1857
FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR--LIVERPOOL--THE HAWTHORNES--LONDON--GREENWICH
OBSERVATORY--ADMIRAL SMYTH--DR. LEE
Shortly after her return from the South, Miss Mitchell started again for
a tour in Europe with the same young girl.
Miss Mitchell carried letters from eminent scientific people in this
country to such persons as it would be desirable for her to know in
Europe; especially to astronomers and mathematicians.
When Miss Mitchell went to Europe she took her Almanac work with her,
and what time she was not sight-seeing she was continuing that work. Her
wisdom in this respect was very soon apparent. She had not been in
England many weeks when a great financial crisis took place in the
United States, and the father of her young charge succumbed to the
general failure. The young lady was called home, but after considering
the matter seriously Miss Mitchell decided to remain herself, putting
the young lady into careful hands for the return passage from Liverpool.
Miss Mitchell enjoyed the society of the scientific people whom she met
in England to her heart's content. She was very cordially received, and
the astronomers not only opened their observatories to her, but welcomed
her into their family life.
On arriving at Liverpool, Miss Mitchell delivered the letters to the
astronomers living in or near that city, and visited their
observatories.
"Aug. 3, 1857. I brought a letter from Professor Silliman to Mr. John
Taylor, cotton merchant and astronomer; and to-day I have taken tea with
him. He is an old man, nearly eighty I should think, but full of life,
and talks by the hour on heathen mythology. He was the principal agent
in the establishment of the Liverpool Observatory, but disclaims the
honor, because it was established on so small a scale, compared with his
own gigantic plan. Mr. Taylor has invented a little machine, for showing
the approximate position of a comet, having the elements.
"He has also made additions to the globes made by De Morgan, so that
they can be used for any year and show the correct rising and setting of
the stars.
"He struck me as being a man of taste, but of no great profundity. He
has a painting which he believes to be by Guido; it seemed to me too
fresh in its coloring for the sixteenth century.
"August 4, 3 P.M. I put down my pen, because old Mr. Taylor called, and
while he was here Rev. James Martineau came. Mr. Martineau is one of the
handsomest men I ever saw. He cannot be more than thirty, or if he is he
has kept his dark hair remarkably. He has large, bluish-gray eyes, and
is tall and elegant in manner. He says he is just packed to move to
London. He gave me his London address and hoped he should see me there;
but I doubt if he does, for I did not like to tell him my address unless
he asked for it, for fear of seeming to be pushing.
"August,... I have been to visit Mr. Lassell. He called yesterday and
asked me to dine with him to-day. He has a charming place, about four
miles out of Liverpool; a pretty house and grounds.
"Mr. Lassell has constructed two telescopes, both on the Newtonian plan;
one of ten, the other of twenty, feet in length. Each has its separate
building, and in the smaller building is a transit instrument.
"Mr. Lassell must have been a most indefatigable worker as well as a
most ingenious man; for, besides constructing his own instruments, he
has found time to make discoveries. He is, besides, very genial and
pleasant, and told me some good anecdotes connected with astronomical
observations.
"One story pleased me very much. Our Massachusetts astronomer, Alvan
Clark, has long been a correspondent of Mr. Dawes, but has never seen
him. Wishing to have an idea of his person, and being a portrait
painter, Mr. Clark sent to Mr. Dawes for his daguerreotype, and from
that painted a likeness, which he has sent out to Liverpool, and which
is said to be excellent.
"Mr. Lassell looks in at the side of his reflecting telescopes by means
of a diagonal eye-piece; when the instrument is pointed at objects of
high altitude he hangs a ladder upon the dome and mounts; the ladder
moves around with the dome. Mr. Lassell works only for his own
amusement, and has been to Malta,--carrying his larger telescope with
him,--for the sake of clearer skies. Neither Mr. Lassell nor Mr. Hartnup
[Footnote: Of the Liverpool Observatory.] makes regular observations.
"The Misses Lassell, four in number, seem to be very accomplished. They
take photographs of each other which are beautiful, make their own
picture-frames, and work in the same workshop with their father. One of
them told me that she made observations on my comet, supposing it to
belong to Mr. Dawes, who was a friend of hers.
"They keep an album of the autographs of their scientific visitors, and
among them I saw those of Professor Young, of Dartmouth, and of
Professor Loomis.
"August 4. I have just returned from a visit to the Liverpool
Observatory, under the direction of Mr. Hartnup. It is situated on
Waterloo dock, and the pier of the observatory rests upon the sandstone
of that region, The telescope is an equatorial; like many good
instruments in our country, it is almost unused.
