Old England and New England, in a series of views taken on the spot

Front matter

OLD ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND. VOL. I. •fftjIs-mji.Tidftl &. Walton, Lithog ACCIDENT ON THE BALTIMORE a OHIO RAILWAY London Bichor-dBentley, MewBurluigtoii Streat 1853. OLD ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND, IN A SERIES OF VIEWS TAKEN ON THE SPOT. BY ALFRED BUNN, AUTHOR OF "THE stage befobe and behind the curtain." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. in ©rUtnarg to fger Plajestg. 1853. LONDON: Printed hy Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I

America's account of its own greatness — General acquiescence therein — Importance of a trip across the Atlantic — Strange notions of that undertaking — The best way to combat them — Georgian luggage — A wonderful table-cloth — Monotony, and some people's notions of it — General explanation 1 — 14 CHAPTER H. Boston — Its importance — Its general appearance and character — Puritanism and Republicanism — Bunker Hill wit — VI CONTENTS. The Pilgrim Stone — Down East — Irishmen at a premium — Sleighing— Jews versus Yankees — A game supper — Anec dote of a one-horse cutter — A new species of crop. 15 — 32

Chapter III

Institutions and Lyceums of New England — Their character and their advantages — A house of prayer turned into a den of thieves — Laughter forbidden — The laity mistaken for the clergy — A Mexican's skull turned to a good account — More jokers than Sir Thomas More and Anne Boleyn — Libraries and books — An evening with Longfellow, at one of the homes of the American poets — "The Day is Done." 33—52

Chapter IV

American hotels — Food for body as well as soul — How to get a good dinner, and how to eat it — Curious statistics — Shirt-washing and bathing — One advantage of a long beard — How to take in your meal and your landlord — Maine Liquor Law— Preaching and horse-racing — Strong-minded and strong-bodied women— Wine and spirits of divine Origin— How to turn a collector out of office- Lord Coke's private opinion .... 53 CONTENTS. VII

Chapter V

New York — Indian summer — Something more than a nibble, a regular bite — Some idea of emigration — An argument between New York and Boston — Bridals, and their chambers — Deference to woman — Target-men and their targets — The Kerbstone Rangers — Oyster saloons — "A dream at sea" — A good-sized cemetery — Plank roads — Public mourning, and public monuments — A very dirty account — An election — Leviathan steamer — A Black Swan — A Dutch lady — Two sorts of husbandry — Shakers — Rights of women — Petticoat government — The press of America — Horses and horsemanship — Patriotism — Go-a-headism . . 73 — 110

Chapter VI

Spiritual rappings — Their extent and their exposure — Visit of his mother's spirit to the author — The spirit moveth tables and chairs, as well as itself — Spirits turn bankers, and get a rap on their own knuckles — Battle, murder, and sudden death exemplified — New marriage code — Singular advantage of becoming a medium — A nobleman's inexpressibles Ill — 145 CHAPTER VH. The last intervention — National gullibility — Kossuth in New York — His reception and entertainment — Found in every- CONTENTS. thing, and found out in the main thing — Illustrated by Charles Incledon — His notion of carrying out a principle — The dollar exaction and the establishment, in fact, of the independent Hungarian Government — Chances of his return to America — Paying the piper with a vengeance. 146—156 CHAPTER VEIL Philadelphia and the approach to it — A sure plan of finding your way in it — Guard's College, and its founder — A Californian digger at the Mint — Diddle's Bank— Pennsylvania deemed partially a slave state — How to get a good business back again — Wilham Penn's elm — Young America's idea of the word " boy" — Tan-yard wit — Franklin's tomb — Marketing — Advantages of weighing a pound of butter — Delaware fishing — Pros and cons of soktary confinement — Smoking in a chapel — Philadelphia society — A Mexican General — The Alleghany Mountains — A word of advice about them — The chances of reaching Pittsburg — Darkness visible when you get there — A good hotel to go to, and an excellent proprietor as long as you are in it. 157— 18S

CHAPTER IX.

