European Life and Manners; in familiar letters to friends

Front matter

EUROPEAN LIFE AND MANNERS; IN FAMILIAR LETTERS TO FRIENDS. BY HENRY COLMAN, AUTHOR OF EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE, AND THE AGRICULTURE OF FRANCE, BELGIUM, HOLLAND AND SWITZERLAND. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON : CHARLES CT LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. LONDON: JOHN PETHEEHAM, 94, HIGH HOLEOEN. 1850. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, By Henry Colman, as Author, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. BOSTON* : PRINTED BY WHITE AND POTTER. THESE VOLUMES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LADY A. NOEL BYRON, AS A MEMORIAL OF THE PUREST ESTEEM AND REVERENCE FOR THAT WHICH IS MOST EXCELLENT IN MIND AND CHARACTER. MOST CLEAR IN ITS PERCEPTIONS OF TRUTH, AND MOST ACTIYE AND FAITHFUL IN THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTY AND OF A FRIENDSHIP, WHICH HE DEEMS AMONG THE HIGHEST HONORS AND FELICITIES OF HIS LIFE, BY THE AUTHOR, PEEFACE.

The person Avho introduces another into respect able society, is ansAverable, in a high degree, for the character of the individual Avhom he thus presents. The same responsibleness applies to an author, Avho presumes to offer his productions to the public. In the present croAvded state of literary society, Avhen authors and publishers are daily becoming more numerous, and when the competition for public hearing and favor is full to excess, there is not likely to be that exact discrimination, Avhich Avould take place in a more sparse condition, and among feAver candidates. But this does not absolve an author from his obligation to do his best, nor from his responsibleness to an improved taste, to the cause of public improvement and gratification, and of good morals. Under a sense of this obligation, I have great dif fidence in presenting these volumes to the public.

I have no anxiety as to their moral tendency. Indeed, I would not have published them, had I not had the most entire confidence that they will not be merely innocuous, but salutary; whether they will meet the refined taste of the community, and afford

Preface

. them a gratification which will repay the trouble of a perusal — of this, I am not so certain ; and an author is, perhaps, as incompetent to form a correct opinion of his oavii productions, as a partial parent is to form a just judgment of the characters of his children. The vision may be blinded or perverted by parental fondness and natural affection, and, under such circumstances, the standard of right or excellence is often affected. Not only defects become tolerable, but faults are converted into virtues. Having heretofore experienced much kind indulgence from the public, I do not approach them uncheered by hope ; and, Avhile my Avork makes no claims to applause, it will, I trust, be found as little obnoxious to censure ; and, Avhile it may not be thought even Avorthy of the severity of critics, it will, at least, be sure of the partiality of friends.

To this partiality these volumes OAve their birth, and, if they give pleasure to my friends, I shall be fully satisfied.- A cursory glance at them, Avill satisfy any one, that these Letters Avere not designed for publication. Until my return from Europe, I did not even know that they had been preserved. Many friends ex pressed a strong Avish to possess them, and that is the reason of their publication. I had proposed from the beginning, after the com pletion of my European Agriculture, a graver Avork than this, upon European Society, embracing larger views of its politics, religion, education, manners and

PREFACE.

. IX morals. I have begun such a Avork. I have col lected for this purpose large stores of materials ; and, if my life and health are spared, I design presently to give it to the public. In the meantime, I publish these tAvo volumes, in order to give a picture of private and domestic life. They relate to and embrace many topics that could not be properly introduced into the Avork which I design. They may be said to form a personal narrative of my residence abroad, and further, to give what may be called proof impressions of scenes, objects, persons, and places, as they passed before my mind. I am quite aAvare that first impressions are not ahvays to be trusted, but, in general, if they are more vivid, they are also more exact. If, in the end, there should be found, in any case, a Avide discrepancy betAveen the first judgments and the truth, it Avill not, I believe be found oftener to occur, than Avhere Ave attempt to modify and alter these impressions by much after-study and care.

I would not be thought in any Avay to recommend hasty and premature con clusions, but I have great respect, in most cases, excepting where scientific inquiry is directly involved, for first impressions. The mind is then more Avake ful; its observations are more distinct ; and it has no prejudices or false impressions to obstruct, pervert, or cloud its perceptions. An enthusiastic painter, when first he attempts to sketch from nature, with the objects full before him, is likely to give a true X

PREFACE.

