either side. Just before we reached the farm, the driver stopped to +point out a hawthorn, growing by the wayside, which he said was Burns's +"Lousie Thorn"; and I devoutly plucked a branch, although I have really +forgotten where or how this illustrious shrub has been celebrated. We +then turned into a rude gateway, and almost immediately came to the +farm-house of Moss Giel, standing some fifty yards removed from the +high-road, behind a tall hedge of hawthorn, and considerably overshadowed +by trees. The house is a whitewashed stone cottage, like thousands of +others in England and Scotland, with a thatched roof, on which grass and +weeds have intruded a picturesque, though alien growth. There is a door +and one window in front, besides another little window that peeps out +among the thatch. Close by the cottage, and extending back at right +angles from it, so as to enclose the farm-yard, are two other buildings +of the same size, shape, and general appearance as the house: any one of +the three looks just as fit for a human habitation as the two others, and +all three look still more suitable for donkey-stables and pigsties. As +we drove into the farm-yard, bounded on three sides by these three +hovels, a large dog began to bark at us; and some women and children made +their appearance, but seemed to demur about admitting us, because the +master and mistress were very religious people, and had not yet come back +from the Sacrament at Mauchline. + +However, it would not do to be turned back from the very threshold of +Robert Burns; and as the women seemed to be merely straggling visitors, +and nobody, at all events, had a right to send us away, we went into the +back door, and, turning to the right, entered a kitchen. It showed a +deplorable lack of housewifely neatness, and in it there were three or +four children, one of whom, a girl eight or nine years old, held a baby +in her arms. She proved to be the daughter of the people of the house, +and gave us what leave she could to look about us. Thence we stepped +across the narrow mid-passage of the cottage into the only other +apartment below stairs, a sitting-room, where we found a young man eating +broad and cheese. He informed us that he did not live there, and had +only called in to refresh himself on his way home from church. This +room, like the kitchen, was a noticeably poor one, and, besides being all +that the cottage had to show for a parlor, it was a sleeping-apartment, +having two beds, which might be curtained off, on occasion. The young +man allowed us liberty (so far as in him lay) to go up stairs. Up we +crept, accordingly; and a few steps brought us to the top of the +staircase, over the kitchen, where we found the wretchedest little +sleeping-chamber in the world, with a sloping roof under the thatch, +and two beds spread upon the bare floor. This, most probably, was +Burns's chamber; or, perhaps, it may have been that of his mother's +servant-maid; and, in either case, this rude floor, at one time or +another, must have creaked beneath the poet's midnight tread. On the +opposite side of the passage was the door of another attic-chamber, +opening which, I saw a considerable number of cheeses on the floor. + +The whole house was pervaded with a frowzy smell, and also a dunghill +odor; and it is not easy to understand how the atmosphere of such a +dwelling can be any more agreeable or salubrious morally than it appeared +to be physically. No virgin, surely, could keep a holy awe about her +while stowed higgledy-piggledy with coarse-natured rustics into this +narrowness and filth. Such a habitation is calculated to make beasts of +men and women; and it indicates a degree of barbarism which I did not +imagine to exist in Scotland, that a tiller of broad fields, like the +farmer of Mauchline, should have his abode in a pigsty. It is sad to +think of anybody--not to say a poet, but any human being--sleeping, +eating, thinking, praying, and spending all his home-life in this +miserable hovel; but, methinks, I never in the least knew how to estimate +the miracle of Burns's genius, nor his heroic merit for being no worse +man, until I thus learned the squalid hindrances amid which he developed +himself. Space, a free atmosphere, and cleanliness have a vast deal to +do with the possibilities of human virtue. + +The biographers talk of the farm of Moss Giel as being damp and +unwholesome; but, I do not see why, outside of the cottage-walls, it +should possess so evil a reputation. It occupies a high, broad ridge, +enjoying, surely, whatever benefit can come of a breezy site, and sloping +far downward before any marshy soil is reached. The high hedge, and the +trees that stand beside the cottage, give it a pleasant aspect enough to +one who does not know the grimy secrets of the interior; and the summer +afternoon was now so bright that I shall remember the scene with a great +deal of sunshine over it. + +Leaving the cottage, we drove through a field, which the driver told us +was that in which Burns turned up the mouse's nest. It is the enclosure +nearest to the cottage, and seems now to be a pasture, and a rather +remarkably unfertile one. A little farther on, the ground was whitened +with an immense number of daisies,--daisies, daisies everywhere; and in +answer to my inquiry, the driver said that this was the field where Burns +ran his ploughshare over the daisy. If so, the soil seems to have been +consecrated to daisies by the song which he bestowed on that first +immortal one. I alighted, and plucked a whole handful of these "wee, +modest, crimson-tipped flowers," which will be precious to many friends +in our own country as coming from Burns's farm, and being of the same +race and lineage as that daisy which he turned into an amaranthine flower +while seeming to destroy it. + +From Moss Giel we drove through a variety of pleasant scenes, some of +which were familiar to us by their connection with Burns. We skirted, +too, along a portion of the estate of Auchinleck, which still belongs to +the Boswell family,--the present possessor being Sir James Boswell [Sir +James Boswell is now dead], a grandson of Johnson's friend, and son of +the Sir Alexander who was killed in a duel. Our driver spoke of Sir +James as a kind, free-hearted man, but addicted to horse-races and +similar pastimes, and a little too familiar with the wine-cup; so that +poor Bozzy's booziness would appear to have become hereditary in his +ancient line. There is no male heir to the estate of Auchinleck. The +portion of the lands which we saw is covered with wood and much +undermined with rabbit-warrens; nor, though the territory extends over a +large number of acres, is the income very considerable. + +By and by we came to the spot where Burns saw Miss Alexander, the Lass of +Ballochmyle. It was on a bridge, which (or, more probably, a bridge that +has succeeded to the old one, and is made of iron) crosses from bank to +bank, high in air, over a deep gorge of the road; so that the young lady +may have appeared to Burns like a creature between earth and sky, and +compounded chiefly of celestial elements. But, in honest truth, the +great charm of a woman, in Burns's eyes, was always her womanhood, and +not the angelic mixture which other poets find in her. + +Our driver pointed out the course taken by the Lass of Ballochmyle, +through the shrubbery, to a rock on the banks of the Lugar, where it +seems to be the tradition that Burns accosted her. The song implies no +such interview. Lovers, of whatever condition, high or low, could desire +no lovelier scene in which to breathe their vows: the river flowing over +its pebbly bed, sometimes gleaming into the sunshine, sometimes hidden +deep in verdure, and here and there eddying at the foot of high and +precipitous cliffs. This beautiful estate of Ballochmyle is still held +by the family of Alexanders, to whom Burns's song has given renown on +cheaper terms than any other set of people ever attained it. How slight +the tenure seems! A young lady happened to walk out, one summer +afternoon, and crossed the path of a neighboring farmer, who celebrated +the little incident in four or five warm, rude, at least, not refined, +though rather ambitious,--and somewhat ploughman-like verses. Burns has +written hundreds of better things; but henceforth, for centuries, that +maiden has free admittance into the dream-land of Beautiful Women, and +she and all her race are famous. I should like to know the present head +of the family, and ascertain what value, if any, the members of it put +upon the celebrity thus won. + +We passed through Catrine, known hereabouts as "the clean village of +Scotland." Certainly, as regards the point indicated, it has greatly the +advantage of Mauchline, whither we now returned without seeing anything +else worth writing about. + +There was a rain-storm during the night, and, in the morning, the rusty, +old, sloping street of Mauchline was glistening with wet, while frequent +showers came spattering down. The intense heat of many days past was +exchanged for a chilly atmosphere, much more suitable to a stranger's +idea of what Scotch temperature ought to be. We found, after breakfast, +that the first train northward had already gone by, and that we must wait +till nearly two o'clock for the next. I merely ventured out once, during +the forenoon, and took a brief walk through the village, in which I have +left little to describe. Its chief business appears to be the +manufacture of snuff-boxes. There are perhaps five or six shops, or +more, including those licensed to sell only tea and tobacco; the best of +them have the characteristics of village stores in the United States, +dealing in a small way with an extensive variety of articles. I peeped +into the open gateway of the churchyard, and saw that the ground was +absolutely stuffed with dead people, and the surface crowded with +gravestones, both perpendicular and horizontal. All Burns's old +Mauchline acquaintance are doubtless there, and the Armours among them, +except Bonny Jean, who sleeps by her poet's side. The family of Armour +is now extinct in Mauchline. + +Arriving at the railway-station, we found a tall, elderly, comely +gentleman walking to and fro and waiting for the train. He proved to be +a Mr. Alexander,--it may fairly be presumed the Alexander of Ballochmyle, +a blood relation of the lovely lass. Wonderful efficacy of a poet's +verse, that could shed a glory from Long Ago on this old gentleman's +white hair! These Alexanders, by the by, are not an old family on the +Ballochmyle estate; the father of the lass having made a fortune in +trade, and established himself as the first landed proprietor of his name +in these parts. The original family was named Whitefoord. + +Our ride to Ayr presented nothing very remarkable; and, indeed, a cloudy +and rainy day takes the varnish off the scenery and causes a woful +diminution in the beauty and impressiveness of everything we see. Much +of our way lay along a flat, sandy level, in a southerly direction. We +reached Ayr in the midst of hopeless rain, and drove to the King's Arms +Hotel. In the intervals of showers I took peeps at the town, which +appeared to have many modern or modern-fronted edifices; although there +are likewise tall, gray, gabled, and quaint-looking houses in the +by-streets, here and there, betokening an ancient place. The town lies +on both sides of the Ayr, which is here broad and stately, and bordered +with dwellings that look from their windows directly down into the +passing tide. + +I crossed the river by a modern and handsome stone bridge, and recrossed +it, at no great distance, by a venerable structure of four gray arches, +which must have bestridden the stream ever since the early days of +Scottish history. These are the "Two Briggs of Ayr," whose midnight +conversation was overheard by Burns, while other auditors were aware only +of the rush and rumble of the wintry stream among the arches. The +ancient bridge is steep and narrow, and paved like a street, and defended +by a parapet of red freestone, except at the two ends, where some mean +old shops allow scanty room for the pathway to creep between. Nothing +else impressed me hereabouts, unless I mention, that, during the rain, +the women and girls went about the streets of Ayr barefooted to save +their shoes. + +The next morning wore a lowering aspect, as if it felt itself destined to +be one of many consecutive days of storm. After a good Scotch breakfast, +however, of fresh herrings and eggs, we took a fly, and started at a +little past ten for the banks of the Doon. On our way, at about two +miles from Ayr, we drew up at a roadside cottage, on which was an +inscription to the effect that Robert Burns was born within its walls. +It is now a public-house; and, of course, we alighted and entered its +little sitting-room, which, as we at present see it, is a neat apartment, +with the modern improvement of a ceiling. The walls are much +overscribbled with names of visitors, and the wooden door of a cupboard +in the wainscot, as well as all the other wood-work of the room, is cut +and carved with initial letters. So, likewise, are two tables, which, +having received a coat of varnish over the inscriptions, form really +curious and interesting articles of furniture. I have seldom (though I +do not, personally adopt this mode of illustrating my bumble name) felt +inclined to ridicule the natural impulse of most people thus to record +themselves at the shrines of poets and heroes. + +On a panel, let into the wall in a corner of the room, is a portrait of +Burns, copied from the original picture by Nasmyth. The floor of this +apartment is of boards, which are probably a recent substitute for the +ordinary flag-stones of a peasant's cottage. There is but one other room +pertaining to the genuine birthplace of Robert Burns: it is the kitchen, +into which we now went. It has a floor of flag-stones, even ruder than +those of Shakespeare's house,--though, perhaps, not so strangely cracked +and broken as the latter, over which the hoof of Satan himself might seem +to have been trampling. A new window has been opened through the wall, +towards the road; but on the opposite side is the little original window, +of only four small panes, through which came the first daylight that +shone upon the Scottish poet. At the side of the room, opposite the +fireplace, is a recess, containing a bed, which can be hidden by +curtains. In that humble nook, of all places in the world, Providence +was pleased to deposit the germ of the richest, human life which mankind +then had within its circumference. + +These two rooms, as I have said, make up the whole sum and substance of +Burns's birthplace: for there were no chambers, nor even attics; and the +thatched roof formed the only ceiling of kitchen and sitting-room, the +height of which was that of the whole house. The cottage, however, is +attached to another edifice of the same size and description, as these +little habitations often are; and, moreover, a splendid addition has been +made to it, since the poet's renown began to draw visitors to the wayside +alehouse. The old woman of the house led us through an entry, and showed +a vaulted hall, of no vast dimensions, to be sure, but marvellously large +and splendid as compared with what might be anticipated from the outward +aspect of the cottage. It contained a bust of Burns, and was hung round +with pictures and engravings, principally illustrative of his life and +poems. In this part of the house, too, there is a parlor, fragrant with +tobacco-smoke; and, no doubt, many a noggin of whiskey is here quaffed to +the memory of the bard, who professed to draw so much inspiration from +that potent liquor. + +We bought some engravings of Kirk Alloway, the Bridge of Doon, and the +monument, and gave the old woman a fee besides, and took our leave. A +very short drive farther brought us within sight of the monument, and to +the hotel, situated close by the entrance of the ornamental grounds +within which the former is enclosed. We rang the bell at the gate of the +enclosure, but were forced to wait a considerable time; because the old +man, the regular superintendent of the spot, had gone to assist at the +laying of the corner-stone of a new kirk. He appeared anon, and admitted +us, but immediately hurried away to be present at the concluding +ceremonies, leaving us locked up with Burns. + +The enclosure around the monument is beautifully laid out as an +ornamental garden, and abundantly provided with rare flowers and +shrubbery, all tended with loving care. The monument stands on an +elevated site, and consists of a massive basement-story, three-sided, +above which rises a light and elegant Grecian temple,--a mere dome, +supported on Corinthian pillars, and open to all the winds. The edifice +is beautiful in itself; though I know not what peculiar appropriateness +it may have, as the memorial of a Scottish rural poet. + +The door of the basement-story stood open; and, entering, we saw a bust +of Burns in a niche, looking keener, more refined, but not so warm and +whole-souled as his pictures usually do. I think the likeness cannot be +good. In the centre of the room stood a glass case, in which were +reposited the two volumes of the little Pocket Bible that Burns gave to +Highland Mary, when they pledged their troth to one another. It is +poorly printed, on coarse paper. A verse of Scripture, referring to the +solemnity and awfulness of vows, is written within the cover of each +volume, in the poet's own hand; and fastened to one of the covers is a +lock of Highland Mary's golden hair. This Bible had been carried to +America--by one of her relatives, but was sent back to be fitly treasured +here. + +There is a staircase within the monument, by which we ascended to the +top, and had a view of both Briggs of Doon; the scene of Tam O'Shanter's +misadventure being close at hand. Descending, we wandered through the +enclosed garden, and came to a little building in a corner, on entering +which, we found the two statues of Tam and Sutor Wat,--ponderous +stone-work enough, yet permeated in a remarkable degree with living +warmth and jovial hilarity. From this part of the garden, too, we again +beheld the old Brigg of Doon, over which Tam galloped in such imminent +and awful peril. It is a beautiful object in the landscape, with one +high, graceful arch, ivy-grown, and shadowed all over and around with +foliage. + +When we had waited a good while, the old gardener came, telling us that +he had heard an excellent prayer at laying the corner-stone of the new +kirk. He now gave us some roses and sweetbrier, and let us out from his +pleasant garden. We immediately hastened to Kirk Alloway, which is +within two or three minutes' walk of the monument. A few steps ascend +from the roadside, through a gate, into the old graveyard, in the midst +of which stands the kirk. The edifice is wholly roofless, but the +side-walls and gable-ends are quite entire, though portions of them +are evidently modern restorations. Never was there a plainer little +church, or one with smaller architectural pretension; no New England +meeting-house has more simplicity in its very self, though poetry and fun +have clambered and clustered so wildly over Kirk Alloway that it is +difficult to see it as it actually exists. By the by, I do not +understand why Satan and an assembly of witches should hold their revels +within a consecrated precinct; but the weird scene has so established +itself in the world's imaginative faith that it must be accepted as an +authentic incident, in spite of rule and reason to the contrary. +Possibly, some carnal minister, some priest of pious aspect and hidden +infidelity, had dispelled the consecration of the holy edifice by his +pretence of prayer, and thus made it the resort of unhappy ghosts and +sorcerers and devils. + +The interior of the kirk, even now, is applied to quite as impertinent a +purpose as when Satan and the witches used it as a dancing-hall; for it +is divided in the midst by a wall of stone-masonry, and each compartment +has been converted into a family burial-place. The name on one of the +monuments is Crawfurd; the other bore no inscription. It is impossible +not to feel that these good people, whoever they may be, had no business +to thrust their prosaic bones into a spot that belongs to the world, and +where their presence jars with the emotions, be they sad or gay, which +the pilgrim brings thither. They slant us out from our own precincts, +too,--from that inalienable possession which Burns bestowed in free gift +upon mankind, by taking it from the actual earth and annexing it to the +domain of imagination. And here these wretched squatters have lain down +to their long sleep, after barring each of the two doorways of the kirk +with an iron grate! May their rest be troubled, till they rise and let +us in! + +Kirk Alloway is inconceivably small, considering how large a space it +fills in our imagination before we see it. I paced its length, outside +of the wall, and found it only seventeen of my paces, and not more than +ten of them in breadth. There seem to have been but very few windows, +all of which, if I rightly remember, are now blocked up with mason-work +of stone. One mullioned window, tall and narrow, in the eastern gable, +might have been seen by Tam O'Shanter, blazing with devilish light, as he +approached along the road from Ayr; and there is a small and square one, +on the side nearest the road, into which he might have peered, as he sat +on horseback. Indeed, I could easily have looked through it, standing on +the ground, had not the opening been walled up. There is an odd kind of +belfry at the peak of one of the gables, with the small bell still +hanging in it. And this is all that I remember of Kirk Alloway, except +that the stones of its material are gray and irregular. + +The road from Ayr passes Alloway Kirk, and crosses the Doon by a modern +bridge, without swerving much from a straight line. To reach the old +bridge, it appears to have made a bend, shortly after passing the kirk, +and then to have turned sharply towards the river. The new bridge is +within a minute's walk of the monument; and we went thither, and leaned +over its parapet to admire the beautiful Doon, flowing wildly and sweetly +between its deep and wooded banks. I never saw a lovelier scene; +although this might have been even lovelier, if a kindly sun had shone +upon it. The ivy-grown, ancient bridge, with its high arch, through +which we had a picture of the river and the green banks beyond, was +absolutely the most picturesque object, in a quiet and gentle way, that +ever blessed my eyes. Bonny Doon, with its wooded banks, and the boughs +dipping into the water! + +The memory of them, at this moment, affects me like the song of birds, +and Burns crooning some verses, simple and wild, in accordance with their +native melody. + +It was impossible to depart without crossing the very bridge of Tam's +adventure; so we went thither, over a now disused portion of the road, +and, standing on the centre of the arch, gathered some ivy-leaves from +that sacred spot. This done, we returned as speedily as might be to Ayr, +whence, taking the rail, we soon beheld Ailsa Craig rising like a pyramid +out of the sea. Drawing nearer to Glasgow, Bell Lomond hove in sight, +with a dome-like summit, supported by a shoulder on each side. But a man +is better than a mountain; and we had been holding intercourse, if not +with the reality, at least with the stalwart ghost of one of Earth's +memorable sons, amid the scenes where he lived and sung. We shall +appreciate him better as a poet, hereafter; for there is no writer whose +life, as a man, has so much to do with his fame, and throws such a +necessary light, upon whatever he has produced. Henceforth, there will +be a personal warmth for us in everything that he wrote; and, like his +countrymen, we shall know him in a kind of personal way, as if we had +shaken hands with him, and felt the thrill of his actual voice. + + + + +A LONDON SUBURB. + + +One of our English summers looks, in the retrospect, as if it had been +patched with more frequent sunshine than the sky of England ordinarily +affords; but I believe that it may be only a moral effect,--a "light that +never was on sea nor land," caused by our having found a particularly +delightful abode in the neighborhood of London. In order to enjoy it, +however, I was compelled to solve the problem of living in two places at +once,--an impossibility which I so far accomplished as to vanish, at +frequent intervals, out of men's sight and knowledge on one side of +England, and take my place in a circle of familiar faces on the other, so +quietly that I seemed to have been there all along. It was the easier to +get accustomed to our new residence, because it was not only rich in all +the material properties of a home, but had also the home-like atmosphere, +the household element, which is of too intangible a character to be let +even with the most thoroughly furnished lodging-house. A friend had +given us his suburban residence, with all its conveniences, elegances, +and snuggeries,--its drawing-rooms and library, still warm and bright +with the recollection of the genial presences that we had known there,-- +its closets, chambers, kitchen, and even its wine-cellar, if we could +have availed ourselves of so dear and delicate a trust,--its lawn and +cosey garden-nooks, and whatever else makes up the multitudinous idea of +an English home,--he had transferred it all to us, pilgrims and dusty +wayfarers, that we might rest and take our ease during his summer's +absence on the Continent. We had long been dwelling in tents, as it +were, and morally shivering by hearths which, heap the bituminous coal +upon them as we might, no blaze could render cheerful. I remember, to +this day, the dreary feeling with which I sat by our first English +fireside, and watched the chill and rainy twilight of an autumn day +darkening down upon the garden; while the portrait of the preceding +occupant of the house (evidently a most unamiable personage in his +lifetime) scowled inhospitably from above the mantel-piece, as if +indignant that an American should try to make himself at home there. +Possibly it may appease his sulky shade to know that I quitted his abode +as much a stranger as I entered it. But mow, at last, we were in a +genuine British home, where refined and warm-hearted people had just been +living their daily life, and had left us a summer's inheritance of slowly +ripened days, such as a stranger's hasty opportunities so seldom permit +him to enjoy. + +Within so trifling a distance of the central spot of all the world +(which, as Americans have at present no centre of their own, we may allow +to be somewhere in the vicinity, we will say, of St. Paul's Cathedral), +it might have seemed natural that I should be tossed about by the +turbulence of the vast London whirlpool. But I had drifted into a still +eddy, where conflicting movements made a repose, and, wearied with a good +deal of uncongenial activity, I found the quiet of my temporary haven +more attractive than anything that the great town could offer. I already +knew London well; that is to say, I had long ago satisfied (so far as it +was capable of satisfaction) that mysterious yearning--the magnetism of +millions of hearts operating upon one--which impels every man's +individuality to mingle itself with the immensest mass of human life +within his scope. Day alter day, at an earlier period, I had trodden the +thronged thoroughfares, the broad, lonely squares, the lanes, alleys, and +strange labyrinthine courts, the parks, the gardens and enclosures of +ancient studious societies, so retired and silent amid the city uproar, +the markets, the foggy streets along the river-side, the bridges,--I had +sought all parts of the metropolis, in short, with an unweariable and +indiscriminating curiosity; until few of the native inhabitants, I fancy, +had turned so many of its corners as myself. These aimless wanderings +(in which my prime purpose and achievement were to lose my way, and +so to find it the more surely) had brought one, at one time or another, +to the sight and actual presence of almost all the objects and renowned +localities that I had read about, and which had made London the +dream-city of my youth. I had found it better than my dream; for there +is nothing else in life comparable (in that species of enjoyment, I mean) +to the thick, heavy, oppressive, sombre delight which an American is +sensible of, hardly knowing whether to call it a pleasure or a pain, in +the atmosphere of London. The result was, that I acquired a home-feeling +there, as nowhere else in the world,--though afterwards I came to have a +somewhat similar sentiment in regard to Rome; and as long as either of +those two great cities shall exist, the cities of the Past and of the +Present, a man's native soil may crumble beneath his feet without leaving +him altogether homeless upon earth. + +Thus, having once fully yielded to its influence, I was in a manner +free of the city, and could approach or keep away from it as I pleased. +Hence it happened, that, living within a quarter of an hour's rush of +the London Bridge Terminus, I was oftener tempted to spend a whole +summer-day in our garden than to seek anything new or old, wonderful or +commonplace, beyond its precincts. It was a delightful garden, of no +great extent, but comprising a good many facilities for repose and +enjoyment, such as arbors and garden-seats, shrubbery, flower-beds, +rose-bushes in a profusion of bloom, pinks, poppies, geraniums, +sweet-peas, and a variety of other scarlet, yellow, blue, and purple +blossoms, which I did not trouble myself to recognize individually, yet +had always a vague sense of their beauty about me. The dim sky of +England has a most happy effect on the coloring of flowers, blending +richness with delicacy in the same texture; but in this garden, as +everywhere else, the exuberance of English verdure had a greater charm +than any tropical splendor or diversity of hue. The hunger for natural +beauty might be satisfied with grass and green leaves forever. Conscious +of the triumph of England in this respect, and loyally anxious for the +credit of my own country, it gratified me to observe what trouble and +pains the English gardeners are fain to throw away in producing a few +sour plums and abortive pears and apples,--as, for example, in this very +garden, where a row of unhappy trees were spread out perfectly flat +against a brick wall, looking as if impaled alive, or crucified, with a +cruel and unattainable purpose of compelling them to produce rich fruit +by torture. For my part, I never ate an English fruit, raised in the +open air, that could compare in flavor with a Yankee turnip. + +The garden included that prime feature of English domestic scenery, a +lawn. It had been levelled, carefully shorn, and converted into a +bowling-green, on which we sometimes essayed to practise the time-honored +game of bowls, most unskilfully, yet not without a perception that it +involves a very pleasant mixture of exercise and ease, as is the case +with most of the old English pastimes. Our little domain was shut in by +the house on one side, and in other directions by a hedge-fence and a +brick wall, which last was concealed or softened by shrubbery and the +impaled fruit-trees already mentioned. Over all the outer region, beyond +our immediate precincts, there was an abundance of foliage, tossed aloft +from the near or distant trees with which that agreeable suburb is +adorned. The effect was wonderfully sylvan and rural, insomuch that we +might have fancied ourselves in the depths of a wooded seclusion; only +that, at brief intervals, we could hear the galloping sweep of a +railway-train passing within a quarter of a mile, and its discordant +screech, moderated by a little farther distance, as it reached the +Blackheath Station. That harsh, rough sound, seeking me out so +inevitably, was the voice of the great world summoning me forth. I know +not whether I was the more pained or pleased to be thus constantly put in +mind of the neighborhood of London; for, on the one hand, my conscience +stung me a little for reading a book, or playing with children in the +grass, when there were so many better things for an enlightened traveller +to do,--while, at the same time, it gave a deeper delight to my luxurious +idleness, to contrast it with the turmoil which I escaped. On the whole, +however, I do not repent of a single wasted hour, and only wish that I +could have spent twice as many in the same way; for the impression on my +memory is, that I was as happy in that hospitable garden as the English +summer-day was long. + +One chief condition of my enjoyment was the weather. Italy has nothing +like it, nor America. There never was such weather except in England, +where, in requital of a vast amount of horrible east-wind between +February and June, and a brown October and black November, and a wet, +chill, sunless winter, there are a few weeks of incomparable summer, +scattered through July and August, and the earlier portion of September, +small in quantity, but exquisite enough to atone for the whole year's +atmospherical delinquencies. After all, the prevalent sombreness may +have brought out those sunny intervals in such high relief, that I see +them, in my recollection, brighter than they really were: a little light +makes a glory for people who live habitually in a gray gloom. The +English, however, do not seem to know how enjoyable the momentary gleams +of their summer are; they call it broiling weather, and hurry to the +seaside with red, perspiring faces, in a state of combustion and +deliquescence; and I have observed that even their cattle have similar +susceptibilities, seeking the deepest shade, or standing midleg deep in +pools and streams to cool themselves, at temperatures which our own cows +would deem little more than barely comfortable. To myself, after the +summer heats of my native land had somewhat effervesced out of my blood +and memory, it was the weather of Paradise itself. It might be a little +too warm; but it was that modest and inestimable superabundance which +constitutes a bounty of Providence, instead of just a niggardly enough. +During my first year in England, residing in perhaps the most ungenial +part of the kingdom, I could never be quite comfortable without a fire on +the hearth; in the second twelvemonth, beginning to get acclimatized, I +became sensible of an austere friendliness, shy, but sometimes almost +tender, in the veiled, shadowy, seldom smiling summer; and in the +succeeding years,--whether that I had renewed my fibre with English beef +and replenished my blood with English ale, or whatever were the cause,--I +grew content with winter and especially in love with summer, desiring +little more for happiness than merely to breathe and bask. At the +midsummer which we are now speaking of, I must needs confess that the +noontide sun came down more fervently than I found altogether tolerable; +so that I was fain to shift my position with the shadow of the shrubbery, +making myself the movable index of a sundial that reckoned up the hours +of an almost interminable day. + +For each day seemed endless, though never wearisome. As far as your +actual experience is concerned, the English summer-day has positively no +beginning and no end. When you awake, at any reasonable hour, the sun is +already shining through the curtains; you live through unnumbered hours +of Sabbath quietude, with a calm variety of incident softly etched upon +their tranquil lapse; and at length you become conscious that it is +bedtime again, while there is still enough daylight in the sky to make +the pages of your book distinctly legible. Night, if there be any such +season, hangs down a transparent veil through which the bygone day +beholds its successor; or, if not quite true of the latitude of London, +it may be soberly affirmed of the more northern parts of the island, that +To-morrow is born before its Yesterday is dead. They exist together in +the golden twilight, where the decrepit old day dimly discerns the face +of the ominous infant; and you, though a more mortal, may simultaneously +touch them both with one finger of recollection and another of prophecy. +I cared not how long the day might be, nor how many of them. I had +earned this repose by a long course of irksome toil and perturbation, and +could have been content never to stray out of the limits of that suburban +villa and its garden. If I lacked anything beyond, it would have +satisfied me well enough to dream about it, instead of struggling for its +actual possession. At least, this was the feeling of the moment; +although the transitory, flitting, and irresponsible character of my life +there was perhaps the most enjoyable element of all, as allowing me much +of the comfort of house and home without any sense of their weight upon +my back. The nomadic life has great advantages, if we can find tents +ready pitched for us at every stage. + +So much for the interior of our abode,--a spot of deepest quiet, within +reach of the intensest activity. But, even when we stopped beyond our +own gate, we were not shocked with any immediate presence of the great +world. We were dwelling in one of those oases that have grown up (in +comparatively recent years, I believe) on the wide waste of Blackheath, +which otherwise offers a vast extent of unoccupied ground in singular +proximity to the metropolis. As a general thing, the proprietorship of +the soil seems to exist in everybody and nobody; but exclusive rights +have been obtained, here and there, chiefly by men whose daily concerns +link them with London, so that you find their villas or boxes standing +along village streets which have often more of an American aspect than +the elder English settlements. The scene is semi-rural. Ornamental +trees overshadow the sidewalks, and grassy margins border the +wheel-tracks. The houses, to be sure, have certain points of difference +from those of an American village, bearing tokens of architectural +design, though seldom of individual taste; and, as far as possible, they +stand aloof from the street, and separated each from its neighbor by +hedge or fence, in accordance with the careful exclusiveness of the +English character, which impels the occupant, moreover, to cover the +front of his dwelling with as much concealment of shrubbery as his limits +will allow. Through the interstices, you catch glimpses of well-kept +lawns, generally ornamented with flowers, and with what the English call +rock-work, being heaps of ivy-grown stones and fossils, designed for +romantic effect in a small way. Two or three of such village streets as +are here described take a collective name,--as, for instance, Blackheath +Park,--and constitute a kind of community of residents, with gateways, +kept by a policeman, and a semi-privacy, stepping beyond which, you find +yourself on the breezy heath. + +On this great, bare, dreary common I often went astray, as I afterwards +did on the Campagna of Rome, and drew the air (tainted with London smoke +though it might be) into my lungs by deep inspirations, with a strange +and unexpected sense of desert freedom. The misty atmosphere helps you +to fancy a remoteness that perhaps does not quite exist. During the +little time that it lasts, the solitude is as impressive as that of a +Western prairie or forest; but soon the railway shriek, a mile or two +away, insists upon informing you of your whereabout; or you recognize in +the distance some landmark that you may have known,--an insulated villa, +perhaps, with its garden-wall around it, or the rudimental street of a +new settlement which is sprouting on this otherwise barren soil. Half a +century ago, the most frequent token of man's beneficent contiguity might +have been a gibbet, and the creak, like a tavern sign, of a murderer +swinging to and fro in irons. Blackheath, with its highwaymen and +footpads, was dangerous in those days; and even now, for aught I know, +the Western prairie may still compare favorably with it as a safe region +to go astray in. When I was acquainted with Blackheath, the ingenious +device of garroting had recently come into fashion; and I can remember, +while crossing those waste places at midnight, and hearing footsteps +behind me, to have been sensibly encouraged by also hearing, not far off, +the clinking hoof-tramp of one of the horse-patrols who do regular duty +there. About sunset, or a little later, was the time when the broad and +somewhat desolate peculiarity of the heath seemed to me to put on its +utmost impressiveness. At that hour, finding myself on elevated ground, +I once had a view of immense London, four or five miles off, with the +vast Dome in the midst, and the towers of the two Houses of Parliament +rising up into the smoky canopy, the thinner substance of which obscured +a mass of things, and hovered about the objects that were most distinctly +visible,--a glorious and sombre picture, dusky, awful, but irresistibly +attractive, like a young man's dream of the great world, foretelling at +that distance a grandeur never to be fully realized. + +While I lived in that neighborhood, the tents of two or three sets of +cricket-players were constantly pitched on Blackheath, and matches were +going forward that seemed to involve the honor and credit of communities +or counties, exciting an interest in everybody but myself, who cared not +what part of England might glorify itself at the expense of another. It +is necessary to be born an Englishman, I believe, in order to enjoy this +great national game; at any rate, as a spectacle for an outside observer, +I found it lazy, lingering, tedious, and utterly devoid of pictorial +effects. Choice of other amusements was at hand. Butts for archery were +established, and bows and arrows were to be let, at so many shots for a +penny,--there being abundance of space for a farther flight-shot than any +modern archer can lend to his shaft. Then there was an absurd game of +throwing a stick at crockery-ware, which I have witnessed a hundred +times, and personally engaged in once or twice, without ever having the +satisfaction to see a bit of broken crockery. In other spots you found +donkeys for children to ride, and ponies of a very meek and patient +spirit, on which the Cockney pleasure-seekers of both sexes rode races +and made wonderful displays of horsemanship. By way of refreshment +there was gingerbread (but, as a true patriot, I must pronounce it +greatly interior to our native dainty), and ginger-beer, and probably +stauncher liquor among the booth-keeper's hidden stores. The frequent +railway-trains, as well as the numerous steamers to Greenwich, have made +the vacant portions of Blackheath a play-ground and breathing-place for +the Londoners, readily and very cheaply accessible; so that, in view of +this broader use and enjoyment, I a little grudged the tracts that have +been filched away, so to speak, and individualized by thriving citizens. +One sort of visitors especially interested me: they were schools of +little boys or girls, under the guardianship of their instructors,-- +charity schools, as I often surmised from their aspect, collected among +dark alleys and squalid courts; and hither they were brought to spend a +summer afternoon, these pale little progeny of the sunless nooks of +London, who had never known that the sky was any broader than that narrow +and vapory strip above their native lane. I fancied that they took but a +doubtful pleasure, being half affrighted at the wide, empty space +overhead and round about them, finding the air too little medicated with +smoke, soot, and graveyard exhalations, to be breathed with comfort, and +feeling shelterless and lost because grimy London, their slatternly and +disreputable mother, had suffered them to stray out of her arms. + +Passing among these holiday people, we come to one of the gateways of +Greenwich Park, opening through an old brick wall. It admits us from the +bare heath into a scene of antique cultivation and woodland ornament, +traversed in all directions by avenues of trees, many of which bear +tokens of a venerable age. These broad and well-kept pathways rise and +decline over the elevations and along the bases of gentle hills which +diversify the whole surface of the Park. The loftiest, and most abrupt +of them (though but of very moderate height) is one of the earth's noted +summits, and may hold up its head with Mont Blanc and Chimborazo, as +being the site of Greenwich Observatory, where, if all nations will +consent to say so, the longitude of our great globe begins. I used to +regulate my watch by the broad dial-plate against the Observatory wall, +and felt it pleasant to be standing at the very centre of Time and Space. + +There are lovelier parks than this in the neighborhood of London, richer +scenes of greensward and cultivated trees; and Kensington, especially, in +a summer afternoon, has seemed to me as delightful as any place can or +ought to be, in a world which, some time or other, we must quit. But +Greenwich, too, is beautiful,--a spot where the art of man has conspired +with Nature, as if he and the great mother had taken counsel together how +to make a pleasant scene, and the longest liver of the two had faithfully +carried out their mutual design. It has, likewise, an additional charm +of its own, because, to all appearance, it is the people's property and +play-ground in a much more genuine way than the aristocratic resorts in +closer vicinity to the metropolis. It affords one of the instances in +which the monarch's property is actually the people's, and shows how much +more natural is their relation to the sovereign than to the nobility, +which pretends to hold the intervening space between the two: for a +nobleman makes a paradise only for himself, and fills it with his own +pomp and pride; whereas the people are sooner or later the legitimate +inheritors of whatever beauty kings and queens create, as now of +Greenwich Park. On Sundays, when the sun shone, and even on those grim +and sombre days when, if it do not actually rain, the English persist in +calling it fine weather, it was too good to see how sturdily the +plebeians trod under their own oaks, and what fulness of simple enjoyment +they evidently found there. They were the people,--not the populace,-- +specimens of a class whose Sunday clothes are a distinct kind of garb +from their week-day ones; and this, in England, implies wholesome habits +of life, daily thrift, and a rank above the lowest. I longed to be +acquainted with them, in order to investigate what manner of folks they +were, what sort of households they kept, their politics, their religion, +their tastes, and whether they were as narrow-minded as their betters. +There can be very little doubt of it: an Englishman is English, in +whatever rank of life, though no more intensely so, I should imagine, as +an artisan or petty shopkeeper, than as a member of Parliament. + +The English character, as I conceive it, is by no means a very lofty one; +they seem to have a great deal of earth and grimy dust clinging about +them, as was probably the case with the stalwart and quarrelsome people +who sprouted up out of the soil, after Cadmus had sown the dragon's +teeth. And yet, though the individual Englishman is sometimes +preternaturally disagreeable, an observer standing aloof has a sense of +natural kindness towards them in the lump. They adhere closer to the +original simplicity in which mankind was created than we ourselves do; +they love, quarrel, laugh, cry, and turn their actual selves inside out, +with greater freedom than any class of Americans would consider decorous. +It was often so with these holiday folks in Greenwich Park; and, +ridiculous as it may sound, I fancy myself to have caught very +satisfactory glimpses of Arcadian life among the Cockneys there, hardly +beyond the scope of Bow-Bells, picnicking in the grass, uncouthly +gambolling on the broad slopes, or straying in motley groups or by single +pairs of love-making youths and maidens, along the sun-streaked avenues. +Even the omnipresent policemen or park-keepers could not disturb the +beatific impression on my mind. One feature, at all events, of the +Golden Age was to be seen in the herds of deer that encountered you in +the somewhat remoter recesses of the Park, and were readily prevailed +upon to nibble a bit of bread out of your hand. But, though no wrong had +ever been done them, and no horn had sounded nor hound bayed at the heels +of themselves or their antlered progenitors for centuries past, there was +still an apprehensiveness lingering in their hearts; so that a slight +movement of the hand or a step too near would send a whole squadron of +them scampering away, just as a breath scatters the winged seeds of a +dandelion. + +The aspect of Greenwich Park, with all those festal people wandering +through it, resembled that of the Borghese Gardens under the walls of +Rome, on a Sunday or Saint's day; but, I am not ashamed to say, it a +little disturbed whatever grim ghost of Puritanic strictness might be +lingering in the sombre depths of a New England heart, among severe and +sunless remembrances of the Sabbaths of childhood, and pangs of remorse +for ill-gotten lessons in the catechism, and for erratic fantasies or +hardly suppressed laughter in the middle of long sermons. Occasionally, +I tried to take the long-hoarded sting out of these compunctious smarts +by attending divine service in the open air. On a cart outside of the +Park-wall (and, if I mistake not, at two or three corners and secluded +spots within the Park itself) a Methodist preacher uplifts his voice and +speedily gathers a congregation, his zeal for whose religious welfare +impels the good man to such earnest vociferation and toilsome gesture +that his perspiring face is quickly in a stew. His inward flame +conspires with the too fervid sun and makes a positive martyr of him, +even in the very exercise of his pious labor; insomuch that he purchases +every atom of spiritual increment to his hearers by loss of his own +corporeal solidity, and, should his discourse last long enough, must +finally exhale before their eyes. If I smile at him, be it understood, +it is not in scorn; he performs his sacred office more acceptably than +many a prelate. These wayside services attract numbers who would not +otherwise listen to prayer, sermon, or hymn, from one year's end to +another, and who, for that very reason, are the auditors most likely to +be moved by the preacher's eloquence. Yonder Greenwich pensioner, too,-- +in his costume of three-cornered hat, and old-fashioned, brass-buttoned +blue coat with ample skirts, which makes him look like a contemporary of +Admiral Benbow,--that tough old mariner may hear a word or two which will +go nearer his heart than anything that the chaplain of the Hospital can +be expected to deliver. I always noticed, moreover, that a considerable +proportion of the audience were soldiers, who came hither with a day's +leave from Woolwich,--hardy veterans in aspect, some of whom wore as many +as four or five medals, Crimean or East Indian, on the breasts of their +scarlet coats. The miscellaneous congregation listen with every +appearance of heartfelt interest; and, for my own part, I must frankly +acknowledge that I never found it possible to give five minutes' +attention to any other English preaching: so cold and commonplace are the +homilies that pass for such, under the aged roofs of churches. And as +for cathedrals, the sermon is an exceedingly diminutive and unimportant +part of the religious services,--if, indeed, it be considered a part,-- +among the pompous ceremonies, the intonations, and the resounding and +lofty-voiced strains of the choristers. The magnificence of the setting +quite dazzles out what we Puritans look upon as the jewel of the whole +affair; for I presume that it was our forefathers, the Dissenters in +England and America, who gave the sermon its present prominence in the +Sabbath exercises. + +The Methodists are probably the first and only Englishmen who have +worshipped in the open air since the ancient Britons listened to the +preaching of the Druids; and it reminded me of that old priesthood, to +see certain memorials of their dusky epoch--not religious, however, but +warlike--in the neighborhood of the spot where the Methodist was holding +forth. These were some ancient barrows, beneath or within which are +supposed to be buried the slain of a forgotten or doubtfully remembered +battle, fought on the site of Greenwich Park as long ago as two or three +centuries after the birth of Christ. Whatever may once have been their +height and magnitude, they have now scarcely more prominence in the +actual scene than the battle of which they are the sole monuments retains +in history,--being only a few mounds side by side, elevated a little +above the surface of the ground, ten or twelve feet in diameter, with a +shallow depression in their summits. When one of them was opened, not +long since, no bones, nor armor, nor weapons were discovered, nothing but +some small jewels, and a tuft of hair,--perhaps from the head of a +valiant general, who, dying on the field of his victory, bequeathed this +lock, together with his indestructible fame, to after ages. The hair and +jewels are probably in the British Museum, where the potsherds and +rubbish of innumerable generations make the visitor wish that each +passing century could carry off all its fragments and relics along with +it, instead of adding them to the continually accumulating burden which +human knowledge is compelled to lug upon its back. As for the fame, I +know not what has become of it. + +After traversing the Park, we come into the neighborhood of Greenwich +Hospital, and will pass through one of its spacious gateways for the sake +of glancing at an establishment which does more honor to the heart of +England than anything else that I am acquainted with, of a public nature. +It is very seldom that we can be sensible of anything like kindliness in +the acts or relations of such an artificial thing as a National +Government. Our own government, I should conceive, is too much an +abstraction ever to feel any sympathy for its maimed sailors and +soldiers, though it will doubtless do then a severe kind of justice, as +chilling as the touch of steel. But it seemed to me that the Greenwich +pensioners are the petted children of the nation, and that the government +is their dry-nurse, and that the old men themselves have a childlike +consciousness of their position. Very likely, a better sort of life +might have been arranged, and a wiser care bestowed on them; but, such as +it is, it enables them to spend a sluggish, careless, comfortable old +age, grumbling, growling, gruff, as if all the foul weather of their past +years were pent up within them, yet not much more discontented than such +weather-beaten and battle-battered fragments of human kind must +inevitably be. Their home, in its outward form, is on a very magnificent +plan. Its germ was a royal palace, the full expansion of which has +resulted in a series of edifices externally more beautiful than any +English palace that I have seen, consisting of several quadrangles of +stately architecture, united by colonnades and gravel-walks, and +enclosing grassy squares, with statues in the centre, the whole extending +along the Thames. It is built of marble, or very light-colored stone, in +the classic style, with pillars and porticos, which (to my own taste, +and, I fancy, to that of the old sailors) produce but a cold and shivery +effect in the English climate. Had I been the architect, I would have +studied the characters, habits, and predilections of nautical people in +Wapping, Hotherhithe, and the neighborhood of the Tower (places which I +visited in affectionate remembrance of Captain Lemuel Gulliver, and +other actual or mythological navigators), and would have built the +hospital in a kind of ethereal similitude to the narrow, dark, ugly, and +inconvenient, but snug and cosey homeliness of the sailor boarding-houses +there. There can be no question that all the above attributes, or enough +of then to satisfy an old sailor's heart, might be reconciled with +architectural beauty and the wholesome contrivances of modern dwellings, +and thus a novel and genuine style of building be given to the world. + +But their countrymen meant kindly by the old fellows in assigning them +the ancient royal site where Elizabeth held her court and Charles II. +began to build his palace. So far as the locality went, it was treating +them like so many kings; and, with a discreet abundance of grog, beer, +and tobacco, there was perhaps little more to be accomplished in behalf +of men whose whole previous lives have tended to unfit them for old age. +Their chief discomfort is probably for lack of something to do or think +about. But, judging by the few whom I saw, a listless habit seems to +have crept over them, a dim dreaminess of mood, in which they sit between +asleep and awake, and find the long day wearing towards bedtime without +its having made any distinct record of itself upon their consciousness. +Sitting on stone benches in the sunshine, they subside into slumber, or +nearly so, and start at the approach of footsteps echoing under the +colonnades, ashamed to be caught napping, and rousing themselves in a +hurry, as formerly on the midnight watch at sea. In their brightest +moments, they gather in groups and bore one another with endless +sea-yarns about their voyages under famous admirals, and about gale and +calm, battle and chase, and all that class of incident that has its +sphere on the deck and in the hollow interior of a ship, where their +world has exclusively been. For other pastime, they quarrel among +themselves, comrade with comrade, and perhaps shake paralytic fists in +furrowed faces. If inclined for a little exercise, they can bestir their +wooden legs on the long esplanade that borders by the Thames, criticising +the rig of passing ships, and firing off volleys of malediction at the +steamers, which have made the sea another element than that they used to +be acquainted with. All this is but cold comfort for the evening of +life, yet may compare rather favorably with the preceding portions of it, +comprising little save imprisonment on shipboard, in the course of which +they have been tossed all about the world and caught hardly a glimpse of +it, forgetting what grass and trees are, and never finding out what woman +is, though they may have encountered a painted spectre which they took +for her. A country owes much to human beings whose bodies she has worn +out and whose immortal part she has left undeveloped or debased, as we +tied them here; and having wasted an idle paragraph upon them, let me now +suggest that old men have a kind of susceptibility to moral impressions, +and even (up to an advanced period) a receptivity of truth, which often +appears to come to them after the active time of life is past. The +Greenwich pensioners might prove better subjects for true education now +than in their school-boy days; but then where is the Normal School that +could educate instructors for such a class? + +There is a beautiful chapel for the pensioners, in the classic style, +over the altar of which hangs a picture by West. I never could look at +it long enough to make out its design; for this artist (though it pains +me to say it of so respectable a countryman) had a gift of frigidity, a +knack of grinding ice into his paint, a power of stupefying the +spectator's perceptions and quelling his sympathy, beyond any other +limner that ever handled a brush. In spite of many pangs of conscience, +I seize this opportunity to wreak a lifelong abhorrence upon the poor, +blameless man, for the sake of that dreary picture of Lear, an explosion +of frosty fury, that used to be a bugbear to me in the Athenaeum +Exhibition. Would fire burn it, I wonder? + +The principal thing that they have to show you, at Greenwich Hospital, is +the Painted Hall. It is a splendid and spacious room, at least a hundred +feet long and half as high, with a ceiling painted in fresco by Sir James +Thornhill. As a work of art, I presume, this frescoed canopy has little +merit, though it produces an exceedingly rich effect by its brilliant +coloring and as a specimen of magnificent upholstery. The walls of the +grand apartment are entirely covered with pictures, many of them +representing battles and other naval incidents that were once fresher in +the world's memory than now, but chiefly portraits of old admirals, +comprising the whole line of heroes who have trod the quarter-decks of +British ships for more than two hundred years back. Next to a tomb in +Westminster Abbey, which was Nelson's most elevated object of ambition, +it would seem to be the highest need of a naval warrior to have his +portrait hung up in the Painted Hall; but, by dint of victory upon +victory, these illustrious personages have grown to be a mob, and by no +means a very interesting one, so far as regards the character of the +faces here depicted. They are generally commonplace, and often +singularly stolid; and I have observed (both in the Painted Hall and +elsewhere, and not only in portraits, but in the actual presence of such +renowned people as I have caught glimpses of) that the countenances of +heroes are not nearly so impressive as those of statesmen,--except, of +course, in the rare instances where warlike ability has been but the +one-sided manifestation of a profound genius for managing the world's +affairs. Nine tenths of these distinguished admirals, for instance, if +their faces tell truth, must needs have been blockheads, and might have +served better, one would imagine, as wooden figure-heads for their own +ships than to direct any difficult and intricate scheme of action from +the quarter-deck. It is doubtful whether the same kind of men will +hereafter meet with a similar degree of success; for they were victorious +chiefly through the old English hardihood, exercised in a field of which +modern science had not yet got possession. Rough valor has lost +something of its value, since their days, and must continue to sink lower +and lower in the comparative estimate of warlike qualities. In the next +naval war, as between England and France, I would bet, methinks, upon the +Frenchman's head. + +It is remarkable, however, that the great naval hero of England--the +greatest, therefore, in the world, and of all time--had none of the +stolid characteristics that belong to his class, and cannot fairly be +accepted as their representative man. Foremost in the roughest of +professions, he was as delicately organized as a woman, and as painfully +sensitive as a poet. More than any other Englishman he won the love and +admiration of his country, but won them through the efficacy of qualities +that are not English, or, at all events, were intensified in his case and +made poignant and powerful by something morbid in the man, which put him +otherwise at cross-purposes with life. He was a man of genius; and +genius in an Englishman (not to cite the good old simile of a pearl in +the oyster) is usually a symptom of a lack of balance in the general +making-up of the character; as we may satisfy ourselves by running over +the list of their poets, for example, and observing how many of them have +been sickly or deformed, and how often their lives have been darkened by +insanity. An ordinary Englishman is the healthiest and wholesomest of +human beings; an extraordinary one is almost always, in one way or +another, a sick man. It was so with Lord Nelson. The wonderful contrast +or relation between his personal qualities, the position which he held, +and the life that he lived, makes him as interesting a personage as all +history has to show; and it is a pity that Southey's biography--so good +in its superficial way, and yet so inadequate as regards any real +delineation of the man--should have taken the subject out of the hands of +some writer endowed with more delicate appreciation and deeper insight +than that genuine Englishman possessed. But Southey accomplished his own +purpose, which, apparently, was to present his hero as a pattern for +England's young midshipmen. + +But the English capacity for hero-worship is full to the brim with what +they are able to comprehend of Lord Nelson's character. Adjoining the +Painted Hall is a smaller room, the walls of which are completely and +exclusively adorned with pictures of the great Admiral's exploits. We +see the frail, ardent man in all the most noted events of his career, +from his encounter with a Polar bear to his death at Trafalgar, quivering +here and there about the room like a blue, lambent flame. No Briton ever +enters that apartment without feeling the beef and ale of his composition +stirred to its depths, and finding himself changed into a Hero for the +notice, however stolid his brain, however tough his heart, however +unexcitable his ordinary mood. To confess the truth, I myself, though +belonging to another parish, have been deeply sensible to the sublime +recollections there aroused, acknowledging that Nelson expressed his life +in a kind of symbolic poetry which I had as much right to understand as +these burly islanders. Cool and critical observer as I sought to be, I +enjoyed their burst of honest indignation when a visitor (not an +American, I am glad to say) thrust his walking-stick almost into Nelson's +face, in one of the pictures, by way of pointing a remark; and the +bystanders immediately glowed like so many hot coals, and would probably +have consumed the offender in their wrath, had he not effected his +retreat. But the most sacred objects of all are two of Nelson's coats, +under separate glass cases. One is that which he wore at the Battle of +the Nile, and it is now sadly injured by moths, which will quite destroy +it in a few years, unless its guardians preserve it as we do Washington's +military suit, by occasionally baking it in an oven. The other is the +coat in which he received his death-wound at Trafalgar. On its breast +are sewed three or four stars and orders of knighthood, now much dimmed +by time and damp, but which glittered brightly enough on the battle-day +to draw the fatal aim of a French marksman. The bullet-hole is visible +on the shoulder, as well as a part of the golden tassels of an epaulet, +the rest of which was shot away. Over the coat is laid a white waistcoat +with a great blood-stain on it, out of which all the redness has utterly +faded, leaving it of a dingy yellow line, in the threescore years since +that blood gushed out. Yet it was once the reddest blood in England,-- +Nelson's blood! + +The hospital stands close adjacent to the town of Greenwich, which will +always retain a kind of festal aspect in my memory, in consequence of my +having first become acquainted with it on Easter Monday. Till a few +years ago, the first three days of Easter were a carnival season in this +old town, during which the idle and disreputable part of London poured +itself into the streets like an inundation of the Thames, as unclean as +that turbid mixture of the offscourings of the vast city, and overflowing +with its grimy pollution whatever rural innocence, if any, might be found +in the suburban neighborhood. This festivity was called Greenwich Fair, +the final one of which, in an immemorial succession, it was my fortune to +behold. + +If I had bethought myself of going through the fair with a note-book and +pencil, jotting down all the prominent objects, I doubt not that the +result might have been a sketch of English life quite as characteristic +and worthy of historical preservation as an account of the Roman +Carnival. Having neglected to do so, I remember little more than a +confusion of unwashed and shabbily dressed people, intermixed with some +smarter figures, but, on the whole, presenting a mobbish appearance such +as we never see in our own country. It taught me to understand why +Shakespeare, in speaking of a crowd, so often alludes to its attribute of +evil odor. The common people of England, I am afraid, have no daily +familiarity with even so necessary a thing as a wash-bowl, not to mention +a bathing-tub. And furthermore, it is one mighty difference between +them and us, that every man and woman on our side of the water has a +working-day suit and a holiday suit, and is occasionally as fresh as a +rose, whereas, in the good old country, the griminess of his labor or +squalid habits clings forever to the individual, and gets to be a part of +his personal substance. These are broad facts, involving great +corollaries and dependencies. There are really, if you stop to think +about it, few sadder spectacles in the world than a ragged coat, or a +soiled and shabby gown, at a festival. + +This unfragrant crowd was exceedingly dense, being welded together, as it +were, in the street through which we strove to make our way. On either +side were oyster-stands, stalls of oranges (a very prevalent fruit in +England, where they give the withered ones a guise of freshness by +boiling them), and booths covered with old sail-cloth, in which the +commodity that most attracted the eye was gilt gingerbread. It was so +completely enveloped in Dutch gilding that I did not at first recognize +an old acquaintance, but wondered what those golden crowns and images +could be. There were likewise drums and other toys for small children, +and a variety of showy and worthless articles for children of a larger +growth; though it perplexed me to imagine who, in such a mob, could have +the innocent taste to desire playthings, or the money to pay for them. +Not that I have a right to license the mob, on my own knowledge, of being +any less innocent than a set of cleaner and better dressed people might +have been; for, though one of them stole my pocket-handkerchief, I could +not but consider it fair game, under the circumstances, and was grateful +to the thief for sparing me my purse. They were quiet, civil, and +remarkably good-humored, making due allowance for the national gruffness; +there was no riot, no tumultuous swaying to and fro of the mass, such as +I have often noted in an American crowd, no noise of voices, except +frequent bursts of laughter, hoarse or shrill, and a widely diffused, +inarticulate murmur, resembling nothing so much as the rumbling of the +tide among the arches of London Bridge. What immensely perplexed me was +a sharp, angry sort of rattle, in all quarters, far off and close at +hand, and sometimes right at my own back, where it sounded as if the +stout fabric of my English surtout had been ruthlessly rent in twain; and +everybody's clothes, all over the fair, were evidently being torn asunder +in the same way. By and by, I discovered that this strange noise was +produced by a little instrument called "The Fun of the Fair,"--a sort of +rattle, consisting of a wooden wheel, the cogs of which turn against a +thin slip of wood, and so produce a rasping sound when drawn smartly +against a person's back. The ladies draw their rattles against the backs +of their male friends (and everybody passes for a friend at Greenwich +Fair), and the young men return the compliment on the broad British backs +of the ladies; and all are bound by immemorial custom to take it in good +part and be merry at the joke. As it was one of my prescribed official +duties to give an account of such mechanical contrivances as might be +unknown in my own country, I have thought it right to be thus particular +in describing the Fun of the Fair. + +But this