I hope you follow me on the map, which will make my letters more
intelligible to you, though you cannot enjoy with me the beautiful
views, of which I shall bring you back faithful copies in the port-folio
of my memory.
I revisited the magnificent castle this morning. A blooming girl was my
guide, and formed a graceful contrast to the blackened towers, the
dreadful prison of the regicide Marten, and the dark dungeons, to which
we descended by a long staircase. I next visited a church with a
remarkably beautiful Saxon porch, and a highly ornamented font in the
same style. Here the unfortunate Marten lies buried. He was one of
Charles the First's judges, and was imprisoned in Chepstow Castle for
forty years, without ever, as it is asserted, losing his spirits. After
the first few years his confinement seems to have been less vigorous,
and to have gone on gradually becoming less severe. At least the girl
showed me three rooms, of which the lowest was a most horrible
hole,--while she _ciceronised_ in the following words: "Here Marten was
put at first, while he was wicked; but when he became serious, he was
moved a story higher; and at last, when he was _religious_, he had the
room with the beautiful view."
At two o'clock I set out for Bristol on a crowded stage-coach;
notwithstanding the violent rain, I with difficulty obtained a place on
the box. We crossed a handsome bridge, affording the best point of view
of the castle, which stands on a perpendicular rock overhanging the Wye,
a position which gives it its peculiarly picturesque character. We kept
Piercefield Park, and its wall of rocks on one side the river, long in
view. I remarked to the proprietor of the stage, who drove, that the
possessor of this beautiful estate must be a happy man. "By no means,"
replied he; "the poor devil is over head and ears in debt, has a
numerous family, and wishes with all his heart to find a good purchaser
for Piercefield. Three months ago every thing was settled with a rich
Liverpool merchant, who was going to buy it for his youngest son; but
before the bargain was completed, this son married an actress, the
father disinherited him, and the thing went off." Here was matter for
moralizing.
Meantime the weather grew worse; and at length ended in a complete
storm. We had it in our backs indeed, but the passage across the Channel
was extremely unpleasant: the four horses, all the luggage, and the
passengers, were huddled 'pèle mêle' into a little boat, which was so
crowded one could hardly move. The post next to the horses was really
one of danger, for they sometimes shyed at the sails, especially when
they were shifted.
On one of these occasions a gentleman fell, together with the box on
which he was sitting, directly under them. The good-natured animals,
however, only trod on him a little, they did not attempt to kick him.
The boat, driven violently by the wind, lay quite on her side; and the
waves incessantly dashed over us, and wetted us from head to foot. When
we reached the end of our voyage, the landing was equally wearisome and
dirty; and I lost, to my great annoyance, a part of Lord Byron's works.
I was told that accidents often happen at this ferry, from the frequent
storms and the numerous rocks.
About six months ago the boat went down with the mail, and several
persons lost their lives. We could not reach the usual landing-place,
where there is a house, and were obliged to disembark on the shore,
whence we walked to the inn along a strand of red and white veined
marble. Here we got into another stage, filled with twenty persons, and
drove (but not so quickly as the mail,) to Bristol.--I could see nothing
of this admired city but the bright lamps and gay well-stored shops.
_Bath, December 21st. Evening._
When I question my memory what it is that makes the Wye so much more
beautiful than most rivers, I find that it is the marked and bold
character of its shores, which never fall away into tame monotonous
lines, nor exhibit an unmeaning variety: that it is almost always
skirted by wood, rocks, or meadows enlivened by houses; seldom by
fields, or cultivated land, which though useful are rarely picturesque.
Its numerous and bold windings cause an incessant change in the grouping
of the shores, so that the same objects present themselves under a
hundred different and beautiful aspects. This, by the way, is doubtless
the ground of the preference landscape gardeners have given to winding
roads over straight, and not that imaginary line of beauty about which
so much has been said.
As the objects which present themselves along the Wye are almost always
few, and in large masses, they invariably form beautiful pictures,--for
pictures require to be bounded or framed. Nature creates according to a
standard which we cannot judge of in its total effect; the _highest
harmony_ of which must therefore be lost to us:--Art strives to form a
part of this into an ideal whole, which the eye and mind of man can take
in. This is in my opinion the idea which lies at the bottom of landscape
gardening. But Nature herself here and there furnishes a perfect pattern
or model for such creations of art,--a landscape microcosm; and seldom
can more such models be found within the same distance than in the
course of this voyage, where every bend of the river presents a fresh
feast of _art_, if I may so speak.