The growth of cities — Their romantic titles — Log cabins —Daniel Webster and General Harrison— Trade of the CONTENTS. IX Far West — The Manchester of Old England, and the Manchester of New England — Wondrous statistics — A model factory girl — Baltimore and its monuments — Duck shooting and its delights — Poaching extraordinary — Street shooting — Origin and anecdote of a bowie-knife — Pretty good specimens of personality — Its consequences — Scene in a law court — Cocktails and coffins — Moving a house, as well as its furniture — Working double tides. 189—208

CHAPTER X.

Mrs. St owe — Uncle Tom's Cabin — More than one " Key" to it — English gulbbility out-heroding Herod — The " Sutherland" Manifesto, and " ex-presidential" rejoinder — Pros and cons of Slavery — The white slave, as well as the black one — Dr. Parker — Two sides to every question — " There's no harm in a guinea" — The best mode to stow any quantity of them away . . 209 — 239

CHAPTER XI.

Washington — Presidential inauguration, and its scenes — Visitors on the occasion — Election statistics — Advantage of an echo — Duties of the Senate — A Wigwam supper — The Arkansas Gentleman — Colt and his revolvers — X CONTENTS. Summons of Indian Chiefs in Council— America's offer to get England out of a mess — Pharaoh's hosts, and Faro's guests — The White House — Something like a President, and some idea of his last leve'e — "Kissing hands and shaking hands — " . . . 240 — 271

CHAPTER XII.

Travelling, and the various modes of undergoing the process — Steamers and state-rooms — Equably and fraternity — The Thames and the Hudson — The slavery of freedom — Sketch of an American traveller — Some doubts as to which is white or black — Murders by wholesale — How to recover a lost dinner — A short cut down a precipice — Novel form of prayer — A tip into the water — The Good Samaritan medically employed — A nice "look out" — Punctuality the soul of business . . 272 — 293

CHAPTER XIII.

Lake Erie — The British fleet swallowed at one mouthful — England's only chance of salvation— Statistics of the Lake country — Lake poetry — The falls of Niagara— What to do when you get to them — Every joke, Sheridan's — Difference between saying and doing — British and American ground not half-a-mile apart — Taking "a CONTENTS. XI wet," inside and out — A thundering * * * — The Windsor sentinel — Sappho and the lover's leap — Any quantity of water you please — Buffalo city, its advantages, and its pretensions — No end to a street in it — The odds against arriving at the falls of Niagara . 294 — What ! another book upon America ? What ! with Lyell, Dickens, Basil Hall, Mrs. Trollope, Mackay, Lady Stuart Wortley, Marryat, and a host of others, staring you in the face, to have the effrontery to add to their excellencies, or absurdities (as a jury of readers may determine), and, not satis fied with writing, venture to publish what you have written !

" Certainly, Sir,"* say we, in the concise and determined language of American response. A very few words upon our object in writing, and what we are going to write about, will suffice. Every man with a pair of eyes in his head may * The more accepted mode of answering, now-a-days, when an American means there should be no mistake, is, "Yes, Sir — ee." A WORD AT STARTING. see as far as his fellow ; but he may take a different view of things coming within the scope of his observation. We are not bound to accept the ipse dixit of any one for a fact, when it is recollected that prejudice, ignorance, doubt, or intention, may have warped and misdirected his judgment. If we had implicitly believed one half of what we have read upon the subject, we should either never have visited America, or have speedily returned from it in disgust.

If our aim were rather to criticise the commentary of others than to place a reliance on our own, we might possibly detect a series of misstatements, equally unjust in their fabrication, as dangerous in their tendency. There is nothing after all like judging for oneself, even if the con clusions you arrive at subject you from others to the same degree of severe condemnation you may have extended to them. We do not all see with the same eyes, or think with the same mind ; and it is lucky for us that we do not. We are not about to write any history (natural or unnatural) ; nor on any especial geography, topography, or any other 'ography ; nor on psychology, biology or any other 'ology ; nor on the stratum or substratum of an empire, and their component qualities. Our purpose is to hook you by the button-hole, and have a cozy chat with you over many things which you have not seen, and many more you ought to see ; to " take a drink, stranger," with you, and over it make you laugh at matters that made us laugh — in short, to have neither more nor less than a colloquy about the sayings and doings of a great land, in which none can take a more absorbing interest than the people of tbe great land from which we write.

