Sunways: a record of rambles in many lands

Preface

— ♦ — HE following pages, copied with a few additions from the four little volumes four little volumes which formed my journal during our tour, are neither designed to meet the public eye, nor in their present form — interspersed as occasionally they are with per sonal details — are they fitted so to do. They are written for the amusement of a few friends, from whom alone an apology is needed for the space they will occupy on their shelves. The fact that they have been reduced to their present shape during the spare moments of heavier literary work, must serve as an excuse for the carelessness of their style, and for any errors they may be found to contain. The work of writing them has carried with it the unspeakable delight of recalling some of the most in teresting moments of my life, passed in the company of a dear and constant friend. W. C. B. Laregan, 1878. SUNWAYS: 3?he K.etorl of gambles in PHlunv Jhmliti.

Chapter I. Liverpool To New York

SHOULD any one have the curiosity to consult the books of the Cunard Company for the year 1874, he will probably find, under date October 10th, the following entry, or some thing to the same effect : " Consigned to the British and North American mail steamship Cuba, at Liverpool, Fleet wood Sandeman and William C. Borlase, attended by John Hucklebridge, and several packages ; in all, twenty nine articles — all for New York." Quite as possible is it that, should he refer to the local newspapers published on the following morning, he may there read of the great fortitude displayed by these same gentlemen on quitting their native land for an indefinite period, even when (which was the saddest thing of all) they caught the last glimpse of the tug, in which Sir T. T.'s friendly handkerchief still waved a fond adieu.

An inspection of their quarters on board was scarcely calculated to restore that equanimity of a small portion of which the last sight of their friends might have been supposed to have deprived them ; since it only served to reveal to them that their cabin was dark and confined (being only about six feet square, including berths), and that their fellow-passengers were, with a few B exceptions, homeward-bound Yankees of an uninteresting type. An idea, which has occurred to great minds before, and on more than one occasion during their tour subsequently suggested itself to them, at this moment came to their relief. They would try a new drink. (! ?) Soda-water was to be had on board (alas ! not Schweppe's) ; and then they had a few bottles of Hennessy's old brandy, which, without speaking metaphorically, is known to be above the stars in excellence.

And so, as the dull evening closed in, they sat on their chairs on deck, and saw the last of Wales as she sank into the sea in the shape of Holyhead Island. A voice from behind interrupted their musings : " I guess you're going to see our country." The intonation leaving no doubt as to the interrogator's nationality, the answer was, " Yes." Then a pause. " There 's a large quantity of land in America." " So we are informed." " There 's a great number of acres there ; very few acres in England. Well, I guess you'll be just about pleased with our country." Both B. and S. fervently hoped that they might be more favourably impressed with the country itself than they were with the first native who had thus struck up an acquaintance. But now, for fear the reader of this journal should be led to suppose, from the use of the third person in the previous page, that he has taken up by mistake a con tinuation of the Commentaries of Julius Cæsar, the writer begs to explain that in future by the term " we" must be understood the two first persons in the above inventory, and by the term " I" no less an individual than his very own self.

" F." in future will stand for Fleetwood, and "B." and " S." conjointly — should it be necessary to adopt such a terribly slang expression — will be restricted to their primitive sense — a " Brandy and Soda." Next morning (Oct. ii), we woke to find ourselves in LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. 3 Queenstown harbour, and shortly afterwards were com fortably located in the dining-room of the Cork Yacht Club. On returning to the Cuba in the afternoon, F.'s nautical attire gained him some distinction, an old lady taking him for the skipper of the tug, and urging on him the importance of starting in good time. This was not the only occasion during our tour that F. was taken for some distinguished personage. Dinner on board proved to be at the aristocratically-unusual hour of four ; tea was at seven, and supper at nine; after which we remained on deck, leaning over the bows, watching the phosphoric light, discussing Grove's Correlation of Forces, and the relation of light and motion — the which philosophy, added to the reiterated meals on this fatal day, proved a cause over the effects of which, were I not bent on telling the whole truth, I would gladly draw a veil.

In addition to this little unpleasantness, a head wind set in at night, which continued with but little abatement all the way. Oct. 12. A gentleman having stated in the train, a few days before, that our good ship was sometimes nicknamed the " Rolling Moses,7 we were able to add our testimony to the correctness of his words. We accordingly breakfasted off a devilled biscuit, and subsequently "took everything quite quietly." The next day (Oct. 1 3) was much like the last. Schools of dolphins were playing round the ship ; cross seas were making her roll considerably — so much so that she ducked a boat ; and the breeze, which had been getting up all day, at night blew pretty strong. In consequence of this, when, after dressing under difficulties, we scrambled on deck the following morning (Oct. 14), the scene was not without its grandeur.

