Notes from over Sea: consisting of observations made in Europe in the years 1843 and 1844: addressed to a brother

Chapter I. The Voyage Out

Departure from New York — Characteristic Farewells — Weather — Fogs — Calm — Dreaded Perils — Steerage Passengers — Religious Services — The Preacher — The " Philosopher" — Sight of Land — Pilot — Land at Plymouth, : 13

Chapter II. Plymouth

The Town — The Hoe— Navy — Donkeys — Harbor and Breakwater — Eddystone Lighthouse — Mt. Edgecumbe — Excursion — Haymaking — The^_" Plymouth Brethren," . . . .21

Chapter III. From Plymouth To Southampton

Fair — Exeter — Cathedral — Theological Seminary — Beautiful Cultivation — Honiton Vale — Downs of Dorchester — Old British Remains — Barrows — Amphitheatre — Execution — Hampshire Heath — Ringwood Forest — Roads — Coaches — Coachman and Guard — Treatment of Horses — Old Road versus Railroads and Turnpikes, CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

SOUTHAMPTON— ISLE OF WIGHT-PORTSMOUTH. Southampton — Pulpit Notice — Netley Abbey — Cistercians — Gipseys — Rooks — Isle of Wight — Fees — Carisbrook Castle — Undercliff — St. Lawrence Church — School — Ventnor — Brading — Little Jane — Fair— Regatta— The St. Vincent ap.d the Victory, 40

Chapter X. Highland Cattle-show

Cattie-show — Scottish Politeness — Lodgings — Flats — Animals — Show-yard— The Separating Shilling— Ladies— Highland Soldiers — Lecture — The Great Dinner— Pavilion— Noblemen — Farmers — Speeches — Consolidated Farms — Duke of Sutherland's Tenants — Eutailments, 98

Chapter XI. Return To Edinburgh

Conversation — Drinking Habits of the Scotch — Farm Laborers — Women at Field-work — Carse of Gowry — Lochleven — Salmon Fishery — Auchterarder — View from Stirling Castle, 123

Chapter XII. Highlands

Lochlomond — Loch Katrine — Inn at Glenfalloch — Conversation with a poor Highlander — Sublime Scenery — Glenco, 130

Chapter XIII. Highlands

Caledonian Canal — Fall of Foyers — The Rev. Mr. C. — Inverness — To Dunkeld — Desolate Country — Highland Habitations — Game and Sportsmen — Loaded Coach — Sacramental Gathering — Worshipping under a Tent — Begging Child, .... 140

Chapter XVII. Ireland

Passage to Belfast — Lodgings — Cattle-show — Grand Banquet — Mr. R.'s Speech — Giant's Causeway — Sabbath-keeping Hotel — Coast Road — Jaunting Cars — Peat Bogs — From Belfast to Dublin — Dogs — Slavery — Beggars, 195

Chapter XXI. Agricultural Population

Social and Moral Condition of this Class of People as compared with the Manufacturing — Female Farm Laborers — Effect of such Employment on their Health, Manners, and Domestic Habits — The Gang System — Wages — Diet — Dwellings — Rents — Vices — State of Education — Sentiments of the Upper Classes in regard to Education — Warning to the United States,

Preface

. I see no reason for apologizing, as some do, for adding books of travels in Europe to those already published. We cannot know too much of those countries, since our relations with them are every day becoming more extended and important, and are in some respects momentous. Every intelligent American going thither has his own opportunities and habits of observation ; and if he tell us many things which we know already, he can hardly fail to tell us some things which we did not know. He has, too, his own circle of acquaintance at home, who will read what he communicates, while they will not, perhaps, read the books of others. In one way or another, therefore, he contributes something to the aggregate of information. I did not go abroad to make a booh ; but, being there, I saw and heard as I had opportunity, and a book is the result.

Much as I had desired to see the Old World, especially the land of my ancestors, I had not felt at liberty to gratify the wish, till a severe illness, obliging me to dissolve my X

PREFACE.

