Letters of introduction--Driving a friend's horse and chaise--Amusing
accidents--English driving--"Turn to the _right_, as the law
directs"--A turn to the _left_--A fresh difficulty--Egyptian
Hall--Lease for three years--Arrangement of collection--Bears sold
and removed to Regent's Park Zoological Gardens--Their fates.
Having landed all my effects safely at the terminus in London, the
next thing was the final _locale_; and to decide on this, my letters
of introduction, or a part of them at least, should be delivered; and
for this and other dodgings about through the city for a few days,
the first gentleman to whom I delivered a letter had the kindness to
insist on my using his horse and chaise during certain portions of the
day, when he did not use them himself. This was the kindest thing that
he could have done for me, and I shall never forget the obligation he
laid me under by doing so. His footman, who accompanied me, relieved me
from all anxiety about the horse, which was a noble animal; and my long
errands through the mud were most delightfully abridged.
As the fatalities of life seem to bring us more or less trouble in
every step we take in it, I had mine, even in this new and independent
arrangement. In my first dash through the streets with all the
confidence and tact I had acquired from my boyhood in driving a
similar vehicle in my own country, I was suddenly in the midst of
fresh misfortune by "turning to the right, as the law directs" (the
regulation and custom of the United States), which brought my horse
into the most frightful collision with a pair that were driven by a
gentleman, and who had reined in the same direction under the English
custom of "turn to the left."
This affair was not only one of imminent danger of harm, which we had
all luckily escaped, but one of exceeding mortification to me from the
circumstances which immediately followed.
The extreme care and skill in driving, with the fine training of horses
in England (of which we have little idea in the United States), render
accidents in the streets of London so exceedingly rare, that when
they do occur they immediately attract an immense crowd, and into the
midst of such an one was I thrown by the unfortunate accident which my
ignorance rather than carelessness had just been the cause of.
By the violence of the concussion I had been landed in the street, and
the gentleman, to whose harness I had done some injury, was suddenly
in front of me with his whip in his hand; and in the hearing of the
crowd that was hovering around, in the most excited manner, demanding
of me what I meant by driving against him in that awkward manner, and
threatening to hold me responsible for damages done by not turning the
right way, whilst I felt every disposition to answer his questions
respectfully, as I saw the injury was all on his side. I still felt
that a little tenacity was allowable on my side; and I almost as
peremptorily demanded of him why he did not rein to the right, as the
law requires:--"Rein to the right!" said he, "who the devil ever heard
of such a thing as turning to the right? Where are you from, I should
like to know?" "I am from a country, sir, where the law directs all
vehicles to 'turn to the right.'" "What country is that, I should like
to know?" "North America, sir." "Ha! just about what I should have
thought, sir:--I suppose I shall get pay for my coupling-lines about
the time the States pay interest." "Most likely," said I, as we were
mutually taking our seats, amidst the sullen remarks that I heard in
various parts of the crowd as I was driving off--"There's a Yankee
for you!--ee's a rum-looking fellow, ha?--There's a Repudiator for
you"--"I'll be bound--" &c., &c., &c.
I drove off from this scene with some satisfaction that I had learned
so important a fact at so little expense, and steered my way very
safely amidst the thousands of vehicles of various sorts that I was
passing and meeting, in which time I was very pleasantly receiving
a brief lecture on the subject from my good-natured and very civil
footman, who was behind me; in which (having silently learned in the
disaster we had just witnessed that I was from a foreign country) he
took especial pains to explain to me that "in Hengland it's holays
the abit to turn to the left." Just at that moment I found myself in
a fresh difficulty, and some danger also, by one wheel of my chaise
grinding against the curbstone, and a huge omnibus in full press
against us, and driving us on to the pavement, where it had at that
moment stopped and fastened us, whilst discharging a passenger. I
demanded of the driver, a sullen-looking fellow, half covered with
an apron or boot which protected him from the weather in front, and
something like a feather-bed and bolsters tied around his neck and
chin, and half concealing his bloated face, what he meant by reining
in upon me in that way, and crowding me upon the pavement? to which
he grumly replied as he snapped his whip, "I should like to know what
business you have in there?" "Never mind," said I, "I shall go ahead."
