Recollections of Europe

Preface

. It may seem to be late in the day to give an account of the more ordinary characteris tics of Europe. But the mass of all nations can form their opinions of others through the medium of testimony only ; and as no two travellers see precisely the same things, or, when seen, view them with precisely the same eyes, this is a species of writing, after all, that is not likely to pall, or cease to be useful. The changes that are constantly going on everywhere, call for as constant repetitions of the descriptions ; and although the pictures may not always be drawn and coloured equally well, so long as they are taken in good faith, they will not be without their value. VI

PREFACE.

. It is not a very difficult task to make what is commonly called an amusing book of travels. Any one who will tell, with a reasonable de gree of graphic effect, what he has seen, will not fail to carry the reader with him ; for the interest we all feel in personal adventure is, of itself, success. But it is much more difficult to give an honest and a discriminating summary of what one has seen. The mind so naturally turns to exceptions, that an observer has great need of self-distrust, ofthe powers of analysis, and, most of all, of a knowledge of the world, to be what the lawyers call a safe witness. I have no excuse of haste, or of a want of time, to offer for the defects of these volumes. All I ask is, that they may be viewed as no more than they profess to be. They are the gleanings of a harvest already gathered, thrown together in a desultory manner, and without the slightest, or, at least, very small pretensions, to any of those arithmetical and statistical accounts that properly belong to works of a graver character. They contain

PREFACE.

. VII the passing remarks of one who has certainly seen something of the world, whether it has been to his advantage or not, who had rea sonably good opportunities to examine what he saw, and who is not conscious of being, in the slightest degree, influenced " by fear, favour, or the hope of reward." His compte rendu must pass for what it is worth. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Letter I

Our Embarkation. — Leave-taking. — Our Abigail. — Bay of New York. — The Hudson. — Ominous Prediction. — The Pro phet falsified.— Enter the Atlantic.—" Land-birds." — Our Master. —Officers of Packet-ships.— Loss of "The Crisis."— The "Three Chimneys." — Calamities at Sea. — Sailing-match. — View of the Eddystone. — The Don Quixote. — Comparative Sailing. — Pilot boats. — Coast of Dorsetshire. — The Needles. — Lymington. — Southampton Wrater. — The Custom-house. - Page 1

Letter II

Controversy at Cowes. — Custom-house Civility. — English Cos tume. — Fashion in America. — Quadrilles in New York. — Cowes. — Nautical Gallantry. — English Beauty. — Isle of Wight Butter. — English Scenery. — M'Adamized Roads.— Old Village Church. — Rural Interment. — Pauper's Grave. — Carisbrooke Castle. — Southampton. — Waiter at the Vine. — English Costume. — Affinity with England. — Netley Abbey. — Southampton Cockneys. - X CONTENTS.

Letter III

Road to London. — Royal Pastime. — Cockney Coachman. — Winchester Assizes. — Approach to London. — The Parks. — Piccadilly. — Street Excursion. — Strangers in London. — Americans in England.— Westminster Abbey. — Gothic Decorations. — West minster Hall. — Inquisitive Barber. — Pasta and Malibran. — Drury lane Theatre. — A Pickpocket. — A Fellow-traveller. — English Gentlemen. — A Radical. — Encampment of Gipsies. — National Distinctions.— Antiquities. — National Peculiarities. - Page 67

Letter IV

Quit England. — Approach to France. — Havre. — Our Reception there. — Female Commissionnaire. — Clamour of Drums. — Port of Havre. — Projected Enterprize. — American Enterprize. — Steam-boat Excursion. — Honfleur. — Rouen. — French Exaction. — American Porters. — Rouen Cathedral. — Our Cicerone. — A Diligence. — Picturesque Road. — European Peasantry. — Aspect of the Country. — Church at Louviers. — Village near Vernon. — Rosny. — Mantes. — Bourbon Magnificence. — Approach to Paris. — Enter Paris. - 106

