Rambles in historic lands; travels in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and England

Front matter

Shelf. M,.^tS^

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

TRAVELS IN BELGIUM, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND ITALY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND

Preface

\1 7HEN a new book of European travel is announced ' " the three questions naturally arise, Who is the author ? What is his point of view ? What new has he to tell ?

In reply it must be confessed that he is no. distinguished man. He is a resident of. Mobile, and a graduate of Princeton College in 1879, where he took the Mental Science fellowship and went to Leipzig University for courses in philosophy and law. In the vacations he travelled a good deal, ranging from Stirling to Pompeii, from Berlin to Paris. Not yet recovered from the systematic training of his alma mater ^ he observed carefully while abroad and kept full journals, being interested more especially in everything connected with history. On this occasion he lived abroad over a year.

In 1891 came the pleasure trip of four months recorded in this volume, in which the route was somewhat varied but the historical point of view maintained. This book follows the footprints of the second visit but includes much of importance gleaned on the first. It has been almost two years on the anvil.

What new has he to tell ? Well, it will not do to pretend in these Columbian times that an American dis-

VI PREFACE.

covered Europe. But there are several things which if not absolutely new can be told in a new manner.

For instance, German University life is told as experienced by one studying in the largest German University, just as it appeared to him fresh from one of the greatest of American colleges. He loves art and describes galleries as they struck an amateur. He gives a careful if short sketch of the art development of Europe, derived from various sources, because others may like himself have been unable to find any that is at once measurably accurate, brief and interesting. Something like a philosophic study of the Roman Empire, ancient and modern, is made in connection with visits to historic centres, because many yet think of the Empire as ceasing a.d. 476 and have not mastered Bryce's views of the middle ages. Historic sites are described from sheer love of archaeology and desire to realize the surroundings of epoch-making races and individuals. He relates what was seen of nature in Switzerland when he walked its passes, before railroads came to whirl one along too fast for good views and deaden enjoyment by making it too easy. Venice, Paris and London have certainly been much written about, but they appear different to different temperaments, and, possibly, still admit of systematic, if brief, treatment. Somewhat so, too, of great men. The greatest men of modern times are Luther, Shakspere, Goethe, and Napoleon, and everything of interest found relating to them has been described, because in one way or another they have made modern history.

Americans are getting to be as great travellers as their English cousins, and it may be that to some people of each nationality this volume, without belonging to the useful but prosaic class of guide books, may relate ex-

PREFACE. VU

periences by land and sea of some interest and value and be a useful complement to guide books. It at least embodies general views and descriptions which the detailed guide book does not give and which the author has realized himself only from the air, surroundings and life of the places themselves.

It has not been thought necessary to cite authorities, for while the authors to whom the book is indebted are many they are mainly such as are familiar to most people of general information.

The illustrations, it may be added, are from photographs secured on the spot and are meant to reproduce places of interest not commonly pictured.

Such are some of the aims of this book of travel. How far it has succeeded its author cannot judge, for this he must leave to the candid critic and to the reading public.

There are of course several kinds of moneys mentioned, and it may not be amiss to remind the reader that the German mark and English shilling are each worth about twenty-five cents, and the franc, used in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, about twenty cents. These are all silver. The mark is divided into a hundred pfennigs, the franc into a hundred centimes. The copper five centime piece is commonly called a sou. In Italy the franc is called a lira, but the currency is largely paper and somewhat depreciated.

Mobile, Ala., August 20, 1893.

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Chapter I. Page

ON THE OCEAN ....... I

Cousin Dan's proposition — Itinerary — Off on the trip — S. S. Rotterdam — Meals — Amusements at sea — Fire — Storm — Bow, stern and hold — Arrival at Boulogne.

Chapter II

AIX, COLOGNE AND THE RHINE . . . . I3

Brussels — Waterloo — Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) — Town hall and cathedral — Charlemagne's empire — " Reclamation " — Cologne — Cook's Tours — Characteristics of Gothic architecture — Cologne cathedra] and churches — Queen Louise — The Rhine trip to Mainz — Castles and Legends — Lorelei — National Monument — Sunday at Wiesbaden.

