LONDON.

September 7th.--On Wednesday, just before dusk, J----- and I walked

forth, for the first time, in London. Our lodgings are in George Street,

Hanover Square, No. 21; and St. George's Church, where so many marriages

in romance and in fashionable life have been celebrated, is a short

distance below our house, in the same street. The edifice seems to be of

white marble, now much blackened with London smoke, and has a Grecian

pillared portico. In the square, just above us, is a statue of William

Pitt. We went down Bond Street, and part of Regent Street, just

estraying a little way from our temporary nest, and taking good account

of landmarks and corners, so as to find our way readily back again. It

is long since I have had such a childish feeling; but all that I had

heard and felt about the vastness of London made it seem like swimming in

a boundless ocean, to venture one step beyond the only spot I knew. My

first actual impression of London was of stately and spacious streets,

and by no means so dusky and grimy as I had expected,--not merely in the

streets about this quarter of the town, which is the aristocratic

quarter, but in all the streets through which we had passed from the

railway station. If I had not first been so imbued with the smoke and

dinginess of Liverpool, I should doubtless have seen a stronger contrast

betwixt dusky London and the cheerful glare of our American cities.

There are no red bricks here; all are of a dark hue, and whatever of

stone or stucco has been white soon clothes itself in mourning.

Yesterday forenoon I went out alone, and plunged headlong into London,

and wandered about all day, without any particular object in view, but

only to lose myself for the sake of finding myself unexpectedly among

things that I had always read and dreamed about. The plan was perfectly

successful, for, besides vague and unprofitable wanderings, I saw, in the

course of the day, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Whitehall, the two new

Houses of Parliament, Charing Cross, St. Paul's, the, Strand, Fleet

Street, Cheapside, Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, the Haymarket, and a

great many other places, the names of which were classic in my memory. I

think what interests me most here, is the London of the writers of Queen

Anne's age,--whatever Pope, The Spectator, De Foe, and down as late as

Johnson and Goldsmith, have mentioned. The Monument, for instance, which

is of no great height nor beauty compared with that on Bunker Hill,

charmed me prodigiously. St. Paul's appeared to me unspeakably grand and

noble, and the more so from the throng and bustle continually going on

around its base, without in the least disturbing the sublime repose of

its great dome, and, indeed, of all its massive height and breadth.

Other edifices may crowd close to its foundation, and people may tramp as

they like about it; but still the great cathedral is as quiet and serene

as if it stood in the middle of Salisbury Plain. There cannot be

anything else in its way so good in the world as just this effect of St.

Paul's in the very heart and densest tumult of London. I do not know

whether the church is built of marble, or of whatever other white or

nearly white material; but in the time that it has been standing there,

it has grown black with the smoke of ages, through which there are

nevertheless gleams of white, that make a most picturesque impression on

the whole. It is much better than staring white; the edifice would not

be nearly so grand without this drapery of black.

I did not find these streets of the old city so narrow and irregular as I

expected. All the principal ones are sufficiently broad, and there are

few houses that look antique, being, I suppose, generally modern-fronted,

when not actually of modern substance. There is little or no show or

pretension in this part of London; it has a plain, business air,--an air

of homely, actual life, as of a metropolis of tradesmen, who have been

carrying on their traffic here, in sober earnest, for hundreds of years.

You observe on the sign-boards, "Established ninety years in Threadneedle

Street," "Established in 1109,"--denoting long pedigrees of silk-mercers

and hosiers,--De Foe's contemporaries still represented by their

posterity, who handle the hereditary yardstick on the same spot.

I must not forget to say that I crossed the Thames over a bridge which, I

think, is near Charing Cross. Afterwards, I found my way to London

Bridge, where there was a delightful density of throng. The Thames is

not so wide and majestic as I had imagined,--nothing like the Mersey, for

example. As a picturesque object, however, flowing through the midst of

a city, it would lose by any increase of width.

Omnibuses are a most important aid to wanderers about London. I reached

home, well wearied, about six o'clock. In the course of the day, I had

seen one person whom I knew,--Mr. Clarke, to whom Henry B------

introduced me, when we went to see the great ship launched on the Dee.

This, I believe, was in Regent Street. In that street, too, I saw a

company of dragoons, beautifully mounted, and defensively armed, in brass

helmets and steel cuirasses, polished to the utmost excess of splendor.

It was a pretty sight. At one of the public edifices, on each side of

the portal, sat a mounted trooper similarly armed, and with his carbine

resting on his knee, just as motionless as a statue. This, too, as a

picturesque circumstance, was very good, and really made an impression on

me with respect to the power and stability of the government, though I

could not help smiling at myself for it. But then the thought, that for

generations an armed warrior has always sat just there, on his war-steed,

and with his weapon in his hand, is pleasant to the imagination,--

although it is questionable whether his carbine be loaded; and, no doubt,

if the authorities had any message to send, they would choose some other

messenger than this heavy dragoon,--the electric wire, for instance.

Still, if he and his horse were to be withdrawn from their post, night or

day (for I suppose the sentinels are on duty all night), it seems as if

the monarchy would be subverted, and the English constitution crumble

into rubbish; and, in honest fact, it will signify something like that,

when guard is relieved there for the last time.

