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Title: Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6931] [This file was first posted on February 12, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS V2 ***
Skip Doughty, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed
SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS.
IN
TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.
By
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Etc.
..... "When thou haply seest
Some rare note-worthy object in thy travels,
Make me partake of thy happiness."
SHAKESPEARE
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME:
LETTER XIX. Breakfast.--Macaulay.--Hallam.--Milman.--Sir
R. Inglis.--Lunch at
LETTER XX. Dinner at Lord Shaftesbury's.
LETTER XXI. Stoke Newington.--
LETTER XXII. Windsor.--The Picture Gallery.--Eton.--The Poet Gray.
LETTER XXIII. Rev. Mr. Gurney.--
LETTER XXIV. Playford Hall.--Clarkson.
LETTER XXV. Joseph Sturge.--The "Times" upon Dressmaking.--Duke of Argyle.--Sir David Brewster.--Lord Mahon.--Mr. Gladstone.
LETTER XXVI.
LETTER XXVII. Archbishop
of
LETTER XXVIII. Model Lodging Houses.--Lodging House Act.--Washing Houses.
LETTER XXIX. Benevolent Movements.--The Poor Laws.--The Insane.--Factory Operatives.--Schools, &c.
LETTER XXX. Presentation
at
JOURNAL.
LETTER XXXI. The Louvre.--The Venus de Milon.
JOURNAL. M. Belloc's Studio.--M. Charpentier.--Salon Musicale.--Peter Parley.--Jardin Mabille.--Remains of Nineveh.--The Emperor.--Versailles.--Sartory.--Père la Chaise.--Adolphe Monod.--Paris to Lyons.--Diligence to Geneva.--Mont Blanc.--Lake Leman.
LETTER XXXII. Route to Chamouni.--Glaciers.
LETTER XXXIII. Chamouni.--Rousse, the Mule.--The Ascent.
JOURNAL. The
LETTER XXXIV. The Ice Fields.
JOURNAL. Chamouni to Martigny.--Humors of the Mules.
LETTER XXXV. Alpine Flowers.--Pass of the Tête Noir.
JOURNAL. The Same.
LETTER XXXVI. Ascent to St. Bernard.--The Dogs.
LETTER XXXVII. Castle
Chillon.--Bonnevard.--
JOURNAL. A Serenade.--Lausanne.--Freyburg.--Berne.--The Staubbach.--Grindelwald.
LETTER XXXVIII. Wengern Alps.--Flowers.--Glaciers.--The Eiger.
JOURNAL. Glaciers.--Interlachen.--
LETTER XXXIX.
LETTER XL. The
Rhine.--
JOURNAL. To
LETTER XLI. Frankfort.--Lessing's "Trial of Huss."
JOURNAL. To Cologne.--The Cathedral.
LETTER XXII. Cologne.--
JOURNAL. To
Leipsic.--M. Tauchnitz.--Dresden.--The Gallery.--
LETTER XLIII. The
LETTER XLIV. Berlin.--The Palace.--The Museum.
LETTER XLV. Wittenberg.--Luther's House.--Melanchthon's House.
LETTER XLVI. Erfurt.--The Cathedral.--Luther's Cell.--The Wartburg.
JOURNAL. The
Smoker discomfited.--Antwerp.--The Cathedral Chimes.--To
LETTER XLVII. Antwerp.--Rubens.
LETTER XLVIII.
Paris.--School of Design.--Egyptian and Assyrian Remains.--Mrs. S. C. Hall.--The Pantheon.--The Madeleine.--Notre Dame.--Béranger.--French Character.--Observance of Sunday.
JOURNAL. Seasickness on the Channel.
LETTER XLIX.
York.--Castle Howard.--Leeds.--Fountains Abbey.--Liverpool.--Irish Deputation.--Departure.
May 19.
Dear E.:--
This letter I consecrate to you, because I know that the persons and things to be introduced into it will most particularly be appreciated by you.
In your evening reading circles, Macaulay, Sidney Smith, and Milman have long been such familiar names that you will be glad to go with me over all the scenes of my morning breakfast at Sir Charles Trevelyan's yesterday. Lady Trevelyan, I believe I have said before, is the sister of Macaulay, and a daughter of Zachary Macaulay--that undaunted laborer for the slave, whose place in the hearts of all English Christians is little below saintship.
