The only part of my book I wish to preface is the last part,--the
foreign sketches,--and it is not much matter about these, since if they
do not contain their own proof, I shall not attempt to supply it here.
I have been told that De Lolme, who wrote a notable book on the English
Constitution, said that after he had been in England a few weeks, he
fully made up his mind to write a book on that country; after he had
lived there a year, he still thought of writing a book, but was not so
certain about it, but that after a residence of ten years he abandoned
his first design altogether. Instead of furnishing an argument against
writing out one's first impressions of a country, I think the
experience of the Frenchman shows the importance of doing it at once.
The sensations of the first day are what we want,--the first flush of
the traveler's thought and feeling, before his perception and
sensibilities become cloyed or blunted, or before he in any way becomes
a part of that which he would observe and describe. Then the American
in England is just enough at home to enable him to discriminate subtle
shades and differences at first sight which might escape a traveler of
another and antagonistic race. He has brought with him, but little
modified or impaired, his whole inheritance of English ideas and
predilections, and much of what he sees affects him like a memory. It
is his own past, his ante-natal life, and his long-buried ancestors
look through his eyes and perceive with his sense.
I have attempted only the surface, and to express my own first day's
uncloyed and unalloyed satisfaction. Of course, I have put these things
through my own processes and given them my own coloring, (as who would
not), and if other travelers do not find what I did, it is no fault of
mine; or if the "Britishers" do not deserve all the pleasant things I
say of them, why then so much the worse for them.
In fact, if it shall appear that I have treated this part in the same
spirit that I have the themes in the other chapters, reporting only
such things as impressed me and stuck to me and tasted good, I shall be
satisfied.
ESOPUS-ON-HUDSON, November, 1875.
CONTENTS
I. WINTER SUNSHINE
II. THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD
III. THE SNOW-WALKERS
IV. THE FOX
V. A MARCH CHRONICLE
VI. AUTUMN TIDES
VII. THE APPLE
VIII. AN OCTOBER ABROAD:
I. MELLOW ENGLAND
II. ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS
III. A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE
IV. FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
AN ENGLISH LANE
From a photograph by Walmsley Brothers
DRIFTS ABOUT A STONE WALL
From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason
DOWNY WOODPECKER
From drawing by L. A. Fuertes
COWS IN AN ENGLISH LANDSCAPE
From a photograph by Walmsley Brothers
St. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
From a photograph by Clifton Johnson
IRISH COTTAGES
From a photograph by Clifton Johnson