"Mr. Hartnup's observatory is for nautical purposes. I found him a very
gentlemanly person, and very willing to show me anything of interest
about the observatory; but they make no regular series of astronomical
observations, other than those required for the commerce of Liverpool.
"Mr. Hartnup has a clock which by the application of an electric current
controls the action of other clocks, especially the town clock of
Liverpool--distant some miles. The current of electricity is not the
motive power, but a corrector.
"Much attention is paid to meteorology. The pressure of the wind, the
horizontal motion, and the course are recorded upon sheets of paper
running upon cylinders and connected with the clock; the instrument
which obeys the voice of the wind being outside.
"Aug. 5, 1857. I did not send my letter to Mr. Hawthorne until
yesterday, supposing that he was not in the city; but yesterday when
Rev. James Martineau called on me, he said that he had not yet left. Mr.
Martineau said that it would be a great loss to Liverpool when Mr.
Hawthorne went away.
"I sent my letter at once; from all that I had heard of Mr. Hawthorne's
shyness, I thought it doubtful if he would call, and I was therefore
very much pleased when his card was sent in this morning. Mr. Hawthorne
was more chatty than I had expected, but not any more diffident. He
remained about five minutes, during which time he took his hat from the
table and put it back once a minute, brushing it each time. The
engravings in the books are much like him. He is not handsome, but looks
as the author of his books should look; a little strange and odd, as if
not of this earth. He has large, bluish-gray eyes; his hair stands out
on each side, so much so that one's thoughts naturally turn to combs and
hair-brushes and toilet ceremonies as one looks at him."
Later, when Miss Mitchell was in Paris, alone, on her way to Rome, she
sent to the Hawthornes, who were also in Paris, asking for the privilege
of joining them, as they too were journeying in the same direction. She
says in her diary:
"Mrs. Hawthorne was feeble, and she told me that she objected, but that
Mr. Hawthorne assured her that I was a person who would give no trouble;
therefore she consented. We were about ten days on the journey to Rome,
and three months in Rome; living, however, some streets asunder. I saw
them nearly every day. Like everybody else, I found Mr. Hawthorne very
taciturn. His few words were, however, very telling. When I talked
French, he told me it was capital: 'It came down like a sledge-hammer.'
His little satirical remarks were such as these: It was March and I took
a bunch of violets to Rosa; notched white paper was wound around them,
and Mr. Hawthorne said, 'They have on a cambric ruffle."
"Generally he sat by an open fire, with his feet thrust into the coals,
and an open volume of Thackeray upon his knees. He said that Thackeray
was the greatest living novelist. I sometimes suspected that the volume
of Thackeray was kept as a foil, that he might not be talked to. He
shrank from society, but rode and walked."
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.
ROME, Feb. 16, 1858.
... The Hawthornes are invaluable to me, because the little ones
come to my room every day and I go there when I like. Mrs.
Hawthorne sometimes walks with us, Mr. H. _never_. He has a
horror of sight-seeing and of emotions in general, but I like
him very much, and when I say I like _him_ it only means that I
like _her_ a little more. Julian, the boy, is in love with me.
When I was last there Mr. H. came home with me; as he put on his
coat he turned to Julian and said, "Julian, I should think with
your _tender interest_ in Miss Mitchell you wouldn't let me
escort her home."
"We arrived in Rome in the evening. Mrs. H. was somewhat of an invalid,
and Mr. Hawthorne tried in vain to make the servant understand that she
must have a fire in her room. He spoke no word of French, German, or
Italian, but he said emphatically, 'Make a fire in Mrs. Hawthorne's
room.' Worn out with his efforts, he turned to me and said, 'Do, Miss
Mitchell, tell the servant what I want; your French is excellent!
Englishmen and Frenchmen understand it equally well.' So I said in
execrable French, 'Make a fire,' and pointed to the grate; of course the
gesture was understood.
"Mr. Hawthorne was minutely and scrupulously honest; I should say that
he was a rigid temperance man. Once I heard Mrs. Hawthorne say to the
clerk, 'Send some brandy to Mr. Hawthorne at once.' We were six in the
party. When I paid my bill I heard Mr. Hawthorne say to Miss S., the
teacher, who took all the business cares, 'Don't let Miss Mitchell pay
for one-sixth of my brandy.'