Chapter III. Heidelberg To Weimar ; The Luther And Goethe

Mainz (Mayence) and Worms — Heidelberg castle — The Palatinate — Frankfort — The Electors — The Ariadne — Railroad travelling — Luther's country — Wartburg — Erfurt — Wittenberg — Weimar — Goethe and Schiller.

X CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

LEIPZIG : ITS UNIVERSITY AND ITS BATTLE FIELDS . 42

Museum — Old Leipzig — New quarters — German Supreme Court — Visit to Frau Paetzel — The University — Student life — Lectures — Wundt — Windscheid — -Other celebrities — Battle field of Breitenfeld— Battle field of Llitzen — Battle of Leipzig — Napoleonstein — Celebration of Sedan Day.

Chapter V. Dresden : Its Collections And History . . 58

Museum — Sistine Madonna — Other great pictures — King Albert and Queen Carola at church — The Green Vault — Historical relics — Porcelain collection — Briihl Terrace — Rietschel — Sketch of Saxon history.

Chapter VI

Saxon Switzerland — Carlsbad — Bohemia — Nuremberg — Torture as a fine art — The Iron Virgin — Munich — Handsome streets — Picture galleries — Rubens and Murillo — Sculpture gallery — Hall of Fame — Sketch of Bavarian history.

Chapter VII

Outline of Swiss topography — Constance and its lake — Huss — Upper Rhine — Schaffhausen — Falls of the Rhine — Zurich — Zwingli — Lake dwellings — Lucerne — Thorwaldsen's Lion — Glacier Garden — Riitli — Tell — The Eidgenossen — The Rigi — Pilatus — Brunnig Pass — Interlaken and Grindelwald.

CONTENTS. Xi

Chapter VIII. Page

Berne — Swiss railroad cars — Sunset on Lake Geneva — Lausanne — Geneva — Famous citizens — Calvin's sway — Genevan history — Voltaire at Ferney — Lake Geneva — Chillon — Chamouny — Zermatt and the Matterhorn — German again.

Chapter IX. The Simplon Pass And Italian Lakes

Brieg — Diligences — Simplon road — Hospice — Italian custom-house — Grand Hotel at Pallanza — Lake Maggiore — Borromean Islands — Lake Lugano — St. Gotthard railway — Lake Como — Villa Carlotta — Monza.

Chapter X. Milan And Italian History

The Last Supper — Cathedral — Roman history : i. The Republic of Rome, Development of the City ; 2. The Empire of Rome, Csesars ; 3. The Roman Empire, Its division ; 4. Holy Roman Empire, Pope and Emperor — Milan's history.

CHAPTER XL

Grand Canal — Gondolas — Pension Anglaise — Square of St. Mark's — Streets, canals and bridges — Sketch of Venetian history^St. Mark's — Campanile and its views — Frari Church — Titian and Canova — Venetian architecture — Shylock at home.

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter XII. Pagb

Our financial troubles — Description of Florence — Its history — Italian Gothic — Cathedral — Campanile — Baptistery — Historical sketch of modern painting — Uffizi gallery — Venus de' Medici — Niobe — Pitti gallery — Madonna of the Chair — Salvator Rosa's landscapes — Michael Angelo's sculptures — The New Sacristy — Loggia dei Lanzi — Church of Santa Croce.

Chapter XIII

Marble and dirt — Via Nazionale and the Corso — Topography of ancient Rome — Columns of Trajan and Aurelius— The Forum — Via Sacra — Mamertine Prison — Trajan's cut — Palatine Hill — Capitoline Hill^Colosseum — Baths of Caracalla — Pantheon — Lateran church and palace — The Sacred Stairs.

Chapter XIV

Pasquin — The Borgo — St. Peter's — Its interior — Statues and paintings — Graves — Tasso — The Vatican — Sistine Chapel — Raphael's Stanze — Transfiguration — Sculpture galleries — Apollo — Laocoon — Tapestries.

Chapter XV

Graves of Keats and Shelley — Appian Way — Catacombs — Grotto of Egeria — Circus of Maxentius — Tomb of Caecilia Metella — St. Paul's — The Alban country — The Alban Lake — Tusculanum — Lost in classic woods — A night at a peasant's — Lake Nemi — The Alban Mount — Passionist monastery — Pompey's tomb — Emissarius — Terni — Falls of the Velino.