. connection with an endeared and interesting flock,* left me free, and made it necessary, to seek the recovery of my health. I cannot dismiss these Notes without recording my obligations to my fellow-traveller, Dr. L. S. Hopkins. But for his kind and earnest persuasion, seconded by his pecuniary liberality, and by his consent to accompany me, the voyage to Europe would not have been undertaken. While abroad, I was indebted to his inquisitiveness, as well as to his society, for a large share of the benefit and pleasure of our travels. Near neighbors and intimate friends, as we had been, our attachment was naturally strengthened by the incidents and sympathies of foreign travel ; and the most sensible regret I feel, at the end of the journey, is, that it terminates our companionship. These Volumes should have been published sooner, if at all. It were useless to state the circumstances which have delayed the necessary work of revision. * The Edwards Church, Northampton. NOTES FROM OVER SEA

Chapter I. The Voyage Out

Departure from New York— Characteristic Farewells— Weather- Fogs- — Calm — Dreaded Perils — Steerage Passengers — Religious Services — The Preacher — The "Philosopher" — Sight of Land — Pilot — Land at Plymouth. It was a beautiful day (June 1, 1843,) when we sailed from New York, in the fine London-line Packet ship, the Mediator, Capt. John M. Chadwick ; the wind was fair ; we soon dismissed the little steamer that towed us down the bay, and the night saw us well out at sea. A large Havre packet, the St. Nicholas, full of pas sengers, sailed at the same time ; and it was interest ing to observe the manner in which the two ships parted from their steamers, taking back with them the numerous friends of the passengers that had come thus far to see them off. We separated from ours cheer fully, but in thoughtful quietness; and I observed some among us turning away to conceal their tears.

They expressed their farewell vivaciously, in long and loud huzzaing, with waving of hats and handkerchiefs ; — each company manifesting its sympathies in a characteristic way. We were chiefly Americans and Eng lish ; they were French, and others of the Continent. For several days, and indeed during the greater vol. i. NOTES FROM OVEK SEA. part of the passage, the weather was very cold, and so rough, at times, as to require shortening sail and reef ing. We were all shivering in our overcoats. Up on the Grand Bank we encountered fogs, of course ; and they are among the greatest vexations of the na vigator's life. The Captain told me that they are sometimes so thick, that ships, near enough to con verse together, cannot see each other. It is fearful to be running through such a mist, especially in the night, at the rate of eight or ten knots an hour, as we did, with the possibility of collision, at any moment, with some fellow-traveller ofthe deep, or, worse still, with an iceberg, while you can scarcely discern the ship's length before you.

These fogs veil the history of ma ny a vessel " never heard of." A ship seen in one of them, with all her sails set, is one of the finest pictures, in crayon, that can be imagined. It is a shade penciled upon a shade — faintly, yet distinctly visible, in all its outlines, and seeming as evanescent, as much " a thing of mist," as the element that envelopes it. Strong and favorable winds bore us along with speed for fifteen days ; on the 16th it blew a gale from the North, with constant rain ; our twenty pieces of can vass that were standing in the morning, were hauled down, one after another, as the wind increased, till they were reduced to four, and two of these reefed ; the ship rolled and pitched in a heavy sea ; the pas sengers were some in their berths, and others sitting all day mum in the " house," and the sailors looked worn and worried.

We accomplished a great day's work that day, making about 240 miles over a very laborious way indeed. Itwas a wonder to me that THE VOYAGE OUT. 15 the strained and creaking vessel did not wring herself to pieces. " After a storm there comes a calm." The wind veered into the East and died away ; and the two ensuing days we stood still, with sails clewed up and flapping, almost within sight of England. The sea, which before was white with surges, and brawled about us with the noise and fury of a thousand cata racts, was now a drowsy, glassy plane. In fine, we experienced the usual varieties of the Ocean. We saw enough of its sublimities to say, with David, " They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters ; these see the works ofthe Lord, and his wonders in the deep."