. portrait ; but Avhen, aftenvards, in another situation, removed from the objects, he undertakes to correct this picture, he draAvs generally, not from what it is, but from Avhat he Avishes it should, or thinks it ought to be ; and, though the lines may be much more artistical, and the coloring more skilful and brilliant, yet the likeness is very sure to be gone. The greatest difficulty in the publication of these Letters, has been, that they may be deemed too per sonal ; and my anxiety has been, lest they should be thought to approach a violation of private confidence. I know feAv things that could give me more pain, than to be justly obnoxious to such a charge. I hope it Avill not, in any degree, be found so. I, at first, determined not to publish a single name, but I found this an idle attempt, and that individuals Avould be traced by circumstances, as certainly as if distinctly announced.

I have reported no conA^ersa tions, and passed no free opinions upon any persons or characters, except public characters; and upon these only in their public relations and acts; and though, in speaking of private individuals, I have spoken in the language of respect or praise, I can only say that the terms are most general ; I had con stantly to restrain the grateful utterance of my con victions, and it is not a tithe of the eulogy Avhich I might have honestly pronounced. As to the accounts which I have given of the style of living, in particular places and among particular classes, I have only to say PREFACF.. XI that pains were most kindly taken to initiate me into these particulars ; that this information Avas, though entirely Avithout ostentation, most kindly given ; that Avritten lists of servants, and Avritten and printed rules of domestic management, were repeatedly placed in my hands, with a full and expressed liberty to use them as I pleased ; and that the style of living, though Avholly different from that Avhich prevails among us, is everywhere of a common type, so that the description of one of these establishments is, in the main, a description of all.

I know my English friends Avill smile at the simplicity Avith which I have detailed some small matters ; but they must live in a condition and organization of society, totally different from their OAvn, in order to under stand the interest which is taken on this side of the water, in these minute details. But, after all, my great reason for the various details of persons and places Avhich I have given, Avas, as seemed only just, to record my most grateful and enduring sense of the extraordinary and most exem plary kindness and hospitality which I everywhere experienced. This hospitality presents, in English life and society, the most beautiful traits of character, and makes one proud of his descent from a race of men so truly noble, so generous, so kind, so polished, and so enlightened ; and, Avith every liberal mind, it cannot fail to command esteem and respect. It must

PREFACE.

. excite reciprocity, and to a generous emulation m kind offices, as well of a public as of an individual character ; and this is the golden chain, by which tAvo great nations, sharing the same blood, speaking the same language, and allied by innumerable com mon interests, can be bound indissolubly together. I make no apology for inserting some feAV letters in the volume, Avhich may be deemed strictly personal and private. I claim for them, and they are not many, the indulgence of eArery kind reader, as mark ing events of the deepest interest to myself, and likely, .as I am assured by many impartial friends, to haAre, under the same circumstances in Avhich they Avere Avritten, — circumstances, alas ! painfully common to all, — an interest Avith others. P. S. In apology for many imperfections in the work, it is only proper to state, that during its preparation and passage through the press, the state of my eyes has been such, that I have not been able to read a single line ; and painful experience alone can teach us Iioav inconvenient it is, even under the best circumstances, to be obliged to use another's eyes for one's oavii.

It has brought with it, hoAvever, one alleviation, in the most generous and exemplary kindness of friends, in proffering and rendering every practical aid; a kindness which I desire most gratefully to acknoAvledge. Svlem, Mass., April, 1849. SECOND POSTSCRIPT. Since the foregoing Avas printed, it has occurred to me, that, in order to avoid a very false impression, the reader should understand this is not intended as a full or continuous narrative of my residence abroad. Very far from it. It records only a small portion of the kindness shoAvn me. It contains, in fact, mere sketches of particular incidents, circumstances, and objects, and these selected from a large mass of letters, under great disadvantage, on account of the imperfect state of my sight. I hope, also, that the reader Avill not fail to bear in mind that these letters Avere Avholly private, and never expected in this AA^ay to see the light.