was far from being the sole amusement. There were theatrical +booths, in front of which were pictorial representations of the scenes to +be enacted within; and anon a drummer emerged from one of them, thumping +on a terribly lax drum, and followed by the entire dramatis personae, who +ranged themselves on a wooden platform in front of the theatre. They +were dressed in character, but wofully shabby, with very dingy and +wrinkled white tights, threadbare cotton-velvets, crumpled silks, and +crushed muslin, and all the gloss and glory gone out of their aspect and +attire, seen thus in the broad daylight and after a long series of +performances. They sang a song together, and withdrew into the theatre, +whither the public were invited to follow them at the inconsiderable cost +of a penny a ticket. Before another booth stood a pair of brawny +fighting-men, displaying their muscle, and soliciting patronage for an +exhibition of the noble British art of pugilism. There were pictures of +giants, monsters, and outlandish beasts, most prodigious, to be sure, and +worthy of all admiration, unless the artist had gone incomparably beyond +his subject. Jugglers proclaimed aloud the miracles which they were +prepared to work; and posture-makers dislocated every joint of their +bodies and tied their limbs into inextricable knots, wherever they could +find space to spread a little square of carpet on the ground. In the +midst of the confusion, while everybody was treading on his neighbor's +toes, some little boys were very solicitous to brush your boots. These +lads, I believe, are a product of modern society,--at least, no older +than the time of Gay, who celebrates their origin in his "Trivia"; but in +most other respects the scene reminded me of Bunyan's description of +Vanity Fair,--nor is it at all improbable that the Pilgrim may have been +a merry-maker here, in his wild youth. + +It seemed very singular--though, of course, I immediately classified +it as an English characteristic--to see a great many portable +weighing-machines, the owners of which cried out, continually and +amain, "Come, know your weight! Come, come, know your weight to-day! +Come, know your weight!" and a multitude of people, mostly large in the +girth, were moved by this vociferation to sit down in the machines. I +know not whether they valued themselves on their beef, and estimated +their standing as members of society at so much a pound; but I shall set +it down as a national peculiarity, and a symbol of the prevalence of the +earthly over the spiritual element, that Englishmen are wonderfully bent +on knowing how solid and physically ponderous they are. + +On the whole, having an appetite for the brown bread and the tripe and +sausages of life, as well as for its nicer cates and dainties, I enjoyed +the scene, and was amused at the sight of a gruff old Greenwich +pensioner, who, forgetful of the sailor-frolics of his young days, stood +looking with grim disapproval at all these vanities. Thus we squeezed +our way through the mob-jammed town, and emerged into the Park, where, +likewise, we met a great many merry-makers, but with freer space for +their gambols than in the streets. We soon found ourselves the targets +for a cannonade with oranges (most of them in a decayed condition), which +went humming past our ears from the vantage-ground of neighboring +hillocks, sometimes hitting our sacred persons with an inelastic thump. +This was one of the privileged freedoms of the time, and was nowise to be +resented, except by returning the salute. Many persons were running +races, hand in hand, down the declivities, especially that steepest one +on the summit of which stands the world-central Observatory, and (as in +the race of life) the partners were usually male and female, and often +caught a tumble together before reaching the bottom of the hill. +Hereabouts we were pestered and haunted by two young girls, the eldest +not more than thirteen, teasing us to buy matches; and finding no market +for their commodity, the taller one suddenly turned a somerset before our +faces, and rolled heels over head from top to bottom of the hill on which +we stood. Then, scrambling up the acclivity, the topsy-turvy trollop +offered us her matches again, as demurely as if she had never flung aside +her equilibrium; so that, dreading a repetition of the feat, we gave her +sixpence and an admonition, and enjoined her never to do so any more. + +The most curious amusement that we witnessed here--or anywhere else, +indeed--was an ancient and hereditary pastime called "Kissing in the +Ring." I shall describe the sport exactly as I saw it, although an +English friend assures me that there are certain ceremonies with a +handkerchief, which make it much more decorous and graceful. A +handkerchief, indeed! There was no such thing in the crowd, except it +were the one which they had just filched out of my pocket. It is one of +the simplest kinds of games, needing little or no practice to make the +player altogether perfect; and the manner of it is this. A ring is +formed (in the present case, it was of large circumference and thickly +gemmed around with faces, mostly on the broad grin), into the centre of +which steps an adventurous youth, and, looking round the circle, selects +whatever maiden may most delight his eye. He presents his hand (which +she is bound to accept), leads her into the centre, salutes her on the +lips, and retires, taking his stand in the expectant circle. The girl, +in her turn, throws a favorable regard on some fortunate young man, +offers her hand to lead him forth, makes him happy with a maidenly kiss, +and withdraws to hide her blushes, if any there be, among the simpering +faces in the ring; while the favored swain loses no time in transferring +her salute to the prettiest and plumpest among the many mouths that are +primming themselves in anticipation. And thus the thing goes on, till +all the festive throng are inwreathed and intertwined into an endless and +inextricable chain of kisses; though, indeed, it smote me with compassion +to reflect that some forlorn pair of lips might be left out, and never +know the triumph of a salute, after throwing aside so many delicate +reserves for the sake of winning it. If the young men had any chivalry, +there was a fair chance to display it by kissing the homeliest damsel in +the circle. + +To be frank, however, at the first glance, and to my American eye, they +looked all homely alike, and the chivalry that I suggest is more than I +could have been capable of, at any period of my life. They seemed to be +country-lasses, of sturdy and wholesome aspect, with coarse-grained, +cabbage-rosy cheeks, and, I am willing to suppose, a stout texture of +moral principle, such as would bear a good deal of rough usage without +suffering much detriment. But how unlike the trim little damsels of my +native land! I desire above all things to be courteous; but, since +the plain truth must be told, the soil and climate of England produce +feminine beauty as rarely as they do delicate fruit, and though +admirable specimens of both are to be met with, they are the hot-house +ameliorations of refined society, and apt, moreover, to relapse into the +coarseness of the original stock. The men are manlike, but the women are +not beautiful, though the female Bull be well enough adapted to the male. +To return to the lasses of Greenwich Fair, their charms were few, and +their behavior, perhaps, not altogether commendable; and yet it was +impossible not to feel a degree of faith in their innocent intentions, +with such a half-bashful zest and entire simplicity did they keep up +their part of the game. It put the spectator in good-humor to look at +them, because there was still something of the old Arcadian life, the +secure freedom of the antique age, in their way of surrendering their +lips to strangers, as if there were no evil or impurity in the world. As +for the young men, they were chiefly specimens of the vulgar sediment of +London life, often shabbily genteel, rowdyish, pale, wearing the +unbrushed coat, unshifted linen, and unwashed faces of yesterday, as well +as the haggardness of last night's jollity in a gin-shop. Gathering +their character from these tokens, I wondered whether there were any +reasonable prospect of their fair partners returning to their rustic +homes with as much innocence (whatever were its amount or quality) as +they brought, to Greenwich Fair, in spite of the perilous familiarity +established by Kissing in the Ring. + +The manifold disorders resulting from the fair, at which a vast city was +brought into intimate relations with a comparatively rural district, have +at length led to its suppression; this was the very last celebration of +it, and brought to a close the broad-mouthed merriment of many hundred +years. Thus my poor sketch, faint as its colors are, may acquire some +little value in the reader's eyes from the consideration that no observer +of the coming time will ever have an opportunity to give a better. I +should find it difficult to believe, however, that the queer pastime just +described, or any moral mischief to which that and other customs might +pave the way, can have led to the overthrow of Greenwich Fair; for it has +often seemed to me that Englishmen of station and respectability, unless +of a peculiarly philanthropic turn, have neither any faith in the +feminine purity of the lower orders of their countrywomen, nor the +slightest value for it, allowing its possible existence. The distinction +of ranks is so marked, that the English cottage damsel holds a position +somewhat analogous to that of the negro girl in our Southern States. +Hence cones inevitable detriment to the moral condition of those men +themselves, who forget that the humblest woman has a right and a duty to +hold herself in the same sanctity as the highest. The subject cannot +well be discussed in these pages; but I offer it as a serious conviction, +from what I have been able to observe, that the England of to-day is the +unscrupulous old England of Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews, Humphrey +Clinker and Roderick Random; and in our refined era, just the same as at +that more free-spoken epoch, this singular people has a certain contempt +for any fine-strained purity, any special squeamishness, as they consider +it, on the part of an ingenuous youth. They appear to look upon it as a +suspicious phenomenon in the masculine character. + +Nevertheless, I by no means take upon me to affirm that English morality, +as regards the phase here alluded to, is really at a lower point than our +own. Assuredly, I hope so, because, making a higher pretension, or, at +all events, more carefully hiding whatever may be amiss, we are either +better than they, or necessarily a great deal worse. It impressed me +that their open avowal and recognition of immoralities served to throw +the disease to the surface, where it might be more effectually dealt +with, and leave a sacred interior not utterly profaned, instead of +turning its poison back among the inner vitalities of the character, at +the imminent risk of corrupting them all. Be that as it may, these +Englishmen are certainly a franker and simpler people than ourselves, +from peer to peasant; but if we can take it as compensatory on our part +(which I leave to be considered) that they owe those noble and manly +qualities to a coarser grain in their nature, and that, with a finer one +in ours, we shall ultimately acquire a marble polish of which they are +unsusceptible, I believe that this may be the truth. + + + + +UP THE THAMES. + + +The upper portion of Greenwich (where my last article left me loitering) +is a cheerful, comely, old-fashioned town, the peculiarities of which, if +there be any, have passed out of my remembrance. As you descend towards +the Thames, the streets get meaner, and the shabby and sunken houses, +elbowing one another for frontage, bear the sign-boards of beer-shops and +eating-rooms, with especial promises of whitebait and other delicacies in +the fishing line. You observe, also, a frequent announcement of "The +Gardens" in the rear; although, estimating the capacity of the premises +by their external compass, the entire sylvan charm and shadowy seclusion +of such blissful resorts must be limited within a small back-yard. These +places of cheap sustenance and recreation depend for support upon the +innumerable pleasure-parties who come from London Bridge by steamer, at a +fare of a few pence, and who get as enjoyable a meal for a shilling a +head as the Ship Hotel would afford a gentleman for a guinea. + +The steamers, which are constantly smoking their pipes up and down the +Thames, offer much the most agreeable mode of getting to London. At +least, it might be exceedingly agreeable, except for the myriad floating +particles of soot from the stove-pipe, and the heavy heat of midsummer +sunshine on the unsheltered deck, or the chill, misty air draught of a +cloudy day, and the spiteful little showers of rain that may spatter down +upon you at any moment, whatever the promise of the sky; besides which +there is some slight inconvenience from the inexhaustible throng of +passengers, who scarcely allow you standing-room, nor so much as a breath +of unappropriated air, and never a chance to sit down. If these +difficulties, added to the possibility of getting your pocket picked, +weigh little with you, the panorama along the shores of the memorable +river, and the incidents and shows of passing life upon its bosom, render +the trip far preferable to the brief yet tiresome shoot along the railway +track. On one such voyage, a regatta of wherries raced past us, and at +once involved every soul on board our steamer in the tremendous +excitement of the struggle. The spectacle was but a moment within our +view, and presented nothing more than a few light skiffs, in each of +which sat a single rower, bare-armed, and with little apparel, save a +shirt and drawers, pale, anxious, with every muscle on the stretch, and +plying his oars in such fashion that the boat skimmed along with the +aerial celerity of a swallow. I wondered at myself for so immediately +catching an interest in the affair, which seemed to contain no very +exalted rivalship of manhood; but, whatever the kind of battle or the +prize of victory, it stirs one's sympathy immensely, and is even awful, +to behold the rare sight of a man thoroughly in earnest, doing his best, +putting forth all there is in him, and staking his very soul (as these +rowers appeared willing to do) on the issue of the contest. It was the +seventy-fourth annual regatta of the Free Watermen of Greenwich, and +announced itself as under the patronage of the Lord Mayor and other +distinguished individuals, at whose expense, I suppose, a prize-boat was +offered to the conqueror, and some small amounts of money to the inferior +competitors. + +The aspect of London along the Thanes, below Bridge, as it is called, is +by no means so impressive as it ought to be, considering what peculiar +advantages are offered for the display of grand and stately architecture +by the passage of a river through the midst of a great city. It seems, +indeed, as if the heart of London had been cleft open for the mere +purpose of showing how rotten and drearily mean it had become. The shore +is lined with the shabbiest, blackest, and ugliest buildings that can be +imagined, decayed warehouses with blind windows, and wharves that look +ruinous; insomuch that, had I known nothing more of the world's +metropolis, I might have fancied that it had already experienced the +downfall which I have heard commercial and financial prophets predict for +it, within the century. And the muddy tide of the Thames, reflecting +nothing, and hiding a million of unclean secrets within its breast,--a +sort of guilty conscience, as it were, unwholesome with the rivulets of +sin that constantly flow into it,--is just the dismal stream to glide by +such a city. The surface, to be sure, displays no lack of activity, +being fretted by the passage of a hundred steamers and covered with a +good deal of shipping, but mostly of a clumsier build than I had been +accustomed to see in the Mersey: a fact which I complacently attributed +to the smaller number of American clippers in the Thames, and the less +prevalent influence of American example in refining away the +broad-bottomed capacity of the old Dutch or English models. + +About midway between Greenwich and London Bridge, at a rude landing-place +on the left bank of the river, the steamer rings its bell and makes a +momentary pause in front of a large circular structure, where it may be +worth our while to scramble ashore. It indicates the locality of one of +those prodigious practical blunders that would supply John Bull with a +topic of inexhaustible ridicule, if his cousin Jonathan had committed +them, but of which he himself perpetrates ten to our one in the mere +wantonness of wealth that lacks better employment. The circular building +covers the entrance to the Thames Tunnel, and is surmounted by a dome of +glass, so as to throw daylight down into the great depth at which the +passage of the river commences. Descending a wearisome succession of +staircases, we at last find ourselves, still in the broad noon, standing +before a closed door, on opening which we behold the vista of an arched +corridor that extends into everlasting midnight. In these days, when +glass has been applied to so many new purposes, it is a pity that the +architect had not thought of arching portions of his abortive tunnel with +immense blocks of the lucid substance, over which the dusky Thames would +have flowed like a cloud, making the sub-fluvial avenue only a little +gloomier than a street of upper London. At present, it is illuminated at +regular intervals by jets of gas, not very brilliantly, yet with lustre +enough to show the damp plaster of the ceiling and walls, and the massive +stone pavement, the crevices of which are oozy with moisture, not from +the incumbent river, but from hidden springs in the earth's deeper heart. +There are two parallel corridors, with a wall between, for the separate +accommodation of the double throng of foot-passengers, equestrians, and +vehicles of all kinds, which was expected to roll and reverberate +continually through the Tunnel. Only one of them has ever been opened, +and its echoes are but feebly awakened by infrequent footfalls. + +Yet there seem to be people who spend their lives here, and who probably +blink like owls, when, once or twice a year, perhaps, they happen to +climb into the sunshine. All along the corridor, which I believe to be a +mile in extent, we see stalls or shops in little alcoves, kept +principally by women; they were of a ripe age, I was glad to observe, and +certainly robbed England of none of its very moderate supply of feminine +loveliness by their deeper than tomb-like interment. As you approach +(and they are so accustomed to the dusky gaslight that they read all your +characteristics afar off), they assail you with hungry entreaties to buy +some of their merchandise, holding forth views of the Tunnel put up in +cases of Derbyshire spar, with a magnifying-glass at one end to make the +vista more effective. They offer you, besides, cheap jewelry, sunny +topazes and resplendent emeralds for sixpence, and diamonds as big as the +Kohi-i-noor at a not much heavier cost, together with a multifarious +trumpery which has died out of the upper world to reappear in this +Tartarean bazaar. That you may fancy yourself still in the realms of the +living, they urge you to partake of cakes, candy, ginger-beer, and such +small refreshment, more suitable, however, for the shadowy appetite of +ghosts than for the sturdy stomachs of Englishmen. The most capacious of +the shops contains a dioramic exhibition of cities and scenes in the +daylight world, with a dreary glimmer of gas among them all; so that they +serve well enough to represent the dim, unsatisfactory remembrances that +dead people might be supposed to retain from their past lives, mixing +them up with the ghastliness of their unsubstantial state. I dwell the +more upon these trifles, and do my best to give them a mockery of +importance, because, if these are nothing, then all this elaborate +contrivance and mighty piece of work has been wrought in vain. The +Englishman has burrowed under the bed of his great river, and set ships +of two or three thousand tons a-rolling over his head, only to provide +new sites for a few old women to sell cakes and ginger-beer! + +Yet the conception was a grand one; and though it has proved an absolute +failure, swallowing an immensity of toil and money, with annual returns +hardly sufficient to keep the pavement free from the ooze of subterranean +springs, yet it needs, I presume, only an expenditure three or four (or, +for aught I know, twenty) times as large, to make the enterprise +brilliantly successful. The descent is so great from the bank of the +river to its surface, and the Tunnel dips so profoundly under the river's +bed, that the approaches on either side must commence a long way off, in +order to render the entrance accessible to horsemen or vehicles; so that +the larger part of the cost of the whole affair should have been expended +on its margins. It has turned out a sublime piece of folly; and when the +New-Zealander of distant ages shall have moralized sufficiently among the +ruins of London Bridge, he will bethink himself that somewhere thereabout +was the marvellous Tunnel, the very existence of which will seem to him +as incredible as that of the hanging gardens of Babylon. But the Thames +will long ago have broken through the massive arch, and choked up the +corridors with mud and sand and with the large stones of the structure +itself, intermixed with skeletons of drowned people, the rusty ironwork +of sunken vessels, and the great many such precious and curious things as +a river always contrives to hide in its bosom; the entrance will have +been obliterated, and its very site forgotten beyond the memory of twenty +generations of men, and the whole neighborhood be held a dangerous spot +on account of the malaria; insomuch that the traveller will make but a +brief and careless inquisition for the traces of the old wonder, and will +stake his credit before the public, in some Pacific Monthly of that day, +that the story of it is but a myth, though enriched with a spiritual +profundity which he will proceed to unfold. + +Yet it is impossible (for a Yankee, at least) to see so much magnificent +ingenuity thrown away, without trying to endow the unfortunate result +with some kind of use, fulness, though perhaps widely different from the +purpose of its original conception. In former ages, the mile-long +corridors, with their numerous alcoves, might have been utilized as a +series of dungeons, the fittest of all possible receptacles for prisoners +of state. Dethroned monarchs and fallen statesmen would not have needed +to remonstrate against a domicile so spacious, so deeply secluded from +the world's scorn, and so admirably in accordance with their +thenceforward sunless fortunes. An alcove here might have suited Sir +Walter Raleigh better than that darksome hiding-place communicating with +the great chamber in the Tower, pacing from end to end of which he +meditated upon his "History of the World." His track would here have +been straight and narrow, indeed, and would therefore have lacked +somewhat of the freedom that his intellect demanded; and yet the length +to which his footsteps might have travelled forth and retraced themselves +would partly have harmonized his physical movement with the grand curves +and planetary returns of his thought, through cycles of majestic periods. +Having it in his mind to compose the world's history, methinks he could +have asked no better retirement than such a cloister as this, insulated +from all the seductions of mankind and womankind, deep beneath their +mysteries and motives, down into the heart of things, full of personal +reminiscences in order to the comprehensive measurement and verification +of historic records, seeing into the secrets of human nature,--secrets +that daylight never yet revealed to mortal,--but detecting their whole +scope and purport with the infallible eyes of unbroken solitude and +night. And then the shades of the old mighty men might have risen from +their still profounder abodes and joined him in the dim corridor, +treading beside him with an antique stateliness of mien, telling him in +melancholy tones, grand, but always melancholy, of the greater ideas and +purposes which their most renowned performances so imperfectly carried +out, that, magnificent successes in the view of all posterity, they were +but failures to those who planned them. As Raleigh was a navigator, Noah +would have explained to him the peculiarities of construction that made +the ark so seaworthy; as Raleigh was a statesman, Moses would have +discussed with him the principles of laws and government; as Raleigh was +a soldier, Caesar and Hannibal would have held debate in his presence, +with this martial student for their umpire; as Raleigh was a poet, David, +or whatever most illustrious bard he might call up, would have touched +his harp, and made manifest all the true significance of the past by +means of song and the subtle intelligences of music. + +Meanwhile, I had forgotten that Sir Walter Raleigh's century knew nothing +of gaslight, and that it would require a prodigious and wasteful +expenditure of tallow-candles to illuminate the Tunnel sufficiently to +discern even a ghost. On this account, however, it would be all the more +suitable place of confinement for a metaphysician, to keep him from +bewildering mankind with his shadowy speculations; and, being shut off +from external converse, the dark corridor would help him to make rich +discoveries in those cavernous regions and mysterious by-paths of the +intellect, which he had so long accustomed himself to explore. But how +would every successive age rejoice in so secure a habitation for its +reformers, and especially for each best and wisest man that happened to +be then alive! He seeks to burn up our whole system of society, under +pretence of purifying it from its abuses! Away with him into the Tunnel, +and let him begin by setting the Thames on fire, if he is able! + +If not precisely these, yet akin to these were some of the fantasies that +haunted me as I passed under the river: for the place is suggestive of +such idle and irresponsible stuff by its own abortive character, its lack +of whereabout on upper earth, or any solid foundation of realities. +Could I have looked forward a few years, I might have regretted that +American enterprise had not provided a similar tunnel, under the Hudson +or the Potomac, for the convenience of our National Government in times +hardly yet gone by. It would be delightful to clap up all the enemies of +our peace and Union in the dark together, and there let them abide, +listening to the monotonous roll of the river above their heads, or +perhaps in a state of miraculously suspended animation, until,--be it +after months, years, or centuries,--when the turmoil shall be all over, +the Wrong washed away in blood (since that must needs be the cleansing +fluid), and the Right firmly rooted in the soil which that blood will +have enriched, they might crawl forth again and catch a single glimpse at +their redeemed country, and feel it to be a better land than they +deserve, and die! + +I was not sorry when the daylight reached me after a much briefer abode +in the nether regions than, I fear, would await the troublesome +personages just hinted at. Emerging on the Surrey side of the Thames, I +found myself in Rotherhithe, a neighborhood not unfamiliar to the readers +of old books of maritime adventure. There being a ferry hard by the +mouth of the Tunnel, I recrossed the river in the primitive fashion of an +open boat, which the conflict of wind and tide, together with the swash +and swell of the passing steamers, tossed high and low rather +tumultuously. This inquietude of our frail skiff (which, indeed, bobbed +up and down like a cork) so much alarmed an old lady, the only other +passenger, that the boatmen essayed to comfort her. "Never fear, +mother!" grumbled one of them, "we'll make the river as smooth as we can +for you. We'll get a plane, and plane down the waves!" The joke may not +read very brilliantly; but I make bold to record it as the only specimen +that reached my ears of the old, rough water-wit for which the Thames +used to be so celebrated. Passing directly along the line of the sunken +Tunnel, we landed in Wapping, which I should have presupposed to be the +most tarry and pitchy spot on earth, swarming with old salts, and full of +warm, bustling, coarse, homely, and cheerful life. Nevertheless, it +turned out to be a cold and torpid neighborhood, mean, shabby, and +unpicturesque, both as to its buildings and inhabitants: the latter +comprising (so far as was visible to me) not a single unmistakable +sailor, though plenty of land-sharks, who get a half-dishonest livelihood +by business connected with the sea. Ale and spirit vaults (as petty +drinking-establishments are styled in England, pretending to contain vast +cellars full of liquor within the compass of ten feet square above +ground) were particularly abundant, together with apples, oranges, and +oysters, the stalls of fishmongers and butchers, and slop-shops, where +blue jackets and duck trousers swung and capered before the doors. +Everything was on the poorest scale, and the place bore an aspect of +unredeemable decay. From this remote point of London, I strolled +leisurely towards the heart of the city; while the streets, at first +but thinly occupied by man or vehicle, got more and more thronged +with foot-passengers, carts, drays, cabs, and the all-pervading and +all-accommodating omnibus. But I lack courage, and feel that I should +lack perseverance, as the gentlest reader would lack patience, to +undertake a descriptive stroll through London streets; more especially as +there would be a volume ready for the printer before we could reach a +midway resting-place at Charing Cross. It will be the easier course to +step aboard another passing steamer, and continue our trip up the Thames. + +The next notable group of objects is an assemblage of ancient walls, +battlements, and turrets, out of the midst of which rises prominently one +great square tower, of a grayish line, bordered with white stone, and +having a small turret at each corner of the roof. This central structure +is the White Tower, and the whole circuit of ramparts and enclosed +edifices constitutes what is known in English history, and still more +widely and impressively in English poetry, as the Tower. A crowd of +rivercraft are generally moored in front of it; but, if we look sharply +at the right moment under the base of the rampart, we may catch a glimpse +of an arched water-entrance, half submerged, past which the Thames glides +as indifferently as if it were the mouth of a city-kennel. Nevertheless, +it is the Traitor's Gate, a dreary kind of triumphal passageway (now +supposed to be shut up and barred forever), through which a multitude of +noble and illustrious personages have entered the Tower and found it a +brief resting-place on their way to heaven. Passing it many times, I +never observed that anybody glanced at this shadowy and ominous +trap-door, save myself. It is well that America exists, if it were only +that her vagrant children may be impressed and affected by the historical +monuments of England in a degree of which the native inhabitants are +evidently incapable. These matters are too familiar, too real, and too +hopelessly built in amongst and mixed up with the common objects and +affairs of life, to be easily susceptible of imaginative coloring in +their minds; and even their poets and romancers feel it a toil, and +almost a delusion, to extract poetic material out of what seems embodied +poetry itself to an American. An Englishman cares nothing about the +Tower, which to us is a haunted castle in dreamland. That honest and +excellent gentleman, the late Mr. G. P. R. James (whose mechanical +ability, one might have supposed, would nourish itself by devouring every +old stone of such a structure), once assured me that he had never in his +life set eyes upon the Tower, though for years an historic novelist in +London. + +Not to spend a whole summer's day upon the voyage, we will suppose +ourselves to have reached London Bridge, and thence to have taken another +steamer for a farther passage up the river. But here the memorable +objects succeed each other so rapidly that I can spare but a single +sentence even for the great Dome, through I deem it more picturesque, in +that dusky atmosphere, than St. Peter's in its clear blue sky. I must +mention, however (since everything connected with royalty is especially +interesting to my dear countrymen), that I once saw a large and beautiful +barge, splendidly gilded and ornamented, and overspread with a rich +covering, lying at the pier nearest to St. Paul's Cathedral; it had the +royal banner of Great Britain displayed, besides being decorated with a +number of other flags; and many footmen (who are universally the grandest +and gaudiest objects to be seen in England at this day, and these were +regal ones, in a bright scarlet livery bedizened with gold-lace, and +white silk stockings) were in attendance. I know not what festive or +ceremonial occasion may have drawn out this pageant; after all, it might +have been merely a city-spectacle, appertaining to the Lord Mayor; but +the sight had its value in bringing vividly before me the grand old times +when the sovereign and nobles were accustomed to use the Thames as the +high street of the metropolis, and join in pompous processions upon it; +whereas, the desuetude of such customs, nowadays, has caused the whole +show of river-life to consist in a multitude of smoke-begrimed steamers. +An analogous change has taken place in the streets, where cabs and the +omnibus have crowded out a rich variety of vehicles; and thus life gets +more monotonous in hue from age to age, and appears to seize every +opportunity to strip off a bit of its gold-lace among the wealthier +classes, and to make itself decent in the lower ones. + +Yonder is Whitefriars, the old rowdy Alsatia, now wearing as decorous a +face as any other portion of London; and, adjoining it, the avenues and +brick squares of the Temple, with that historic garden, close upon the +river-side, and still rich in shrubbery and flowers, where the partisans +of York and Lancaster plucked the fatal roses, and scattered their pale +and bloody petals over so many English battle-fields. Hard by, we see +tine long white front or rear of Somerset House, and, farther on, rise +the two new Houses of Parliament, with a huge unfinished tower already +hiding its imperfect summit in the smoky canopy,--the whole vast and +cumbrous edifice a specimen of the best that modern architecture can +effect, elaborately imitating the masterpieces of those simple ages when +men "builded better than they knew." Close by it, we have a glimpse of +the roof and upper towers of the holy Abbey; while that gray, ancestral +pile on the opposite side of the river is Lambeth Palace, a venerable +group of halls and turrets, chiefly built of brick, but with at least one +large tower of stone. In our course, we have passed beneath half a dozen +bridges, and, emerging out of the black heart of London, shall soon reach +a cleanly suburb, where old Father Thames, if I remember, begins to put +on an aspect of unpolluted innocence. And now we look back upon the mass +of innumerable roofs, out of which rise steeples, towers, columns, and +the great crowning Dome,--look back, in