England. With sketches of society in the metropolis

Preface

. The American who should write a close, philosophical, just, popular, and yet comprehensive view of the funda mental differences that exist between the political and social relations of En gland and those of his own country, would confer on the latter one of the greatest benefits it has received since the memorable event of July 4, 1776. That was a declaration of political in dependence only, while this might be considered the foundation of the mental emancipation which alone can render the nation great, by raising its opinion to the level of its facts. This work lays no claim to a merit

PREFACE.

. VI so distinguished. It is intended solely as a part of the testimony, of which an incalculable mass is yet required, that, under the slow operation of time, and in the absence of such an effort of genius as has just been named, it is to be hoped, will, sooner or later, produce something like the same result. Some pains have been taken to per suade the reading world, that the writer of this book is peculiarly prejudiced against Great Britain, and it may be expedient to clear the way for the evi dence he is about to give, by a few explanations. He might be content to refer to the work itself, perhaps, for proofs to the contrary ; but there are many who would still insist on seeing antipathies in truths, and rancour in principle. There is no very apparent motive, why the writer of this book should be

PREFACE.

. VII particularly prejudiced against Great Britain. Personally, he was kindly treated by many of her most distin guished men ; he is as strongly con vinced as his worst enemy can be, that, as an author, he has been extolled beyond his merits : nor has he failed to receive quite as much substantial remuneration, as he can properly lay claim to. In no country has he ever been as well treated, as in England, not even in his own ; although, since some of his opinions have appeared, he has not escaped the usual abuse that seems to flow so easily from the Anglo-Saxon tongue. The writer will now give his own account of what he conceives to be the origin of this erroneous notion. A part of the American travellers have earned for themselves a well-deserved reputa tion of being the most flagrant tuft-

PREFACE.

. hunters who enter the British empire. Of this amiable peculiarity, the writer has not yet been accused, and they who have the consciousness of not having always preserved their own self-respect in the English circles, are a little too much disposed, perhaps, to quarrel with those who have. Anecdotes have been circulated con cerning the writer's "sayings and doings" while in England ; some in print, and more verbally, and all to his prejudice. Many of these tales have reached his ears, but he has, hitherto, been content to let them circulate without contradic tion. This may be a proper time to say that not one of them is true. He has given an account of a little occurrence of this nature, expressly with the view to show the reader the manner in which mole-hills become exaggerated into mountains, through the medium of

PREFACE.

. IX three thousand miles, and with the hope that the better portion of his country men may see the danger of yielding credit to tales that have their origin in antipathies to their own nation. The English do not like the Ameri cans. There is a strong disposition in them to exaggerate and circulate any thing that has a tendency to throw ridicule and contumely on the national character ; — and this bias, coupled with the irritation that is a consequence of seeing others indifferent to things for which their own deference is proverbial, has given rise to many silly reports that affect others besides the writer. On the other hand, so profound is the deference of the American to England, and so sensitive his feelings to her opinion, that he is disposed to overlook that essential law of justice which exacts proof before condemnation. X

PREFACE.

. It is just to say that a traveller should go through a country observant, but silent as regards its faults ; that, on the subject of the superior merits of his own system, modesty and deference to the feelings of others are his cue. But when we come to apply these rules they are liable to qualifications. If those he visits will provoke comparisons, they should not complain that they are made intelligently and with independence, so long as they are made temperately. Had the disposition in the English to com ment freely and ignorantly on America before natives of the country been early met with manliness, and a desire, in par ticular, to sustain the institutions, the idle tales alluded to would never have had an existence. It is as natural, as it is easy, for those who have fallen short of the mark in this respect, to say that others have gone beyond it. Men who

PREFACE.

. XI have been disposed to accept attentions on any terms, are not always the best judges of propriety. England has experienced essential changes since the period of these letters. It is said more knowledge of, and a better feeling towards America, now exist in the country. But, in carrying out the design of his whole work, the writer has been obliged to respect the order of time, and to portray things as he saw them when he was in the island. A future work may repair some of the faults that have arisen from this circum stance. It is quite probable that this book contains many false notions. They are, however, the mistakes of a conscientious observer, and must be attributed solely to the head. Its opinions will run coun ter to the prejudices of much the larger portion of what are called the intelligent

PREFACE.