Nothing is said in them for the sake of effect ; and their character, as private letters, must serve as an apology for many imperfections. I have been most anxious not to offend any rule of propriety. To have omitted every thing personal would have destroyed the peculiar interest Avhich they might otherAvise have ; and, as nothing is said SECOND POSTCRIPT. in them Avhich the most scrupulous Avould have hes itated to express in any company, and in the freest conversation, I cannot think any just cause of offence Avill be given by their appearance in this incidental form. FeAv things would give me more pain than to have forfeited, in this respect, in any degree the good Avill of my friends. I might have honored and adorned my pages Avith innumerable other names, of persons both titled and untitled ; but they Avill not infer from this omission that their kindness is not recollected, or the less gratefully appreciated.

There are grateful hearts on both sides of the Atlantic, Avho will feel that every act of kindness shoAvn to a friend or felloAV country man, is in no inferior sense shoAvn to themselves. It is not presumptuous to hope, that even so humble a record as this Avill do something towards stimulating a more active competition in those offices of kindness betAAreen the citizens and subjects of two great countries, allied by a common origin, a com mon language, and a common religion, and thus cement constantly, and more and more strongly, those ties of mutual good-Avill and friendship Avhich every generous mind reveres as the most sacred and inviolable of all bonds. H. C. CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Letter XIV

(Page 43.) General condition of society. LETTER XA". (Page 45.) Chatsworth ; Haddon Hall. LETTER XATI. (Page 48.) Value of Letters ; Visit at Belper ; Agreeable interview ; Matlock ; Sheffield.

LETTER XVII.

(Page 54.) Chatsworth ; English ladies. CONTENTS. XVII

LETTER XVIII.

(Page 56.) Agricultural Excursion at Doncaster ; Remarkable improvements.

LETTER XIX.

(Page 59.) Agricultural Show at Dundee ; Lodgings at Dundee and Edinburgh ; Grouse shooting ; Sunday in Edinburgh ; Condition of the people.

LETTER XX.

(Page 66.) Sunday in the rural districts in Scotland; Arthur's Seat; Roslin Castle and Chapel ; Auchternuchty ; Agricultural excursion ; Church militant ; Markets in Edinburgh.

LETTER XXI.

(Page 71.) Farms and farmers in Scotland.

LETTER XXII.

(Page 73.) European scenery compared with that of New England ; Railroad travelling ; Climate.

LETTER XXIII.

(Page 75.) Melrose Abbey ; Abbotsford; Farms and farming near Edinburgh ; Farm laborers. LETTER XXIA'. (Page 78.) Melrose Abbey; Village to Melrose; Cowdin Knowse; Dryburgh Abbey ; Tomb of Scott ; Abbotsford ; Galashiels ; Stirling Castle.

LETTER XXV.

(Page 88.) Scott's Monument ; Monuments at Edinburgh.

LETTER XXVI.

(Page 90.) Lambton Castle; Servants and arrangements at large establishments; Breakfasts in London ; Manners at the Palace ; Reception of the Queen at Brighton ; Snuff-taking ; Manners ; Foot-race at Duckingfield. CONTENTS.

LETTER XXVII.

(Page 97.) Agricultural Society at Manchester ; Newspaper accuracy ; A'isits contemplated ; Manchester at night ; Lancashire^ dialect. LETTER XXA'III. (Page 101.) Manchester ; its trade and population.

LETTER XXIX.

(Page 103.) York Minster ; Wentworth House.

LETTER XXX.

(Page 108.) Visit at a Rectory in Nottinghamshire ; Luxury in England.

LETTER XXXI.

(Page 112.) Donkeys ; Dog-carts ; Goat-carriages ; Fox hounds.

LETTER XXXII.

(Page 114.) Incomes and wealth of individuals ; The Duke of Portland's improvements ; Earl of Yarborough's plantations.

LETTER XXXIII.

(Page 118.) Education of Young Ladies ; its importance.

LETTER XXXIV.

(Page 121.) A'isit at Welbeck Abbey ; Ruins of Hardwick Castle and Hardwick Hall; Style of Living. LETTER XXXA'. (Page 125.) Importance of good hand-writing ; Characteristics of a merchant ■ Visit at Bransby ; Shops in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Glasgow ; Regent Street in the evening. CONTENTS. XIX

LETTER XXXVI.

