There is extreme beauty in the Ohio river. As may be supposed, where
the rise and fall are so great the banks are very steep; and, now that
the water is low, it appears deeply embedded in the wild forest scenery
through which it flows. The whole stream is alive with small
fresh-water turtle, who play on the surface of its clear water; while
the more beautiful varieties of the butterfly tribe cross over from one
side to the other, from the slave States to the free--their liberty, at
all events, not being interfered with as, on the free side, it would be
thought absurd to catch what would not produce a cent; while, on the
slaves', their idleness and their indifference to them are their
security.
Set off, one of nine, in a stage-coach, for the Blue Sulphur springs.
The country, which is very picturesque, has been already described. It
is one continuation of rising ground, through mountains covered with
trees and verdure. Nature is excessively fond of drapery in America. I
have never yet fallen in with a naked rock. She clothes every thing;
and although you may occasionally meet with a slight nudity, it is no
more than the exposure of the neck or the bare feet of the
mountain-nymph. This ridge of the Alleghanies is very steep; but you
have no distinct view as you climb up, not even at the Hawk's Nest,
where you merely peep down into the ravine below. You are jammed up in
the forests through which you pass nearly the whole of the way; and it
was delightful to arrive at any level, and fall in with the houses and
well-tilled fields of the Virginian farmers, exhibiting every proof of
prosperity and ease. The heat was dreadful; two horses fell dead, and I
thought that many others would have died, for two of the wheels were
defective, and the labour of the poor animals, in dragging us constantly
up hill, was most severe.
The indifference of the proprietors of public conveyances in America as
to the safety of their passengers, can only be accounted for by the
extreme indifference of the passengers themselves, and the independent
feeling shewn by every class, who, whatever may be their profession,
will never acknowledge themselves to be what we term the servants of the
public. Here was an instance. The coach we were put into was defective
in two of its wheels, and could only be repaired at Louisburg, about a
hundred miles distant. Instead of sending it on to that town empty, as
would have been done by our coach proprietors, and providing another (as
they had plenty), for the passengers; instead of this, in order to save
the extra trouble and expense, they risked the lives of the passengers
on a road with a precipice on one side of it for at least four-fifths of
the way. One of the wheels would not hold the grease, and creaked most
ominously during the whole journey; and we were obliged to stop and pour
water on it continually. The box and irons of the other were loose, and
before we were half way it came off, and we were obliged to stop and get
out. But the Americans are never at a loss when they are in a _fix_.
The passengers borrowed an axe; in a short time wedges were cut from one
of the trees at the road-side, and the wheel was so well repaired that
it lasted us the remainder of our journey.
Our road for some time lay through the valley of Kenawha, through which
runs the river of that name--a strong, clear stream. It is hemmed in by
mountains on each side of it; and here, perhaps, is presented the most
curious varieties of mineral produce that ever were combined in one
locality. The river runs over a bed of horizontal calcareous strata,
and by perforating this strata about forty or fifty feet below the level
of the river, you arrive at salt-springs, the waters of which are pumped
up by small steam-engines, and boiled down into salt in buildings
erected on the river's banks. The mountains which hem in the river are
one mass of coal; a gallery is opened at that part of the foot of the
mountain most convenient to the buildings, and the coal is thrown down
by shoots or small railways. Here you have coal for your fuel; salt
water under fresh; and as soon as the salt is put into the barrels
(which are also made from the mountain timber), the river is all ready
to transplant them down to Ohio. But there is another great curiosity
in this valley: these beds of coal have produced springs, as they are
termed, of carburetted hydrogen gas, which run along the banks of the
river close to the water's-edge. The negroes take advantage of these
springs when they come down at night to wash clothes; they set fire to
the springs, which yield them sufficient light for their work. The one
which I examined was dry, and the gas bubbled up through the sand. By
kicking the sand about, so as to make communications after I had lighted
the gas, I obtained a very large flame, which I left burning.
The heat, as we ascended, was excessive, and the passengers availed
themselves of every spring, with the exception of those just described,
that they fell in with on the route. We drank of every variety of water
excepting pure water--sometimes iron, sometimes sulphur; and, indeed,
every kind of chalybeate, for every rill was impregnated in some way or
another. At last, it occurred to me that there were such things as
chemical affinities, and that there was no saying what changes might
take place by the admixture of such a variety of metals and gases, so
drank no more. I did not like, however, to interfere with the happiness
of others, so I did not communicate my ideas to my fellow-passengers,
who continued drinking during the whole day; and as I afterwards found
out, did not sleep very well that night; they were, moreover, very
sparing in the use of them the next day.