CONTENTS. xili

Chapter XVI. Page

The Campagna — The Maremme — Pisa — Cathedral — Swinging lamp — Baptistery — Campo Santo — Leaning Tower — Mediterranean coast — Genoa — Columbus — Hotel Smith — Riviera views — Monaco — Nice — Marseilles — Avignon and the Popes — The Proven9al cities — Lyons— Railroad express — Disagreeable neighbor — Fontainebleau — Arrival in Paris.

Chapter XVII

PARIS : ITS HISTORIC MONUMENTS AND ENVIRONS . 222 History of the city — How Paris made France — Place de la Concorde — Champs Elysees — Hotel des Invalides — Napoleon and Josephine — Eiffel Tower — Column Vendome — Tuileries — Louvre — Hotel de Ville — Bastille — Palais de Justice — Sainte Chapelle^Notre Dame — The Morgue — Pantheon — Cemetery of Pere la Chaise — St, Denis — Visit to Versailles — St. Cloud.

Chapter XVIII. Paris : The Louvre And The Streets . . . 239

Hotel meals — Our landlady — Magasins — Omnibus travel — Boulevards — Opera — Lohengrin and the Boulangists — Louvre collections — Recent Persian discoveries — Greek sculptures — Venus of MiLo — Diana — Louvre picture gallery — Sketch of French painting — Crossing the Channel.

Chapter XIX

Outline sketch of London — West End — Westminster Abbey — Its chapels — English Gothic — Parliament House — Westminster Hall — The palaces — "To the Bank" on a 'bus — Trafalgar Square — National Gallery — Turner and English painting — Law Inns and Courts — St. Paul's — Tombs of

XIV

CONTENTS.

Nelson and Wellington — Famous sites — London Bridge — The Tower — Regalia and armor — State prisoners — Bank of England — Route back to West End — South Kensington Museum — British Museum — Elgin marbles — Underground railway — Tussaud's Wax Works.

Chapter XX

Windsor — Oxford — The colleges — Stratford-on-Avon — Shakspere's birthplace — His home — His grave — Chester — Liverpool — On the City of Paris — Jaunting car at Queenstown — Description of the ship — History of ocean travel — Journal of our voyage — The storm — The engine stopped — Custom-house inspection — Arrival at New York.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Castle of Chillon, from Lake Geneva . . Frontispiece

Coronation Hall at Aix-la-Chapelle . . , 13

Rheinfels Castle, on the Rhine 26

The Court of Heidelberg Castle 31

Where Napoleon Stood on the Field of Leipzig . 56

Where Huss and Jerome were Burned .... 86

Calvin's Church at Geneva 103

The Arsenal at Venice 133

The Roman Forum, from the Capitoline Hill . 166 (Arch of Septimius Severus, Temple of Saturn and Basilica Julia in the foreground ; Comitium, Colosseum, Arch of Titus and Temple of Castor and Pollux in the background.) The Palace of the Popes at Avignon . . . .218

Notre Dame, from the Seine 233

Interior of Westminster Hall 261

CHAPTER I. "\17HERE do '^ trip?" as

ON THE OCEAN.

you intend to go on your wedding rip;'" asked cousin Dan at the dinner table one day, when that not distant event was under discussion,

"To Niagara, I suppose," I replied laughing, "but I would like to go to Europe."

" How much would it cost for two," he said.

I had spent thirteen months abroad eleven years before, mainly studying at Leipzig University. All told it had cost $800.00, but I had lived economically. I rashly thought that on even a more liberal basis a trip of four to five months could hardly exceed $300.00 apiece.

So I answered, " About six hundred dollars."

He slapped his hand on the table and said, " I will make you a present of the trip ! "

I had not expected that, even from him, but recovered my breath enough to thank him, and then rushed down town to tell her about it.

The next few months passed on, and while she was busy about dresses I was fixing up our itinerary. I had when abroad priced at Cologne some of the tours offered by Thos. Cook & Son, the tourist agents, but found that I could travel cheaper third class on my own account and so never bought their tickets. This time I thought I had better try them again so as to save the trouble of buying tickets at every stop.