There are plenty of other writers, and far better, to tell you of the exact circumference of any city, or the circumval lation of any fort ; of what peculiar brick this is built of, or the extraordinary granite that is com posed of; of primeval caves and coeval forests, where untamed beasts and wild Indians once held savage companionship. We may make reference to wondrous places, where the wonder is peculiarly apparent ; and we shall talk of great men, where we can extract any amusement out of their greatness ; but we must eschew the duties of the dry historian, the rigid inquirer, and the poring student, not aspiring, as a mighty bard expresses himself, " To have, when the original is dust, A d d bad picture, and worse bust." A WORD AT STARTING. Should we be detected indulging in any particular style, we should prefer the accusation of being as easy in our writing as if we were conversing ; and while bearing in mind the sound advice of Polonius, to be "familiar, but by no means vulgar," we shall aim at the accomplishment of the one, and endeavour to avoid any commission of the other, as far as in us lies.

We, therefore, meet, good stranger, on very fair terms. You know what you have to expect, because we have told you what we are going to give you ; and if, having honestly read through these pages, you can honestly say you do not regret having entered upon the undertaking, our ends will be mutually accomplished. A work we published some years since, entitled " The Stage both Before and Behind the Curtain," obtained, we may say, without any nonsensical swagger, a more than ordinary success ; an event which led to its being pirated in America, and published, as soon as possible after its publication in London. Having enjoyed the courtesy of being placed, as a free visitor, on the books of the New York Society Library immediately on our arrival, in the first page of its catalogue we opened, we found the said work duly registered, as printed by Messrs. Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia, and sold for them by Mr. A. Hart, of the same place, at the charge of a dollar, we believe — the price in this country having been £1 11s. 6c?.

This is putting your finger in another man's pie, to a pretty good purpose ; for the said cheap edition had a rapid sale, is entirely out of print, nor could we procure a copy of it for love or money. It must be apparent to any one that such a state of things as this ought not to exist ; and that, as interna tional copyright treaties have been concluded upon and exchanged between England and France, similar treaties should at once be established between the only two countries on earth whose mother tongue is the same. The product of some men's brains may not, to be sure, be worth much ; but at all events, it must be worth something, when people are to be found who think it of sufficient importance to filch it, and reahze a profit out of what they cannot honestly have any kind of interest in, and certainly no right to.* * The practice is universal — that is, where the work is con sidered one that will pay for the expense of pirating— and though it has been enforced in the case of many "a worthier son of The attention of the American Government and the people generally has been directed to this sub ject ; and it was hoped that a treaty, drawn up and executed between the representatives of the two countries, would have been sanctioned by the late Congress, previous to its dissolution ; an expecta tion warmly indulged in by Mr. Crampton, the British Minister, and Mr. Everett, at that time the American Secretary of State — with both of whom we had the honour of conferring at Washington, after the treaty had been submitted to the Senate.

In addition to public opinion at large, the matter has been gravely considered by all principal transatlantic publishers, gentlemen of high talent and high standing, and (just before the late transfer of any discussion hereon to the next session, in December) by a leading one, Mr. Putnam, of New York, who Sparta" than ourselves, we only speak for ourselves. We were introduced to Messrs. Hall and Son, music-sellers, in Broadway, and perceiving their counters strewn with American copies of almost every ballad we have been guilty of writing, we inquired, in a half-jocular tone, whose permission they had for doing all that. Upon which, one of the firm replied, " Oh, we live in a country where it is not necessary to ask any one's permission but our own." announced, at full length, through the columns of the press, his entire approval of the measure.* The outcry that has been made about the suppo sititious ruin it would inflict upon the paper-mills, type-foundries, printing-offices, " binderies," &c, which so plentifully contribute to the manufacture of books there, as here, was a case of unadulterated fudge — a true specimen of that venerable pro verb, "great cry and little wool;" for any dog in office, however obtuse the lining of his skull may be, can frame a clause whereby protection may be extended to every man, woman, and child engaged in such operations.

