Chapter I Showing How It All Came About
the 1 6th of July, 188- the columns of the daily papers informed us that, during the whole of the present century, the thermometer had not been known to reach to such a height, as it had reached on the preceding day, i.e. the Feast of St. Swithin. M IMP il(-ft.\1 LETTf1-- The temperature registered on the hottest days at Calcutta, Madras, B and Bombay, was a joke to it ; and old Anglo- Indians wrote sage letters to the Times about the folly and enormity of men and women exposing themselves to the glaring heat of that scorching mid-day sun. I was one of those sane, or rather insane, indi viduals who, for some reason or another, found myself at Charing Cross about noon on that scorching day. I believe I had meditated some shopping expedition ; but a conviction came to me that it might be safer to go home again, and put off my purchases, until a cooler morning presented itself.
I got into an omnibus, which would convey me to my destination in about an hour, but no sooner had I got in, than I made up my mind to get out again ; the atmosphere was more than it was possible to stand, the sun streaming in at the blindless windows, and threatening the unhappy passengers with all kinds of ills. There was one stout lady sitting opposite me, with crimson roses in her bonnet, about whom I have felt anxious ever since ; she remarked, in a friendly manner, that it " was a treat to get into a 'bus on such a day." I wished I could have endorsed the sentiment. All I felt was, that I must get out of it. I stood once more upon the scorching pavement. I think I meditated for an instant whether it would be wise to walk as far as Covent Garden, and purchase a cabbage, and put a leaf inside my bonnet, for I had heard the conductor of the omnibus remark that " it was a fine thing ; " but I gave up the project, as I saw the friendly face of an old cabman who lived in my neighbourhood.
" Will you ride, ma'am ? " he said ; " it's too warm for anything else." Need I say that I got into his cab and drove home? " I hear we're going to have weeks of this here weather," were his parting words to me ; and they haunted me during the remainder of the day, for only that very morning I had refused a tempting invitation to stay with friends in Devonshire, and had made up my mind to remain in London, or rather in one of the suburbs of it in which I live, all through the summer. I may as well say at once that I am not rich. I work for my daily bread, and it is for this reason that I have made up my mind to send this little book into the world, thinking that my experience may perhaps encourage others to take a sorely needed holiday, amidst new scenes and people, and come home fresh to their work — if they have to do it — or if not that, with new vigour for the daily duties which must come into all our lives.
I was sitting alone on that evening of the 16th of July, wishing, I think, at that particular moment, that a refreshing shower would come, even if it were to involve rain for forty consecutive days, when I heard the postman's knock. I had hardly energy enough to wonder whether he had brought a letter for me. In London one gets so accustomed to letters at all hours, that, except under peculiar circumstances, it is difficult to get up any excitement about them. However, the servant came in, and handed me a missive, which I opened languidly. I felt I knew beforehand what it was about ; it of course con tained an invitation to a friend's house, a short distance from London. " Impossible," I muttered, without reading a line of it, " quite impossible ; in fact, it would be wrong to attempt it in such weather as this."
I saw that the letter was a long one — a sheet and a half, rather closely written. I took up the half-sheet, and read that first. I own I was puzzled and bewildered at its contents. Here is a speci men of them : " You know I trust you entirely, and put myself entirely in your hands ; you shall do exactly as you like in everything, go where you like, arrange things as you think best ; and my cousin Rosa places exactly the same faith in you that I do." " Very trustful of Cousin Rosa," I thought. " I have never seen her in my life ; in fact, I have never before heard of such a person. What can it all mean ?" Then came the concluding words of the letter, evidently written in a great hurry, and under con siderable excitement : " As soon as we can — as well as we can — as long as we can ; that is all I have to say ; and I am sure you will do all this, better than any one else in the world could do it."
The situation was becoming serious. I felt that some great weight of responsibility was about to be forced upon me, nolens volens. The whole sheet of my friend's epistle had fallen upon the floor, at some little distance from me; it was an effort to pick it up — at least, it would have been, five minutes before ; but curiosity mastered heat and languor, and in another moment or two I had found out what it all meant — what it was that was expected of me, and under what conditions it was that my friend and Cousin Rosa placed such profound faith in me. They had settled that they, and two other friends of mine, and of my correspondent's — whom I will call Kate Gordon — were to go to Swit zerland ; and I, on the strength of having been in France and in Germany, and having a tolerably intimate acquaintance with both languages, was "personally to conduct the tour."