. classes of America, and quite as a matter of course, will be condemned. An attempt to derange any of the established opinions of this part of American society, more especially on subjects connected with the aristocra tical features of the English government, meets with the success that usually accompanies all efforts to convince men against their wishes. There is no very profound natural mystery in the desire to be better off than one's fellows. The philosopher who constructs a grand theory of go vernment, on the personal envy, the strife, and the heart-burnings of a neighbourhood, is fitted by nature to carve a deity from a block of wood. April, 1837. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Letter I

Embark for Dover. — Straits. — Town. — Cliffs and Port. — Contrast between England and France. — Military Works. — Shakspeare's Cliff. — View from the Heights. — Feelings regarding England. — Alien Office. — English Post-coach. — Rotten Roads. — Tea in England. . . Page 1

Letter II

Canterbury. — The Cathedral. — Road to London. — Rat ing of Ships. — English Roads. — Arrival in London. — English. order. — Yankee Doodle. — Lodging-houses. 27 VOL. I. b CONTENTS.

Letter III

A London Season —Love of Travelling.— Letters of In troduction.—Odious Duplicity.— Visiting List.— Interview with Mr. Godwin.— Godwin's Opinions. — A literary Lady. — Mr. Rogers.— American Pronunciation. — Mr. Rogers's House— Dwellings near the Parks.— Mr. Rogers's Library. — Chantrey the Sculptor Page 46

Letter IV

Westminster Abbey. — Poets' Corner. — Chapel of Henry VII. — Monuments in the Abbey. — Andre's Monument. — English Art. — The Parliament Houses. — Westminster Hall. — St. Stephen's Chapel. — House of Lords. — St. Paul's. — Statue of Queen Anne. — View from the Dome. — English Cicerones. — Catholic Cathedrals. — Interior of St. Paul's. —St. Peter's and St. Paul's. — Clerical Officials. . 70

Letter V

English Society. — Continental Society. — Gentry of Eng land. — English Nobility. — Social Ambition. — Social Con dition of England. — Aristocratical Knocking. — Artificial Behaviour. — Tyranny of Custom. — Easy Impertinence. — Lord John Russell. — Sir James Mackintosh's Opinions of America. — Mr. Rogers's Dejeuners. — Breakfasts of St. James's Place CONTENTS. XV

Letter VI

Invitations. — Mania of Scribbling.— Holland House and Grounds. — Dinner. — Dutch Herrings. — Curious Mistake. — Punctuality. — Bishop of London. — Saying Grace. — Dr. Hobart. — The Ballot. — Fashionable Coachman. — Tuft Hunting. — Coup de Politesse. — Prejudice against the Americans. Page 133

Letter VII

London in the Season. — English Coachmen and Carriages. — Abuse of Words. — Mr. William Spencer. — The Parks. — English Horses. — The King's Equipage. — Fashion able Marriages. — Equipages. — Armorial Bearings. — English Footmen. — The Higher Classes. — Englishmen and Americans. — Stature of English Women. — Duration of Human Life. — Complexion of the English. — Lady Affleck. — Englishwomen. — Sedan Chairs. . . .171

Letter VIII

Squares and Parks. — Norfolk House. — Houses of the Nobility. — Regent Street. — Regent's Park.— Climate of London. — The Thames. — Climate of England and Ame rica. — The Spring in England. — Hyde Park. — St. James's Park. — Exclusiveness. — Privilege of the Entree. — Reception of Americans. CONTENTS.

Letter IX

Dinner at Lord Grey's. — Furniture of English Houses. — Forms of Society. — The Genteel Vulgar. — Domestic Manners. — Decorations of the Nobility. — George the Fourth. — The late Duke of York. — Courtly Manners. — Charles the Tenth Page 234

Letter X

The English Parliament. — Lord Althorp and Mr. Peel. — Sir Francis Burdett. — Mr. Hume. — Parliamentary De bates. — Mr. Sadler. — Power of the Parliament. — The Right of Petition ENGLAND.

Letter I. To Capt

W. BRANFORD SHUBRICK, U.S.N. Embark for Dover. — Straits. — Town. — Cliffs and Port. — Contrast between England and France. — Military Works. — Shakspeare's Cliff. — View from the Heights. — Feelings regarding England. — Alien Office. — English Post-coach. — Rotten Roads. — Tea in England. It was a fine February day when we left the Hdtel Dessin to embark for Dover. The quay was crowded with clamorous porters, while the gendarmes had an eye to the police regulations, lest a stray rogue, more or less, might pass undetected be tween the two great capitals of Europe. As I had placed myself in the hands of a regular commissionnaire belonging to the VOL. I. B STRAITS OF DOVER. hotel, we had no other trouble than that of getting down a ladder of some fifteen steps into the boat. The rise and fall of the water is so great in these high narrow seas, that vessels are sometimes on a level with the quays, and at others three or four fathoms below them.

