So, the next day, I arranged the consular business for an absence of ten
days, and set forth with J-----, and reached Birmingham, between eight
and nine, evening. We put up at the Queen's Hotel, a very large
establishment, contiguous to the railway. Next morning we left
Birmingham, and made our first stage to Leamington, where we had to wait
nearly an hour, which we spent in wandering through some of the streets
that had been familiar to us last year. Leamington is certainly a
beautiful town, new, bright, clean, and as unlike as possible to the
business towns of England. However, the sun was burning hot, and I could
almost have fancied myself in America. From Leamington we took tickets
for Oxford, where we were obliged to make another stop of two hours; and
these we employed to what advantage we could, driving up into town, and
straying hither and thither, till J-----'s weariness weighed upon me, and
I adjourned with him to a hotel. Oxford is an ugly old town, of crooked
and irregular streets, gabled houses, mostly plastered of a buff or
yellow hue; some new fronts; and as for the buildings of the University,
they seem to be scattered at random, without any reference to one
another. I passed through an old gateway of Christ Church, and looked at
its enclosed square, and that is, in truth, pretty much all I then saw of
the University of Oxford. From Christ Church we rambled along a street
that led us to a bridge across the Isis; and we saw many row-boats lying
in the river,--the lightest craft imaginable, unless it were an Indian
canoe. The Isis is but a narrow stream, and with a sluggish current. I
believe the students of Oxford are famous for their skill in rowing.
To me as well as to J----- the hot streets were terribly oppressive; so
we went into the Roebuck Hotel, where we found a cool and pleasant
coffee-room. The entrance to this hotel is through an arch, opening from
High Street, and giving admission into a paved court, the buildings all
around being part of the establishment,--old edifices with pointed gables
and old-fashioned projecting windows, but all in fine repair, and wearing
a most quiet, retired, and comfortable aspect. The court was set all
round with flowers, growing in pots or large pedestalled vases; on one
side was the coffee-room, and all the other public apartments, and the
other side seemed to be taken up by the sleeping-chambers and parlors of
the guests. This arrangement of an inn, I presume, is very ancient, and
it resembles what I have seen in the hospitals, free schools, and other
charitable establishments in the old English towns; and, indeed, all
large houses were arranged on somewhat the same principle.
By and by two or three young men came in, in wide-awake hats, and loose,
blouse-like, summerish garments; and from their talk I found them to be
students of the University, although their topics of conversation were
almost entirely horses and boats. One of them sat down to cold beef and
a tankard of ale; the other two drank a tankard of ale together, and went
away without paying for it,--rather to the waiter's discontent. Students
are very much alike, all the world over, and, I suppose, in all time; but
I doubt whether many of my fellows at college would have gone off without
paying for their beer.
We reached Southampton between seven and eight o'clock. I cannot write
to-day.
June 15th.--The first day after we reached Southampton was sunny and
pleasant; but we made little use of the fine weather, except that S-----
and I walked once along the High Street, and J----- and I took a little
ramble about town in the afternoon. The next day there was a high and
disagreeable wind, and I did not once stir out of the house. The third
day, too, I kept entirely within doors, it being a storm of wind and
rain. The Castle Hotel stands within fifty yards of the water-side; so
that this gusty day showed itself to the utmost advantage,--the vessels
pitching and tossing at their moorings, the waves breaking white out of a
tumultuous gray surface, the opposite shore glooming mistily at the
distance of a mile or two; and on the hither side boatmen and seafaring
people scudding about the pier in waterproof clothes; and in the street,
before the hotel door, a cabman or two, standing drearily beside his
horse. But we were sunny within doors.
Yesterday it was breezy, sunny, shadowy, showery; and we ordered a cab to
take us to Clifton Villa, to call on Mrs. ------, a friend of B------'s,
who called on us the day after our arrival. Just, as we were ready to
start, Mrs. ------ again called, and accompanied us back to her house.
It is in Shirley, about two miles from Southampton pier, and is a
pleasant suburban villa, with a pretty ornamented lawn and shrubbery
about it. Mrs. ------ is an instructress of young ladies; and at
B------'s suggestion, she is willing to receive us for two or three
weeks, during the vacation, until we are ready to go to London. She
seems to be a pleasant and sensible woman, and to-morrow we shall decide
whether to go there. There was nothing very remarkable in this drive;
and, indeed, my stay hereabouts thus far has been very barren of sights
and incidents externally interesting, though the inner life has been
rich.
Southampton is a very pretty town, and has not the dinginess to which I
have been accustomed in many English towns. The High Street reminds me
very much of American streets in its general effect; the houses being
mostly stuccoed white or light, and cheerful in aspect, though doubtless
they are centuries old at heart. The old gateway, which I presume I have
mentioned in describing my former visit to Southampton, stands across
High Street, about in the centre of the town, and is almost the only
token of antiquity that presents itself to the eye.
June 17th.--Yesterday morning, June 16th, S-----, Mrs. ------, and I took
the rail for Salisbury, where we duly arrived without any accident or
anything noticeable, except the usual verdure and richness of an English
summer landscape. From the railway station we walked up into Salisbury,
with the tall spire (four hundred feet high) of the cathedral before our
eyes. Salisbury is an antique city, but with streets more regular than I
have seen in most old towns, and the houses have a more picturesque
aspect than those of Oxford, for instance, where almost all are
mean-looking alike,--though I could hardly judge of Oxford on that hot,
weary day. Through one or more of the streets there runs a swift, clear
little stream, which, being close to the pavement, and bordered with
stone, may be called, I suppose, a kennel, though possessing the
transparent purity of a rustic rivulet. It is a brook in city garb. We
passed under the pointed arch of a gateway, which stands in one of the
principal streets, and soon came in front of