palm from all others we have seen in America, with the exception of that
at Harrisburgh, which can alone compare with it in the general beauty of
the rooms. To describe, for instance, the bedroom in which we are now
sitting. The room is about twenty-four feet square, having two large
windows looking to the street, and a mirror and handsome marble
consol-table between them. The windows have very handsome gilt cornices,
with tamboured muslin curtains, and others of a blue and gold coloured
damask; there are two large sofas, and four small chairs of dark walnut
wood, carved and covered with the same material as the curtains, and a
smaller chair with a tapestry seat--also a large rocking-chair covered
with Utrecht velvet. The bed is of prettily carved black walnut, the
wash-hand-stand the same, with marble slab; there is a very handsome
Brussels carpet, a large round table, at which I am now writing, a very
handsome bronze and ormolu lustre, with six gaslights, and two ormolu
candelabra on the chimney-piece. The chimney-piece is of white marble,
and over it is a most gorgeously carved mirror. The room is about
fourteen feet high; the ceiling slightly alcoved and painted in
medallions of flowers on a blue ground, with a great deal of very well
painted and gilt moulding, which Papa at first thought was really in
relief. The paper is a white ground, with a gold pattern, and a coloured
border above, and below, and at the angles of the room; the door leads
into a very fine wide passage, and there are two others, each leading
into an adjoining room, all painted pure white; so is the
skirting-board; and the door handles are white porcelain. Thrower's
room, next ours, is much the same, but of about half the size. There are
Venetian blinds to the windows, not made to draw up, but folding like
shutters, and divided into several small panels. Our two windows look
into a broad cheerful street, in which the snow is lying deep, and the
whole scene is enlivened, every now and then, by the sleighs and their
merry bells as they pass along.
_Nov. 29th._--Yesterday the morning was very brilliant. Being desirous
of seeing a Shaker village, and the nature of their service, we had
ordered a vehicle over night to be ready at nine o'clock, when a sleigh
made its appearance at the door, with skins of fur and every appliance
to keep us warm. These sleighs are most elegant machines, and this one
had a hood, though this is not a common appendage. It was drawn by a
pair of horses, the driver standing in front. The road was, at first, up
a steep hill, but the horses seemed as if they had no weight behind
them. On reaching the high land the view, looking back upon the river,
was very pretty. The whole country was deeply covered with snow, and in
many places, where it had drifted, it had the appearance of large waves,
of which the crests curled gracefully over, and looked as if they had
been frozen in the act of curling: some of these crests or waves were
four or five feet above the level of the road. We were about an hour
reaching the village, and were much disappointed to find the gate at the
entrance closed, and a painted board hung on it, to announce there would
be no meeting that day. Nothing could exceed the apparent order and
decorum of the place; but we could not effect a closer approach, though
our driver tried hard to gain admittance for us. We therefore returned
to Albany, but took a different road home, and enjoyed our sleighing
much; and the cheerful sound of the bells round our horses' necks was
quite enlivening; still, in spite of our wraps, we must confess that we
were not sorry when it was over. On our return to the town we entered a
church and heard the end of a sermon. It was a large Baptist church; but
we were rather late, for we were told, by a boy at the door, that "the
text had been on about forty minutes;" but, to judge from the sample we
had of the discourse, we were probably no great losers. The church was a
handsome building, but we were chiefly attracted by the following
notice, in large letters, at the entrance.
UNION PRAYER MEETING DAILY IN THIS CHURCH,
FROM TWELVE TO ONE O'CLOCK.
"Come in, if only for a few moments; all are welcome."
After leaving the church we walked towards the Capitol, which is
situated at the end of a very wide street, State Street, and, as this
street rises by a tolerably steep ascent from the river, there is an
extensive view over the river and the adjacent country from the plateau
on which the Capitol stands. There are two very handsome buildings
adjoining, of fine white stone, with Greek porticoes; but the Capitol
itself, which is a considerably older building than the others, is of
red brick. We had not time to explore further, for a heavy snow storm
came on, which lasted for the rest of the day.
_Boston, Nov. 30th._--Yesterday morning we started early for this
place, and the journey occupied the whole day. We had travelled this
road before when the country was rich in its summer clothing, and the
contrast was very strange as we saw it to-day. The heavy fall of snow
the night before had covered not only the ground but the trees of the
forests and the ponds and lakes, which were all frozen over. The
Connecticut, however, glided calmly along, though it too was frozen over
above the places where falls in the river obstructed the current. We
passed several of these, which had a curious appearance, long and
massive icicles hanging along the whole crest of the fall, and curiously
intermingling with the water which was pouring over the rocks. The
beautiful New England villages were as white as ever, the white snow
scarcely detracting from the purity of the whiteness of the buildings.