"So if we ordered tea for five, and six partook of it, he called the
waiter and said, 'Six have partaken of the tea, although there was no
tea added; to the amount.'
"I told Mr. Hawthorne that a friend of mine, Miss W., desired very much
to see him, as she admired him very much. He said, 'Don't let her see
me, let her keep her little lamp burning.'
"He was a sad man; I could never tell why. I never could get at anything
of his religious views.
"He was wonderfully blest in his family. Mrs. Hawthorne almost
worshipped him. She was of a very serious and religious turn of mind.
"I dined with them the day that Una was sixteen years old. We drank her
health in cold water. Mr. Hawthorne said, 'May you live happily, and be
ready to go when you must.'
"He joined in the family talk very pleasantly. One evening we made up a
story. One said, 'A party was in Rome;' another said, 'It was a pleasant
day;' another said, 'They took a walk.' It came to Hawthorne's turn, and
he said, 'Do put in an incident;' so Rosa said, 'Then a bear jumped from
the top of St. Peter's!' The story went no further.
"I was with the family when they first went to St. Peter's. Hawthorne
turned away saying, 'The St. Peter's of my imagination was better.'
"I think he could not have been well, he was so very inactive. If he
walked out he took Rosa, then a child of six, with him. He once came
with her to my room, but he seemed tired from the ascent of the stairs.
I was on the fifth floor.
"I have been surprised to see that he made severe personal remarks in
his journal, for in the three months that I knew him I never heard an
unkind word; he was always courteous, gentle, and retiring. Mrs.
Hawthorne said she took a wifely pride in his having no small vices. Mr.
Hawthorne said to Miss S., 'I have yet to find the first fault in Mrs.
Hawthorne.'
"One day Mrs. Hawthorne came to my room, held up an inkstand, and said,
'The new book will be begun to-night.'
"This was 'The Marble Faun.' She said, 'Mr. Hawthorne writes after every
one has gone to bed. I never see the manuscript until it is what he
calls _clothed_'.... Mrs. H. says he never knows when he is writing a
story how the characters will turn out; he waits for _them_ to influence
_him_.
"I asked her if Zenobia was intended for Margaret Fuller, and she said,
'No;' but Mr. Hawthorne admitted that Margaret Fuller seemed to be
around him when he was writing it.
"London, August. We went out for our first walk as soon as breakfast was
over, and we walked on Regent street for hours, looking in at the shop
windows. The first view of the street was beautiful, for it was a misty
morning, and we saw its length fade away as if it had no end. I like it
that in our first walk we came upon a crowd standing around 'Punch.' It
is a ridiculous affair, but as it is as much a 'peculiar institution' as
is Southern slavery, I stopped and listened, and after we came into the
house Miss S. threw out some pence for them. We rested after the shop
windows of Regent street, took dinner, and went out again, this time to
Piccadilly.
"The servility of the shopkeepers is really a little offensive. 'What
shall I have the honor of showing you?' they say.
"Our chambermaid, at our lodgings, thanks us every time we speak to her.
"I feel ashamed to reach a four-penny piece to a stout coachman who
touches his hat and begs me to remember him. Sometimes I am ready to
say, 'How can I forget you, when you have hung around me so closely for
half an hour?'
"Our waiter at the Adelphi Hotel, at Liverpool, was a very respectable
middle-aged man, with a white neck-cloth; he looked like a Methodist
parson. He waited upon us for five days with great gravity, and then
another waiter told us that we could give our waiter what we pleased. We
were charged £1 for 'attendance' in the bill, but I very innocently gave
half as much more, as fee to the 'parson,'
"August 14. To-day we took a brougham and drove around for hours. Of
course we didn't _see_ London, and if we stay a month we shall still
know nothing of it, it is so immense. I keep thinking, as I go through
the streets, of 'The rats and the mice, they made such a strife, he had
to go to London,' etc., and especially 'The streets were so wide, and
the lanes were so narrow;' for I never saw such narrow streets, even in
Boston.
"We have begun to send out letters, but as it is 'out of season' I am
afraid everybody will be at the watering-places.
THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. "The observatory was founded by Charles II.
The king that 'never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one' was
yet sagacious enough to start an institution which has grown to be a
thing of might, and this, too, of his own will, and not from the
influence of courtiers. One of the hospital buildings of Greenwich, then
called the 'House of Delights,' was the residence of Henrietta Maria,
and the young prince probably played on the little hill now the site of
the observatory.
