Thackeray as a Traveller -- Journey in Youth from India to
England -- Little Travels at Home -- Sojourn in Germany -- French
Trips -- Residence in Paris -- Studies in Rome -- Sketches and
Scribblings in Guide-Books -- Little Tours and Wayside Studies --
Brussels -- Ghent and the Béguines -- Bruges -- _Croquis_ in
Murray's 'Handbooks to the Continent' -- Up the Rhine -- 'From
Cornhill to Grand Cairo' -- Journeys to America -- Switzerland --
'A Leaf out of a Sketch-Book' -- The Grisons -- Verona --
'Roundabout Journeys' -- Belgium and Holland.
Another aspect in which it is agreeable to contemplate Thackeray is
that of a traveller, for in this character he must have gone over a
considerable portion of the more interesting parts of the world. From
India to England, in his seventh year, with that memorable call at St.
Helena, where the youngster caught a fugitive glimpse of the great
Napoleon in his solitary exile.
[Illustration: W. M. T. on his travels]
Little journeyings about England between boyhood and youth, then a
stolen visit to Paris, in a college vacation. Then the residence at
Weimar and Eberfeld, with rovings about Germany. Then to Paris to see
the world, to study men, manners, and pictures; half art-student, half
pursuing the art of amusing oneself. Then a more serious application
to the earlier stages of that somewhat lengthy road which every
aspirant must plod who would follow the artist's career.
Let us take up one of his travelling companions and pass a day with
the easy-working, comfortably-provided, and satirically-observant
young 'buck,' who found himself so pleasantly at home in Louis
Philippe's slightly uncertain capital.
'Planta's Paris' is not the most familiar of travelling companions,
its descriptions are not altogether modern, but the glimpse it affords
us of the French capital is curious from the circumstance that it
registers the swiftness of change in the Centre of Pleasure. It might
be an amusing study to reproduce from its pages the attractions of
Paris in 1827, the date of the fifteenth edition of this work; but the
stout square little book possesses a stronger interest, as it had the
advantage of belonging to Michael Angelo Titmarsh, and in his pocket
it probably tumbled and tossed across the Channel.
[Illustration: At Weimar]
It is rather difficult to connect Mr. Titmarsh with the stereotyped
extracts of a guide-book, but the copy under consideration was
fortunately selected as a repository for the occasional sketches
suggested to the fancy of its proprietor.
[Illustration]
In those 'flying stage' days travellers booked their passage, per
coach, from the Spread Eagle, Piccadilly, to Paris. On this service
the journey from Calais to Paris was performed by the 'Hirondelle' in
thirty hours. It was in this manner Mr. Pogson accomplished his
eventful first journey, in the society of the fascinating 'Baronne de
Florval Delval,' as set forth in the pages of Mr. Titmarsh's 'Paris
Sketch-Book.' Mr. Titmarsh has probably contributed the pencilling of
the 'old _régime_' personage in the margin during the progress to the
capital. Travelling caps of every order were assumed for comfort
during the jolting on the road.
Mr. Titmarsh had become a partial resident in Paris. He might have
been seen mastering the contents of the Louvre, the Beaux Arts, and
the Luxembourg; occasionally mounting an easel and copying a picture.
[Illustration]
Betweenwhiles he is, we may reasonably suppose, engaged on materials
similar to his 'Paris Sketch-Book,' or transferring the thrilling
thoughts of Béranger into verses which preserve the vitality of that
mighty songster. Here the young author and his fanciful double
evidently commenced their daily promenade--we may vainly sigh for the
pleasure of forming one of such a desirable party--but in spirit,
assisted by the sketches which mark his progress, it is just possible
to follow the humourist. 'Planta's Paris' is produced from his pocket
to receive rapid pencil jottings, slight but graphic, as the subjects
present themselves.
First, the lolling _ouvrier_, common to Paris in all seasons and under
every government, slow and shuffling, a lounger through successive
_régimes_.
[Illustration]
We recognise the reign of the 'Citizen King' in the person of one of
his citizen soldiers, a worthy National Guard, hurrying from
commercial allurements to practise the military duties of a patriot.
At another time Mr. Titmarsh may refresh his pictorial tastes by the
inspection of M. Phillipon's latest onslaught on 'the _poire_.'
Here we confront M. Aubert's renowned collection of political cartoons
in the Galerie Veron-Dodat, the head-quarters of that irrepressible
army of caricaturists whose satiric shafts kept the stout Louis
Philippe in a quiver of irritation, until he swept away the liberty of
the press.