It was a splendid day, without a cloud in the sky, and the sun shining
on the snow gave it a most brilliant and sparkling appearance.
To-day we have been chiefly engaged in shopping; but we contrived,
besides, to see the public Library and Athenæum, as well as the Hospital
and Prison, which Papa went over with Lord Radstock when we were first
here, both of which fully bear out the account he gave me of them. We
feel quite sad to think that this is our last day in America, for we
have enjoyed ourselves much; Papa has, indeed, up till late this
evening, been engaged in business; but you are not to suppose from this
that he has never had any relaxation; I am most thankful to say, on the
contrary, that much of our time has been a holiday, and I trust his
health has much benefited by our travels. But, whatever our regrets may
be at leaving this interesting country, I need scarcely say with what
delight we look forward to a return home to our dear children, where, I
trust, a fortnight hence, to find you all well and prospering. We
embark, at nine to-morrow morning, in the "Canada" for Liverpool, where
I shall hope to add a few lines to this on landing.
_December 11th, off Cape Clear._--As it may be late to-morrow before we
land, and we may not have time to write from Liverpool, I shall close
this now, or at all events only add a line from that place. Barring a
severe gale of wind, our voyage has been tolerably prosperous since we
left Halifax; but I must not anticipate, as I wish to say a little more
about Boston, for I omitted in my last day's Journal to mention the
admirable arrangement on the Western Railway, by which we came from
Albany, as regards checking the luggage. This practice, as I have
already told you, is universal, but, generally speaking, one of the
_employés_ of the Packet Express Company takes charge of the checks
before the passengers leave the cars, and for a trifling charge the
luggage is delivered at any hotel the passenger may direct; where this
is not done, the checks are usually given to the conductor of the
omnibus, of which almost every hotel sends its own to the station. But
this latter practice leads to much noise, each conductor shouting out
the name of his hotel, as is done at Boulogne and elsewhere on the
arrival of the packets. On gliding into the spacious station at Boston
we were prepared to encounter this struggle, our checks not having been
given up in the car; but, to our surprise, there was a total absence of
this noisy scene, and on looking out we saw along the platform a range
of beautiful gothic recesses, over each of which was written the name of
an hotel, and we had only to walk along till we came to "Tremont House,"
when, without a word passing, we slipped into the hand of a man
stationed within, the checks for our baggage, he simply indicating "No.
2" as the omnibus we were to get into. Walking to the end of the
platform, we found a complete row of omnibuses, all consecutively
numbered, and marched in silence to No. 2, which in a minute or two
drove off with us and the other passengers destined for the Tremont
House; we found this, as before, a very comfortable hotel, and our
luggage was there within a few minutes after our arrival.
Before quitting the subject of the American hotels, we ought to state
that, from what we hear, unhappy single gentlemen meet with a very
different fate to that of persons travelling in company with ladies. One
poor friend greatly bewailed his lot after he had left his wife at
Toronto; on presenting himself at the "office" of the hotel he used to
be eyed most suspiciously, especially when they saw his rough drab
coloured travelling dress, for the criterion of a genteel American is a
black coat and velvet collar. He was accordingly sent in general to a
garret, and other travellers have told us the same; one on board the
steamers quite confirmed this account, and told us he considered it a
piece of great luxury when he had a gaslight in his room. He made this
remark on our reading to him the account I have given of our room in
Albany and its splendid six-light candelabra.
But to go on with our adventures: we embarked on board the steamer at 9
A.M. on Wednesday, the 1st December. The view of the harbour of Boston,
formed by a variety of islands, was most beautiful, in spite of the deep
snow which covered them. The day was brilliantly sunny, but intensely
cold, and it continued bitterly cold till we reached Halifax on Thursday
night. The Boston steamers always touch at that place, and the liability
to detention by fogs in making the harbour, renders this passage often a
disagreeable one in the foggy season; but when the weather is as cold as
now, it is invariably clear, and we steered up the beautiful harbour of
Halifax with no interruption but that caused by the closing in of the
day, rendering it necessary to slacken our speed as we neared the town.
It was dark when we arrived, but having two hours to spare, we took a
walk, and after passing through the town-gate, saw what we could of the
place, respecting which I felt great interest, from my father having
been Chief-justice there many years; his picture by West, of which we
have a copy in D. P. H. by West himself, is at the Court House; but of
course we could not see it so late at night; and, in fact, could only go
to one or two shops to make some purchases as memorials of the place. It
began to snow hard before we returned on board, and the cold was so
intense, though less so since the snow began, that the upper part of
the harbour above where we stopped was frozen over.