Letter V

Paris in August 1826. — Montmartre. — The Octroi. — View of Paris. — Montmorency. — Royal Residences. — Duke of Bor deaux. — Horse-racing. — The Dauphine. — Popular feeling in Paris.— Royal Equipage.— Gardes du Corps.— Policy of Napoleon. — Centralization. - - _ . 155

Letter VI

Letters of Introduction. — European Etiquette. — Diplomatic Entertainments.— Ladies in Coffee-houses French Hospitality. CONTENTS. XI — Mr. Canning at Paris. — Parisian Hotels. — French Lady at Washington. — Receptions in Paris and in New York. — Mode of Announcement. — Republican Affectation. — Hotel Monaco. — Dinner given to Mr. Canning. — Diplomatic Etiquette. — European Ambassadors. — Prime Minister of France. — Mr. Canning. — Count Pozzo di Borgo. — Precedency at Dinner. — American Etiquette. — A French Dinner. — Servants. — Catholic Fasting. — Conversation with Canning. — English Prejudice against Americans. - - - Page 179

Letter VII

English Jurisprudence. — English Justice. — Justice in France. — Continental Jurisprudence. — Juries. — Legal Injustice. — The Bar iu France. — Precedence of the Law. - - 232

Letter VIII

Army of France. — Military Display. — Fete of the Trocadero. — Royal Review. — Royal Ordinance. — Dissatisfaction. — Hostile Demonstration. — Dispersion of Rioters. — French Cavalry. — Learned Coachman. — Use of Cavalry. — Cavalry Operations. — The Conscription. — National Defence. — Napoleon's Marshals. — Marshal Soult. — Disaffection of the Army. - - 246

Letter IX

Royal Dinners. — Magnificence and Comfort. — Salle de Diane. — Prince de Conde. — Duke of Orleans. — The Dinner-table. —The Dauphin. — Sires de Coucy. — The Dauphine. — Ancient Usages. — M. de Talleyrand.— Charles X.— Panoramic Procession. —Droll Effect. — The Dinner. — M. de Talleyrand's Office. — The Duchesse de Berri. — The Catastrophe. — An Aristocratic Quarrel. - - - - - CONTENTS. XII

Letter X

Road to Versailles. — Origin of Versailles. — The present Chateau. — The two Trianons. — La Petite Suisse. — Royal Pastime. — Gardens of Versailles. — The State Apartments. — Marie Antoi nette's Chamber. — Death of Louis XV. — Œil de Bœuf. — The Theatre and Chapel. — A Quarry. — Caverns. — Compiegne. — Chateau de Pierre-font. — Influence of Monarchy. — Orangery at Versailles. ... - Page FRANCE.

Letter I

Our Embarkation. — Leave-taking Our Abigail. — Bay of New York. — The Hudson. — Ominous Prediction. — The Prophet falsified. — Enter the Atlantic. — "Land-birds." — Our Master. — Officers of Packet-ships. — Loss of "The Crisis." — The "Three Chimneys." — Calamities at Sea. — Sailing-match. — View of the Eddystone. — The Don Quixote. — Comparative Sailing. — Pilot-boats. — Coast of Dorsetshire. — The Needles. — Lymington. — Southampton Water. — The Custom-house. To Captain Shubrick, U. S. N. My dear Shubrick, " Passengers by the Liverpool, London and Havre packets are informed that a steam-boat will leave the White Hall Wharf precisely at eleven, a. m. to-morrow, June 1st." If to this notice be added the year 1826, you have the very hour and place of our embarkation. We were nominally of the London party, it being VOL. I. b LEAVE-TAKING. 2 our intention, however, to land at Cowes, from which place we proposed crossing the Channel to Havre.

The reason for making this varia tion from the direct route, was the superior comfort of the London ship ; that of the French line for the 1st June, though a good vessel and well commanded, being actually the least commodious packet that plied between the two hemispheres. We were punctual to the hour, and found one of the smaller steamers crowded with those who, like ourselves, were bound to the " old world," and the friends who had come to take the last look at them. We had our leave-takings, too, which are sufficiently pain ful when it is known that years must intervene before there is another meeting. As is always done by good Manhattanese, the town house had been given up on the 1st of May, since which time we had resided at an hotel. The furniture had been principally sold at auction, and the entire month had passed in what I believed to be very ample preparations.