A ship, in many instances, embosoms perils within herself, as well as encounters them from without. One of the mates said, what h*e most feared at sea was, running into other vessels, fire, and getting out of wa ter. We had combustible materials enough to illumi nate the ocean, to wit : 1000 barrels of oil, and 2500 of turpentine. The Captain told me that, in one of his passages, his ship was struck with lightning, setting on fire some bales of cotton, which was extinguished with great difficulty ; and on discharging the car go, in port, the head of a barrel of turpentine was found charred nearly through ! As to the failure of water, it is a wonder, notwithstanding the precaution ary laws humanely enacted to prevent it, that it does not happen oftenere — specially in westward passages — considering the great number of steerage passengers often, and their improvident habits.

When it does happen, it is a terrible evil in such a company. Indeed, under the most favorable circumstances, the condition of that class of voyagers is sufficiently uncomfortable. We had but thirty or forty os them, in one of the best of ships, with a more than ordinarily short passage; and if the voyage was a tedious one to them, what must it be where several hundred are em barked together, in an inferior vessel, with a passage of sixty or ninety days 1 They are obliged to confine themselves to the forward part of the vessel, being prohibited from coming aft in any case, except to at tend religious services ; their cabin accommodations forward, are necessarily confined ; they are of differ ent languages, and have little congeniality or sympa thy with one another ; cleanliness among them, below decks, is out of the question, and tobacco-smoke and seasickness make their cabin a dismal place, especially to women and children.

Add to these ordinary evils the appalling oneslof thirst and famine, and there is then a state of things not easily imagined. We had religious services every Sabbath. A table was placed in front of the house, covered with the ship's flag, and a bible laid on it ; planks were laid for seats, the bell rang and tolled, and the company assembled, with serious and attentive air. A ship, in fine weather, is an interesting chapel. The splen dors of the sky and sea, and the audible but not dis turbing murmurs of the winds and waves, are favor able to religious feeling. But I fear our worship was little edifying, owing to the bad repute of the clergyman who officiated. No one suspected, from his dress or manners, what he was, till he announced himself as a clergyman on our first Sabbath morning, and proposed to conduct the services.

His most intimate associates were two THE VOYAGE OUT. or three profane men, with whom he played at cards, sat whole evenings over hot whiskey punch, discussed the qualities of liquors, snipe-shooting, and the like, and sung very vulgar songs. At dinner he took copi ous draughts of brandy, wine, and porter, besides what he drank at other times. For reading, he was furnished with a large supply of trashy plays and novels. It was quite evident, to the honor of religion be it mentioned, that no one respected him ; and after a Sabbath or two, the steerage part of his auditors nearly all forsook him, an honest Scotchman among them remarking, with great simplicity, that " they that preach the gospel ought to live up till it." He was ofthe Church of England. Another circumstance did not tend to edification.

There was an old gentleman on board whom the pas sengers called the philosopher — a great egotist and a great bore. Every one avoided him as far as civility permitted. Monopolist of all sense and science, he was always in the attitude of contradicting. Who ever ventured an opinion on any subject, was sure to encounter the prompt dissent of the philosopher, with the infliction on him of a long and learned lecture into the bargain. He was always watching among the innocent and casual remarks of the company to seize occasions to find texts for displaying his wisdom; and if once you suffered him to get you by the button, there was no limit to the regions of discovery through which he pioneered you. Nevertheless, he furnished some amusement to the humorists on board. His wife, much younger than he, was a great blue-stock ing, and wrote verses which their little daughter was made to recite to the company, in such measured tones as the mother had taught her.

This gifted family, having spent several years in the United States, were returning home to England, full of contempt for the Americans, several of whose city authorities and leading men had refused to adopt certain great scientific improvements proposed to them by the gentleman, while the publishers had declined printing the effu sions of the lady. In England they were sure of being appreciated. To do him justice, Mr. B was in truth a man of considerable information and some science, and of respectable appearance ; and but for his conceitedness might have been entertaining. I would not have mentioned him as I do, in connec tion with the religious services, but for his prof oneness. He was a frequent and unscrupulous violator of the third commandment. As if Satan designed to bur lesque those services, and as if the character of the preacher was not sufficient for his purpose, this old gentleman regularly came forth and took his stand at the table by the preacher's side, carefully and somewhat singularly dressed, his best brown coat on, his thin white hair combed down upon his shoulders, the prayer book in his hand, his spectacles adjusted, and his manner exceedingly reverent and devout.