We were set down at Welbourne Terrace, somewhere, I believe, about eleven o'clock, and found quite a number already in the drawing room. I had met Macaulay before, but as you have not, you will of course ask a lady's first question, "How does he look?"
Well, my dear, so far as relates to the mere outward husk of the soul, our engravers and daguerreotypists have done their work as well as they usually do. The engraving that you get in the best editions of his works may be considered, I suppose, a fair representation of how he looks, when he sits to have his picture taken, which is generally very different from the way any body looks at any other time. People seem to forget, in taking likenesses, that the features of the face are nothing but an alphabet, and that a dry, dead map of a person's face gives no more idea how one looks than the simple presentation of an alphabet shows what there is in a poem.
Macaulay's whole physique gives you the impression of great strength and stamina of constitution. He has the kind of frame which we usually imagine as peculiarly English; short, stout, and firmly knit. There is something hearty in all his demonstrations. He speaks in that full, round, rolling voice, deep from the chest, which we also conceive of as being more common in England than America. As to his conversation, it is just like his writing; that is to say, it shows very strongly the same qualities of mind.
I was informed that he is famous for a most uncommon memory;
one of those men to whom it seems impossible to forget any thing once read; and
he has read all sorts of things that can be thought of, in all languages. A
gentleman told me that he could repeat all the old Newgate literature, hanging
ballads, last speeches, and dying confessions; while his knowledge of
Macaulay is about fifty. He has never married; yet there are unmistakable evidences in the breathings and aspects of the family circle by whom he was surrounded, that the social part is not wanting in his conformation. Some very charming young lady relatives seemed to think quite as much of their gifted uncle as you might have done had he been yours.
Macaulay is celebrated as a conversationalist; and, like Coleridge, Carlyle, and almost every one who enjoys this reputation, he has sometimes been accused of not allowing people their fair share in conversation. This might prove an objection, possibly, to those who wish to talk; but as I greatly prefer to hear, it would prove none to me. I must say, however, that on this occasion the matter was quite equitably managed. There were, I should think, some twenty or thirty at the breakfast table, and the conversation formed itself into little eddies of two or three around the table, now and then welling out into a great bay of general discourse. I was seated between Macaulay and Milman, and must confess I was a little embarrassed at times, because I wanted to hear what they were both saying at the same time. However, by the use of the faculty by which you play a piano with both hands, I got on very comfortably.
Milman's appearance is quite striking; tall, stooping, with
a keen black eye and perfectly white hair--a singular and poetic contrast. He
began upon architecture and Westminster Abbey--a subject to which I am always
awake. I told him I had not yet seen
Milman was for many years dean of
Macaulay made some suggestive remarks on cathedrals generally. I said that I thought it singular that we so seldom knew who were the architects that designed these great buildings; that they appeared to me the most sublime efforts of human genius.
He said that all the cathedrals of
Looking around the table, and seeing how every body seemed to be enjoying themselves, I said to Macaulay, that these breakfast parties were a novelty to me; that we never had them in America, but that I thought them the most delightful form of social life.
He seized upon the idea, as he often does, and turned it playfully inside out, and shook it on all sides, just as one might play with the lustres of a chandelier--to see them glitter. He expatiated on the merits of breakfast parties as compared with all other parties. He said dinner parties are mere formalities. You invite a man to dinner because you _must_ invite him; because you are acquainted with his grandfather, or it is proper you should; but you invite a man to breakfast because you want to see _him_. You may be sure, if you are invited to breakfast, there is something agreeable about you. This idea struck me as very sensible; and we all, generally having the fact before our eyes that _we_ were invited to breakfast, approved the sentiment.
"Yes," said Macaulay, "depend upon it; if a man is a bore he never gets an invitation to breakfast."
"Rather hard on the poor bores," said a lady.
"Particularly," said Macaulay, laughing, "as bores are usually the most irreproachable of human beings. Did you ever hear a bore complained of when they did not say that he was the best fellow in the world? For my part, if I wanted to get a guardian for a family of defenceless orphans, I should inquire for the greatest bore in the vicinity. I should know that he would be a man of unblemished honor and integrity."