I got into correspondence with them and soon arranged for second-class tickets for two on a long tour selected by ourselves. I felt a little hesitancy as to how to speak about Rachel in these letters, as I did not care to talk of the trip as an intended bridal tour, and yet could not say that I was married. But I did resolutely mention " my wife " nevertheless. I suppose Cook knew no better, although he may have noticed that I especially declined to go with any party, personally conducted or otherwise. I never told Rachel about it until we were married and on the ocean, when she was much amused. It was finally all arranged, ^484.00 remitted, and I was to obtain the tickets when we arrived in New York. They were first class on steamers and second class on railroads.

The itinerary as finally corrected gave days and places and was as methodical as Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. Here it is :

ITINERARY.

July S —Leave N. Y. (S.S. " Rotterdam.")

17 — Arrive Boulogne.

18 — Brussels.

19 — Aix-la-Chapelle. (Sunday.)

20 — Cologne.

21 — Rhine Steamer to Mainz.

22 — Heidelberg via Worms.

23-24 — To Leipzig via quickest route, &c. 25-26 — Dresden. (26, Sunday.)

27 — To Munich via Carlsbad. 28-29 — Munich.

30 — Lindau and Lake Constance.

31 — ^Constance and to Zurich via Schaffhausen. Aug. I — Zurich.

2 — Lucerne. (Sunday.)

3 —Steamer, Rigi and return to Fluelen.

4 — Railway to Goeschenen, Diligence to Rhone Glacier.

5 — Meiringen and Giessbach.

6 — Brienz, Interlaken.

7 — Faulhorn and Grindelwald.

8 — Thun, Berne and Lausanne.

9 — Lausanne and Geneva. (Sunday.)

10 — Steamer to Chillon, Railway to Brieg.

11 — Simplon Pass to Arona.

12 —Steamer by Borromeau Islands to Luino, Lugano. 13-14 — Menaggio and Lake excursions, to Bellagio. 15-16 — Como and Milan. (16 Sunday.)

17 — Milan to Venice. 18-19 — Venice.

20-22 — Florence and to Rome 22d. 23-30 — Rome. 31 — Pisa and to Genoa.

Sept. I — Nice to Avignon.

2 — Avignon and to Lyons.

3 — Lyons.

4 — Fontainebleau.

5-12 — Paris, (to Rouen 12th.)

13 — Rouen. (Sunday.)

14 — Dieppe — Newhaven to London. 15-22- — London.

23 — To Melrose via Peaks of Derbyshire, &c.

24 — Melrose Abbey, Abbotsford, Dryburgh. 25— 27— Edinburgh. (27 Sunday.)

28 — Trossachs.

2g — To Liverpool.

30 — To New York by Steamer " City of Paris."

I showed it to my mother. Her comment was that it was good, but that I had named no days for headaches.

The important event finally came off and we left for our trip. We spent a few days, of course, at Niagara and New York, and then prepared to take the steamer. We called at Cook's office and obtained our ocean tickets and an order on the Netherlands line office at Boulogne for others.

We had chosen the " Rotterdam " of the Netherlands line in order to go direct to the continent and avoid crossing the channel on a small steamer. While this is one of the smaller lines and not ranking first in speed, we were assured that it was safe and comfortable.

Our first sight of the steamship was on the night of the seventh of July, 189 1, when we took a cab from the New York Hotel across the ferry to Jersey City in a driving rain and were let out at a pier covered with a spacious frame warehouse. We climbed up the staging to the big black steamer, looming up indistinctly before us, and were shown down two stairways to our little state-room on the right or starboard side. An incandescent lamp was burning, but there was also a port hole not far above water line, which lighted and ventilated the room in the daytime. Below the port hole was a seat or berth and opposite were the upper and lower berths for ourselves. Opposite the door was the ingenious washstand arrangement that was pulled down for use and at pleasure shut up to empty the water. Everywhere was the green Dutch flag and " N. A. S. M.," the initials of the Company.

Then we explored the dining saloon above our state-room and found two long tables on each side, with

Stationary seats upholstered in red velvet, and at the forward end discovered a good piano and music. While there an agent gave us the gratifying information that Messrs. Cook & Son had let us pay too much for our ocean tickets. We had paid at summer rates, which are higher, when in some way July should according to Dutch calculation be in the winter schedule. As the result was ^26.00 in our favor we agreed to reform the calendar. Evidently the topsy-turviness of an ocean trip had affected the Zodiac too. As the price was only ^80.00 for the two at first, this made the cost about equal to the expense of boarding for the same length of time at a fair hotel on land.