September 8th.--Yesterday forenoon S-----, the two eldest children, and I

went forth into London streets, and proceeded down Regent Street, and

thence to St. James's Park, at the entrance of which is a statue of

somebody,--I forget whom. On the very spacious gravel-walks, covering

several acres, in the rear of the Horse Guards, some soldiers were going

through their exercise; and, after looking at them awhile, we strolled

through the Park, alongside of a sheet of water, in which various kinds

of ducks, geese, and rare species of waterfowl were swimming. There was

one swan of immense size, which moved about among the lesser fowls like a

stately, full-rigged ship among gunboats. By and by we found ourselves

near what we since have discovered to be Buckingham Palace,--a long

building, in the Italian style, but of no impressiveness, and which one

soon wearies of looking at. The Queen having gone to Scotland the day

before, the palace now looked deserted, although there was a one-horse

cab, of shabby aspect, standing at the principal front, where doubtless

the carriages of princes and the nobility draw up. There is a fountain

playing before the palace, and water-fowl love to swim under its

perpetual showers. These ducks and geese are very tame, and swim to the

margin of the pond to be fed by visitors, looking up at you with great

intelligence.

S----- asked a man in a sober suit of livery (of whom we saw several

about the Park), whose were some of the large mansions which we saw, and

he pointed out Stafford House, the residence of the Duke of Sutherland,

--a very noble edifice, much more beautiful than the palace, though not

so large; also the house of the Earl of Ellesmere, and residences of

other noblemen. This range of mansions, along the park, from the spot

whence we viewed them, looks very much like Beacon Street, in Boston,

bordering on the Common, allowing for a considerable enlargement of

scale in favor of the Park residences. The Park, however, has not the

beautiful elms that overshadow Boston Common, nor such a pleasant

undulation of surface, nor the fine off-view of the country, like that

across Charles River. I doubt whether London can show so delightful a

spot as that Common, always excepting the superiority of English lawns,

which, however, is not so evident in the London parks, there being less

care bestowed on the grass than I should have expected.

From this place we wandered into what I believe to be Hyde Park,

attracted by a gigantic figure on horseback, which loomed up in the

distance. The effect of this enormous steed and his rider is very grand,

seen in the misty atmosphere. I do not understand why we did not see St.

James's Palace, which is situated, I believe, at the extremity of the

same range of mansions of which Stafford House is the opposite end. From

the entrance of Hyde Park, we seem to have gone along Piccadilly, and,

making two or three turns, and getting bewildered, I put S----- and the

children into a cab, and sent them home. Continuing my wanderings, I

went astray among squares of large aristocratic-looking edifices, all

apparently new, with no shops among them, some yet unfinished, and the

whole seeming like a city built for a colony of gentlefolks, who might be

expected to emigrate thither in a body. It was a dreary business to

wander there, turning corner after corner, and finding no way of getting

into a less stately and more genial region. At last, however, I passed

in front of the Queen's Mews, where sentinels were on guard, and where a

jolly-looking man, in a splendidly laced scarlet coat and white-topped

boots, was lounging at the entrance. He looked like the prince of grooms

or coachmen. . . .

The corner of Hyde Park was within a short distance, and I took a Hansom

at the cab-stand there, and drove to the American Despatch Agency, 26

Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, having some documents of state to be

sent by to-day's steamer. The business of forwarding despatches to

America, and distributing them to the various legations and consulates in

Europe, must be a pretty extensive one; for Mr. Miller has a large

office, and two clerks in attendance.

From this point I went through Covent Garden Market, and got astray in

the city, so that I can give no clear account of my afternoon's

wanderings. I passed through Holborn, however, and I think it was from

that street that I passed through an archway (which I almost invariably

do, when I see one), and found myself in a very spacious, gravelled

square, surrounded on the four sides by a continuous edifice of dark

brick, very plain, and of cold and stern aspect. This was Gray's Inn,

all tenanted by a multitude of lawyers. Passing thence, I saw

"Furnival's Inn" over another archway, but, being on the opposite side of

the street, I did not go thither. In Holborn, still, I went through

another arched entrance, over which was "Staples Inn," and here likewise

seemed to be offices; but, in a court opening inwards from this, there

was a surrounding seclusion of quiet dwelling-houses, with beautiful

green shrubbery and grass-plots in the court, and a great many sunflowers

in full bloom. The windows were open; it was a lovely summer afternoon,

and I have a sense that bees were humming in the court, though this may

have been suggested by my fancy, because the sound would have been so

well suited to the scene. A boy was reading at one of the windows.

There was not a quieter spot in England than this, and it was very

strange to have drifted into it so suddenly out of the bustle and rumble

of Holborn; and to lose all this repose as suddenly, on passing through

the arch of the outer court. In all the hundreds of years since London

was built, it has not been able to sweep its roaring tide over that

little island of quiet. In Holborn I saw the most antique-looking houses

that I have yet met with in London, but none of very remarkable aspect.

I think I must have been under a spell of enchantment to-day, connecting

me with St. Paul's; for, trying to get away from it by various avenues, I

still got bewildered, and again and again saw its great dome and

pinnacles before me. I observe that the smoke has chiefly settled on the

lower part of the edifice, leaving its loftier portions and its spires

much less begrimed. It is very beautiful, very rich. I did not think

that anything but Gothic architecture could so have interested me. The

statues, the niches, the embroidery, as it were, of sculpture traced

around it, produced a delightful effect. In front of St. Paul's there is

a statue of Queen Anne, which looks rather more majestic, I doubt not,

than that fat old dame ever did. St. Paul's churchyard had always been a

place of immense interest in my imagination. It is merely the not very

spacious street, running round the base of the church,--at least, this

street is included in the churchyard, together with the enclosure

immediately about the church, sowed with tombstones. I meant to look for

the children's book-shop, but forgot it, or neglected it, from not

feeling so much interest in a thing near at hand as when it seemed

unattainable.

I watched a man tearing down the brick wall of a house that did not

appear very old; but it surprised me to see how crumbly the brick-work

was, one stroke of his pick often loosening several bricks in a row. It

is my opinion that brick houses, after a moderate term of years, stand

more by habit and courtesy than through any adhesive force of the old

mortar.

