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diff --git a/8090.txt b/8090.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e53252 --- /dev/null +++ b/8090.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10672 @@ +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 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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