Pope somewhere says,
"Pleased Vaga echoes through its winding bounds,
And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds."
The German language with all its richness is somewhat awkward and
intractable for translation, especially from the English, which from
being made up of various languages, possesses a peculiar facility in
rendering foreign thoughts.[156] To me these two lines appear almost
untranslatable: as often as I have attempted it, the thought lost all
its grace;--perhaps, however, the awkwardness was mine.
It is no small advantage to the Wye, that two of the most beautiful
ruins in the world lie on its banks; and never was I more convinced than
here, that a prophet has no honour in his own country. How else would so
many Englishmen travel thousands of miles to fall into ecstacies at
beauties of a very inferior order to these! I must ask one more
question;--why ruins have so much stronger an effect on the mind than
the highest perfect specimen of architectural beauty? It seems almost as
if these works of man did not attain their full perfection till Nature
had tempered and corrected them:--and yet it is well that man should
again step in, just at that point where Nature begins to efface all
traces of his hand. A vast and well-preserved ruin is the most beautiful
of buildings.
I have already mentioned that the environs of Bristol have a high and a
deserved reputation. In luxuriance of vegetation and fertility they can
be surpassed by none,--in picturesque effect by few; 'C'est comme la
terre promise.' Whatever one beholds, and (as a gourmand I add) whatever
one tastes, is in full perfection.
Bristol, a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants, lies in a deep
valley: Clifton, which rises in terraces on the hills immediately above
it, seems only a part of the same town: it is easy to conceive that
extraordinary effects must result from such a situation. Three venerable
Gothic churches rise out of the confused mass of houses in the valley.
Like the proud remains of feudal and priestly dominion (for these,
though hostile brothers, went hand in hand,) they appear to rear their
gray heads with a feeling of their ancient greatness, in scorn of the
mushroom growth of modern times. One of them especially, Radcliffe
Church, is a wonderful structure;--unfortunately, the sandstone of which
it is built has suffered so much from time, that its ornaments are
nearly fretted away. I went in while the organ was playing; and although
I entered in the most quiet and respectful manner, and placed myself in
a corner whence I could catch a stolen glance at the interior, the
illiberality of the English Church would not allow me this satisfaction,
and the preacher sent an old woman to tell me that I must sit down. As
it is not the custom in Catholic churches to interrupt the devotions of
a congregation on such light grounds even if strangers go in without
any caution to view whatever is worth seeing in the church, I might
justly wonder that English Protestant piety should have so little
confidence in its own strength, as to be thus blown about by the
slightest breath. The riddle was explained to me afterwards: I should
have had to _pay_ for my seat, and the truly pious motive was _the
sixpence_. However, I had had enough, and left their 'mummery'[157]
without paying.
As soon as I returned to the inn I ordered a post-chaise, seated myself
on the driver's seat,--not like the Emperor of China, as the place of
honour, but as the place for seeing,--and began my excursions in the
environs. I first visited the warm baths. They are situated just at the
beginning of a rocky valley, which has a great resemblance to the
Planische Grund near Dresden, only that the rocks are higher and the
expanse of water much finer. Just in this spot we met the mayor in his
state equipage, much more splendid than that of our kings on the
continent. It formed a curious contrast with the solitary rocky scenery.
As he passed, the postilion pointed out to me a distant ruined tower
called 'Cook's Folly,' the property of a former mayor, a merchant, who
ruined himself in building it, and now lives in a ruin. He could not
complete the Gothic castle which he began to build in a most beautiful
situation; perhaps it is a greater ornament to the scene in its present
state.