I recommenced my wanderings; but I remember nothing else particularly

claiming to be mentioned, unless it be Paternoster Row,--a little,

narrow, darksome lane, in which, it being now dusk in that density of the

city, I could not very well see what signs were over the doors. In this

street, or thereabouts, I got into an omnibus, and, being set down near

Regent's Circus, reached home well wearied.

September 9th.--Yesterday, having some tickets to the Zoological Gardens,

we went thither with the two eldest children. It was a most beautiful

sunny day, the very perfection of English weather,--which is as much as

to say, the best weather in the world, except, perhaps, some few days in

an American October. These gardens are at the end of Regent's Park,

farthest from London, and they are very extensive; though, I think, not

quite worthy of London,--not so good as one would expect them to be,--not

so fine and perfect a collection of beasts, birds, and fishes, as one

might fairly look for, when the greatest metropolis of the world sets out

to have such a collection at all.--My idea was, that here every living

thing was provided for, in the way best suited to its nature and habits,

and that the refinement of civilization had here restored a garden of

Eden, where all the animal kingdom had regained a happy home. This is

not quite the case; though, I believe, the creatures are as comfortable

as could be expected, and there are certainly a good many strange beasts

here. The hippopotamus is the chief treasure of the collection,--an

immense, almost misshapen, mass of flesh. At this moment I do not

remember anything that interested me except a sick monkey,--a very large

monkey, and elderly he seemed to be. His keeper brought him some

sweetened apple and water, and some tea; for the monkey had quite lost

his appetite, and refused all ordinary diet. He came, however, quite

eagerly, and smelt of the tea and apple, the keeper exhorting him very

tenderly to eat. But the poor monkey shook his head slowly, and with the

most pitiable expression, at the same time extending his hand to take the

keeper's, as if claiming his sympathy and friendship. By and by the

keeper (who is rather a surly fellow) essayed harsher measures, and

insisted that the monkey should eat what had been brought for him, and

hereupon ensued somewhat of a struggle, and the tea was overturned upon

the straw of the bed. Then the keeper scolded him, and, seizing him by

one arm, drew him out of his little bedroom into the larger cage, upon

which the wronged monkey began a loud, dissonant, reproachful chatter,

more expressive of a sense of injury than any words could be.

Observing the spectators in front of the cage, he seemed to appeal to

them, and addressed his chatter thitherward, and stretched out his long,

lean arm and black hand between the bars, as if claiming the grasp of any

one friend he might have in the whole world. He was placable, however;

for when the keeper called him in a gentler tone, he hobbled towards him

with a very stiff and rusty movement, and the scene closed with their

affectionately hugging one another. But I fear the poor monkey will die.

In a future state of being, I think it will be one of my inquiries, in

reference to the mysteries of the present state, why monkeys were made.

The Creator could not surely have meant to ridicule his own work. It

might rather be fancied that Satan had perpetrated monkeys, with a

malicious purpose of parodying the masterpiece of creation!

The Aquarium, containing, in some of its compartments, specimens of the

animal and vegetable life of the sea, and, in others, those of the fresh

water, was richly worth inspecting; but not nearly so perfect as it might

be. Now I think we have a right to claim, in a metropolitan

establishment of this kind, in all its departments, a degree of

perfection that shall quite outdo the unpractised thought of any man on

that particular subject.

There were a good many well-dressed people and children in the gardens,

Saturday being a fashionable day for visiting them. One great amusement

was feeding some bears with biscuits and cakes, of which they seemed

exceedingly fond. One of the three bears clambered to the top of a high

pole, whence he invited the spectators to hand him bits of cake on the

end of a stick, or to toss them into his mouth, which he opened widely

for that purpose. Another, apparently an elderly bear, not having skill

nor agility for these gymnastics, sat on the ground, on his hinder end,

groaning most pitifully. The third took what stray bits he could get,

without earning them by any antics.

At four o'clock there was some music from the band of the First

Life-Guards, a great multitude of chairs being set on the greensward in

the sunshine and shade, for the accommodation of the auditors. Here we

had the usual exhibition of English beauty, neither superior nor

otherwise to what I have seen in other parts of England. Before the

music was over, we walked slowly homeward, along beside Regent's Park,

which is very prettily laid out, but lacks some last touch of richness

and beauty; though, after all, I do not well see what more could be done

with grass, trees, and gravel-walks. The children, especially J-----,

who had raced from one thing to another all day long, grew tired; so we

put them into a cab, and walked slowly through Portland Place, where are

a great many noble mansions, yet no very admirable architecture; none

that possessed, nor that ever can possess, the indefinable charm of some

of those poor old timber houses in Shrewsbury. The art of domestic

architecture is lost. We can rear stately and beautiful dwellings

(though we seldom do), but they do not seem proper to the life of man, in

the same way that his shell is proper to the lobster; nor, indeed, is the

mansion of the nobleman proper to him, in the same kind and degree, that

a hut is proper to a peasant.

From Portland Place we passed into Regent Street, and soon reached home.

September 10th.--Yesterday forenoon we walked out with the children,

intending for Charing Cross; but, missing our way, as usual, we went down

a rather wide and stately street, and saw before us an old brick edifice

with a pretty extensive front, over which rose a clock-tower,--the whole

dingy, and looking both gloomy and mean. There was an arched entrance

beneath the clock-tower, at which two Guardsmen, in their bear-skin caps,

were stationed as sentinels; and from this circumstance, and our having

some guess at the locality, we concluded the old brick building to be St.

James's Palace. Otherwise we might have taken it for a prison, or for a

hospital, which, in truth, it was at first intended for. But, certainly,

there are many paupers in England who live in edifices of far more

architectural pretension externally than this principal palace of the

English sovereigns.