We had chosen the English steam packet, a government boat, in preference to the French, from a latent distrust of Gallic seamanship. The voyage was not long, certainly, but, short as it was, we reaped the advantage of a good choice, in beating our competitor by more than an hour. It is possible to see across the Straits of Dover in clear weather, but on this occasion we had nothing visible before us but an horizon of water, as we paddled through the long entrance of the little haven into the North Sea. The day was calm, and, an unusual circumstance in STRAITS OF DOVER. 3 swift tides and narrow passages, the chan nel was as smooth as a pond. Even the ground-swell was too gentle to disturb the omelettes of M. Dessin's successor. The difference of character in the two great nations that lie so near each other as almost to hear each other's cocks crow, is even visible on the strait that separates them.

On the coast of France, we saw a few fishing-boats, with tanned sails, ca tering for the restaurants of Paris ; while the lofty canvass of countless ships rose in succession from the bosom of the sea, as we shot over towards the English shore. I think we had made more than fifty square-rigged vessels by the time we got close in with the land : several were fine Indiamen, and not a few were colliers, bound to that focus of coal-smoke, Lon don. I passed the Straits of Dover as a sailor four times during the years 1806 and B FLEET IN THE DOWNS. 1807. At that period England was still jealous of the views of Napoleon. In the autumn of the former year, in particular, I remember that we were off Dungeness, just as the day dawned, and a more elo quent picture of watchfulness cannot be imagined than the channel presented on that occasion.

Near a hundred sail were in sight, and, including a fleet just anchor ing in the Downs, much the greater por tion of them were cruisers. The nearness of the two coasts enabled the French occasionally to pick up a prize in the nar row waters ; and all this care had become necessary to protect the trade of London. No better proof of the inferiority of the French as a maritime people need be given, than the simple fact, that they have ports which no skill can blockade within thirty leagues of the mouth of the Thames, and that England maintained the commerce of her capital throughout the whole of a long GOVERNMENT PACKET. 5 and vindictive war. I think a maritime people would have driven half the trade to Liverpool or Bristol within the first five years. If the Yankees had a hole to run into so near the river, it would be unsafe punting above the bridges.

The packet was admirably managed, though we had nothing but smooth water to contend with, it is true ; still, the quiet and order that prevailed were good proofs that the people could have been used to a proper purpose at need. I was struck, however, with the diminutive appearance of the crew, which was composed of short little waddling fellows, who would have been bothered to do their work on the lower yard of a heavy ship. I have re marked this peculiarity on several occa sions, and I feel very certain that the spe cimens of English seamen that you and I formerly knew at home were much above the level of the class. High wages usu- TOWN OF DOVER. ally command a high quality of service ; and to this circumstance, I presume, we must look for the explanation. Certainly I never saw any of these little fry under our flag; and our old friend, Jack Free man, would have made three or four of them.

After a run of two hours, the cliffs of Dover became distinctly visible, the haze having concealed them until we got pretty close in with the English coast. Although these celebrated hills will bear no comparison with the glorious shores of the Medi terranean, so well known to you, they are noble eminences, and merit the distinction of being mentioned by Shakspeare. The town of Dover lies partly in a ra vine between two of the cliffs, and partly on the strand at their bases. It appears as if nature had expressly left a passage to the sea between the hills at this point ; for, while the latter cannot be much less ITS SITUATION. 7 than three or four hundred feet high, there is scarcely a perceptible rise in the road which runs into the interior. The place is both naturally and poetically fine ; for, when one reflects that this accidental for mation is precisely at the spot where the island is nearest to the continent, it has the character of a magnificent gateway to a great nation.

The cliffs extend se veral miles on each side of the town, melt ing away in swelling arable land, in the direction of Hastings and Dungeness. The latter is the point where the Conqueror landed, and I should think it the spot most favourable for a descent anywhere on the English coast. The shore is still dotted with the remains of works erected during the period of the threatened invasion ; and I well remember the time when they groaned under their bristling guns. The view of Dover and of its cliffs, as we approached the shore, was pleasing, and CASTLE AND PORT. in some respects fine. There was nothing of the classically picturesque in the artificial parts of the picture, it is true ; but the place was crowded with so many recollections from English history, that even the old chimney-pots, with which the cliffs had pretty well garnished the place, had a venerable and attractive look.

The castle, too, which stands on the eastern, or rather northern hill, is a reasonably suitable edifice, and may be conveniently peopled by the imagination. I believe some part of it is ascribed to that extensive builder Cæsar. The port is small, but very convenient, lying fairly embosomed in the town. The entrance is altogether artificial, but I saw no gates. I believe that vessels of some size may enter, though the trade is chiefly confined to the communication with France. The pier is a fine promenade of itself, and the whole of the public works connected with it are solid and respectable. We ENGLAND AND FRANCE CONTRASTED. 9 glided quietly into this little haven about one o'clock, and landed on the soil of old England once more. If we were struck with the contrast between England and France, on first reaching the latter country, I think we were still more so on returning to the former.