There are a great variety of springs already discovered on these
mountains, and probably there will be a great many more. Already they
have the blue, the white, and the red sulphur springs; the sweet and the
salt; the warm and the hot, all of which have their several virtues; but
the greatest virtue of all these mineral springs is, as in England and
every where else, that they occasion people to live regularly, to be
moderate in the use of wine, and to dwell in a pure and wholesome air.
They always remind me of the eastern story of the Dervish, who, being
sent for by a king who had injured his health by continual indulgence,
gave him a racket-ball, which he informed the king possessed wonderful
medicinal virtues; with this ball his majesty was to play at racket two
or three hours every day with his courtiers. The exercise it induced,
which was the only medicinal virtue the ball possessed, restored the
king to health. So it is with all watering places; it is not so much
the use of the water, as the abstinence from what is pernicious,
together with exercise and early hours, which effect the majority of
cures.
We arrived first at the blue sulphur springs, and I remained there for
one day to get rid of the dust of travelling. They have a very
excellent hotel there, with a ball room, which is open till eleven
o'clock every night; the scenery is very pretty, and the company was
good--as indeed is the company at all these springs, for they are too
distant, and the travelling too expensive for every body to get there.
But the blue sulphur are not fashionable, and the consequence was, we
were not crowded, and were very comfortable. People who cannot get
accommodated at the white sulphur, remain here until they can, the
distance between those being only twenty-two miles.
The only springs which are fashionable are the white sulphur, and as
these springs are a feature in American society, I shall describe them
more particularly.
They are situated in a small valley, many hundred feet above the level
of the sea, and are of about fifteen or twenty acres in area, surrounded
by small hills, covered with foliage to their summits: at one end of the
Valley is the hotel, with the large dining-room for all the visitors.
Close to the hotel, but in another building, in the ballroom, and a
little below the hotel on the other side, is the spring itself; but
beautiful as is the whole scenery, the great charm of this watering
place is, the way in which those live who visit it. The rises of the
hills which surround the valley are covered with little cottages,
log-houses, and other picturesque buildings, sometimes in rows, and
ornamented with verandahs, without a second storey above; or kitchen
below. Some are very elegant and more commodious than the rest, having
been built by gentlemen who have the right given to them by the company
to whom the springs belong, of occupying themselves when there, but not
of preventing others from taking possession of them in their absence.
The dinners and other meals are, generally speaking, bad; not that there
is not a plentiful supply, but that it is so difficult to supply seven
hundred people sitting down in one room. In the morning, they all turn
out from their little burrows, meet in the public walks, and go down to
the spring before breakfast; during the forenoon, when it is too warm,
they remain at home; after dinner, they ride out or pay visits, and then
end the day, either at the ball-room or in little societies among one
another. There is no want of handsome equipages, many four in hand
(Virginny long tails) and every accommodation for these equipages. The
crowd is very great, and it is astonishing what inconvenience people
will submit to, rather than not be accommodated somehow or another.
Every cabin is like a rabbit burrow. In the one next to where I was
lodged, in a room about fourteen feet square, and partitioned off as
well as it could be, there slept a gentleman and his wife, his sister
and brother, and a female servant. I am not sure that the nigger was
not under the bed--at all events, the young sister told me that it was
not at all pleasant.
There is a sort of major-domo here who regulates every department: his
word is law, and his fiat immoveable, and he presumes not a little upon
his power; a circumstance not to be surprised at, as he is as much
courted and is as despotic as all the lady patronesses of Almacks rolled
into one. He is called the Metternich of the mountains. No one is
allowed accommodation at these springs who is not known, and generally
speaking, only those favourites who travel in their private carriages.
It is at this place that you feel how excessively aristocratical and
exclusive the Americans would be, and indeed will be, in spite of their
institutions. Spa, in its palmiest days, when princes had to sleep in
their carriages at the doors of the hotels, was not more in vogue than
are these white sulphur springs with the _elite_ of the United States.