After this pleasant episode we went out again on the covered pier and promenaded, watching with interest the preparations for leaving. We saw our lone trunk and big satchel, with labels attached, go aboard, and tried to guess who of the arriving people would be our particular associates on the voyage. A pleasant surprise was meeting in the surgeon of the ship a Mobilian and friend, of whom we had lost trace for some years and whom we now hardly recognized in his jaunty blue uniform.

We went to bed after a while in our narrow berths. The novelty of the position, the noise of the steam winch and the shouting of orders by apparently every one on deck banished sleep for a long time. When we awoke there was no noise, and daylight streamed in the port hole. We looked out and found that we were moving. We were off Sandy Hook and our trip to Europe had begun.

The official introduction to sea life was at breakfast. Our friend the surgeon was at the head of one table and put US on his left and carefully attended to Rachel. Almost every one was out to breakfast and we found that we helped make up a passenger li?t of forty or fifty. The food was excellent and when our appetites had recovered from the uneasiness of the first two or three days the principal pleasure of the day was the gong to meals. The dishes were French {a la Dutch) and after we had become used to the singular appearance of some of them we liked the cooking very much. The favorite dishes were currie and similar combinations, and gravies and good pastry were part of every meal. At 7:30 a.m. was a cold breakfast with coffee, at noon a hot lunch, at 5 P.M. a formal dinner of many courses, and at 9 a cold supper. The service was excellent. At our table were two handsome Dutch boys who were very attentive waiters.

For the first few days sea-sickness was prevalent and as the patients gradually came on deck their pale faces and weak condition marked them out. They were not all ladies. I recall one young man who did not come out on deck for a week. During an excitement which I will describe he was told that the ship Avas on fire and he must save himself. He languidly replied, " Let her sink," and turned over in his berth. Gradually, however, the breezes and salt air brought all the invalids around, and the services of the chambermaid in bringing up meals were less and less demanded. She, by the way, was quite pretty and a great favorite. All called her Jungfrau for short.

In our usually placid life on shipboard the first thing in the morning was getting steamer extension chairs located in a shady place and lashed to some fixed part of the vessel. The next important matter would be vigorous promenades after breakfast, and indeed after each meal. Up and down one side, or up one side and down the other, they went in couples until onlookers, like themselves, were tired. Walking was often no easy work. We gradually, however, got our sea legs and learned to navigate the uncertain deck, balancing to accommodate ourselves to the roll of the ship, and after a while we could promenade at all angles, in humble imitation of the sailors and of Captain Van der Zee, the commander, whom no lurch surprised. We became so accustomed to the motion of the ship that on reaching land we walked for days with feet some distance apart to guard against possible disturbance of the terra firma. At noon we learned the vessel's progress from a little chart daily posted up near the dining room door, and the unquenchable betting propensity of some of the passengers would be gratified by pools and wagers on the speed. We generally made in the neighborhood of 200 miles a day, but often somewhat less.

In the course of a few days the passengers gradually became acquainted and divided off into congenial groups. We took as naturally here by ourselves in mid-ocean to sets and criticism as on land, and in fact as we had more leisure we noticed things that on shore we would not. We were taking up prejudices and having them removed all during the trip. The ship was a little world and as we could not escape each other we got closer together in those twelve days than we would in years of casual intercourse on land.

We were sitting out on deck by the ladies' cabin one evening at twilight, the chairs lashed to the house, holding on as the ship rolled. It was not far in front of the forward smoke stack and its smoke sometimes blew down on us. We then noticed more of it than usual and suddenly found ourselves enveloped in a choking cloud. We instinctively rose to our feet. There was a great commotion below the gratings about the smoke stack and we were able to make out that the smoke was pouring up from them. We hurriedly grouped towards the ladies' cabin, losing each other on the way. The electric lamps were burning and there we saw an assemblage of blanched and silent people gazing with wide open eyes at the black volumes rolling past the cabin door. I went out to discover what I could and found the captain by the gratings shouting orders, — in Dutch. The officers had neither time nor inclination to talk, and as they hurried about on their several duties we looked at them and tried in vain to make out the probable result from their manner. I went down on the main deck and found the crew passing buckets of water from the side down into the boiler room, but they were all Dutch and I could get nothing out of them that I could understand. It looked very serious. I gazed out on the angry ocean and felt that if the fire got beyond control and we took to the boats, they could not live in so high a sea.