We took Sir Fenwick Williams, of Kars, and a great many other officers,
on board at Halifax, and sailed again at midnight. Next day the intense
cold returned, and a severe north-wester made it almost impossible to
keep on deck. Every wave that dashed over us, left its traces behind in
a sheet of ice spread over the deck, and in the icicles which were
hanging along the bulwarks, and formed a fringe to the boats which were
hanging inside the ship; one poor passenger, with a splendid beard, told
us he found it quite hard and stiff, and we could have told him how much
we admired the icicles which were hanging to it. The thermometer,
however, was only at 15°, it being the wind that made it so intensely
cold. I did not get on deck, for, owing to the coating of ice, walking
on it became a service of some danger; and I did my best to keep Papa
from going up, though he often insisted on doing so, to enjoy the beauty
of the scene. The captain says that it is sometimes most trying to be on
this coast in winter, as the thermometer, instead of being 15° above
zero as it was then, is often 15° below, when the ropes and everything
become frozen. This cold lasted till Monday, when we were clear of "the
banks," and fairly launched into the wide Atlantic. The wind continued
to blow strongly from the north-west, with a considerable amount of sea,
which put an end to my even thinking of going on deck, but Papa
persevered, and every day passed many hours there, walking up and down
and enjoying it much, especially as it was daily getting warmer. I
wished much I could have accompanied him, but by this time I was
completely prostrated by sea-sickness.
The weather, though blowy, continued very fine till Tuesday at four
o'clock, when Papa came down and told me to prepare for a gale; an
ominous black cloud had shown itself in the north-west horizon; this
would not of itself have created much sensation, had it not been
accompanied by an extraordinary fall in the barometer; it had, in fact,
been falling for twenty-four hours, for at noon on Monday it stood
rather above 30, and at midnight was as low as 29·55, which, in these
latitudes, is a great fall. But on Tuesday, at nine A.M., it had fallen
to 28·80, when it began rapidly to sink, till at half-past three it
stood at 28·40, showing a fall of more than an inch and a half since the
preceding day at noon. It seems that this is almost unprecedented, so
that when the little black cloud appeared, every sail was taken in, and
the main topmast and fore top-gallantmast lowered down on deck, and this
was not done a bit too soon, for by half-past four, it blew a hurricane.
The captain told a naval officer on board, that he had thought of
putting the ship's head towards the gale, to let it blow past, but on
further consideration, he put her right before it, though at the expense
of losing a good deal of ground, as it made us go four points out of our
course. Papa, who was on deck, said it was most magnificent to hear the
fierce wind tearing past the vessel, and to see the ship not swaying in
the least one way or another, but driving forwards with the masts
perpendicular, as if irresistibly impelled through the water, without
appearing to feel the waves. But alas, alas, this absence of motion,
which was a paradise to me, lasted but some twenty minutes, while the
fury of the blast continued. We ran before the gale for the next four
hours, when it sufficiently moderated to enable us to resume our proper
course.
The gale continued, however, till four next morning, and such a night I
never passed. The doctor said, neither he nor any officer in the ship
could sleep, and next morning the poor stewardess and our peculiar cabin
boy mournfully deplored their fate, the former being forced to confess
that, though for years accustomed to the sea, she had been desperately
sick. In fact no one had ever known the vessel to roll before as she did
this night, and the sounds were horrible. The effect of one sea, in
particular, striking the ship was appalling, from the perfect stillness
which followed it. The vessel seemed quite to stagger under the blow and
to be paralysed by it, so that several seconds must have elapsed before
the heavy rolling recommenced. This, and the creaking and groaning of
the vessel, had something solemn about it; but some minor sounds were
neither so grand nor so philosophically borne by either Papa or myself.
One of the most persevering of these arose from my carelessness in
having forgotten to bolt the door of a cupboard which I made use of, in
our cabin, the consequence of which was that, with every lurch of the
vessel, the door gave a violent slam, and our lamp having been put out
at midnight, as it invariably was, we were in total darkness, and
without the means of ascertaining whether the irritating noise
proceeded, as we suspected, from the cupboard door, or from one of the
doors having been left open in the passage adjoining our cabin. It would
have been dangerous to have got up in the dark, and with a violent
lurching of the vessel, to discover the real cause of this wearisome
noise. I had a strong feeling of self-reproach in my own mind at having
brought such a calamity on poor Papa, when it could have been avoided if
I had been a little more careful before going to bed. On, therefore,
the noise went, for the rest of that night, with great
regularity--slam--slam--slam--defying every attempt to obtain even five
minutes of sleep. With the first gleam of dawn I plainly saw that our
own peccant door was the cause, and I was able by that time, with some
caution, to rise and secure the bolt, and thus relieve ourselves, and
probably our neighbours, from the weary sound.