He uttered the responses with a loud voice, and listened to the sermon with great respect. The sermons were fair moral essays, better than the preacher— I do not say the author, for though they were but ordinary, it may be doubted whether, such as they were, they were prepared by a man of his habits. There were some good voices among the passengers, and the singing was the most grateful part of the performances. THE VOYAGE OUT. 19 The preacher was returning home from Nova Sco tia, or one of the colonies, where he had been en gaged for a year or two in the duties of his profession. It is one of the consequences of colonial relationship to England to be supplied with such pastors from the mother country. Judging from what we see in the Canadas, of such ministers as in too many instances sind their way thither from both the English and the Scotch Establishments, we may imagine how much we are indebted to our Revolution for saving us from a host of the same description.

How refreshing is the sight of land after the monotony of the sea ! Tbe green hills of England, seen afar, seemed a paradise. A pilot boarded us at a great distance from Land's End. All gathered about him to learn the news. His chief item was the state of Ireland, of which he gave an exaggerated account — a great rebellion troops pouring in by thousands — all the ports blockaded. It is the practice of the London packets to touch at Portsmouth; most ofthe cabin passengers choosing to land there, and proceed by railroad, three hours, to London, which is preferable to the circuitous pas sage by water. For ourselves, being opposite Ply mouth, with the wind ahead, and wishing to see the Southern parts of England, we caused a pilot-boat to be spoken and went ashore there on the 23d of June. It was with a feeling akin to home-sickness that we left the good ship that had borne us over the deep, and parted from our fellow-voyagers, to see most of them no more.

They crowded to the side of the vessel, from stem to stern, and answered the adieu which we waved to them from the little boat in which we made the transit from the packet to the pilot.

Chapter II. Plymouth

The Town— The Hoe— Navy— Donkeys— Harbor and Breakwater— Eddystone Lighthouse — Mt. Edgecumbe — Excursion — Haymaking— The " Plymouth Brethren." We found so much to interest us at Plymouth, and were withal so easily arrested by the objects that first met us on a foreign shore, that we prolonged our stay there beyond what we intended. The town is respectably, but not elegantly built ; and though its environs are beautiful, it is not in itself particularly interesting. Seen from a distant hill-top, it looks more like a quarry than like a town, from the dull gray color of the stone ofwhich it is built. No green trees, or very few, are visible among its roofs, to break the monotony. The population, including that of Devenport and Stonehouse, which are contig uous to it, is about 70,000. It has a beautiful elevated park or common, front ing the sea, called the Hoe, a part of which is devoted to military purposes, and the rest reserved as a public promenade.

Plymouth is chiefly noted as one of the great naval depots of England. Here reposes, in these quiet waters, many a brave man-of-war, reserved for pur- 2poses for which it is devoutly to be hoped she may never be wanted. It does not appear to be a place of much trade. I observed few trading-vessels in the bay, and few drays in the streets. Produce from the country is brought in on donkeys. The streets are full of these animals, some in harness, more with panniers ; and despised though they are with us, as proverbs for stupidity and obstinacy, and as being too diminutive and slow for American efficiency and dispatch, they appear to be in much esteem in England. Nor are they used as common drudges merely : they have the honor of carrying ladies and gentlemen, especially ladies, in their rural excursions for health and pleasure.

For that purpose, I could wish they were more in use among us. For pleasure, they are safer than the horse, though for business inferior. Well trained and well used, they are not ill-looking, and are often pets. They are moreover hardy, patient, unexpensive, and long-lived. The harbor, which is deep and capacious, is pro tected by its breakwater from the waves, which used to be rolled in upon it with tremendous power in great southerly storms, and which even now sometimes loss distressed vessels quite over this obstruction. The breakwater is a line of loose stones thrown in across the central part of the harbor, rising a few feet above the surface, and leaving a channel at each end. The English speak of it as a great work — owing, I suppose, to the depth of the water, and the many tons of ntone required for its construction.

