This morning Mrs. Follen called, and we had quite a long chat together.
We are separated by the whole city. She lives at West End, while I am
down here in Walworth, which is one of the postscripts of London; for
London has as many postscripts as a lady's letter--little suburban
villages which have been overtaken by the growth, of the city, and
embraced in its arms. I like them a great deal better than the city, for
my part.
Here now, for instance, at Walworth, I can look out at a window and see
a nice green meadow with sheep and lambs feeding in it, which is some
relief in this smutty old place. London is as smutty as Pittsburg or
Wheeling. It takes a good hour's steady riding to get from here to West
End; so that my American friends, of the newspapers, who are afraid I
shall be corrupted by aristocratic associations, will see that I am at
safe distance.
This evening we are appointed to dine with the Earl of Carlisle. There
is to be no company but his own family circle, for he, with great
consideration, said in his note that he thought a little quiet would be
the best thing he could offer. Lord Carlisle is a great friend to
America; and so is his sister, the Duchess of Sutherland. He is the only
English traveller who ever wrote notes on our country in a real spirit
of appreciation. While the Halls, and Trollopes, and all the rest could
see nothing but our breaking eggs on the wrong end, or such matters, he
discerned and interpreted those points wherein lies the real strength of
our growing country. His notes on America were not very extended, being
only sketches delivered as a lyceum lecture some years after his return.
It was the spirit and quality, rather than quantity, of the thing that
was noticeable.
I observe that American newspapers are sneering about his preface to
Uncle Tom's Cabin; but they ought at least to remember that his
sentiments with regard to slavery are no sudden freak. In the first
place, he comes of a family that has always been on the side of liberal
and progressive principles. He himself has been a leader of reforms on
the popular side. It was a temporary defeat, when run as an
anti-corn-law candidate, which gave him leisure to travel in America.
Afterwards he had the satisfaction to be triumphantly returned for that
district, and to see the measure he had advocated fully successful.
While Lord Carlisle was in America he never disguised those antislavery
sentiments which formed a part of his political and religious creed as
an Englishman, and as the heir of a house always true to progress. Many
cultivated English people have shrunk from acknowledging abolitionists
in Boston, where the ostracism of fashion and wealth has been enforced
against them. Lord Carlisle, though moving in the highest circle,
honestly and openly expressed his respect for them on all occasions. He
attended the Boston antislavery fair, which at that time was quite a
decided step. Nor did he even in any part of our country disguise his
convictions. There is, therefore, propriety and consistency in the
course he has taken now. It would seem that a warm interest in
questions of a public nature has always distinguished the ladies of this
family. The Duchess of Sutherland's mother is daughter of the celebrated
Duchess of Devonshire, who, in her day, employed on the liberal side in
politics all the power of genius, wit, beauty, and rank. It was to the
electioneering talents of herself and her sister, the Lady Duncannon,
that Fox, at one crisis, owed his election. We Americans should remember
that it was this party who advocated our cause during our revolutionary
struggle. Fox and his associates pleaded for us with much the same
arguments, and with the same earnestness and warmth, that American
abolitionists now plead for the slaves. They stood against all the power
of the king and cabinet, as the abolitionists in America in 1850 stood
against president and cabinet.
The Duchess of Devonshire was a woman of real noble impulses and
generous emotions, and had a true sympathy for what is free and heroic.
Coleridge has some fine lines addressed to her,--called forth by a
sonnet which she composed, while in Switzerland, on William Tell's
Chapel,--which begin,--
"O lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure,
Where learn'dst thou that heroic measure?"
The Duchess of Sutherland, in our times, has been known to be no less
warmly interested on the liberal side. So great was her influence held
to be, that upon a certain occasion when a tory cabinet was to be
formed, a distinguished minister is reported to have said to the queen
that he could not hope to succeed in his administration while such a
decided influence as that of the Duchess of Sutherland stood at the
head of her majesty's household. The queen's spirited refusal to
surrender her favorite attendant attracted, at the time, universal
admiration.
Like her brother Lord Carlisle, the Duchess of Sutherland has always
professed those sentiments with regard to slavery which are the glory of
the English nation, and which are held with more particular zeal by
those families who are favorable to the progress of liberal ideas.
At about seven o'clock we took our carriage to go to the Earl of
Carlisle's, the dinner hour being here somewhere between eight and nine.
As we rode on through the usual steady drizzling rain, from street to
street and square to square, crossing Waterloo Bridge, with its avenue
of lamps faintly visible in the seethy mist, plunging through the heart
of the city, we began to realize something of the immense extent of
London.
Altogether the most striking objects that you pass, as you ride in the
evening thus, are the gin shops, flaming and flaring from the most
conspicuous positions, with plate-glass windows and dazzling lights,
thronged with men, and women, and children, drinking destruction.
Mothers go there with babies in their arms, and take what turns the
mother's milk to poison. Husbands go there, and spend the money that
their children want for bread, and multitudes of boys and girls of the
age of my own. In Paris and other European cities, at least the great
fisher of souls baits with something attractive, but in these gin shops
men bite at the bare, barbed hook. There are no garlands, no dancing, no
music, no theatricals, no pretence of social exhilaration, nothing but
hogsheads of spirits, and people going in to drink. The number of them
that I passed seemed to me absolutely appalling.
After long driving we found ourselves coming into the precincts of the
West End, and began to feel an indefinite sense that we were approaching
something very grand, though I cannot say that we saw much but heavy,
smoky-walled buildings, washed by the rain. At length we stopped in
Grosvenor Place, and alighted.