And we were "to start as soon as we could, do it as well as we could, and stay away as long as we could ; " and for all this / was to be responsible. I was to arrange everything to please four ladies, three of them, to my certain knowledge, possessing strong wills of their own ; each of them, perhaps, wanting to do the very things that the other did not wish to do. The three, in spite of this pecu liarity of liking their own way, were just the very people whom, singly, I should have chosen for such an expedition as the one proposed — clever, intelli gent, energetic ; in fact, charming compaguons de voyage. " If one of them had asked me to go with her, how delightful it would have been ! " I mused. Then I turned once more to Kate's letter. " You see, dear, we shall be able to do so very much more for our money, because of the numbers.
Don't you think we shall be able to manage Zermatt? How ever, I will not even make a suggestion ; Rosa, in her letter this morning, particularly begged me to leave it all to you." I felt that Cousin Rosa's faith in me was a thine to be proud of; it inspired me with confidence. The numbers were alarming, the responsibility somewhat overwhelming ; but I determined not to shrink from it. Swiss mountains and valleys ; ice, and snow, and glacier — oh, what a vision of delight they all were, as I looked out of the window upon the dusty road, and upon the burnt-up flowers in my little front garden. I could not trust myself to write a letter on the subject ; I sent off a post-card at once to say that I should be at Richmond early the next day. I did not stipulate that unless the weather were a little cooler, I could not undertake the expedition ; heat was a minor consideration now, with that back ground of snow and ice in the distance.
Well, I went, and it was all settled. We four, Kate Gordon, Margaret and Mary Saunders, and myself, sat in conclave. I rose to the importance of the occasion. I was called " Mrs. Cook " by my friends, and submitted quietly both to the brevet rank (I am a spinster), and to the name which, whether rightly or wrongly, savours somewhat of vulgarity. What did it matter ? I had made up my mind to stay in London, during July and August, and I was going to Switzerland. Who would not have put up with any sobriquet which was the means to such an end ? The money question was settled. and laid in crisp notes upon the table before us — one hundred and twenty-five pounds — for Cousin Rosa had trustfully sent hers up. She herself was only to meet us at Charing Cross Station, on the evening of our departure.
" How long will it last ? " said Kate. " Impossible to tell," I answered, trying to look very wise. " I should say the length of our stay depends very much upon ourselves ; we must not be extravagant." " Of course not," she answered ; " we shall not want much to eat." " Excuse me," I replied, " we shall want a great deal to eat ; people always do when they are travelling. It is the common mistake into which English people fall, to think that they can go abroad, do six times as much walking as they do at home, and live upon nothing." There was a sigh all round. " Now," I said, " will you trust me to do my best, and if, at the end of a week, the money is all gone, will you be content to come home ? " They tried to say that nothing would give them greater pleasure than to return at the end of a week, if necessary ; but the next minute Margaret was calculating whether, if we started at the end of the month (I could not leave home earlier), there was any chance of our being in England again by the 2nd or 3rd of September.
Margaret was the only one except myself who had been abroad before. She and I had both seen Brussels and the Rhine, and seventeen years before, I had been in Switzerland; but that was late in the autumn, and it rained all the time we were there, and we crossed the Gemmi in a storm of thunder and lightning. We were to push straight on to Switzerland via Brussels, Cologne, and the Rhine ; and on our way back, if possible, we were to see some of the quaint old Belgian cities, with their treasures of art and architecture. We were all unanimous upon our route so far. Our council then broke up, with an emphatic address from myself on the question of luggage. " We must take enough," said Mary ruefully ; " it is so very uncomfortable to feel that we have left the very thing behind that we are sure to want."
" You may take as much as you like, my dear," I said, " so long as you get it into the compass of a Gladstone bag, a small portmanteau, or one of those nice little flat boxes that will go under the seat of the railway carriage." " And nothing more ? " " No, nothing, except a hand-bag if you like it ; and I may as well warn you that in most cases you will have to carry your own luggage about at the stations — foreign porters are not as civil as English ones." I felt I was getting despotic and tyrannical ; the sudden dignity which had been conferred upon me was too much for me ; I was using my newly acquired power mercilessly. Cousin Rosa's trust in me would be a very mistaken one unless I pulled myself up a little. " You may each take a waterproof case, a ' hold all,' I think it is called, with a cloak and shawl in it, and it will hold any amount of things besides ; in fact, I heard of some ladies who took nothing else when they went to Switzerland, and I " " Oh, please don't," exclaimed Mary, stretching out her hand as though she intended to withdraw her share of the money ; " we really cannot go about objects."