Before us stands a stern dissentient from any expression assailing
the inviolability of the absolute Sovereign who cleverly misnamed
himself the 'King of the Barricades.'
[Illustration: A Citizen Soldier]
[Illustration: The Army]
Here is a sketchy reminiscence of the _Jardin Bullier_, over the
water, close by the Barrière d'Enfer. We may imagine that this
recollection has been revived by some flaring _affiché_ posted on the
walls regarding a 'long night' and the admission of 'fancy costumes'
at that traditional retreat.
[Illustration]
We next get a peep into a _cabaret_, while still in pursuit of the
military train, and here the artist regales us with a spirited
realisation of 'Mars surrendering to Bacchus,' in a picture not
unworthy of Hogarth. These gentlemen are content to espouse the side
which offers the best chance of enjoyment--a phase not entirely
extinct in the French army, and one that has been relied on in recent
instances.
[Illustration]
These last drawings are executed with a pen, and cleverly shaded in
Indian ink.
Showers, sharp though short, are frequent enough in Paris. Mr. Titmarsh,
in the shelter of a 'Passage'--possibly the 'Panoramas'--seizes the
opportunity of this enforced captivity to produce a flying sketch of
the damp world out of doors.
[Illustration]
Mr. Titmarsh has stepped for a moment into the shelter of a church,
for we here find a life-like picture of a priest bearing the Elements.
[Illustration]
The shower is over: the sun shines brighter than ever, and Mr.
Titmarsh is tempted to trudge over to the Luxembourg. After a few
practical criticisms on the paintings, he wanders into the quaint
gardens surrounding this palace of art. His active pencil finds
immediate employment on an ever-recurring group, wherever _bonnes_
abound there may the soldiers be found.
[Illustration]
These little sketches are full of familiar life.
[Illustration]
The _barrière_ is passed, and Mr. Titmarsh takes a stroll in the
environs. His pencil preserves for our amusement this record of his
wanderings.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
We may here allude to his kindly feeling for children, whose romps so
often employed his pen. Further down the shady groves the _coco_
seller finds a customer in a _militaire_, whose tastes are simple, or
whose means do not compass a more ambitious beverage.
Before he dines, Mr. Titmarsh returns to his lodgings (possibly the
very ones he occupied during the tragedy of Attwood's violent end,
described in the 'Gambler's Death'), to 'wash-in' a few _croquis_ in
Indian ink; and there, we may assume, he traces on a loose scrap of
paper the whimsical outline of 'An Eastern Traveller.'
[Illustration: An Eastern Traveller]
Anon Mr. Titmarsh plunges deeper into the art career; his aspirations
lead him to Rome; there, amidst galleries, artists, authors, models,
canvases, and easels, he pursues his lively though somewhat desultory
course. Who could be more at home in the head-quarters of the fine
arts? who more popular than this kind-hearted, keen-witted young
satirist? a universal favourite, treasuring, perhaps unconsciously,
every phase of the mixed life he met and led there. Again, as in
Paris, a pure Bohemian through inclination, and yet fond of fine
sights and society, with the _entrée_ at his disposal to every circle,
refined or vagabond, of the communism of a republic of art and
letters.
[Illustration: A Neapolitan 'Snob']
[Illustration: Southern Italy]
[Illustration: A Water-carrier
Southern Italy
A Wayside Player
ITALIAN SKETCHES]
And Thackeray was no less at home in Belgium than he was in Germany,
in Paris, and in Rome.
[Illustration: Guide Indispensable du Voyageur en Belgique]
[Illustration: Germania]
[Illustration: A Family Jaunt]
[Illustration: On a Rhine Steamer]
[Illustration: Mât de Coca]
[Illustration: Roadside Sketches]
His books carry us where we will at pleasure. We can dot about quaint
Flanders with O'Dowd, Dobbin, and the English army, on that famous
Waterloo campaign; we can elect as our travelling companion that
eminent dandy, Arthur Pendennis, Esq. We can follow Clive Newcome and
quiet J. J. to the 'Congress of Baden,' to Italy, and what not, or we
can linger with 'Philip' in Paris. We can follow Titmarsh through all
sorts of delightful journeyings; we are assured that promising young
genius was almost an institution in Paris. He has studied Belgium and
sojourned in Holland; in 1843 he will allow us to trot over to Ireland
in his company, for a pleasant little jaunt; in 1846 our 'Fat
Contributor' will suffer us to make one in a pilgrimage from Cornhill
to Cairo; in 1850 we may join the Kickleburys on the Rhine. As to Mr.