And it is here, and here only, in the States, that you do meet with what
may be fairly considered as select society, for at Washington there is a
great mixture. Of course, all the celebrated belles of the different
States are to be met with here, as well as all the large fortunes, nor
is there a scarcity of pretty and wealthy widows. The president, Mrs
Caton, the mother of Lady Wellesley, Lady Strafford, and Lady
Caermarthen, the daughter of Carrol, of Carroltown, one of the real
aristocracy of America, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence,
and all the first old Virginian and Carolina families, many of them
descendants of the old cavaliers, were at the springs when I arrived
there; and I certainly must say that I never was at any watering-place
in England where the company was so good and so select as at the
Virginia springs in America.
I passed many pleasant days at this beautiful spot, and was almost as
unwilling to leave it as I was to part with the Sioux Indians at St
Peters. Refinement and simplicity are equally charming. I was
introduced to a very beautiful girl here, whom I should not have
mentioned so particularly, had it not been that she was the first and
only lady in America that I observed to _whittle_. She was sitting one
fine morning on a wooden bench, surrounded by admirers, and as she
carved away her seat with her pen-knife, so did she cut deep into the
hearts of those who listened to her lively conversation.
There are, as may be supposed, a large number of negro servants here
attending their masters and mistresses. I have often been amused, not
only here, but during my residence in Kentucky, at the high-sounding
Christian names which have been given to them. "Byron, tell Ada to come
here directly." "Now, _Telemachus_, if you don't leave _Calypso_ alone,
you'll get a taste of the _cow-hide_."
Among others, attracted to the springs professionally, was a very clever
German painter, who, like all Germans, had a very correct ear for music.
He had painted a kitchen-dance in Old Virginia, and in the picture he
had introduced all the well-known coloured people in the place; among
the rest were the band of musicians, but I observed that one man was
missing. "Why did you not put him in?" inquired I. "Why, Sir, I could
not put him in; it was impossible; he never _plays in tune_. Why, if I
put him in, Sir, he would spoil the _harmony_ of my whole picture!"
I asked this artist how he got on in America. He replied, "But so-so:
the Americans in general do not estimate genius. They come to me and
ask what I want for my pictures, and I tell them. Then they say, `How
long did it take you to paint it?' I answer, `So many days.' Well,
then they calculate and say, `If it took you only so many days, you ask
so many dollars a day for your work; you ask a great deal too much; you
ought to be content with so much per day, and I will give you that.' So
that, thought I, invention and years of study go for nothing with these
people. There is only one way to dispose of a picture in America, and
that is, to raffle it; the Americans will then run the chance of getting
it. If you do not like to part with your pictures in that way, you must
paint portraits; people will purchase their own faces all over the
world: the worst of it is, that in this country, they will purchase
nothing else."
During my stay here, I was told of one of the most remarkable instances
that perhaps ever occurred, of the discovery of a fact by the party from
whom it was of the utmost importance to conceal it--a very pretty
interesting young widow. She had married a promising young man, to whom
she was tenderly attached, and who, a few months after the marriage,
unfortunately fell in a duel. Aware that the knowledge of the cause of
her husband's death would render the blow still more severe to her, (the
ball having passed through the eye into his brain, and there being no
evident gun-shot wound,) her relations informed her that he had been
thrown from his horse, and killed by the fall. She believed them. She
was living in the country, when, about nine months after her widowhood,
her brother rode down to see her, and as soon as he arrived went into
his room to shave and dress. The window of his room, which was on the
ground-floor, looked out upon the garden, and it being summer time, it
was open. He tore off a portion of an old newspaper to wipe his razor.
The breeze caught it, and carried it away into the garden until it
stopped at the feet of his sister, who happened to be walking.
Mechanically she took up the fragment, and perceiving her husband's name
upon it, she read it. It contained a full account of the duel in which
he lost his life! The shock she received was so great that it unsettled
her mind for nearly two years. She had but just recovered, and for the
first time re-appeared in public, when she was pointed out to me.
Returning to Guyandotte, one of the travellers wished to see the view
from the Hawk's Nest, or rather wished to be able to say that he had
seen it. We passed the spot when it was quite dark, but he persisted in
going there, and, to help his vision, borrowed one of the coach-lamps
from the driver. He returned, and declared that with the assistance of
the lamp he had had a very excellent view, down a precipice of several
hundred feet. His bird's-eye view by candle-light must have been very
extensive. After all, it is but to be able to say that they had been,
to such a place, or have seen such a thing, that, more than any real
taste for it, induces the majority of the world to incur the trouble and
fatigue of travelling.