Ascending from the rocky valley we reached an extensive table-land,
which serves as a race-course, and thence over rising ground to Lord de
Clifford's park, the entrance to which is very beautiful. You drive for
about a mile and a half on the side of a high hill, through a winding
avenue of primeval oaks, planted far enough from each other to stretch
out their giant arms on every side to their full extent before they
touch. Beneath their branches you catch the finest views of the rich
vale of Bristol. It is like a noble gallery of pictures; under every
tree you find a different one. To the right, on the rising ground
appears a dark belt of plantation edging the green turf. Laurel,
arbutus, and other evergreens border the road, till at a sudden turn the
house and flower-garden burst upon the eye in all their decorated
beauty. At the end of this park lies a ridge of hills, along whose
narrow crest you drive some miles, and arrive at a noble sea view. At
our feet lay the Russian fleet at anchor. It is bound to the
Mediterranean, and in the storm of last week narrowly escaped shipwreck
on this coast:--the English declare this was entirely caused by the
ignorance and unskilfulness of the sailors. I afterwards made the
acquaintance of the captain and five other officers. To my great
surprise they spoke _no_ foreign language, so that our conversation was
limited to signs: in other respects they seemed a polite and civilized
sort of people.
Not far from this park is an interesting establishment called 'The
Cottages.' The proprietor, Mr. Harford, has endeavoured to realize the
'beau idéal' of a village. A beautiful green space in the midst of the
wood is surrounded by a winding road; on it are built nine cottages, all
of different forms and materials;--stone, brick, wood, &c., and roofed
with thatch, tiles, and slate; each surrounded with different trees, and
enwreathed with various sorts of clematis, rose, honeysuckle, and vine.
The dwellings, which are perfectly detached though they form a whole,
have separate gardens, and a common fountain, which stands in the centre
of the green, overshadowed by old trees. The gardens, divided by neat
hedges, form a pretty garland of flowers and herbs around the whole
village. What crowns the whole is, that the inhabitants are all poor
families, whom the generous proprietor allows to live in the houses rent
free. No more delightful or well-chosen spot could be found as a refuge
for misfortune: its perfect seclusion and snugness breathe only peace
and forgetfulness of the world.
Immediately opposite to the wood, a modern Gothic castle rears its head
at a distance, from amid ancient oaks. I wished to see it, as well as
the park around it, but could not get permission. Whenever the high road
lies through an English park, a part of the wall is replaced by a ha-ha,
or a transparent iron fence, that the passer-by may throw a modest and
curious glance into the forbidden paradise: but this effort exhausts the
stock of liberality usually possessed by an English land-owner. As it
was Sunday too, I gave up all hope of moving the churlish porter to make
any exception in my favour: on his brow was clearly written the converse
of Dante's infernal inscription, 'Voi che venite--di _entrare_ lasciate
ogni speranza.'
I returned by way of Clifton, from which Bristol appeared to lie under
my feet. The scene was greatly enlivened by the multitude of
gaily-dressed church-goers of both sexes, whom I met in every road and
lane. In strong contrast with these cheerful groups, was a large house
painted entirely black, with white windows, and looking like an enormous
catafalque. I was told it was the public hospital, and a gentleman
offered to show it to me. The interior was much more attractive than the
exterior: its fine spacious apartments, and the exquisite cleanliness
which pervades every part, must render it a most comfortable abode for
the sick and suffering. In no place did I perceive the slightest
offensive smell, except in the apothecary's shop. The right wing of the
building is appropriated to male, the left to female patients; in both,
the lower story to medical, the upper to surgical cases. The operating
room was remarkably elegant, furnished with several marble basins, into
which water was turned by cocks, so that in any part of the room the
blood could be instantly washed away. In the centre was a mahogany sort
of couch with leather cushions for the patients. In short, there was
everything that an ameteur could desire. But beneficent as is their art,
surgeons are generally rather unfeeling; the gentleman who accompanied
me did not form an exception. In one of the apartments I observed a
woman who had completely covered herself with the bed-clothes, and asked
him in a low voice, what was her disease. "O," replied he quite aloud,
"that is an incurable case of aneurism; as soon as it bursts she must
die." The shrinking motion and the low groan under the bed-clothes,
showed me but too clearly what agony this intelligence caused, and made
me deeply regret my inquiry. In one of the men's wards I saw a man lying
in bed, white and motionless as marble; and as we were at a considerable
distance, I asked the nature of his disorder. "I don't know myself,"
replied my companion, "but I'll soon ask him." "For Heaven's sake don't"
said I: but he was off in an instant, felt the man's hand as it lay
motionless, and came back saying with a laugh, "He is cured, for he is
dead."