" I was only saying what other people did, not that we are to do it ; so now it's all settled, even to the coming home at the end of a week, if necessary." So we parted, only to meet again on the platform of the railway station. The letters that passed between us during the next fortnight were something wonderful. It was settled that we were not to leave England until after the ist of August ; then Cousin Rosa wrote and asked if it might be after the 5th. Now the 5th was on a Friday, and the first clear day seemed Saturday, the 6th ; but I had an idea that it would not be a convenient day to start, so I wrote off to Rich mond, and said, "Charing Cross, on the evening of the 8th." Now I make very bad figures, but how ever I arrived at making an eight look like a six, I don't know. I received a frantic post card : " We don't think Saturday at all a good day.
Would not Monday be better ? " Oh, those figures of mine ! I had been punished for their grotesqueness so often when I was a child, and all to no purpose. Of course I must write and say that I had meant the 8th. I hoped Cousin Rosa would not hear of this ; she might begin to lose faith in " Mrs. Cook " before we started. By the next post, before I had written the humble apology I meditated for my blundering hieroglyphics, came another post-card : " Mr. Smith, who lives next door to us, says he started on a Saturday last year, and it was delightful ; he quite advises us to keep to your arrangement." My arrangement ! When I had particularly wished to avoid this Saturday flitting. However, there was no help for it ; we were to meet at Charing Cross at 7.30 on the 6th, and we did meet, Cousin Rosa and all of us.
And we had just a few minutes in which to compare our luggage, and to pay each other compliments upon its neatness and compactness, and then off went the train. London — hot, smoky, steamy London was behind us, and the sun was setting behind the sweet Kentish hills as, full of the thought of all the pleasure that was before us, we were whirled along to Dover.
Chapter II. London To Brussels
: FIRST EXPERIENCES BY LAND AND SEA. It was a perfect night. No moon, but the stars shining as I had hardly ever seen them shine before ; and we walked on to the Ostend boat more cheerfully than might have been expected under the circumstances ; for on one point we were all agreed, we had a horror of steamers. However pleasant might be our anticipations of continental travelling, the first step towards it, the ordeal of five or six hours inevitable mal de mer, was certainly a thing to be dreaded. Comfort was to be blended with economy in all our proceedings. We had quite made up our minds always to travel second class by rail ; but second class on board a steamer was not to be thought of for an instant. We stood upon the deck ; there were only four passengers, besides ourselves, foreigners, with through first-class tickets.
During the journey down from London, my friends had given me to understand that they hoped to be away a month. " Not under ordinary circumstances, of course," they said; "but with such a manager as you are it ought to be done." Do not think me conceited, I am simply re peating their words. How they had all of them arrived at this implicit trust in me, I cannot imagine ; it was touching of them, as well as weak. However, there it was, and I was bound to do my best. I looked longingly at the empty deck. I made a calculation of the amount likely to be saved if I only could summon up courage to bring forward the suggestion that was in my mind. Five and twenty shillings at the least ! Surely it was worth the venture ! " What do you think," I said deferentially, " of just sitting in the second-class places, until we begin to feel ill ? then, of course, we must at once go into the first-class cabin."
" The same thought had just occurred to me," answered Mary, who was of a practical turn of mind ; " it would be a great saving, and I really feel quite well." This was encouraging, as we were still in the harbour ; but as the other three echoed her senti ments, the decision was arrived at. We took our places, watched the white cliffs receding into the distance, did a little talking, a little napping, a little star-gazing ; and when, between three and four o'clock on that lovely August morning, we steamed into Ostend, there we were still, in those same seats, quite well. Not a symptom of what we had so dreaded had attacked any one of us. We were all astonished, at ourselves and at each other ; and Cousin Rosa said she was quite sure that that was the part of the steamer to choose, and thanked me for thinking of it.