"But Charles, though he started an observatory, did not know very well
what was needed. The first building consisted of a large, octagonal
room, with windows all around; it was considered sufficiently firm
without any foundation, and sufficiently open to the heavens with no
opening higher than windows. This room is now used as a place of deposit
for instruments, and busts and portraits of eminent men, and also as the
dancing-hall for the director's family.
"Under Mr. Airy's [Footnote: The late Sir George Airy.] direction, the
walls of the observing-room have become pages of its history. The
transit instruments used by Halley, Bradley, and Pond hang side by side;
the zenith sector with which Bradley discovered the 'aberration of
light,' now moving rustily on its arc, is the ornament of another room;
while the shelves of the computing-room are filled with volumes of
unpublished observations of Flamstead and others.
"The observatory stands in Greenwich Park, the prettiest park I have yet
seen; being a group of small hills. They point out oaks said to belong
to Elizabeth's time--noble oaks of any time. The observatory is one
hundred and fifty feet above the sea level. The view from it is, of
course, beautiful. On the north the river, the little Thames, big with
its fleet, is winding around the Isle of Dogs; on the left London,
always overhung with a cloud of smoke, through which St. Paul's and the
Houses of Parliament peep.
"Mr. Airy was exceedingly kind to me, and seemed to take great interest
in showing me around. He appeared to be much gratified by my interest in
the history of the observatory. He is naturally a despot, and his
position increases this tendency. Sitting in his chair, the zero-point
of longitude for the world, he commands not only the little knot of
observers and computers around him, but when he says to London, 'It is
one o'clock,' London adopts that time, and her ships start for their
voyages around the globe, and continue to count their time from that
moment, wherever the English flag is borne.
"It is singular what a quiet motive-power Science is, the breath of a
nation's progress.
"Mr. Airy is not favorable to the multiplication of observatories. He
predicted the failure of that at Albany. He says that he would gladly
destroy one-half of the meridian instruments of the world, by way of
reform. I told him that my reform movement would be to bring together
the astronomers who had no instruments and the instruments which had no
astronomers.
"Mr. Airy is exceedingly systematic. In leading me by narrow passages
and up steep staircases, from one room to another of the irregular
collection of rooms, he was continually cautioning me about my
footsteps, and in one place he seemed to have a kind of formula: 'Three
steps at this place, ten at this, eleven at this, and three again.' So,
in descending a ladder to the birthplace of the galvanic currents, he
said, 'Turn your back to the stairs, step down with the right foot, take
hold with the right hand; reverse the operation in ascending; do not, on
coming out, turn around at once, but step backwards one step first.'
"Near the throne of the astronomical autocrat is another proof of his
system, in a case of portfolios. These contain the daily bills, letters,
and papers, as they come in and are answered in order. When a portfolio
is full, the papers are removed and are sewed together. Each year's
accumulation is bound, and the bound volumes of Mr. Airy's time nearly
cover one side of his private room.
"Mr. Airy replies to all kinds of letters, with two exceptions: those
which ask for autographs, and those which request him to calculate
nativities. Both of these are very frequent.
"In the drawing-room Mr. Airy is cheery; he loves to recite ballads and
knows by heart a mass of verses, from 'A, Apple Pie,' to the 'Lady of
the Lake.'
"A lover of Nature and a close observer of her ways, as well in the
forest walk as in the vault of heaven, Mr. Airy has roamed among the
beautiful scenery of the Lake region until he is as good a mountain
guide as can be found. He has strolled beside Grassmere and ascended
Helvellyn. He knows the height of the mountain peaks, the shingles that
lie on their sides, the flowers that grow in the valleys, the mines
beneath the surface.
"At one time the Government Survey planted what is called a 'Man' on the
top of one of the hills of the Lake region. In a dry season they built
up a stone monument, right upon the bed of a little pond. The country
people missed the little pond, which had seemed to them an eye of Nature
reflecting heaven's blue light. They begged for the removal of the
surveyor's pile, and Mr. Airy at once changed the station.
"The established observatories of England do not step out of their
beaten path to make discoveries--these come from the amateurs. In this
respect they differ from America and Germany. The amateurs of England do
a great deal of work, they learn to know of what they and their
instruments are capable, and it is done.
"The library of Greenwich Observatory is large. The transactions of
learned societies alone fill a small room; the whole impression of the
thirty volumes of printed observations fills a wall of another room, and
the unpublished papers of the early directors make of themselves a small
manuscript library.