(Page 128.) Visit at Stamford; Agricultural excursions ; Boston; Lynn; Swaff ham ; English hospitality ; Dinner at Swaffham ; Queen's entrance at Cambridge.

LETTER XXXVII.

(Page 132.) Reception of the Queen at Cambridge. LETTER XXXA'III. (Page 135.) Reading Rooms; Arrangement at Edinburgh; A'isits contemplated; American politics.

LETTER XXXIX.

(Page 139.) Intelligence of the death of friends ; Lodgings in London ; Bills ; Duties of the Maid of all work : Expensesjjf travelling ; Fees of servants.

LETTER XL.

(Page 143.) Strawberries at Dundee ; Other fruits ; Holkam ; Babraham ; Mr. Webb's sheep ; Ball at Wimpole ; Royal state beds.

LETTER XLI.

(Page 146.) Goodwood; Style of living; Chichester; L'nion House ; Agricultural excursions to Manhood and Bognor ; Extent of Goodwood and Gordon Castle.

LETTER XLII.

(Page 152.) Sunday at Cambridge ; University Church ; Chapel of King's College ; Chapel of Trinity College ; Hare-coursing at Babraham ; Sporting season ; Toll-House on the Newmarket road ; Neatness of English servants ; Dress and manners of ladies.

LETTER XLIII.

(Page 157.) Solitude in London ; Fruit-sellers ; Out of season in London ; Religious observances. XX CONTENTS.

LETTER XLIV.

(Page 161.) London ; its populousness ; its vastness ; Security in London ; Public order and decency ; Contrasts in condition.

LETTER XLV.

(Page 165.) Death of friends ; Christmas at Camberwell ; Miss Edgeworth ; Mr. Carlyle.

LETTER XLVI.

(Page 16S.) New Year's congratulations; Scenery and objects of interest in England ; Cambridge ; Services at King's Chapel and Trinity College Chapel.

LETTER XLVII.

(Page 172.) Twelfth-Night ; Visits at Earl Sheen ; Sundry visits ; Opening of Parliament.

LETTER XLVIII.

I (Page 175.) Fox-hunting; Jock of the Hunt ; Game.

LETTER XLIX.

(Page 179.) Feelings of the English in regard to the TJnited States ; Political parties ; Labor; Opening of Parliament ; English conservatism.

LETTER L.

(Page 182.) Opening of Parliament ; its magnificence ; The Queen's speech.

LETTER LI.

(Page 184.) Time *, how passed ; Visit at Teddesley Park ; Marquis of Northampton's 6oir>e ; Supper of the pupils at Christ's Hospital. CONTENTS. XXI

LETTER LII.

(Page 189.) Landseer's engravings ; Visiting parties in London ; Education in England ; Political aspects of society ; American reputation ; American politics ; Irish agitation ; Dress of gentlemen ; Mr. Everett's degree at Oxford.

LETTER LIII.

(Page 196.) Landseer's engravings ; English ladies ; Observance of the Lord's Day ; Theatres.

LETTER LIV.

(Page 201.) Visit of the Queen to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy ; Queen's Drawing-room on her Birth-day ; Dress of English ladies.

LETTER LV.

(Page 204.) Regimen for invalids ; Speech of Lord Brougham ; Speech of Sir Robert Peel ; Character of Sir Robert Peel ; House of Commons.

LETTER LVI.

(Page 206.) Value of character ; Mercantile character ; Regatta at Oxford ; Gymnastic games.

LETTER LVII.

(Page 208.) Visit to Oxford ; Bodleian Library.

LETTER LVIII.

(Page 211.) Travelling in stage coaches ; A'isit to Blenheim ; Visitors and fees at such establishments ; Exhibition of the Royal Academy.

LETTER LIX.

(Page 216.) Climate ; Culture of Flowers ; Fete at Chiswick ; American politics.

LETTER LX.

(Page 219.) Martyr monument in Oxford; Monuments in London; Scott's Monti' ment. CONTENTS.

LETTER LXI.

(Page 220.) Fox's Head; Blenheim Castle ; Study of Natural science.

LETTER LXII.

(Page 223.) London Brewery ; Military Review; Fete at Chiswick.