Seeing other people go through the archway, we also went, meeting no

impediment from the sentinels, and found ourselves in a large paved

court, in the centre of which a banner was stuck down, with a few

soldiers standing near it. This flag was the banner of the regiment of

guards on duty. The aspect of the interior court was as naked and dismal

as the outside, the brick being of that dark hue almost universal in

England. On one side of the court there was a door which seemed to give

admission to a chapel, into which several persons went, and probably we

might have gone too, had we liked. From this court, we penetrated into

at least two or three others; for the palace is very extensive, and all

of it, so far as I could see, on the same pattern,--large, enclosed

courts, paved, and quite bare of grass, shrubbery, or any beautiful

thing,--dark, stern, brick walls, without the slightest show of

architectural beauty, or even an ornament over the square, commonplace

windows, looking down on those forlorn courts. A carriage-drive passes

through it, if I remember aright, from the principal front, emerging by

one of the sides; and I suppose that the carriages roll through the

palace, at the levees and drawing-rooms. There was nothing to detain us

here any long time, so we went from court to court, and came out through

a side-opening. The edifice is battlemented all round, and this, with

somewhat of fantastic in the shape of the clock-tower, is the only

attempt at ornament in the whole.

Then we skirted along St. James's Park, passing Marlborough House,--a red

brick building,--and a very long range of stone edifices, which, whether

they were public or private, one house or twenty, we knew not. We

ascended the steps of the York column, and soon reached Charing Cross and

Trafalgar Square, where there are more architectural monuments than in

any other one place in London; besides two fountains, playing in large

reservoirs of water, and various edifices of note and interest.

Northumberland House, now, and for a long while, the town residence of

the Percys, stands on the Strand side,--over the entrance a lion, very

spiritedly sculptured, flinging out his long tail. On another side of

the square is Morley's Hotel, exceedingly spacious, and looking more

American than anything else in the hotel line that I have seen here.

The Nelson monument, with Lord Nelson, in a cocked hat, on its top, is

very grand in its effect. All about the square there were sundry

loungers, people looking at the bas-reliefs on Nelson's Column, children

paddling in the reservoirs of the fountains; and, it being a sunny day,

it was a cheerful and lightsome, as well as an impressive scene. On

second thoughts, I do not know but that London should have a far better

display of architecture and sculpture than this, on its finest site, and

in its very centre; for, after all, there is nothing of the very best.

But I missed nothing at the time.

In the afternoon S----- and I set out to attend divine service in

Westminster Abbey. On our way thither we passed through Pall Mall, which

is full of club-houses, and we were much struck with the beauty of the

one lately erected for the Carleton Club. It is built of a buff-colored

or yellowish stone, with pillars or pilasters of polished Aberdeen

granite, wonderfully rich and beautiful; and there is a running border of

sculptured figures all round the upper part of the building, besides

other ornament and embroidery, wherever there was room or occasion for

it. It being an oblong square, the smooth and polished aspect in this

union of two rich colors in it,--this delicacy and minuteness of finish,

this lavish ornament--made me think of a lady's jewel-box; and if it

could be reduced to the size of about a foot square, or less, it would

make the very prettiest one that ever was seen. I question whether it

have any right to be larger than a jewel-box; but it is certainly a most

beautiful edifice. We turned down Whitehall, at the head of which, over

the very spot where the Regicides were executed, stands the bronze

equestrian statue of Charles I.,--the statue that was buried under the

earth during the whole of Cromwell's time, and emerged after the

Restoration. We saw the Admiralty and the Horse-Guards, and, in front of

the latter, the two mounted sentinels, one of whom was flirting and

laughing with some girls. On the other side of the street stands the

Banqueting-House, built by Inigo Jones; from a window of which King

Charles stepped forth, wearing a kingly head, which, within a few minutes

afterwards, fell with a dead thump on the scaffold. It was nobly done,--

and nobly suffered. How rich is history in the little space around this

spot!

I find that the day after I reached London, I entirely passed by

Westminster Abbey without knowing it, partly because my eyes were

attracted by the gaudier show of the new Houses of Parliament, and partly

because this part of the Abbey has been so much repaired and renewed that

it has not the marks of age. Looking at its front, I now found it very

grand and venerable; but it is useless to attempt a description: these

things are not to be translated into words; they can be known only by

seeing them, and, until seen, it is well to shape out no idea of them.

Impressions, states of mind, produced by noble spectacles of whatever

kind, are all that it seems worth while to attempt reproducing with the

pen.

After coming out of the Abbey, we looked at the two Houses of Parliament,

directly across the way,--an immense structure, and certainly most

splendid, built of a beautiful warm-colored stone. The building has a

very elaborate finish, and delighted me at first; but by and by I began

to be sensible of a weariness in the effect, a lack of variety in the

plan and ornament, a deficiency of invention; so that instead of being

more and more interested the longer one looks, as is the case with an old

Gothic edifice, and continually reading deeper into it, one finds that

one has seen all in seeing a little piece, and that the magnificent

palace has nothing better to show one or to do for one. It is wonderful

how the old weather-stained and smoke-blackened Abbey shames down this

brand-newness; not that the Parliament houses are not fine objects to

look at, too.

Yesterday morning we walked to Charing Cross, with U---- and J-----, and

there took a cab to the Tower, driving thither through the Strand, Fleet

Street, past St. Paul's, and amid all the thickest throng of the city. I

have not a very distinct idea of the Tower, but remember that our cab

drove within an outer gate, where we alighted at a ticket-office; the old

royal fortress being now a regular show-place, at sixpence a head,

including the sight of armory and crown-jewels. We saw about the gate

several warders or yeomen of the guard, or beefeaters, dressed in scarlet

coats of antique fashion, richly embroidered with golden crowns, both on

the breast and back, and other royal devices and insignia; so that they

looked very much like the kings on a pack of cards, or regular trumps, at

all events. I believe they are old soldiers, promoted to this position

for good conduct. One of them took charge of us, and when a sufficient

number of visitors had collected with us, he led us to see what very

small portion of the Tower is shown.