Sleep, however, on my part was, under any circumstances, out of the
question, for I was under great anxiety lest Papa should be pitched out
of his berth, as he slept in the one above mine. Before retiring for the
night I had consulted the surgeon on the subject, having heard that a
steward had been once thrown out of his berth in this vessel under
similar circumstances. The surgeon assured me that he had never heard of
such an accident, and Papa reminded me that his height would save him
from such a calamity, for the berths being only six feet long he could,
by stretching himself out to his full length, wedge himself in and hold
on by his head and heels, and so, in fact, he did; but many passed the
night on the floors in their cabin, particularly the children, who had
not the advantage of being six feet three. Next morning the surgeon said
he would not himself have slept where Papa did, and I suspect few of the
upper berths were occupied. So much for the value of a medical opinion!
I was very sorry I could not go on deck on either of the following days,
for though the gale had abated, the wind continued sufficiently strong
to keep up a splendid sea. Papa, however, says that it was more the
force of the wind when the gale first began, than the height of the sea
that was remarkable, as the gale did not last long enough to get up a
_proper_ sea, though what that would have been I cannot imagine, as the
effects, such as they were, were sufficiently serious for me. Since
then, things have gone on prosperously, but we have only to-night come
in sight of the lights on Cape Clear. The sea mercifully is somewhat
smoother, and has allowed me to write this long story; and I am going to
bed with a fairer prospect of sleep than I have had for the last few
nights.
_Sunday night, Sept. 12th._--The wind got up again in the night, and has
delayed us much, so that we are still outside the bar of the Mersey:
for some hours it has been doubtful whether we should land to-night in
Old England, or pass another night on board. The uncertainty of our fate
has caused an evening of singular excitement, owing to several of the
passengers going perpetually on deck and bringing down news, either that
we were in the act of crossing the bar, or that we had crossed it, or
that all this was wrong and that we were still outside. As often as it
was announced, and that with the most positive assertion, that we should
land to-night, there was great joy and glee among all the passengers,
excepting ourselves and a few others who had visions of a late Custom
House examination in a dark and dismal night with pouring rain, and a
conviction that landing before morning would not bring us to London any
sooner than doing so early to-morrow, and so we secretly hoped all the
time that we were neither on nor over the bar. Betting, as usual, began
on the subject, and the excitement was still at its height when official
information was brought to us that we neither had attempted nor meant to
attempt to cross the bar till five o'clock to-morrow morning. We have
therefore easily made up our minds to what I fear is a disappointment to
many. We trust now to have a quiet night, for we are lying-to, and are
as still as at anchor, and hope on awaking to-morrow morning, to find
ourselves in the dock at Liverpool; in which case we shall rush up by an
early train to London.
Here, therefore, ends our Journal; but before closing it, I must add a
few lines to say what cause we have had to feel deeply thankful for all
the mercies that have followed us by land and by sea. We have travelled
a distance of nearly 6000 miles, in a country where accidents frequently
occur, both on the railways and in steam-boats, and have never for one
moment been exposed to peril, or experienced one feeling of anxiety. We
have met everywhere with great attention, kindness, and hospitality, and
have been preserved in perfect health. Besides our land and river
journeys, we have made two long voyages across the wide Atlantic, and in
the midst of a tempest, which was a very severe one, the Hand of God
protected us and preserved us from danger, and, better still, kept our
minds in peace and confidence, and in remembrance that He who ruleth the
waves, could guide and succour us in every time of need, so that even I
felt no fear; Papa has had more experience of storms at sea, and was
less likely to feel any, but his confidence, too, was in knowing that we
were under Divine protection, and that our part was to TRUST; and in
this we had our reward.
In thus enumerating the many subjects of thankfulness during our absence
from home, I must reckon as one of the chief of our blessings, the
comfort we have experienced in so constantly receiving the very best
accounts of you all; and when we think of the many thousands of miles
that have separated us, we may indeed feel full of gratitude that,
neither on one side of the ocean nor the other, have we had any reason
for anxiety concerning each other. In a few hours more, we shall, I
trust, have the joy and gladness of seeing all your dear faces again,
and be rejoicing together over our safe return from our interesting and
delightful expedition to the NEW WORLD.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] The issues of the British and Foreign Bible Society during the same
period were 1,517,858; but the circulation of the American Bible Society
is almost entirely limited to the American continent, and for their
foreign Missions, while a large portion of ours goes to supply the
Colonies.