short, upon that mystery of the +world's proudest city, amid which a man so longs and loves to be; not, +perhaps, because it contains much that is positively admirable and +enjoyable, but because, at all events, the world has nothing better. The +cream of external life is there; and whatever merely intellectual or +material good we fail to find perfect in London, we may as well content +ourselves to seek that unattainable thing no farther on this earth. + +The steamer terminates its trip at Chelsea, an old town endowed with a +prodigious number of pothouses, and some famous gardens, called the +Cremorne, for public amusement. The most noticeable thing, however, is +Chelsea Hospital, which, like that of Greenwich, was founded, I believe, +by Charles II. (whose bronze statue, in the guise of an old Roman, stands +in the centre of the quadrangle,) and appropriated as a home for aged and +infirm soldiers of the British army. The edifices are of three stories +with windows in the high roofs, and are built of dark, sombre brick, with +stone edgings and facings. The effect is by no means that of grandeur +(which is somewhat disagreeably an attribute of Greenwich Hospital), but +a quiet and venerable neatness. At each extremity of the street-front +there is a spacious and hospitably open gateway, lounging about which I +saw some gray veterans in long scarlet coats of an antique fashion, and +the cocked hats of a century ago, or occasionally a modern foraging-cap. +Almost all of them moved with a rheumatic gait, two or three stumped on +wooden legs, and here and there an arm was missing. Inquiring of one of +these fragmentary heroes whether a stranger could be admitted to see the +establishment, he replied most cordially, "O yes, sir,--anywhere! Walk +in and go where you please,--up stairs, or anywhere!" So I entered, and, +passing along the inner side of the quadrangle, came to the door of the +chapel, which forms a part of the contiguity of edifices next the street. +Here another pensioner, an old warrior of exceedingly peaceable and +Christian demeanor, touched his three-cornered hat and asked if I wished +to see the interior; to which I assenting, he unlocked the door, and we +went in. + +The chapel consists of a great hall with a vaulted roof, and over the +altar is a large painting in fresco, the subject of which I did not +trouble myself to make out. More appropriate adornments of the place, +dedicated as well to martial reminiscences as religious worship, are the +long ranges of dusty and tattered banners that hang from their staves all +round the ceiling of the chapel. They are trophies of battles fought and +won in every quarter of the world, comprising the captured flags of all +the nations with whom the British lion has waged war since James II.'s +time,--French, Dutch, East Indian, Prussian, Russian, Chinese, and +American,--collected together in this consecrated spot, not to symbolize +that there shall be no more discord upon earth, but drooping over the +aisle in sullen, though peaceable humiliation. Yes, I said "American" +among the rest; for the good old pensioner mistook me for an Englishman, +and failed not to point out (and, methought, with an especial emphasis of +triumph) some flags that had been taken at Bladensburg and Washington. I +fancied, indeed, that they hung a little higher and drooped a little +lower than any of their companions in disgrace. It is a comfort, +however, that their proud devices are already indistinguishable, or +nearly so, owing to dust and tatters and the kind offices of the moths, +and that they will soon rot from the banner-staves and be swept out in +unrecognized fragments from the chapel-door. + +It is a good method of teaching a man how imperfectly cosmopolitan he is, +to show him his country's flag occupying a position of dishonor in a +foreign land. But, in truth, the whole system of a people crowing over +its military triumphs had far better he dispensed with, both on account +of the ill-blood that it helps to keep fermenting among the nations, and +because it operates as an accumulative inducement to future generations +to aim at a kind of glory, the gain of which has generally proved more +ruinous than its loss. I heartily wish that every trophy of victory +might crumble away, and that every reminiscence or tradition of a hero, +from the beginning of the world to this day, could pass out of all men's +memories at once and forever. I might feel very differently, to be sure, +if we Northerners had anything especially valuable to lose by the fading +of those illuminated names. + +I gave the pensioner (but I am afraid there may have been a little +affectation in it) a magnificent guerdon of all the silver I had in my +pocket, to requite him for having unintentionally stirred up my patriotic +susceptibilities. He was a meek-looking, kindly old man, with a humble +freedom and affability of manner that made it pleasant to converse with +him. Old soldiers, I know not why, seem to be more accostable than old +sailors. One is apt to hear a growl beneath the smoothest courtesy of +the latter. The mild veteran, with his peaceful voice, and gentle +reverend aspect, told me that he had fought at a cannon all through the +Battle of Waterloo, and escaped unhurt; he had now been in the hospital +four or five years, and was married, but necessarily underwent a +separation from his wife, who lived outside of the gates. To my inquiry +whether his fellow-pensioners were comfortable and happy, he answered, +with great alacrity, "O yes, sir!" qualifying his evidence, after a +moment's consideration, by saying in an undertone, "There are some +people, your Honor knows, who could not be comfortable anywhere." I did +know it, and fear that the system of Chelsea Hospital allows too little +of that wholesome care and regulation of their own occupations and +interests which might assuage the sting of life to those naturally +uncomfortable individuals by giving them something external to think +about. But my old friend here was happy in the hospital, and by this +time, very likely, is happy in heaven, in spite of the bloodshed that he +may have caused by touching off a cannon at Waterloo. + +Crossing Battersea Bridge, in the neighborhood of Chelsea, I remember +seeing a distant gleam of the Crystal Palace, glimmering afar in the +afternoon sunshine like an imaginary structure,--an air-castle by chance +descended upon earth, and resting there one instant before it vanished, +as we sometimes see a soap-bubble touch unharmed on the carpet,--a thing +of only momentary visibility and no substance, destined to be +overburdened and crushed down by the first cloud-shadow that might fall +upon that spot. Even as I looked, it disappeared. Shall I attempt a +picture of this exhalation of modern ingenuity, or what else shall I try +to paint? Everything in London and its vicinity has been depicted +innumerable times, but never once translated into intelligible images; it +is an "old, old story," never yet told, nor to be told. While writing +these reminiscences, I am continually impressed with the futility of the +effort to give any creative truth to ink sketch, so that it might produce +such pictures in the reader's mind as would cause the original scenes to +appear familiar when afterwards beheld. Nor have other writers often +been more successful in representing definite objects prophetically to my +own mind. In truth, I believe that the chief delight and advantage of +this kind of literature is not for any real information that it supplies +to untravelled people, but for reviving the recollections and reawakening +the emotions of persons already acquainted with the scenes described. +Thus I found an exquisite pleasure, the other day, in reading Mr. +Tuckerman's "Month in England," fine example of the way in which a +refined and cultivated American looks at the Old Country, the things that +he naturally seeks there, and the modes of feeling and reflection which +they excite. Correct outlines avail little or nothing, though truth of +coloring may be somewhat more efficacious. Impressions, however, states +of mind produced by interesting and remarkable objects, these, if +truthfully and vividly recorded, may work a genuine effect, and, though +lint the result, of what we see, go further towards representing the +actual scene than any direct effort to paint it. Give the emotions that +cluster about it, and, without being able to analyze the spell by which +it is summoned up, you get something like a simulacre of the object in +the midst of them. From some of the above reflections I draw the +comfortable inference, that, the longer and better known a thing may be, +so much the more eligible is it as the subject of a descriptive sketch. + +On a Sunday afternoon, I passed through a side-entrance in the +time-blackened wall of a place of worship, and found myself among a +congregation assembled in one of the transepts and the immediately +contiguous portion of the nave. It was a vast old edifice, spacious +enough, within the extent covered by its pillared roof and overspread by +its stone pavement, to accommodate the whole of church-going London, and +with a far wider and loftier concave than any human power of lungs could +fill with audible prayer. Oaken benches were arranged in the transept, +on one of which I seated myself, and joined, as well as I knew how, in +the sacred business that was going forward. But when it came to the +sermon, the voice of the preacher was puny, and so were his thoughts, and +both seemed impertinent at such a time and place, where he and all of us +were bodily included within a sublime act of religion, which could be +seen above and around us and felt beneath our feet. The structure itself +was the worship of the devout men of long ago, miraculously preserved in +stone without losing an atom of its fragrance and fervor; it was a kind +of anthem-strain that they had sung and poured out of the organ in +centuries gone by; and being so grand and sweet, the Divine benevolence +had willed it to be prolonged for the behoof of auditors unborn. I +therefore came to the conclusion, that, in my individual case, it would +be better and more reverent to let my eyes wander about the edifice than +to fasten them and my thoughts on the evidently uninspired mortal who was +venturing--and felt it no venture at all--to speak here above his breath. + +The interior of Westminster Abbey (for the reader recognized it, no +doubt, the moment we entered) is built of rich brown stone; and the whole +of it--the lofty roof, the tall, clustered pillars, and the pointed +arches--appears to be in consummate repair. At all points where decay +has laid its finger, the structure is clamped with iron or otherwise +carefully protected; and being thus watched over,--whether as a place of +ancient sanctity, a noble specimen of Gothic art, or an object of +national interest and pride,--it may reasonably be expected to survive +for as many ages as have passed over it already. It was sweet to feel +its venerable quietude, its long-enduring peace, and yet to observe how +kindly and even cheerfully it received the sunshine of to-day, which fell +from the great windows into the fretted aisles and arches that laid aside +somewhat of their aged gloom to welcome it. Sunshine always seems +friendly to old abbeys, churches, and castles, kissing them, as it were, +with a more affectionate, though still reverential familiarity, than it +accords to edifices of later date. A square of golden light lay on the +sombre pavement of the nave, afar off, falling through the grand western +entrance, the folding leaves of which were wide open, and afforded +glimpses of people passing to and fro in the outer world, while we sat +dimly enveloped in the solemnity of antique devotion. In the south +transept, separated from us by the full breadth of the minster, there +were painted glass windows of which the uppermost appeared to be a great +orb of many-colored radiance, being, indeed, a cluster of saints and +angels whose glorified bodies formed the rays of an aureole emanating +from a cross in the midst. These windows are modern, but combine +softness with wonderful brilliancy of effect. Through the pillars and +arches, I saw that the walls in that distant region of the edifice +were almost wholly incrusted with marble, now grown yellow with time, +no blank, unlettered slabs, but memorials of such men as their +respective generations deemed wisest and bravest. Some of them were +commemorated merely by inscriptions on mural tablets, others by +sculptured bas-reliefs, others (once famous, but now forgotten generals +or admirals, these) by ponderous tombs that aspired towards the roof of +the aisle, or partly curtained the immense arch of a window. These +mountains of marble were peopled with the sisterhood of Allegory, winged +trumpeters, and classic figures in full-bottomed wigs; but it was strange +to observe how the old Abbey melted all such absurdities into the breadth +of its own grandeur, even magnifying itself by what would elsewhere have +been ridiculous. Methinks it is the test of Gothic sublimity to +overpower the ridiculous without deigning to hide it; and these grotesque +monuments of the last century answer a similar purpose with the grinning +faces which, the old architects scattered among their most solemn +conceptions. + +From these distant wanderings (it was my first visit to Westminster +Abbey, and I would gladly have taken it all in at a glance) my eyes came +back and began to investigate what was immediately about me in the +transept. Close at my elbow was the pedestal of Canning's statue. Next +beyond it was a massive tomb, on the spacious tablet of which reposed the +full-length figures of a marble lord and lady, whom an inscription +announced to be the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle,--the historic Duke of +Charles I.'s time, and the fantastic Duchess, traditionally remembered by +her poems and plays. She was of a family, as the record on her tomb +proudly informed us, of which all the brothers had been valiant and all +the sisters virtuous. A recent statue of Sir John Malcolm, the new +marble as white as snow, held the next place; and near by was a mural +monument and bust of Sir Peter Warren. The round visage of this old +British admiral has a certain interest for a New-Englander, because it +was by no merit of his own (though he took care to assume it as such), +but by the valor and warlike enterprise of our colonial forefathers, +especially the stout men of Massachusetts, that he won rank and renown, +and a tomb in Westminster Abbey. Lord Mansfield, a huge mass of marble +done into the guise of a judicial gown and wig, with a stern face in the +midst of the latter, sat on the other side of the transept; and on the +pedestal beside him was a figure of Justice, holding forth, instead of +the customary grocer's scales, an actual pair of brass steelyards. It is +an ancient and classic instrument, undoubtedly; but I had supposed that +Portia (when Shylock's pound of flesh was to be weighed) was the only +judge that ever really called for it in a court of justice. Pitt and Fox +were in the same distinguished company; and John Kemble, in Roman +costume, stood not far off, but strangely shorn of the dignity that is +said to have enveloped him like a mantle in his lifetime. Perhaps the +evanescent majesty of the stage is incompatible with the long endurance +of marble and the solemn reality of the tomb; though, on the other hand, +almost every illustrious personage here represented has been invested +with more or less of stage-trickery by his sculptor. In truth, the +artist (unless there be a divine efficacy in his touch, making evident a +heretofore hidden dignity in the actual form) feels it--an imperious law +to remove his subject as far from the aspect of ordinary life as may be +possible without sacrificing every trace of resemblance. The absurd +effect of the contrary course is very remarkable in the statue of Mr. +Wilberforce, whose actual self, save for the lack of color, I seemed to +behold, seated just across the aisle. + +This excellent man appears to have sunk into himself in a sitting +posture, with a thin leg crossed over his knee, a book in one hand, and a +finger of the other under his chin, I believe, or applied to the side of +his nose, or to some equally familiar purpose; while his exceedingly +homely and wrinkled face, held a little on one side, twinkles at you with +the shrewdest complacency, as if he were looking right into your eyes, +and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal from +him. He keeps this look so pertinaciously that you feel it to be +insufferably impertinent, and bethink yourself what common ground there +may be between yourself and a stone image, enabling you to resent it. I +have no doubt that the statue is as like Mr. Wilberforce as one pea to +another, and you might fancy, that, at some ordinary moment, when he +least expected it, and before he had time to smooth away his knowing +complication of wrinkles, he had seen the Gorgon's head, and whitened +into marble,--not only his personal self, but his coat and small-clothes, +down to a button and the minutest crease of the cloth. The ludicrous +result marks the impropriety of bestowing the age-long duration of marble +upon small, characteristic individualities, such as might come within the +province of waxen imagery. The sculptor should give permanence to the +figure of a great man in his mood of broad and grand composure, which +would obliterate all mean peculiarities; for, if the original were +unaccustomed to such a mood, or if his features were incapable of +assuming the guise, it seems questionable whether he could really have +been entitled to a marble immortality. In point of fact, however, the +English face and form are seldom statuesque, however illustrious the +individual. + +It ill becomes me, perhaps, to have lapsed into this mood of half-jocose +criticism in describing my first visit to Westminster Abbey, a spot which +I had dreamed about more reverentially, from my childhood upward, than +any other in the world, and which I then beheld, and now look back upon, +with profound gratitude to the men who built it, and a kindly interest, I +may add, in the humblest personage that has contributed his little all to +its impressiveness, by depositing his dust or his memory there. But it +is a characteristic of this grand edifice that it permits you to smile as +freely under the roof of its central nave as if you stood beneath the yet +grander canopy of heaven. Break into laughter, if you feel inclined, +provided the vergers do not hear it echoing among the arches. In an +ordinary church you would keep your countenance for fear of disturbing +the sanctities or proprieties of the place; but you need leave no honest +and decorous portion of your human nature outside of these benign and +truly hospitable walls. Their mild awfulness will take care of itself. +Thus it does no harm to the general impression, when you come to be +sensible that many of the monuments are ridiculous, and commemorate a mob +of people who are mostly forgotten in their graves, and few of whom ever +deserved any better boon from posterity. You acknowledge the force of +Sir Godfrey Kneller's objection to being buried in Westminster Abbey, +because "they do bury fools there!" Nevertheless, these grotesque +carvings of marble, that break out in dingy-white blotches on the old +freestone of the interior walls, have come there by as natural a process +as might cause mosses and ivy to cluster about the external edifice; for +they are the historical and biographical record of each successive age, +written with its own hand, and all the truer for the inevitable mistakes, +and none the less solemn for the occasional absurdity. Though you +entered the Abbey expecting to see the tombs only of the illustrious, you +are content at last to read many names, both in literature and history, +that have now lost the reverence of mankind, if indeed they ever really +possessed it. + +Let these men rest in peace. Even if you miss a name or two that you +hoped to find there, they may well be spared. It matters little a few +more or less, or whether Westminster Abbey contains or lacks any one +man's grave, so long as the Centuries, each with the crowd of personages +that it deemed memorable, have chosen it as their place of honored +sepulture, and laid themselves down under its pavement. The inscriptions +and devices on the walls are rich with evidences of the fluctuating +tastes, fashions, manners, opinions, prejudices, follies, wisdoms of the +past, and thus they combine into a more truthful memorial of their dead +times than any individual epitaph-maker ever meant to write. + +When the services were over, many of the audience seemed inclined to +linger in the nave or wander away among the mysterious aisles; for there +is nothing in this world so fascinating as a Gothic minster, which always +invites you deeper and deeper into its heart both by vast revelations and +shadowy concealments. Through the open-work screen that divides the nave +from the chancel and choir, we could discern the gleam of a marvellous +window, but were debarred from entrance into that more sacred precinct of +the Abbey by the vergers. These vigilant officials (doing their duty all +the more strenuously because no fees could be exacted from Sunday +visitors) flourished their staves, and drove us towards the grand +entrance like a flock of sheep. Lingering through one of the aisles, I +happened to look down, and found my foot upon a stone inscribed with this +familiar exclamation, "O rare Ben Jonson!" and remembered the story of +stout old Ben's burial in that spot, standing upright,--not, I presume, +on account of any unseemly reluctance on his part to lie down in the +dust, like other men, but because standing-room was all that could +reasonably be demanded for a poet among the slumberous notabilities of +his age. It made me weary to think of it!--such a prodigious length of +time to keep one's feet!--apart from the honor of the thing, it would +certainly have been better for Ben to stretch himself at ease in some +country churchyard. To this day, however, I fancy that there is a +contemptuous alloy mixed up with the admiration which the higher classes +of English society profess for their literary men. + +Another day--in truth, many other days--I sought out Poets' Corner, and +found a sign-board and pointed finger, directing the visitor to it, on +the corner house of a little lane leading towards the rear of the Abbey. +The entrance is at the southeastern end of the south transept, and it is +used, on ordinary occasions, as the only free mode of access to the +building. It is no spacious arch, but a small, lowly door, passing +through which, and pushing aside an inner screen that partly keeps out an +exceedingly chill wind, you find yourself in a dim nook of the Abbey, +with the busts of poets gazing at you from the otherwise bare stone-work +of the walls. Great poets, too; for Ben Jenson is right behind the door, +and Spenser's tablet is next, and Butler's on the same side of the +transept, and Milton's (whose bust you know at once by its resemblance to +one of his portraits, though older, more wrinkled, and sadder than that) +is close by, and a profile-medallion of Gray beneath it. A window high +aloft sheds down a dusky daylight on these and many other sculptured +marbles, now as yellow as old parchment, that cover the three walls of +the nook up to an elevation of about twenty feet above the pavement. It +seemed to me that I had always been familiar with the spot. Enjoying a +humble intimacy--and how much of my life had else been a dreary +solitude!--with many of its inhabitants, I could not feel myself a +stranger there. It was delightful to be among them. There was a genial +awe, mingled with a sense of kind and friendly presences about me; and I +was glad, moreover, at finding so many of them there together, in fit +companionship, mutually recognized and duly honored, all reconciled now, +whatever distant generations, whatever personal hostility or other +miserable impediment, had divided them far asunder while they lived. +I have never felt a similar interest in any other tombstones, nor +have I ever been deeply moved by the imaginary presence of other famous +dead people. A poet's ghost is the only one that survives for his +fellow-mortals, after his bones are in the dust,--and be not ghostly, but +cherishing many hearts with his own warmth in the chillest atmosphere of +life. What other fame is worth aspiring for? Or, let me speak it more +boldly, what other long-enduring fame can exist? We neither remember nor +care anything for the past, except as the poet has made it intelligibly +noble and sublime to our comprehension. The shades of the mighty have no +substance; they flit ineffectually about the darkened stage where they +performed their momentary parts, save when the poet has thrown his own +creative soul into them, and imparted a more vivid life than ever they +were able to manifest to mankind while they dwelt in the body. And +therefore--though he cunningly disguises himself in their armor, their +robes of state, or kingly purple--it is not the statesman, the warrior, +or the monarch that survives, but the despised poet, whom they may have +fed with their crumbs, and to whom they owe all that they now are or +have,--a name! + +In the foregoing paragraph I seem to have been betrayed into a flight +above or beyond the customary level that best agrees with me; but it +represents fairly enough the emotions with which I passed from Poets' +Corner into the chapels, which contain the sepulchres of kings and great +people. They are magnificent even now, and must have been inconceivably +so when the marble slabs and pillars wore their new polish, and the +statues retained the brilliant colors with which they were originally +painted, and the shrines their rich gilding, of which the sunlight still +shows a glimmer or a streak, though the sunbeam itself looks tarnished +with antique dust. Yet this recondite portion of the Abbey presents few +memorials of personages whom we care to remember. The shrine of Edward +the Confessor has a certain interest, because it was so long held in +religious reverence, and because the very dust that settled upon it was +formerly worth gold. The helmet and war-saddle of Henry V., worn at +Agincourt, and now suspended above his tomb, are memorable objects, but +more for Shakespeare's sake than the victor's own. Rank has been the +general passport to admission here. Noble and regal dust is as cheap as +dirt under the pavement. I am glad to recollect, indeed (and it is too +characteristic of the right English spirit not to be mentioned), one or +two gigantic statues of great mechanicians, who contributed largely to +the material welfare of England, sitting familiarly in their marble +chairs among forgotten kings and queens. Otherwise, the quaintness of +the earlier monuments, and the antique beauty of some of them, are what +chiefly gives them value. Nevertheless, Addison is buried among the men +of rank; not on the plea of his literary fame, however, but because he +was connected with nobility by marriage, and had been a Secretary of +State. His gravestone is inscribed with a resounding verse from +Tickell's lines to his memory, the only lines by which Tickell himself is +now remembered, and which (as I discovered a little while ago) he mainly +filched from an obscure versifier of somewhat earlier date. + +Returning to Poets' Corner, I looked again at the walls, and wondered how +the requisite hospitality can be shown to poets of our own and the +succeeding ages. There is hardly a foot of space left, although room has +lately been found for a bust of Southey and a full-length statue of +Campbell. At best, only a little portion of the Abbey is dedicated to +poets, literary men, musical composers, and others of the gentle artist +breed, and even into that small nook of sanctity men of other pursuits +have thought it decent to intrude themselves. Methinks the tuneful +throng, being at home here, should recollect how they were treated in +their lifetime, and turn the cold shoulder, looking askance at nobles and +official personages, however worthy of honorable intercourse elsewhere. +Yet it shows aptly and truly enough what portion of the world's regard +and honor has heretofore been awarded to literary eminence in comparison +with other modes of greatness,--this dimly lighted corner (nor even that +quietly to themselves) in the vast minster, the walls of which are +sheathed and hidden under marble that has been wasted upon the +illustrious obscure. Nevertheless, it may not be worth while to quarrel +with the world on this account; for, to confess the very truth, their own +little nook contains more than one poet whose memory is kept alive by his +monument, instead of imbuing the senseless stone with a spiritual +immortality,--men of whom you do not ask, "Where is he?" but, "Why is he +here?" I estimate that all the literary people who really make an +essential part of one's inner life, including the period since English +literature first existed, might have ample elbow-room to sit down and +quaff their draughts of Castaly round Chaucer's broad, horizontal +tombstone. These divinest poets consecrate the spot, and throw a +reflected glory over the humblest of their companions. And as for the +latter, it is to be hoped that they may have long outgrown the +characteristic jealousies and morbid sensibilities of their craft, and +have found out the little value (probably not amounting to sixpence in +immortal currency) of the posthumous renown which they once aspired to +win. It would be a poor compliment to a dead poet to fancy him leaning +out of the sky and snuffing up the impure breath of earthly praise. + +Yet we cannot easily rid ourselves of the notion that those who have +bequeathed us the inheritance of an undying song would fain be conscious +of its endless reverberations in the hearts of mankind, and would +delight, among sublimer enjoyments, to see their names emblazoned in such +a treasure-place of great memories as Westminster Abbey. There are some +men, at all events,--true and tender poets, moreover, and fully deserving +of the honor,--whose spirits, I feel certain, would linger a little while +about Poets' Corner for the sake of witnessing their own apotheosis among +their kindred. They have had a strong natural yearning, not so much for +applause as sympathy, which the cold fortune of their lifetime did but +scantily supply; so that this unsatisfied appetite may make itself felt +upon sensibilities at once so delicate and retentive, even a step or two +beyond the grave. Leigh Hunt, for example, would be pleased, even now, +if he could learn that his bust had been reposited in the midst of the +old poets whom he admired and loved; though there is hardly a man among +the authors of to-day and yesterday whom the judgment of Englishmen would +be less likely to place there. He deserves it, however, if not for his +verse (the value of which I do not estimate, never having been able to +read it), yet for his delightful prose, his unmeasured poetry, the +inscrutable happiness of his touch, working soft miracles by a +life-process like the growth of grass and flowers. As with all such +gentle writers, his page sometimes betrayed a vestige of affectation, +but, the next moment, a rich, natural luxuriance overgrew and buried it +out of sight. I knew him a little, and (since, Heaven be praised, few +English celebrities whom I chanced to meet have enfranchised my pen by +their decease, and as I assume no liberties with living men) I will +conclude this rambling article by sketching my first interview with Leigh +Hunt. + +He was then at Hammersmith, occupying a very plain and shabby little +house, in a contiguous range of others like it, with no prospect but that +of an ugly village street, and certainly nothing to gratify his craving +for a tasteful environment, inside or out. A slatternly maid-servant +opened the door for us, and he himself stood in the entry, a beautiful +and venerable old man, buttoned to the chin in a black dress-coat, tall +and slender, with a countenance quietly alive all over, and the gentlest +and most naturally courteous manner. He ushered us into his little +study, or parlor, or both,--a very forlorn room, with poor paper-hangings +and carpet, few books, no pictures that I remember, and an awful lack of +upholstery. I touch distinctly upon these external blemishes and this +nudity of adornment, not that they would be worth mentioning in a sketch +of other remarkable persons, but because Leigh Hunt was born with such a +faculty of enjoying all beautiful things that it seemed as if Fortune, +did him as much wrong in not supplying them as in withholding a +sufficiency of vital breath from ordinary men. All kinds of mild +magnificence, tempered by his taste, would have become him well; but he +had not the grim dignity that assumes nakedness as the better robe. + +I have said that he was a beautiful old man. In truth, I never saw a +finer countenance, either as to the mould of features or the expression, +nor any that showed the play of feeling so perfectly without the +slightest theatrical emphasis. It was like a child's face in this +respect. At my first glimpse of him, when he met us in the entry, I +discerned that he was old, his long hair being white and his wrinkles +many; it was an aged visage, in short, such as I had not at all expected +to see, in spite of dates, because his books talk to the reader with the +tender vivacity of youth. But when he began to speak, and as he grew +more earnest in conversation, I ceased to be sensible of his age; +sometimes, indeed, its dusky shadow darkened through the gleam which his +sprightly thoughts diffused about his face, but then another flash of +youth came out of his eyes and made an illumination again. I never +witnessed such a wonderfully illusive transformation, before or since; +and, to this day, trusting only to my recollection, I should find it +difficult to decide which was his genuine and stable predicament,--youth +or age. I have met no Englishman whose manners seemed to me so +agreeable, soft, rather than polished, wholly unconventional, the natural +growth of a kindly and sensitive disposition without any reference to +rule, or else obedient to some rule so subtile that the nicest observer +could not detect the application of it. + +His eyes were dark and very fine, and his delightful voice accompanied +their visible language like music. He appeared to be exceedingly +appreciative of whatever was passing among those who surrounded him, and +especially of the vicissitudes in the consciousness of the person to whom +he happened to be addressing himself at the moment. I felt that no +effect upon my mind of what he uttered, no emotion, however transitory, +in myself, escaped his notice, though not from any positive vigilance on +his part, but because his faculty of observation was so penetrative and +delicate; and to say the truth, it a little confused me to discern always +a ripple on his mobile face, responsive to any slightest breeze that +passed over the inner reservoir of my sentiments, and seemed thence to +extend to a similar reservoir within himself. On matters of feeling, and +within a certain depth, you might spare yourself the trouble of +utterance, because he already knew what you wanted to say, and perhaps a +little more than you would have spoken. His figure was full of gentle +movement, though, somehow, without disturbing its quietude; and as he +talked, he kept folding his hands nervously, and betokened in many ways a +fine and immediate sensibility, quick to feel pleasure or pain, though +scarcely capable, I should imagine, of a passionate