The conversation now went on to Milton and Shakspeare. Macaulay made one remark that gentlemen are always making, and that is, that there is very little characteristic difference between Shakspeare's women. Well, there is no hope for that matter; so long as men are not women they will think so. In general they lump together Miranda, Juliet, Desdemona, and Viola,
"As matter too soft a lasting mark to bear, And best distinguished as black, brown, or fair."
It took Mrs. Jameson to set this matter forth in her Characteristics of Women; a book for which Shakspeare, if he could get up, ought to make her his best bow, especially as there are fine things ascribed to him there, which, I dare say, he never thought of, careless fellow that he was! But, I take it, every true painter, poet, and artist is in some sense so far a prophet that his utterances convey more to other minds than he himself knows; so that, doubtless, should all the old masters rise from the dead, they might be edified by what posterity has found in their works.
Some how or other, we found ourselves next talking about
Sidney Smith; and it was very pleasant to me, recalling the evenings when your
father has read and we have laughed over him, to hear him spoken of as a living
existence, by one who had known him. Still, I have always had a quarrel with
"Ah, well,
Truly, wit, like charity, covers a multitude of sins. A man who has the faculty of raising a laugh in this sad, earnest world is remembered with indulgence and complacency, always.
There were several other persons of note present at this
breakfast, whose conversation I had not an opportunity of hearing, as they sat
at a distance from me. There was Lord Glenelg, brother of Sir Robert Grant,
governor of
The historian Hallam was also present, whose Constitutional History, you will remember, gave rise to one of Macaulay's finest reviews; a quiet, retiring man, with a benignant, somewhat sad, expression of countenance. The loss of an only son has cast a shadow over his life. It was on this son that Tennyson wrote his "_In Memoriam_."
Sir Robert H. Inglis was also present, and Mr. S. held considerable conversation with him. Knowing that he was both high tory and high church, it was an agreeable surprise to find him particularly gentle and bland in manners, earnest and devout in religious sentiment. I have heard him spoken of, even among dissenters, as a devout and earnest man. Another proof this of what mistakes we fall into when we judge the characters of persons at a distance, from what we suppose likely to be the effect of their sentiments. We often find the professed aristocrat gentle and condescending, and the professed supporter of forms spiritual.
I think it very likely there may have been other celebrities present, whom I did not know. I am always finding out, a day or two after, that I have been with somebody very remarkable, and did not know it at the time.
After breakfast we found, on consulting our list, that we were to lunch at
Of all the cities I was ever in, London is the most
absolutely unmanageable, it takes so long to get any where; wherever you want
to go it seems to take you about two hours to get there. From the
You may take these reflections as passing through my mind while we were driving through street after street, and going round corner after corner, towards the parsonage.
Surrey Chapel and parsonage were the church and residence of
the celebrated Kowland Hill. At present the incumbent is the Rev. Mr. Sherman,
well known to many of our American clergy by the kind hospitalities and
attentions with which he has enriched their stay in
I sat by a lady who was well acquainted with Kingsley, the author of Alton Locke, Hypatia, and other works, with whom I had some conversation with regard to the influence of his writings.
She said that he had been instrumental in rescuing from infidelity many young men whose minds had become unsettled; that he was a devoted and laborious clergyman, exerting himself, without any cessation, for the good of his parish.
After the company were gone I tried
to get some rest, as my labors were not yet over, we being engaged to dine at Sir
Edward Buxton's. This was our most dissipated day in
By the time I got to my third appointment I was entirely exhausted. I met here some, however, whom I was exceedingly interested to see; among them Samuel Gurney, brother of Elizabeth Fry, with his wife and family. Lady Edward Buxton is one of his daughters. All had that air of benevolent friendliness which is characteristic of the sect.
Dr. Lushington, the companion and venerable associate of
Wilberforce and Clarkson, was also present. He was a member
of Parliament with Wilberforce forty or fifty years ago. He is now a judge of
the admiralty court, that is to say, of the law relating to marine affairs.
This is a branch of law which the nature of our government in
Dr. Cunningham, the author of World without Souls, was
present. There was there also a master of
He told me an anecdote, which pleased me for several
reasons; that once, when the queen visited the school, she put to him the
inquiry, "whether the educational system of
It is a curious fact that Christian nations, with one general consent, in the early education of youth neglect the volume which they consider inspired, and bring the mind, at the most susceptible period, under the dominion of the literature and mythology of the heathen world; and that, too, when the sacred history and poetry are confessedly superior in literary quality. Grave doctors of divinity expend their forces in commenting on and teaching things which would be utterly scouted, were an author to publish them in English as original compositions. A Christian community has its young men educated in Ovid and Anacreon, but is shocked when one of them comes out in English with Don Juan; yet, probably, the latter poem is purer than either.