It may be questioned if there is any such thing OUR ABIGAIL. 3 as being completely prepared for so material a change ; at all events, we found a dozen essentials neglected at the last moment, and as many oversights to be repaired in the same instant. On quitting the hotel, some fifty or a hun dred volumes and pamphlets lay on the floor of my bed-room. Luckily, you were to sail on a cruise in a day or two, and as you promised not only to give them a berth, but to read them one and all, they were transferred forth with to the Lexington. They were a dear gift, if you kept your word ! John was sent with a note, with orders to be at the wharf in half an hour. I have not seen him since. Then Abigail was to be discharged. We had long debated whether this excellent woman should, or should not, be taken.

She was an American, and, like most of her country women who will consent to serve in a house hold, a most valuable domestic. She wished much to go, but, on the other side, was the conviction, that a woman who had never been at sea would be useless during the passage ; B OUR ABIGAIL. and then we were told so many fine things of the European servants, that the odds were unfortunately against her. The principal objection, however, was her forms of speech. Foreign servants would of themselves be a great aid in acquiring the different languages ; and poor Abigail, at the best, spoke that least desirable of all corruptions of the English tongue, the country dialect of New England. Her New England morals and New England sense, in this instance, were put in the balance against her " bens," " an-gels," " doozes," " nawthings," " noans," and even her " virtooes," (in a family of children, no immaterial considerations,) and the latter prevailed.

We had occasion to regret this decision. A few years later I met in Florence an Italian family of high rank, which had brought with them from Philadelphia two female domestics, whom they prized above all the other servants of a large establishment. Italy was not good enough for them, however ; and, after resisting a great deal of persuasion, they were sent back. What was Florence or Rome to Philadelphia! But BAY OF NEW YORK. 5 then these people spoke good English — better, perhaps, than common English nursery-maids, the greatest of their abuses in orthoepy being merely to teach a child to call its mother a " mare." It was a flat calm, and the packets were all dropping down the bay with the ebb. The day was lovely, and the view of the harbour, which has so many, while it wants so many, of the elements of first-rate scenery, was rarely finer.

All estuaries are most beautiful viewed in the calm ; but this is peculiarly true of the Bay of New York —neither the colour of the water, nor its depth, nor the height of the surrounding land, being favourable to the grander efforts of Nature. There is little that is sublime in either the Hudson, or its mouth ; but there is the very extreme of landscape beauty. Experience will teach every one, that with out returning to scenes that have made early impressions, after long absences, and many occasions to examine similar objects elsewhere, our means of comparison are of no great value. THE HUDSON. My acquaintance with the Hudson has been long and very intimate; for to say that I have gone up and down its waters a hundred times, would be literally much within the truth. During that journey whose observa tions and events are about to fill these volumes, I retained a lively impression of its scenery, and, on returning to the country, its current was ascended with a little apprehen sion that an eye which had got to be prac tised in the lights and shades of the Alps and Apennines might prove too fastidious for our own river.

What is usually termed the grandeur of the highlands was certainly much im paired ; but other parts of the scenery gained in proportion ; and, on the whole, I found the passage between New York and Albany to be even finer than it had been painted by me mory. I should think there can be little doubt that, if not positively the most beauti ful river, the Hudson possesses some of the most beautiful river-scenery, of the known world. Our ship was named after this noble stream. DIRECTIONS FOR A NOVICE AT SEA. 7 We got on board of her off Bedlow's, and dropped quietly down as far as the quarantine ground before we were met by the flood. Here we came to, to wait for a wind, more passengers, and that important personage, whom man-of-war's men term the master, and landsmen the captain. In the course of the afternoon we had all assembled, and began to reconnoitre each other, and to attend to our comforts.