We were shown into an anteroom adjoining the entrance hall, and from
that into an adjacent apartment, where we met Lord Carlisle. The room
had a pleasant, social air, warmed and enlivened by the blaze of a coal
fire and wax candles.
We had never, any of us, met Lord Carlisle before; but the
considerateness and cordiality of our reception obviated whatever
embarrassment there might have been in this circumstance. In a few
moments after we were all seated the servant announced the Duchess of
Sutherland, and Lord Carlisle presented me. She is tall and stately,
with a decided fulness of outline, and a most noble bearing. Her fair
complexion, blond hair, and full lips speak of Saxon blood. In her early
youth she might have been a Rowena. I thought of the lines of
Wordsworth:--
"A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, to command."
Her manners have a peculiar warmth and cordiality. One sees people now
and then who seem to _radiate_ kindness and vitality, and to have a
faculty of inspiring perfect confidence in a moment. There are no airs
of grandeur, no patronizing ways; but a genuine sincerity and kindliness
that seem to come from a deep fountain within.
The engraving by Winterhalter, which has been somewhat familiar in
America, is as just a representation of her air and bearing as could be
given.
After this we were presented to the various members of the Howard
family, which is a very numerous one. Among them were Lady Dover, Lady
Lascelles, and Lady Labouchère, sisters of the duchess. The Earl of
Burlington, who is the heir of the Duke of Devonshire, was also present.
The Duke of Devonshire is the uncle of Lord Carlisle.
The only person present not of the family connection was my quondam
correspondent in America, Arthur Helps. Somehow or other I had formed
the impression from his writings that he was a venerable sage of very
advanced years, who contemplated life as an aged hermit, from the door
of his cell. Conceive my surprise to find a genial young gentleman of
about twenty-five, who looked as if he might enjoy a joke as well as
another man.
At dinner I found myself between him and Lord Carlisle, and perceiving,
perhaps, that the nature of my reflections was of rather an amusing
order, he asked me confidentially if I did not like fun, to which I
assented with fervor. I like that little homely word _fun_, though I
understand the dictionary says what it represents is vulgar; but I think
it has a good, hearty, Saxon sound, and I like Saxon, better than Latin
or French either.
When the servant offered me wine Lord Carlisle asked me if our party
were all _teetotallers_, and I said yes; that in America all clergymen
were teetotallers, of course.
After the ladies left the table the conversation turned on the Maine
law, which seems to be considered over here as a phenomenon, in
legislation, and many of the gentlemen, present inquired about it with
great curiosity.
When we went into the drawing room I was presented to the venerable
Countess of Carlisle, the earl's mother; a lady universally beloved and
revered, not less for superior traits of mind than for great loveliness
and benevolence of character. She received us with the utmost kindness;
kindness evidently genuine and real.
The walls of the drawing room were beautifully adorned with works of art
by the best masters. There was a Rembrandt hanging over the fireplace,
which showed finely by the evening light. It was simply the portrait of
a man with a broad, Flemish hat. There were one or two pictures, also,
by Cuyp. I should think he must have studied in America, so perfectly
does he represent the golden, hazy atmosphere of our Indian summer.
One of the ladies showed me a snuff box on which was a picture of Lady
Carlisle's mother, the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire, taken when she
was quite a little girl; a round, happy face, showing great vivacity and
genius. On another box was an exquisitely beautiful miniature of a
relative of the family.
After the gentlemen rejoined us came in the Duke and Duchess of Argyle,
and Lord and Lady Blantyre. These ladies are the daughters of the
Duchess of Sutherland. The Duchess of Argyle is of a slight and
fairy-like figure, with flaxen hair and blue eyes, answering well enough
to the description of Annot Lyle, in the Legend of Montrose. Lady
Blantyre was somewhat taller, of fuller figure, with very brilliant
bloom. Lord Blantyre is of the Stuart blood, a tall and slender young
man, with very graceful manners.
As to the Duke of Argyle, we found that the picture drawn of him by his
countrymen in Scotland was every way correct. Though slight of figure,
with fair complexion and blue eyes, his whole appearance is indicative
of energy and vivacity. His talents and efficiency have made him a
member of the British cabinet at a much earlier age than is usual; and
he has distinguished himself not only in political life, but as a
writer, having given to the world a work on Presbyterianism, embracing
an analysis of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland since the
reformation, which is spoken of as written with great ability, in a most
candid and liberal spirit.
The company soon formed themselves into little groups in different parts
of the room. The Duchess of Sutherland, Lord Carlisle, and the Duke and
Duchess of Argyle formed a circle, and turned the conversation upon
American topics. The Duke of Argyle made many inquiries about our
distinguished men; particularly of Emerson, Longfellow, and Hawthorne;
also of Prescott, who appears to be a general favorite here. I felt at
the moment that we never value our literary men so much as when placed
in a circle of intelligent foreigners; it is particularly so with
Americans, because we have nothing but our men and women to glory in--no
court, no nobles, no castles, no cathedrals; except we produce
distinguished specimens of humanity, we are nothing.
The quietness of this evening circle, the charm of its kind hospitality,
the evident air of sincerity and good will which pervaded every thing,
made the evening pass most delightfully to me. I had never felt myself
more at home even among the Quakers. Such a visit is a true rest and
refreshment, a thousand times better than the most brilliant and
glittering entertainment.
At eleven o'clock, however, the carriage called, for our evening was
drawing to its close; that of our friends, I suppose, was but just
commencing, as London's liveliest hours are by gaslight, but we cannot
learn the art of turning night into day.