The English literature and poetry of the time of Pope and Dryden betray a state of association so completely heathenized, that an old Greek or Roman raised from the dead could scarce learn from them that any change had taken place in the religion of the world; and even Milton often pains one by introducing second-hand pagan mythology into the very shadow of the eternal throne. In some parts of the Paradise Lost, the evident imitations of Homer are to me the poorest and most painful passages.
The adoration of the ancient classics has lain like a dead weight on all modern art and literature; because men, instead of using them simply for excitement and inspiration, have congealed them into fixed, imperative rules. As the classics have been used, I think, wonderful as have been the minds educated under them, there would have been more variety and originality without them.
With which long sermon on a short text, I will conclude my letter.
Thursday, May 12. My dear
Yesterday, what with my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I was, as the fashionable saying is, "fairly knocked up." This expression, which I find obtains universally here, corresponds to what we mean by being "used up." They talk of Americanisms, and I have a little innocent speculation now and then concerning Anglicisms. I certainly find several here for which I can perceive no more precedent in the well of "English undefiled," than for some of ours; for instance, this being "knocked up," which is variously inflected, as, for example, in the form of a participial adjective, as a "knocking up" affair; in the form of a noun, as when they say "such a person has got quite a knocking up," and so on.
The fact is, if we had ever had any experience in
Then there are evening parties, which begin at ten o'clock. The first card of the kind that was sent me, which was worded, "At home at ten o'clock," I, in my simplicity, took to be ten in the morning.
But here are people staying out night after night till two
o'clock, sitting up all night in Parliament, and seeming to thrive upon it.
There certainly is great apology for this in
This morning I was exceedingly tired, and had a perfect
longing to get but of
After a while a lady came along, riding a little donkey.
These donkeys have amused me so much since I have been here! At several places
on the outskirts of the city they have them standing, all girt up with saddles
covered with white cloth, for ladies to ride on. One gets out of
After napping all the afternoon we went to
While I was walking down to dinner with Lord Shaftesbury, he pointed out to me in the hall the portrait of his distinguished ancestor, Antony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, whose name he bears. This ancestor, notwithstanding his sceptical philosophy, did some good things, as he was the author of the habeas corpus act.
After dinner we went back to the drawing rooms again; and while tea and coffee were being served, names were constantly being announced, till the rooms were quite full.
Among the earliest who arrived was Mr.----,
a mulatto gentleman, formerly British consul at
I overheard some one saying in the crowd, "Shaftesbury has been about the chimney sweepers again in Parliament." I said to Lord Shaftesbury, "I thought that matter of the chimney sweepers had been attended to long ago, and laws made about it."
"So we have made laws," said he, "but people won't keep them unless we follow them up."
He has a very prompt, cheerful way of speaking, and throws
himself into every thing he talks about with great interest and zeal. He
introduced me to one gentleman, I forget his name now,
as the patron of the shoeblacks. On my inquiring what that meant, he said that
he had started the idea of providing employment for poor street boys, by
furnishing them with brushes and blacking, and forming them into regular
companies of shoeblacks. Each boy has his' particular stand, where he blacks
the shoes of every passer by who chooses to take the trouble of putting up his
foot and paying his twopence. Lord Shaftesbury also presented me to a lady who
had been a very successful teacher in the ragged schools; also to a gentleman who, he said, had been very active in the
I talked a little while with Lord Wriothesley Russell. From
him we derived the idea that the queen was particularly careful in the training
and religious instruction of her children. He said that she claimed that the
young prince should be left entirely to his parents, in regard to his religious
instruction, till he was seven years of age; but that, on examining him at that
time, they were equally surprised and delighted with his knowledge of the Scriptures.
I must remark here, that such an example as the queen sets in the education of
her children makes itself felt through all the families of the kingdom.