To get accustomed to the smell of the ship, with its confined air, and especially to get all their little comforts about them in smooth water, is a good beginning for your novices. If to this be added moderation in food, and especially in drink ; as much exercise as one can obtain ; refraining from reading and writing un il accustomed to one's situation, and paying>great attention to the use of aperients ; I believe all is said that an old traveller, and an old sailor too, can communicate on a sub ject so important to those who are unaccus tomed to the sea. Can your experience suggest anything more ? THE DON QUIXOTE. We lay that night at the quarantine ground ; but early on the morning of the 2nd, all hands were called to heave-up. The wind came in puffs over the heights of Staten, and there was every prospect of our being able to get to sea in two or three hours.

We hove short, and sheeted home, and hoisted the three top sails ; but the anchor hung, and the people were ordered to get their breakfasts, leaving the ship to tug at her ground-tackle with a view to loosen her hold of the bottom. Everything was now in motion. The little Don Quixote, the Havre ship just mentioned, was laying through the narrows, with a fresh breeze from the south-west. The Liverpool ship was out of sight, and six or seven sail were turning down with the ebb, under every stitch of canvass that would draw. One fine pessel tacked directly on our quarter. As she passed quite near our stern, some one cried from her deck : — " A good run to you, Mr. After thanking this well-wisher, I inquired his name. He gave me that of an Englishman, who resided in Cuba, whither he OMINOUS PREDICTION. 9 was bound.

" How long do you mean to be absent?" "Five years." "You will never come back." With this raven-like prediction we parted ; the wind sweeping his vessel be yond the reach of the voice. These words, " You will never come back !" were literally the last that I heard on quitting my country. They were uttered in a prophetic tone, and under circumstances that were of a nature to produce an impression. I thought of them often, when standing on the western verge of Europe, and following the course of the sun toward the land in which I was born ; I remembered them from the peaks of the Alps, when the subtle mind, outstripping the senses, would make its mysterious flight west ward across seas and oceans, to recur to the past, and to conjecture the future ; and when the allotted five years were up, and found us still wanderers, I really began to think, what probably every man thinks, in some moment of weakness, that this call from the passing ship was meant to prepare me for the future.

The result proved in my case, b THE PROPHET FALSIFIED. however, as it has probably proved in those of most men, that Providence did not consider me of sufficient importance to give me audible information of what was about to happen. So strong was this impression to the last, notwithstanding, that on our return, when the vessel passed the spot where the evil-omened predic tion was uttered, I caught myself muttering involuntarily, " is a false prophet ; I have come back !" We got our anchor as soon as the people were ready, and, the wind drawing fresh through the narrows, were not long turning into lower bay. The ship was deep, and had not a sufficient spread of canvass for a summer passage ; but she was well commanded, and exceedingly comfortable. The wind became light in the lower bay. The Liverpool ship had got to sea the evening before, and the Don Quixote was passing the Hook, just as we opened the mouth of the Raritan.

A light English bark was making a fair wind of it, by laying out across the swash; and it now became questionable whether the ENTER THE ATLANTIC. 11 ebb would last long enough to sweep us round the south-west spit, a ditour that our heavier draught rendered necessary. By paying great attention to the ship, how ever, the pilot, who was of the dilatory school, succeeded about 3 p.m. in getting us round that awkward but very necessary buoy, which makes so many foul winds of fair ones, when the ship's head was laid to the eastward, with square yards. In half an hour the vessel had ' slapped1 past the low sandy spit of land that you have so often regarded with philosophical eyes, and we fairly entered the Atlantic, at a point where nothing but water lay between us and the Rock of Lisbon. We discharged the pilot on the bar.

By this time the wind had entirely left us, the flood was making strong, and there was a prospect of our being compelled to anchor. The bark was nearly hull-down in the offing, and the top-gallant-sails of the Don Quixote were just settling into the water. All this was very provoking, for there might be a good breeze to seaward, while we had it calm in- " LAND-BIRDS. shore. The suspense was short, for a fresh looking line along the sea to the southward gave notice ofthe approach of wind; the yards were braced forward, and in half an hour we were standing east southerly, with strong head way. About sunset we passed the light ves sel which then lay moored several leagues from land, in the open ocean, — an experiment that has since failed. The highlands of Nave sink disappeared with the day. The other passengers were driven below before evening.