Off the harbor, some miles out, is the Eddystone lighthouse,, whose history, which you may read in the PLYMOUTH. Penny Magazine, is more interesting, probably, than that of any other structure of the kind. I had re garded it with so much interest, that my eyes sought it long before we could descry it from the ship. On the west side of the bay is Mount Edgecumbe, the seat of the lord of that title. We consumed the greater pait ofa day in wandering over it, among its parks, groves, avenues, and gardens. The deer, which were numerous, and as gentle as they were graceful, were as pleasing as anything I saw on the place, ln the house I observed a beautifully polished chesnut floor, a wood formerly much esteemed, and which really has much beauty. We made a pleasant little excursion of a few miles from Plymouth into the country.

The scenery in all this region is delightful, especially at this loveliest season of the year. While we waited for the horse to breathe, at a village called Tamerton, and were strolling about the place with the curiosity of strangers, we observed a company of well-dressed people, male and female, making hay. They exhibited, with their rakes and pitchforks, a cheerful scene, both of industry and recreation. Some young girls among them, their cheeks glowing with health and pleasure, seemed especially delighted with their employment. As we took the liberty of approaching them, two of the gentlemen very kindly advanced to meet us; and discovering that we were strangers and Americans, insisted on our taking tea with them, for which they were preparing by setting the table in the field. All excuses being unavailing, we yielded to their hospitable importunity, taking our tea however with one of the gentlemen in the house, owing to a little rain which they feared might incommode us, the rest taking theirs abroad.

The rain, which was very little, would not have frightened us : we would have pre ferred the other table, with its happy company, but our delicacy consented to the arrangement as it was, lest the presence of strangers should be some restraint upon the gayety of the party. I like these English habits, and would wish to see our own fair country-women more abroad in the healthful air, with the implements of hay-making and gardening in their hands — not indeed as laborers, doing the task-work of men, but occasionally for health and recreation — as amateurs among the fragrant grass and flowers. We found our entertainer, Mr. H., an intelligent and estimable man, and of pious ancestors, being a grandson of the Rev. Samuel Pearce, a portion of whose spirit he appears to have inherited. Unlike his progenitor, who was a Baptist, he is of the Esta blished Church.

It had been his ardent wish to en ter the ministry ; but he was discouraged by the great expense. It costs .£1000 to get through the Univer sities ; so that to be educated there, one must either possess a fortune, or go on charity. There is no medium between the two ; consequently the absolutely poor student is better off than one who is neither rich nor poor, inasmuch as the poor is ad missible on charity. Mr. H. seemed to feel that this matter was not as it should be, and I inferred, perhaps erroneously, that embarrassments, rather than encouragements, had PLYMOUTH. been thrown in his own way particularly. Perhaps a young man of his views and spirit had, in these Tractarian times, too little churchism , possibly too much piety, to suit his diocesan, or others to whom he looked for favor.

Failing of the Christian ministry, he has turned to another employment, and is usefully engaged in teaching a select school of boys. Being at the birth-plac3 of a body of religionists of whom we have heard in our country, the " Ply mouth Brethren," it was natural to inquire about them. They have a congregation, one or more, at Ply mouth, and are considerably numerous elsewhere in the kingdom. In Ireland they are known by the name of Darbeyites from their principal leader there. They are separatists from the various other reli gions bodies, — denouncing sectarian distinctions, like the " Unionists" in our country, and j^et creating one. I am somewhat surprised to learn that a con siderable proportion of their preachers, as well as lay men, are from the Established Church. Most of them were malcontents in the bodies they have left, and are enthusiasts since.