Towards evening I hired one of the little carriages that ply between
Bath and Bristol, and drove to the former place. I was alone, and slept
all the way. On waking from my 'siesta,' I beheld in the moonlight an
extensive illuminated palace on a bare height, and learned that this was
the benevolent endowment of a mere private man, for fifty poor widows,
who live here in comfort, indeed in luxury. Numerous other rows of lamps
soon gleamed in the horizon, and in a few minutes we rolled over the
pavement of Bath.
_Bath, Dec. 22d._
Since the day on which I communicated to you the important intelligence
that the sun had shone, I have not seen his beneficent face. But, in
spite of fog and rain, I have wandered about the whole day long in this
wonderful city, which, originally built in the bottom of a deep and
narrow hollow, has gradually crept up the sides of all the surrounding
hills. The magnificence of the houses, gardens, streets, terraces, and
semicircular rows of houses called 'crescents,' which adorn every hill,
is imposing and worthy of English opulence. Notwithstanding this, and
the beauty of the surrounding country, _fashion_ has deserted Bath, and
fled with a sort of feverish rage to the unmeaning, treeless and
detestably prosaic Brighton. Bath is still much resorted to by invalids,
and even the forty thousand opulent inhabitants suffice to enliven it;
but the fashionable world is no longer to be seen here. The once
celebrated king of Bath, the formerly 'far-famed Nash,' has lost more of
his 'nimbus' than any of his colleagues. He who now fills the office,
instead of driving through the streets with six horses and a retinue of
servants, (the constant _cortége_ of his august predecessor,) goes
modestly on foot. No Duchess of Queensbury will he send out of the
ball-room for not being dressed according to law.
The abbey church made a great impression upon me. I saw it for the first
time splendidly lighted, which greatly heightened the singular aspect of
its interior. I have often remarked that almost all the ancient churches
of England are disfigured by scattered modern monuments. Here, however,
there are so many, and they are placed with such an odd kind of
symmetry, that the complete contrast they present to the simple and
sublime architecture produces a new and peculiar kind of picturesque
effect.--Imagine a noble lofty Gothic church, of the most graceful
proportions, brilliantly lighted, and divided in the centre by a crimson
curtain. The half immediately before you is an empty space, without
chair, bench, or altar; the ground alone presents a continual mosaic of
gravestones with inscriptions. The walls are inlaid in the same manner
up to a certain height, where a horizontal line divides them, without
any intervening space, from the busts, statues, tablets and monuments of
every kind, of polished black or white marble, or of porphyry, granite,
or other coloured stone, which are ranged above:--the whole looks like a
gallery of sculpture. Up to the line under these monuments, all was in
brilliant light; higher up, it gradually softened away; and under the
tracery of the arched roof, faded into dim twilight. The clerk and I
were quite alone in this portion of the building, while a still more
brilliant light gleamed from the other side of the glowing curtain,
whence the softened voices of the congregation seemed to visit us from
some invisible sanctuary.
Many interesting names are recorded here; among others, the celebrated
wit, Quin, to whom Garrick erected a marble bust with a poetical
inscription.--Waller's bust has lost the nose;--it is asserted that
James the Second, in a fit of bigotry, struck it off with his sword
shortly after his accession to the throne.
_Dec. 23d._
Have you ever heard of the eccentric Beckford--a kind of Lord Byron in
prose--who built the most magnificent residence in England, surrounded
his park with a wall twelve feet high, and for twelve years suffered
nobody to enter it? All on a sudden he sold this wondrous dwelling,
Fonthill Abbey, with all the rare and costly things it contained, by
auction, and went to Bath, where he lives in just as solitary a manner
as before. He has built a second high tower, (there was a celebrated one
at Fonthill,) in the middle of a field; the roof of it is a copy of the
so-called Lantern of Diogenes, (the monument of Lysicrates,) at Athens.