There is a great deal of ground within the outer precincts; and it has

streets and houses and inhabitants and a church within it; and, going up

and down behind the warder, without any freedom to get acquainted with

the place by strolling about, I know little more about it than when I

went in,--only recollecting a mean and disagreeable confusion of brick

walls, barracks, paved courts, with here and there a low bulky turret, of

rather antique aspect, and, in front of one of the edifices, a range of

curious old cannon, lying on the ground, some of them immensely large and

long, and beautifully wrought in brass. I observed by a plan, however,

that the White Tower, containing the armory, stands about in the centre

of the fortress, and that it is a square, battlemented structure, having

a turret at each angle. We followed the warder into the White Tower, and

there saw, in the first place, a long gallery of mounted knights, and men

at arms, which has been so often described that when I wish to recall it

to memory I shall turn to some other person's account of it. I was much

struck, however, with the beautiful execution of a good many of the suits

of armor, and the exquisite detail with which they were engraved. The

artists of those days attained very great skill, in this kind of

manufacture. The figures of the knights, too, in full array, undoubtedly

may have shown a combination of stateliness and grace which heretofore I

have not believed in,--not seeing how it could be compatible with iron

garments. But it is quite incomprehensible how, in the time of the

heaviest armor, they could strike a blow, or possess any freedom of

movement, except such as a turtle is capable of; and, in truth, they are

said not to have been able to rise up when overthrown. They probably

stuck out their lances, and rode straight at the enemy, depending upon

upsetting him by their mass and weight. In the row of knights is Henry

VIII.; also Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who must have been an

immensely bulky man; also, a splendid suit of armor, gilded all over,

presented by the city of London to Charles I.; also, two or three suits

of boys' armor, for the little princes of the House of Stuart. They

began to wear these burdens betimes, in order that their manhood might be

the more tolerant of them. We went through this gallery so hastily that

it would have been about as well not to have seen it at all.

Then we went up a winding stair to another room, containing armor and

weapons, and beautiful brass cannon, that appeared to have been for

ornament rather than use, some of them being quite covered with embossed

sculpture, marvellously well wrought. In this room was John of Gaunt's

suit, indicating a man seven feet high, and the armor seems to bear the

marks of much wear; but this may be owing to great scrubbing, throughout

the centuries since John of Gaunt died. There, too, we saw the cloak in

which Wolfe fell, on the Plains of Abraham,--a coarse, faded, threadbare,

light-colored garment, folded up under a glass case. Many other things

we might have seen, worthy of being attended to, had there been time to

look at them.

Following into still another room, we were told that this was Sir Walter

Raleigh's apartment, while confined in the Tower, so that it was within

these walls that he wrote the History of the World. The room was

formerly lighted by lancet windows, and must have been very gloomy; but,

if he had the whole length of it to himself, it was a good space to walk

and meditate in. On one side of the apartment is a low door, giving

admittance, we were told, to the cell where Raleigh slept; so we went in,

and found it destitute of any window, and so dark that we could not

estimate its small extent except by feeling about. At the threshold of

this sleeping-kennel, there were one or two inscriptions, scratched in

the wall, but not, I believe, by Raleigh.

In this apartment, among a great many other curious things, are shown the

devilish instruments of torture which the Spaniards were bringing to

England in their Armada; and, at the end of the room, sits Queen

Elizabeth on horseback, in her high ruff and faded finery. Very likely

none of these clothes were ever on her actual person. Here, too, we saw

a headsman's block,--not that on which Raleigh was beheaded, which I

would have given gold to see, but the one which was used for the Scotch

Lords Kilmarnock, Lovat, and others, executed on account of the Rebellion

of 1745. It is a block of oak, about two feet high, with a large knot in

it, so that it would not easily be split by a blow of the axe; hewn and

smoothed in a very workmanlike way, and with a hollow to accommodate the

head and shoulders on each side. There were two or three very strong

marks of the axe in the part over which the neck lay, and several smaller

cuts; as if the first stroke nearly severed the head, and then the

chopping off was finished by smaller blows, as we see a butcher cutting

meat with his cleaver. A headsman's axe was likewise shown us,--its date

unknown.

In the White Tower we were shown the Regalia, under a glass, and within

an iron cage. Edward the Confessor's golden staff was very finely

wrought; and there were a great many pretty things; but I have a

suspicion, I know not why, that these are not the real jewels,--at least,

that such inestimable ones as the Koh-i-noor (or however it is spelt) are

less freely exhibited.

The warder then led us into a paved court, which he said was the place of

execution of all royal personages and others, who, from motives of fear

or favor, were beheaded privately. Raleigh was among these, and so was

Anne Boleyn. We then followed to the Beauchamp Tower, where many state

prisoners of note were confined, and where, on the walls of one of the

chambers, there are several inscriptions and sculptures of various

devices, done by the prisoners,--and very skilfully done, too, though

perhaps with no better instrument than an old nail. These poor wretches

had time and leisure enough to spend upon their work. This chamber is

lighted by small lancet windows, pierced at equal intervals round the

circle of the Beauchamp Tower; and it contains a large, square fireplace,

in which is now placed a small modern stove. We were hurried away,

before we could even glance at the inscriptions, and we saw nothing else,

except the low, obscure doorway in the Bloody Tower, leading to the

staircase, under which were found the supposed bones of the little

princes; and lastly, the round, Norman arch, opening to the water

passage, called the Traitor's Gate. Finally, we ate some cakes and buns

in the refreshment-room connected with the ticket-office, and then left

the fortress. The ancient moat, by the way, has been drained within a

few years, and now forms a great hollow space, with grassy banks, round

about the citadel.