The first mate, a straightforward Kennebunk man, gave me a wink, (he had detected my sea-education by a single ex= pression, that of " send it an end," while mounting the side of the ship,) and said, " A clear quarter-deck ! a good time to take a walk, sir." I had it all to myself, sure enough, for the first two or three days, after which our land-birds came crawling up, one by one ; but long before the end of the passage nothing short of a double-reefed-topsail breeze could send the greater part of them below. There was one man, however, who, the mate affirmed, A STORM. 13 wore the heel of a spare topmast smooth, by seating himself on it, as the precise spot where the motion of the ship excited the least nausea. I got into my berth at nine ; but hearing a movement overhead about midnight, I turned out again, with a sense of uneasiness I had rarely before experienced at sea.

The responsibility of a large family acted, in some measure, like the responsibility of command. The captain was at his post, shortening sail, for it blew fresher : there was some rain ; and thun der and lightning were at work in the heavens in the direction of the adjacent continent : the air was full of wild, unnatural lucidity, as if the frequent flashes left a sort of twilight be hind them ; and objects were discernible at a distance of two or three leagues. We had been busy in the first watch, as the omens denoted easterly weather ; the English bark was struggling along the troubled waters, already quite a league on our lee-quarter. I remained on deck half an hour, watching the movements of the master. He was a mild, reasoning Connecticut man, whose manner of OUR MASTER. ministering to the wants of the female passen gers had given me already a good opinion of his kindness and forethought, while it left some doubts of his ability to manage the rude elements of drunkenness and insubordination which existed among the crew, quite one half of whom were Europeans.

He was now on deck in a south wester,* giving his orders in a way effectually to shake all that was left of the " horrors " out of the ship's company. I went below, satisfied that we were in good hands ; and before the end of the passage, I was at a loss to say whe ther Nature had most fitted this truly worthy man to be a ship-master or a child's nurse, for he really appeared to me to be equally skilful in both capacities. Such a temperament is admirably suited to the command ofa packet — a station in which so many different dispositions, habits, and preju dices are to be soothed, at the same time that a proper regard is to be had to the safety of their persons. If any proof is wanting that the characters of seamen in general have been Doric — soiy-wester. OFFICERS OF PACKET-SHIPS. formed under adverse circumstances, and with out sufficient attention, or, indeed, any atten tion to their real interests, it is afforded in the fact, that the officers of the packet-ships, men usually trained like other mariners, so easily adapt their habits to their new situation, and become more mild, reflecting, and humane.

It is very rare to hear a complaint against an officer of one of these vessels ; yet it is not easy to appreciate the embarrassments they have frequently to encounter from whimsical, irrita ble, ignorant, and exacting passengers. As a rule, the eastern men of this country make the best packet-officers. They are less accustomed to sail with foreigners than those who have been trained in the other ports, but acquire habits of thought and justice by commanding their countrymen ; for, of all the seamen of the known world, I take it the most subordinate, the least troublesome, and the easiest to govern, so long as he is not oppressed, is the native American. This, indeed, is true, both ashore and afloat, for very obvious reasons : they who are accustomed to reason themselves, AMERICAN SEAMEN. 16 being the most likely to submit to reasonable regulations ; and they who are habituated to plenty, are the least likely to be injured by prosperity, which causes quite as much trouble in this world as adversity.

It is this pro sperity, too suddenly acquired, which spoils most ofthe labouring Europeans who emigrate; while they seldom acquire the real, frank in dependence of feeling which characterizes the natives. They adopt an insolent and rude manner as its substitute, mistaking the shadow for the substance. This opinion of the Ame rican seamen is precisely the converse of what is generally believed in Europe, however, and more particularly in England ; for, following out the one-sided political theories in wrhich they have been nurtured, disorganization, in the minds of the inhabitants of the old world, is inseparable from popular institutions. The early part of the season of 1826 was remarkable for the quantities of ice that had drifted from the north into the track of Euro pean and American ships.