The treaty, slightly modified perhaps, will very probably pass during the next session of Congress ; but, as it too frequently happens that whde the grass is growing the steed is starving, we have taken the liberty of procuring the animal some provender, for consumption during the interregnum. Being a resident, for some time, in the southern district of New York city, we were enabled to avail ourselves of an Act of Congress, which secures to such resident (only !) the copyright, in the United States, of any work he may there publish or sell ; * See chap, v., page 148, vol. XX A WORD AT STARTING. and we beg to subjoin a true and faithful transcript thereof, for the benefit of all " land-rats and water rats, water-thieves and land-thieves — we mean pirates," and of ourselves in particular : " Southern District of New York, S.S. " 33t It ifcememijmtr, That, on the thirtieth day of May, Anno Domini 1853, Alfred Bunn, of the said district, hath deposited in this Office the title of a book, " the title of which is in the words following, To wit : " ' Old England and New England, in a series of Views taken on the Spot.' / UNITED \ / STATES \ I DISTRICT J \ SEAL. / By Alfred Bunn, Author of 'The Stage, Before and Behind the Curtain;' and other works, the right whereof he claims, as Author and Proprietor, in conformity with an Act of Congress, entitled ' An Act to amend the several acts respecting Copyrights.' (Signed) " Geo. W. Morton, " Clerk of the Southern District of " New York.

" N.B. A copy of the above work must be deposited in this office, within three months from the publication hereof, to secure the Copyright." There, transatlantic gentlemen booksellers and publishers, the murder is out ! Read us, and ap prove us according as the milk of human kindness may flow in your veins ; if you have none, why cut us up root and branch. Print us, if you will ; do anything but publish what you print ; or, as Billy Lackaday says of falling between two stools, " you may " between those of printing and publishing, " happen to break the small of your back !" AND NEW ENGLAND.

Chapter I

America's account of its own greatness — general acquiescence THEREIN IMPORTANCE OF A TRIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC STRANGE NOTIONS OF THAT UNDERTAKING THE BEST WAY TO COMBAT THEM GEORGIAN LUGGAGE A WONDERFUL TABLE-CLOTH MONOTONY, AND SOME PEOPLE'S NOTIONS OF IT GENERAL EXPLANATION. "Great Country, Sir!" and "We are a great people!" is the standard extract from an American's vocabulary. There can be no question of the truth of this, his hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quar terly, half-yearly, annual expression ; but it would VOL. I. B be equally true, if he left other people to say what he is for ever saying himself. We yield to no man in a proper estimate of our own country ; but only bigots or fools ever deny the greatness of others ; and not coming, we hope, within the pale of either denomination, it will be our object and desire to do the utmost justice to the delightful land we have recently returned from, without being prejudiced or swayed by the opinions of another.

Though self praise is no recommendation, it is much more agreeable after all to listen to it from the lips of a genuine patriot, than to hear the unblushing tirade which malcontents are for ever issuing against the nation that gave them birth. In this point of view, we admire the heartiness with which an Ame rican lauds everything belonging to himself and his soil. He will hear of no disparagement, he will admit of no inequality; and he very naturally cal culates that what he is for ever asserting, and dinning into the ears of the whole world, it is more than probable the whole world will at last believe to be true. There can be no doubt that England does not know enough of America ; indeed, it would not be very far from the mark to say that she knows nothing ; and her natural desire to know more is too frequently thwarted by the distorted representation, the foolish undervaluation, and the ungrate ful detraction of many, who think the surest way to gratify their countrymen's taste and predilec tions, is either to deny the excellencies, or to turn into ridicule the peculiarities, of a rival empire.