Our boat, which looked large enough in calm water, was being tossed about like a nut-shell in these great Atlantic waves ; at one time plunging through them, while they swept her deck from stem to stern ; at another poised on their tops, to be dashed down as hard as B possible a moment after into the green trough which was waiting to receive her some thirty or forty feet below. It was a hard time for the sailors, two of whom were washed out of the rigging, one being badly hurt. For the next few days nothing of importance happened ; the sea, which was generally smoother in the mornings, always got up at night ; the wind kept dead ahead ; and on the 16th the pleasing fact was made known, that, although we had been six days at sea, seventeen hundred miles out of the three thousand had yet to be made.

Mother Carey's chickens, which flew, like little harpies, round our bows, (the English gulls had turned back through stress of weather,) and sea-weed, washed hither from the coast of Florida, formed our only diversions. On Sunday (Oct. 18) the captain read the service of the Established Church, in accordance with the company's rules. In the evening we marked the position of the constellations, and later on the moonlight effect was striking, as it must always be, when there is nil nisi pontus et aer. Oct. 19. A horrible din in the morning awoke us to the fact that we were in one of those fogs which, at this time of the year, are common on the Newfoundland banks. The signals made by these steamers consist of repetitions, at intervals, of three screeches or hoots, combining, in horrid discord, the basso of the bull, and the alto of the jackass.

A more hideous noise could scarcely be devised. A side wind in the afternoon assisted us a little, and we made fourteen knots, being the greatest speed we attained on the voyage. The wind, however, got up again, and during supper a sail was carried away. This night we rolled so much that it was no easy matter to keep in our berths ; indeed, "John" was most unceremoniously ejected from his, as we heard when he appeared the following morning. If the Davenport brothers had been flying their tambourines, the confusion could not have been greater LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. 5 than that caused in our cabin by the jumble of boots, boxes, books, and hats, which fled from this side to that, as our ship struggled on through the cross swell. I may add, however, that John's accident, as above recorded, did not prevent him from treating the party assembled in the smoking saloon to a thoroughly good joke this evening, nor from dancing a jig on the next.

Until the tenth day of our voyage (Oct. 20), when the ship became a little steadier, we had seen but little of our fellow-passengers. They now turned out to be one hundred and sixty in number (the crew numbered one hundred and twenty), and amongst them were some pleasant people ; — notably, Mr. Grant, a Scotchman, going to buy land in Virginia for his son ; Mr., Mrs., and Miss Goodrich, from the neighbourhood of New York, who expressed a wish to show us the Young Ladies' College at Vassar ; Mr. and Mrs. Byam K. Stevens, of New York ; Mr. Bradford, a merchant of the same place, and a collector of armour and antiquities ; Mr. Anstis, a descendant of Anstis the Herald ; two young Jameses, going to New Orleans as engineers, who were very good in getting up a diversion in the shape of a comic concert in the saloon, which was most beneficial in dispelling a little of the unutterable monotony and tediousness of a voyage across the Atlantic; Professor and Mrs. Benjamin Pierce, of Cambridge, Mass., who gave us an invitation to visit them there, of which we subsequently took advantage ; not to mention two Cana dians named Ring, and an old lady and her son from Chipping Norton.

From these and others we learnt many useful hints about the States. Mr. Bradford, especially, was very good in giving us his views on the real character of the Americans, as contrasted with the opinion of them usually carried to England by visitors like ourselves. He said that neither the press, which is a disgrace to the country, and is merely read with a smile, nor the text of the debates at Washington, which have but little influence, are at all fair or just criteria by which to judge of more than a very small proportion of the American mind, or to test the latent power of the American people. The farmers, he added, who reside outside the cities, and are seldom or never met with by travellers, are a far more important element in the country than is generally supposed. They spend their lives in the study of three things— farming, religion, and politics.

They are so thoroughly alive to the bearings of the latter subject that they invariably put their candidate for election through a severe cross-examination with regard to the questions to be brought before him, and so return far superior men to those returned in the cities by that class of Americans who frequent places of resort, and who are therefore supposed by foreigners to represent the political mind of the country, more especially as they take the greatest share in the debates of Congress. Disraeli once said that these farmers were the safety of the Republic, and so, in Mr. Bradford's opinion, they are. Secondly, with regard to American exaggerations. They do not expect you to believe them ; they are merely said with that dry humour which underlies the American mind, and which stolid old John Bull is incapable of appreciating.