LETTER LXIII.

(Page 225.) Observance of the Sabbath.

LETTER LXIV.

(Page 227.) Edinburgh ; Agriculture in Scotland ; Language ; Scotch Church secession.

LETTER LXV.

(Page 231.) Visit at AVest Stratton ; Agricultural Show at Southampton ; A'isit at Sydney Lodge ; Sunday in the country.

LETTER LXVI.

(Page 236.) American politics ; Condition of England ; Sunday in the country ; Preaching in London ; Unitarians. LETTER LXA'II. (Page 240.) Agricultural Show at Southampton ; Season; Farming at West Stratton.

LETTER LXVIII.

(Page 244.) Isle of Wight ; The Grange ; Autographs.

LETTER LXIX.

(Page 246.) Winchester Cathedral ; Isle of Wight ; Portsmouth ; Foreign exclusiveness ; Apprehensions of farmers. CONTENTS. XXIII

LETTER LXX.

(Page 248.) A'isit at Eastbourne ; American Friends in London ; London Newspapers; The Times ; A'oyage to Dublin ; Dublin ; Irish Royal Agricultural Society meeting.

LETTER LXXI

(Page 253.) Chantry's monumental statue in Litchfield Cathedral ; Landseer's engravings ; English politics ; Misery in Ireland ; O'Connell.

LETTER LXXII.

(Page 255.) Irish hospitality ; Donny Brook Fair ; Temperance pledge.

LETTER LXXIII.

(Page 257.) Limerick Gloves ; Agricultural excursions in Ireland ; Lake of Killarney and Gap of Dunlop ; Mode of living in Ireland ; Classical education in Ireland. LETTER LXXIA*. (Page 260.) Travelling excursions ; Kindness of Irish friends at Dublin and at Cork ; Father Mathew ; Blarney Castle ; Killarney ; Pony ride ; Visit at Ardfrey ; Sligo ; Templemoyle ; Giant's Causeway ; Belfast ; Visit at Dun-Murry ; A'isit at Armagh ; Sunday at Dun-Murry ; AVretchedness among the Irish.

LETTER LXXV.

(Page 270.) Agricultural inquiries ; Belfast ; Its manufactures ; Political condition of Ireland ; Irish Bishops.

LETTER LXXVI.

(Page 273.) Ayr; Glasgow; Scotch farming ; Sunday in Edinburgh. LETTER LXXA'II. (Page 275.) Visit at Stirling ; Visit at Argety ; Falkirk Tryste ; Scotch farming in the Lothians : Visits at Tynemouth and Biddick. t ONTENTS.

LETTER LXXVIII.

(Page 279.) Tynemouth ; Bathing at Tynemouth ; Miss M 's residence ; Public conveyances ; Carlisle.

LETTER LXXIX.

(Page 282.) A'isit of tlie Queen at Blair- Athol ; Loyalty of the English.

LETTER LXXX.

(Page 283.) A'isit at_Audley-end ; Agricultural meeting at Saffron AValden ; A'isit at Babraham ; Sundry excursions.

LETTER LXXXI.

(Page 287.) Arisit at Pendarves.

LETTER LXXXII.

(Page 289.) A'isits at Torquay, Plymouth, Truro, Pendarves, and Canibron.

LETTER LXXXIII.

(Page 293.) Cornwall ; Descent into a copper mine. LETTER LXXXIA'. (Page 300.) Climate of England ; Fruits and Flowers. LETTER LXXXA7. (Page 301.) A'isit to Penzance; Excursion to Land's End; A'isit at King's AVestern ; A'isit at Totworth ; A'isit at Painswick.

LETTER LXXXVI.

(Page 307.) Invitations ; Death of Judge Prescott.

LETTER LXXXVII.

(Page 309.) A'isit at Tredegar; Modes of living at a large establishment; Manners. CONTENTS.

LETTER LXXXVIII.

(Page 316.) The Lawrencia Villa.

LETTER LXXXIX.

(Page 319.) Woburn Abbey ; Agriculture at AAroburn.

LETTER XC.

(Page 321.) Visits; Twelfth-night near Pusey; A'isit at ; Shooting Party ; Dress andmanners; A'isit at Woburn Abbey; Description; Domestic arrangements ; Opening of Parliament.