"October 22, 1857. We have just returned from our fourth visit to
Greenwich, like the others twenty-four hours in length. We go again
to-morrow to meet the Sabines.
"Herr Struve, the director of the Pulkova Observatory, is at Greenwich,
with his son Karl. The old gentleman is a magnificent-looking fellow,
very large and well proportioned; his great head is covered with white
hair, his features are regular and handsome. When he is introduced to
any one he thrusts both hands into the pockets of his pantaloons, and
bows. I found that the son considered this position of the hands
particularly _English_. However, the old gentleman did me the honor to
shake hands with me, and when I told him that I brought a letter to him
from a friend in America, he said, 'It is quite unnecessary, I know you
without.' He speaks very good English.
"Herr Struve's mission in England is to see if he can connect the
trigonometrical surveys of the two countries. It is quite singular that
he should visit England for this purpose, so soon after Russia and
England were at war. One of his sons was an army surgeon at the Crimea.
"Five visitors remained all night at the observatory. I slept in a
little round room and Miss S. in another, at the top of a little
jutting-out, curved building. Mrs. Airy says, 'Mr. Airy got permission
of the Board of Visitors to fit up some of the rooms as lodging-rooms.'
Mr. Airy said, 'My dear love, I did as I always do: I fitted them up
first, and then I reported to the Board that I had done it.'
"October 23. Another dinner-party at the observatory, consisting of the
Struves, General and Mrs. Sabine, Professor and Mrs. Powell, Mr. Main,
and ourselves; more guests coming to tea.
"Mrs. Airy told me that she should arrange the order of the guests at
table to please herself; that properly all of the married ladies should
precede me, but that I was really to go first, with Mr. Airy. To effect
this, however, she must explain it to Mrs. Sabine, the lady of highest
rank.
"So we went out, Professor Airy and myself, Professor Powell and Mrs.
Sabine, General Sabine and Mrs. Powell, Mr. Charles Struve and Miss S.,
Mr. Main, Mrs. Airy, and Professor Struve.
"General Sabine is a small man, gray haired and sharp featured, about
seventy years old. He smiles very readily, and is chatty and sociable at
once. He speaks with more quickness and ease than most of the Englishmen
I have met. Mrs. Sabine is very agreeable and not a bit of a
blue-stocking.
"The chat at table was general and very interesting. Mr. Airy says, 'The
best of a good dinner is the amount of talk.' He talked of the great
'Leviathan' which he and Struve had just visited, then anecdotes were
told by others, then they went on to comic poetry. Mr. Airy repeated
'The Lost Heir,' by Hood. General Sabine told droll anecdotes, and the
point was often lost upon me, because of the local allusions. One of his
anecdotes was this: 'Archbishop Whately did not like a professor named
Robert Daly; he said the Irish were a very contented people, they were
satisfied with one _bob daily_.' I found that a 'bob' is a shilling.
"When the dinner was over, the ladies left the room, and the gentlemen
remained over their wine; but not for long, for Mr. Airy does not like
it, and Struve hates it.
"Then, before tea, others dropped in from the neighborhood, and the tea
was served in the drawing-room, handed round informally.
"August 15. Westminster Abbey interested me more than I had expected. We
went into the chapels and admired the sculpture when the guide told us
we ought, and stopped with interest sometimes over some tomb which he
did not point out.
"I stepped aside reverently when I found I was standing on the stone
which covers the remains of Dr. Johnson. It is cracked across the
middle. Garrick lies by the side of Johnson, and I thought at first that
Goldsmith lay near; but it is only a monument--the body is interred in
Temple churchyard.
"You are continually misled in this way unless you refer at every minute
to your guide-book, and to go through Europe reading a guide-book which
you can read at home seems to be a waste of time. On the stone beneath
which Addison lies is engraved the verse from Tickell's ode:
"'Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest,' etc.
"The base of Newton's monument is of white marble, a solid mass large
enough to support a coffin; upon that a sarcophagus rests. The remains
are not enclosed within. As I stepped aside I found I had been standing
upon a slab marked 'Isaac Newton,' beneath which the great man's remains
lie.
"On the side of the sarcophagus is a white marble slab, with figures in
bas-relief. One of these imaginary beings appears to be weighing the
planets on a steel-yard. They hang like peas! Another has a pair of
bellows and is blowing a fire. A third is tending a plant.
"On this sarcophagus reclines a figure of Newton, of full size. He leans
his right arm upon four thick volumes, probably 'The Principia,' and he
points his left hand to a globe above his head on which the goddess
Urania sits; she leans upon another large book.