Thus, English newspapers are continually being taken in by them. For example, it was reported in an American paper, that when Stanley met Livingstone, and told him that Horace Greeley was to be nominated for president, Livingstone replied, " Sir, you know me to be a Christian man, always very much opposed to anything like profane swearing, but I '11 just say this one word to you, and that is, that d d if I '11 believe it." By this mode of ex pression, and by putting it into the mouth of the great African explorer at all, all the American paper intended to convey to the reader was some idea of the intense surprise with which a human being, even in the most LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. 7 distant land, would receive such an astounding piece of intelligence. It never intended the conversation to be considered as a fact.

Nevertheless, the English press fell into the trap, and took it up. " Knowing as we do," they said, " the high moral tone of this eminent missionary, we can scarcely believe that he actually made use of the language attributed to him by the American press, and wait for further information on the subject." This is a good example of the way in which poor silly old England is apt to misinterpret the language of her too precocious child, even when it is not really meant to mislead. A Yankee, when he wants to tell you that his steam-boats draw very little water, will say, " I guess our propellers will sail in dew." This is merely his way of expressing in the superlative the extreme shallowness of the boats, and of exciting astonishment in the mind of the hearer equal to the occasion. However seriously these things are said, they are perfectly intelligible to his brother-citizens, who, for fear of betraying the weakness of risibility, receive them with equal seriousness — studying perhaps how to cap them by something in reply that is calculated to "whip creation."

Thirdly, Mr. Bradford remarked that America, being only one hundred years old, has not yet emerged from her practical working phase. She has not had time nor op portunity to cultivate those arts and sciences for the de velopment of which a certain amount of idleness and repose is indispensable. Fourthly, he noticed the great liberality of intercourse existing between persons of dif ferent classes* and opposite religious persuasions ; and, fifthly, he said we should find in the States little or no ill feeling to England. This evening (Oct. 20) we had some singing in the smokins-room. It reminded me of the old Commoner * This opinion, though holding good in some parts of the United States, we were by no means able to endorse in all. singing at Winchester ; and F. remarked that we were rari nantes in gurgitc, which, being freely translated, means "choice spirits sailing on 'the pond.'" This same smoking-room had, by the way, been the scene of a serious casualty a few nights before.

A heavy green sea burst open the door against which F. was sitting, thereby washing him clear over some machinery in the centre of the room, and depositing him against the opposite wall, to the dis placement of his equilibrium, and the extinction of his pipe. Oct. 21. Fine weather at last; but wind still ahead. Passed an "Anchor Line" steamer at midnight, showing lights, which the Cuba answered by sending up six or seven Roman candles. Oct. 22. We took a pilot on board at six a.m., being then three hundred miles from New York. There are four-and-twenty pilots who come out to these steamers ; and it is usual on board to get up a sweepstake on the number of the boat which is the first to reach the vessel. To such straits are the poor passengers reduced for amusement during this tedious passage ; but it is a very nice thing for the winner, who thereby clears the whole or a large part of his passage-money. Oct. 23. We woke to find ourselves entering the harbour of New York, after emerging from a second fog.

Chapter II. New York

AFTER passing some neat villa residences on the shores of the Hudson, we anchored to receive the quarantine officer opposite Fort Lafayette. Here the river opens into a magnificent harbour, where all the fleets in the world might well ride at anchor. We landed at Jersey City, and, after passing the Customs, crossed in the ferry, and going to Mr. L.'s, lunched with him at Delmonico's, " down town," and afterwards secured our rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. New York proper — not including Brooklyn and Jersey City, from which places, on either side, it is separated by water — is divided, socially speaking, into three parts. The part known as " down town " is equivalent to our " city." It is the business part, where are to be found the banks, the " City Hall " where trials take place, the principal stores, &c, sometimes located in fine new buildings, such as Morgan and Drexel's Bank, and sometimes in the old houses, where formerly the most important of the early settlers resided with their families.

Then there is the " Bowery," which is the Irish and German, and, generally, the least respectable quarter of the city ; and, thirdly, there is " up town," by which is signified the upper part of the Fifth Avenue, and the streets adjoining. Beyond and above this again is " Central Park," so called, not because it is, but because, in the sanguine minds of the well-wishers of the city's progress, it is to be, the centre of the town. Our first impression of New York was well summed up for us by an acquaintance — " Paris," he said, " gives us the New, and England the York." This is observable wherever you turn. If the old houses took form from English models, French domestic architecture has afforded the designs for the more recent ones ; if English sempstresses dressed "Lady" Washington, Parisian modistes are responsible for the neat and elegant attire which graces Fifth Avenue to-day — their style rather toned down than exaggerated by its journey westward.