We now wished to see the Thames, and therefore threaded our way along

Thames Street, towards London Bridge, passing through a fish-market,

which I suppose to be the actual Billingsgate, whence originated all the

foul language in England. Under London Bridge there is a station for

steamers running to Greenwich and Woolwich. We got on board one of

these, not very well knowing, nor much caring, whither it might take us,

and steamed down the river, which is bordered with the shabbiest,

blackest, ugliest, meanest buildings: it is the back side of the town;

and, in truth, the muddy tide of the Thames deserves to see no better.

There was a great deal of shipping in the river, and many steamers, and

it was much more crowded than the Mersey, where all the ships go into

docks; but the vessels were not so fine. By and by we reached Greenwich,

and went ashore there, proceeding up from the quay, past beer-shops and

eating-houses in great numbers and variety. Greenwich Hospital is here a

very prominent object, and after passing along its extensive front,

facing towards the river, we entered one of the principal gates, as we

found ourselves free to do.

We now left the hospital, and steamed back to London Bridge, whence we

went up into the city, and, to finish the labors of the day, ascended the

Monument. This seems to be still a favorite adventure with the cockneys;

for we heard one woman, who went up with us, saying that she had been

thinking of going up all her life, and another said that she had gone up

thirty years ago. There is an iron railing, or rather a cage, round the

top, through which it would be impossible for people to force their way,

in order to precipitate themselves, as six persons have heretofore done.

There was a mist over London, so that we did not gain a very clear view,

except of the swarms of people running about, like ants, in the streets

at the foot of the Monument.

Descending, I put S----- and the children into a cab, and I myself

wandered about the city. Passing along Fleet Street, I turned in through

an archway, which I rightly guessed to be the entrance to the Temple. It

is a very large space, containing many large, solemn, and serious

edifices of dark brick, and no sooner do you pass under the arch than all

the rumble and bustle of London dies away at once; and it seems as if a

person might live there in perfect quiet, without suspecting that it was

not always a Sabbath. People appear to have their separate residences

here; but I do not understand what is the economy of their lives. Quite

in the deepest interior of this region, there is a large garden,

bordering on the Thames, along which it has a gravel-walk, and benches

where it would be pleasant to sit. On one edge of the garden, there is

some scanty shrubbery, and flowers of no great brilliancy; and the

greensward, with which the garden is mostly covered, is not particularly

rich nor verdant.

Emerging from the Temple, I stopped at a tavern in the Strand, the waiter

of which observed to me, "They say Sebastopol is taken, sir!" It was

only such an interesting event that could have induced an English waiter

to make a remark to a stranger, not called for in the way of business.

The best view we had of the town--in fact, the only external view, and

the only time we really saw the White Tower--was from the river, as we

steamed past it. Here the high, square, battlemented White Tower, with

the four turrets at its corners, rises prominently above all other parts

of the fortress.

September 13th.--Mr. ------, the American Minister, called on me on

Tuesday, and left his card; an intimation that I ought sooner to have

paid my respects to him; so yesterday forenoon I set out to find his

residence, 56 Harley Street. It is a street out of Cavendish Square, in

a fashionable quarter, although fashion is said to be ebbing away from

it. The ambassador seems to intend some little state in his

arrangements; but, no doubt, the establishment compares shabbily enough

with those of the legations of other great countries, and with the houses

of the English aristocracy. A servant, not in livery, or in a very

unrecognizable one, opened the door for me, and gave my card to a sort of

upper attendant, who took it in to Mr. ------. He had three gentlemen

with him, so desired that I should be ushered into the office of the

legation, until he should be able to receive me. Here I found a clerk or

attache, Mr. M------, who has been two or three years on this side of the

water; an intelligent person, who seems to be in correspondence with the

New York Courier and Enquirer. By and by came in another American to get

a passport for the Continent, and soon the three gentlemen took leave of

the ambassador, and I was invited to his presence.

The tall, large figure of Mr. ------ has a certain air of state and

dignity; he carries his head in a very awkward way, but still looks like

a man of long and high authority, and, with his white hair, is now quite

venerable. There is certainly a lack of polish, a kind of rusticity,

notwithstanding which you feel him to be a man of the world. I should

think he might succeed very tolerably in English society, being heavy and

sensible, cool, kindly, and good-humored, with a great deal of experience

of life. We talked about various matters, politics among the rest; and

he observed that if the President had taken the advice which he gave him

in two long letters, before his inauguration, he would have had a

perfectly quiet and successful term of office. The advice was, to form a

perfectly homogeneous cabinet of Union men, and to satisfy the extremes

of the party by a fair distribution of minor offices; whereas he formed

his cabinet of extreme men, on both sides, and gave the minor offices to

moderate ones. But the antislavery people, surely, had no representative

in the cabinet. Mr. ------ further observed, that he thought the

President had a fair chance of re-nomination, for that the South could

not, in honor, desert him; to which I replied that the South had been

guilty of such things heretofore. Mr. ------ thinks that the next

Presidential term will be more important and critical, both as to our

foreign relations and internal affairs, than any preceding one,--which I

should judge likely enough to be the case, although I heard the sane

prophecy often made respecting the present term.