"Newton's head is very fine, and is probably a portrait. The left hand,
which is raised, has lost two fingers. I thought at first that this had
been the work of some 'undevout astronomer,' but when I came to 'read
up' I found that at one time soldiers were quartered in the abbey, and
probably one of them wanted a finger with which to crowd the tobacco
into his pipe, and so broke off one.
"August 17. To-day we have been to the far-famed British Museum. I
carried an 'open sesame' in the form of a letter given to me by
Professor Henry, asking for me special attention from all societies with
which the 'Smithsonian' at Washington is connected.
"I gave the paper first to a police officer; a police officer is met at
every turn in London. He handed it to another official, who said, 'You'd
better go to the secretary.'
"I walked in the direction towards which he pointed, a long way, until I
found the secretary. He called another man, and asked him to show me
whatever I wanted to see.
"This man took me into another room, and consigned me to still another
man--the fifth to whom I had been referred. No. 5 was an intelligent and
polite person, and he began to talk about America at once.
"I asked to see anything which had belonged to Newton, and he told me
they had one letter only,--from Newton to Leibnitz,--which he showed me.
It was written in Latin, with diagrams and formulae interspersed. The
reply of Leibnitz, copied by Newton, was also in their collection, and
an order from Newton written while he was director of the mint.
"No. 5 also showed me the illuminated manuscripts of the collection;
they are kept locked in glass-topped cases, and a curtain protects them
from the light. We saw also the oldest copy of the Bible in the world.
"The art of printing has brought incalculable blessings; but as I looked
at a neat manuscript book by Queen Elizabeth, copied from another as a
present to her father, I could not help thinking it was much better than
worsted work!
"A much-worn prayer-book was shown me, said to be the one used by Lady
Jane Grey when on the scaffold. Nothing makes me more conscious that I
am on foreign soil than the constant recurrence of associations
connected with the executioner's block. We hung the Quakers and we
burned the witches, but we are careful not to remember the localities of
our barbarisms; we show instead the Plymouth Rock or the Washington Elm.
"Among other things, we were shown the 'Magna Charta'--a few fragments
of worn-out paper on which some words could be traced; now carefully
preserved in a frame, beneath a glass.
"Thus far England has impressed me seriously; I cannot imagine how it
has ever earned the name of 'Merrie England.'
"August 19. There are four great men whose haunts I mean to seek, and on
whose footsteps I mean to stand: Newton, Shakspere, Milton, and Johnson.
"To-day I told the driver to take me to St. Martin's, where the
guide-book says that Newton lived. He put me down at the Newton Hotel,
but I looked in vain to its top to see anything like an observatory.
"I went into a wine-shop near, and asked a girl, who was pouring out a
dram, in which house Newton lived. She pointed, not to the hotel, but to
a house next to a church, and said, 'That's it--don't you see a place on
the top? That's where he used to study nights.'
"It is a little, oblong-shaped observatory, built apparently of wood,
and blackened by age. The house is a good-looking one--it seems to be of
stone. The girl said the rooms were let for shops.
"Next I told the driver to take me to Fleet street, to Gough square, and
to Bolt court, where Johnson lived and died.
"Bolt court lies on Fleet street, and it is but few steps along a narrow
passage to the house, which is now a hotel, where Johnson died; but you
must walk on farther through the narrow passage, a little fearful to a
woman, to see the place where he wrote the dictionary. The house is so
completely within a court, in which nothing but brick walls could be
seen, that one wonders what the charm of London could be, to induce one
to live in that place. But a great city always draws to itself the great
minds, and there Johnson probably found his enjoyment.
"August 27. We took St. Paul's Church to-day. We took tickets for the
vaults, the bell, the crypt, the whispering-gallery, the clock and all.
We did not know what was before us. It was a little tiresome as far as
the library and the room of Nelson's trophies, but to my surprise, when
the guide said, 'Go that way for the clock,' he did not take the lead,
but pointed up a staircase, and I found myself the pioneer in the
narrowest and darkest staircase I ever ascended. It was really perfect
darkness in some of the places, and we had to feel our way. We all took
a long breath when a gleam of light came in at some narrow windows
scattered along. At the top, in front of the clock works, stood a woman,
who began at once to tell us the statistics of the pendulum, to which
recital I did not choose to listen. She was not to go down with us, and,
panting with fatigue and trembling with fright, we groped our way down
again.