"No you woan't--ain't you old enough to know which side of a carriage
to pass?" At that moment the conductor of the omnibus cried out "All
right!" which was echoed by a policeman who had taken my horse by the
bit. I was somewhat relieved, though a little surprised, at the verdict
given by the conductor and the policeman at the same instant, that
"all" (or both), as I at that moment understood it, "were right." I
sat still of course till the omnibus had left us, nearly crushed, but
luckily not damaged, when I said to my footman, "Why, what does this
mean?--what do you call the 'left side' in this country, I should like
to know?" To this he very distinctly as well as amusingly explained,
that the invariable custom in England is when _meeting_ a vehicle,
to turn to the _left_, and when _passing_, to turn to the _right_.
But why did the policeman and the conductor say we were both right or
"all right?" "Why, sir, you know wen the homnibus olds up to land a
gent or a lady, or to take em hin, it would be wery hawkard to drive
off wen the lady ad one leg hin the bus and the other hout; so wen
they are both hout or both hin, and all right, the conductor ollows
out 'Holl right!' and the bus goes hon, d'ye see, sir?" "Ah, yes, I
thank you, Jerry, I understand it now." I was then growing wiser every
moment amongst the incidents that were occasionally taking place in my
drives with the goodnatured footman and his fine horse, which I used
for several days, much to my satisfaction and amusement, without other
accident or incident worth the reader's valuable time.
I called upon my kind friend the Hon. C. A. Murray, at his office in
Buckingham Palace, where I was received with all that frankness and
sincerity peculiar to him; and, with his kind aid, and that of Charles
D. Archibald, Esq., of York Terrace, to whom I am also much indebted,
the arrangements were soon made for my collection in the Egyptian Hall,
which I took on a lease, for three years, at a rent of 550_l._ per
annum.
My collection was soon in it, and preparing for its exhibition, while
the grizly bears were still howling at the Euston station, impatient
for a more congenial place for their future residence. It was quite
impossible to give them any portion of the premises I had contracted
for in the Egyptian Hall, and the quarters ultimately procured for
them being expensive, and the anxieties and responsibilities for
them daily increasing upon me as they were growing stronger and more
vicious in their dispositions, it was decided that they should be
offered for sale, and disposed of as soon as possible. For this
purpose I addressed letters to the proprietors of zoological gardens
in Liverpool, in Dublin, and Edinburgh, and several other towns, and
received, in reply from most of them, the answer that they already had
them in their gardens, and that they were so complete a drug in England
that they were of little value. One proprietor assured me that he had
recently been obliged to shoot two that he had in his gardens, in
consequence of mischief they were doing to people visiting the grounds,
and to the animals in the gardens.
My reply to several of these gentlemen was, that since the death of
the famous old grizly bear, that had died a few months before in
Regent's-park, it was quite certain that there had not been one in
the kingdom until the arrival of these, "and that if either of those
gentlemen would produce me another living grizly bear, at that time, in
the kingdom, I would freely give him my pair." This seemed, however, to
have little weight with the proprietors of wild beasts; but I at length
disposed of them for about the same price that I had given for them
four years before, when they were not much larger than my foot (for the
sum of 125_l._); and they went to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
A word or two more of them and the reader will have done with the
grizlies, who had been much obliged to me, no doubt, for four years'
maintenance, and for a sight of the beauties of the ocean, and as much
of the land of comforts and refinements as they were allowed to see
through the bars of their cage, while they were travelling from the
rude wilds of the Rocky Mountains to the great metropolis, the seat and
centre of civilization and refinement. As in their new abode they were
allowed more scope and better attendance, it was reasonable to suppose
that their lives would have been prolonged, and their comfort promoted;
but such did not prove to be the case. From the continual crowds about
them, to which they had the greatest repugnance, they seemed daily to
pine, until one of them died of exceeding disgust (unless a better
cause can be assigned), and the other with similar symptoms, added to
loneliness perhaps, and despair, in a few months afterwards.
Thus ended the career of the grizly bears, and I really believe there
were no tears shed for them, unless they were tears of joy, for they
seemed to extend their acquaintance only to add to the list of their
enemies, wherever they went.