Not that there is not plenty of old England yet remaining — plenty of evidence in the New Englanders themselves of whence they came, and from what class they were derived, and the date of their immigration ; plenty of words, such as "I guess," and "I reckon," used in just the sense which Shakespeare or Spenser sets upon them ; plenty of faces trimmed as we see them in the portraits of our ancestors in the reign of Charles I. ; plenty of hotel cars lumbering over the ill-paved streets, hung upon leather springs, and which retain the form, nay, the very make, of old English coaches, when coaches first had being ; plenty, in short, of quaint survivals, which prove how truly conservative the descendants of those early settlers have been, of habits of speaking and acting which now too often are the sport of ignorant denizens in that island which, for more than a hundred years, was casting her children forth.

In the evening of this day (Oct. 24) we went to the Opera House, where we heard Albani, who was well received. The house is a fine one, but too white. Oct. 25. Being Sunday, we went into a Church, which proved to be a Presbyterian one. There seemed to be a great absence of Americans, but a prevalence of that canny individual — the Scotchman abroad. From a preaching box in front of the organ, Dr. Hall gave us a sermon delivered with good manner. Then an adaptation of their doctrine to Keble's " Sun of my soul " was sung ; but the tune was sepulchral, and the poet's verses had been mutilated. Owing to the kindness of our friends, we were introduced to three clubs, the Union, the New York, and the Traveller's. These clubs are small compared to ours, but are exceedingly hospitable — the introducing member being expected (as in all American clubs) to present his friends to any other members who may be there.

Strangers, when admitted, may dine, and make any use of the club they please from periods of a fortnight to a month, the only exception being that, of course, they may not admit other strangers. We dined at the Brunswick Hotel, as we did not much relish the American style of dinner at the Fifth Avenue. Little dishes were the order of the day at the latter. Sometimes as many as eleven or twelve of these were shovelled down in semicircles round our plates, each containing an exceedingly small portion of meat or vegetable — the almost invariable dish being turkey and cranberry sauce. In other respects this hotel is a fine and commodious building : it fronts the Fifth Avenue at Madison Square, the place where it is crossed by the Broadway on one side, and 23 rd Street on the other. The ground-plan of it is three sides of a square — the kitchens, with a stack as tall as a manufactory chimney, being in the middle.

It contained, when we were there, about fifteen hundred guests, and is on the American principle of paying by the day, whether meals are taken in the house or not. The restaurant is a large circular room, with a painted ceiling, supported by white pillars, with capitals of gold, between which are mirrors. Newspapers are sold outside this room, and public drawing-rooms are on the same floor. On the ground-floor is a hall, a reading-room, and a cafe, besides a barber's shop, which in these grand hotels is generally elaborate and excellent. The basement hall is a busy scene as soon as the Exchange "down town" is closed. New Yorkers flock thither, and the excitement over the "almighty dollar" is often kept up till a late hour. Walking up the Fifth Avenue in the afternoon, we were able to observe the handsome houses which grace its sides, and especially Stewart's, which is built of white marble.

The owner of this house commenced life as a small school master ; subsequently went into the "dry goods" or drapery business ; and has now two entire " blocks " of buildings, one " up town," and one " down town," which are the largest "stores" (i.e. shops) of the kind in America. The most beautiful building " on " Fifth Avenue, if it is ever completed as it has been begun, will be the Roman Catholic Cathedral, with the exquisitely delicate tracery of the rose window over the west door. Another feature in Fifth Avenue is as good an evidence of one of the most common evils in New York, as it is disgraceful to the citizens. Standing apart from the rest is the conspicuous house of a woman who has accumulated untold wealth by that kind of wickedness which has only too often proved a blot to the medical practice of the United States.

Passing on into Central Park we found the autumn tints not yet over, although the trees themselves were planted only a few years ago. This park is no less than seven miles in cir cumference, and is beautifully laid out with lakes and fountains, deriving their water from the city reservoirs adjoining. In places where rocks protruded through the surface, I noticed that they were grooved and striated by ice action, at a time when the Hudson river must have been the valley of a vast glacier moving eastward. As we walked back in the evening we noticed the remarkable clearness of the air, which is not impregnated, like that of London, by fogs or blacks. It is true that the streets " down town " are often narrow and dirty, but for this same reason I am told they are not unhealthy — since they are in the open air — though the smells are often most offensive.