LETTER XCI.

(Page 333.) Sunday at home ; Charms of moral beauty.

LETTER XCII.

(Page 335.) Climate ; Excessive cold ; Miss Cushman ; Theatres.

LETTER XCIII.

(Page 33S.) Crowds in London streets; Vehicles; Shops; Appearance and dress. LETTER XCIA'. (Page 341.) Parliament; Theatre; Weather.

LETTER XCV.

(Page 342.) Controversies about religion; Crowded state of London; Steamboats; Late hours in London.

LETTER XCVI.

(Page 346.) Count Rzewuski ; Letters. LETTBR XCArII. (Page 347.) Bal Costumi at the Palace. CONTENTS.

LETTER XCVIII.

(Page 348.) Electric Telegraph; Present to Mohammed Ali; Greek Slave by Mr. Powers; Queen's Pal Co,tumi ,- Polish Fancy Dress Ball; A'isit to Northamptonshire.

LETTER XCIX.

(Page 356.) Finsbury Chapel ; Music ; Mr. Fox.

LETTER C.

(Page 356.) Lodgings ; Invitations ; Adventure ; Death of Mr. Saltonstall ; Private tutors ; Opera in London ; Dinners of the Cordwainer's Company.

LETTER CI.

(Page 362.) AVeather ; Prorogation of Parliament ; The Queen.

LETTER CII.

(Page 364.) Death of a friend ; Illness of a friend ; Power of Religion ; A'isit to the Old Bailey ; True Christianity.

LETTER CIII.

(Page 367.) AVeather ; School at Norwood ; Dinner ; Farming at Croydon ; Excursions in London ; Sunday in the country ; Letter from an unknown friend. LETTER CIA*. (Page 372.) AA'enham Lake ice; Religious controversy; "A Live Apostle.'

LETTER CV.

(Page 374.) Personal independence ; Growth of London ; Visit to the Old Bailey. LETTER CA'I. (Page 378.) Remembrances of home; Peril of late marriages. EUROPEAN LIEE AND MANNERS.

Letter I

London, loth May, 1843. Mr Dea.k Sir : I have been here now about ten days, have seen every thing, and yet in truth have seen nothing. I have studied the maps over and over again ; I have thumbed my guide-books until they look as if they had served half a dozen classes at a country school, Avhere they live by borroAving and there is not more than one book to a class ; and yet so sure as I leave the great thoroughfares I am lost. It is a perfect wilderness of houses and streets, and lanes, and courts, and kennels, and I was two hours the other evening in finding my lodgings at a distance of half a mile from Avhere I had been visiting. The people are not Avanting in civility, but they seem to me to appreciate very imperfectly the difficulties of a stranger. Frequently when they tell you to go straight along, you will have half a dozen corners to turn, when, as to-day, it happened to me, there Avere seven streets, all radiating from one centre, and when you reached that centre there were four to choose from, all " straight ahead ;" and you will frequently have to follow one as crooked as a cork-screAv, and then dodge into some court, Avhere the passage is so narrow and obscure you Avould scarcely think it led anyAvhere, and then you become involved in a perfect labyrinth, and after various turnings, and processions, and recessions, you have the felicity of coming out exactly Avhere you entered.

Some of the streets, lined Avith shops full of the .most brilliant collections and varieties of goods, and others stretching through long ranges of stalls and shops full of meats, vegetables, fruits and groceries, are actually, by my oavii measure ment, not in Avidth more than a foot beyond Avhat I could reach Avith my outstretched arms ; and these places so thronged Avith people that it requires considerable skill, and a constant movement omvard to avoid running other people down or being rundown yourself. A street twice as Avide as Theatre Alley in Boston, at at its entrance from Milk street, with a gutter in the middle, and lined with stores as thick as they can stand, and a torrent of people pressing through them in opposite currents side by side, is a specimen of some of the busiest thoroughfares in this modern Babylon.