This is a task which self-importance too often delights to labour on, and it arises out of that weakest of all weaknesses, vanity. It is the verification of a valuable line in Apollo's famous song of " Pray Goody," wherein he says — " Remember when the judgment's weak, the prejudice is strong ;" and to that score must it principally be laid down. A better state of things is, however, beginning to manifest itself, the differences so long existing are now softening down, and the bad feeling they created is rapidly dying away in the distance. We begin to understand one another, and consequently to like one another as parent and offspring should, were there no other cause for such proper agreement ; and the more we see of each other, the firmer will the bonds of that amity become. Steam navigation* has done more to bring about such an im- * The importance of the respective vessels belonging to the Cunard (British; and the Collins (American) lines, requires some- B portant state of things than all the diatribes on either view of the question that have ever been written.

It has established a confidence too long withheld on both sides, and has materially silenced the conflict of opinion. A voyage across the Atlantic was even recently considered something thing more than a passing observation. There are no finer ships that sail the seas, nor are any abler commanders than theirs to be found. Their rank is a passport into the best society on either shore, their nautical skill gives confidence to the timid, and " assurance doubly sure" to the trusting, while their urbanity imparts real gratification to all. Let it not be forgotten that into their hands are committed matters affecting the destiny of the two greatest empires in the world ; to their protection are handed over tbe lives of thousands of their fellow-creatures, and dependent upon their conduct are the joys of happy hearts, or the sorrows of aching and breaking ones.

Only those who have watched the bearing of these noble mariners in hours of difficulty and danger, where the weak of spirit become paralyzed, and the stout of heart quail, can fully appreciate the firmness and energy with which their sternest duty is fulfilled. While we have the pleasure of being acquainted with several of these distinguished gentlemen, we feel certain of giving no offence to the whole body by selecting one we intimately know, because we can offer no eulogy upon him that we have not heard expressed in better language, and with equal feeling, from their own lips. We allude to Captain Harrison— as good a fellow, and as good a seaman, as ever held command— in whose splendid ship, the ' Africa,' we have crossed the Atlantic twice, in ten days and a half, each time. tantamount to a national undertaking, and the preparations for entering upon it, after mature deliberation, were of the most complex and alarming character.

Additional life assurance was the first thing determined upon, and that was rapidly followed up by extensive purchases of every personal comfort imaginable. A cartload of packages were filled with extraordinary suits of wearing apparel, adapted to every change of climate ; triplicate sets of everything were in instant requisition, and lug gage enough for a regiment of soldiers was the allotment of an individual traveller.* But all these false notions have been abandoned, for people have found out that every production of the one country is to be met with in the other, and surplusage has been given up altogether. We take it for granted that, after the thousand * A knowledge of the exact necessaries requisite for a transatlantic trip is a very important point to arrive at. An English man's investment is, naturally enough, ridiculed in America, where a small quantity of travelling equipage goes a great way.

In Georgia, especially, the baggage considered essential for a journey of any distance, consists of a shirt-collar and a pair of spurs ; and when we asked a native of that State how he managed about a shirt, " Why, look here, I can't spare the time to wait while they're a cleaning on it ; and if I could, it's almost as cheap to buy a new 'un, as it is to pay for the washing of an old 'un." and one descriptions of " the note preparative " for a sea voyage, and of the various incidents passing during its period, with which every scribbler crams his page at the expense of his reader's patience, any additional contribution to the standard stock would be voted inflictive ; and we will therefore dismiss the matter by just submitting a doggrel account of " confusion worse confounded," which we witnessed on leaving Liverpool : Hundreds rushing up the gangway, And sailors rushing down, Swearing oaths in every slang way, Breaking one man's luggage, and another fellow's crown !