With regard to things commercial, we were not long in finding out that the great blot and stain, as an American gentleman confessed to us, is the fictitious value of the paper currency, and, in consequence, the equally fictitious prices of articles of trade. Until these things are put on a solid basis, there can never be confidence, and must always be that restless uncertainty which is generated by distrust, and which appears in the countenances of those who, whether in politics or commerce, find themselves alternately intriguers or dupes. We saw that things were in such a state that it was not hard to prophecy the speedy advent of large failures, and accordingly within the year we saw without surprise the collapse of one great firm dragging many a smaller house down with it in its destructive trail, while the principals, as usual, managed comfortably to feather their own nests on the eve of the disaster.

Oct. 26. We drove to Fleetwood Park, to see an American chariot race ; or, in other words, a trotting match. On the way there is some nice scenery, especially where the "High Bridge" crosses the "Haarlem" river. The course is one mile, in shape an irregular circle. At its side a grand stand and club-house have been erected, the latter frequented by all the low sporting men of the city —butchers, prize-fighters, and the like. For some reason or other — although the racing itself is an extremely pretty sight, and one which might be supposed to be attractive to ladies — it is not patronised by the elite. The trotting is quite an American " institution," and the horses, trained for the purpose, are developing a distinct type. On a house, as we drove out of the grounds, we noticed the following not very intelligible advertisement — " Little Neck Clam Chowder," which means, that a mess of potatoes mixed with clams (a kind of mussel) found in the " Little Neck " estuary is sold there.

We dined at Delmonico's, and had an opportunity of admiring the size and flavour of American oysters. If they would live in English beds, it is high time we imported some to replenish our failing stock. Oct. 27. Next morning I went down to Varick Street, where the Episcopal Church Convention was being held, in order to hear the debate on Ritualism. The church is a highly-coloured Venetian room with galleries — the apse shut off, on this occasion, by a red curtain, in front of which, on a platform, sat the President, his secretary, and the speakers. The delegates, lay and clerical, were ar ranged in pews, each bearing the name of its occupiers' respective province. There was noticeable a decided con trast between the quiet gravity and earnest interest with which these people approached the subject, and the hubbub and party outbursts of a Church Congress (such as that at Brighton), where I had heard the same subject discussed shortly before leaving England.

The proposed canon condemning the practice was carried by a large majority, but the speeches lacked point, and were often vague. I next went to the Astor Library, consisting of two airy halls placed side by side, well arranged, and commodious for reading. There was a singular poverty of old printed books and MSS., but this want will be made up for when Mr. Lenox opens the library he is building near Central Park, for the accommodation of some of the greatest rarities Europe can produce. The fund at the Astor for the purchase of new books is not sufficiently large to keep up with the times, but it is hoped that the present Mr. Astor may leave some money to it. In the hall of the Fifth Avenue we were so fortunate as to meet my friend General J. Meredith Reed, U.S. Ambassador at Athens, who was very good in giving us an introduction to the leading literary club in New York — The Century, as also to several gentlemen, from whom we received the greatest kindness.

We next went to call on Mr. S., at a fine old house in Lafayette Place. The floors were inlaid, and the stair-case might have been carved by Grinling Gibbons. It belonged to Mr. S.'s mother-in-law, a relative of the Astors, whose property in New York is very considerable. By their pictures on the walls, her four daughters must have been beautiful. The present American ladies are generally extremely pale ; and when they talk fast, the sound of their voices is not musical ; but their free and amiable manners make up for any trifling defect of this sort. Before we left we were induced to try some toddy, made of some special American whisky, a drink which we appreciated more, now that it was a novelty, than we did a few months later, when we were utterly tired of it. Oct. 28. There is one phase of New York society which I have not yet mentioned.

It is that of the Knickerbockers, or descendants of the original Dutch settlers, and those families with whom they have intermarried. In their own eyes at least they are the aristocracy of the city ; and in the eyes of others they certainly show to advantage as gentlemen of wealth, taste, and refinement. Mr. H., on whom I called this morning, belonged to the select noblesse. I found him in his study downstairs, dressed in a manner suitable to the time of day. He is a literary man, and has travelled much ; is a zealous Protestant, and has translated Abbadie on the Chemical Change in the Eucharist, with a magniloquent preface worthy of his genius and taste, of which work he gave me a copy, beautifully printed, and bound in vellum. He is a collector of books, antiquities, and objects of vertu.