Four hours before we were in the region of politeness, vociferation, snatch ing, fun, and fraud, on the quay of Calais ; and now we were in that of quiet, sulki ness, extortion, thank'ees, and half-crowns, on that of Dover. It would be hard to say which was the worst ; although, on the whole, one gets along best, I think, with the latter ; for, provided he will pay, he gets his work done with the fewest words. The western people sometimes call a " rowdy " a " screamer ;" but they have nothing that deserves the name, in com parison with a true French prolitaire, who has his dinner still to earn. In England, b CONTRAST BETWEEN a fellow will at least starve to death in silence. We proceeded to Wright's tavern, certainly one of the best in Dover, and it proved to be as unlike a French, or what an American inn would have been, in si milar circumstances, as possible.

The house was small, by no means as large as most of the village taverns at home, and altogether unworthy to be mentioned, as respects size, with the hotel we had just left on the other side of the channel ; but it was quiet and clean. I do not know that it was any cleaner than Dessin's, or a good American house ; but the silent manner in which the servants did their several duties was of it self an indescribable luxury. At a thoroughfare like this, we should cause a huge pile to be reared, with cells for bed-rooms, a vast hall for a dining-room, and a kitchen fit for barracks ; and with this respublica of a structure, the travellers, without re- ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 11 morse, would indiscriminately be elevated, or depressed, to the same level of habits ; it being almost an offence against good morals in America for a man to refuse to be hungry when the majority is ravenous, or to have an appetite when the mass has dined.

In the midst of noise and confu sion, one would be expected to allow tbat, in such a caravansery, he was living in what in American parlance is called " splendid style." "Splendid misery" would be a better term, were not the use of the first term, as applied to a tasteless shell, absurd. I have long thought that the regularity, silence, order, cleanliness, and decencies of an English inn, added to the beds, ele gance, table, and liquors of a French inn, would form the ne plus ultra of inn-ism ; and the house at Calais, which has in some measure become Anglicised by its position, goes to prove that the notion is not much DOVER CLIFFS. out of the way. It quite puts its English competitor at Dover into the shade. We missed the mirrors, the service for the table, and the manner; but we got in their places a good deal of solid, unpretending comfort.

While W went to the custom-house, Mrs. and myself took a guide, and walked out to look at the cliffs. On one side the chalk rises like a wall, the houses clinging to its base ; and at this point a shaft has been cut in it, containing a cir cular flight of steps, by which we ascended to the heights. This passage was made to facilitate the communications between the different military works. On quitting the stairs, we found ourselves on an irregular acclivity, that forms the summit of the cliffs, and which was in grass. Of the perpendicular elevation, I should think about two-thirds of it was in the chalky precipices looking towards the channel and MILITARY WORKS. 13 the town, and the other third in the verdant cap on which we stood. Here we found works of the modern school, consisting of the usual parapets, ditches, and glacis.

The guide, who was anxious to show off his wares, led us up to a fort, into which we entered by a passage, from which he affirmed it was possible to abstract the air : a new device in warfare, and one that I should think rather supere rogatory here, since the enemy that got as far as this gate at the pas de charge would already be pretty short-winded. As we climbed, I more than once inquired, with old Gloster, " When shall we come to the top of that same hill ?" The honour of the invention was ascribed to the Duke of Wellington by our companion, who was an old campaigner. But the military features were the least of the attractions of the spot. We were on the very cliffs of the " sam phire gatherers :" — SHAKSPEARE'S CLIFF. 14 ■" Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade !

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head : The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark Diminished to her cock ; her cock a buoy Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge, That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard so high." It is quite evident Edgar did not deal fairly with the old man, little of this fine description being more than poetically ex act. After ascending to the summit of the height, which, without the stairs, could only be done from the rear, one would have to descend a long distance, across the verdant cap mentioned, in order to reach the verge of the cliffs. Still the view was both imposing and beautiful. We overlooked the channel, of course, and, for a few moments, we had a glimpse of the cliffs of France.

Tall ships were stealing along the water, though neither their "cocks" nor "buoys" were Shakspeare's cliff. 15 visible. Dr. Johnson has complimented Shakspeare for his knowledge of nautical phrases ; but this is a mistake into which neither you nor I will be so likely to fall. In the quotation I have just given you, the great bard makes the gradation in diminutiveness pass from the ship to her boat, and from the boat to the buoy ! This is poetry, and as such it is above comment ; but one of the craft would have been more exact. About a dozen years ago, I made an essay in nautical description, a species of writing that was then absolutely new. Anxious to know what the effect would be on the public, J read a chapter to our old shipmate , now Captain , 9 which contained an account of a ship's working off-shore in a gale.