" Come, bustle there, you lubber," Said the officer on watch ; " Give your hands and legs a turn, Or I'll make in both a notch, And you'll jump like Indian-rubber From the forc'sle to the stern !" " Take care of my portmanteau,'1 Says a gentleman in black. •' Take care yourself." " I can't — oh !" " Then you'd better, Sir, go back." " That old girl's boxes, hoist hers In the luggage-hold, below." " Throw overboard those oysters, For they stunk a week ago ! The eggs and fish the cook give — To all the fruit a look give — owns it's not any On the ice the butter lay, Or it all will melt away — D that box ! you've broke my toe !" Thus spoke the mate. A little maiden Both with bile and grief o'erladen, Said : " An accident befel me As I left the shore, do tell me, My bonnet-box fell overboard, And is it now in safety, and where, Sir, is it stored ?" — " In the locker for lost property, where ev'ry feller his."

" Will you tell me where that locker is ?" " Why, Miss, Davy Jones's." " Here's a chap that's sick already — Pour him out a glass of liquor, And if then he can't walk steady, Why he'll be a d — d deal sicker Before Holyhead's in sight, Or he pass the Skerries light." " Go to h — I" " Ay, ay, Sir, going. Then, with chests and cases stowing, Lots of blasts — the blast, too, blowing — Friends on shore once more appearing, Some gentle eye a tear in, At which hardened hearts will scoff ! Some with hope, and some with fear, inspired — Hark ! a brace of guns are fired — We are off ! And off we were, sure enough. We do purpose making you sick, gentle reader, with account of other people being so, or giving you any minute description of the supposed monotony of a sea voyage. We say " supposed," because the general impression inclines to that way of thinking, but to us it appeared quite the reverse.

Should the voyageur have such weather as we had, reading and writing furnish ample employment, which can be relieved by any simple game of chance or science that may be agreed upon. For those who patronise gastronomy, it is enough to say that the vessels of either line can boast of an excellent cuisine, and that what between breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, and supper (if you choose to order it), the cloth is scarcely ever off the table ;* and as for wines and spirits, there is abundance in all conscience, and if they are not particularly good, there is no question about their being particularly dear, especially when it is borne in mind that they pay no duty. To us there is no more imposing sight than the perform ance of divine service on shipboard, and the assem blage thereat of as many of a hardy crew as can be spared from duty, dressed in their best, and listen- * When Charles Mathews (I mean the block himself, and not the chip of it) was asked to give some account of what he saw on his voyage to America, he said, that all he did see was a table cloth, which reached from Liverpool to New York ! ing with modest devotion to the law of their Maker.

Monotony ! Wby the meridian observation, the heaving of the lead, the calculation of the ship's progress, the magical effect of the boat swain's whistle, the occasional signaling of passing ships, the evening pastimes of the sailors, and the sometime visit of the stormy petrel, as the vessel sails by its imaginary habitation, have no possible connection with Monotony ! And the aforesaid petrels ? Did you ever meet with these lines upon them? Whither come they, and where do they go ? — Their Maker, and they, alone can know ! Where doth the mother build her nest ? Under the wave ? or upon its breast ? A thousand miles, or it may be more, Are they sporting now from the nearest shore, Yet they flutter with wing as restless and free, And under the sunlight hold revelrie, As a gentle linnet on hawthorn-tree.

Mystic stranger ! that leavest no track Whether thy course lie onward, or back, Tell us the tidings which thou dost bring, As thou sailest by with such rapid wing ! Whether of human joy or woe ? Whence dost thou come, and where dost thou go ? — Thou, and thy Maker, alone can know ! — " Monotony ! Can there be the slightest semblance b to such a phrase in gazing upon the huge bodies of whales sporting in their own mighty element, and sending up fountains of water from their mammoth nostrils, as they stream through the unfathomable depths they dwell in ? The mind becomes very soon associated with scenes and subjects like these, and you at last begin to think no more of a shoal of whales, than you would of a shoal of mackerel. Monotony ! Oh ! is it nothing to gaze for the first time on a colossal iceberg, with a brilliant sun shining upon it, and imparting to it all the appearance of a fairy palace, " Set in the silver sea."