The suspense lasted at least an hour and then the captain came to the ladies' cabin and in his usual bland manner announced that everything was all right again. Some tar barrels which had been carried to the boiler spaces to be heated for use had been upset by the motion of the vessel and caught fire, but only burned themselves out. He said he was proud of the behavior of his passengers. None of the ladies had exhibited any undue emotion. He then considerately ordered up some champagne from the ship's stores and a glass around did much to restore equanimity. Not a few, however, had a suspicion that the fire was only half smothered and slept lightly for some nights. These regaled us with stories of how fire had been found in vessels' holds and raged for days unrevealed to hapless passengers.

We had hardly become re-assured and cheerful again when a night or so later the steamer broke her shaft near the stern at a point hard to reach. We lay to all of that night mending it and the splice made in mid-ocean under these circumstances was said to be remarkable. The accident was not made known generally, but the daily record of only half as many knots as previously told the tale, and we finished the voyage at half speed.

The chapter was not even yet complete. We had to endure also a severe storm, and during it the passengers were locked below in the cabin while the ship toiled on under bare poles against high wind and wave. The Rotterdam's promenade deck does not run the length of the ship, and standing at the forward port holes of the dining saloon we could gaze out across the open main deck at the mountainous green sea through which our ship was painfully working her way. Every now and then a wave would sweep over the deck immediately before our eyes and the scuppers could hardly carry off the water before another deluge came, or the sea would strike the ship a blow sounding like thunder and under it she would quiver from stem to stern. The view of the mad waves fighting each other as well as pounding the ship, rising high to dash into spray, and then falling away again, was grand. The ship would careen so far to one side that we had to hold on to keep our feet, and it was with recurring relief that we felt the roll cease and the vessel gradually recover. There were many passengers sick and frightened that day and night, and meals were eaten lO RAMBLES IN HISTORIC LANDS.

under difficulties. Even the racks for dishes and plates were insufficient, and soups and liquids were liberally distributed over the passengers, while solids slid across the tables like avalanches. At some of the rolls all of us would instinctively stop eating to wait and be certain that the ship was going to regain the perpendicular. Sleep at night was out of the question. The sideboards to the berths were up, but to stay in the box thus made one had to remain awake and hold to its sides. Fortunately the spliced shaft worked all through this pounding and no actual injury to the good ship occurred.

The storm gradually subsided, however, and in a few days it was but a disagreeable memory. One bright morning a party of ladies and gentlemen went forward and sat in the bow. We watched the beautiful lacework of the spray as the ship cut through the green water and for hours gazed lazily out at the dancing waves around us. In fine weather this is the most enjoyable place on the vessel. Behind us the masts and ship rocked steadily from side to side almost as if a different thing from the part Avhere we sat. We saw no sail, and in fact seldom did on the voyage, for it is rather an event to sight one or even detect the smoke trail of a distant steamer. Outward bound ships pursue a different track from inward in order to avoid collisions, and so they are not often in sight except near shore. We went also one day to the extreme stern and stood in the railed place Avhere they throw the log. This is now not of wood or even the triangular piece of canvas which they used on the Erin when I went over some years ago, but a little brass screw attached to a line. The line registers on deck the revolutions of the screw, and, as each revolution means a certain distance forward, this tells the speed. At both

ON THE OCEAN. II

bow and stern one is so far from the life of the vessel that he feels strangely lonesome.

But the most interesting part of the ship I thought was the boiler room, away down on the floor of the hold. The surgeon took me there one day and I had to hold on to such steep ladders in the descent that I forgot to count the landings. Finally we were on the bottom before the hot furnaces, into which blackened, half naked stokers were continually throwing coal. There was much less rocking perceptible there than on deck, but the heat was intense despite the ventilators. As this is below water level, ashes and the like have to be put in buckets, hauled up to the main deck and thrown overboard. We crept through between the boilers and found some more furnaces, for they are placed end to end and fired frorh opposite extremities. Above us we saw iron stairways and gratings in several floors, and it was on one of these landings that the tar had burned and so alarmed us. I was glad to go up on deck at last and escape from the heat.