"There was another long, but easy, ascent to the 'whispering-gallery,'
which is a fine place from which to look down upon the interior of the
church. The man in attendance looked like a respectable elderly
gentleman. He told us to go to the opposite side of the gallery, and he
would whisper to us. We went around, and, worn out with fatigue, dropped
upon a bench.
"The man began to whisper, putting his mouth to an opening in the wall;
we heard noises, but could not tell what he said.
"To my amazement, this very respectable-looking elderly gentleman, as we
passed him in going out, whispered again, and as this time he put his
mouth close to my ear, I understood! He said, 'If you will give anything
for the whisper, it will be gratefully received.' There are notices all
over the church forbidding fees, and I felt that the man was a beggar at
best--more properly a pickpocket.
"A figure of Dr. Johnson stands in one of the aisles of the church. It
must be like him, for it is exceedingly ugly.
"September 3. We have been three weeks in London 'out of season,' but
with plenty of letters. At present we have as many acquaintances as we
desire. Last night we were at the opera, to-night we go out to dine, and
to-morrow evening to a dance, the next day to Admiral Smyth's.
"The opera fatigued me, as it always does. I tired my eyes and ears in
the vain effort to appreciate it. Mario was the great star of the
evening, but I knew no difference.
"One little circumstance showed me how an American, with the best
intentions, may offend against good manners. American-like we had
secured very good seats, were in good season, and as comfortable as the
very narrow seats would permit us to be, before most of the audience
arrived. The house filled, and we sat at our ease, feeling our
importance, and quite unconscious that we were guilty of any
impropriety. While the curtain was down, I heard a voice behind me say
to the gentleman who was with us, 'Is the lady on your left with
you?'--'Yes,' said Mr. R.--'She wears a bonnet, which is not according
to rule.'--'Too late now,' said Mr. R.--'It is my fault,' said the
attendant; 'I ought not to have admitted her; I thought it was a hood.'
"I was really in hopes that I should be ordered out, for I was
exceedingly fatigued and should have been glad of some fresh air. On
looking around, I saw that only the 'pit' wore bonnets.
"September 6. We left London yesterday for Aylesbury. It is two hours by
railroad. Like all railroads in England, it runs seemingly through a
garden. In many cases flowers are cultivated by the roadside.
"From Aylesbury to Stone, the residence of Admiral Smyth, it is two
miles of stage-coach riding. Stage-coaches are now very rare in England,
and I was delighted with the chance for a ride.
"We found the stage-coach crowded. The driver asked me if we were for
St. John's Lodge, and on my replying in the affirmative gave me a note
which Mrs. Smyth had written to him, to ask for inside seats. The note
had reached him too late, and he said we must go on the outside. He
brought a ladder and we got up. For a minute I thought, 'What a height
to fall from!' but the afternoon was so lovely that I soon forgot the
danger and enjoyed the drive. There were six passengers on top.
"Aylesbury is a small town, and Stone is a very small village. The
driver stopped at what seemed to be a cultivated field, and told me that
I was at my journey's end. On looking down I saw a wheelbarrow near the
fence, and I remembered that Mrs. Smyth had said that one would be
waiting for our luggage, and I soon saw Mrs. Smyth and her daughter
coming towards us. It was a walk of about an eighth of a mile to the
'Lodge'--a pleasant cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden.
"Admiral Smyth's family go to a little church seven hundred years old,
standing in the midst of tombstones and surrounded by thatched cottages.
English scenery seems now (September) much like our Southern scenery in
April--rich and lovely, but wanting mountains and water. An English
village could never be mistaken for an American one: the outline against
the sky differs; a thatched cottage makes a very wavy line on the blue
above.
"We find enough in St. John's Lodge, in the admiral's library, and in
the society of the cultivated members of his family to interest us for a
long time.
"The admiral himself is upwards of sixty years of age, noble-looking,
loving a good joke, an antiquarian, and a good astronomer. I picked up
many an anecdote from him, and many curious bits of learning.
"He tells a good story, illustrative of his enthusiasm when looking at a
crater in the moon. He says the night was remarkably fine, and he
applied higher and higher powers to his glass until he seemed to look
down into the abyss, and imagining himself standing on its verge he felt
himself falling in, and drew back with a shudder which lasted even after
the illusion was over.