The ambassador dined with us at Rock Park a year or two ago, and I then

felt, and always feel, as if he were a man of hearty feeling and

simplicity, and certainly it would be unjust to conclude otherwise,

merely from the fact (very suspicious, it is true) of his having been a

life-long politician. After we had got through a little matter of

business (respecting a young American who has enlisted at Liverpool), the

Minister rang his bell, and ordered another visitor to be admitted; and

so I took my leave. In the other room I found the Secretary of

Legation,--a tall, slender man of about forty, with a small head and

face,--gentlemanly enough, sensible, and well informed, yet I should

judge, not quite up to his place. There was also a Dr. B------ from

Michigan present, and I rather fancy the ambassador is quite as much

bored with visitors as the consul at Liverpool. Before I left the

office, Mr. ------ came in with Miss Sarah Clarke on his arm. She had

come thither to get her passport vised; and when her business was

concluded, we went out together.

She was going farther towards the West End, and I into the city; so we

soon parted, and I lost myself among the streets and squares, arriving at

last at Oxford Street, though even then I did not know whether my face

were turned cityward or in the opposite direction. Crossing Regent

Street, however, I became sure of my whereabout, and went on through

Holborn, and sought hither and thither for Grace Church Street, in order

to find the American Consul, General Campbell; for I needed his aid to

get a bank post-bill cashed. But I could not find the street, go where I

would; so at last I went to No. 65 Cheapside, and introduced myself to

Mr. ------, whom I already knew by letter, and by a good many of his

poems, which he has sent me, and by two excellent watches, which I bought

of him. This establishment, though it has the ordinary front of dingy

brick, common to buildings in the city, looks like a time-long stand, the

old shop of a London tradesman, with a large figure of a watch over the

door, a great many watches (and yet no gorgeous show of them) in the

window, a low, dark front shop, and a little room behind, where there was

a chair or two. Mr. ------ is a small, slender young man, quite

un-English in aspect, with black, curly hair, a thin, dark, colorless

visage, very animated and of quick expression, with a nervous

temperament. . . . He dismounted from a desk when my card was handed

to him, and turned to me with a vivid, glad look of recognition.

We talked, in the first place, about poetry and such matters, about

England and America, and the nature and depth of their mutual dislike,

and, of course, the slavery question came up, as it always does, in one

way or another. Anon, I produced my bank post-bill; and Mr. ------

kindly engaged to identify me at the bank, being ready to swear to me, he

said, on the strength of my resemblance to my engraved portrait. So we

set out for the Bank of England, and, arriving there, were directed to

the proper clerk, after much inquiry; but he told us that the bill was

not yet due, having been drawn at seven days, and having two still to

run,--which was the fact. As I was almost shillingless, Mr. ------ now

offered to cash it for me. He is very kind and good. . . . Arriving at

his shop again, he went out to procure the money, and soon returned with

it. At my departure he gave me a copy of a new poem of his, entitled

"Verdicts," somewhat in the manner of Lowell's satire. . . . Mr. ------

resides now at Greenwich, whither he hoped I would come and see him on my

return to London. Perhaps I will, for I like him. It seems strange to

see an Englishman with so little physical ponderosity and obtuseness of

nerve.

After parting from him, it being three o'clock or thereabouts, I resumed

my wanderings about the city, of which I never weary as long as I can put

one foot before the other.

Seeing that the door of St. Paul's, under one of the semicircular

porches, was partially open, I went in, and found that the afternoon

service was about to be performed; so I remained to hear it, and to see

what I could of the cathedral. What a total and admirable contrast

between this and a Gothic church! the latter so dim and mysterious, with

its various aisles, its intricacy of pointed arches, its dark walls and

columns and pavement, and its painted glass windows, bedimming even what

daylight might otherwise get into its eternal evening. But this

cathedral was full of light, and light was proper to it. There were no

painted windows, no dim recesses, but a wide and airy space beneath the

dome; and even through the long perspective of the nave there was no

obscurity, but one lofty and beautifully rounded arch succeeding to

another, as far as the eye could reach. The walls were white, the

pavement constructed of squares of gray and white marble. It is a most

grand and stately edifice, and its characteristic stems to be to continue

forever fresh and new; whereas such a church as Westminster Abbey must

have been as venerable as it is now from the first day when it grew to be

an edifice at all. How wonderful man is in his works! How glad I am

that there can be two such admirable churches, in their opposite styles,

as St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey!

The organ was played while I was there, and there was an anthem

beautifully chanted by voices that came from afar off and remotely above,

as if out of a sunny sky. Meanwhile I looked at such monuments as were

near; chiefly those erected to military or naval men,--Picton, General

Ponsonby, Lord St. Vincent, and others; but against one of the pillars

stands a statue of Dr. Johnson,--a noble and thoughtful figure, with a

development of muscle befitting an athlete. I doubt whether sculptors do

not err in point of taste, by making all their statues models of physical

perfection, instead of expressing by them the individual character and

habits of the man. The statue in the market-place at Lichfield has more

of the homely truth of Johnson's actual personality than this.

St. Paul's, as yet, is by no means crowded with monuments; there is,

indeed, plenty of room for a mob of the illustrious, yet to come. But it

seems to me that the character of the edifice would be injured by

allowing the monuments to be clustered together so closely as at

Westminster, by incrusting the walls with them, or letting the statues

throng about the pedestals of columns. There must be no confusion in

such a cathedral as this, and I question whether the effect will ever be

better than it is now, when each monument has its distinct place, and as

your eye wanders around, you are not distracted from noting each marble

man, in his niche against the wall, or at the base of a marble pillar.

Space, distance, light, regularity, are to be preserved, even if the

result should be a degree of nakedness.