[15] Aunt Sally is a real person still living at Detroit on Lake
Michigan, with her son, the Rev. Isaac Williams, who is the minister
there of the Methodist church.
[16] We must admit that our experience differs greatly from that of
many; and, looking at the statistics of railway travelling, accidents do
occur with frightful frequency. In a report recently published by the
Philadelphia and Reading Railway, the accidents which occurred on that
line alone in 1855, amounted to no less than 179 in a year, and this on
a line where there is no great press of traffic. In these accidents, 619
cars were broken, 29 people killed, and 7 wounded. Things are since a
little improved; as, last year, 1858, there were only 26 cases of killed
and wounded, and, the Report adds, as if consolatory to the feelings of
the natives, "of these 18 were strangers."
THE END.
LONDON
PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUARE.
* * * * *
A CATALOGUE
OF
NEW WORKS IN GENERAL LITERATURE
PUBLISHED BY
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
* * * * *
CLASSIFIED INDEX
+Agriculture and Rural Affairs.+
Bayldon on Valuing Rents, &c. 5
Cecil's Stud Farm 8
Hoskyns's Talpa 11
Loudon's Agriculture 14
Low's Elements of Agriculture 14
Morton on Landed Estates 17
+Arts, Manufactures, and Architecture.+
Bourne on the Screw Propeller 6
Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c. 6
" Organic Chemistry 6
Chevreul on Colour 8
Cresy's Civil Engineering 8
Fairbairn's Information for Engineers 9
Gwilt's Encyclopædia of Architecture 10
Harford's Plates from M. Angelo 10
Humphreys's _Parables_ Illuminated 12
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art 12, 13
" Commonplace-Book 13
Konig's Pictorial Life of Luther 10
Loudon's Rural Architecture 14
Mac Dougall's Campaigns of Hannibal 15
" Theory of War 15
Moseley's Engineering 17
Piesse's Art of Perfumery 18
Richardson's Art of Horsemanship 19
Scoffern on Projectiles, &c. 20
Scrivenor on the Iron Trade 20
Steam Engine, by the Artisan Club 6
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c. 23
+Biography.+
Arago's Lives of Scientific Men 5
Brialmont's Wellington 6
Bunsen's Hippolytus 7
Crosse's (Andrew) Memorials 9
Gleig's Essays 10
Green's Princesses of England 10
Harford's Life of Michael Angelo 10
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia 13
Maunder's Biographical Treasury 15
Mountain's (Col.) Memoirs 17
Parry's (Admiral) Memoirs 18
Russell's Memoirs of Moore 16
" (Dr.) Life of Mezzofanti 20
SchimmelPenninck's (Mrs.) Life 20
Southey's Life of Wesley 21
" Life and Correspondence 21
Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 22
Strickland's Queens of England 22
Sydney Smith's Memoirs 21
Symonds's (Admiral) Memoirs 22
Taylor's Loyola 22
" Wesley 22
Uwins's Memoirs and Letters 23
Waterton's Autobiography and Essays 34
+Books of General Utility.+
Acton's Bread-Book 5
" Cookery-Book 5
Black's Treatise on Brewing 6
Cabinet Gazetteer 7
" Lawyer 7
Cust's Invalid's Own Book 9
Gilbart's Logic for the Million 10
Hints on Etiquette 11
How to Nurse Sick Children 12
Hudson's Executor's Guide 12
" on Making Wills 12
Kesteven's Domestic Medicine 13
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia 13
Loudon's Lady's Country Companion 14
Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge 15
" Biographical Treasury 15
" Geographical Treasury 16
" Scientific Treasury 15
" Treasury of History 16
" Natural History 16
Piesse's Art of Perfumery 18
Pocket and the Stud 10
Pycroft's English Reading 19
Reece's Medical Guide 19
Rich's Companion to Latin Dictionary 19
Richardson's Art of Horsemanship 19
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries 19
Roget's English Thesaurus 20
Rowton's Debater 20
Short Whist 21
Thomson's Interest Tables 22
Webster's Domestic Economy 24
West on Children's Diseases 24
Willich's Popular Tables 24
Wilmot's Blackstone 24
+Botany and Gardening.+