"In speaking of Stratford-upon-Avon, the admiral told me that the Lucy
family, one of whose ancestors drove Shakspere from his grounds, and who
is caricatured in Justice Shallow, still resides on the same spot as in
Shakspere's time. He says no family ever retained their characteristics
more decidedly.
"Some years ago one of this family was invited to a Shakspere dinner. He
resented the well-meant invitation, saying they must surely have
forgotten how that _person_ treated his ancestor!
"The amateur astronomers of England are numerous, but they are not like
those of America.
"In America a poor schoolmaster, who has some bright boys who ask
questions, buys a glass and becomes a star-gazer, without time and
almost without instruments; or a watchmaker must know the time, and
therefore watches the stars as time-keepers. In almost all cases they
are hard-working men.
"In England it is quite otherwise. A wealthy gentleman buys a telescope
as he would buy a library, as an ornament to his house.
"Admiral Smyth says that no family is quite civilized unless it
possesses a copy of some encyclopaedia and a telescope. The English
gentleman uses both for amusement. If he is a man of philosophical mind
he soon becomes an astronomer, or if a benevolent man he perceives that
some friend in more limited circumstances might use it well, and he
offers the telescope to him, or if an ostentatious man he hires some
young astronomer of talent, who comes to his observatory and makes a
name for him. Then the queen confers the honor of knighthood, not upon
the young man, but upon the owner of the telescope. Sir James South was
knighted for this reason.
"We have been visiting Hartwell House, an old baronial residence, now
the property of Dr. Lee, a whimsical old man.
"This house was for years the residence of Louis XVIII., and his queen
died here. The drawing-room is still kept as in those days; the blue
damask on the walls has been changed by time to a brown. The rooms are
spacious and lofty, the chimney-pieces of richly carved marble. The
ceiling of one room has fine bas-relief allegorical figures.
"Books of antiquarian value are all around--one whole floor is covered
with them. They are almost never opened. In some of the rooms paintings
are on the walls above the doors.
"Dr. Lee's modern additions are mostly paintings of himself and a former
wife, and are in very bad taste. He has, however, two busts of Mrs.
Somerville, from which I received the impression that she is handsome,
but Mrs. Smyth tells me she is not so; certainly she is sculpturesque.
"The royal family, on their retreat from Hartwell House, left their
prayer-book, and it still remains on its stand. The room of the ladies
of the bedchamber is papered, and the figure of a pheasant is the
prevailing characteristic of the paper. The room is called 'The Pheasant
Room.' One of the birds has been carefully cut out, and, it is said, was
carried away as a memento by one of the damsels.
"Dr. Lee is second cousin to Sir George Lee, who died childless. He
inherits the estate, but not the title. The estate has belonged to the
Lees for four hundred years. As the doctor was a Lee only through his
mother, he was obliged to take her name on his accession to the
property. He applied to Parliament to be permitted to assume the title,
and, being refused, from a strong Tory he became a Liberal, and delights
in currying favor with the lowest classes; he has twice married below
his rank. Being remotely connected with the Hampdens, he claims John
Hampden as one of his family, and keeps a portrait of him in a
conspicuous place.
"A summer-house on the grounds was erected by Lady Elizabeth Lee, and
some verses inscribed on its walls, written by her, show that the Lees
have not always been fools.
"But Dr. Lee has his way of doing good. Being fond of astronomy, he has
bought an eight and a half feet equatorial telescope, and with a wisdom
which one could scarcely expect, he employed Admiral Smyth to construct
an observatory. He has also a fine transit instrument, and the admiral,
being his near neighbor, has the privilege of using the observatory as
his own. In the absence of the Lees he has a private key, with which he
admits himself and Mrs. Smyth. They make the observations (Mrs. Smyth is
a very clever astronomer), sleep in a room called 'The Admiral's Room,'
find breakfast prepared for them in the morning, and return to their own
house when they choose.
"I saw in the observatory a timepiece with a double second-hand; one of
these could be stopped by a touch, and would, in that way, show an
observer the instant when he thought a phenomenon, as an occultation for
instance, had occurred, and yet permit him to go on with his count of
the seconds, and, if necessary, correct his first impression.
"Admiral Smyth is a hard worker, but I suspect that many of the amateur
astronomers of England are Dr. Lees--rich men who, as a hobby, ride
astronomy and employ a good astronomer. Dr. Lee gives the use of a good
instrument to the curate; another to Mr. Payson, of Cambridge, who has
lately found a little planet.
"I saw at Admiral Smyth's some excellent photographs of the moon, but in
England they have not yet photographed the stars."