But this is one side of the picture. If London has its narrow streets, it has likeAvise its broad and magnificent passages, of a Avidth a third greater than BroadAvay in New York, in its Avidest parts, running for miles, with stores and shops of almost unimaginable splendor, and in their richness and magnificence realizing the brightest fictions of poetry. Then again, the extent of London : It is absolutely impossible to communicate to one Avho has not

LETTER I.

seen it any just idea of it. I have said to myself several times, " Avell, iioav, I have seen the whole," yet I soon find out that I have seen nothing. You can travel eighteen miles from Brentford to Stratford, through an uninterrupted succession of thickly planted houses. I have Avalked till I have had to sit doAvn on some door-steps out of pure weariness, and yet have not got at all out of the rushing tide of population. I have rode on the driver's seat on omnibusses, and there has been a constant succession of squares, parks, terraces, and long lines of single houses for miles, and continuous blocks and single palaces in the very heart of London, occupying acres of ground. I do not speak of course of the large parks, Avhich for their trees, their verdure, their neatness, their embellishments, their lakes and cascades, their Avaters sAvarming with fish, and covered with a great variety of Avater-fowl Avhich they have been able to domesticate, and their grazing flocks of sheep and cattle, and their national monu ments, and the multitudes of Avell-dressed pedestrians, and of elegantly mounted horsemen and horse- Avomen, and of carriages and equipages as splendid as gold and silver can make them, are beautiful beyond even my most romantic dreams.

I do not exaggerate, I cannot go beyond the reality. Then again the crowded state of the streets in the great thoroughfares, the main arteries of this mighty body, beating continually Avith tremendous pulsa tions : I have stood two or three times in situations Avhere I had an opportunity of looking up a long line of street, and the carriages and the people seemed absolutely piled one upon the other. If you Avant your ease in such cases, get into a carriage, but if you want to make despatch then go on foot, for the carriages on both sides are compelled to keep in line, and can advance only as their predecessors go on. Yet Avith all this there is no incivility and no rudeness ; and though I have been a great deal in the streets and in croAvds Avithout number, and have seen vexation enough in passing, I do not think I have heard a single oath since I have been in the city.

Then come the palaces and the public buildings. I cannot describe them. It is idle to attempt it, and the guide-books give you very imperfect accounts of them. One Avould think you could see all the public buildings in London in a week. I do not believe they could all be gone over, by working every day", in six months, so as to have any adequate idea of them. Some of the public buildings are of very inferior appearance, but elegant in the interior, and all of them are more or less discolored by the weather and smoke, Avhich upon the Avhole does not really injure their looks. Everybody has heard of St. Paul's, and Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Hall, and grand indeed they are, but they are only one item in the long list. Every one has heard of the monument, designed to commemorate the great fire in London, but London is full of monuments, some a single fluted column, others a simple shaft, and others adorned Avith an equestrian or a civic statue. Some people talk of seeing London in a Aveek. I verily believe its objects of curiosity could

LETTER I.

5 not be gone over by an intelligent and observing individual, so as to obtain a just idea of them, in a year. I confess, notwithstanding my raised, and I had supposed, exaggerated expectations, the vastness of London, its population, its immense wealth, its palaces, its monuments, its bridges, its parks, over whelm me. But I have not yet seen the ToAver, nor the National Gallery, nor the Museum, nor the Zoolog ical Garden, nor the &c. &c. Yesterday I went to church at Westminster Abbey in the forenoon ; at noon at St. Margaret's Church, where the Lord Bishop of St. David's preached, and in the afternoon at the Temple, one of the oldest churches in town, and built by the Knights Templars, after the model of the Church of Jerusalem. It was Avith a good deal of difficulty in the former and the latter place I could get admission.

In the morning I had to stand through the whole service. To give you some idea of the latter church, it has been undergoing repairs for the last thirteen months, at an expense of only £100,000 sterling. Its magnificence is extraordinary. The service in both these churches is chanted, not read ; and there is a formality in regard to beadles, and constables in waiting, Avith goAvns and bands on, and others with gold-laced coats and epaulets, and officers carrying the mace, and all that, which is in itself all beautiful, and operates po Averfully upon the veneration, but which is very foreign from the naked simplicity to Avhich Ave are accustomed. The Church here, Iioav ever, is altogether a political establishment, and as much an integral part of the government as the House of Commons. I have had very poor success in getting into the House of Commons, from the crowd waiting for ad mission.