Thither I drove to-day, and could imagine that the view from it must be
as striking as it is said to be. There was however no admittance, and I
was obliged to content myself with the pictures of my fancy. The tower
is still unfinished, though very lofty; and stands, like a ghost, in the
wide open solitude of a high table-land. The possessor is said, at one
time, to have been worth three millions sterling, and is still very
rich. I was told that he was seldom visible, but that when he rode out
it was with the following retinue:--First rides a grayheaded old
steward; behind him, two grooms with long hunting whips; then follows
Mr. Beckford himself, surrounded by five or six dogs; two more grooms
with whips close the procession. If in the course of the ride one of the
dogs is refractory, the whole train halts, and castigation is
immediately applied with the whips; this course of education is
continued through the whole ride. Mr. Beckford formerly wrote a very
singular, but most powerful romance, in French: it was translated into
English, and greatly admired. A high tower plays a conspicuous part in
that also: the _dénouement_ is, that the Devil carries off everybody.
I must send you another anecdote or two of this extraordinary man.--When
he was living at Fonthill, a neighbouring Lord was tormented by such an
intense curiosity to see the place that he caused a high ladder to be
set against the wall, and climbed over by night. He was soon discovered,
and taken before Mr. Beckford; who, on hearing his name, contrary to his
expectations, received him very courteously, conducted him all over his
house and grounds in the morning, and entertained him in a princely
manner; after which he retired, taking the most polite leave of his
Lordship. The latter, delighted at the successful issue of his
enterprise, was hastening home; but found all the gates locked, and no
one there to open them. He returned to the house to beg assistance; but
was told that Mr. Beckford desired that he would return as he had
come,--that he would find the ladder standing where he had left it. His
Lordship replied with great asperity, but it was of no use; he must e'en
return to the place of his clandestine entrance, and climb the ladder.
Cured for ever of his curiosity, and venting curses on the spiteful
misanthrope, he quitted the forbidden paradise.
After Fonthill was sold, Mr. Beckford lived for a while in great
seclusion in one of the suburbs of London. In the immediate
neighbourhood was a nursery garden, extremely celebrated for the beauty
and rarity of its flowers. He walked in it daily, and paid fifty guineas
a-week to the owner of it for permission to gather whatever flowers he
liked.
In the evening I visited the theatre, and found a very pretty house, but
a very bad play. It was Rienzi, a miserable modern tragedy, which, with
the graceless ranting of the players, excited neither tears nor
laughter,--only disgust and ennui. I soon left Melpomene's desecrated
temple, and visited my friend the clerk of the Abbey Church, to ask
permission to see the church by moonlight. As soon as he had let me in,
I dismissed him; and wandering like a solitary ghost among the pillars
and tombs, I called up the more solemn tragedy of life, amid the awful
stillness of night and death.
_Dec. 24th._
The weather is still so bad, and hangs such a drapery over all distant
objects, that I can make no excursions, and am obliged to confine myself
to the town; which indeed, by the number and variety of its prospects,
affords interesting walks enough. I begin every time with my favourite
monumental church, and finish with it. The architect who built this
magnificent structure went quite out of the beaten track of ornaments
and proportions. On the outside, for instance, near the great door, are
two Jacob's ladders reaching to the roof, where the ascending angels are
lost from sight. The busy heaven-stormers are extremely pretty; and the
design appears to me conceived completely in the spirit of that fanciful
architecture, which blended the most childish with the most sublime; the
greatest minuteness of ornaments with the vastest effect of masses;
which imitated the whole range of natural productions,--gigantic trunks
of trees, and delicate foliage and flowers; awful rocks, and gaudy gems,
men and beasts; and combined them all so as to strike our imaginations
with wonder, reverence, and awe. This has always appeared to me the true
romantic, _i. e._ true German, architecture;--the offspring of our most
peculiar spirit and fashion of mind. But I think we are now wholly
estranged from it; it belongs to a more imaginative and meditative age.
We may still admire and love its models, but we can create nothing of
the same kind, which does not bear the most obvious stamp of flat
imitation. Steam-engines and Constitutions now prosper better than the
arts,--of whatever kind.--To each age, its own.