It had been my aim to avoid technicalities, in order to be poetic, although the subject im periously required a minuteness of detail VIEW FROM to render it intelligible. My listener be trayed interest, as we proceeded, until he could no longer keep his seat. He paced the room furiously until I got through, and just as I laid down the paper he ex claimed, " It is all very well, but you have let your jib stand too long, my fine fellow!" I blew it out of the bolt-rope, in pure spite. The part of the view from the heights of Dover which struck us as altogether the most unusual, was the inland. France, from Paris to Calais, was brown, and alto gether without vegetation ; while we now found England covered with a dark ver dure that I had never before seen in Fe bruary : in short, this country was much greener than when we left it, in July 1826.

It is true, the fields were not covered with the lively green of young grasses, but it had a dark, rich look, that conveyed the idea of a strong soil and of good hus- THE HEIGHTS OF DOVER. bandry. Something of this might have been owing to local causes, for I think the peculiarity was less observable nearer Lon don, than on the coast. The absence of wood would have left a sense of nakedness and sterility, but for the depth of the verdure. As it was, however, the whole district, visible from the heights, had a sort of Sunday air, like that of a comfortable mechanic, who was just shaved and attired for the day of rest. Few buildings appeared in the fields, and most of those we saw, the castle and public works excepted, singularly reminded us of the small, solid, unpretending, but com fortable brick abodes, that one sees in New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, rather than in any other part of America.

This is just the section of the United States which most resembles the common En glish life, I think, and it is also the region in which the purest English is spoken. I FEELINGS REGARDING ENGLAND. believe it to be, on the whole, the nearest approach we have to England, in architec ture, domestic habits and language ; and I ascribe the fact to the circumstance, that this part of the Union was principally settled with emigrants from the midland counties of the mother-country. I now refer, however, solely to the every-day rustic habits and usages. We looked at this view of England with very conflicting sensations. It was the land of our fathers, and it contained, with a thousand things to induce us to love it, a thousand to chill the affections. Standing, as it might be, in the very portal of the country, I imagined what was to occur in the next three months, with longing and distrust.

Twenty-two years before, an ardent boy, I had leaped ashore, on the island, with a feeling of deep reverence and admiration, the fruits of the traditions of my people, and with FEELINGS REGARDING ENGLAND. 19 a love almost as devoted as that I bore the land of my birth. I had been born, and I had hitherto lived, among those who looked up to England as to the idol of their political, moral, and literary ado ration. These notions I had imbibed, as all imbibed them in America down even as late as the commencement of the last war. I had been accustomed to see every door thrown open to an Englishman, and to hear and think that his claim to our hospitality was that of a brother, divided from us merely by the accidents of position. Alas ! how soon were these young and generous feelings blighted ! I have been thrown much among Englishmen through out the whole of my life, and for many I entertain a strong regard — one I even ranked among my closest friends — and I have personally received, in this kingdom itself, more than cold attentions ; and yet FEELINGS REGARDING ENGLAND. among them all I cannot recall a single man, who, I have had the smallest reason to think, has ever given me his hand the more cordially and frankly because I was an American !

With them, the tie of a common origin has seemed to be utterly broken, and when I have made friends, I have every reason to believe it has been in despite, and in no manner in con sequence, of my extraction. Other Ame ricans tell me the same, and I presume no one enters the country from our side of the water, who has not first to over come the prejudice connected with his birth, before he can meet the people on an equality with other strangers. We may have occasion to look into this matter before the next three months shall be passed. On returning to the inn, we found that our effects were passed, at some little cost, and that we were expected to present ALIEN OFFICE. 21 ourselves, in person, at the alien office. This ceremony, far more exacting than anything we had hitherto encountered in Europe, was not of a nature to make us feel at home.

We went, however, even to the child, and were duly enregistered. I shall not take it on myself to say the form is unn'ecessary, for the police of two such towns as London and Paris must require great vigilance ; but it had an un gracious appearance to compel a lady to submit to such a rule. We were treated •with perfect civility, in all other respects ; and, as the law was then new, it is possible its agent had interpreted its pro visions too literally. Mrs. had also to pay a heavy duty on one or two of her dresses, although they formed part of her ordinary ward robe. This regulation, however, might very well be necessary also, in the situation of the two countries ; and it was not ENGLISH POST-COACH. an easy matter to make an available dis tinction, in this respect, between the natives of the country and mere travellers.