Their polity, if they can be said to have any, is of the lowest order of democracy. It may be best des cribed asa religious "socialism." Pastoral authority, whether ecclesiastical or simply moral, is en tirely excluded ; the laity are everything, the minis try nothing, — a feature which would be quite agreea ble to a certain description of members scattered, sparsely I hope, in our American Churches; who, if they aie willing their minister should have any official prominence or influence,'are so from the ambitious motive, apparently, of increasing their own importance by showing it paramount to his. The Plymouth Brethren have of course no for mula of faith : that would be sectarian. Though they do not practice a community of goods, yet it is said that agreeably to their notion of absolute equality, the wealthy among them profess to dispense with all elegance and luxury, removing their carpets from their floors, admitting their servants to their ta ble, and living in the plainest manner possible ; and that some of them " condescend to men of low es tate" by doing them menial services — a great stretch of condescension certainly, or of radicalism, in a country so aristocratic'as this.

It is not perceived by them, perhaps, that, by such a procedure, the natural heart is gratified in both orders — the pride of the wealthy being flattered by the show and credit of their condescension, and that of the poor by their be ing admitted to an equality with their betters. They are generally millennarians, though they make no public profession of this, as they do not of any opinion or article of belief. This serves, probably, to feed their enthusiasm. It is worthy of note that most of the religious novelties of the day, which excite attention to any considerable-extent, comprise some grand enthusiastic notion to fill the imagination of their subjects. How many simple and even serious people, for example, have lately lost their wits and been filled with visionary fears and raptures, by Miller's doctrine of the world coming to an end, or that of the Mormon prophet calling them together to rejoice in the anticipated glories about to PLYMOUTH. 27 be shed on the " latter-day saints."

These people there and here— are all brethren. Essentially and generally they are of the same intellectual and moral order. The term Plymouth, or Nauvoo, or Millerite, is but an accident. The most melancholy part of the history of the body I am speaking of is their progress, individually if not collectively, in degeneracy and error. They have, as a body, some virtues, and doubtless there are many sincere and truly pious persons among them ; but generally they are exclusive and uncharitable — they hate sects, which seems sufficiently indicative of their spirit; and in too many instances, it is said, the act of joining them proves to be but the beginning of a course of extravagances, the end of which is a des titution of all religion. In this also, how many of their trans-atlantic brethren are like them, or will be, when their new conceits have fully ripened and gone to seed. Clouds they are, without water, and carried about by winds.

Chapter III. From Plymouth To Southampton

Fair— Exeter— Cathedral — Theological Seminary — Beautiful Cultivation —Honiton Vale — Downs of Dorchester — Old British Remains— Barrows — Amphitheatre — Execution — Hampshire Heath — Ringwood Forest—Roads — Coaches — Coachman and Guard— Treatment of Horses- Old Road versus Railroads and Turnpikes. I am aware of the tediousness of details, especially of traveling, and that many things interesting to the traveler on the spot, cannot be made so to another in a written communication. I shallendeavor, generally, to be as sparing of journal-dates, roads, taverns, and such like common-places, as I can ; but being too recent in the country to say much of general and larger subjects at present, you will excuse my lighter matters. And as our line of travel furnishes a convenient thread to my discourse, you may trace us, if you please, since my last, from Plymouth to Exeter, and thence through Dorchester and other intervening towns, to Southampton.

At Totness, my curiosity was excited by a large number of people, a thousand or more, collected at a fair. These fairs are, I believe, not encouraged by the better sort of people, on account of their immoralities • still, they are very common. They probably ha ve their uses, of a recreative and social, as well as com mercial kind, but are naturally the resort of rogues and idlers, and other bad characters. It was at a fair, you recollect, that Moses, in the Vicar of Wake field, "sold his hen ofa rainy day," that is, parted with his money for a gross of green spectacles, "at a dead bargain;" and that the good Vicar himself became the dupe of the learned Ephraim Jenkinson. Bunyan's Vanity Fair is probably a Hue picture of them, not much overdrawn, except in the kind and value of some of the articles trafficked in.

He says that Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion set them up originally. " Therefore, at this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, prefer ments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures and delights of all sorts ; as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not. And moreover, at this fair, there is at all times to be seen, jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind. Here are to be seen too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red color." Exeter is a city of perhaps 30,000 people. All towns in England which are the seat of a bishopric are ranked as cities. It. is situated in the midst of a most charming country.