As I love contrasts, I went this evening straight from the temple
crowded with the dead, to the market-place, equally populous in another
way, and equally well lighted, where all sorts of provisions are sold
under covered galleries. Every thing here is inviting and elegant;
subjects for a thousand master-pieces of Flemish pencils; and a
luxurious sight for the 'gastronome,' who here contemplates _his_
beauties of Nature. Enormous pieces of beef, of a juicy red streaked
with golden fat; well-fed poultry, looking as if stuffed with
eider-down; magnificent vegetables; bright yellow butter; ripe and fresh
fruit, and tempting fish, presented a picture such as my astonished eyes
never beheld. The whole was heightened by the brilliancy of a hundred
variegated lamps, and decorated with laurel and red-berried holly.
Instead of one _Weihnachtstisch_,[158] here were a hundred; the
caricatures of market-women did admirably for the gingerbread dolls,
(_Pfefferkuchenpuppen_,) and we buyers for the curious and wondering
children. The most brilliant assembly could hardly have amused me more.
When I saw a grave-looking sheep holding a candle in each foot, and thus
lighting himself; or a hanging fowl, in whose rump they had stuck a red
wax taper; a calf's head with a lantern between its teeth, next
neighbour to a great gander illuminated by two huge altar tapers; or an
ox-tail, through which a gas tube was passed, ending pompously in a tuft
of flame,--I made the most diverting comparisons with an assembly in my
native land; and found the resemblances often more striking than those
of the celebrated portrait-painters W---- and S----.
Living is very cheap here, especially in the so-called boarding-houses,
where a man is well lodged and admirably boarded for two or three
guineas a-week, and finds agreeable and easy society: equipages are not
wanted, as sedan-chairs are still in use.
Eight-and-twenty hours have at length appeased the angry heavens, and
to-day was what is here called "a glorious day,"--a day, that is, in
which the sun occasionally peeps out from between the clouds. You may be
sure that I took advantage of it: I ascended the hill near the town,
from which you have a bird's-eye view of the whole, and can distinguish
almost every separate house. The Abbey church lies, like the kernel, in
the centre; the streets radiate upwards in every direction, and in the
bottom of the valley the Avon winds like a silver riband. I continued my
way along a pretty walk to Prior Park, a large and formerly splendid
mansion, built by a haughty Lord, but now possessed by a meek Quaker,
who lets the house stand empty, and, true to the simplicity of his
faith, lives in the stable.
Thus passed the morning.--By twilight and moonlight I took another walk
to the other side of the town, and found the view still more magnificent
in the stillness of the clear night. The sky was of a pale green, and on
the right hand masses of black deeply indented clouds were piled up. The
hills cut their rounded outlines sharply upon the clear sky, while the
whole valley was filled with one curtain of blue mist, through which you
saw the glimmering of a thousand lamps, without being able to
distinguish the houses. It seemed a sea of mist, out of which countless
stars twinkled with multiplied rays.
I closed the day with a hot bath in the principal bathing establishment;
and found the accommodations convenient, clean and cheap, and the
attendants prompt and respectful.
_Dec. 26th._
The bad habit of reading in bed occasioned me a laughable misfortune
last night. My hair caught fire, and I was forced to bury my head in the
bed-clothes to extinguish it. The injury is horrible;--one entire half
of my hair was destroyed, so that I have been obliged to have it cut
almost close to my head all over. Happily my strength does not reside in
my hair.
A letter from you consoled me on waking. Your fable of the nightingale
is charming. Had L---- imagined that, and in his twentieth year said,
"Be dead to the world till your five-and-thirtieth," how brilliantly and
prosperously could he now (according to the world's standard) enter it.
In the course of that time I too have often accused the world and
others; but when dispassionately viewed, this is as foolish as it is
unjust. The world is, and will be, the world; and to reproach it with
all the evil that accrues to us from it, is to be like the child who
would beat the fire because he has burnt his finger in it. L---- should
therefore regret nothing; for if he had slept fifteen years like a
marmot, he would not have enjoyed animation or consciousness. Let us
stick to the belief, 'que tout est pour le mieux dans ce meilleur des
mondes.'
Heartily wishing that you may always clearly perceive this great truth,
I take my leave of you most tenderly, and am, as ever,
Your faithful L----.