experience in either +direction. There was not am English trait in him from head to foot, +morally, intellectually, or physically. Beef, ale, or stout, brandy or +port-wine, entered not at all into his composition. In his earlier life, +he appears to have given evidences of courage and sturdy principle, and +of a tendency to fling himself into the rough struggle of humanity on the +liberal side. It would be taking too much upon myself to affirm that +this was merely a projection of his fancy world into the actual, and that +he never could have hit a downright blow, and was altogether an +unsuitable person to receive one. I beheld him not in his armor, but in +his peacefulest robes. Nevertheless, drawing my conclusion merely from +what I saw, it would have occurred to me that his main deficiency was a +lack of grit. Though anything but a timid man, the combative and +defensive elements were not prominently developed in his character, and +could have been made available only when he put an unnatural force upon +his instincts. It was on this account, and also because of the fineness +of his nature generally, that the English appreciated him no better, and +left this sweet and delicate poet poor, and with scanty laurels in his +declining age. + +It was not, I think, from his American blood that Leigh Hunt derived +either his amiability or his peaceful inclinations; at least, I do not +see how we can reasonably claim the former quality as a national +characteristic, though the latter might have been fairly inherited from +his ancestors on the mother's side, who were Pennsylvania Quakers. But +the kind of excellence that distinguished him--his fineness, subtilty, +and grace--was that which the richest cultivation has heretofore tended +to develop in the happier examples of American genius, and which (though +I say it a little reluctantly) is perhaps what our future intellectual +advancement may make general among us. His person, at all events, was +thoroughly American, and of the best type, as were likewise his manners; +for we are the best as well as the worst mannered people in the world. + +Leigh Hunt loved dearly to be praised. That is to say, he desired +sympathy as a flower seeks sunshine, and perhaps profited by it as much +in the richer depth of coloring that it imparted to his ideas. In +response to all that we ventured to express about his writings (and, for +my part, I went quite to the extent of my conscience, which was a long +way, and there left the matter to a lady and a young girl, who happily +were with me), his face shone, and he manifested great delight, with a +perfect, and yet delicate, frankness for which I loved him. He could not +tell us, he said, the happiness that such appreciation gave him; it +always took him by surprise, he remarked, for--perhaps because he cleaned +his own boots, and performed other little ordinary offices for himself-- +he never had been conscious of anything wonderful in his own person. And +then he smiled, making himself and all the poor little parlor about him +beautiful thereby. It is usually the hardest thing in the world to +praise a man to his face; but Leigh Hunt received the incense with such +gracious satisfaction (feeling it to be sympathy, not vulgar praise), +that the only difficulty was to keep the enthusiasm of the moment within +the limit of permanent opinion. A storm had suddenly come up while we +were talking; the rain poured, the lightning flashed, and the thunder +broke; but I hope, and have great pleasure in believing, that it was a +sunny hour for Leigh Hunt. Nevertheless, it was not to my voice that he +most favorably inclined his ear, but to those of my companions. Women +are the fit ministers at such a shrine. + +He must have suffered keenly in his lifetime, and enjoyed keenly, keeping +his emotions so much upon the surface as he seemed to do, and convenient +for everybody to play upon. Being of a cheerful temperament, happiness +had probably the upper hand. His was a light, mildly joyous nature, +gentle, graceful, yet seldom attaining to that deepest grace which +results from power; for beauty, like woman, its human representative, +dallies with the gentle, but yields its consummate favor only to the +strong. I imagine that Leigh Bunt may have been more beautiful when I +met him, both in person and character, than in his earlier days. As a +young man, I could conceive of his being finical in certain moods, but +not now, when the gravity of age shed a venerable grace about him. I +rejoiced to hear him say that he was favored with most confident and +cheering anticipations in respect to a future life; and there were +abundant proofs, throughout our interview, of an unrepining spirit, +resignation, quiet, relinquishment of the worldly benefits that were +denied him, thankful enjoyment of whatever he had to enjoy, and piety, +and hope shining onward into the dusk,--all of which gave a reverential +cast to the feeling with which we parted from him. I wish that he could +have had one full draught of prosperity before he died. As a matter of +artistic propriety, it would have been delightful to see him inhabiting a +beautiful house of his own, in an Italian climate, with all sorts of +elaborate upholstery and minute elegances about him, and a succession of +tender and lovely women to praise his sweet poetry from morning to night. +I hardly know whether it is my fault, or the effect of a weakness in +Leigh Haunt's character, that I should be sensible of a regret of this +nature, when, at the same time, I sincerely believe that he has found an +infinity of better things in the world whither he has gone. + +At our leave-taking he grasped me warmly by both hands, and seemed as +much interested in our whole party as if he had known us for years. All +this was genuine feeling, a quick, luxuriant growth out of his heart, +which was a soil for flower-seeds of rich and rare varieties, not acorns, +but a true heart, nevertheless. Several years afterwards I met him for +the last time at a London dinner-party, looking sadly broken down by +infirmities; and my final recollection of the beautiful old man presents +him arm in arm with, nay, if I mistake not, partly embraced and supported +by, another beloved and honored poet, whose minstrel-name, since he has a +week-day one for his personal occasions, I will venture to speak. It was +Barry Cornwall, whose kind introduction had first made me known to Leigh +Hunt. + + + + +OUTSIDE GLIMPSES OF ENGLISH POVERTY. + + +Becoming an inhabitant of a great English town, I often turned aside from +the prosperous thoroughfares (where the edifices, the shops, and the +bustling crowd differed not so much from scenes with which I was familiar +in my own country), and went designedly astray among precincts that +reminded me of some of Dickens's grimiest pages. There I caught glimpses +of a people and a mode of life that were comparatively new to my +observation, a sort of sombre phantasmagoric spectacle, exceedingly +undelightful to behold, yet involving a singular interest and even +fascination in its ugliness. + +Dirt, one would fancy, is plenty enough all over the world, being the +symbolic accompaniment of the foul incrustation which began to settle +over and bedim all earthly things as soon as Eve had bitten the apple; +ever since which hapless epoch, her daughters have chiefly been engaged +in a desperate and unavailing struggle to get rid of it. But the dirt of +a poverty-stricken English street is a monstrosity unknown on our side of +the Atlantic. It reigns supreme within its own limits, and is +inconceivable everywhere beyond them. We enjoy the great advantage, that +the brightness and dryness of our atmosphere keep everything clean that +the sun shines upon, converting the larger portion of our impurities into +transitory dust which the next wind can sweep away, in contrast with the +damp, adhesive grime that incorporates itself with all surfaces (unless +continually and painfully cleansed) in the chill moisture of the English +air. Then the all-pervading smoke of the city, abundantly intermingled +with the sable snow-flakes of bituminous coal, hovering overhead, +descending, and alighting on pavements and rich architectural fronts, on +the snowy muslin of the ladies, and the gentlemen's starched collars and +shirt-bosoms, invests even the better streets in a half-mourning garb. +It is beyond the resources of Wealth to keep the smut away from its +premises or its own fingers' ends; and as for Poverty, it surrenders +itself to the dark influence without a struggle. Along with disastrous +circumstances, pinching need, adversity so lengthened out as to +constitute the rule of life, there comes a certain chill depression of +the spirits which seems especially to shudder at cold water. In view of +so wretched a state of things, we accept the ancient Deluge not merely as +an insulated phenomenon, but as a periodical necessity, and acknowledge +that nothing less than such a general washing-day could suffice to +cleanse the slovenly old world of its moral and material dirt. + +Gin-shops, or what the English call spirit-vaults, are numerous in the +vicinity of these poor streets, and are set off with the magnificence of +gilded door-posts, tarnished by contact with the unclean customers who +haunt there. Ragged children come thither with old shaving-mugs, or +broken-nosed teapots, or ally such makeshift receptacle, to get a little +poison or madness for their parents, who deserve no better requital at +their hands for having engendered them. Inconceivably sluttish women +enter at noonday and stand at the counter among boon-companions of both +sexes, stirring up misery and jollity in a bumper together, and quaffing +off the mixture with a relish. As for the men, they lounge there +continually, drinking till they are drunken,--drinking as long as they +have a half-penny left, and then, as it seemed to me, waiting for a +sixpenny miracle to be wrought in their pockets so as to enable them to +be drunken again. Most of these establishments have a significant +advertisement of "Beds," doubtless for the accommodation of their +customers in the interval between one intoxication and the next. I never +could find it in my heart, however, utterly to condemn these sad +revellers, and should certainly wait till I had some better consolation +to offer before depriving them of their dram of gin, though death itself +were in the glass; for methought their poor souls needed such fiery +stimulant to lift them a little way out of the smothering squalor of both +their outward and interior life, giving them glimpses and suggestions, +even if bewildering ones, of a spiritual existence that limited their +present misery. The temperance-reformers unquestionably derive their +commission from the Divine Beneficence, but have never been taken fully +into its counsels. All may not be lost, though those good men fail. + +Pawnbrokers' establishments, distinguished by the mystic symbol of the +three golden balls, were conveniently accessible; though what personal +property these wretched people could possess, capable of being estimated +in silver or copper, so as to afford a basis for a loan, was a problem +that still perplexes me. Old clothesmen, likewise, dwelt hard by, and +hung out ancient garments to dangle in the wind. There were butchers' +shops, too, of a class adapted to the neighborhood, presenting no such +generously fattened carcasses as Englishmen love to gaze at in the +market, no stupendous halves of mighty beeves, no dead hogs or muttons +ornamented with carved bas-reliefs of fat on their ribs and shoulders, in +a peculiarly British style of art,--not these, but bits and gobbets of +lean meat, selvages snipt off from steaks, tough and stringy morsels, +bare bones smitten away from joints by the cleaver, tripe, liver, +bullocks' feet, or whatever else was cheapest and divisible into the +smallest lots. I am afraid that even such delicacies came to many of +their tables hardly oftener than Christmas. In the windows of other +little shops you saw half a dozen wizened herrings, some eggs in a +basket, looking so dingily antique that your imagination smelt them, +fly-speckled biscuits, segments of a hungry cheese, pipes and papers of +tobacco. Now and then a sturdy milk-woman passed by with a wooden yoke +over her shoulders, supporting a pail on either side, filled with a +whitish fluid, the composition of which was water and chalk and the milk +of a sickly cow, who gave the best she had, poor thing! but could +scarcely make it rich or wholesome, spending her life in some close +city-nook and pasturing on strange food. I have seen, once or twice, a +donkey coming into one of these streets with panniers full of vegetables, +and departing with a return cargo of what looked like rubbish and +street-sweepings. No other commerce seemed to exist, except, possibly, a +girl might offer you a pair of stockings or a worked collar, or a man +whisper something mysterious about wonderfully cheap cigars. And yet I +remember seeing female hucksters in those regions, with their wares on +the edge of the sidewalk and their own seats right in the carriage-way, +pretending to sell half-decayed oranges and apples, toffy, Ormskirk +cakes, combs, and cheap jewelry, the coarsest kind of crockery, and +little plates of oysters,--knitting patiently all day long, and removing +their undiminished stock in trade at nightfall. All indispensable +importations from other quarters of the town were on a remarkably +diminutive scale: for example, the wealthier inhabitants purchased their +coal by the wheelbarrow-load, and the poorer ones by the peck-measure. +It was a curious and melancholy spectacle, when an overladen coal-cart +happened to pass through the street and drop a handful or two of its +burden in the mud, to see half a dozen women and children scrambling for +the treasure-trove, like a flock of hens and chickens gobbling up some +spilt corn. In this connection I may as well mention a commodity of +boiled snails (for such they appeared to me, though probably a marine +production) which used to be peddled from door to door, piping hot, as an +article of cheap nutriment. + +The population of these dismal abodes appeared to consider the sidewalks +and middle of the street as their common hall. In a drama of low life, +the unity of place might be arranged rigidly according to the classic +rule, and the street be the one locality in which every scene and +incident should occur. Courtship, quarrels, plot and counterplot, +conspiracies for robbery and murder, family difficulties or agreements,-- +all such matters, I doubt not, are constantly discussed or transacted in +this sky-roofed saloon, so regally hung with its sombre canopy of +coal-smoke. Whatever the disadvantages of the English climate, the only +comfortable or wholesome part of life, for the city poor, must be spent +in the open air. The stifled and squalid rooms where they lie down at +night, whole families and neighborhoods together, or sulkily elbow one +another in the daytime, when a settled rain drives them within doors, are +worse horrors than it is worth while (without a practical object in view) +to admit into one's imagination. No wonder that they creep forth from +the foul mystery of their interiors, stumble down from their garrets, or +scramble up out of their cellars, on the upper step of which you may see +the grimy housewife, before the shower is ended, letting the raindrops +gutter down her visage; while her children (an impish progeny of +cavernous recesses below the common sphere of humanity) swarm into the +daylight and attain all that they know of personal purification in the +nearest mud-puddle. It might almost make a man doubt the existence of +his own soul, to observe how Nature has flung these little wretches into +the street and left them there, so evidently regarding them as nothing +worth, and how all mankind acquiesce in the great mother's estimate of +her offspring. For, if they are to have no immortality, what superior +claim can I assert for mine? And how difficult to believe that anything +so precious as a germ of immortal growth can have been buried under this +dirt-heap, plunged into this cesspool of misery and vice! As often as I +beheld the scene, it affected me with surprise and loathsome interest, +much resembling, though in a far intenser degree, the feeling with which, +when a boy, I used to turn over a plank or an old log that had long lain +on the damp ground, and found a vivacious multitude of unclean and +devilish-looking insects scampering to and fro beneath it. Without an +infinite faith, there seemed as much prospect of a blessed futurity for +those hideous hugs and many-footed worms as for these brethren of our +humanity and co-heirs of all our heavenly inheritance. Ah, what a +mystery! Slowly, slowly, as after groping at the bottom of a deep, +noisome, stagnant pool, my hope struggles upward to the surface, bearing +the half-drowned body of a child along with it, and heaving it aloft for +its life, and my own life, and all our lives. Unless these slime-clogged +nostrils can be made capable of inhaling celestial air, I know not how +the purest and most intellectual of us can reasonably expect ever to +taste a breath of it. The whole question of eternity is staked there. +If a single one of those helpless little ones be lost, the world is lost! + +The women and children greatly preponderate in such places; the men +probably wandering abroad in quest of that daily miracle, a dinner and a +drink, or perhaps slumbering in the daylight that they may the better +follow out their cat-like rambles through the dark. Here are women with +young figures, but old, wrinkled, yellow faces, fanned and blear-eyed +with the smoke which they cannot spare from their scanty fires,--it being +too precious for its warmth to be swallowed by the chimney. Some of them +sit on the doorsteps, nursing their unwashed babies at bosoms which we +will glance aside from, for the sake of our mothers and all womanhood, +because the fairest spectacle is here the foulest. Yet motherhood, in +these dark abodes, is strangely identical with what we have all known it +to be in the happiest homes. Nothing, as I remember, smote me with more +grief and pity (all the more poignant because perplexingly entangled with +an inclination to smile) than to hear a gaunt and ragged mother priding +herself on the pretty ways of her ragged and skinny infant, just as a +young matron might, when she invites her lady friends to admire her +plump, white-robed darling in the nursery. Indeed, no womanly +characteristic seemed to have altogether perished out of these poor +souls. It was the very same creature whose tender torments make the +rapture of our young days, whom we love, cherish, and protect, and rely +upon in life and death, and whom we delight to see beautify her beauty +with rich robes and set it off with jewels, though now fantastically +masquerading in a garb of tatters, wholly unfit for her to handle. I +recognized her, over and over again, in the groups round a doorstep or in +the descent of a cellar, chatting with prodigious earnestness about +intangible trifles, laughing for a little jest, sympathizing at almost +the same instant with one neighbor's sunshine and another's shadow, wise, +simple, sly, and patient, yet easily perturbed, and breaking into small +feminine ebullitions of spite, wrath, and jealousy, tornadoes of a +moment, such as vary the social atmosphere of her silken-skirted sisters, +though smothered into propriety by dint of a well-bred habit. Not that +there was an absolute deficiency of good-breeding, even here. It often +surprised me to witness a courtesy and deference among these ragged +folks, which, having seen it, I did not thoroughly believe in, wondering +whence it should have come. I am persuaded, however, that there were +laws of intercourse which they never violated,--a code of the cellar, the +garret, the common staircase, the doorstep, and the pavement, which +perhaps had as deep a foundation in natural fitness as the code of the +drawing-room. + +Yet again I doubt whether I may not have been uttering folly in the last +two sentences, when I reflect how rude and rough these specimens of +feminine character generally were. They had a readiness with their hands +that reminded me of Molly Seagrim and other heroines in Fielding's +novels. For example, I have seen a woman meet a man in the street, and, +for no reason perceptible to me, suddenly clutch him by the hair and cuff +his ears,--an infliction which he bore with exemplary patience, only +snatching the very earliest opportunity to take to his heels. Where a +sharp tongue will not serve the purpose, they trust to the sharpness of +their finger-nails, or incarnate a whole vocabulary of vituperative words +in a resounding slap, or the downright blow of a doubled fist. All +English people, I imagine, are influenced in a far greater degree than +ourselves by this simple and honest tendency, in cases of disagreement, +to batter one another's persons; and whoever has seen a crowd of English +ladies (for instance, at the door of the Sistine Chapel, in Holy Week) +will be satisfied that their belligerent propensities are kept in +abeyance only by a merciless rigor on the part of society. It requires a +vast deal of refinement to spiritualize their large physical endowments. +Such being the case with the delicate ornaments of the drawing-room, it +is the less to be wondered at that women who live mostly in the open air, +amid the coarsest kind of companionship and occupation, should carry on +the intercourse of life with a freedom unknown to any class of American +females, though still, I am resolved to think, compatible with a generous +breadth of natural propriety. It shocked me, at first, to see them (of +all ages, even elderly, as well as infants that could just toddle across +the street alone) going about in the mud and mire, or through the dusky +snow and slosh of a severe week in winter, with petticoats high uplifted +above bare, red feet and legs; but I was comforted by observing that both +shoes and stockings generally reappeared with better weather, having been +thriftily kept out of the damp for the convenience of dry feet within +doors. Their hardihood was wonderful, and their strength greater than +could have been expected from such spare diet as they probably lived +upon. I have seen them carrying on their heads great burdens under which +they walked as freely as if they were fashionable bonnets; or sometimes +the burden was huge enough almost to cover the whole person, looked at +from behind,--as in Tuscan villages you may see the girls coming in from +the country with great bundles of green twigs upon their backs, so that +they resemble locomotive masses of verdure and fragrance. But these poor +English women seemed to be laden with rubbish, incongruous and +indescribable, such as bones and rags, the sweepings of the house and of +the street, a merchandise gathered up from what poverty itself had thrown +away, a heap of filthy stuff analogous to Christian's bundle of sin. + +Sometimes, though very seldom, I detected a certain gracefulness among +the younger women that was altogether new to my observation. It was a +charm proper to the lowest class. One girl I particularly remember, in a +garb none of the cleanest and nowise smart, and herself exceedingly +coarse in all respects, but yet endowed with a sort of witchery, a native +charm, a robe of simple beauty and suitable behavior that she was born in +and had never been tempted to throw off, because she had really nothing +else to put on. Eve herself could not have been more natural. Nothing +was affected, nothing imitated; no proper grace was vulgarized by an +effort to assume the manners or adornments of another sphere. This kind +of beauty, arrayed in a fitness of its own, is probably vanishing out of +the world, and will certainly never be found in America, where all the +girls, whether daughters of the upper-tendon, the mediocrity, the +cottage, or the kennel, aim at one standard of dress and deportment, +seldom accomplishing a perfectly triumphant hit or an utterly absurd +failure. Those words, "genteel" and "ladylike," are terrible ones and do +us infinite mischief, but it is because (at least, I hope so) we are in a +transition state, and shall emerge into a higher mode of simplicity than +has ever been known to past ages. + +In such disastrous circumstances as I have been attempting to describe, +it was beautiful to observe what a mysterious efficacy still asserted +itself in character. A woman, evidently poor as the poorest of her +neighbors, would be knitting or sewing on the doorstep, just as fifty +other women were; but round about her skirts (though wofully patched) +you would be sensible of a certain sphere of decency, which, it seemed to +me, could not have been kept more impregnable in the cosiest little +sitting-room, where the tea-kettle on the hob was humming its good old +song of domestic peace. Maidenhood had a similar power. The evil habit +that grows upon us in this harsh world makes me faithless to my own +better perceptions; and yet I have seen girls in these wretched streets, +on whose virgin purity, judging merely from their impression on my +instincts as they passed by, I should have deemed it safe, at the moment, +to stake my life. The next moment, however, as the surrounding flood of +moral uncleanness surged over their footsteps, I would not have staked a +spike of thistle-down on the same wager. Yet the miracle was within the +scope of Providence, which is equally wise and equally beneficent (even +to those poor girls, though I acknowledge the fact without the remotest +comprehension of the mode of it), whether they were pure or what we +fellow-sinners call vile. Unless your faith be deep-rooted and of most +vigorous growth, it is the safer way not to turn aside into this region +so suggestive of miserable doubt. It was a place "with dreadful faces +thronged," wrinkled and grim with vice and wretchedness; and, thinking +over the line of Milton here quoted, I come to the conclusion that those +ugly lineaments which startled Adam and Eve, as they looked backward to +the closed gate of Paradise, were no fiends from the pit, but the more +terrible foreshadowings of what so many of their descendants were to be. +God help them, and us likewise, their brethren and sisters! Let me add, +that, forlorn, ragged, careworn, hopeless, dirty, haggard, hungry, as +they were, the most pitiful thing of all was to see the sort of patience +with which they accepted their lot, as if they had been born into the +world for that and nothing else. Even the little children had this +characteristic in as perfect development as their grandmothers. + +The children, in truth, were the ill-omened blossoms from which another +harvest of precisely such dark fruitage as I saw ripened around me was to +be produced. Of course you would imagine these to be lumps of crude +iniquity, tiny vessels as full as they could hold of naughtiness; nor can +I say a great deal to the contrary. Small proof of parental discipline +could I discern, save when a mother (drunken, I sincerely hope) snatched +her own imp out of a group of pale, half-naked, humor-eaten abortions +that were playing and squabbling together in the mud, turned up its +tatters, brought down her heavy hand on its poor little tenderest part, +and let it go again with a shake. If the child knew what the punishment +was for, it was wiser than I pretend to be. It yelled, and went back to +its playmates in the mud. Yet let me bear testimony to what was +beautiful, and more touching than anything that I ever witnessed in the +intercourse of happier children. I allude to the superintendence which +some of these small people (too small, one would think, to be sent into +the street alone, had there been any other nursery for them) exercised +over still smaller ones. Whence they derived such a sense of duty, +unless immediately from God, I cannot tell; but it was wonderful to +observe the expression of responsibility in their deportment, the anxious +fidelity with which they discharged their unfit office, the tender +patience with which they linked their less pliable impulses to the +wayward footsteps of an infant, and let it guide them whithersoever it +liked. In the hollow-cheeked, large-eyed girl of ten, whom I saw giving +a cheerless oversight to her baby-brother, I did not so much marvel at +it. She had merely come a little earlier than usual to the perception of +what was to be her business in life. But I admired the sickly-looking +little boy, who did violence to his boyish nature by making himself the +servant of his little sister,--she too small to walk, and he too small to +take her in his arms,--and therefore working a kind of miracle to +transport her from one dirt-heap to another. Beholding such works of +love and duty, I took heart again, and deemed it not so impossible, after +all, for these neglected children to find a path through the squalor and +evil of their circumstances up to the gate of heaven. Perhaps there was +this latent good in all of them, though generally they looked brutish, +and dull even in their sports; there was little mirth among them, nor +even a fully awakened spirit of blackguardism. Yet sometimes, again, I +saw, with surprise and a sense as if I had been asleep and dreaming, the +bright, intelligent, merry face of a child whose dark eyes gleamed with +vivacious expression through the dirt that incrusted its skin, like +sunshine struggling through a very dusty window-pane. + +In these streets the belted and blue-coated policeman appears seldom in +comparison with the frequency of his occurrence in more reputable +thoroughfares. I used to think that the inhabitants would have ample +time to murder one another, or any stranger, like myself, who might +violate the filthy sanctities of the place; before the law could bring up +its lumbering assistance. Nevertheless, there is a supervision; nor does +the watchfulness of authority permit the populace to be tempted to any +outbreak. Once, in a time of dearth I noticed a ballad-singer going +through the street hoarsely chanting some discordant strain in a +provincial dialect, of which I could only make out that it addressed the +sensibilities of the auditors on the score of starvation; but by his side +stalked the policeman, offering no interference, but watchful to hear +what this rough minstrel said or sang, and silence him, if his effusion +threatened to prove too soul-stirring. In my judgment, however, there is +little or no danger of that kind: they starve patiently, sicken +patiently, die patiently, not through resignation, but a diseased +flaccidity of hope. If ever they should do mischief to those above them, +it will probably be by the communication of some destructive pestilence; +for, so the medical men affirm, they suffer all the ordinary diseases +with a degree of virulence elsewhere unknown, and keep among themselves +traditionary plagues that have long ceased to afflict more fortunate +societies. Charity herself gathers her robe about her to avoid their +contact. It would be a dire revenge, indeed, if they were to prove their +claims to be reckoned of one blood and nature with the noblest and +wealthiest by compelling them to inhale death through the diffusion of +their own poverty-poisoned atmosphere. + +A true Englishman is a kind man at heart, but has an unconquerable +dislike to poverty and beggary. Beggars have heretofore been so strange +to an American that he is apt to become their prey, being recognized +through his national peculiarities, and beset by them in the streets. +The English smile at him, and say that there are ample public +arrangements for every pauper's possible need, that street-charity +promotes idleness and vice, and that yonder personification of misery on +the pavement will lay up a good day's profit, besides supping more +luxuriously than the dupe who gives him a shilling. By and by the +stranger adopts their theory and begins to practise upon it, much to his +own temporary freedom from annoyance, but not entirely without moral +detriment or sometimes a too late contrition. Years afterwards, it may +be, his memory is still haunted by some vindictive wretch whose cheeks +were pale and hunger-pinched, whose rags fluttered in the east-wind, +whose right arm was paralyzed and his left leg shrivelled into a mere +nerveless stick, but whom he passed by remorselessly because an +Englishman chose to say that the fellow's misery looked too perfect, was +too artistically got up, to be genuine. Even allowing this to be true +(as, a hundred chances to one, it was), it would still have been a clear +case of economy to buy him off with a little loose silver, so that his +lamentable figure should not limp at the heels of your conscience all +over the world. To own the truth, I provided myself with several such +imaginary persecutors in England, and recruited their number with at +least one sickly-looking wretch whose acquaintance I first made at +Assisi, in Italy, and, taking a dislike to something sinister in his +aspect, permitted him to beg early and late, and all day long, without +getting a single baiocco. At my latest glimpse of him, the villain +avenged himself, not by a volley of horrible curses, as any other Italian +beggar would, but by taking an expression so grief-stricken, want-wrung, +hopeless, and withal resigned, that I could paint his lifelike portrait +at this moment. Were I to go over the same ground again, I would listen +to no man's theories, but buy the little luxury of beneficence at a cheap +rate, instead of doing myself a moral mischief by exuding a stony +incrustation over whatever natural sensibility I might possess. + +On the other hand, there were some mendicants whose utmost efforts I even +now felicitate myself on having withstood. Such was a phenomenon +abridged of his lower half, who beset me for two or three years together, +and, in spite of his deficiency of locomotive members, had some +supernatural method of transporting himself (simultaneously, I believe) +to all quarters of the city. He wore a sailor's jacket (possibly, +because skirts would have been a superfluity to his figure), and had a +remarkably broad-shouldered and muscular frame, surmounted by a large, +fresh-colored face, which was full of power and intelligence. His dress +and linen were the perfection of neatness. Once a day, at least, +wherever I went, I suddenly became aware of this trunk of a man on the +path before me, resting on his base, and looking as if he had just +sprouted out of the pavement, and would sink into it again and reappear +at some other spot the instant you left him behind. The expression of +his eye was perfectly respectful, but terribly fixed, holding your own as +by fascination, never once winking, never wavering from its point-blank +gaze right into your face, till you were completely beyond the range of +his battery of one immense rifled cannon. This was his mode of +soliciting alms; and he reminded me of the old beggar who appealed so +touchingly to the charitable sympathies of Gil Blas, taking aim at him +from the roadside with a long-barrelled musket. The intentness and +directness of his silent appeal, his close and unrelenting attack upon +your individuality, respectful as it seemed, was the very flower of +insolence; or, if you give it a possibly truer interpretation, it was the +tyrannical effort of a man endowed with great natural force of character +to constrain your reluctant will to his purpose. Apparently, he had +staked his salvation upon the ultimate success of a daily struggle +between himself and me, the triumph of which would compel me to become a +tributary to the hat that lay on the pavement beside him. Man or fiend, +however, there was a stubbornness in his intended victim which this +massive fragment of a mighty personality had not altogether reckoned +upon, and by its aid I was enabled to pass him at my customary pace +hundreds of times over, quietly meeting his terribly respectful eye, and +allowing him the fair chance which I felt to be his due, to subjugate me, +if he really had the strength for it. He never succeeded, but, on the +other hand, never gave up the contest; and should I ever walk those +streets again, I am certain that the truncated tyrant will sprout up +through the pavement and look me fixedly in the eye, and perhaps get the +victory. + +I should think all the more highly of myself, if I had shown equal +heroism in resisting another class of beggarly depredators, who +assailed me on my weaker side and won an easy spoil. Such was the +sanctimonious clergyman, with his white cravat, who visited me with a +subscription-paper, which he himself had drawn up, in a case of +heart-rending distress;--the respectable and ruined tradesman, going from +door to door, shy and silent in his own person, but accompanied by a +sympathizing friend, who bore testimony to his integrity, and stated the +unavoidable misfortunes that had crushed him down;--or the delicate and +prettily dressed lady, who had been bred in affluence, but was suddenly +thrown upon the perilous charities of the world by the death of an +indulgent, but secretly insolvent father, or the commercial catastrophe +and simultaneous suicide of the best of husbands; or the gifted, but +unsuccessful author, appealing to my fraternal sympathies, generously +rejoicing in some small prosperities which he was kind enough to term my +own triumphs in the field of letters, and claiming to have largely +contributed to them by his unbought notices in the public journals. +England is full of such people, and a hundred other varieties of +peripatetic tricksters, higher than these, and lower, who act their parts +tolerably well, but seldom with an absolutely illusive effect. I knew at +once, raw Yankee as I was, that they were humbugs, almost without an +exception,--rats that nibble at the honest bread and cheese of the +community, and grow fat by their petty pilferings, yet often gave them +what they asked, and privately owned myself a simpleton. There is a +decorum which restrains you (unless you happen to be a police-constable) +from breaking through a crust of plausible respectability, even when you +are certain that there is a knave beneath it. + +After making myself as familiar as I decently could with the poor +streets, I became curious to see what kind of a home was provided for the +inhabitants at the public expense, fearing that it must needs be a most +comfortless one, or else their choice (if choice it were) of so miserable +a life outside was truly difficult to account for. Accordingly, I +visited a great almshouse, and was glad to observe how unexceptionably +all the parts of the establishment were carried on, and what an orderly +life, full-fed, sufficiently reposeful, and undisturbed by the arbitrary +exercise of authority, seemed to be led there. Possibly, indeed, it was +that very orderliness, and the cruel necessity of being neat and clean, +and even the comfort resulting from these and other Christian-like +restraints and regulations, that constituted the principal grievance on +the part of the poor, shiftless inmates, accustomed to a lifelong luxury +of dirt and harum-scarumness. The wild life of the streets has perhaps +as unforgetable a charm, to those who have once thoroughly imbibed it, as +the life of the forest or the prairie. But I conceive rather that there +must be insuperable difficulties, for the majority of the poor, in the +way of getting admittance to the almshouse, than that a merely aesthetic +preference for the street would incline the pauper-class to fare scantily +and precariously, and expose their raggedness to the rain and snow, when +such a hospitable door stood wide open for their entrance. It might be +that the roughest and darkest side of the matter was not shown me, there +being persons of eminent station and of both sexes in the party which I +accompanied; and, of course, a properly trained public functionary would +have deemed it a monstrous rudeness, as well as a great shame, to exhibit +anything to people of rank that might too painfully shock their +sensibilities. + +The women's ward was the portion of the establishment which we especially +examined. It could not be questioned that they were treated with +kindness as well as care. No doubt, as has been already suggested, some +of them felt the irksomeness of submission to general rules of orderly +behavior, after being accustomed to that perfect freedom from the minor +proprieties, at least, which is one of the compensations of absolutely +hopeless poverty, or of any circumstances that set us fairly below the +decencies of life. I asked the governor of the house whether he met with +any difficulty in keeping peace and order among his inmates; and he +informed me that his troubles among the women were incomparably greater +than with the men. They were freakish, and apt to be quarrelsome, +inclined to plague and pester one another in ways that it was impossible +to lay hold of, and to thwart his own authority by the like intangible +methods. He said this with the utmost good-nature, and quite won my +regard by so placidly resigning himself to the inevitable necessity of +letting the women throw dust into his eyes. They certainly looked +peaceable and sisterly enough, as I saw them, though still it might be +faintly perceptible that some of them were consciously playing their +parts before the governor and his distinguished visitors. + +This governor seemed to me a man thoroughly fit for his position. An +American, in an office of similar responsibility, would doubtless be a +much superior person, better educated, possessing a far wider range of +thought, more naturally acute, with a quicker tact of external +observation and a readier faculty of dealing with difficult cases. The +women would not succeed in throwing half so much dust into his eyes. +Moreover, his black coat, and thin, sallow visage, would make him look +like a scholar, and his manners would indefinitely approximate to those +of a gentleman. But I cannot help questioning, whether, on the whole, +these higher endowments would produce decidedly better results. The +Englishman was thoroughly plebeian both in aspect and behavior, a bluff, +ruddy-faced, hearty, kindly, yeoman-like personage, with no refinement +whatever, nor any superfluous sensibility, but gifted with a native +wholesomeness of character which must have been a very beneficial element +in the atmosphere of the almshouse. He spoke to his pauper family in +loud, good-humored, cheerful tones, and treated them with a healthy +freedom that probably caused the forlorn wretches to feel as if they were +free and healthy likewise. If he had understood them a little better, he +would not have treated them half so wisely. We are apt to make sickly +people more morbid, and unfortunate people more miserable, by endeavoring +to adapt our deportment to their especial and individual needs. They +eagerly accept our well-meant efforts; but it is like returning their own +sick breath back upon themselves, to be breathed over and over again, +intensifying the inward mischief at every repetition. The sympathy that +would really do them good is of a kind that recognizes their sound and +healthy parts, and ignores the part affected by disease, which will +thrive under the eye of a too close observer like a poisonous weed in the +sunshine. My good friend the governor had no tendencies in the latter +direction, and abundance of them in the former, and was consequently as +wholesome and invigorating as the west-wind with a little spice of the +north in it, brightening the dreary visages that encountered us as if he +had carried a sunbeam in his hand. He expressed himself by his whole +being and personality, and by works more than words, and had the not +unusual English merit of knowing what to do much better than how to talk +about it. + +The women, I imagine, must have felt one imperfection in their state, +however comfortable otherwise. They were forbidden, or, at all events, +lacked the means, to follow out their natural instinct of adorning +themselves; all were dressed in one homely uniform of blue-checked gowns, +with such caps upon their heads as English servants wear. Generally, +too, they had one dowdy English aspect, and a vulgar type of features so +nearly alike that they seemed literally to constitute a sisterhood. We +have few of these absolutely unilluminated faces among our native +American population, individuals of whom must be singularly unfortunate, +if, mixing as we do, no drop of gentle blood has contributed to refine +the turbid element, no gleam of hereditary intelligence has lighted up +the stolid eyes, which their forefathers brought, from the Old Country. +Even in this English almshouse, however, there was at least one person +who claimed to be intimately connected with rank and wealth. The +governor, after suggesting that this person would probably be gratified +by our visit, ushered us into a small parlor, which was furnished a +little more like a room in a private dwelling than others that we +entered, and had a row of religious books and fashionable novels on the +mantel-piece. An old lady sat at a bright coal-fire, reading a romance, +and rose to receive us with a certain pomp of manner and elaborate +display of ceremonious courtesy, which, in spite of myself, made me +inwardly question the genuineness of her aristocratic pretensions. But, +at any rate, she looked like a respectable old soul, and was evidently +gladdened to the very core of her frost-bitten heart by the awful +punctiliousness with which she responded to her gracious and hospitable, +though unfamiliar welcome. After a little polite conversation, we +retired; and the governor, with a lowered voice and an air of deference, +told us that she had been a lady of quality, and had ridden in her own +equipage, not many years before, and now lived in continual expectation +that some of her rich relatives would drive up in their carriages to take +her away. Meanwhile, he added, she was treated with great respect by her +fellow-paupers. I could not help thinking, from a few criticisable +peculiarities in her talk and manner, that there might have been a +mistake on the governor's part, and perhaps a venial exaggeration on the +old lady's, concerning her former position in society; but what struck me +was the forcible instance of that most prevalent of English vanities, the +pretension to aristocratic connection, on one side, and the submission +and reverence with which it was accepted by the governor and his +household, on the other. Among ourselves, I think, when wealth and +eminent position have taken their departure, they seldom leave a pallid +ghost behind them,--or, if it sometimes stalks abroad, few recognize it. + +We went into several other rooms, at the doors of which, pausing on the +outside, we could hear the volubility, and sometimes the wrangling, of +the female inhabitants within, but invariably found silence and peace, +when we stepped over the threshold. The women were grouped together in +their sitting-rooms, sometimes three or four, sometimes a larger number, +classified by their spontaneous affinities, I suppose, and all busied, so +far as I can remember, with the one occupation of knitting coarse yarn +stockings. Hardly any of them, I am sorry to say, had a brisk or +cheerful air, though it often stirred them up to a momentary vivacity to +be accosted by the governor, and they seemed to like being noticed, +however slightly, by the visitors. The happiest person whom I saw there +(and, running hastily through my experiences, I hardly recollect to have +seen a happier one in my life, if you take a careless flow of spirits +as happiness) was an old woman that lay in bed among ten or twelve +heavy-looking females, who plied their knitting-work round about her. +She laughed, when we entered, and immediately began to talk to us, in a +thin, little, spirited quaver, claiming to be more than a century old; +and the governor (in whatever way he happened to be cognizant of the +fact) confirmed her age to be a hundred and four. Her jauntiness and +cackling merriment were really wonderful. It was as if she had got +through with all her actual business in life two or three generations +ago, and now, freed from every responsibility for herself or others, had +only to keep up a mirthful state of mind till the short time, or long +time (and, happy as she was, she appeared not to care whether it were +long or short), before Death, who had misplaced her name in his list, +might remember to take her away. She had gone quite round the circle of +human existence, and come back to the play-ground again. And so she had +grown to be a kind of miraculous old pet, the plaything of people seventy +or eighty years younger than herself, who talked and laughed with her as +if she were a child, finding great delight in her wayward and strangely +playful responses, into some of which she cunningly conveyed a gibe that +caused their ears to tingle a little. She had done getting out of bed in +this world, and lay there to be waited upon like a queen or a baby. + +In the same room sat a pauper who had once been an actress of +considerable repute, but was compelled to give up her profession by a +softening of the brain. The disease seemed to have stolen the continuity +out of her life, and disturbed an healthy relationship between the +thoughts within her and the world without. On our first entrance, she +looked cheerfully at us, and showed herself ready to engage in +conversation; but suddenly, while we were talking with the century-old +crone, the poor actress began to weep, contorting her face with +extravagant stage-grimaces, and wringing her hands for some inscrutable +sorrow. It might have been a reminiscence of actual calamity in her past +life, or, quite as probably, it was but a dramatic woe, beneath which she +had staggered and shrieked and wrung her hands with hundreds of +repetitions in the sight of crowded theatres, and been as often comforted +by thunders of applause. But my idea of the mystery was, that she had a +sense of wrong in seeing the aged woman (whose empty vivacity was like +the rattling of dry peas in a bladder) chosen as the central object of +interest to the visitors, while she herself, who had agitated thousands +of hearts with a breath, sat starving for the admiration that was her +natural food. I appeal to the whole society of artists of the Beautiful +and the Imaginative,--poets, romancers, painters, sculptors, actors,-- +whether or no this is a grief that may be felt even amid the torpor of a +dissolving brain! + +We looked into a good many sleeping-chambers, where were rows of beds, +mostly calculated for two occupants, and provided with sheets and +pillow-cases that resembled sackcloth. It appeared to me that the sense +of beauty was insufficiently regarded in all the arrangements of the +almshouse; a little cheap luxury for the eye, at least, might do the poor +folks a substantial good. But, at all events, there was the beauty of +perfect neatness and orderliness, which, being heretofore known to few of +them, was perhaps as much as they could well digest in the remnant of +their lives. We were invited into the laundry, where a great washing and +drying were in process, the whole atmosphere being hot and vaporous with +the steam of wet garments and bedclothes. This atmosphere was the +pauper-life of the past week or fortnight resolved into a gaseous state, +and breathing it, however fastidiously, we were forced to inhale the +strange element into our inmost being. Had the Queen been there, I know +not how she could have escaped the necessity. What an intimate +brotherhood is this in which we dwell, do what we may to put an +artificial remoteness between the high creature and the low one! A poor +man's breath, borne on the vehicle of tobacco-smoke, floats into a +palace-window and reaches the nostrils of a monarch. It is but an +example, obvious to the sense, of the innumerable and secret channels by +which, at every moment of our lives, the flow and reflux of a common +humanity pervade us all. How superficial are the niceties of such as +pretend to keep aloof! Let the whole world be cleansed, or not a man or +woman of us all can be clean. + +By and by we came to the ward where the children were kept, on entering +which, we saw, in the first place, several unlovely and unwholesome +little people lazily playing together in a court-yard. And here a +singular incommodity befell one member of our party. Among the children +was a wretched, pale, half-torpid little thing (about six years old, +perhaps,--but I know not whether a girl or a boy), with a humor in its +eyes and face, which the governor said was the scurvy, and which appeared +to bedim its powers of vision, so that it toddled about gropingly, as if +in quest of it did not precisely know what. This child--this sickly, +wretched, humor-eaten infant, the offspring of unspeakable sin and +sorrow, whom it must have required several generations of guilty +progenitors to render so pitiable an object as we beheld it--immediately +took an unaccountable fancy to the gentleman just hinted at. It prowled +about him like a pet kitten, rubbing against his legs, following +everywhere at his heels, pulling at his coat-tails, and, at last, +exerting all the speed that its poor limbs were capable of, got directly +before him and held forth its arms, mutely insisting on being taken up. +It said not a word, being perhaps under-witted and incapable of prattle. +But it smiled up in his face,--a sort of woful gleam was that smile, +through the sickly blotches that covered its features,--and found means +to express such a perfect confidence that it was going to be fondled and +made much of, that there was no possibility in a human heart of balking +its expectation. It was as if God had promised the poor child this favor +on behalf of that individual, and he was bound to fulfil the contract, or +else no longer call himself a man among men. Nevertheless, it could be +no easy thing for him to do, he being a person burdened with more than an +Englishman's customary reserve, shy of actual contact with human beings, +afflicted with a peculiar distaste for whatever was ugly, and, +furthermore, accustomed to that habit of observation from an insulated +stand-point which is said (but, I hope, erroneously) to have the tendency +of putting ice into the blood. + +So I watched the struggle in his mind with a good deal of interest, and +am seriously of opinion that he did an heroic act, and effected more than +he dreamed of towards his final salvation, when he took up the loathsome +child and caressed it as tenderly as if he had been its father. To be +sure, we all smiled at him, at the time, but doubtless would have acted +pretty much the same in a similar stress of circumstances. The child, at +any rate, appeared to be satisfied with his behavior; for when he had +held it a considerable time, and set it down, it still favored him with +its company, keeping fast hold of his forefinger till we reached the +confines of the place. And on our return through the court-yard, after +visiting another part of the establishment, here again was this same +little Wretchedness waiting for its victim, with a smile of joyful, and +yet dull recognition about its scabby mouth and in its rheumy eyes. No +doubt, the child's mission in reference to our friend was to remind him +that he was responsible, in his degree, for all the sufferings and +misdemeanors of the world in which he lived, and was not entitled to look +upon a particle of its dark calamity as if it were none of his concern: +the offspring of a brother's iniquity being his own blood-relation, and +the guilt, likewise, a burden on him, unless he expiated it by better +deeds. + +All the children in this ward seemed to be invalids, and, going up +stairs, we found more of them in the same or a worse condition than the +little creature just described, with their mothers (or more probably +other women, for the infants were mostly foundlings) in attendance as +nurses. The matron of the ward, a middle-aged woman, remarkably kind and +motherly in aspect, was walking to and fro across the chamber--on that +weary journey in which careful mothers and nurses travel so continually +and so far, and gain never a step of progress--with an unquiet baby in +her arms. She assured us that she enjoyed her occupation, being +exceedingly fond of children; and, in fact, the absence of timidity in +all the little people was a sufficient proof that they could have had no +experience of harsh treatment, though, on the other hand, none of them +appeared to be attracted to one individual more than another. In this +point they differed widely from the poor child below stairs. They seemed +to recognize a universal motherhood in womankind, and cared not which +individual might be the mother of the moment. I found their tameness as +shocking as did Alexander Selkirk that of the brute subjects of his else +solitary kingdom. It was a sort of tame familiarity, a perfect +indifference to the approach of strangers, such as I never noticed in +other children. I accounted for it partly by their nerveless, unstrung +state of body, incapable of the quick thrills of delight and fear which +play upon the lively harp-strings of a healthy child's nature, and partly +by their woful lack of acquaintance with a private home, and their being +therefore destitute of the sweet home-bred shyness, which is like the +sanctity of heaven about a mother-petted child. Their condition was like +that of chickens hatched in an oven, and growing up without the especial +guardianship of a matron hen: both the chicken and the child, methinks, +must needs want something that is essential to their respective +characters. + +In this chamber (which was spacious, containing a large number of beds) +there was a clear fire burning on the hearth, as in all the other +occupied rooms; and directly in front of the blaze sat a woman holding a +baby, which, beyond all reach of comparison, was the most horrible object +that ever afflicted my sight. Days afterwards--nay, even now, when I +bring it up vividly before my mind's eye--it seemed to lie upon the floor +of my heart, polluting my moral being with the sense of something +grievously amiss in the entire conditions of humanity. The holiest man +could not be otherwise than full of wickedness, the chastest virgin +seemed impure, in a world where such a babe was possible. The governor +whispered me, apart, that, like nearly all the rest of them, it was the +child of unhealthy parents. Ah, yes! There was the mischief. This +spectral infant, a hideous mockery of the visible link which Love creates +between man and woman, was born of disease and sin. Diseased Sin was its +father, and Sinful Disease its mother, and their offspring lay in the +woman's arms like a nursing Pestilence, which, could it live and grow up, +would make the world a more accursed abode than ever heretofore. Thank +Heaven, it could not live! This baby, if we must give it that sweet +name, seemed to be three or four months old, but, being such an unthrifty +changeling, might have been considerably older. It was all covered with +blotches, and preternaturally dark and discolored; it was withered away, +quite shrunken and fleshless; it breathed only amid pantings and +gaspings, and moaned painfully at every gasp. The only comfort in +reference to it was the evident impossibility of its surviving to draw +many more of those miserable, moaning breaths; and it would have been +infinitely less heart-depressing to see it die, right before my eyes, +than to depart and carry it alive in my remembrance, still suffering the +incalculable torture of its little life. I can by no means express how +horrible this infant was, neither ought I to attempt it. And yet I must +add one final touch. Young as the poor little creature was, its pain and +misery had endowed it with a premature intelligence, insomuch that its +eyes seemed to stare at the bystanders out of their sunken sockets +knowingly and appealingly, as if summoning us one and all to witness the +deadly wrong of its existence. At least, I so interpreted its look, when +it positively met and responded to my own awe-stricken gaze, and +therefore I lay the case, as far as I am able, before mankind, on whom +God has imposed the necessity to suffer in soul and body till this dark +and dreadful wrong be righted. + +Thence we went to the school-rooms, which were underneath the chapel. +The pupils, like the children whom we had just seen, were, in large +proportion, foundlings. Almost without exception, they looked sickly, +with marks of eruptive trouble in their doltish faces, and a general +tendency to diseases of the eye. Moreover, the poor little wretches +appeared to be uneasy within their skins, and screwed themselves about on +the benches in a disagreeably suggestive way, as if they had inherited +the evil habits of their parents as an innermost garment of the same +texture and material as the shirt of Nessus, and must wear it with +unspeakable discomfort as long as they lived. I saw only a single child +that looked healthy; and on my pointing him out, the governor informed me +that this little boy, the sole exception to the miserable aspect of his +school-fellows, was not a foundling, nor properly a work-house child, +being born of respectable parentage, and his father one of the officers +of the institution. As for the remainder,--the hundred pale abortions to +be counted against one rosy-cheeked boy,--what shall we say or do? +Depressed by the sight of so much misery, and uninventive of remedies for +the evils that force themselves on my perception, I can do little more +than recur to the idea already hinted at in the early part of this +article, regarding the speedy necessity of a new deluge. So far as these +children are concerned, at any rate, it would be a blessing to the human +race, which they will contribute to enervate and corrupt,--a greater +blessing to themselves, who inherit no patrimony but disease and vice, +and in whose souls, if there be a spark of God's life, this seems the +only possible mode of keeping it aglow,--if every one of them could be +drowned to-night, by their best friends, instead of being put tenderly to +bed. This heroic method of treating human maladies, moral and material, +is certainly beyond the scope of man's discretionary rights, and probably +will not be adopted by Divine Providence until the opportunity of milder +reformation shall have been offered us again and again, through a series +of future ages. + +It may be fair to acknowledge that the humane and excellent governor, as +well as other persons better acquainted with the subject than myself, +took a less gloomy view of it, though still so dark a one as to involve +scanty consolation. They remarked that individuals of the male sex, +picked up in the streets and nurtured in the workhouse, sometimes succeed +tolerably well in life, because they are taught trades before being +turned into the world, and, by dint of immaculate behavior and good luck, +are not, unlikely to get employment and earn a livelihood. The case is +different with the girls. They can only go to service, and are +invariably rejected by families of respectability on account of their +origin, and for the better reason of their unfitness to fill +satisfactorily even the meanest situations in a well-ordered English +household. Their resource is to take service with people only a step or +two above the poorest class, with whom they fare scantily, endure harsh +treatment, lead shifting and precarious lives, and finally drop into the +slough of evil, through which, in their best estate, they do but pick +their slimy way on stepping-stones. + +From the schools we went to the bake-house, and the brew-house (for such +cruelty is not harbored in the heart of a true Englishman as to deny a +pauper his daily allowance of beer), and through the kitchens, where we +beheld an immense pot over the fire, surging and walloping with some kind +of a savory stew that filled it up to its brim. We also visited a +tailor's shop, and a shoemaker's shop, in both of which a number of mien, +and pale, diminutive apprentices, were at work, diligently enough, though +seemingly with small heart in the business. Finally, the governor +ushered us into a shed, inside of which was piled up an immense quantity +of new coffins. They were of the plainest description, made of pine +boards, probably of American growth, not very nicely smoothed by the +plane, neither painted nor stained with black, but provided with a loop +of rope at either end for the convenience of lifting the rude box and its +inmate into the cart that shall carry them to the burial-ground. There, +in holes ten feet deep, the paupers are buried one above another, +mingling their relics indistinguishably. In another world may they +resume their individuality, and find it a happier one than here! + +As we departed, a character came under our notice which I have met with +in all almshouses, whether of the city or village, or in England or +America. It was the familiar simpleton, who shuffled across the +court-yard, clattering his wooden-soled shoes, to greet us with a howl or +a laugh, I hardly know which, holding out his hand for a penny, and +chuckling grossly when it was given him. All under-witted persons, so +far as my experience goes, have this craving for copper coin, and appear +to estimate its value by a miraculous instinct, which is one of the +earliest gleams of human intelligence while the nobler faculties are yet +in abeyance. There may come a time, even in this world, when we shall +all understand that our tendency to the individual appropriation of gold +and broad acres, fine houses, and such good and beautiful things as are +equally enjoyable by a multitude, is but a trait of imperfectly developed +intelligence, like the simpleton's cupidity of a penny. When that day +dawns,--and probably not till then,--I imagine that there will be no more +poor streets nor need of almshouses. + +I was once present at the wedding of some poor English people, and was +deeply impressed by the spectacle, though by no means with such proud and +delightful emotions as seem to have affected all England on the recent +occasion of the marriage of its Prince. It was in the Cathedral at +Manchester, a particularly black and grim old structure, into which I had +stepped to examine some ancient and curious wood-carvings within the +choir. The woman in attendance greeted me with a smile (which always +glimmers forth on the feminine visage, I know not why, when a wedding is +in question), and asked me to take a seat in the nave till some poor +parties were married, it being the Easter holidays, and a good time for +them to marry, because no fees would be demanded by the clergyman. I sat +down accordingly, and soon the parson and his clerk appeared at the +altar, and a considerable crowd of people made their entrance at a +side-door, and ranged themselves in a long, huddled line across the +chancel. They were my acquaintances of the poor streets, or persons +in a precisely similar condition of life, and were now come to their +marriage-ceremony in just such garbs as I had always seen them wear: the +men in their loafers' coats, out at elbows, or their laborers' jackets, +defaced with grimy toil; the women drawing their shabby shawls tighter +about their shoulders, to hide the raggedness beneath; all of them +unbrushed, unshaven, unwashed, uncombed, and wrinkled with penury and +care; nothing virgin-like in the brides, nor hopeful or energetic in the +bridegrooms;--they were, in short, the mere rags and tatters of the human +race, whom some east-wind of evil omen, howling along the streets, had +chanced to sweep together into an unfragrant heap. Each and all of them, +conscious of his or her individual misery, had blundered into the strange +miscalculation of supposing that they could lessen the sum of it by +multiplying it into the misery of another person. All the couples (and +it was difficult, in such a confused crowd, to compute exactly their +number) stood up at once, and had execution done upon them in the lump, +the clergyman addressing only small parts of the service to each +individual pair, but so managing the larger portion as to include the +whole company without the trouble of repetition. By this compendious +contrivance, one would apprehend, he came dangerously near making every +man and woman the husband or wife of every other; nor, perhaps, would he +have perpetrated much additional mischief by the mistake; but, after +receiving a benediction in common, they assorted themselves in their own +fashion, as they only knew how, and departed to the garrets, or the +cellars, or the unsheltered street-corners, where their honeymoon and +subsequent lives were to be spent. The parson smiled decorously, the +clerk and the sexton grinned broadly, the female attendant tittered +almost aloud, and even the married parties seemed to see something +exceedingly funny in the affair; but for my part, though generally apt +enough to be tickled by a joke, I laid it away in my memory as one of the +saddest sights I ever looked upon. + +Not very long afterwards, I happened to be passing the same venerable +Cathedral, and heard a clang of joyful bells, and beheld a bridal party +coming down the steps towards a carriage and four horses, with a portly +coachman and two postilions, that waited at the gate. One parson and one +service had amalgamated the wretchedness of a score of paupers; a Bishop +and three or four clergymen had combined their spiritual might to forge +the golden links of this other marriage-bond. The bridegroom's mien had +a sort of careless and kindly English pride; the bride floated along in +her white drapery, a creature, so nice and delicate that it was a luxury +to see her, and a pity that her silk slippers should touch anything so +grimy as the old stones of the churchyard avenue. The crowd of ragged +people, who always cluster to witness what they may of an aristocratic +wedding, broke into audible admiration of the bride's beauty and the +bridegroom's manliness, and uttered prayers and ejaculations (possibly +paid for in alms) for the happiness of both. If the most favorable of +earthly conditions could make them happy, they had every prospect of it. +They were going to live on their abundance in one of those stately and +delightful English homes, such as no other people ever created or +inherited, a hall set far and safe within its own private grounds, and +surrounded with venerable trees, shaven lawns, rich shrubbery, and +trimmest pathways, the whole so artfully contrived and tended that summer +rendered it a paradise, and even winter would hardly disrobe it of its +beauty; and all this fair property seemed more exclusively and +inalienably their own, because of its descent through many forefathers, +each of whom had added an improvement or a charm, and thus transmitted it +with a stronger stamp of rightful possession to his heir. And is it +possible, after all, that there may be a flaw in the title-deeds? Is, or +is not, the system wrong that gives one married pair so immense a +superfluity of luxurious home, and shuts out a million others from any +home whatever? One day or another, safe as they deem themselves, and +safe as the hereditary temper of the people really tends to make them, +the gentlemen of England will be compelled to face this question. + + + + +CIVIC BANQUETS. + + +It has often perplexed one to imagine how an Englishman will be able to +reconcile himself to any future state of