On the 6th July, we left the Villa, with our enormous luggage, and took
our departure from Southampton by the noon train. The main street of
Southampton, though it looks pretty fresh and bright, must be really
antique, there being a great many projecting windows, in the old-time
style, and these make the vista of the street very picturesque. I have
no doubt that I missed seeing many things more interesting than the few
that I saw. Our journey to London was without any remarkable incident,
and at the Waterloo station we found one of Mr. Bennoch's clerks, under
whose guidance we took two cabs for the East Kent station at London
Bridge, and there railed to Blackheath, where we arrived in the
afternoon.
On Thursday I went into London by one of the morning trains, and wandered
about all day,--visiting the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, and
Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, the two latter of which I have already
written about in former journals. On Friday, S-----, J-----, and I
walked over the heath, and through the Park to Greenwich, and spent some
hours in the Hospital. The painted hall struck me much more than at my
first view of it; it is very beautiful indeed, and the effect of its
frescoed ceiling most rich and magnificent, the assemblage of glowing
hues producing a general result of splendor. . . .
In the evening I went with Mr. and Mrs. ------ to a conversazione at Mrs.
Newton Crosland's, who lives on Blackheath. . . . I met with one person
who interested me,--Mr. Bailey, the author of Festus; and I was surprised
to find myself already acquainted with him. It is the same Mr. Bailey
whom I met a few months ago, when I first dined at Mr. -----'s,--a dark,
handsome, rather picturesque-looking man, with a gray beard, and dark
hair, a little dimmed with gray. He is of quiet and very agreeable
deportment, and I liked him and believed in him. . . . There is sadness
glooming out of him, but no unkindness nor asperity. Mrs. Crosland's
conversazione was enriched with a supper, and terminated with a dance, in
which Mr. ------ joined with heart and soul, but Mrs. ------ went to
sleep in her chair, and I would gladly have followed her example if I
could have found a chair to sit upon. In the course of the evening I had
some talk with a pale, nervous young lady, who has been a noted spiritual
medium.
Yesterday I went into town by the steamboat from Greenwich to London
Bridge, with a nephew of Mr. ------'s, and, calling at his place of
business, he procured us an order from his wine-merchants, by means of
which we were admitted into