I saw Mr. Appleton of the Legation, and Dr. Brown, on the floor of the

cathedral. They were about to go over the whole edifice, and had engaged

a guide for that purpose; but, as I intend to go thither again with

S-----, I did not accompany them, but went away the quicker that one of

the gentlemen put on his hat, and I was ashamed of being seen in company

with a man who could wear his hat in a cathedral. Not that he meant any

irreverence; but simply felt that he was in a great public building,--as

big, nearly, as all out of doors,--and so forgot that it was a

consecrated place of worship. The sky is the dome of a greater cathedral

than St. Paul's, and built by a greater architect than Sir Christopher

Wren, and yet we wear our hats unscrupulously beneath it.

I remember no other event of importance, except that I penetrated into a

narrow lane or court, either in the Strand or Fleet Street, where was a

tavern, calling itself the "Old Thatched House," and purporting to have

been Nell Gwyn's dairy. I met with a great many alleys and obscure

archways, in the course of the day's wanderings.

September 14th.--Yesterday, in the earlier part of the day, it poured

with rain, and I did not go out till five o'clock in the afternoon; nor

did I then meet with anything interesting. I walked through Albemarle

Street, for the purpose of looking at Murray's shop, but missed it

entirely, at my first inquisition. The street is one of hotels,

principally, with only a few tradesmen's shops, and has a quiet,

aristocratic aspect. On my return, down the other sidewalk, I did

discover the famous publisher's locality; but merely by the name

"Mr. Murray," engraved on a rather large brass plate, such as doctors

use, on the door. There was no sign of a book, nor of its being a place

of trade in any way; and I should have taken the house to be, if not a

private mansion, then a lawyer's office.

At seven o'clock S-----, U----, and I went to dine with Mr. R---- S------

in Portland Place. . . . Mr. S------'s house is a very fine one, and he

gave us a very quiet, elegant, and enjoyable dinner, in much better taste

and with less fuss than some others we have attended elsewhere. Mr.

S------ is a friend of Thackeray, and, speaking of the last number

of The Newcomes,--so touching that nobody can read it aloud without

breaking down,--he mentioned that Thackeray himself had read it to James

Russell Lowell and William Story in a cider-cellar! I read all the

preceding numbers of The Newcomes to my wife, but happened not to have

an opportunity to read this last, and was glad of it,--knowing that my

eyes would fill, and my voice quiver. Mr. S------ likes Thackeray, and

thinks him a good fellow. Mr. S------ has a--or I don't know but I ought

better to say the--beautiful full-length picture of Washington by Stuart,

and I was proud to see that noblest face and figure here in England. The

picture of a man beside whom, considered physically, any English nobleman

whom I have seen would look like common clay.

Speaking of Thackeray, I cannot but wonder at his coolness in respect to

his own pathos, and compare it with my emotions, when I read the last

scene of The Scarlet Letter to my wife, just after writing it,--tried to

read it rather, for my voice swelled and heaved, as if I were tossed up

and down on an ocean as it subsides after a storm. But I was in a very

nervous state then, having gone through a great diversity of emotion,

while writing it, for many months. I think I have never overcome my own

adamant in any other instance.

Tumblers, hand-organists, puppet-showmen, bagpipers, and all such vagrant

mirth-makers, are very numerous in the streets of London. The other day,

passing through Fleet Street, I saw a crowd filling up a narrow court,

and high above their heads a tumbler, standing on his head, on the top of

a pole, that reached as high as the third story of the neighboring

Houses. Sliding down the pole head foremost, he disappeared out of my

sight. A multitude of Punches go the mounds continually. Two have

passed through Hanover Street, where we reside, this morning. The first

asked two shillings for his performance; so we sent him away. The second

demanded, in the first place, half a crown; but finally consented to take

a shilling, and gave us the show at that price, though much maimed in its

proportions. Besides the spectators in our windows, he had a little

crowd on the sidewalk, to whom he went round for contributions, but I did

not observe that anybody gave him so much as a halfpenny. It is strange

to see how many people are aiming at the small change in your pocket. In

every square a beggar-woman meets you, and turns back to follow your steps

with her miserable murmur. At the street-crossings there are old men or

little girls with their brooms; urchins propose to brush your boots; and

if you get into a cab, a man runs to open the door for you, and touches

his hat for a fee, as he closes it again.

September 15th.--It was raining yesterday, and I kept within doors till

after four o'clock, when J----- and I took a walk into the city. Seeing

the entrance to Clement's Inn, we went through it, and saw the garden,

with a kneeling bronze figure in it; and when just in the midst of the

Inn, I remembered that Justice Shallow was of old a student there. I do

not well understand these Inns of Court, or how they differ from other

places. Anybody seems to be free to reside in them, and a residence does

not seem to involve any obligation to study law, or to have any

connection therewith. Clement's Inn consists of large brick houses,

accessible by narrow lanes and passages, but, by some peculiar privilege

or enchantment, enjoying a certain quiet and repose, though in close

vicinity to the noisiest part of the city. I got bewildered in the

neighborhood of St. Paul's, and, try how I might to escape from it, its

huge dusky dome kept showing itself before me, through one street and

another. In my endeavors to escape it, I at one time found myself in St.

John's Street, and was in hopes to have seen the old St. John's gate, so

familiar for above a century on the cover of the Gentleman's Magazine.

But I suppose it is taken down, for we went through the entire street, I

think, and saw no trace of it. Either afterwards or before this we came

upon Smithfield, a large irregular square, filled up with pens for

cattle, of which, however, there were none in the market at that time. I

leaned upon a post, at the western end of the square, and told J----- how

the martyrs had been burnt at Smithfield in Bloody Mary's days. Again we

drifted back to St. Paul's; and, at last, in despair of ever getting out

of this enchanted region, I took a Hansom cab to Charing Cross, whence we

easily made our way home.