My spirits rose ; everything looked bright and pro mising. The custom-house officers were civil and did not as much as open our luggage. We went into the restaurant, and seized upon some rolls ; had some scalding coffee poured out into cups, about the size of slop-basins, and when we had gently sipped about two mouthfuls there came the cry, " En voiture, messieurs et mesdames ! " Off we rushed, leaving that refreshing coffee smok ing in those huge cups, and the next minute we were in the train, but not off — oh no, full one quarter of an hour did we sit there, whilst the railway officials lounged about the platform and talked Flemish ; and when I feebly asked whether there might not be time to finish our coffee, I received an answer, which perhaps meant that we might ; but I did not understand it sufficiently to think it right to avail ourselves of the permission, if such it was.
There was a good deal of pathos ex pended over that lost coffee ; I believe Margaret, who is a poetess, wrote an ode upon it, which possibly may be published some day. I ought to say here that the trains in connection with the Dover steamers start from the quay ; all other trains start from the station in the town. " The country between Ostend and Brussels is for the most part flat and uninteresting" — this is what the guide books say about it ; and as we felt very drowsy, and were able to judge for our selves that Baedeker and Murray had given a true and graphic description of the scenery, we resigned ourselves to sleep, looking up lazily when we stopped at the numerous stations on the way ; and really sitting up, and rubbing our eyes and feeling very wide awake indeed, when we arrived at Bruges and at Ghent.
We just caught a glimpse of the queer old mediæval glory of the one, and the picturesque canals and bridges of the other ; and we promised ourselves a treat by making a better acquaintance with them both, on our homeward journey. Then we closed our weary eyes again until we reached Brussels. I say we, which perhaps would lead you to believe that five pairs of eyes were closed. It was not so ; only four of us allowed nature to take its revenge for our sleepless night. We had with us two Baedekers and a Murray, one of the former was a little later edition than the other, and from that morning in the train, until the day when with sad hearts we were again agitating ourselves with the prospect of the horrors of five or six hours at sea, Cousin Rosa never parted with those guide books ; she compared them, she found fault with them, she praised them, by turns.
C She must have known the history of eveiy village we passed, the number of its inhabitants, its staple commodities, and the name of its inn. It was almost painful to see any one so engrossed in study when out for a holiday ; but it was her way of enjoying herself, and, if I may give a piece of advice to any of my fellow-countrymen and countrywomen who meditate either " personally conducting " a tour, or being " personally con ducted," it is this : in small matters let your com panions have their own way and indulge in their own little idiosyncracies ; it makes them happy, although perhaps you cannot enter into their tastes. Cousin Rosa, notwithstanding the guide books, was the most charming, obliging, and contented of fellow-travellers, although rumour does say that one day, on one of the Swiss lakes, she was so in tently studying the description of a snow mountain, that she lost sight of the mountain itself.
But I don't vouch for this fact; if it did take place, it did not in any way disturb her serenity ; and her attachment to Messrs. Murray and Baedeker was of considerable advantage to us. We might sleep as long as we pleased, sure that her voice would rouse us just before we came to any place worth looking at. It roused us now at Brussels. Up we all jumped, and collected the packages, which, however small in themselves, amounted to a number when all collected together, waiting to be conveyed to their destination. The Brussels porters must have been taking a holiday that Sunday morning ; there were only two or three of them to be seen ; surly looking fellows, attired in blue blouses, who seemed bent upon wheeling empty trucks along the platform, ap parently by way of taking a little exercise.
I appealed to them to help us, it was to no purpose ; " they would do it as soon as they were disen gaged," they said. We, meanwhile, were very anxious to get to our hotel ; so we carried our respective packages to the entrance of the station, and there found a friendly coachman, who put all our belongings, and three of our party, into his very small vehicle ; whilst Margaret and myself walked on quickly to the Hotel de l'Univers, in the Rue Neuve ; a distance of about ten minutes' from the Gare du Nord, at which we had arrived. The hotel is very charming ; situated in the lower part of the town, but quite equal in every way to the more expensive establishments in the Place Royale. We went to our rooms, and when we met again at breakfast in the courtyard, half an hour later, five people more pleased with all that had befallen them so far, it would have been impossible to find.