existence from which the earthly +institution of dinner shall be excluded. Even if he fail to take his +appetite along with him (which it seems to me hardly possible to believe, +since this endowment is so essential to his composition), the immortal +day must still admit an interim of two or three hours during which he +will be conscious of a slight distaste, at all events, if not an absolute +repugnance, to merely spiritual nutriment. The idea of dinner has so +imbedded itself among his highest and deepest characteristics, so +illuminated itself with intellect and softened itself with the kindest +emotions of his heart, so linked itself with Church and State, and grown +so majestic with long hereditary customs and ceremonies, that, by taking +it utterly away, Death, instead of putting the final touch to his +perfection, would leave him infinitely less complete than we have already +known him. He could not be roundly happy. Paradise, among all its +enjoyments, would lack one daily felicity which his sombre little island +possessed. Perhaps it is not irreverent to conjecture that a provision +may have been made, in this particular, for the Englishman's exceptional +necessities. It strikes me that Milton was of the opinion here +suggested, and may have intended to throw out a delightful and +consolatory hope for his countrymen, when he represents the genial +archangel as playing his part with such excellent appetite at Adam's +dinner-table, and confining himself to fruit and vegetables only because, +in those early days of her housekeeping, Eve had no more acceptable +viands to set before him. Milton, indeed, had a true English taste for +the pleasures of the table, though refined by the lofty and poetic +discipline to which he had subjected himself. It is delicately implied +in the refection in Paradise, and more substantially, though still +elegantly, betrayed in the sonnet proposing to "Laurence, of virtuous +father virtuous son," a series of nice little dinners in midwinter and it +blazes fully out in that untasted banquet which, elaborate as it was, +Satan tossed up in a trice from the kitchen-ranges of Tartarus. + +Among this people, indeed, so wise in their generation, dinner has a kind +of sanctity quite independent of the dishes that may be set upon the +table; so that, if it be only a mutton-chop, they treat it with due +reverence, and are rewarded with a degree of enjoyment which such +reckless devourers as ourselves do not often find in our richest +abundance. It is good to see how staunch they are after fifty or sixty +years of heroic eating, still relying upon their digestive powers and +indulging a vigorous appetite; whereas an American has generally lost the +one and learned to distrust the other long before reaching the earliest +decline of life; and thenceforward he makes little account of his dinner, +and dines at his peril, if at all. I know not whether my countrymen will +allow me to tell them, though I think it scarcely too much to affirm, +that on this side of the water, people never dine. At any rate, +abundantly as Nature has provided us with most of the material +requisites, the highest possible dinner has never yet been eaten in +America. It is the consummate flower of civilization and refinement; and +our inability to produce it, or to appreciate its admirable beauty, if a +happy inspiration should bring it into bloom, marks fatally the limit of +culture which we have attained. + +It is not to be supposed, however, that the mob of cultivated Englishmen +know how to dine in this elevated sense. The unpolishable ruggedness of +the national character is still an impediment to them, even in that +particular line where they are best qualified to excel. Though often +present at good men's feasts, I remember only a single dinner, which, +while lamentably conscious that many of its higher excellences were +thrown away upon me, I yet could feel to be a perfect work of art. It +could not, without unpardonable coarseness, be styled a matter of animal +enjoyment, because, out of the very perfection of that lower bliss, there +had arisen a dream-like development of spiritual happiness. As in the +masterpieces of painting and poetry, there was a something intangible, a +final deliciousness that only fluttered about your comprehension, +vanishing whenever you tried to detain it, and compelling you to +recognize it by faith rather than sense. It seemed as if a diviner set +of senses were requisite, and had been partly supplied, for the special +fruition of this banquet, and that the guests around the table (only +eight in number) were becoming so educated, polished, and softened, by +the delicate influences of what they ate and drunk, as to be now a little +more than mortal for the nonce. And there was that gentle, delicious +sadness, too, which we find in the very summit of our most exquisite +enjoyments, and feel it a charm beyond all the gayety through which it +keeps breathing its undertone. In the present case, it was worth a +heavier sigh, to reflect that such a festal achievement,--the production +of so much art, skill, fancy, invention, and perfect taste,--the growth +of all the ages, which appeared to have been ripening for this hour, +since man first began to eat and to moisten his food with wine,--must +lavish its happiness upon so brief a moment, when other beautiful things +can be made a joy forever. Yet a dinner like this is no better than we +can get, any day, at the rejuvenescent Cornhill Coffee-House, unless the +whole man, with soul, intellect, and stomach, is ready to appreciate it, +and unless, moreover, there is such a harmony in all the circumstances +and accompaniments, and especially such a pitch of well-according minds, +that nothing shall jar rudely against the guest's thoroughly awakened +sensibilities. The world, and especially our part of it, being the +rough, ill-assorted, and tumultuous place we find it, a beefsteak is +about as good as any other dinner. + +The foregoing reminiscence, however, has drawn me aside from the main +object of my sketch, in which I purposed to give a slight idea of those +public, or partially public banquets, the custom of which so thoroughly +prevails among the English people, that nothing is ever decided upon, in +matters of peace and war, until they have chewed upon it in the shape of +roast-beef, and talked it fully over in their cups. Nor are these +festivities merely occasional, but of stated recurrence in all +considerable municipalities and associated bodies. The most ancient +times appear to have been as familiar with them as the Englishmen of +to-day. In many of the old English towns, you find some stately Gothic +hall or chamber in which the Mayor and other authorities of the place +have long held their sessions; and always, in convenient contiguity, +there is a dusky kitchen, with an immense fireplace where an ox might be +roasting at his ease, though the less gigantic scale of modern cookery +may now have permitted the cobwebs to gather in its chimney. St. Mary's +Hall, in Coventry, is so good a specimen of an ancient banqueting-room, +that perhaps I may profitably devote a page or two to the description +of it. + +In a narrow street, opposite to St. Michael's Church, one of the three +famous spires of Coventry, you behold a mediaeval edifice, in the +basement of which is such a venerable and now deserted kitchen as I have +above alluded to, and, on the same level, a cellar, with low stone +pillars and intersecting arches, like the crypt of a cathedral. Passing +up a well-worn staircase, the oaken balustrade of which is as black as +ebony, you enter the fine old hall, some sixty feet in length, and broad +and lofty in proportion. It is lighted by six windows of modern stained +glass, on one side, and by the immense and magnificent arch of another +window at the farther end of the room, its rich and ancient panes +constituting a genuine historical piece, in which are represented some of +the kingly personages of old times, with their heraldic blazonries. +Notwithstanding the colored light thus thrown into the hall, and though +it was noonday when I last saw it, the panelling of black-oak, and some +faded tapestry that hung round the walls, together with the cloudy vault +of the roof above, made a gloom, which the richness only illuminated into +more appreciable effect. The tapestry is wrought with figures in the +dress of Henry VI.'s time (which is the date of the hall), and is +regarded by antiquaries as authentic evidence both for the costume of +that epoch, and, I believe, for the actual portraiture of men known in +history. They are as colorless as ghosts, however, and vanish drearily +into the old stitch-work of their substance when you try to make them +out. Coats-of-arms were formerly emblazoned all round the hall, but have +been almost rubbed out by people hanging their overcoats against them or +by women with dishclouts and scrubbing-brushes, obliterating hereditary +glories in their blind hostility to dust and spiders' webs. Full-length +portraits of several English kings, Charles II. being the earliest, hang +on the walls; and on the dais, or elevated part of the floor, stands an +antique chair of state, which several royal characters are traditionally +said to have occupied while feasting here with their loyal subjects of +Coventry. It is roomy enough for a person of kingly bulk, or even two +such, but angular and uncomfortable, reminding me of the oaken settles +which used to be seen in old-fashioned New England kitchens. + +Overhead, supported by a self-sustaining power, without the aid of a +single pillar, is the original ceiling of oak, precisely similar in shape +to the roof of a barn, with all the beams and rafters plainly to be seen. +At the remote height of sixty feet, you hardly discern that they are +carved with figures of angels and doubtless many other devices, of which +the admirable Gothic art is wasted in the duskiness that has so long been +brooding there. Over the entrance of the hall, opposite the great arched +window, the party-colored radiance of which glimmers faintly through the +interval, is a gallery for minstrels; and a row of ancient suits of armor +is suspended from its balustrade. It impresses me, too (for, having gone +so far, I would fain leave nothing untouched upon), that I remember, +somewhere about these venerable precincts, a picture of the Countess +Godiva on horseback, in which the artist has been so niggardly of that +illustrious lady's hair, that, if she had no ampler garniture, there was +certainly much need for the good people of Coventry to shut their eyes. +After all my pains, I fear that I have made but a poor hand at the +description, as regards a transference of the scene from my own mind to +the reader's. It gave me a most vivid idea of antiquity that had been +very little tampered with; insomuch that, if a group of steel-clad +knights had come clanking through the doorway, and a bearded and beruffed +old figure had handed in a stately dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a +long-forgotten fashion, unveiling a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in +the mouldy tomb, yet stepping majestically to the trill of harp and viol +from the minstrels' gallery, while the rusty armor responded with a +hollow ringing sound beneath,--why, I should have felt that these +shadows, once so familiar with the spot, had a better right in St. Mary's +Hall than I, a stranger from a far country which has no Past. But the +moral of the foregoing description is to show how tenaciously this love +of pompous dinners, this reverence for dinner as a sacred institution, +has caught hold of the English character; since, from the earliest +recognizable period, we find them building their civic banqueting-halls +as magnificently as their palaces or cathedrals. + +I know not whether the hall just described is now used for festive +purposes, but others of similar antiquity and splendor still are. For +example, there is Barber-Surgeons' Hall, in London, a very fine old room, +adorned with admirably carved wood-work on the ceiling and walls. It is +also enriched with Holbein's masterpiece, representing a grave assemblage +of barbers and surgeons, all portraits (with such extensive beards that +methinks one half of the company might have been profitably occupied in +trimming the other), kneeling before King Henry VIII. Sir Robert Peel is +said to have offered a thousand pounds for the liberty of cutting out one +of the heads from this picture, he conditioning to have a perfect +facsimile painted in. The room has many other pictures of distinguished +members of the company in long-past times, and of some of the monarchs +and statesmen of England, all darkened with age, but darkened into such +ripe magnificence as only age could bestow. It is not my design to +inflict any more specimens of ancient hall-painting on the reader; but it +may be worth while to touch upon other modes of stateliness that still +survive in these time-honored civic feasts, where there appears to be a +singular assumption of dignity and solemn pomp by respectable citizens +who would never dream of claiming any privilege of rank outside of their +own sphere. Thus, I saw two caps of state for the warden and junior +warden of the company, caps of silver (real coronets or crowns, indeed, +for these city-grandees) wrought in open-work and lined with crimson +velvet. In a strong-closet, opening from the hall, there was a great +deal of rich plate to furnish forth the banquet-table, comprising +hundreds of forks and spoons, a vast silver punch-bowl, the gift of some +jolly king or other, and, besides a multitude of less noticeable vessels, +two loving-cups, very elaborately wrought in silver gilt, one presented +by Henry VIII., the other by Charles II. These cups, including the +covers and pedestals, are very large and weighty, although the bowl-part +would hardly contain more than half a pint of wine, which, when the +custom was first established, each guest was probably expected to drink +off at a draught. In passing them from hand to hand adown a long table +of compotators, there is a peculiar ceremony which I may hereafter have +occasion to describe. Meanwhile, if I might assume such a liberty, I +should be glad to invite the reader to the official dinner-table of his +Worship, the Mayor, at a large English seaport where I spent several +years. + +The Mayor's dinner-parties occur as often as once a fortnight, and, +inviting his guests by fifty or sixty at a time, his Worship probably +assembles at his board most of the eminent citizens and distinguished +personages of the town and neighborhood more than once during his year's +incumbency, and very much, no doubt, to the promotion of good feeling +among individuals of opposite parties and diverse pursuits in life. A +miscellaneous party of Englishmen can always find more comfortable ground +to meet upon than as many Americans, their differences of opinion being +incomparably less radical than ours, and it being the sincerest wish of +all their hearts, whether they call themselves Liberals or what not, that +nothing in this world shall ever be greatly altered from what it has been +and is. Thus there is seldom such a virulence of political hostility +that it may not be dissolved in a glass or two of wine, without making +the good liquor any more dry or bitter than accords with English taste. + +The first dinner of this kind at which I had the honor to be present took +place during assize-time, and included among the guests the judges and +the prominent members of the bar. Reaching the Town Hall at seven +o'clock, I communicated my name to one of several splendidly dressed +footmen, and he repeated it to another on the first staircase, by whom it +was passed to a third, and thence to a fourth at the door of the +reception-room, losing all resemblance to the original sound in the +course of these transmissions; so that I had the advantage of making my +entrance in the character of a stranger, not only to the whole company, +but to myself as well. His Worship, however, kindly recognized me, and +put me on speaking-terms with two or three gentlemen, whom I found very +affable, and all the more hospitably attentive on the score of my +nationality. It is very singular how kind an Englishman will almost +invariably be to an individual American, without ever bating a jot of his +prejudice against the American character in the lump. My new +acquaintances took evident pains to put me at my ease; and, in requital +of their good-nature, I soon began to look round at the general company +in a critical spirit, making my crude observations apart, and drawing +silent inferences, of the correctness of which I should not have been +half so well satisfied a year afterwards as at that moment. + +There were two judges present, a good many lawyers, and a few officers of +the army in uniform. The other guests seemed to be principally of the +mercantile class, and among them was a ship-owner from Nova Scotia, with +whom I coalesced a little, inasmuch as we were born with the same sky +over our heads, and an unbroken continuity of soil between his abode and +mine. There was one old gentleman, whose character I never made out, +with powdered hair, clad in black breeches and silk stockings, and +wearing a rapier at his side; otherwise, with the exception of the +military uniforms, there was little or no pretence of official costume. +It being the first considerable assemblage of Englishmen that I had seen, +my honest impression about then was, that they were a heavy and homely +set of people, with a remarkable roughness of aspect and behavior, not +repulsive, but beneath which it required more familiarity with the +national character than I then possessed always to detect the good +breeding of a gentleman. Being generally middle-aged, or still further +advanced, they were by no means graceful in figure; for the comeliness of +the youthful Englishman rapidly diminishes with years, his body appearing +to grow longer, his legs to abbreviate themselves, and his stomach to +assume the dignified prominence which justly belongs to that metropolis +of his system. His face (what with the acridity of the atmosphere, ale +at lunch, wine at dinner, and a well-digested abundance of succulent +food) gets red and mottled, and develops at least one additional chin, +with a promise of more; so that, finally, a stranger recognizes his +animal part at the most superficial glance, but must take time and a +little pains to discover the intellectual. Comparing him with an +American, I really thought that our national paleness and lean habit of +flesh gave us greatly the advantage in an aesthetic point of view. It +seemed to me, moreover, that the English tailor had not done so much as +he might and ought for these heavy figures, but had gone on wilfully +exaggerating their uncouthness by the roominess of their garments; he had +evidently no idea of accuracy of fit, and smartness was entirely out of +his line. But, to be quite open with the reader, I afterwards learned to +think that this aforesaid tailor has a deeper art than his brethren among +ourselves, knowing how to dress his customers with such individual +propriety that they look as if they were born in their clothes, the fit +being to the character rather than the form. If you make an Englishman +smart (unless he be a very exceptional one, of whom I have seen a few), +you make him a monster; his best aspect is that of ponderous +respectability. + +To make an end of these first impressions, I fancied that not merely the +Suffolk bar, but the bar of any inland county in New England, might show +a set of thin-visaged men, looking wretchedly worn, sallow, deeply +wrinkled across the forehead, and grimly furrowed about the mouth, with +whom these heavy-checked English lawyers, slow-paced and fat-witted as +they must needs be, would stand very little chance in a professional +contest. How that matter might turn out, I am unqualified to decide. +But I state these results of my earliest glimpses at Englishmen, not for +what they are worth, but because I ultimately gave them up as worth +little or nothing. In course of time, I came to the conclusion that +Englishmen of all ages are a rather good-looking people, dress in +admirable taste from their own point of view, and, under a surface never +silken to the touch, have a refinement of manners too thorough and +genuine to be thought of as a separate endowment,--that is to say, if the +individual himself be a man of station, and has had gentlemen for his +father and grandfather. The sturdy Anglo-Saxon nature does not refine +itself short of the third generation. The tradesmen, too, and all other +classes, have their own proprieties. The only value of my criticisms, +therefore, lay in their exemplifying the proneness of a traveller to +measure one people by the distinctive characteristics of another,--as +English writers invariably measure us, and take upon themselves to be +disgusted accordingly, instead of trying to find out some principle of +beauty with which we may be in conformity. + +In due time we were summoned to the table, and went thither in no solemn +procession, but with a good deal of jostling, thrusting behind, and +scrambling for places when we reached our destination. The legal +gentlemen, I suspect, were responsible for this indecorous zeal, which I +never afterwards remarked in a similar party. The dining-hall was of +noble size, and, like the other rooms of the suite, was gorgeously +painted and gilded and brilliantly illuminated. There was a splendid +table-service, and a noble array of footmen, some of them in plain +clothes, and others wearing the town-livery, richly decorated with +gold-lace, and themselves excellent specimens of the blooming young +manhood of Britain. When we were fairly seated, it was certainly an +agreeable spectacle to look up and down the long vista of earnest faces, +and behold them so resolute, so conscious that there was an important +business in hand, and so determined to be equal to the occasion. Indeed, +Englishman or not, I hardly know what can be prettier than a snow-white +table-cloth, a huge heap of flowers as a central decoration, bright +silver, rich china, crystal glasses, decanters of Sherry at due +intervals, a French roll and an artistically folded napkin at each plate, +all that airy portion of a banquet, in short, that comes before the first +mouthful, the whole illuminated by a blaze of artificial light, without +which a dinner of made-dishes looks spectral, and the simplest viands are +the best. Printed bills-of-fare were distributed, representing an +abundant feast, no part of which appeared on the table until called for +in separate plates. I have entirely forgotten what it was, but deem it +no great matter, inasmuch as there is a pervading commonplace and +identicalness in the composition of extensive dinners, on account of the +impossibility of supplying a hundred guests with anything particularly +delicate or rare. It was suggested to me that certain juicy old +gentlemen had a private understanding what to call for, and that it would +be good policy in a stranger to follow in their footsteps through the +feast. I did not care to do so, however, because, like Sancho Panza's +dip out of Camacho's caldron, any sort of pot-luck at such a table would +be sure to suit my purpose; so I chose a dish or two on my own judgment, +and, getting through my labors betimes, had great pleasure in seeing the +Englishmen toil onward to the end. + +They drank rather copiously, too, though wisely; for I observed that they +seldom took Hock, and let the Champagne bubble slowly away out of the +goblet, solacing themselves with Sherry, but tasting it warily before +bestowing their final confidence. Their taste in wines, however, did not +seem so exquisite, and certainly was not so various, as that to which +many Americans pretend. This foppery of an intimate acquaintance with +rare vintages does not suit a sensible Englishman, as he is very much in +earnest about his wines, and adopts one or two as his lifelong friends, +seldom exchanging them for any Delilahs of a moment, and reaping the +reward of his constancy in an unimpaired stomach, and only so much gout +as he deems wholesome and desirable. Knowing well the measure of his +powers, he is not apt to fill his glass too often. Society, indeed, +would hardly tolerate habitual imprudences of that kind, though, in my +opinion, the Englishmen now upon the stage could carry off their three +bottles, at need, with as steady a gait as any of their forefathers. It +is not so very long since the three-bottle heroes sank finally under the +table. It may be (at least, I should be glad if it were true) that there +was an occult sympathy between our temperance reform, now somewhat in +abeyance, and the almost simultaneous disappearance of hard-drinking +among the respectable classes in England. I remember a middle-aged +gentleman telling me (in illustration of the very slight importance +attached to breaches of temperance within the memory of men not yet old) +that he had seen a certain magistrate, Sir John Linkwater, or +Drinkwater,--but I think the jolly old knight could hardly have staggered +under so perverse a misnomer as this last,--while sitting on the +magisterial bench, pull out a crown-piece and hand it to the clerk. "Mr. +Clerk," said Sir John, as if it were the most indifferent fact in the +world, "I was drunk last night. There are my five shillings." + +During the dinner, I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with the +gentlemen on either side of me. One of them, a lawyer, expatiated with +great unction on the social standing of the judges. Representing the +dignity and authority of the Crown, they take precedence, during +assize-time, of the highest military men in the kingdom, of the +Lord-Lieutenant of the county, of the Archbishops, of the royal Dukes, +and even of the Prince of Wales. For the nonce, they are the greatest +men in England. With a glow of professional complacency that amounted to +enthusiasm, my friend assured me, that, in case of a royal dinner, a +judge, if actually holding an assize, would be expected to offer his arm +and take the Queen herself to the table. Happening to be in company with +some of these elevated personages, on subsequent occasions, it appeared +to me that the judges are fully conscious of their paramount claims to +respect, and take rather more pains to impress them on their ceremonial +inferiors than men of high hereditary rank are apt to do. Bishops, if it +be not irreverent to say so, are sometimes marked by a similar +characteristic. Dignified position is so sweet to an Englishman, that he +needs to be born in it, and to feel it thoroughly incorporated with his +nature from its original germ, in order to keep him from flaunting it +obtrusively in the faces of innocent bystanders. + +My companion on the other side was a thick-set, middle-aged man, uncouth +in manners, and ugly where none were handsome, with a dark, roughly hewn +visage, that looked grim in repose, and secured to hold within itself +the machinery of a very terrific frown. He ate with resolute appetite, +and let slip few opportunities of imbibing whatever liquids happened to +be passing by. I was meditating in what way this grisly featured +table-fellow might most safely be accosted, when he turned to me with a +surly sort of kindness, and invited me to take a glass of wine. We then +began a conversation that abounded, on his part, with sturdy sense, and, +somehow or other, brought me closer to him than I had yet stood to an +Englishman. I should hardly have taken him to be an educated man, +certainly not a scholar of accurate training; and yet he seemed to have +all the resources of education and trained intellectual power at command. +My fresh Americanism, and watchful observation of English +characteristics, appeared either to interest or amuse him, or perhaps +both. Under the mollifying influences of abundance of meat and drink, he +grew very gracious (not that I ought to use such a phrase to describe his +evidently genuine good-will), and by and by expressed a wish for further +acquaintance, asking me to call at his rooms in London and inquire for +Sergeant Wilkins,--throwing out the name forcibly, as if he had no +occasion to be ashamed of it. I remembered Dean Swift's retort to +Sergeant Bettesworth on a similar announcement,--"Of what regiment, pray, +sir?"--and fancied that the same question might not have been quite +amiss, if applied to the rugged individual at my side. But I heard of +him subsequently as one of the prominent men at the English bar, a rough +customer, and a terribly strong champion in criminal cases; and it caused +me more regret than might have been expected, on so slight an +acquaintanceship, when, not long afterwards, I saw his death announced in +the newspapers. Not rich in attractive qualities, he possessed, I think, +the most attractive one of all,--thorough manhood. + +After the cloth was removed, a goodly group of decanters were set before +the Mayor, who sent them forth on their outward voyage, full freighted +with Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Claret, of which excellent liquors, +methought, the latter found least acceptance among the guests. When +every man had filled his glass, his Worship stood up and proposed a +toast. It was, of course, "Our gracious Sovereign," or words to that +effect; and immediately a band of musicians, whose preliminary footings +and thrummings I had already heard behind me, struck up "God save the +Queen," and the whole company rose with one impulse to assist in singing +that famous national anthem. It was the first time in my life that I had +ever seen a body of men, or even a single man, under the active influence +of the sentiment of Loyalty; for, though we call ourselves loyal to our +country and institutions, and prove it by our readiness to shed blood and +sacrifice life in their behalf, still the principle is as cold and hard, +in an American bosom, as the steel spring that puts in motion a powerful +machinery. In the Englishman's system, a force similar to that of our +steel spring is generated by the warm throbbings of human hearts. He +clothes our bare abstraction in flesh and blood,--at present, in the +flesh and blood of a woman,--and manages to combine love, awe, and +intellectual reverence, all in one emotion, and to embody his mother, his +wife, his children, the whole idea of kindred, in a single person, and +make her the representative of his country and its laws. We Americans +smile superior, as I did at the Mayor's table; and yet, I fancy, we lose +some very agreeable titillations of the heart in consequence of our proud +prerogative of caring no more about our President than for a man of +straw, or a stuffed scarecrow straddling in a cornfield. + +But, to say the truth, the spectacle struck me rather ludicrously, to see +this party of stout middle-aged and elderly gentlemen, in the fulness of +meat and drink, their ample and ruddy faces glistening with wine, +perspiration, and enthusiasm, rumbling out those strange old stanzas from +the very bottom of their hearts and stomachs, which two organs, in the +English interior arrangement, lie closer together than in ours. The song +seemed to me the rudest old ditty in the world; but I could not wonder at +its universal acceptance and indestructible popularity, considering how +inimitably it expresses the national faith and feeling as regards the +inevitable righteousness of England, the Almighty's consequent respect +and partiality for that redoubtable little island, and his presumed +readiness to strengthen its defence against the contumacious wickedness +and knavery of all other principalities or republics. Tennyson himself, +though evidently English to the very last prejudice, could not write half +so good a song for the purpose. Finding that the entire dinner-table +struck in, with voices of every pitch between rolling thunder and the +squeak of a cart-wheel, and that the strain was not of such delicacy as +to be much hurt by the harshest of them, I determined to lend my own +assistance in swelling the triumphant roar. It seemed but a proper +courtesy to the first Lady in the land, whose guest, in the largest +sense, I might consider myself. Accordingly, my first tuneful efforts +(and probably my last, for I purpose not to sing any more, unless it he +"Hail Columbia" on the restoration of the Union) were poured freely forth +in honor of Queen Victoria. The Sergeant smiled like the carved head of +a Swiss nutcracker, and the other gentlemen in my neighborhood, by nods +and gestures, evinced grave approbation of so suitable a tribute to +English superiority; and we finished our stave and sat down in an +extremely happy frame of mind. + +Other toasts followed in honor of the great institutions and interests of +the country, and speeches in response to each were made by individuals +whom the Mayor designated or the company called for. None of them +impressed me with a very high idea of English postprandial oratory. It +is inconceivable, indeed, what ragged and shapeless utterances most +Englishmen are satisfied to give vent to, without attempting anything +like artistic shape, but clapping on a patch here and another there, and +ultimately getting out what they want to say, and generally with a result +of sufficiently good sense, but in some such disorganized mass as if they +had thrown it up rather than spoken it. It seemed to me that this was +almost as much by choice as necessity. An Englishman, ambitious of +public favor, should not be too smooth. If an orator is glib, his +countrymen distrust him. They dislike smartness. The stronger and +heavier his thoughts, the better, provided there be an element of +commonplace running through them; and any rough, yet never vulgar force +of expression, such as would knock an opponent down, if it hit him, only +it must not be too personal, is altogether to their taste; but a studied +neatness of language, or other such superficial graces, they cannot +abide. They do not often permit a man to make himself a fine orator of +malice aforethought, that is, unless he be a nobleman (as, for example, +Lord Stanley, of the Derby family), who, as an hereditary legislator and +necessarily a public speaker, is bound to remedy a poor natural delivery +in the best way he can. On the whole, I partly agree with them, and, if +I cared for any oratory whatever, should be as likely to applaud theirs +as our own. When an English speaker sits down, you feel that you have +been listening to a real man, and not to an actor; his sentiments have a +wholesome earth-smell in them, though, very likely, this apparent +naturalness is as much an art as what we expend in rounding a sentence or +elaborating a peroration. + +It is one good effect of this inartificial style, that nobody in England +seems to feel any shyness about shovelling the untrimmed and untrimmable +ideas out of his mind for the benefit of an audience. At least, nobody +did on the occasion now in hand, except a poor little Major of Artillery, +who responded for the Army in a thin, quavering voice, with a terribly +hesitating trickle of fragmentary ideas, and, I question not, would +rather have been bayoneted in front of his batteries than to have said a +word. Not his own mouth, but the cannon's, was this poor Major's proper +organ of utterance. + +While I was thus amiably occupied in criticising my fellow-guests, the +Mayor had got up to propose another toast; and listening rather +inattentively to the first sentence or two, I soon became sensible of a +drift in his Worship's remarks that made me glance apprehensively towards +Sergeant Wilkins. "Yes," grumbled that gruff personage, shoving a +decanter of Port towards me, "it is your turn next"; and seeing in my +face, I suppose, the consternation of a wholly unpractised orator, he +kindly added, "It is nothing. A mere acknowledgment will answer the +purpose. The less you say, the better they will like it." That being +the case, I suggested that perhaps they would like it best if I said +nothing at all. But the Sergeant shook his head. Now, on first +receiving the Mayor's invitation to dinner, it had occurred to me that I +might possibly be brought into my present predicament; but I had +dismissed the idea from my mind as too disagreeable to be entertained, +and, moreover, as so alien from my disposition and character that Fate +surely could not keep such a misfortune in store for me. If nothing else +prevented, an earthquake or the crack of doom would certainly interfere +before I need rise to speak. Yet here was the Mayor getting on +inexorably,--and, indeed, I heartily wished that he might get on and on +forever, and of his wordy wanderings find no end. + +If the gentle reader, my kindest friend and closest confidant, deigns to +desire it, I can impart to him my own experience as a public speaker +quite as indifferently as if it concerned another person. Indeed, it +does concern another, or a mere spectral phenomenon, for it was not I, in +my proper and natural self, that sat there at table or subsequently rose +to speak. At the moment, then, if the choice had been offered me whether +the Mayor should let off a speech at my head or a pistol, I should +unhesitatingly have taken the latter alternative. I had really nothing +to say, not an idea in my head, nor, which was a great deal worse, any +flowing words or embroidered sentences in which to dress out that empty +Nothing, and give it a cunning aspect of intelligence, such as might last +the poor vacuity the little time it had to live. But time pressed; the +Mayor brought his remarks, affectionately eulogistic of the United States +and highly complimentary to their distinguished representative at that +table, to a close, amid a vast deal of cheering; and the band struck up +"Hail Columbia," I believe, though it might have been "Old Hundred," or +"God save the Queen" over again, for anything that I should have known or +cared. When the music ceased, there was an intensely disagreeable +instant, during which I seemed to rend away and fling off the habit of a +lifetime, and rose, still void of ideas, but with preternatural +composure, to make a speech. The guests rattled on the table, and cried, +"Hear!" most vociferously, as if now, at length, in this foolish and idly +garrulous world, had come the long-expected moment when one golden word +was to be spoken; and in that imminent crisis, I caught a glimpse of a +little bit of an effusion of international sentiment, which it might, and +must, and should do to utter. + +Well; it was nothing, as the Sergeant had said. What surprised me most, +was the sound of my own voice, which I had never before heard at a +declamatory pitch, and which impressed me as belonging to some other +person, who, and not myself, would be responsible for the speech: a +prodigious consolation and encouragement under the circumstances! I went +on without the slightest embarrassment, and sat down amid great applause, +wholly undeserved by anything that I had spoken, but well won from +Englishmen, methought, by the new development of pluck that alone had +enabled me to speak at all. "It was handsomely done!" quoth Sergeant +Wilkins; and I felt like a recruit who had been for the first time under +fire. + +I would gladly have ended my oratorical career then and there forever, +but was often placed in a similar or worse position, and compelled to +meet it as I best might; for this was one of the necessities of an office +which I had voluntarily taken on my shoulders, and beneath which I might +be crushed by no moral delinquency on my own part, but could not shirk +without cowardice and shame. My subsequent fortune was various. Once, +though I felt it to be a kind of imposture, I got a speech by heart, and +doubtless it might have been a very pretty one, only I forgot every +syllable at the moment of need, and had to improvise another as well as I +could. I found it a better method to prearrange a few points in my mind, +and trust to the spur of the occasion, and the kind aid of Providence, +for enabling me to bring them to bear. The presence of any considerable +proportion of personal friends generally dumbfounded me. I would rather +have talked with an enemy in the gate. Invariably, too, I was much +embarrassed by a small audience, and succeeded better with a large one,-- +the sympathy of a multitude possessing a buoyant effect, which lifts the +speaker a little way out of his individuality and tosses him towards a +perhaps better range of sentiment than his private one. Again, if I rose +carelessly and confidently, with an expectation of going through the +business entirely at my ease, I often found that I had little or nothing +to say; whereas, if I came to the charge in perfect despair, and at a +crisis when failure would have been horrible, it once or twice happened +that the frightful emergency concentrated my poor faculties, and enabled +me to give definite and vigorous expression to sentiments which an +instant before looked as vague and far off as the clouds in the +atmosphere. On the whole, poor as my own success may have been, I +apprehend that any intelligent man with a tongue possesses the chief +requisite of oratorical power, and may develop many of the others, if he +deems it worth while to bestow a great amount of labor and pains on an +object which the most accomplished orators, I suspect, have not found +altogether satisfactory to their highest impulses. At any rate, it must +be a remarkably true man who can keep his own elevated conception of +truth when the lower feeling of a multitude is assailing his natural +sympathies, and who can speak out frankly the best that there is in him, +when by adulterating it a little, or a good deal, he knows that he may +make it ten times as acceptable to the audience. + + +This slight article on the civic banquets of England would be too +wretchedly imperfect, without an attempted description of a Lord Mayor's +dinner at the Mansion House in London. I should have preferred the +annual feast at Guildhall, but never had the good fortune to witness it. +Once, however, I was honored with an invitation to one of the regular +dinners, and gladly accepted it,--taking the precaution, nevertheless, +though it hardly seemed necessary, to inform the City-King, through a +mutual friend, that I was no fit representative of American eloquence, +and must humbly make it a condition that I should not be expected to open +my mouth, except for the reception of his Lordship's bountiful +hospitality. The reply was gracious and acquiescent; so that I presented +myself in the great entrance-hall of the Mansion House, at half past six +o'clock, in a state of most enjoyable freedom from the pusillanimous +apprehensions that often tormented me at such times. The Mansion House +was built in Queen Anne's days, in the very heart of old London, and is a +palace worthy of its inhabitant, were he really as great a man as his +traditionary state and pomp would seem to indicate. Times are changed, +however, since the days of Whittington, or even of Hogarth's Industrious +Apprentice, to whom the highest imaginable reward of lifelong integrity +was a seat in the Lord Mayor's chair. People nowadays say that the real +dignity and importance have perished out of the office, as they do, +sooner or later, out of all earthly institutions, leaving only a painted +and gilded shell like that of an Easter egg, and that it is only +second-rate and third-rate men who now condescend to be ambitious of the +Mayoralty. I felt a little grieved at this; for the original emigrants +of New England had strong sympathies with the people of London, who were +mostly Puritans in religion and Parliamentarians in politics, in the +early days of our country; so that the Lord Mayor was a potentate of huge +dimensions in the estimation of our forefathers, and held to be hardly +second to the prime minister of the throne. The true great men of the +city now appear to have aims beyond city greatness, connecting themselves +with national politics, and seeking to be identified with the aristocracy +of the country. + +In the entrance-hall I was received by a body of footmen dressed in a +livery of blue coats and buff breeches, in which they looked wonderfully +like American Revolutionary generals, only bedizened with far more lace +and embroidery than those simple and grand old heroes ever dreamed of +wearing. There were likewise two very imposing figures, whom I should +have taken to be military men of rank, being arrayed in scarlet coats and +large silver epaulets; but they turned out to be officers of the Lord +Mayor's household, and were now employed in assigning to the guests the +places which they were respectively to occupy at the dinner-table. Our +names (for I had included myself in a little group of friends) were +announced; and ascending the staircase, we met his Lordship in the +doorway of the first reception-room, where, also, we had the advantage of +a presentation to the Lady Mayoress. As this distinguished couple +retired into private life at the termination of their year of office, it +is inadmissible to make any remarks, critical or laudatory, on the +manners and bearing of two personages suddenly emerging from a position +of respectable mediocrity into one of pre-eminent dignity within their +own sphere. Such individuals almost always seem to grow nearly or quite +to the full size of their office. If it were desirable to write an essay +on the latent aptitude of ordinary people for grandeur, we have an +exemplification in our own country, and on a scale incomparably greater +than that of the Mayoralty, though invested with nothing like the outward +magnificence that gilds and embroiders the latter. If I have been +correctly informed, the Lord Mayor's salary is exactly double that of the +President of the United States, and yet is found very inadequate to his +necessary expenditure. + +There were two reception-rooms, thrown into one by the opening of wide +folding-doors; and though in an old style, and not yet so old as to be +venerable, they are remarkably handsome apartments, lofty as well as +spacious, with carved ceilings and walls, and at either end a splendid +fireplace of white marble, ornamented with sculptured wreaths of flowers +and foliage. The company were about three hundred, many of them +celebrities in politics, war, literature, and science, though I recollect +none preeminently distinguished in either department. But it is +certainly a pleasant mode of doing honor to men of literature, for +example, who deserve well of the public, yet do not often meet it face to +face, thus to bring them together under genial auspices, in connection +with persons of note in other lines. I know not what may be the Lord +Mayor's mode or principle of selecting his guests, nor whether, during +his official term, he can proffer his hospitality to every man of +noticeable talent in the wide world of London, nor, in fine, whether his +Lordship's invitation is much sought for or valued; but it seemed to me +that this periodical feast is one of the many sagacious methods which the +English have contrived for keeping up a good understanding among +different sorts of people. Like most other distinctions of society, +however, I presume that the Lord Mayor's card does not often seek out +modest merit, but comes at last when the recipient is conscious of the +bore, and doubtful about the honor. + +One very pleasant characteristic, which I never met with at any other +public or partially public dinner, was the presence of ladies. No doubt, +they were principally the wives and daughters of city magnates; and if we +may judge from the many sly allusions in old plays and satirical poems, +the city of London has always been famous for the beauty of its women and +the reciprocal attractions between them and the men of quality. Be that +as it might, while straying hither and thither through those crowded +apartments, I saw much reason for modifying certain heterodox opinions +which I had imbibed, in my Transatlantic newness and rawness, as regarded +the delicate character and frequent occurrence of English beauty. To +state the entire truth (being, at this period, some years old in English +life), my taste, I fear, had long since begun to be deteriorated by +acquaintance with other models of feminine loveliness than it was my +happiness to know in America. I often found, or seemed to find, if I may +dare to confess it, in the persons of such of my dear countrywomen as I +now occasionally met, a certain meagreness, (Heaven forbid that I should +call it scrawniness!) a deficiency of physical development, a scantiness, +so to speak, in the pattern of their material make, a paleness of +complexion, a thinness of voice,--all of which characteristics, +nevertheless, only made me resolve so much the more sturdily to uphold +these fair creatures as angels, because I was sometimes driven to a +half-acknowledgment, that the English ladies, looked at from a lower +point of view, were perhaps a little finer animals than they. The +advantages of the latter, if any they could really be said to have, +were all comprised in a few additional lumps of clay on their shoulders +and other parts of their figures. It would be a pitiful bargain to +give up the ethereal charm of American beauty in exchange for half a +hundred-weight of human clay! + +At a given signal we all found our way into an immense room, called the +Egyptian Hall, I know not why, except that the architecture was classic, +and as different as possible from the ponderous style of Memphis and the +Pyramids. A powerful band played inspiringly as we entered, and a +brilliant profusion of light shone down on two long tables, extending the +whole length of the hall, and a cross-table between them, occupying +nearly its entire breadth. Glass gleamed and silver glistened on an acre +or two of snowy damask, over which were set out all the accompaniments of +a stately feast. We found our places without much difficulty, and the +Lord Mayor's chaplain implored a blessing on the food,--a ceremony which +the English never omit, at a great dinner or a small one, yet consider, I +fear, not so much a religious rite as a sort of preliminary relish before +the soup. + +The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in +accordance with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, +in spite of the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, +judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that +there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the +capacity of the soup-tureens. Not being fond of this civic dainty, I +partook of it but once, and then only in accordance with the wise maxim, +always to taste a fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish, at its indigenous +site; and the very fountain-head of turtle-soup, I suppose, is in the +Lord Mayor's dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox customs which +people follow for half a century without knowing why, to drink a sip of +rum-punch, in a very small tumbler, after the soup. It was excellently +well-brewed, and it seemed to me almost worth while to sup the soup for +the sake of sipping the punch. The rest of the dinner was catalogued in +a bill-of-fare printed on delicate white paper within an arabesque border +of green and gold. It looked very good, not only in the English and +French names of the numerous dishes, but also in the positive reality of +the dishes themselves, which were all set on the table to be carved and +distributed by the guests. This ancient and honest method is attended +with a good deal of trouble, and a lavish effusion of gravy, yet by no +means bestowed or dispensed in vain, because you have thereby the +absolute assurance of a banquet actually before your eyes, instead of a +shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and such meagre fulfilment as a +single guest can contrive to get upon his individual plate. I wonder +that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at prize-oxen in the shape of +butcher's-meat, do not generally better estimate the aesthetic gormandism +of devouring the whole dinner with their eyesight, before proceeding to +nibble the comparatively few morsels which, after all, the most heroic +appetite and widest stomachic capacity of mere mortals can enable even an +alderman really to eat. There fell to my lot three delectable things +enough, which I take pains to remember, that the reader may not go away +wholly unsatisfied from the Barmecide feast to which I have bidden him,-- +a red mullet, a plate of mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and part of a +ptarmigan, a bird of the same family as the grouse, but feeding high up +towards the summit of the Scotch mountains, whence it gets a wild +delicacy of flavor very superior to that of the artificially nurtured +English game-fowl. All the other dainties have vanished from my memory +as completely as those of Prospero's banquet after Ariel had clapped his +wings over it. The band played at intervals inspiriting us to new +efforts, as did likewise the sparkling wines which the footmen supplied +from an inexhaustible cellar, and which the guests quaffed with little +apparent reference to the disagreeable fact that there comes a to-morrow +morning after every feast. As long as that shall be the case, a prudent +man can never have full enjoyment of his dinner. + +Nearly opposite to me, on the other side of the table, sat a young lady +in white, whom I am sorely tempted to describe, but dare not, because +not only the supereminence of her beauty, but its peculiar character, +would cause the sketch to be recognized, however rudely it might be +drawn. I hardly thought that there existed such a woman outside of a +picture-frame, or the covers of a romance: not that I had ever met with +her resemblance even there, but, being so distinct and singular an +apparition; she seemed likelier to find her sisterhood in poetry and +picture than in real life. Let us turn away from her, lest a touch too +apt should compel her stately and cold and soft and womanly grace to +gleam out upon my page with a strange repulsion and unattainableness in +the very spell that made her beautiful. At her side, and familiarly +attentive to her, sat a gentleman of whom I remember only a hard outline +of the nose and forehead, and such a monstrous portent of a beard that +you could discover no symptom of a mouth, except, when he opened it to +speak, or to put in a morsel of food. Then, indeed, you suddenly became +aware of a cave hidden behind the impervious and darksome shrubbery. +There could be no doubt who this gentleman and lady were. Any child +would have recognized them at a glance. It was Bluebeard and a new wife +(the loveliest of the series, but with already a mysterious gloom +overshadowing her fair young brow) travelling in their honeymoon, and +dining, among other distinguished strangers, at the Lord Mayor's table. + +After an hour or two of valiant achievement with knife and fork came the +dessert; and at the point of the festival where finger-glasses are +usually introduced, a large silver basin was carried round to the guests, +containing rose-water, into which we dipped the ends of our napkins and +were conscious of a delightful fragrance, instead of that heavy and weary +odor, the hateful ghost of a defunct dinner. This seems to be an ancient +custom of the city, not confined to the Lord Mayor's table, but never met +with westward of Temple Bar. + +During all the feast, in accordance with another ancient custom, the +origin or purport of which I do not remember to have heard, there stood a +man in armor, with a helmet on his head, behind his Lordship's chair. +When the after-dinner wine was placed on the table, still another +official personage appeared behind the chair, and proceeded to make a +solemn and sonorous proclamation (in which he enumerated the principal +guests, comprising three or four noblemen, several baronets, and plenty +of generals, members of Parliament, aldermen, and other names of the +illustrious, one of which sounded strangely familiar to my ears), ending +in some such style as this: "and other gentlemen and ladies, here +present, the Lord Mayor drinks to you all in a loving-cup,"--giving a +sort, of sentimental twang to the two words,--"and sends it round among +you!" And forthwith the loving-cup--several of them, indeed, on each +side of the tables--came slowly down with all the antique ceremony. + +The fashion of it is thus. The Lord Mayor, standing up and taking the +covered cup in both hands, presents it to the guest at his elbow, who +likewise rises, and removes the cover for his Lordship to drink, which +being successfully accomplished, the guest replaces the cover and +receives the cup into his own hands. He then presents it to his next +neighbor, that the cover may be again removed for himself to take a +draught, after which the third person goes through a similar manoeuvre +with a fourth, and he with a fifth, until the whole company find +themselves inextricably intertwisted and entangled in one complicated +chain of love. When the cup came to my hands, I examined it critically, +both inside and out, and perceived it to be an antique and richly +ornamented silver goblet, capable of holding about a quart of wine. +Considering how much trouble we all expended in getting the cup to our +lips, the guests appeared to content themselves with wonderfully moderate +potations. In truth, nearly or quite the original quart of wine being +still in the goblet, it seemed doubtful whether any of the company had +more than barely touched the silver rim before passing it to their +neighbors,--a degree of abstinence that might be accounted for by a +fastidious repugnance to so many compotators in one cup, or possibly by a +disapprobation of the liquor. Being curious to know all about these +important matters, with a view of recommending to my countrymen whatever +they might usefully adopt, I drank an honest sip from the loving-cup, and +had no occasion for another,--ascertaining it to be Claret of a poor +original quality, largely mingled with water, and spiced and sweetened. +It was good enough, however, for a merely spectral or ceremonial drink, +and could never have been intended for any better purpose. + +The toasts now began in the customary order, attended with speeches +neither more nor less witty and ingenious than the specimens of +table-eloquence which had heretofore delighted me. As preparatory to +each new display, the herald, or whatever he was, behind the chair of +state, gave awful notice that the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor was +about to propose a toast. His Lordship being happily delivered thereof, +together with some accompanying remarks, the band played an appropriate +tune, and the herald again issued proclamation to the effect that such or +such a nobleman, or gentleman, general, dignified clergyman, or what not, +was going to respond to the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor's toast; then, +if I mistake not, there was another prodigious flourish of trumpets and +twanging of stringed instruments; and finally the doomed individual, +waiting all this while to be decapitated, got up and proceeded to make a +fool of himself. A bashful young earl tried his maiden oratory on the +good citizens of London, and having evidently got every word by heart +(even including, however he managed it, the most seemingly casual +improvisations of the moment), he really spoke like a book, and made +incomparably the smoothest speech I ever heard in England. + +The weight and gravity of the speakers, not only on this occasion, but +all similar ones, was what impressed me as most extraordinary, not to say +absurd. Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits into +festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into a most +enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and old +Port, and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to +speeches as heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so refreshing? +If the Champagne had thrown its sparkle over the surface of these +effusions, or if the generous Port had shone through their substance with +a ruddy glow of the old English humor, I might have seen a reason for +honest gentlemen prattling in their cups, and should undoubtedly have +been glad to be a listener. But there was no attempt nor impulse of the +kind on the part of the orators, nor apparent expectation of such a +phenomenon on that of the audience. In fact, I imagine that the latter +were best pleased when the speaker embodied his ideas in the figurative +language of arithmetic, or struck upon any hard matter of business or +statistics, as a heavy-laden bark bumps upon a rock in mid-ocean. The +sad severity, the too earnest utilitarianism, of modern life, have +wrought a radical and lamentable change, I am afraid, in this ancient +and goodly institution of civic banquets. People used to come to them, +a few hundred years ago, for the sake of being jolly; they come now with +an odd notion of pouring sober wisdom into their wine by way of +wormwood-bitters, and thus make such a mess of it that the wine and +wisdom reciprocally spoil one another. + +Possibly, the foregoing sentiments have taken a spice of acridity from a +circumstance that happened about this stage of the feast, and very much +interrupted my own further enjoyment of it. Up to this time, my +condition had been exceedingly felicitous, both on account of the +brilliancy of the scene, and because I was in close proximity with three +very pleasant English friends. One of them was a lady, whose honored +name my readers would recognize as a household word, if I dared write it; +another, a gentleman, likewise well known to them, whose fine taste, kind +heart, and genial cultivation are qualities seldom mixed in such happy +proportion as in him. The third was the man to whom I owed most in +England, the warm benignity of whose nature was never weary of doing me +good, who led me to many scenes of life, in town, camp, and country, +which I never could have found out for myself, who knew precisely the +kind of help a stranger needs, and gave it as freely as if he had not had +a thousand more important things to live for. Thus I never felt safer or +cosier at anybody's fireside, even my own, than at the dinner-table of +the Lord Mayor. + +Out of this serene sky came a thunderbolt. His Lordship got up and +proceeded to make some very eulogistic remarks upon "the literary and +commercial"--I question whether those two adjectives were ever before +married by a copulative conjunction, and they certainly would not live +together in illicit intercourse, of their own accord--"the literary and +commercial attainments of an eminent gentleman there present," and then +went on to speak of the relations of blood and interest between Great +Britain and the aforesaid eminent gentleman's native country. Those +bonds were more intimate than had ever before existed between two great +nations, throughout all history, and his Lordship felt assured that that +whole honorable company would join him in the expression of a fervent +wish that they might be held inviolably sacred, on both sides of the +Atlantic, now and forever. Then came the same wearisome old toast, dry +and hard to chew upon as a musty sea-biscuit, which had been the text of +nearly all the oratory of my public career. The herald sonorously +announced that Mr. So-and-so would now respond to his Right Honorable +Lordship's toast and speech, the trumpets sounded the customary flourish +for the onset, there was a thunderous rumble of anticipatory applause, +and finally a deep silence sank upon the festive hall. + +All this was a horrid piece of treachery on the Lord Mayor's part, after +beguiling me within his lines on a pledge of safe-conduct; and it seemed +very strange that he could not let an unobtrusive individual eat his +dinner in peace, drink a small sample of the Mansion House wine, and go +away grateful at heart for the old English hospitality. If his Lordship +had sent me an infusion of ratsbane in the loving-cup, I should have +taken it much more kindly at his hands. But I suppose the secret of the +matter to have been somewhat as follows. + +All England, just then, was in one of those singular fits of panic +excitement (not fear, though as sensitive and tremulous as that emotion), +which, in consequence of the homogeneous character of the people, their +intense patriotism, and their dependence for their ideas in public +affairs on other sources than their own examination and individual +thought, are more sudden, pervasive, and unreasoning than any similar +mood of our own public. In truth, I have never seen the American public +in a state at all similar, and believe that we are incapable of it. Our +excitements are not impulsive, like theirs, but, right or wrong, are +moral and intellectual. For example, the grand rising of the North, at +the commencement of this war, bore the aspect of impulse and passion only +because it was so universal, and necessarily done in a moment, just as +the quiet and simultaneous getting-up of a thousand people out of their +chairs would cause a tumult that might be mistaken for a storm. We were +cool then, and have been cool ever since, and shall remain cool to the +end, which we shall take coolly, whatever it may be. There is nothing +which the English find it so difficult to understand in us as this +characteristic. They imagine us, in our collective capacity, a kind of +wild beast, whose normal condition is savage fury, and are always looking +for the moment when we shall break through the slender barriers of +international law and comity, and compel the reasonable part of the +world, with themselves at the head, to combine for the purpose of putting +us into a stronger cage. At times this apprehension becomes so powerful +(and when one man feels it, a million do), that it resembles the passage +of the wind over a broad field of grain, where you see the whole crop +bending and swaying beneath one impulse, and each separate stalk tossing +with the selfsame disturbance as its myriad companions. At such periods +all Englishmen talk with a terrible identity of sentiment and expression. +You have the whole country in each man; and not one of them all, if you +put him strictly to the question, can give a reasonable ground for his +alarm. There are but two nations in the world--our own country and +France--that can put England into this singular state. It is the united +sensitiveness of a people extremely well-to-do, careful of their +country's honor, most anxious for the preservation of the cumbrous and +moss-grown prosperity which they have been so long in consolidating, and +incompetent (owing to the national half-sightedness, and their habit of +trusting to a few leading minds for their public opinion) to judge when +that prosperity is really threatened. + +If the English were accustomed to look at the foreign side of any +international dispute, they might easily have satisfied themselves that +there was very little danger of a war at that particular crisis, from the +simple circumstance that their own Government had positively not an inch +of honest ground to stand upon, and could not fail to be aware of the +fact. Neither could they have met Parliament with any show of a +justification for incurring war. It was no such perilous juncture as +exists now, when law and right are really controverted on sustainable or +plausible grounds, and a naval commander may at any moment fire off the +first cannon of a terrible contest. If I remember it correctly, it was a +mere diplomatic squabble, in which the British ministers, with the +politic generosity which they are in the habit of showing towards their +official subordinates, had tried to browbeat us for the purpose of +sustaining an ambassador in an indefensible proceeding; and the American +Government (for God had not denied us an administration of statesmen +then) had retaliated with stanch courage and exquisite skill, putting +inevitably a cruel mortification upon their opponents, but indulging them +with no pretence whatever for active resentment. + +Now the Lord Mayor, like any other Englishman, probably fancied that War +was on the western gale, and was glad to lay hold of even so +insignificant an American as myself, who might be made to harp on the +rusty old strings of national sympathies, identity of blood and interest, +and community of language and literature, and whisper peace where there +was no peace, in however weak an utterance. And possibly his Lordship +thought, in his wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to be +expressed by a company of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and +far-famed dinner-table, might have an appreciable influence on the grand +result. Thus, when the Lord Mayor invited me to his feast, it was a +piece of strategy. He wanted to induce me to fling myself, like a lesser +Curtius, with a larger object of self-sacrifice, into the chasm of +discord between England and America, and, on my ignominious demur, had +resolved to shove me in with his own right-honorable hands, in the hope +of closing up the horrible pit forever. On the whole, I forgive his +Lordship. He meant well by all parties,--himself, who would share the +glory, and me, who ought to have desired nothing better than such an +heroic opportunity,--his own country, which would continue to get cotton +and breadstuffs, and mine, which would get everything that men work with +and wear. + +As soon as the Lord Mayor began to speak, I rapped upon my mind, and it +gave forth a hollow sound, being absolutely empty of appropriate ideas. +I never thought of listening to the speech, because I knew it all +beforehand in twenty repetitions from other lips, and was aware that it +would not offer a single suggestive point. In this dilemma, I turned to +one of my three friends, a gentleman whom I knew to possess an enviable +flow of silver speech, and obtested him, by whatever he deemed holiest, +to give me at least an available thought or two to start with, and, once +afloat, I would trust to my guardian-angel for enabling me to flounder +ashore again. He advised me to begin with some remarks complimentary to +the Lord Mayor, and expressive of the hereditary reverence in which his +office was held,--at least, my friend thought that there would be no harm +in giving his Lordship this little sugar-plum, whether quite the fact or +no,--was held by the descendants of the Puritan forefathers. Thence, if +I liked, getting flexible with the oil of my own eloquence, I might +easily slide off into the momentous subject of the relations between +England and America, to which his Lordship had made such weighty +allusion. + +Seizing this handful of straw with a death-grip, and bidding my three +friends bury me honorably, I got upon my legs to save both countries, or +perish in the attempt. The tables roared and thundered at me, and +suddenly were silent again. But, as I have never happened to stand in a +position of greater dignity and peril, I deem it a stratagem of sage +policy here to close these Sketches, leaving myself still erect in so +heroic an attitude. + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Old Home, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OLD HOME *** + +***** This file should be named 8090.txt or 8090.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/0/9/8090/ + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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