The Crisis, a Lon don packet, had been missing nearly three LOSS OF " THE CRISIS." 17 months when we sailed. She was known to have been full of passengers, and the worst fears were felt for her safety ; ten years have since elapsed, and no vestige of this unhappy ship has ever been found ! Our master prudently decided that safety was of much more importance than speed, and he kept the Hudson well to the southward. Instead of crossing the banks, we were as low as 40°, when in their meridian ; and although we had some of the usual signs, in distant piles of fog, and exceedingly chilly and disagreeable weather, for a day or two, we saw no ice. About the 15th, the wind got round to the southward and eastward, and we began to fall off, more than we wished even, to the northward. All the charts for the last fifty years have three rocks laid down, to the westward of Ireland, which are known as the " Three Chimneys."

Most American mariners have little faith in their existence, and yet, I fancy, no seaman draws near the spot where they are said to be, without keeping a good look- THE "THREE CHIMNEYS." 18 out for the danger. The master of the Hud son once carried a lieutenant of the English navy, as a passenger, who assured him that he had actually seen these " Three Chimneys." He may have been mistaken, and he may not. Our course lay far to the southward of them ; but the wind gradually hauled ahead, in such a way as to bring us as near as might be to the very spot where they ought to appear, if properly laid down. The look-outs of a merchant-ship are of no great value, except in serious cases, and I passed nearly a whole night on deck, quite as much incited by my precious charge, as by curiosity, in order to ascertain all that eyes could ascertain under the circumstances.

No signs of these rocks, however, were seen from the Hudson. It is surprising in the present state of commerce, and with the vast interests which are at stake, that any facts affecting the ordinary navigation between the two hemispheres should be left in doubt. There is a shoal, and I believe a reef, laid down near the tail of the great bank, whose existence is CALAMITIES AT SEA. 19 still uncertain. Seamen respect this danger more than that of the " Three Chimneys," for it lies very much in the track of ships between Liverpool and New York ; still, while tacking, or giving it a berth, they do not know whether they are not losing a wind for a groundless apprehension ! Our own government would do well to employ a light cruiser, or two, in ascertaining just these facts, (many more might be added to the list,) during the summer months.

Our own brief naval history is pregnant with instances of the calamities that befall ships. No man can say when, or how, the Insurgente, the Pickering, the Wasp, the Epervier, the Lynx, and the Hornet disappeared. We know that they are gone ; and of all the brave spirits they held, not one has been left to relate the histories of the different disasters. We have some plausible conjectures concerning the manner in which the two latter were wrecked ; but an impenetrable mystery conceals the fate of the four others. They may have run on unknown reefs. These reefs may be con- CALAMITIES AT SEA. 20 stantly heaving up from the depths of the ocean, by subterranean efforts ; for a marine rock is merely the summit of a sub-marine mountain.* We were eighteen days out, when, early one morning, we made an American ship, on our weather quarter.

Both vessels had everything set that would draw, and were going about five knots, close on the wind. The stranger made a signal to speak us, and, on the Hudson's main-topsail being laid to the * There is a touching incident connected with the fortunes of two young officers of the navy, that is not generally known. When the Essex frigate was captured in the Pacific, by the Phœbe and Cherub, two ofthe officers ofthe former were left in the ship, in order to make certain affidavits that were necessary to the con demnation. The remainder were paroled and returned to America. After a considerable interval, some uneasiness was felt at the pro tracted absence of those who had been left in the Essex. On inquiry it was found, that, after accompanying the ship to Rio Janeiro, they had been exchanged, according to agreement, and suffered to go where they pleased.

After some delay, they took passage in a Swedish brig bound to Norway, as the only means which offered to get to Europe, whence they intended to return home. About this time great interest was also felt for the sloop Wasp. She had sailed for the mouth of the British Channel, where she fell in with and took the Reindeer, carrying her prisoners into France. Shortly after she had an action with and took the Avon, but was compelled to abandon her prize by others ofthe SAILING-MATCH. mast, he came down under our stern, and ranged up alongside to leeward. He proved to be a ship called the " London Packet," from Charlestown, bound to Havre, and his chronometer having stopped, he wanted to get the longitude. When we had given him our meridian, a trial of sailing commenced, which continued without intermission for three entire days.