Domesticity is now the fashion in high life. I have had occasion to see, in
many instances, how carefully ladies of rank instruct their children. This
argues more favorably for the continuance of English institutions than any
thing I have seen. If the next generation of those who are born to rank and
power are educated, in the words of Fenelon, to consider these things "as
a ministry," which they hold for the benefit of the poor, the problem of
life in
I talked a little while with the Bishop of Tuam. I was the more interested to do so because he was from that part of Ireland which Sibyl Jones has spoken of as being in so particularly miserable a condition. I said, "How are you doing now, in that part of the country? There has been a great deal of misery there, I hear." He said "There has been, but we have just turned the corner, and now I hope we shall see better days. The condition of the people has been improved by emigration and other causes, till the evils have been brought within reach, and we feel that there is hope of effecting a permanent improvement."
While I was sitting talking, Lord Shaltesbury brought a gentleman and lady, whom he introduced as Lord Chief Justice Campbell and Lady Strathheden. Lord Campbell is a man of most dignified and imposing personal presence; tall, with a large frame, a fine, high forehead, and strongly marked features. Naturally enough, I did not suppose them to be husband and wife, and when I discovered that they were so, expressed a good deal of surprise at their difference of titles; to which she replied, that she did not wonder we Americans were sometimes puzzled among the number of titles. She seemed quite interested to inquire into our manner of living and customs, and how they struck me as compared with theirs. The letter of Mrs. Tyler was much talked of, and some asked me if I supposed Mrs. Tyler really wrote it, expressing a little civil surprise at the style. I told them that I had heard it said that it must have been written by some of the gentlemen in the family, because it was generally understood that Mrs. Tyler was a very ladylike person. Some said, "It does us no harm to be reminded of our deficiencies; we need all the responsibility that can be put upon us." Others said, "It is certain we have many defects;" but Lord John Campbell said, "There is this difference between our evils and those of slavery: ours exist contrary to law; those are upheld by law."
I did not get any opportunity of conversing with the
Archbishop of Canterbury, though this is the second time I have been in company
with him. He is a most prepossessing man in his appearance--simple, courteous,
mild, and affable. He was formerly Bishop of Chester, and is now Primate of all
It is some indication of the tendency of things in a country
to notice what kind of men are patronized and promoted to the high places of
the church. Sumner is a man refined, gentle, affable, scholarly, thoroughly evangelical in sentiment; to render him into
American phraseology, he is in doctrine what we should call a moderate
Among other persons of distinction, this evening, I noticed Lord and Lady Palmerston.
A lady asked me this evening what I thought of the beauty of
the ladies of the English aristocracy: she was a Scotch lady, by the by; so the
question was a fair one. I replied, that certainly
report had not exaggerated their charms. Then came a home question--how the
ladies of
There is one thing more which goes a long way towards the
continued health of these English ladies, and therefore towards their beauty;
and that is, the quietude and perpetuity of their domestic institutions. They
do not, like us, fade their cheeks lying awake nights ruminating the awful
question who shall do the washing next week, or who shall take the
chambermaid's place, who is going to be married, or that of the cook, who has
signified her intention of parting with the mistress. Their hospitality is
never embarrassed by the consideration that their whole kitchen cabinet may
desert at the moment that their guests arrive. They are not obliged to choose
between washing their own dishes, or having their cut glass, silver, and china
left to the mercy of a foreigner, who has never done any thing but field work.
And last, not least, they are not possessed with that ambition to do the
impossible in all branches, which, I believe, is the death of a third of the
women in
As I have spoken of stoves, I will here remark that I have
not yet seen one in
I have run on a good way beyond our evening company; so good by for the present.
May 13. Dear father:--
To-day we are to go out to visit your Quaker friend, Mr.
Alexander, at Stoke Newington, where you passed so many pleasant hours during
your sojourn in England. At half past nine we went into the Congregational
Union, which is now in session. I had a seat upon the platform, where I could command
a view of the house. It was a most interesting assemblage to me, recalling
forcibly our
In the afternoon we drove out to Mr. Alexander's. His place
is called Paradise, and very justly, being one more of those home
We were ushered into a cheerful room, opening by one glass
door upon a brilliant conservatory of flowers, and by another upon a
neatly-kept garden. The air was fresh and sweet with the perfume of blossoming
trees, and every thing seemed doubly refreshing from the contrast with the din
and smoke of
Some of the Quakers carry the principle so far as to refuse money in a business transaction which they have reason to believe has been gained by the unpaid toil of