Roundabout, we may go with him where we list--to America, if we would
accept a few grateful souvenirs of the New World; to Scotland, where
our author's popularity was, if possible, even stronger; to
Switzerland, Italy, Germany, back to Belgium and Holland, and through
innumerable pleasant reminiscences of fair and quaint cities.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Little Travels]
[Illustration]
Would you visit the chief sight of Ghent, who could better act as your
kindly guide, philosopher, and friend than Thackeray? for one of the
most delightfully fresh and picturesque descriptions of the Béguine
College or village at Ghent is due to the pen of Titmarsh. In
following his sketches of this miniature city of nuns, which every
worthy sightseer has visited in the early stage of his travels, the
whole place is set out before one with charms added, the old interest
is renewed, and we are trotting around the quiet shady courts, or are
again favoured with an interview by the superior in the
'show-parlour,' with its ledger for the names of all the Smiths in the
universe, while around are displayed the treasures of the convent. It
is not difficult to imagine Thackeray sitting down by the roadside,
rapidly making the sketches which we give in this chapter.
[Illustration]
In 1852 Thackeray paid his first visit to America. The generous
reception accorded him throughout the States is sufficiently
notorious. Mr. W. B. Reed, who enjoyed in Philadelphia the intimacy of
the great novelist, has recorded how deeply sympathetic was the
feeling of our transatlantic cousins for this sterling example of a
thorough and honest English gentleman. Among other tender
remembrances of the kindly humourist, he writes, hinting with delicate
reserve at 'domestic sorrows and anxieties too sacred to be paraded
before the world':--
[Illustration]
[Illustration: A Wayside Sketcher]
[Illustration: A School Fight]
'In our return journey to Philadelphia, Thackeray referred to a friend
whose wife had been deranged for many years, hopelessly so; and never
shall I forget the look, and manner, and voice with which he said to
me, "It is an awful thing for her to continue so to live. It is an
awful thing for her so to die. But has it never occurred to you, how
awful a thing the recovery of lost reason must be without the
consciousness of the lapse of time? She finds the lover of her youth a
grey-haired old man, and her infants young men and women. Is it not
sad to think of this?" As he talked to me thus, I thought of those
oft-quoted lines of tenderness--
Ah me! how quick the days are flitting;
I mind me of a time that's gone,
When here I'd sit, as now I'm sitting,
In this same place, but not alone.
A fair young form was nestled near me,
A dear, dear face looked fondly up,
And sweetly spoke and tried to cheer me--
There's no one now to share my cup!
[Illustration]
'Thackeray left us (the Philadelphians) in the winter of 1853, and in
the summer of the year was on the Continent with his daughters. In the
last chapter of the "Newcomes," published in 1855, he says: "Two years
ago, walking with my children in some pleasant fields near to Berne,
in Switzerland, I strayed from them into a little wood; and, coming
out of it, presently told them how the story had been revealed to me
somehow, which, for three-and-twenty months, the reader has been
pleased to follow." It was on this Swiss tour that he wrote me a
kindly characteristic letter. On the back of this note is a
pen-and-ink caricature, of which he was not conscious when he began to
write, as on turning his paper over he alludes to "the rubbishing
picture which he didn't see." The sketch is very spirited, and is
evidently the original of one of his illustrations to his grotesque
fairy tale of the "Rose and the Ring," written (so he told a member of
my family years afterwards) while he was watching and nursing his
children, who were ill during this vacation ramble.'
[Illustration]
The last journey chronicled by Thackeray was a merry little
'Roundabout' trip over the old Netherlands ground, in which he
indulged, without preparation, when overworked and suffering from the
anxieties of editing the 'Cornhill Magazine;' the journal is filled in
with the zest of a stolen excursion, and the writer mentions that
no one knew where he had gone; that there was only one chance of a
letter finding him to curtail the freedom he had snatched, and he goes
to the post, and there, sure enough, is that summons back to the
'thorny cushion,' which abruptly cuts short the last recorded holiday
jaunt of Thackeray's life. In this last little jaunt through Holland,
the impressions of the author were as fresh and full of pleasant
observation as in those wayside sketches noted years before.
[Illustration: A Centurion]
[Illustration: Swiss Kine]
[Illustration: On the Road]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Dolce far niente]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Unruly Travellers]
[Illustration: Dutch Pictures]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Off to Market]
[Illustration: Dutch Pictures]