Even the coffee left at Ostend was forgotten in the fragrant odour of that only waiting to be consumed in as long or short a time as we liked to take about it. It was eight o'clock now, and when after breakfast we went out into the streets, our pleasure increased. It was all so charming, so bright, so un-English ; and, much as we love our country, the latter recom mendation is always a very great one to us English folk. We have come abroad for change ; we want to have it to the full. We wandered about the streets, looking at the grandly dressed ladies, and at the quaint old Flemish women, in their long black cloaks and hoods ; and we sat in the park in the sunshine, and at ten o'clock we went into the cathedral of S. Gudule to High Mass. The guide books give you a description of the cathedral, and the churches, and the beautiful old Hdtel de Ville, so I will not dwell upon these particulars.
The service that morning was very grand ; the music, one of Gounod's masses, being exquisitely rendered. At one o'clock we had luncheon at a restaurant. I am not going to give you the benefit of our usual menu, only a few hints as to the best way of managing such necessary little matters as daily food. I believe the name of the restaurant we went to was the Globe, just opposite the turning down to the museum. We ordered three portions of fish and three of meat — " plats du jour " they call them. You have your choice from about twenty dishes, and three portions from any one of them are quite sufficient for five people. Our meal cost us under ten francs. I had a new idea to propound to my friends now, more alarming than the second class on board the steamer. I felt nervous ; I believe by nature I am given to being liberal, not to say lavish ; and I had a kind of feeling that what I was going to suggest might seem mean.
" Do you know," I said, at last, breaking into the subject — "have you the least idea what our dinner this evening at the table d'hote will cost us ? " " Do you mean each of us?" asked Cousin Rosa. " Yes, if you like to put it so." Of course they did not know, so I spoke again. " Six francs each, exclusive of wine ; and, of course, we must have wine, or seltzer, or something — the water in these continental towns is not always wholesome." " Six francs ! " they all exclaimed " Yes ; and six times five is thirty," I said, in a tone of profound dejection, for my mind had travelled beyond the thirty francs immediately under discussion to the two hundred and ten francs that would represent the cost of our dinners at the end of one week. Eight guineas for dinners alone ! The shores of England seemed to be drawing very near to me at that moment ; the glaciers of Chamouni and Zermatt melted far away into the dim distance.
" We don't want any dinner to-day," said Kate. " / certainly could not eat any." "Nonsense, Kate," I answered sternly. "Your mother placed you under my care, and you are to have some dinner. It is now one o'clock ; by seven or eight you will tell a different tale. Yes, dinner we must have ; but the question is, need we dine at table d'hote ? " Cousin Rosa here muttered something unin telligible, about " the wrath of the waiters." In one of the numerous guide books she had been getting up, before she left home, she had found it stated, as a positive duty, that all travellers must sit down to the table d'hote dinner, otherwise they would meet with no civility from the waiters. " Is it not amusing to see the different people ? " said Margaret, who was a keen observer of human nature, and liked nothing better than the study of character.
I was obliged to avow that it was amusing sometimes, but that it was not always worth six francs ; and besides, we should have numberless opportunities of meeting our fellow-creatures, at other than feeding times. And then I proceeded, with an amount of eloquence at which I was astonished, to depict the inconvenience of table d'hote hours, the length of the meals, the sunsets we should miss — everything, in fact, that could suggest itself to me as a possible argument against thirty francs a day out of the common fund, spent in dinners alone. And when I stopped, breathless and frightened at my own audacity, Mary came to the rescue by saying — " Why, by having such a meal as the one we have just had every day, instead of dining at table d'hote, we should save more than five pounds a week." So my proposal was carried by acclamation ; I undertaking to bear the wrath of the waiters.
There was none to bear ; in fact, the head-waiter entered into my ideas with empressement, when I told him that we proposed having a petit souper at eight o'clock, and begged to be allowed to suggest some potage, cutlets, a poulet, and an ice pudding, and assured me that he himself would see that we were bien servies. Altogether the idea was a most decided success ; the carrying out of it a still greater one. As we sat down to our comfortable little meal at eight o'clock, my four friends did nothing but talk of its superiority over the long, weary table d'hote. I was amused, but thankful. Not one of them, but Margaret, had ever dined at the much-abused public dinner ; but we certainly had every reason to be satisfied with the private one. In open defiance of waiters, who, sometimes, I am bound to confess, looked somewhat perturbed at our decision, we continued this plan of having our meals whenever we could, never once dining at table dhote, except when we agreed to stay at Chamouni en pension for four or five days.
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